Watson11

His defensive efforts were disappointing this year. It was either poor aerobic fitness due to his injury and time off his legs or it was his attitude. I suspect it started out as the former, and the club were hoping he could build game fitness by playing, and it ended up as the latter as there was no excuse for the insipid Collingwood performance. His upside will only be known if he has an uninterrupted preseason.

I agree. He has good skills but is a front runner usually found out in finals. I found some footage from R11 which is pretty typical. Leading up to the photo, Smith started right next to Tracc on the centre square when Oliver kicked long to a contest. Tracc got to the contest and kicked the goal. Look at Smith. Smith was more interested in a meaningless stat than defending. Even if Smith got it, our setup behind the ball would have held it up.

Port were just abysmal. Ken Hinkley decided Libba didn't need a tag and changed his mind when it got to 5 goals to zip. The contested possession differential in Q1 was the highest ever recorded for a qtr by champion data. How stupid was Hinkley to not try and combat that from the start. Good sides can reset. But Port panicked, and did the bees to the honeypot (ala MFC 2018), and left Treloar and Smith standing by themselves outside stoppages the rest of the night. I re-watched the first half of our round 11 game v dogs and think Bailey Smith will be advantage us. In R11, his lack of defence gifted us 3 first qtr goals, just because he was chasing an easy kick in our forward half rather than accounting for his direct opponent (Tracc - goal, Jordon - goal, and Oliver - assist). When Smith ran forward, someone from our zone picked him up (Hunt, Lever, Hibbard, or Jordon in midfield) and ensured he did not get off the leash. Right now, I can see Smiths inflated head from Melbourne, and I'm sure he is already wondering where he will hang the norm smith. I'm looking forward to our forward half stoppages when Smith is standing by himself hoping for an easy stat while leaving Tracc, Sparrow, or Oliver on their own.

Not a very exact science, but comparing the dogs and demons clearances minus frees for of 4 main mids. Dogs Ave 39.5 clearances, Ave FF 6.3 Net 33.2 Demons Ave 36.7 clearances Ave FF 3.6 Net 33.1 So take the umpires out of the equation and we are pretty even in other clearances. Also our last game against them is similar Dogs Clearances 47 FF 6 Net 41 Demons Clearances 44 FF 1 Net 43

That might happen in the GF but Schache played defence on Luke Jackson last time, even following him into the ruck. One area we have a big advantage is our forward mix, with BB, TMac, Jackson/Gawn, Fritta going to stretch their defence if it’s dry. I have a feeling TMac is going to have a big GF.

Just because they were sh!++!ng themselves before the game doesn’t mean they had a virus.

It looked like Salem picked him up. Salem was pretty much running around as he pleased (29 possessions) and Bowie would zone off onto Rohan when needed. It was an unbelievably good defence last night.

This edit to Wikipedia is hilarious.

Fritta, BB, LJ, Kozzie, TMac, Spargo, Petracca, ANB, Max, Langdon, and lately Clarry. Wouldn’t be surprised if Brayshaw, Salem or Rivers pop up for a goal. Hope that answers it for them!

Cats have had some shocking last quarters. Not just R23, but earlier in the season Brisbane and Hawks came from a long way back and both should have won. Sydney came from behind and won. In R4 against us they were in the game at 3Q time but we did it easy. GWS last week came from a long way back and got within 2 kicks, but after a shocking turnover/goal gws gave up. Their best fourth quarter was against port away where they took a small lead into the 4Q. But at the time they rolled the dice and did the hardest front-running I have seen all season. They had defenders rolling the dice and running into forward 50 for 50-50 stoppages on the wing. That can come off but usually doesn’t against good teams. That said, I can only see them in this game if they roll the dice on offence and it works so still a bit worried. But at the same time I would not be surprised if we hammer them.

That’s fair. But we seem to have got it right recently. In rounds 1-10 we dominated in lots of fourth qtrs and only lost 1 by 1 point, and another by 3 points. Rounds 11-21 we were 4w6l in fourth qtrs but none were blow outs. In the last 3 weeks we have dominated all of the fourth quarters. I’m thinking Burgo has got it 100% right after having the luxury of an 11-1 start. We went 2-3-1 through the middle part of the season but have now won 5 straight. It just feels that we are primed fitness wise and in that slump in the middle Burgo was preparing us for now.

This week's taking forever so to pass time I dug a bit into Geelong's non GMBH/Simonds record under Scott since 2011 and their finals record (below in brackets) in the same year. They really have probably been a 5th to 10th team most years away from GMBH stadium, so their finals record is not that surprising. Ironically this year and 2016 are the only years they have performed at top 4 level away from home (and barely top 4 level). 2011 13-2 (3-0) 2012 8-7 (0-1) 2013 11-5 (1-2) 2014 10-5 (0-2) 2015 6-6-1 (DNQ) 2016 10-4 (1-1) 2017 8-6-1 (1-2) 2018 5-9 (0-1) 2019 9-7 (1-2) 2020 12-6 (2-2) 2021 9-4 (1-1) 2016 they won a QF (by 2 points), but they got spanked in the prelim by Sydney who finished top (11 goals to 2 at half time). Let's do the same this week.

Yes. Hibbard picked up Gulden and Hayward when he rotated down there.

Exactly. I have far more admiration for Sydney who have played in 8 or 9 prelims over 20 years.

There was zero difference in the acts. It’s a flawed system, and corrupt. Green got 2 weeks from the MRO because they decided on the Saturday after the game when Dangerfield had gone to hospital. GWS appealed and reduced it to 1. Either way, I would prefer them to all play (and Tom Stewart to get a few needles and play) so they have no excuses.

Has anyone been on the phone to Josh Kelly asking him to checkin to hospital? Christian Salem’s a good mate. Surely he could get it done.

This. Last time Lever was picking up a small (Dalhaus and others) and had 22 possessions with 12 intercepts. Port copied it and Alliir destroyed them. Exactly the match up we will engineer.

Dangerfield went to hospital. So was Careless, High contact, high impact 3 weeks reduced to 2. Kelly unhurt. So Careless, high contact, low impact. $1000 fine. Not saying that is ok but it’s the system

Only the last half. GWS looked dreadful going forward. And their defence looked just as bad. The final margin flattered Geelong I thought, and checking the stats after the game i50s were equal. GWS missing their 3 most important forwards stood out, but their defence was just terrible. I can’t see Geelong having 28 scoring shots from 49 inside 50s against us anytime let alone a final (converting at almost 60% when our defence concedes low 30’s). And GWS scored from only 36% of their i50s, while we average mid 40s. Did I miss something important in the first half? I’ll also back Max, Dogga and our mids to get on top and for us to have more inside 50s. And for us to exploit the bigger ground and run them off their feet.

For all worried about the quick goals in the R23 game, Geelong were lucky with frees, missed frees to us, a few lucky bounces of the ball, and 1 or 2 legit good goals. 2 goals came from stoppage directly because we tried something new, which was to match numbers at the stoppage and not drop an extra back. 3 goals came directly from midfield free kicks that were questionable. A couple came from blatant missed free kicks and throws or interference to Max. It won’t happen again. Summary below. 15 left - stoppage on Geelong 50m. Geelong quick clearance to 1 on 1 and Cameron marked. If we had the extra back in front of Cameron we would have had easy intercept. 12.53 left - Lead up Harmes dumped ball to contest on wing. BB grabbed it, no prior, and ridden in back into turf. Free against but could have gone to BB (if he was a small annoying blond bulldog). Ball worked around centre to other wing where high kick straight to max, Geelong midget bumped him out of contest with no attempt to mark. Inexplicable no free paid and Hawkins got lucky soccer goal. 8 mins left - ANB pinged for HTB in middle with no prior when gang tackled and driven into turf. Lever and May out marked in long kick to boundary by Hawkins. 5.54 left. Stoppage on wing. Selwood blatant rugby pass. High ball to 3 on 3. No extra back. Hawkins crumbs out back 20m out and snap goal. Would not have happened if we had extra back (in front) with May behind Hawkins. 5.30 left. Centre bounce. Selwood wins academy award and takes dive. Free. Kicks from left edge of circle to Dangerfield at front edge. Maybe 8m. Dangerfield runs 3x further than Selwood kick to just outside 50 without bounce and kicks goal. 5.15 left. Centre bounce. Harmes got caught 1m in front of Dangerfield who escaped goal side. Lucky bounce to him. Petracca was 1m goal side for us so lucky bounce could easily have gone our way, but poor defence by Harmes. 4.30 left. Centre bounce. Dangerfield tackled well by Viney with Oliver and Harmes getting sucked towards it. Dangerfield blatant throw out to Selwood. Quick clearance. Rohan marked it. 1.11 left. Transitioned from deep defence with chip kicks all the way to 50m where long kick to goal line and we did not kill the ball. Cameron got goal line gift.

Brisbane have been the highest scoring team this year! The seasons stats of Lions v Dogs would be a worry for dogs supporters. Contested possessions - Brisbane +7 Inside 50s - Brisbane +3.5 Scoring shots - Brisbane +1.7 Tackles - Brisbane +7 Clearances - Brisbane +1.4

He had a poor game but he competed and was our second best forward for pressure acts (beside ANB). When things don’t fall your way all you can ask is to compete and apply pressure as that creates opportunities. His direct opponents had no impact.

I agree. In 2013 our club got leaders who started to try and change the culture, and at that stage Max and Jack were 22 year olds who both enjoyed the off field stuff. But Max knuckled down and is now a 5 time all Australian, with probably 3-5 years left playing such is his dedication. Jack had 4 years in that system and just didn’t demonstrate he has it in him.

Agree Cats. I think Lions will beat the dogs. Dogs have no ruck, and a really fragile defence. I think the rain helped cover up those 2 major flaws. If Lions halve clearances dogs are done. Daniher won’t be playing on Steven May this week, and Cameron is in great form.

Channel 7 footage shown just now is conclusive. New camera angle.