Watson11

It's not that uncommon. Tigers were favourites in 2019, Hawthorn favourites in 2013, Collingwood favourites in 2012, Geelong favourites in 2009. Pretty much anytime the favourite for the previous flag unexpectantly loses the GF (or prelim), the bookies tip them to bounce back. If the dogs had been clearly the best team in 2021 but we won in an upset, then they would start this year as favourites going by history.

Obviously didn’t follow us much in 2021. Far more likely to start 5-1 with a loss to Gold Coast.

I think rjays argument, which I agree with, is if you take a round 1 draftee, you expect them to become a good afl player, and if they don’t play at least some afl games in year 1 it’s an anomaly. None of your examples were first round. Expectations in year 1 for a KPF if they get picked won’t be high, but they should be good enough to push for selection and inevitably get an opportunity to give them a taste. If we have no injuries or illness to key forwards, then so be it, but if we do you would expect JVR to be demanding an opportunity. For JVRs profile, where I don’t see a freakish athletic attribute, expectations should be pretty low if he gets picked as it will take 3 or 4 years to develop the endurance and strength to be a good afl player and longer to be elite. More like a Josh Kennedy than a Buddy Franklin.

You must have been in a foul mood after the Hawthorn draw!

This was posted at 3Q time of the GF (not prelim), but I can definitely relate to that poster.

Ed Langdon 94% TOG for 15.30km per game (normalised to 16.27km for 100%) Jake Bowey 76% TOG for 13.33km per game (normalised to 17.53km for 100%)

You can add unbelievable endurance. In his 7 games, he averaged 13.33km per game, which allowing for his 76% game time is better than Ed Langdon and basically equivalent to Sam Walsh who led the league. He is a gun. In my opinion the thread title should be Hunt v Hibberd v Tomlinson

According to this 2019 article (Telstra Tracker) "North Melbourne’s Ben Brown was the player with the highest average distance covered per game across the entire season, moving 15.6km per game". In 2018 he was at 15km per game. I am not sure what brand he was playing at North or how it changed, but he was clearly getting up the ground and back a lot at North when he was playing well.

SUrely the easy ones were 2, Mudhsuden Singh Panesar (Nickname is Monty and Panesar - Apes and ran) 11, Butler although the double r's had me confused until I realised it is Buttler

It’s taken me a while to work up the courage demonstone, but I’m sure the sentence below needs a comma! 😬

Silly me. Not the grammar mistake, but to believe I could respond to one of your posts without ridicule :-)

Yes. If it had of been Hunter he would have ducked.

Great article that sums up the situation really well. https://themongrelpunt.com/afl-season-2022/2021/10/12/where-the-dees-get-even-better-in-2022/ Quote “In successful teams, there is always someone knocking on the door, and with Dunstan’s move from St Kilda to the premiers, he has made no bones about the fact that he wants to prove himself and make his way into this rotation. It puts the others on notice – step it up, or step out of the way.” ”Whilst a lot of the attention when talking about the Dees goes on the Petracca/Oliver combination, and rightfully so, however, the designated roles and the discipline to adhere to their allocated roles are an absolute strength of this Melbourne team that simply does not get the attention it deserves.”

You guys are all too hard on the cats. They are just super unlucky. WA had only 1 flu case in the entire 8 week period leading up to the prelim, and despite being in isolation they managed to pick it up and have it run through their entire team. You wouldn’t read about it. https://ww2.health.wa.gov.au/~/media/Corp/Documents/Health-for/Infectious-disease/Notifiable-diseases/2021/Week-38-statewide-notifiable-disease-report.pdf Or maybe they heard about the 1 case of leprosy in WA for that period and thought it was one of our players, as they didn’t seem keen to lay a finger on us.

Another one worth listening to is https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-q88es-e6b7e7 Burgo rates Brett Emerton (former socceroo) as one of the best athletes he has been involved with. From 3 mins. It is what prompted the discussion on ACL rehabs as Emerton returned to the premier league 6 months to the day after the injury.

The AFLCA must be a good indicator for the B&F considering Goody votes. Below is the number of games our players polled coaches votes in. Kozzie has not had much love in this thread, and TMAC polled in a relatively high percentage of games. Oliver (17) Tracc (15) Max (12) Salem (10) Lever (9) TMAC (9) May (5) Kozzie (5) LJ (4) Langdon (3) Viney (3)

Any chance any of the existing players request a number change? In his draft year Kozzie had a liking for low numbers (1 and 3) so maybe a request to number 2?

Thanks for your informed commentary. Re American Football, it's not just the positional stuff that makes it hard to compare, but also the player welfare (there is none). For those that haven't listened to Burgos podcast with Dave Reagan, it is really interesting, as when he worked in the NFL the compliance with all the high performance stuff is almost zero. Players refuse to do urine tests, surveys etc as they believe they could lose their job on the spot if they answer honestly. Fast returns from ACLs in the NFL may also be related to job security.

Burgo and Brukky argue that tackling in soccer is pretty hard on bones and joints (similar to why sliding into contests is cracked down on in AFL). But your point about AFL being worse is correct. From what I can see though, American Football is really bad for ACLs and worse than AFL. Their rates are through the roof. A recent article reviewing ACL data in AFL is here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8020809/ Taking too long to return is worse than returning early! "The timing of return to competition has also been examined to determine whether an early return is associated with an increased risk of reinjury.34 In this analysis, 233 AFL players who returned to play after autograft ACL reconstruction were grouped based on the time they returned to competition, at <10 months, 10–12 months or >12 months. Players who returned at 10–12 months had the lowest ACL injury risk per game. Players who returned before 10 months had the next highest risk but also played the greatest number of post-injury career games. Interestingly, players who returned after 12 months had the highest per game ACL injury risk and played the fewest post-injury career games. As such, there may be a “sweet spot” in time where both early and late return to play leads to suboptimal outcomes"

You and dazzle need to not fall asleep during the presidents speech at the the best and fairest night. The presidents speech puts everyone to sleep because most of it is thanking those who moved on. PJ from memory had a standing ovation. I assume Kate Roffey will continue the tradition and Shannon will get his due thankyou.

Well you are right about AFL having a higher ACL rate (2.4x that of soccer in the study I found) but interestingly that is in males at the elite level. For womens AFL and soccer it seems to be the same ridiculously high rate. But what’s the story with the 6 month rehab Burgo talks about in soccer? Don’t they have the same joint irritation issues?

On one of Burgo's podcasts he and Brukky talk about comebacks from ACLs. AFL is the only sport apparently with a 12 month rehab. Soccer and NFL are 6 months, and the rate of injury recurrence in soccer and NFL are the same as AFL. Burgo also pre-empted the argument that AFL is somehow harder on knees and he argues the opposite. If Tomlinson comes back in round 1 and does his knee everyone will blame Selwyn. If he comes back in round 8 and does it everyone will blame bad luck. The odds apparently are the same either way.

Viney looks like he has stacked on more muscle over preseason which I think is good. If Viney stays fit then I suspect they will be talking about Gawn, LJ, Tracc, Oliver and Viney for the next 50 years but it’s all in front of them. Viney at training Monday.

Harmes was better in playing his role as the 4th mid than Treloar was. Any dog who was in every centre clearance for the last 8 minutes of the 3rd qtr did not have a good game. Harmes was 4th for us in pressure acts (equal with Kossie).

If we have a good run with injuries it doesn’t matter who we play twice. The bigger issue with the draw is the number of short turnarounds which can lead to injuries, especially back to back 6 day breaks or 5 day breaks. Carlton, Freo, GWS, GC, and Hawks have draws with none of these. Every other team does. Richmond have a nasty 5 day break after playing us and then travelling to Perth. Comparatively our draw is ok.