titan_uranus

One of OMac and Frost goes for May. I vote Frost, but I don't care too much because they're both awful. If Lewis is fit he comes back in for Hore, but I don't know if Lewis will be fit. I'd probably drop Hore anyway. Would love KK to be fit. If Viney's genuinely not fit then he should stand up as a captain and declare it, and make way for someone else. Who? I'm not sure. There's not a lot to get excited about at Casey tbh. Spargo deseves to be dropped but who replaces him? We need to try out Preuss. Stanley beat Gawn once last year and did well against Grundy last night. I'm worried he and Ratugolea will get physical with Gawn again and he'll struggle.

6 - Salem 5 - Harmes 4 - Melksham 3 - Brayshaw 2 - Hibberd 1 - Hunt

The Collingwood-Geelong game and the Adelaide-Hawthorn game give the same questions. Is Hawthorn better than people expected? Is Adelaide worse than people expected? Again, I suspect the latter. I'm not particularly surprised at seeing three of the five most hyped sides going into this year (Adelaide, Collingwood and us, with the other two being Essendon and Brisbane) dropping games almost everyone thought they'd win. Regardless, I get nothing but disgust at seeing Geelong and Hawthorn win unexpectedly.

However, whilst Port did have a bunch of debutants, they also had this: Westhoff (249 games), Boak (244), Ebert (236), Ryder (227), Gray (200), Rockliff (173), Watts (173), Motlop (157), Jonas (122). What did we have? Jones (265), Melksham (157), TMac (147), Jetta (142), Hibberd (124), Gawn (100). That's five 200+ game players to one, eight 150+ game players to two, and nine 100+ game players to six. Other than Motlop, their 100+ game players were their best. Other than Melksham and, to an extent, Hibberd, our 100+ game players were poor. It's only worth a little bit in the overall melting pot of issues, but we have to keep in mind that the core of our side, the players we demand lift us each week, are at a completely different level - Viney (99), Salem (71), Harmes (70), Lever (67), Petracca (64), Oliver (61), ANB (60), Brayshaw (59), Fritsch (24), Weideman (21).

Boy oh boy. We were smashed in uncontested possessions and clearly beaten for workrate and pace. There are a few ways that can occur but the most obvious one is that we had a poor pre-season. This is nothing to do with making finals and starting a month later, this is the players who had surgeries or missed periods or started later than the main group. Copping 30+ degrees and humidity when you're not 100% is a recipe for disaster. But that's not where it ends. Gawn was belted in the ruck and around the ground. Without him dominating in the ruck, we were beaten in contested possessions (which only happened twice last year) and didn't dominate clearances. If I were an opposition coach I'd be planning to play two ruckmen and/or to just instruct them to get physical - Lycett's done this twice in a row, we saw Naismith do it well in our game vs Sydney last year, Rhys Stanley did it last year too. Gawn needs support, so I expect to see Presuss play as soon as he's fit. We need to try it. If we're not on top in CPs and clearances, we're not a good football side - our losses last year showed this, and today showed this. That might make us a one-dimensional side overall, but our best last year shows we can afford to be one-dimensional if we work hard and our key players perform. Our forward line is slow and pathetic defensively. If Garlett can't get back into this side then that says more about Garlett than it does about our forward line. Spargo is too slow to play his low-impact role. Sparrow looked OK but doesn't strike me as anything special. We clearly lacked a third marking option and TMac/Weideman were wholly out of sync. Petracca looks too big (both too much muscle and, dare I say it, not perfectly conditioned). He's too slow by foot and isn't affecting the game enough. The time is going to come, soon I think, where we will see him at Casey. Viney isn't fit and if he's a true captain he'll admit it and get fit before playing again. Jones' fitness might have been an issue but the dropped mark in the fourth was just poor football (he turned his head to see if there was someone in the goalsquare before he'd marked it). That drop led to a Westhoff goal and killed the game. But, of all the things to be disappointed by, somehow I'm most disappointed in Frost and Oscar. When we brought in May, they knew that they'd be fighting for one spot (possibly no spots once Lever comes back, but anyway). They should have been motivated to work super hard on their weaknesses to ensure they were the one who got selected in Round 1. Instead, Frost's weaknesses remain the exact same (his push in the back on Ryder in the second quarter when the ball was clearly out on the full was bad, his decision to run into a wall of Port players then kick it after being blatantly caught holding the ball was worse), and so do Oscar's (he was being out-muscled by midfielders FFS). Can't decide which one I want to drop more for next week. A shout out to Salem, who was incredible all day, as well as Harmes, Melksham and Hibberd. Hopefully Hunt gets some confidence, too.

How many times will TMac and Weidemam get caught jumping at the same ball? Infuriating. Viney calling for it from Salem, then turning it over to give them a goal, was appalling leadership IMO.

Viney looks well underdone. Gawn looks cooked halfway into the first game. Petracca, Spargo and Hunt are struggling to get involved. We’re missing too many kicks, including inside 50, and when we turn it over they have too much space and too much marking power (anyone who didn’t already appreciate how badly we need May should know by now). And we’re too slow (by foot but mainly with decision making) when trying to get it out of the backline. The first 15 minutes looked excellent so if we get back to that faster, more direct football then we should be able to improve and regain the lead, but if we stay doing what we did that quarter then we will lose and lose poorly.

Not sure what to read into this. Is Geelong better than people thought? Is Collingwood worse than people thought? If I had to pick one, I'd pick the latter.

Collingwood got 46,286 to their Saturday 1.45pm game against Port in mid-August last year. If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I'd be happy if we pass 40,000 but expect 35,000 is more likely. Less if it rains.

In some respects this is precisely what we want from the AFL. Both May and Jones have been dealt with based on the action, not the consequence. May's bump made head-high contact. Jones' didn't. It doesn't matter that both had similar levels of impact. May's offence was a worse offence than Jones' and was dealt with accordingly.

It's a one-game sample (last night's game wasn't overcrowded or over congested), it's humid (players have said this during breaks and they're clearly struggling to grip and mark the ball) and both sides are sending strong pressure. The game is opening up as we move into the third, too.

Surely a pass mark is finals but we're all aiming a bit higher than simply a "pass mark"?

The AFL website lists each team's "notable absentees". It's hardly an accurate guide of anything but, still, Collingwood has 10 players named, then we have 9. Some teams have 3 (e.g. Port).

So, from the 22 who ran out for the Prelim, it's: In: Fritsch, Hore, C Wagner, Hunt Out: vandenBerg, Hannan, J Smith, Tyson Not terrible, but Hore/Wagner/Hunt is not 100% ideal.

Sounds like both of us will be fielding underdone sides and/or will be missing key players. It might only be Round 1 but this is a game we just cannot afford to lose.

Some of the players I'd like to see make a major leap forward this year are Hunt, Garlett (notwithstanding his age), Frost and OMac. But I have a suspicion that the player who is going to surprise me most is Stretch. I don't know why, I just have a feeling. I reckon that's a rubbish take on Fritsch. He was underdeveloped physically but he rarely did anything other than give 100% at every contest all season.

I find myself agreeing. If we back ourselves in to do well at centre clearances (and with Gawn and our midfield, we damn well should be) then like last year we should see a number of direct entries inside 50 from the centre bounce. Unlike last year though, we won't be continually down 6-7 or 5-6 in our forward line. I'm interested in seeing what teams (including us) try to do to slow the game down when they want it to be slowed. Will they try to get repeat bounces in the middle to give their wings/forwards time to push back?

This really is an excellent thread, thanks @Lucifer's Hero

Surprisingly (or maybe not, for Demonland) negative thread about a practice match. None of us know what we may or may not have been trialling, changing, experimenting with etc.. I'll save my (inevitable) worry for the season proper.

Is it just me or has Hannan being out for half a season just come out of nowhere? Fingers crossed they get this round of rehab right and he comes back fit. As with others above, I feel he has been consistently hampered with knee problems.

I don't like David King but I like his call about the new kick-in rule. I have a sneaking suspicion clubs will refrain from taking shots from angles or from too far out for fear of the damage the opposition will do from a kick-in.

I am truly sick of seeing the Pats succeed but they deserve utmost respect. What they have been able to do in a league which is designed to stop them doing it is incredible. They have an uncanny knack for scoring touchdowns right when they need them. That was brutal. The roughing the passer call on Brady was shocking, too. But ultimately the only time KC's defence was able to make a stop was when Ford ruined it.

Our batting is rubbish and it's potentially impacting our bowling, which was well below what we all should have expected from them during the series. We struggled to take wickets on our home pitches, Starc was nowhere near his best and Hazlewood wasn't great either. Granted, India's batsmen were very good, but we've bowled out strong batting sides before and kept ourselves in games with the ball. The SL Tests will be interesting. We really need to be focusing on players we think can play all five Ashes Tests and score runs. I'd like to see us move past both Marsh brothers permanently but I fear that we'll see S Marsh in the SL Tests and in the Ashes squad, as they're keen for his "experience". I'm not sure where I stand on Warner but I think we'll see Smith walk back into the XI once his ban isup. So my Ashes XI at this point is: Harris, Warner/Burns/Hughes, Khawaja, Smith, Head, Handscomb/Maxwell/Wade, Paine (c), Cummins, Starc, Lyon, Hazlewood. For SL, I'd be opening with Burns or Daniel Hughes alongside Harris, I'd be returning Khawaja to number 3 (we can't bat Labuschagne there, that's absolutely ridiculous, he shouldn't be playing at all let alone batting first drop), and I'd be getting Maxwell and/or Wade into the middle order (Wade deserves a batting spot, but Maxwell is a better all-rounder than Labuschagne or M Marsh if we're that desperate to get relief overs out of someone in the top 6). Paine stays, his captaincy is one of the things that is working at the moment I think, his keeping is good and his batting isn't as bad as most of the batsmen over the past 12 months (however, one first class 100 in his entire career is a problem). Harris and Head were probably the only two positives to come out of the India series. I hope one or both can make a century against SL to confirm their Ashes spots and to get them some further confidence.

Colts 21 @ Texans 24 Seahawks 28 @ Cowboys 14 Chargers 23 @ Ravens 21 Eagles 17 @ Bears 28

Wowee, what a finish in the Browns-Ravens game. Will be interesting to see what happens to the Steelers from here. I hope the Browns build on this season for 2019.