titan_uranus

This is the contest before Cameron's third goal. Neither Smith (right, next to Berry) or Salem (with ball) are on Cameron (off to the left somewhere). Hard to know who was supposed to be on him here.

Cameron's second goal. Smith's on him again.

This is Cameron's first goal. Smith's on him but goes up into the contest.

Can anyone who was at the ground tell us if Salem or Smith was on Cameron at the start of the game?

Are you basing that off the boundary rider's comment, or were you at the ground? I'm fairly sure Smith was on him from the start. Like would we really put Salem, our distributor and loose defender, on Charlie Cameron? By the way, even if Smith only was on him after the first 3 goals, he's not the reason Cameron was quiet from there. He was quiet because they couldn't get the ball into their forward half. But he was dangerous every time he went near it.

Can anyone who went to the game confirm this? I heard the boundary rider say that but I'm confident he is wrong, as I'm sure Smith went to Cameron at the first bounce and trailed him to one of his first three goals.

6 - Oliver 5 - Gawn 4 - Petracca 3 - Lever 2 - Viney 1 - Fritsch

Smith was destroyed by Cameron. The experiment failed. But our PF opponent may dictate what we do. If we get GWS, Hibberd held him well earlier this year and I'd make the switch. But if we get Geelong, we may feel like having just beaten then with Smith we can do it again. If Hunt's fit he could take Bowey's spot. TMac stays. He and Brown work together and although he struggled today, we still put up 28 scoring shots. Leave the forwards and back TMac in to be fitter after the week off. I don't want us to be relying on Jackson or Gawn to get forward and be a second tall forward marking option on a big Optus Stadium in a prelim.

He should be cited by the MRO for that front on contact on Gawn. Not looking at the ball, just turns his body and bumps a player trying to take a mark with no regard at all for the contest. He is a dead set fl*g.

YOU BEAUTY! We are built to play finals footy and it showed tonight. Their midfield was on top early but Gawn wrestled control back from McInerney and from there we controlled play for most of the match. Had we kicked straight in the second and Brown nailed his third quarter miss we could by that stage have been 10 goals up. Fitness again coming to the fore I reckon. McStay's injury doesn't impact their ability to run the game out as the sub negates the lack of a rotation, but in the fourth quarter we had all the running. Our A-graders carried us but some of our lesser lights were stand outs. Langdon's first half was terrific, Rivers was rock solid, Sparrow might have played his best game in his career, and the much-maligned Brayshaw, Harmes and Viney all played great games I thought. We bullied a full strength dominant clearance midfield and held the highest scoring side in the comp to their second-lowest number of scoring shots and second-lowest score of the year. We kept the king of the fl*gs, Daniher, goalless for the first time this year. And we put up 93 points and 28 scoring shots when everyone says our scoring is our weakness. Now we get the week off, which is invaluable this year, we avoid Port Adelaide in Adelaide, and we set ourselves up for a shot at the big dance. Get the [censored] around us!

Same as last year though. Richmond got past Port Adelaide in the prelim. We can avoid this unfairness by winning tomorrow, too.

Except for our best performance of the year, when we beat Port Adelaide.

They cocked it up last year when they got the ride of home games, won the first final and hosted a side who'd been hubbing all year. But clearly we do not want to lose tomorrow and be sent to their prelim.

1-8 in the first week of finals since 2011, including five straight years of making the finals and losing the first final.

So this will mean Geelong is now 6-14 in finals since the 2011 flag.

A 6-day break to play Port on their home deck is really not the ideal finals draw. Chris Scott wanted to downplay the importance of our game last week but for an old side like Geelong, they surely would have wanted the extra day off and the chance to avoid Port.

Geelong continuing to play Dahlhaus and Higgins when Narkle and Constable can't get a game is pretty odd.

Jon Ralph "reporting" that Port will get to host a prelim if it wins tonight (which seems likely). We and Geelong will be going to Perth after this round no matter what.

I'm quite glad we avoided this final, and the six-day break that comes with it. Happy to let Geelong cop it.

It was just an excellent night last night. but obviously bigger fish to fry tomorrow. Stringer correctly wasn't picked. It's a side based on a season of form, not half a season. If it were half a season, Salem would have made it off his first half.

Brisbane bring back Adams and Robinson. Ah Chee and Lester both out.

You have to feel for Hibberd and Jordon, both of whom have been mainstays of our best 22 this year but now find themselves on the outer. Well done to Smith and Sparrow for standing up at the right time to get their spots. Would love for Jones to be the sub but you'd expect Jordon is the more likely option.

I'm pretty sure the award goes to a literal 1st year player (i.e. someone who was drafted in 2020).

No change Jones, Hibberd, Melksham and Jordon the emergencies.

(14-4, not 14-6) It's been covered already but of those 14 wins, 10 of them were against sides not playing finals. The only top 8 sides they beat in those 14 wins were: Essendon, in Round 5 when Essendon was worse than they are now, and at the Gabba Port Adelaide, in Round 7, and at the Gabba GWS, in Round 11 when GWS was worse than they are now, and at the Gabba Geelong, in Round 15, and at the Gabba See a theme there? Indeed, they only played 5 games since Round 5 against finalists, the 5th game being their loss to us in Round 12. By comparison, since Round 5 we are 13-1-4, we played 8 games against finalists in that period, won 6 of them, and that included wins vs the Dogs at Marvel, Brisbane on neutral territory, Port Adelaide in Adelaide and Geelong in Geelong. Having said all that, they are a good side and deserve our utmost respect. They do have a strong midfield and we know from the first half in Round 12 that if they dominate stoppages and hold marks forward of centre they can put a big score on us.