titan_uranus

@jnrmac is right. The rule is Law 18.13(c): "A field umpire shall award a free kick against a player who...whilst in possession of the football, does not bounce or touch the football on the ground at least once every 15 metres, irrespective of whether such Player is running in a straight line or otherwise..."

The top 4 race is broader than that. I don't think any of the current top 8 can be ruled out, particularly when everyone down to even St Kilda in 11th is just one win behind 4th. West Coast still has 8 games in Perth to come and road trips include Carlton, Adelaide and Collingwood. Brisbane is a bad free kick off being 6-2, doesn't leave Queensland for the next three weeks, and still has 7 games at the Gabba to come, including three of its last four. Sydney keeps performing against good sides. Richmond is Richmond. Geelong just pumped Richmond. It's still very even.

Assuming Brisbane wins but doesn't put on another 7+ goals to the margin, we'll finish the round having played (and beaten) 4th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 17th and 18th. That's a 3-0 record over the current top 8. For comparison: Dogs: 2-1 Port: 1-2 Geelong: 3-2 Brisbane: 1-3 Sydney: 3-1 West Coast: 1-2 Richmond: 1-4

I watched that last quarter. Carlton's defensive pressure through its forward half was non-existent. Weitering is good but that's not going to stop opposition scores against when the midfield is so dominant. The Dogs' midfield is peerless in the comp and Carlton showed they could produce good football through the first 2.5 quarters, but they're not going to see 5 goals out of Betts each week, and hopefully Hibberd can cover him well next week.

Not a single one of that commentary team is good. Richo is undoubtedly the worst. He adds literally nothing of value. Nothing. Everything he says is meaningless, cliched, guff. He's hopeless. McLachlan's a terrible commentator. 70% of what he says is "[club] has kicked X of the last Y goals", or "[club] led by 10, now [other club] leads by 5". Darcy's actually commentary is fine but his mistakes with names are unforgivable.

Carlton's on track to beat the Dogs. We take them lightly (by "resting" players) at our own peril.

Dogs are +12 in the clearances and +5 inside 50s but 14 points down at three quarter time. I'm not watching the game but the Dogs' defence has been its weak link all year. I'm not sure a side can rely on its (incredible) midfield all season as a way to both attack and defend. Also Dunkley out probably hurts them more than we might first have thought. Meanwhile May's got a huge job next week on Mackay, albeit that our team defence is significantly stronger than the Dogs.

It's interesting, we're clearly not doing well in centre clearances this year. But, we're 8th on team v opponent average clearances and 5th for team v opponent average stoppage clearances. We're also a very, very clear 1st for team v opponent average intercepts, at +8.5. West Coast is second at +3.4. And we're also first for average marks inside 50 conceded, at 9.5 (Geelong at 9.8 is the only other side below 11). So, we struggle in the centre bounce set up, but we generally don't concede marks from those inside 50s, and we're a strong side for stoppages around the ground. The question I suppose is whether we can get better at centre clearances and add that string to our bow, or whether it's just not going to happen this year but it's also not going to destroy us, given our strength in other areas. So we know that we intercept

It’s not so much the 4-17 discrepancy that hurts us, it’s the manner of the 17 against. Far, far too many were cleared out the Sydney attacking side of the circle. So we’re conceding them in the most dangerous way possible. It’s not talent. We were 33-22 in all other stoppages. So IMO it’s strategy more than anything. I’m convinced other teams are planning for us at a level we’ve never experienced before. I’m also convinced Viney being out is a huge loss. Jordon, Harmes and Jones (last week) aren’t close to his level and don’t apply defensive pressure on the opposition mids like Viney does.

Goodwin in the presser noting we lost centre clearances 4-17. That's a shocking result, but the fact we could still win against a side starting the round in the top 4 is a good sign. 33-22 in stoppage clearances so it wasn't all bad.

We're now three games and 20%+ clear of everyone except the Dogs and Port. You'd think our three games against them are going to be decisive to whether we finish top 2/4 or not.

His first half was terrible! His second half was much better though, particularly the fourth quarter, and IMO he keeps his spot after that lift.

Can't understate this enough. He's a critical part of our midfield rotation and whilst Jordon and Harmes were good in spurts, Viney's defensive work in the stoppages is vital.

Yes. We still are yet to be behind in the fourth quarter at any stage this year, though.

Petty was poor but IMO should hold his spot to work on his connection with the others in the backline. Brayshaw's positioning was excellent but his disposal poor. Wouldn't drop him, though. Melksham was significantly better this week than last week. Not the week to be calling for his head if you don't like him. Harmes' fourth quarter was important so I'd keep him but I'm far from convinced. So all of that said, may be no change.

6 - Oliver 5 - TMac 4 - May 3 - Salem 2 - Rivers 1 - Jordon

You can't be someone who was upset during the Gameday thread and not be in here in raptures with that win. We dug deep when we needed to and although we didn't cash in on our dominance in the middle two quarters as much as we should have, we remained really tough to play against and put Sydney, a top 4 side, off their game. They lifted immensely from when we hit the 22 point margin. They moved it quicker, took us on more directly, and opened up the ground more. But despite everything they threw at us, they didn't get in front. Which means that's 8 straight games in which we have not been behind at any stage in the fourth quarter (although that was the first fourth quarter we've lost). Oliver and TMac were the big stars. I thought Harmes was poor early but his fourth quarter was really good. Brown's first half was really important, and as TMac said in the post-match interview the two of them were more in sync tonight than last week. May good on Buddy but I reckon he was clearly unfit. Also loved Rivers' game. Petty struggled but IMO we have to keep playing him to work on that synergy with Lever and May.

Again, we dominate the first two thirds of the quarter but don’t convert that dominance into goals. 22 points was good but should have been 2-3 goals more. Couple of critical moments go against us and we end up losing the quarter it’s only a 10 point margin. We must take our chances if we want to win this.

Petty’s having an absolute shocker. He started poorly but improved in the Hawthorn game so let’s see what the second half brings. Should be 4 goals up after the dominance we had for the first 15 minutes of that quarter.

Can’t be this bad at clearances and expect to win. Jordon and Harmes getting plenty of it but turning it over with aplomb. Real problems with both of their decision making. Brown’s leading and follow up work better than last week.

Win tomorrow and we go 4 games and ~40% clear of Richmond.

I’m really disappointed Sparrow’s missed out to Harmes. Sparrow’s 2021 form exceeds anything we’ve seen from Harmes since 2018. Weid is being made to bide his time until a spot opens, IMO Harmes should have too.

It really cannot be understated just how appallingly bad Collingwood's list management and overall progress through 2020 into 2021 has been. The same one that numbered 24,397 vs Gold Coast this weekend?

Classic.

I’m seeing a lot of posts like this that have both Tomlinson and Jones out. It’s only one of them - Jones was the sub, not in the 22. If you replace Tomlinson with someone, Jones automatically reverts to the sub and doesn’t free up another spot. And the .1 was so close to a goal that if the goal umpire had called it a goal I’m 99% sure it would have survived a score review.