titan_uranus

If we beat Brisbane on Friday we'll end the season with 16 wins, one fewer than last year. That will be despite: a brutal fixture - assuming the Dogs pass Carlton, of our five return matches four will have been finalists. Compare that to Brisbane, whose five return matches feature just one finalist (us). Or Geelong - the Dogs will be their only return game against a finalist, plus they've had North and West Coast twice each. And that's without touching on travel, six straight weeks of different venues, and repeated instances of having a shorter break than our opponent. the competition focusing on us and analysing our gameplan within an inch of its life. a comparatively worse run with injuries than 2021 (not saying we've had as bad a run as other sides, just that it's been worse this year than it was last year).

For 11 weeks Collingwood was applauded for their skill in winning close games, including here on Demonland, and including in response to our loss last week. We win a close one and we "lucked in" because an opposition player made a mistake. FFS.

It seems I view this game and its result differently to many on Demonland. Which doesn't necessarily surprise me given the way Demonland has reacted to our 2022 season. We won an extremely close game in front of a loud, rabid crowd in a finals-like atmosphere. When was the last time we did that? We beat Geelong in Round 23 last year but there was no crowd. This year we lost to Collingwood and the Dogs, last year we lost to Adelaide. So perhaps the GWS win in the second-last game of 2020? Otherwise maybe we're going back to the 2018 finals. Maybe I'm wrong, but I reckon a game like that, with that result, will spark something in our players. A reminder of the thrill of playing these big games, when they don't end in disappointment like they did the previous week. Maybe they'll spark a change in ball movement, or a change in how we defend, but at the least a change in belief. It's true that Carlton's midfield was weakened, but as we all cry out for when we're down in numbers, they brought elite effort which doesn't depend on talent. Like almost every game we've played this year, our opponent has lifted when playing us. It's true that we still didn't really maximise our inside 50 chances, but one area we did improve on significantly was forward half pressure. 8 tackles inside 50 last week to 20 this week; Fritsch laying 5 of his own. I still think too many are expecting us to be blowing everyone, even top 8 sides, out of the water. We weren't doing that last year and we shouldn't be expecting it this year. I rate this win, and I rate our chances to knock Brisbane off again this Friday and confirm our top 4 spot.

Here's another fixturing quirk. We haven't played Carlton since Round 9 last year. Since we last played Carlton, we've played the Bulldogs 5 times.

St Kilda stink, but one thing to bear in mind is that Brisbane are on a 5-day break going into tomorrow night's game after playing in 20+ degree conditions in Brisbane. St Kilda have the extra day off. It shouldn't matter, as Brisbane have no business losing to St Kilda at this point of the season, but if you want an upset, there's at least something to work with here. Not only this, but Carlton this week was the first top 8 side they'd beaten since Round 7, and only the third top 8 side they've beaten all year (Collingwood in Round 5 and Sydney Round 7 the other two). Lost to Geelong, Fremantle, us and Richmond. Their double up games this season are us, St Kilda, GC, GWS and Essendon. That has to be up there with the softest set of double up games for any side this year.

Joel Smith has been Demonland’s answer to almost every question since 2018. I agree with you. Maybe if he trains as a forward over the pre-season it’s an option for 2023, although he finally showed strong defensive form at the start of this year so I feel like that would just be wasting his development as a defender. But not after he spent all year injured and then played 1-2 games for Casey as a forward.

Funny, I feel like people underrate our 2021 by arguing it was a fluke or came off the back of 2-4 incredible performances. Our entire 2021 season was phenomenal. If anything, people forget how good we were pre-bye because they focus on the finals.

Can’t see how this works because of the contract. Which is Collingwood’s problem, not ours. As a concept, I don’t know if a Gawn-Grundy pairing on field would work but I see how it could in theory. But I’m not close to interested if we’re paying stacks of that contract.

Common thought says that if we lose a game in the run home we'll slip out of the top 4. If that happens, it will be the first time we've been out of the top 4 since 2020. Which would really stink, wouldn't it - we may sit inside the top 4 for 45 out of 46 weeks but only end up with one top 4 finish across these two seasons. Indeed, this week we're 3rd, which is the first time we've been out of the top 2 since Round 2, and only the fourth time since Round 3 last year.

It is a skill. But Collingwood isn't so good as it as to be repeating 15.6 all the time. Think of it this way. Against us, they were +9 goals compared to behinds. They average 12.11, so they average +1. Think of it another way. Their score of 96 points was their highest since Round 7. But in the games since Round 7, they've had more scoring shots than the 21 they had against us 8 times (and a further 2 times they had the same number of shots). 15.6 is an outlier that can't be explained by them being amazingly good set shots, because they don't do it every week.

This is the correct call. He has time to assess what he's doing and then does it crudely. it's not as egregious as an off the ball bump or an intentional strike, which is why 2 weeks feels totally fine. But it's the right call.

Of course Cripps should get weeks. But Cotchin should have been suspended for his sling tackle on Saturday night. Got nothing. Be prepared for the MRO to say it wasn't a reportable offence. (PS: I don't like the way we generally, whether overtly or not, whether subconsciously or not, hope that our opponents' best players may miss due to injury/suspension. Whether or not Cripps plays this week, we need to assume Carlton bring their best, which is capable of beating us).

I really, really dislike Howe. He's stuck the boot in more than once since leaving us.

There isn't one. I'm certainly not suggesting our fixture = our losses. I'm merely pointing out that over the last few months, we've had a difficult part of our fixture whereas Collingwood hasn't. I've addressed the sold home game earlier - three other clubs sell home games and none of them were given five consecutive games away from the MCG. That's an outlier which hurts us and comes in a year we're reigning premier to boot.

Just because you've given up doesn't mean the rest of us have.

If you want us to finish top 4, you want the Dogs to win. A Dogs win means we just need to beat Carlton to finish above Fremantle. If you're worried about us slipping out of the top 4 and meeting the Dogs in a final, you want Fremantle to win. Makes the Dogs' path to September very hard.

I posted about our fixture earlier. Looking at fixtures further, Collingwood's first of their 11 wins was against Fremantle in Perth in Round 10. Since then, they have played 8 of their other 10 games at the MCG, they've only had two games against top 8 sides (us twice) and they've played five games against the bottom 6. In the same period we've played 5 games at the G (including none for five straight weeks) have played 7 games against top 8 sides (will be 8 if the Dogs end up making it) and just one game against the bottom 6.

There is merit to this. It's very cop-out-y, but how many sides have turned it on for their game against us despite being out of form? Fremantle had lost two straight before beating us. Sydney beat us in the middle of a streak of 4-5. If they lose tonight, the Dogs will have beaten us in a stretch of 2-4, with the only other win a horribly out of form St Kilda. Adelaide fired right up against us, as did North, as did Hawthorn earlier in the year.

Correction to this post - only two of the these things have to happen for us to hold onto top 4 by beating Carlton but losing to Brisbane. In other words, we need two of these sides to win less than 15 games, or get to 15 wins but trail us on percentage. Fremantle currently leading the Dogs by 4 goals is close to ruling the Fremantle option out - they only have to lose one game but will they lose to either of those two bottom 4 sides? However, puts a huge dent in the Dogs making finals. If we finish 5th and the Dogs miss out, we might get Carlton or even St Kilda in 8th instead.

For someone whose heart supposedly beats true for the red and the blue, he sure does love to pot us when he gets the chance.

I'm not sure about this. Isn't Optus Stadium a very similar field size to the MCG? IMO our best football has always been with two tall forwards, but that's usually been when TMac is one of them, as he is able to push up the ground, work his defender over, and create separation for our other tall forward. I'm not sure moving Petty forward is the right call. He won't have trained with the forwards all year. It's far too much to ask someone who last played as a leading forward three years ago, to be thrown into the forward line with the pressure of finals coming up. Particularly when, last night aside, he has been incredibly important alongside May and Lever to our defensive structure, and has performed at a much higher level than Tomlinson. Perhaps if we don't get it done this year (or even if we do), we can train Petty as a forward over the pre-season, with cover for his defensive post available in Tomlinson, Turner and Smith (although we've just flipped Smith back to a forward, which IMO is the wrong call).

Sure, he has issues, but however pressure acts are calculated, he's getting more of them than the other smalls. ANB 22, Pickett 18, Melksham 10, Spargo 9, Sparrow 9. We need pressure at ground level in our forward half. The best way to measure pressure is pressure acts. ANB is doing this more than our other smalls. The question for the FD is whether we're better served by replacing him with someone who may provide less pressure, but better offensive drive. I understand the argument, but we've backed in his pressure for years now, and we won't win the flag without forward half pressure. This has to be up there for worst take of the year, doesn't it? Being undefeated at VFL is now the wrong strategy? It's OK to be disappointed in the side, but some of what you post is just utter nonsense.

Get this. We have played 20 matches this year. We have built a 20+ point lead in 19 of them (Geelong the only one we didn't). With that sort of platform, 2021 Melbourne would be 19-1 right now. I maintain that 2022 Melbourne's best football is good enough to win the flag, but 2022 Melbourne doesn't produce it long enough within games.

Not true. We sell one home game. But the AFL sandwiched it between four straight away games, not a single one of which was at the MCG. Hawthorn sell four home games. The most consecutive games away from the MCG they've had this year is four, but the bye was in the middle of that run, and two of those games were at Marvel. North sell four home games. The most consecutive games away from Marvel they've had this year is three. St Kilda sell one home game, like us. The most consecutive games away from Marvel they've had this year is three. Bear in mind, too, that we won the [censored] flag last year, whilst these three sides won a combined 21 games. Yet we're the ones who cop an unheard of run of away games, at a pivotal time of year, and including a five-day break, and then back-to-back six-day breaks. Our Brisbane-Collingwood fixture run was incredibly difficult. I am not at all suggesting "she'll be right, it was just the fixture", but it has to be acknowledged.

No, but we are likely to have more inside 50s. We average 8.5 more than our opponent across the year. It's precisely how we want to play, and because we're still a good side despite the losses, more often than not that is what happens. Collingwood meanwhile average 12.11 this year. So they're less likely to go 15.6 the next time than we are to double their inside 50s.