Ollie fan

AFL website says Hawkins and Dangerfield, no case to answer. Predictable, really. It was an act of foolish optimism to have posed the question in the first place…(with apologies to Monty Python)

They might say 4 to 5 weeks for Hunt, but I can’t see it. He has had surgery, so he now has recovery, rehab, and then has to get back into football mode. I love watching him play, but I don’t expect to see that happen this year. And TMAC looked very proppy in the rooms after the game Hibbo lost form a bit but has the score on the board for the job he did on Dusty and on Toby Greene, and even (for most of the game) on Stringer. He would be the right man for Cameron and for the medium size quality forwards that every finals team has. I would expect that at this stage, there is no trying of new players; they will be anxious to settle our finals team. I would see Hibbo for Hunt and Weed for TMac; sparrow to lose his place, and probably Jordon goes out for Viney when he returns.

And he is so much fun to watch!!

It’s rare that you have two such completely different opinions in these coaches’ votes. Jackson, Oliver, Brown and Neal-Bullen each only rated by one coach. It is assumed by someone that Naitanui was rated by Simpson; who knows if that is correct?

I won’t be popular for saying it, but I never thought Jones was that good – he was just in a very poor team. I don’t think he chases nearly hard enough, and that is such a major part of our game. I have always liked VDB but he wasn’t great last night, but given the amount of football he has missed in the last year or so, he was always going to be very rusty. I say, give him another chance because his capacity to stick a tackle and hurt with it is enormously helpful to us.

Best game Harmes has played

Tanking! The worst thing a team can ever do. It makes me shiver to remember it, although I tried to fool myself at the time that we weren’t doing it. Destroy a team’s morale and for what? Tom Scully?

There is every reason to think we will go 3-0 from here. Each of these games is winnable. We are not trying to make the finals; we are trying to win finals and particularly, the grand final. If we are good enough to do that, we are easily good enough to win the next three.

“Go long to our forwards”? Does that mean, bomb it in to a pack?

It is only two or three years ago that we came within a whisker of beating them, beaten by a mark which was paid and a goal after the siren, when there was a clear blocking free kick to Oscar McDonald not paid. I think we should have no fear of Geelong. May is good enough to beat Hawkins and owes him one. Hibbo is good enough to beat Jeremy Cameron. And our mids are better than theirs.

Completely agree

On the club website in the story about yesterday there is a photo with Majak in it. He is not a named emergency - does anyone have any idea why he was on the plane?

The worst thing about the weekend is that West Coast might be ashamed of themselves and bounce back

Good reason for as many as possible to show support at Geelong

It may be one of the worst club decisions in the history of the game, but it still pales into insignificance besides sacking a coach who had been in four premierships as a player, six premierships as coach, and has an inferior side at the top of the ladder, on the basis that you don’t like his attitude to the committee……..

On the main topic of this thread, I have said in other threads, I really believe that the drop in form of Christian Salem has been a massive issue. I don’t blame him at all, it is clear that he is carrying an injury, but I believe that he was setting up chains of movement of the ball which gave us good scoring opportunities. Now, he doesn’t seem to do that very much at all and so the ball comes out from our defence in a much more slow and undirected manner and, indeed, the other side are much more able to lock it in to our defence. Similarly with this, Langdon's form has also dropped off, although I couldn’t guess of the reason for that. it seems to me that Hunt has been tasked with taking over this role and that is one reason why he is making those runs out of defence more often than previously. I love those runs, but unfortunately he is not a particularly good disposer. I don’t know what the solution is. Perhaps either or both of them need a week off to get their bodies better.

Thanks heaps for this. It’s very interesting and detailed, and backs up completely what I thought just from observation. I believe Salem started mini mini chains of quick movement which were the key to our scoring in the first part of the season, and we have completely gone missing. I don’t blame him at all. He is carrying an injury and if possible, that needs to be addressed. Of course, it might be an injury that requires surgery in which case perhaps we have to find another attacking defender to rely upon? Thanks heaps for this. It’s very interesting and detailed, and justifies completely what I thought just from observation. I believe Salem started many many chains of quick movement which were the key to our scoring in the first part of the season, and which have completely gone missing. I don’t blame him at all. He is carrying an injury and if possible, that needs to be addressed. Of course, it might be an injury that requires surgery in which case perhaps we have to find another attacking defender to rely upon? On another topic, I agree with the posters who suggest Melksham in. But Chandler? His one game was a total disaster.

IMHO one of our big problems is that Salem is not providing anything like the drive that he did a month or so ago. We all know he is carrying an injury - shouldn’t he be given a week or so off to try and get it right? Everyone agrees that our big problem is the movement into attack, and that was where Salem was making all the difference when he was fit and firing. I would rest him, maybe try Bowey as a replacement. I agree with Weid for LJ, who has dropped right away.

If it’s weird for us, it’ll be weird for them

That statistic of scoring coaches votes in 10 out of 16 matches is one that absolutely surprises me. You are certainly right about him going under the radar! Obviously, he has been a great player for us this year but I hadn’t realised that he was so essential. I think his reemergence this year has shown him to be an outstanding person and, like BB, I completely admire him for it and also admire Goody for the encouragement he has obviously given him.

I think your list is a bit harsh on Dean Chiron who was always a trier, and who was particularly good at stopping John Platten which, if I recall correctly, is why Brereton ran straight through him in the 1988 grand final, in order to prevent him from doing his usual excellent stopping job.

PS and Hibbo will completely shut Rohan down

I, for one, I’m going against all history and saying that I am really looking forward to the last week of the season. I truly believe we will beat them. May owes Hawkins and will close him right down, Cameron is iffy at best, and I think it will all be sweet indeed

Yep, and Gawn had to go off the ground. Because of the “protected zone” we couldn’t get a replacement on and we’re down a player while GWS Kicked it into the forward line, where Himmelburg marked it at exactly the point where Max would normally have dropped into the hole, and they got a goal.

That is truly ridiculous. Go back and watch some of the videos of the games. Viney is the ultimate team player/one percenter.