titan_uranus

Will be interested to see the crowds for today’s two games: Carl v Port and Ess v Freo. I expect both to be bigger than ours despite today being Easter Sunday.

On the umpiring: it was atrocious but not all one sided. We got a holding the ball when Hunt didn’t tackle the opponent, another one when De Boer clearly got a boot to it, and a tripping free to Bowey when he appeared to trip over his own feet.

Brown makes us better than either Weid or TMac and so comes in for one of them. I’d keep TMac after tonight. But it’s not an easy decision between the two. Keep a watch out on two others though: Lever looked proppy after the game, boots off and limping. No ice from what I could see. And ANB was also limping, and I think maybe had an injury issue this week?

6 - May 5 - Gawn 4 - Petracca 3 - Spargo 2 - Pickett 1 - Oliver

On the crowd: yep, barely 20k sucks. But it is Easter, which doesn’t help. I also reckon that our supporters just generally aren’t used to night games. We’ve barely had them in the last 20 years. For some, I suspect the routine of football feels better in the day but doesn’t suit at night.

Clearly our best game for the year. Not only the best footy we’ve played but what impressed me was that, and this will go under the radar given the margin, GWS actually played some strong football tonight. Their clearance work was dominant early and they forced us to play far too much in our defensive half. So to then turn it on and belt them by 11 goals was sublime. And puts some egg on the face of those who have said “but they don’t score enough”. Really loved seeing some of the season’s lesser lights stand up: Pickett, Spargo and Sparrow all did really well. Sparrow’s tap in the 4th was a highlight but it was the gut running from half back to make it there in the first place that saw the entire side get around him after the goal. May was phenomenal tonight. Lever played the second half on one leg (fingers crossed it was nothing too serious but he didn’t look great after the match) but May kept everything at bay. Petty showed us why the FD knew what they were doing in bringing him straight back. And the work of Gawn, Oliver, Trac, Harmes and Viney to wrestle back stoppage momentum was huge. I’m sure some will point out our wins have been against sides all currently sitting outside the 8, but we’ve now beaten 4 of last year’s finalists, and dealt with two road trips to boot. Time will tell whether these sides end up being finalists in 2022 but for now we can hardly ask for anything more.

We're getting ever closer now to being the first ever side to re-field a flag-winning team in a subsequent game. Down to just Salem, Brown and Hibberd, with their replacements being Hunt, Weideman and whoever this week's sub is (let's say Bedford). Salem's a clear walk-up best 22. Brown IMO deserves to come straight back for the lesser of Weid/TMac. Which leaves Hibberd fighting with Hunt (and Smith...and Tomlinson) for that last spot. I don't know if we'll ever get the premiership 23 back on the park, and it may well be the case that Hibberd never gets himself back into best 23 contention, but damn I'd love it to happen just for the record and memory.

Tomlinson did nothing wrong but Petty is, rightly, in front of him in the pecking order. Smith was unlucky to lose his spot but now that he has, he's on the outer. With Lever back, we have enough height down there that his versatility isn't as important as it was when both Lever and Petty were missing.

100% the correct decision on Ryder.

I don't mind Saturday 4.35pm games to attend. They're awful for TV/radio though, they get lost between the 1.45pm and 2.10pm games and then the night games. Reality is the North game isn't interesting to anyone and whilst Fremantle might be 3rd, does anyone expect them to still be there by Round 11? We should see more primetime games in the next block though: Round 12 vs Sydney at the G Round 13 Queen's Birthday Round 15 vs Brisbane at the G Round 17 vs Geelong at GMHBA

Time for more people to focus on the latter, not the former. There isn't an AFL conspiracy to give the Dogs more free kicks. It's far more likely they are better tacklers and better and releasing the ball without being caught in the tackle, and/or better at spoiling opponents without chopping arms or getting them high.

This is correct. To remove all doubt, the position should go further and be that if you elect to bump and you make any contact to the head, you will be suspended for at least one week. That is, you will get one week for no injury. If there is a minor injury, it's two weeks, and the more severe the injury the more weeks you get.

I meant that they are one of only two teams who are on a winning streak against us, because unlike Adelaide and the Dogs last year we didn't get a chance to beat them after they beat us.

In Round 9 we've got West Coast in Perth in the Sunday twilight slot. I'd be pretty happy for Round 10 to be a Sunday game. Round 11 I could easily see our home game vs Fremantle being Saturday twilight - suits the WA audience but isn't prime time. Collingwood v Carlton and Sydney v Richmond will be getting the prime time slots you'd think. Round 12 we play Sydney at the G. Only Bulldogs v Geelong is a contender for prime time that round, on current form. So we could see back-to-back six-day breaks again, if we go Sunday v North into Saturday v Fremantle into Friday v Sydney. But then would have a 10-day break into Queen's Birthday.

GWS is one of two teams in the comp who currently have a winning record against us. We al thought we'd beat them last year, and we didn't. Surely we haven't forgotten that game.

Anyway, I suppose the only selection question now is whether Smith gets back in and, if so, who makes way. Smith didn't deserve to lose his spot but I'm not convinced he deserves to push Tomlinson or Hunt out of the 23.

Maybe we're giving him too much benefit of the doubt but I'd suspect it's an indication of how frustrated he was with what Williamstown were doing to him off the ball. Gaff's a fair player too but Fremantle got to him that day and he lashed out.

I’m with @DeeSpencer on this. Brown has to cop the suspension because he elbowed the bloke in the head, but let’s not rush to shame him because it looks like he was clumsy but didn’t intend to get him in the head, and the bloke was illegally blocking him a mile off the ball. I’d challenge the intentional grading if there wasn’t the option of a guilty plea reducing it by a week. Take the week, accept the error, remember not to throw elbows around, but be mindful of the context. He comes back for ANZAC Eve.

Don't get me wrong, I think we're the best side in it and I think our first four games have been fantastic given the opponents, the fixture, the back-to-back six day breaks and the missing players we've had. I'm incredibly pleased with where we sit and IMO we're playing football that is better than anyone else so far (our percentage exceeds everyone except Brisbane, who belted North by 100 points. We're nearly 10% clear of the rest of the competition). I just don't believe we're so far in front of Brisbane, Geelong or Sydney that it's a lay down misere, and even if we are that far in front, it doesn't guarantee anything.

I'm to say they won't go 4-2 against Brisbane, Geelong and Sydney. (Feel free to bump this post at the end of the year if they do)

The same Fremantle who struggled to put away a likely bottom 4 side in Adelaide? They trailed Richmond by more than 4 goals halfway through the third quarter, but then played 1.5 good quarters and won. Similar to the Fremantle game, where they trailed for the first 2.5 quarters but then playing 1.5 good quarters to win. Looks like they'll keep it up vs Hawthorn but still, I need to see more. Also just took a look at their fixture, and it's brutal. They have two games still to come against each of Brisbane, Geelong and Sydney, as well as still having to play us, Carlton and the Dogs, they have six more interstate games (one of which is their own home game in Cairns) and one of those two Geelong matches is in Geelong,

I'll believe it when I see it. They're all over Hawthorn but so was Carlton last week and Hawthorn fought back. Even assuming that doesn't happen, I maintain that Hawthorn's not a good side. It's clear now that beating Port Adelaide in Adelaide isn't what we thought it might have been. Their other win was vs North. I suspect Hawthorn is far more likely to be like Adelaide from 2021 than, say, us from 2021. Adelaide last year got off to a flyer, were 3-1, had beaten Geelong...then finished bottom 4. (FWIW, Collingwood may fall into the same sort of bracket - I'm not sure they're fit or good enough to keep playing the way McRae's had them playing so far this year). St Kilda look like they may be a solid side from the mid third of the ladder but I'm more than happy to reserve judgment until the end of the year to see if they produce consistent football.

We're going to lose at some point this year. IMO, we'll drop one of the next four (GWS, Richmond, Hawthorn, St Kilda), despite them all being at the MCG. We've been up for a while, we're still unsettled personnel-wise in defence, and Petracca's learning to play through hard tags. When we do lose, I suspect many of those who have said in this thread that there's daylight between us and the rest of the competition are going to regret saying that. Besides which, there are plenty of examples in history of dominant H&A sides not winning it. St Kilda went 19-0 in 2019, finished 20-2, and didn't win it. Richmond was 19-3 in 2018 and didn't win it. Adelaide was the best H&A side in 2017 and didn't win it. Port was on top of the ladder literally every week in 2020 and didn't win it.

I think this is as good an argument as any as to why Brown comes straight back in despite a stats line that wasn't amazing. Has Weideman ever played a poor first half but then found form within a game, turned it around, and ended up contributing? I can't recall that ever happening.

Dogs look in real trouble. 1.2 million disposals between their star midfielders, won clearances, contested possessions and inside 50s (and of course the free kick count), but lost by 6 goals. They can't win when their midfield is beaten, now they can't win even when their midfield is on top. Having said all that, they've had the hardest fixture to date by far (us, Carlton, Sydney and Richmond - a combined record of 12-3 with Carlton's game tomorrow to come).