Swooper1987

Interesting vote spread. Obviously Gawn hit the two 5's, then Salem and Tracc went 4/2 and 3/3 one way or the other, Oliver got 4/0, Viney 2/1 and Pickett 1.

Decent people in my experience and one of the better supporter groups going around. They know what it's like to nearly lose their club, and had a wait longer than our current one for their 2016 flag. Small in number, big in voice. In 1987, when they would've been devastated after missing out on the five themselves, most were very happy for Robbie and the Demons. I remember a number of conversations after that game and on the train on the way home with Bulldog fans who really hoped we'd go deep into the finals. I've never had had any issues with them in the 34 years since.

This travel narrative around the dogs is wearing thin already. The fact is they finished 5th. That means that other than week 1 you are always going to be the "away" team. So in the first final they got the Bombers on neutral territory, then quite rightly as in any other year they got an away game at the Gabba and then an away game at Adelaide. Now they play at a neutral venue against Melbourne, who finished top and throughout the finals have had no home ground advantage either. The dogs in 2016 went Perth in round 23 and lost to Freo, flew back, had a bye as all finals teams did, went back to Perth for the elimination final against WC, flew back to Melbourne to play Hawthorn, then flew to Sydney to play GWS and then back to Melbourne for the GF against the Swans. The Sydney teams had it way harder this year. As to our chances, we comfortably beat them in round 11 on a nice dry deck. Our round 19 game was brought forward from round 20. It was terrible weather in the first quarter and despite multiple early chances we had some bad misses and finished 1.4 at QT to the dogs 3.2. You might recall Tim English kicking a goal out of his backside that he just sat up in the air and it got carried through the middle. A late rally saw us within 4 points midway through the last before Bontempelli, Ugle-Hagan and Hannan kicked three goals in three minutes to get up by 20 points. Our heaviest loss of the year, despite having the same number of scoring shots. The dogs kicked a crazy straight 13.7 in those conditions. We were 9.11. Macrae, Daniel, Smith and Bontempelli all caused us a lot of problems. Gawn had 56 hitouts but our mids were well beaten. That was our last loss for the season. Goodwin was quite positive post game believing that we had turned the corner after a bit of a flat patch. Notable changes will be Martin, Treloar and Dunkley in, with Josh Bruce the biggest out since that game (he kicked 2.1 that night). For us, Bowey has taken Hunt's place, and Sparrow in for Jordon. Our best is better than theirs and I expect that if we play at our best we will get the job done.

I loved Brayshaw's game last night. His work pushing back into defence was outstanding and he really has become the epitome of the complete team player. Having said that, Gawn delivered another outstanding performance in what has been a brilliant season, and Petracca was everything that Martin has been for the Tigers these past few seasons. 6. Gawn 5. Petracca 4. Viney 3. Brown 2. Brayshaw 1. Salem

Rohan is listed at 188 cm, Hibberd 186, Smith 191. Hibberd to Rohan looks a reasonable match, in the air at least. Rohan does most for pace.

2002 is worth a look if only to be reminded how good a player Travis Johnstone was in full flight.

Every side that remains is a good side but our players have nothing to worry about. They have proven over the course of the year that they can find a way to beat all comers. I think the extra tall in the Geelong forward line suits us. We have struggled most against ground ball in our defence and now Geelong will need to go aerially. It probably means that Smith stays and certainly means Max spends more time back but neither of those really diminish our chances of victory. Parfitt is a big loss for them. He's a very good player and has relatively good pace compared to their other mids. GWS were ripe for the picking and Geelong did what all good sides should do. However, they are running out of legs and have played only average footy for about 5 weeks now, other than the 15 minute burst against us. Hawkins has a corkie, we'll see how that comes up. They can be pretty problematic a week after.

Gawn second for best Captain. Petracca 4th for MVP. No Oliver or Wines in the top 5. Lost a lot of credibility tonight.

6. Oliver - dominant all night 5. Gawn - a sluggish start but was outstanding from quarter time. Such a massive presence. 4. Brayshaw - an outstanding game from one of the great team players. And very courageous. 3. Fritsch - 4 goals from 7 kicks is a great return from a very dangerous mid sized forward 2. Neal-Bullen - continuing his very solid form 1. Petracca - not quite at his best but still an excellent game. Bigger things still to come I suspect.

Sympathy votes from Scott for Stanley there if ever I've seen them. Given Stanley restricted his opponent to 25 touches, 39 hitouts, 6 marks, 7 clearances and the match winning goal, I'd hate to think what Scott was thinking Maxy was capable of without Stanley's stellar job!

Geez they are pretty average. I guess stats will say whatever you want them to.

And Buddy Franklin too. Garry Lyon was his hero.

We've been there before in 2018. Gawn won the coaches award and should've polled better than he did (20 votes), but Brayshaw got 21 and Oliver 13.

Interesting. Gawn also on 13 according to this. So Clarry 34, Petracca 25 and Gawn 13 is 72 votes between them. We won 17 games (hard to get the 3 in losing games, although Oliver should do it against Adelaide first time around) which is 51 total in 3's. It's not beyond the realms to be fair. I think Gawn is likely to be a little higher than 13 and both Petracca and Oliver marginally lower. But I still think Oliver wins (or at least ties).

Courtesy of the AFL.com.au writers. 6 Demons make the final team according to them.

Gawn and Naitanui will both be in the side, as they should be. Both are in the top echelon of players in the competition. Two rucks is now "normal" for AA sides. 2010 - Sandilands, Jamar; 2012 - Naitanui, Cox; 2018 - Gawn; Grundy; 2019 - Grundy, Gawn; 2020 - Naitanui, Gawn. Darcy has been named in the 40 as the "heir apparent".

In the history of the game lots of players have had statistically better years than others and not won major awards. The game is in the eye of the beholder. Umpires do the Brownlow, media do their awards, the AA selectors bring their own bias, as do the coaches (still can't believe Naitanui polled against us a couple of weeks back). You mentioned the Age and HS journalists where votes are often handed out by hack journalists who look at the stat sheets, yet you reference Oliver's stats. The reality is, Oliver, Wines, Walsh, Miller, Steele and Bontempelli have all been great this year and a case can be made for all of them. I'd love Clarry to clean up but I won't care one little bit if he's wearing a premiership medal at the end of it all. Anyway, we agree that Oliver is a star and has had a brilliant year.

Maybe so, but Wines has had an outstanding season. I think Wines is Oliver's biggest threat for the Brownlow.

Ollie Wines has taken out both the Age and Herald Sun player of the year award. Wines polled 145 votes in The Age, Oliver was equal second on 116, tied with Sam Walsh.

I find Montagna to be very balanced (and astute) in his analysis. He's definitely the brightest member of the First Crack team.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/four-points-the-most-captivating-final-round-of-the-afl-era-demon-hearts-beat-true-dockers-shocker-20210822-p58kwk.html Michael Gleeson sums it up perfectly here.

Huge effort by our ruck - forward combination in 2021. Jackson and Gawn have combined for 26 goals this season. That is some effort. Combined they've kicked 2 more than Petracca and only 4 less than McDonald. That's a very impressive effort to go at over a goal per game. Makes such a difference having that extra avenue. And Kozzy with 35 as a second year player is just a sensational performance.

I thought Scott's pressa started fine and was pretty fair. His commentary on dominating the game was largely about keeping his team's confidence up. Obviously the ruck is a major worry for them and Stanley has been pretty serviceable for the second half of the year, but to say he dominated Gawn until the last quarter was a massive stretch. Again that was to help Stanley's ego, but truth is he was absolutely smashed and Kane Cornes pointed out how pathetic his effort in the last play was. Occasionally you'll get some interesting insight out of these things, but at this stage of the year it's really all about keeping your team "up". Goody's pressas are the biggest non-event since the days of Yabby Jeans. Doesn't give away much at all.

Don't expect Clarry to poll against Adelaide but he's got at least 2 from last night. He probably deserves 3 but it depends how much emphasis the umps put on Gawn's last quarter, he'd be the only threat. Bont can't poll in the last couple of games and Wines definitely will.

If anyone doubted Gawn's ability as a leader that should be completely put to bed after his last quarter tonight. As great as Oliver was, Gawn was the momentum changer in the last. Jackson was a non event tonight and Gawn's last quarter was one of the great Captain's efforts. For those who followed footy in the 80's, that shot at goal after the siren might bring back memories of 1987 final round. Steve Kernahan had to do the same as Max to seal top spot for Carlton. He did, and it probably won them the flag. Let's hope history repeats.