titan_uranus

Can’t fault much, but Harmes and Viney kill me. Neither has learnt to take the first option and Harmes can’t hit a single target. Really want to see them lift their game, as they should be copping a bake from Goodwin. Loving the forward pressure. Brown’s looked really good and that helps TMac, Fritsch and Jackson get free and hit the scoreboard. Oliver incredible and Lever, Petty and May solid.

Ideally they'd push our game back to the Sunday, but Fremantle v Brisbane is already on the Sunday and they can't bring that forward to Saturday because Brisbane needs 7 days to quarantine. So unless they do a double header at Optus next Sunday, we'll be playing the Monday night. Which isn't ideal, as it will likely mean a six-day break into the Adelaide game the following week, and quite possibly a consecutive six-day break into the Round 23 Geelong game (the AFL may well want that game on a Saturday for TV exposure).

Would have been nice for Adelaide or North to get up, but the more important sides for us to get around are Essendon and Hawthorn.

Lol at some of the comments in this thread, like "the AFL are idiots for scheduling this game in Queensland". Like Victoria hasn't had lockdowns. Or like they haven't been playing with crowds in Queensland for the best part of the season. Or like it wasn't GC's home game. Anyway, add this to the list of COVID disruptions we've had this season.

Before tonight they'd kicked more behinds than goals, including 5.14 three weeks ago vs Geelong.

I just spent 2 minutes Googling 2015 AFL phantom drafts and found the following four, all of which rated Weideman above Mackay: https://www.afl.com.au/news/108630/callum-twomeys-2015-phantom-draft https://afl.draftcentral.com.au/2015/11/23/matt-balmers-2015-phantom-draft/ https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/afl-draft-2015-fox-footys-full-phantom-draft-with-every-pick-predicted/news-story/39143527abf3f9d12cf9f927b5758835 https://www.theroar.com.au/2015/11/15/afl-2015-phantom-draft-top-25/

Only other palatable game is ours, and we'd be on a six-day break from Queensland, which is both tiring and impossible as we need 7 days for quarantine.

Is that season wide or over the last few weeks? I can't think of a match other than last week where it was a serious problem. Last week was an enormously bad outlier (at least it needs to be, otherwise our season is shot). The whole "we've been worked out" thing is IMO rubbish. Teams are changing their game plan to try to bring the ball to ground. The Dogs happen to have the deepest and strongest midfield in the comp, so stoppages are precisely what they should want. Can all other 16 clubs do it as well as them? I might be wrong (hence my asking about the stat you've quoted) but I don't see this as being a fatal flaw.

Whilst Melksham might have brought in better kicking forward of centre, there are downsides. One is his 2021 form. Another is his lack of defensive pressure. And a third is that we'd then have to send TMac or Brown into the ruck and we'd at those times be back to one tall forward: remember how we looked with one tall forward vs GWS? We're also not going to flip a switch just by bringing Melksham in: we need to demand improvement in decision making and execution from Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Harmes, Brayshaw and Gawn as well. If they keep turning it over, we'll largely look the same. This isn't to say Jackson deserves to hold his spot, just that it's hardly "perplexing" that we didn't make that change.

If you're referring to Melksham, whilst I wasn't against us trying him it's not like he's been in any sort of form of late, and we know how damaging (in a bad way) his lack of defensive pressure can be. As to Jackson/Rivers, poor form doesn't always mean needs rest. Again, whilst there were arguments about both their spots, were we going to make four changes in one week?

It's hard to argue against the two outs and I'm really happy to see Bowey given a chance, and Sparrow given a game. Harmes surely on thin ice. Would want to see a massive game from him (tagging Touk Miller, maybe?).

In: Bowey, Sparrow Out: Hibberd, Jordon (both dropped). Emergencies are Hibberd, Melksham, Weideman and Jordon. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/989406/round-20-team-young-demon-to-debut

I agree with you both entirely, but I can nevertheless foresee the government saying that throughout the pandemic different pockets of society have been impacted in different ways, that there is no universal fairness, and that it's in the best interests of the competition/economy/society generally if we have a Grand Final with 100,000 vaccinated fans as compared to 40,000 allowing unvaccinated. It would disappoint and anger me unquantifiably, but I can see it happening.

Olympics-related, surely. Unless games are also on 7Mate?

This article says that our quarantine in Perth isn't going to be as straightforward as previous teams have had, because Joondalup resort is booked out: https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/07/29/melbourne-thrown-covid-curveball-ahead-of-perth-trip/ Apparently we'll be in a Perth CBD hotel, but we will have some access to Optus Stadium for training and some corporate space to hang out, and Red Bull (a sponsor) is going to install some things to make our time easier (eg. a basketball ring in the corporate space). But still, not going to be as easy it seems as the Dogs, Saints and Tigers have had.

Well, Bowey won't be playing on Rankine: https://www.afl.com.au/news/655103/suns-axe-former-no-3-pick-nine-goal-sharpshooter-to-make-debut

FWIW, if the rumour was at any point true, and at any time the club had considered playing in Darwin a commercially sensible option, whilst I would understand that I would disagree with it. We have to have faith that our 2021 season is going to be indicative of medium term success, which will mean medium term financial benefits. If we finish top 4 and win a final, thereby making at least a prelim, our early-2022 fixturing should provide us with opportunities to help recoup our 2021 losses. As will increased membership/sponsorship opportunities. Quarantine from today into a GC trip into hard and difficult quarantine in Perth into Darwin into a possibly season-defining game in Geelong (on what could very easily be a 7 or even 6 day break) will be brutal.

No way Hunt gets dropped after last week's game, which was an improvement on his previous weeks. You'd imagine it will either be Rivers or Hibberd.

Soccer is nowhere near as physically taxing as Australian Rules. NFL is but players don't spend the whole game on the ground and wear padding. And in both of those sports players get paid significantly higher salaries. And another issue is in both of those sports travel is relatively even: e.g. in the EPL every side plays every other side home and away, and in the NFL every side has either 8 or 9 road games per season, alternating fairly.

The problem with analysing free kick counts is the erroneous but often held assumption that the free kick count should be even, or close to even, at the end of each game. An inferior side is going to be caught holding the ball more, or will infringe in marking contests more. When you're more under pressure you'll tend to grab a jumper. So on and so forth. An overly aggressive side may choose to give away free kicks to help pump up their "aggression" (Richmond may well do this, given they're so far in the negative for frees this year). So it follows that the free kick count does not need to be even to indicate "fair' umpiring. I felt on Saturday that the Dogs got the rub of the green - key 50/50 contests that could have gone either way would go the Dogs' way, but not ours. And the holding the ball call against Brayshaw late in the second was a momentum changer IMO. But that doesn't mean I think there is an umpiring conspiracy.

What's the point of posting that you think GC is as good as Hawthorn and we couldn't beat Hawthorn, then? As I said, the same argument applies the other way around (and of course, with a 12-1-4 record, it applies significantly more against you than it does in your favour). The comparison you're drawing is an incredibly bad one to draw in support of an argument that you think we will, or might, not win this weekend.

Example number 94123 of the MRP system being broken. An elbow to the head deemed serious enough to be a reportable offence is worthy of a fine, but a perfectly executed run-down tackle results in a two week ban, whilst contesting the football has the AFL sending you directly to the Tribunal. Utterly, completely, farcically, broken.

Whilst you're welcome to question whether we'll beat GC, the argument that we drew with Hawthorn therefore we won't beat GC is one of the worst arguments you can roll out, seriously. We beat Port 2.5 weeks ago, and GC is clearly worse than Port, so shouldn't that mean a comfortable win?

If the game ends up being played in Darwin, I wonder whether that will force the FD to consider some rotations for freshness in with the Perth game the following week.