Ollie fan

My favourite Robbie moment, which I was lucky enough to see live but is available on many of the YouTube videos, was this. Problem: you are running towards the goals with the ball some distance in front of you. Coming towards you is an opposition player (Collingwood) and the ball is right in the middle of the two of you. Run at it and you will certainly be tackled. What do you do? Robbie's answer: run very slightly to the side of the ball, grab it, blind turn and run into goal, leaving the opposition prayer stranded. It was incredible.

Agree with everything so far. I add this. I watched him play many times and still couldn't say for sure whether he was a natural right footer or a natural left footer..

Chaplin was an excellent defence coach and I would love for us to hang on to him. Selwyn is a bit underrated IMO - his record in avoiding injuries is outstanding. If we could get Burgo back, great, but otherwise I would stick with him. Don't know about Chunk. I was NOT impressed at first but the Jeff White analysis of our midfield work in a game (can't remember which) made me rethink a bit. The big question is: who will be the forward coach? Hawkins maybe?

Yes. Watson

Parkin and Walls

Terrific article from a terrific site.

I'm with the general sentiment. All the pushing and shoving is c..p. And the second free that Rayner got should have been paid against the Geelong player for sheer stupidity, if nothing else - to come in straight after a free/goal for pushing, and push HARDER, right in front of the umpire: what an [censored]!! But generally ducking like Sellwood, flopping and the jumper punches - they are all a blot on the game . American football does not tolerate that for a second

Hate to say anything that might upset the Goody haters - well, I am not really sorry about it - but one thing the finals have shown us so far is that what wins flags and finals - duh - is contest, pressure and defence. Particularly pressure.

The keys to flags have always been the same: defence, defence and defence.

Didn't they do exactly the same thing a few years ago with Tom Hawkins? - who has also never captained a team?

The best thing for me is that Geelong don't play at taxpayer stadium. With brings them back to the field.

It was my clear understanding that TMac had an arrangement this year that he would only be selected if injuries required it: thus his" mystery " dropping. I assume that he will be on the same arrangement and I would not be surprised if Melky is on a similar one. They have heaps to give to the younger players and it is great that they will be able to continue to do so.

He always seemed like a good guy; he was VERY sad to leave the Dees, and I used to love watching him and Lingers on a run down the wing, exchanging handballs and moving the ball FAST.

Absolutely. Crows, Giants, Dockers - anyone but those three.

Sure is - and yes he is good but still heavily overrated. Frankly, I prefer his brother

My memory - and I stress this is memory only - is that in 1994 he wanted us to "share" the ball around which meant that we handled far too much. Result: a team that was absolutely star studded ended up in the lower reaches of the eight and ended up playing a prelim in Perth. In the first two finals, especially the first against flag favourites Carlton, we showed how good we really were. I game always thought that year was the one that got away. Then in the off season we Schwarz did his knee, and Garry Lyon did his back.

Could be anything. For all we know he might have been saying, "this is up to us"

......We would play Jeffo in every position in the ground and lose each week by 100 points.

This is a great idea. It guarantees us bottom 5 position in the ladder for at least the next 3 years. But you forgot to mention - as most posters have suggested - that we get rid of Tracc too.

He should take lessons from Ben Brown (no, I'm not joking). BBB was excellent at eg when tackled, throwing his arms right out so any fool umpire could see that he didn't have the ball, at throwing out his arms and demonstrating beyond a doubt that he was being blocked. I think it was on Demonblog, when we got BBB, that the writer said he had had a look at clips of BBB and noticed that he got a lot of frees. Well, he did and there is nothing wrong with it. Nick Daicos is another master of it. If the free is there, let the umpire see it beyond doubt.

My understanding is that that was almost exactly the conversation with TMac at the start of this season.

This devaluing of JV mystifies me. Yes, he is a poor kick. BUT - and it is a big but - he is a tackle monster; he keeps his opponents honest (euphemism for nervous) and is a true heart and souler. He never gives up. His endeavour is inspirational.

The AFL and the media love him but he had no real influence. I agree: de Goey was better and (unfortunately) Pendles was best.

As my username suggests, I would be very unhappy to see Clarry go. He has been working his way back into form and all the posters who say, let him go: I hope they are happy when they watch him next year in the top three of the AFLCA award. I just pray that it is with us. Lot of criticism of Tracc too. Oddly enough, McRae in his presser was pretty clear that he thought Tracc (and Gawn) played very well. He might know.

We tagged Nick Daicos into insignificance and, after quarter time, pretty much shut down his brother too. How many players can you tag? However, in my opinion putting May on Elliott and leaving him there was a big mistake. Just the completely wrong matchup. To my mind, May should have been on McStay, TMac on Mihocek, and Turner on Elliott. May has been criticised a lot after the game but he was just on the wrong opponent.