RedBlueandTrue

Nope, they've changed it this year. Eg Tsatas sub after being named on field.

Oliver May Gawn Petracca Billings Clear top 5 for me then a raffle at 6 Viney - set us up for a good day in front of the sticks

A premiership season with spargs and Billo leading the afl for goal assists is going to be so enjoyable

When he finally did move, it really looked for a very short period like Wattsy could've finally put it all together at Port before injuries struck. Would love to draft an 18 year old Jack Watts (or Jack Billings for that matter) into our current development set up.

Probably about spot on based on this years form for mine. Petty, JVR and J Smith have a lot of scope to improve though through consistent playing time together. Just have to have those fingers crossed that we can keep them on the park and keep building their understanding. If you get that, then Koz just needs to have the glass shatter moment where he realises that he actually has an extra second to compose himself and our perceived 'weak' fwdline because a wonderful strength. Same with the other high calibre teams, if you can keep your best players on the park building cohesion, you're going to be very tough to beat.

Golly I really don't see a forward half issue... biggest issue for me is lack of precision kicks which means that if we try to pick passes inside 50 rather than bomb or kick to flanks we run risk of turn over on the op d50 line. The collingwoods and Brisbanes then sting you on the counter. Collingwood were the ones playing extremely defensive against us in that final and they were able to punch us on the break enough to get over the line despite our territory game being in great form. It's this defensive game that allows them to score goals out the back but they also won't generate as many opportunities. Of course if all of our better forwards are injured then it gets harder to score goals but the king brothers haven't been any more durable than Petty over the years and charlie has only really got his body right the last two years. Our ball wining and territory domination is our greatest strength (along with turnover - particularly fwd half) which has put us in a great position to challenge 3 years in a row. I honestly believe that once you have the system and players good enough to be top 4 (preferably top 2) then the rest is luck with timing of fitness, injuries and where those injuries are on the field - our forwardline was crucified, take daniher and McCarthy out of Brisbane's fwdline and suddenly they don't look nearly as menacing. I still think even with our injuries that if you played the finals series 100 times we would probably win at least 30. Sorry for rambling and getting off track, I think footy is a funny luck based game past a certain point and there's no golden fix for our perceived issues that doesn't hurt our game in other areas and decrease our overall ability to compete for the premiership. Looking forward to rolling those dice again next year with Fulla and hopefully McAdam for some more flair and fun. Wouldn't mind a classier user in the mids, but you don't want to reduce our ability to win territory despite being undermanned at stoppage... go dees

If you aren't hearing the ads ringing in your ears as you drift off to sleep you're not doing it right

I'd be very suprised if the offer was anything more than 10 + 20 + McAdam, which I don't think we accept. If fogarty or THRILLTHORPE are involved then you have to look at it, but I would be shocked if this is the case. That sort of trade just doesn't really happen. While we know how good Petty is, we are also likely undervaluing the potential of someone like thilthorpe in the same way other clubs and non-dees following media figures undervalue Petty.

yes, but we also may know Sydney and St Kilda are after the same player that we are, it's just impossible to know. All we do know is that we generally do pretty well with this sort of thing so whether it's a further swap or a particular player or class of players, there is probably something else going on other than just upgrading by 3 spots for the sake of it.

You just can't know what's really going on here so it's impossible to judge. Recruiters might believe there's a big gulf in talent between player 11 and 12 in the draft. Impossible to really know the value of the draft picks without knowing what the recruiting team are thinking.

I wish we'd played Grundy in the finals, could then say he's a required best 22 player and keep swans in the cooker and get pick 11 with 30 seconds of trade period to go, like freo did when getting pick 2 for Weller

I think this may be a result of collingwood taking advantage of their position to get some heavy training in, doesn't make it any less enjoyable!

It wouldn't feel great if Brisbane were to get the mantle with losses at the G given a certain result that occurred during September last year

By all reports we as a club do a lot of work on goalkicking and kicking skills in general, more so than the average. Teams go through bad goalkicking patches and always have. A balancing act because putting more of a focus on it can invite further pressure and have a negative effect. If we can keep generating chances it will eventually turn.

6. Viney 5. Salem 4. May 3. Tomlinson 2. McVee 1. Rivers

Absolutely! See also the essendon win, hawthorn draw, loss to the bulldogs (stats were ok but we were really lacking connection), even the wins against West Coast and Adelaide at the end people were not very comfortable with. We played a lot of footy similar to last night in 2021.

Obviously a scrappy game, but a great step forward in a lot of ways. We switched the play quite often and created some good opportunities. Defence looked really good, sad about bowey, our smaller types are really finding their groove. Fantastic to see Lever and May having a big influence. Hunter is a gun. He may not be a pacy silkmeister, but he processes situations quicker than any other player and consistently turns what should be 50/50s to our advantage. Up there with highest footy iq in the afl. Trac has gone to another level of consistency. Best in the comp this year? Certainly very close. I'd usually have Clarry above him but wow, Trac is having a GREAT season. Hopefully spurs Claz to go super saiyen. All I want is a tied brownlow from them in a premiership year, just a simple wish. Feeling very positive this morning about our chances, we just need to keep building on our connection. Wish Petty hadn't got injured just as he was starting to hit his straps, had he of kept going from strength to strength we may have had another 2 wins in our pocket. Extended break now, boys will probably get some time off and recalibrate before the big one. First time in a while we won't go in as favourites? If defence keeps continues to build we're a big chance! Go Dees

MCG Specialist. Big part of why we're finally looking menacing on the G. Melbourne Chandler Ground.

That game against gc was incredible. 18 of his 34 contested and at 79% - absolutely cleaned up the back half of the ground on a very greasy day. Lost form as he tired but should have come back in when we were clearly struggling defensively at ground level. Wonderful player.

That's all a bit much for me. I will respond to first one though. As I said before, improved fitness helps ALL facets of the game - it's certainly not binary in that it only helps either spread OR contest as your logic seems to imply? Weird one. Anyway have a good one go dees!

Yeah well I wish I could be bothered going back, all I remember is that I have been supremely confidant of a big win exactly 3 times this season - and made sure all my mates tipped dees for them. Brisbane, Freo, Brisbane. Extremely anecdotal and not of much use to others but it's enough for me!

Sure, and with increased fitness you get more numbers to the contest and increase the likelihood of winning the clearance. The reality is that high metres gained is an indicator of good performance in a match. With increased fitness comes increased performance. Increased performance = higher metres gained. If you don't think that increased fitness is a massive factor in increased performance then you won't think its the reason for metres gained either, so we go in circles a bit. There's been 3 times this year when BEFORE a game there have been predictions that we have deloaded and will destroy the opposition. First Brisbane game, the freo game and the second Brisbane game. It's been like clockwork! Is it coincidence and all a bit magic? I don't think so but I can only analyse based on the facts in front of me - maybe it is!

I thought predictions prior to this game were that we had de loaded and were always going to be fresh for that game, we went in confident for this reason?

Yes it does because you get more metres gained as a team when you hit an effective kick 50 and mark it and then kick it another 50 = 100 rather than kicking it 50 to a turnover. On an individual level of course it doesn't matter but it does for the team total.

Surely metres gained would trend upwards strongly with increased fitness? With increased spread from contest, kick down field hits a target instead of turnover or handball therefore further metres gained from the next possession. Also improved fitness isn't just about running, it's about all facets of the game - more contests won - better quality of possession - better avenue to goal - more metres gained. I would've thought it was clearly a good indicator of fitness.