Bring-Back-Powell

I'm a big believer in history when predicting a crowd and most Hawks/Dees crowds have hovered around the high 30's/low 40's. Even when Hawthorn were flying in 2012-2015 the crowds were in the 30's so it's a tall order to suddenly expect 60K for this one, even with Hawthorn being back. For reference we got 50,000 to round 23 2023 on a perfect Sunday arvo, our home game. I believe the crowd may have been inflated due it being a BCNA game. Now - Hawks are up and about but we've been a disappointment for most of the year, so that balances things out. I would suggest high 40's on Saturday and for goodness sake can they open the top levels of the Southern and Ponsford stands which they often don't for our home games.

There was probably a sneaky mention of the Dees V WC game at Marvel taking place at the family friendly timeslot of 5:48pm on the Sunday.

He's sure dominated in 2 of the 3 games he's played against us. He also made the AA squad in 2023 which is an A grade season in my book. This quote made me laugh.

Mid to late May.

And I can't believe Max is only 5 off the lead. Is it correct that he played the entire last quarter on the weekend?

Oddly (pun not intended) we were $3.30 for this game before we beat West Coast. Then after we beat West Coast the odds blew out to about $3.70, before Hawthorn played their game.

If we want to value a win over development this week, I'd be dropping Kolt or demoting him to sub as he was a liability at times on the weekend. Our skills and ability to handle the big moments need to be on point this week as a good team like Hawthorn will punish mistakes far more than West Coast did. I'm glad Melksham didn't get suspended. I'd be giving him a role on Battle this week as he seem to be taking a lot of intercept marks.

We play North in round 18 (not 15) and I would be bitterly disappointed if we have to wait 9 weeks for our next win.

Wonder if Gary will give Max the 3 votes in his MVP for the round? He's given the 3 to Toby Greene and Matt Rowell in games against us, as well as minor votes to Xerri and Danger in rounds 2 and 4. Maybe over compensating with this MFC hat on.

No case to answer for. Confirmed.

FWIW David Zita from Fox Footy, who’s a tribunal and MRO expert, doesn’t expect him to get booked. Didn’t Schofield and Oliver have a dust up some years ago and perhaps he still has a bit of bad blood towards us?

100% agree. Loved his game last night and is extremely accurate and trustworthy around goals. Should never have been dropped for Gather Round.

Actually our current 1-8 record away from the MCG included the WC game of round 10 last year.

No idea but I reckon he plays. Not sure why they’d fly him over to Perth if he was under substantial enough doubt. If he wasn’t under a cloud and he injured himself at the captains run then surely he would’ve been withdrawn from the squad from now? See what happens.

Are we a better club on and off the field with the decision to move on from Harmes? Playing career best footy at the moment.

I think we might have a set back tonight. If the game were at the G we’d be winning our third consecutive game where we have a 6-6 record since round 11 last year. Plus we’re a better team than them. However away from the G we have a 1-8 record since that debacle in round 10 last year at Optus V WC. The stats are too obvious to ignore and it’s plain to see that we can’t or won’t play the style of footy and requisite pressure needed to win a game away from the G. Hope to be proven wrong of course.

I checked their forum at half time. The vitriol was real.

Just realised we've lost 8 of our last 9 games away from the MCG. Not a tremendously amazing stat to hang our hats on.

Why would you fly him over with little intention of playing him, unless of course he's aggravated something while over there.

Glad our game is at the same time as Pies/Cats so we don't have to put up with all the Jack Crisp celebrations (unless of course you're happy that he's broken Jimmy's record which is your prerogative). Interesting that McCrae basically admitted the other day that Crisp had COVID in 2021 or 2022 and had no business playing a game which obviously would've halted the sequence. Prefer a rock solid bloke like a Bontempelli breaking his record.

That is dedication. You might need a nap at the footy.

(Is Tomlinson available?) So our key defenders will now be T Mac, Turner and Howes (assume he's in) which is the same set up as the Freo game which is fine. Petty will be the second ruck which leaves us with literally no tall targets inside 50 when he's rucking. I don't understand this strategy. The other option is to bring in JVR rather than Howes to give our forward line some height and hope that T Mac and Turner can handle their tall forward line. Waterman is capable of 6 and being chiefly responsible for a West Coast win tomorrow night, make no mistake. May's becoming rather unreliable from an injury perspective.

The selections make sense if Turner is played forward (even though he impressed as a defender V Freo) The selections don’t make sense if Turner is played down back.

How did he train? Is he in any doubt after his ankle roll last week? TIA.

As always, brilliant job lads. I just want to touch on something George mentioned about a possible advantage Richmond had over Gold Coast in round 6 which would subsequently put less stock in Richmond's win, and then devalue our win over Richmond. George correctly alluded to the fact that Gold Coast were coming off a 7 day break off stinking heat in the Barossa the week before, and that Richmond would reap the benefits because they would be fresher. However, Richmond also played in the Barossa off a 6 day break in ever more stinking heat. So if anything, it makes their win over GC even more meritorious and it reinforces that we didn't beat a mug team the other night.