titan_uranus

Back surgery is intense. Not that ACL surgery is easy, but back surgery is different. And he's 30. That aside, and assuming he's fully fit with no long term increased risk of injury, I'm not convinced this is the right fit. Where would he play, and at whose expense? He's too good to be depth (i.e. he'd only go somewhere to be best 22), so he has to be a walk-up start in our 22, which means he has to be an upgrade on TMac/Brown, or Fritsch, or Spargo/ANB/Pickett.

Yes. "he is needed on our list we have no other tall forward" - well that's obviously incorrect. "Lets be honest, TMac hasn't been any good for the last 12 odd weeks" - in the last 12 weeks TMac has kicked 3 goals each against the Bulldogs, Brisbane and Port Adelaide, and had a 22 possession + 10 mark game vs GWS where the only thing missing was accurate goal kicking. "the start of the season amazing but has fallen away" - yes he was kicking more goals at the start of the season but his relative form slump coincided with the entire side slumping somewhat in the first few weeks post-bye. "B Brown isn't really setting the world on fire kicking some goals but yet to really have an outstanding game" - Brown's kicked multiple goals for five straight games, has had at least 5 marks in each of those games, and importantly has lifted his tackling and pressure numbers across that period "M Brown isn't getting any younger" - sure, but Weideman also "isn't getting any younger" "Daw isn't a forward" - probably the only part of the post I agree with. Of course, the overall point you're making in general doesn't take into account our forward line as a unit, ignores Fritsch's presence (he was just named to the AA squad FFS), and ignores Weideman's struggles with form when in the seniors this year.

The two night slots are the prime time slots. The club and the AFL want us playing in one of them. 7 days is more than enough for us to prepare. If you're of the view that 7 days is light on, how does Brisbane feel? Why give our opponent more time to prepare? And why would you put us on Sunday, the dead zone timeslot - whoever loses that game then would have a shorter break into the semi, despite finishing above their opponent. That would be unfair. You're complaining about the Dogs being "given" the Sunday game. They have no choice but to win it, and if they do they'll then be on a six-day break into their semi whereas we or Brisbane will be on a 7-day break. It's blindingly obvious why we're not on the Sunday. And as to venues, there is evidence to suggest we were offered a choice of venue and chose the Adelaide Oval. Which probably makes sense, given that AFAIK the Melbourne Football Club has never, not once, played at York Park. Do you really want us to go play at a venue we've never played at before for a massive final, against a side who played there just a month ago? Meanwhile just a few weeks ago we were stuck on a plane for a day, then belted the Suns by 100 points, then got put in a hotel for a week, then beat West Coast in Perth with a 95% pro-Eagles crowd. The "choice" was as blindingly obvious as the reason we're playing on Saturday night.

It's easy to be in good form when your last three games are against Fremantle, Collingwood and West Coast. It's also easy to drop a game or two when your last three games are against GWS, St Kilda and Melbourne. IMO, Brisbane's and Essendon's formlines are mirages. Port's and GWS' formlines are far stronger.

Of course the true answer to this question is the land that is now the Holden Centre. We should underwrite a redevelopment of Victoria Park on the basis that Collingwood moves there and we can then use the Holden Centre oval and land.

Someone had to play on the Sunday so someone was going to get an 8+ day break. Who cares. We got 7 days, which is better than 6. Yes but this year's game was vs Adelaide, a bottom 4 side. They didn't play there in 2020. In 2019 they beat Port there, but in 2019 Port didn't make the finals. In the same time period we've played there four times to their twice, and one of our wins is far more meritorious (Port this year) than any win they've probably ever had at that venue.

I'm surprised and quite pleased to see the number of people who agree he does it, and those who say they'd prefer it if he didn't. We have collectively lost our [censored] at Selwood, Shuey and Mathieson in years gone by, so it would be hypocritical to say Spargo doing it is fine. It's as much "not a good look" as Viney's incident with Collins was, and I'd prefer he stop doing it.

It's just a sign of 2021 Demonland, I think. Certain posters who are relied upon for negativity have either turned it around (credit to them), or disappeared (less so).

Naitanui beats Gawn in these stats: Contested possessions: 12.4 to 10.5 per game Ground ball gets: 5.4 to 4.0 Clearances: 7.2 to 4.5 Hit outs to advantage: 12.3 to 10.3 (and on percentages 39.3% to 32.2%) Pressure acts: 13.4 to 10.5 Tackles: 3.0 to 2.6 It's the clearances (combined with ground ball gets) and hit outs to advantage that stand out. They're flashy moments which people remember and think "wow, he's influencing this game". But the rest of his game is so weak. He doesn't hit the scoreboard, he doesn't take marks, doesn't drop back to defend, and spends 22% more of each game on the bench than Gawn (68.1% to 90%). My firm view is Gawn is the deserving number 1 ruck and Naitanui, if a second ruck is to be picked, can sit on the bench.

I'm still shocked that by now there haven't been more negative/pessimistic posters arguing Geelong put the cue in the rack at the 44 point lead mark and didn't care about the win.

Caleb Daniel also missed out.

I love Fritsch and Salem but Boak isn't in the squad. That's insane. Edit: Riewoldt and Crisp have also missed out on squad selection. But Sean Darcy (he's not getting picked over Gawn or Naitanui so why is he in the squad), Lyons and Seedsman all get picked?

Oliver, Lever, Petracca and Gawn should all be in the 22. May is on the fringe. Salem is a chance for the squad. Fritsch and Pickett have had good seasons but I can't see them making the squad. I maintain my view Gawn is the superior ruck to Naitanui. Naitanui is fawned over for his hit outs and clearances. Well he can have all the clearances he wants, they don't translate into superior impact: he and Gawn average the precise same number of score involvements per game (5.4), whilst Gawn averages more metres gained (309.9 per game to Naitanui's 211.3). And then of course Gawn outdoes Naitanui in many other respects: he gets more disposals (including effective disposals), he gets back into defence more and therefore has more rebound 50s and intercept marks (the latter stat is 1.9 to 0.4 per game), he takes more than 3 times as many marks per game (5.2 to 1.5) and hits the scoreboard more (1.4 shots at goal to 0.6).

We were given repeat games against Geelong (2020 runner up), Bulldogs (2020 finalist but finished in the middle six), GWS (10th in 2020), Hawthorn (bottom 4 in 2020) and Adelaide (bottom 4 in 2020). It wasn't that bad - GWS ended up moving up into the top 8. What's interesting is that Port and Brisbane both made prelims last year but only had one repeat game against a 2021 finalist. Port got two repeat games against 2020 top 6 sides but not only were they the two worst top 6 sides from 2020 in Collingwood and St Kilda (losers of the two semi finals), but both of them fell apart in 2021 and missed finals. They otherwise got the Bulldogs (a 2020 finalist but finished middle six), and Carlton and Adelaide. Brisbane got both Richmond and Geelong (i.e. the two Grand Finalists) plus Collingwood, Gold Coast and Fremantle. Again, whilst that looked reasonably tough pre-season, Richmond and Collingwood fell apart and GC and Fremantle were always going to be mid to poor sides.

And the top 8's record vs the top 4: Melbourne: 4-0 Bulldogs: 3-3 Brisbane: 2-2 Sydney: 2-2 Geelong: 2-3 GWS: 2-3 Port Adelaide: 0-3 Essendon: 0-4

We can now finalise the top 8's record vs the top 8: Melbourne: 8-2 Sydney: 6-3 GWS: 5-5 Port Adelaide: 4-4 Brisbane: 4-4 (note that they played 7 of these 8 games by Round 12, before their bye) Geelong: 4-5 Bulldogs: 4-5 Essendon: 1-8

There's no way the AFL didn't know. They've known what's going on with crowds and restrictions often before the public is informed. I hope Gerard Whateley is happy.

Jake Lever was too expensive ("two first rounders" etc.). Steven May was too expensive ("we gave up Hogan/pick 6/Ben KIng for May" etc.). Whatever happens from here, I hope (but do not expect at all) that Demonlanders learn from this the next time we trade out a high draft pick for an established player.

When we played them in Round 12, their first half dominance came not through the smalls but the talls. Daniher and Hipwood were marking everything and that gave them their scoring opportunities. In the second half our tall defenders improved and when we started spoiling their marks, they struggled to score. Interestingly we may well have five changes from the side that beat them - Hunt, Hibberd, Jordon, Weideman and Melksham all played. Would be replaced, on yesterday's 22, by Bowey, Brown, Smith, Langdon and Viney.

Most years people see upsets happening but most years the top 4 make the prelims. Indeed, since 2000 I think only 7 sides have gone out in straight sets. That's 7 out of 80. Less than 10%. So whilst Sydney and GWS and Essendon are all in good degrees of form, the odds suggest that the losers of Melb-Brisbane and Port-Geelong will make the prelims. Whilst Sydney is in good form, they don't match up well against Port or Geelong, who they'll have to beat in the SF. I'll back the loser of Port-Geelong to make the prelim, therefore (and FWIW I smell a Geelong win this week). On our side of the draw, I think we'll beat Brisbane, which means I think we'll play Port in the prelim.

They'll have to wear their red clash jumper, as they did in 2019 (our only home game against Essendon since 2010 and only our second since 2005:

Depends on which season is the precedent. I believe 2015 is the only time this has happened - West Coast finished 2nd, Hawthorn finished 3rd. They played each other in the first final (WC won) and then again in the Grand Final. In the Grand Final, Hawthorn wore its home jumper but white shorts. West Coast wore its then-away jumper (royal blue). It's unknown territory I think. This tweet shows you that the AFL makes it up as they go along:

Great summary. King was trying to argue that Geelong walk away from that game pleased because our score from turnover was around their season average. It was a really flimsy argument which made little sense in the context of the game. I much preferred Montagna pulling up the footage suggesting we'd rolled our spare defender up into stoppages in the first half but reverted back in the second half. Hard to know if that was true given we only saw footage of two stoppages but if so, a really interesting insight into what we were thinking.

40 seconds left on the clock when Tomlinson took his shot last year. Also you've missed Round 4 this year in your summary. We were pretty good that day.

1443 points against is also, by a very long way, the fewest points we've conceded in a 22-game season. The previous best was 2018, which was 1749. Also, not including last year's shortened games, this is the first time we've gone through an entire H&A season without conceding 100 points since 1962.