titan_uranus

A bit of a change? So far this quarter it's 46-22 disposals and 7-4 tackles, both in our favour (first quarter was 94-97 and 8-14).

We were 28 points behind midway through the 2nd quarter on QBD. I'm not watching, so I don't know how bad it is precisely, but let's not give up just yet.

The Demonland answer to this question will be "Yes" if we win today, and "No" if we lose.

IMO if we lose we miss finals - Adelaide will either have nothing to play for (If Geelong wins) or, alternatively, might even want to finish 2nd to get an easier finals schedule (e.g. avoiding Sydney or drawing Richmond). But our destiny is in our hands and we should really be able to win this game. We play well against Collingwood, we've won our last two under similar pressure, and we have a strong side on the park.

Those clubs don't need to lobby - they've traditionally had much stronger viewership and membership numbers. The AFL/Channel 7 want them in the prime time games (along with Hawthorn, Sydney and Geelong). This year our membership is up, our home attendances are up, our overall attendances are up, and (hopefully) our TV ratings are up. If we make finals, and especially then if we go on and win a final, that will push us up further and Channel 7 will want us in those timeslots. The problem we have with the Friday night pie is that Richmond had 0 this year but, given they'll finish top 4 this year, they're going to be back next year. My hope is that teams like St Kilda, Hawthorn, North and the Dogs all lose some of their prime time slots to make room for us.

This is the most interesting post on this thread.

It's this stuff that exacerbates the problem. The six-day breaks are bad. Having them back-to-back make them worse. Putting a trip to Perth in the middle of them worse again. And whilst starting the year with 7 games in Melbourne sounds nice, all it does is cram 6 interstate trips into the remaining 15 games. This last three weeks is the first time we've played three consecutive games in Melbourne since Rounds 5-7. And the Adelaide-Port-North-GWS stretch was really difficult given the venues involved. Not a solveable problem, though.

This helps solve the "problem" of playing him alongside Hogan and Pedersen. He can rotate further up the ground and through the middle (replacing Stretch, really).

I reckon that had nothing to do with it at all. The handballing was setting up fast ball movement which led to three goals in 5 minutes. When we hit 32 points up, we went away from that by being cute. It wasn't an overemphasis on the handball that suddenly changed the momentum. It was our inability to continue to do precisely what had put us 32 points up, which involved repeated handball. But the issue, as identified in this thread, is one of balance. We play our best football when we use the handpass properly but that also involves knowing when to stop the chain and kick.

They played 1 v 4 on the Saturday afternoon last year (Sydney v GWS). The loser of that game (Sydney) ended up hosting its semi final on the following Saturday night (vs Adelaide, who had also played the previous Saturday). It's impossible to work out the scheduling without knowing for sure where the four games are being played. A Richmond loss changes things massively (as it results in an MCG elimination final and likely takes away the second Adelaide final, with Port moving into fourth).

Im confident they will if we miss the finals this year. But the proposition is that "our game plan is holding us back", and you agreed. I agree that we need some poise and calmness at times. That comes with experience but in the meantime that comes with leadership (and I thought Jones showed this yesterday) and it comes with hard work. But it's not a matter of changing how we are playing fundamentally.

I thought the same, LDC. Looked to me like Rockliff went to Hunt all day (and IMO I'd give the points to Hunt). Wagner and Stretch spent the majority of the fourth quarter on the bench. I'm pretty confident that was as close to an old fashioned "benching" as it gets. I think Goodwin did the same thing with White in the Sydney game.

Regardless of what you think of Lever (he's one of the competition's genuine stars) and of OMac (he's far, far better than STMJ claims and he's much improved on last year), if Lever wants to play for us then, provided we don't jeopardise our ability to retain our core talent over the next 5 years, we do that deal.

Yeah...we wish. Fixed.

Adelaide lost to North. GWS lost to Carlton. Geelong lost to GC. Richmond lost to Fremantle. Sydney lost to Carlton. Essendon lost to Brisbane, Fremantle and Carlton. Port's the only side not to have lost to one of the bottom 5. In fact, they've only lost one game to the bottom 10 all year, and that was to West Coast. However, they've only won one game over a top 8 side and that was Sydney in Round 1 which doesn't count for much these days. Classic Demonland. TMac has his best ever season, plays one bad game and now couldn't even be traded if we wanted to trade him.

Garlett was better today than last week. Let him build form in the seniors when we are one win away from breaking our 11-year finals drought. Dropping him would be ridiculous, especially given you haven't named a replacement for him. As for Stretch, Watts can take his role as the running link-up player. Stretch is possibly the only player on our list who dislikes physical contact more than Watts but unlike Watts he's hardly damaging with the ball.

6 - Jones 5 - Hogan 4 - Pedersen 3 - HIbberd 2 - Melksham 1 - Oliver

Port is likely to thrash GC though. Port always play well against the rubbish sides and GC is as rubbish as they come. I doubt Sydney can pass Port which will keep them 6th unless Richmond loses to St Kilda. If we win, Essendon can't pass us. We're locked in to 7th if we win. If we lose, then Essendon will almost certainly pass us if they win. Would have to be two 1-point margins to keep us in front of them, or something like that. But in all likelihood Essendon will spank Fremantle. Our only chance of playing finals with a loss is Adelaide beating West Coast or, again, two 1-point margins to keep our percentage in front of WC's. They can't put us on the Sunday because they already have Richmond v St Kilda on the Sunday at the G. Both those clubs played today which would have had both on a 6-day break (and with Richmond coming back from Perth). Essentially, Richmond got taken care of over us, but Richmond is higher on the ladder so we can hardly complain. If we make it, my preferred match up is Richmond at the G. Friday night, 95,000+ people, would be epic. And I also think we can beat Richmond. We can possibly beat Port as well, but wouldn't be nearly as fun. We're no chance of beating Sydney, which remains the most likely option (as I can't see Sydney passing Port on percentage and I can't see Richmond losing to St Kilda).

Adelaide may well have nothing to play for come the twilight game next week. If Geelong beats GWS they can't be displaced from 1st. If GWS beats Geelong then they'll be 2nd. However, if Richmond beats St Kilda then they'll be destined to host Richmond in their first final, which I'd have thought they'd like. A win would put them back in 1st and facing Geelong. Alternatively, if Richmond lose to St Kilda, then that opens the door for either Port or Sydney to finish 4th (with Geelong 3rd). If it's Sydney, you'd think they'd prefer Geelong. If it's Port though, I'm sure they'd prefer 1st. This all means nothing if we beat Collingwood, but if we do lose then this could all become interesting.

In: Salem, Watts/Frost (depending on match ups vs Collingwood) Out: Wagner, Stretch Finding a third out is a bit harder if Viney is fit but Hannan, Vince, Harmes and ANB would have to be the ones in question. But I doubt Viney is fit. He was creamed by Martin in the first half but improved markedly in the second half. Came out with aggression in the third which helped us. He was also utterly dominant against the likely AA ruckman (Ryder) against Port before rolling his ankle.

He had confidence in leading up at the ball carrier, he had confidence when it hit the ground, and he had confidence in his set shot routine (20 steps every time). A reminder to the competition what he is capable of.

We just need to make finals, that is crucial. We had the chance to make it so much easier for ourselves when the lead hit 32 points but we took the foot off the gas completely. Dinky kicks inside 50 (e.g. Hogan), turnovers across half back (e.g. Jetta) and we stopped working as hard as we did for the first 10 minutes of the quarter. We played terribly for most of the game but we still won. Last year we lost this exact sort of game. Earlier in the year we lost these sorts of games. So it's good that we held on late. But I can't shake the disappointment of knowing that we had the chance to push our percentage up by a point or two and we let it slip. Hogan and Pedersen worked brilliantly well together today. Garlett looks like he's building a bit of form. Jones was immense, Lewis was great again. They tagged Oliver (Mathieson) and Hunt (Rockliff) and it worked, both were quiet. I thought Melksham was excellent again, and Hibberd put another case forward for AA. Stretch and Wagner were appalling and I'd drop both for Salem and either Watts or Frost (depending on match ups against Collingwood).

I think we're giving Fremantle too much credit. I don't think they're anywhere near good enough to control the outcome of that game.

Good post. I think there is more to it than his stats alone. But just on these, the timing of his worst games (Richmond, Hawthorn, Carlton 2, Adelaide) becomes quite marked. He was also building into really solid form before the collarbone. His game against Port was really important and he set up our first half lead with the football he excels at. I hope he's able to recapture that today.

This just reeks to me of ridiculous anti-Watts bias. He gets pilloried for not getting airborne or crashing into packs. So he does exactly that and you crack into him for a "lack of willingness to go for the mark". He genuinely cannot win in the eyes of too many MFC supporters.