Swooper1987

You'd hope that next season the mathematical genius who develops the AFL Fixture might let each team play each other once before any repeat games are scheduled. That way, if the season needs to be shortened it can be done fairly. I've never understood why we play some sides twice before we complete a match against all sides.

From what Damian Barrett said this morning it's likely we are. Perhaps Gus was aware of that last night. Looking at the GC v Brisbane game scheduled for Round 20 being flipped to next week which would mean we get the doggies.

Residual effects from his concussion perhaps. I agree, he's struggling at the moment.

Disagree on Gawn. He tried very hard. That chase in the third was immense. My Hawthorn supporting mates said they win by 4 goals if Gawn wasn't playing.

It's not a disaster in the context of the season but the signs aren't good really since the Collingwood game. We've gone loss, bye, narrow win, loss, solid win v PA then draw where we probably deserved to lose. I was really disappointed when a few blokes stopped and watched Gawn chase whoever it was in the third running into the punt road goals. Gawny was stuffed but the bloke eventually fumbled and there was nobody to assist. They eventually got a goal out of that forward thrust. Shameful that the biggest and hardest working player in the team was the one doing the chasing while the Hollywood mids and others stopped to watch. It's very disappointing but hopefully they get to play next week and redeem themselves. And Sparrow should've played ahead of Vandenberg. I can only think they were expecting conditions to be worse than they were.

Agree. Only chance of a Kardinia Park final is if Geelong play a non-Vic team as the top ranked side. They won't send another Victorian team down there. Even crowd capacity is only 50-75%.

Coaches got it right. They were the 7 most influential players on the ground. I did like Petty's game too.

It's a decent side they've put together.

True, but the other thing that's been a little different with our losses is we could've actually won all of them. We were in them all right up until the last seconds. Even at our worst we are still competitive.

True but there are a couple of decent games in round 20 that would be Friday night worthy - Essendon v Sydney; Giants v Port both have big ramifications for the 8 (at this stage anyway!). I think we would've agreed to the game in Darwin with conditions.

Other than not being a great spectacle it shouldn't bother us too much. Most of our list know the conditions pretty well, we've had some good wins up there in the past and if anything we would have more of home ground advantage than GC. It's very unlikely we'll be asked to play on the Friday night following against the Dogs. More likely a 7 day break I'd expect.

It does seem a massive over correction by the AFL. I presume Andrew has been a part of the NGA for a few years. We would have invested some time into him, and then the rules change for this season. Seems to defeat the purpose of having clubs invest in the whole academy system. A better rule might have been that clubs get one free hit on the NGA every three seasons. That way the investment becomes substantially more worthwhile but means you can't just harvest the academy zone each year. Anyway, good luck to the young fella. The more representative the AFL is of Australian society the better.

Leppa is outstanding. A great footy brain. A shame he'll be back on a coaching panel soon

No change for now but at some point in the next few weeks Melksham will be back. He's not a Demonland favourite but he can deliver a great ball inside 50 better than just about anyone else in the side. That'll be important in September. ANB won't be getting dropped either.

Gawn should be Captain. He's an outstanding leader. His post game interview on Fox Footy was a gem. The way he spoke about Kozzy Pickett - the players in that team must love running out with big Maxy every week. And what he does on the field week in week out is extraordinary. Lever, Oliver, Petracca and May are all walk ups. Salem had a few off weeks post injury but he's back now. Probably he makes it too. That'll be it I'd say. 6 is a pretty good result.

6. Tracc 5. McDonald 4. Oliver 3. Gawn 2. Pickett 1. Petty Consummate team effort.

He would've sat on that footy instead of letting it out indiscriminately. Viney doesn't have great skill but he has pretty reasonable game awareness.

Great observation. Oliver and Petracca are great players but you do need to question their footy IQ at times. It isn't a mistake Viney would've made.

Daw is a very ordinary footballer. He is not a ruckman, not a key forward and not a key defender. He won't be on the list next season and if we have to play him this season then all is lost.

Taking Melbourne and its formline out of the equation, top spot is overrated in terms of winning the flag. The compromised fixture has enabled some interesting minor premiers over the last few years. The fact that of Richmond's three flags, none were won from top spot;the mighty Brisbane Lions team won three in a row never finishing better than second, the Hawks in 2015 were third going into finals etc etc. What is important is top 4. If we finish 4th and play the Bulldogs at the G - no harm done. If we finish third and get Brisbane away, it becomes somewhat harder, but still not impossible. From outside the top 4 it gets very difficult. 4 wins in a row against excellent sides. There's a reason why only the one team has managed to do it, and they were incredibly lucky. I think 16 wins will get top 4 - we need 4 out of 7. Those behind us need 5 out of 7.

Wouldn'tbe surprised to see three ins with the short turnaround. Likely to see Brown and Melksham, with Vanders a chance.

Definitely not pretenders. This is a tough competition. On any day any side can beat anyone else. We are one of about half a dozen really capable teams - Geelong, Bulldogs, Brisbane, Port and the Swans are in that group with us. Then you have Richmond, WCE and GWS who on their day are also very capable but not as reliable as the top 6. This season could well be like 2016. The dogs won 15 games, finished 7th after a bit of a lull in the back end of the year but put it together for finals. I think our game stacks up and the results prove it. We have lost three games by a combined total of 27 points. That's an average of 9 points per game losing margin. We could easily be 15-0. As long as we win 4 more, we'll be top 4 and a real chance. Interstate travel doesn't bother us. We are still right in this.

Yep, would agree with that, although Weid has hit the scoreboard tonight. I think they (Macca and Weid) are both lead up half forwards.

You are possibly, no probably ,right about our delivery. The truth is that won't change in the next two months, which makes Brown redundant. He can't really offer anything than a straight hard lead, which the mids will invariably miss. Perhaps he brings the odd ball to ground but I'd prefer Weidemann to have more impact given the way our side move the ball. I know it sounds counter intuitive based on Weid's recent output.

Just got home - lasted the first half. It's bloody freezing at Casey Fields. On the first half Brown is no chance. Didn't get near it. Weidemann was solid - took some nice grabs. Vandenberg playing well but he's more of the same really. I think Weid offers us more versatility. Brown does nothing when he doesn't have the ball and gets it so rarely that his impact with it is negligible.