Bring-Back-Powell

What temperature do they implement the heat policy? Our game on Sunday won’t exactly be played in arctic like conditions either.

Any idea If Bedford’s more likely to tag Clarry or Trac? One of these 2 might be having a tough day at the office to start the year.

Yes and I still do.

But they did kick 18.1 against Richmond in the praccy.

True, but I feel next week’s a statement game against a quality side, and will provide a bit of an insight as to how we measure up this year.

I think we all know where we are heading if we can’t knock off a depleted GWS on our turf (albeit Kozzie out and Green to return)

If that’s a concussion then Max is going to have an absolute field day next week.

I’d scrap opening round next year and implement a split round 1 so you don’t have early season byes. Have these 5 games on the Labour Day weekend: Thursday night - Optus Stadium Friday night - Adelaide Oval Saturday twilight - Gold Coast or Brisbane Sunday arvo - Sydney or GWS Monday afternoon- Dogs V St Kllda at Marvel to give these clubs a slice of the public holiday action. Then have the remaining 4 games on the following weekend, including 2 big games in Melbourne and the other 2 in the Northern States.

There are some appallingly double standards that Lachie Whitfield and Idun are free to play today and next week. It’s easy to throw the book at kids and no names who were involved in the skits but when it comes to a star player like Whitfield who should know far better, the AFL didn’t have the knackers to suspend him

Great point re: Turner capable of playing back. As Hawthorn have shown with Sicily, versatility in-game is key and the likes of Petty and Disco can be switched either end in game.

I suspect Collingwood will finish top 2 this year given their recruits and injured players returning, and therefore won’t finish lower than GWS.

On the Sunday Footy Show this morning Green suggested it was very line ball about his availability for our game. Hopefully their bye in round 2 might discourage the Giants from playing him next week, but he’s certainly a chance.

Fair point about tempering expectations with Turner. If he’s just the third tall forward that will provide a cameo or 2, who’s the second? Jefferson isn’t ready, Johnson might just be VFL standard despite an encouraging practice match and, well I can’t think of anyone else. This is where I predict Petty will be a forward as the season evolves.

I was hoping Turner would take control and rip up the match sim yesterday. I don’t recall one training report over summer which Turner was commended, he unfortunately spent at least 2 weeks in rehab and finally his practice match series was very underwhelming aside from 4 goals across the two sets of junk time. jVR desperately needs another key forward to help him out this year, and I’m not sure Disco is that man to start the year. With that being said, he’s a tremendous set shot at goal, possibly our best, so he certainly has something to offer the team.

Thanks for the excellent reports guys. Sounds like Chandler’s lifted his game from last week. He’s going to play an important role next week IMO.

I don’t disagree with this. The question you need to ask is whether a classy winger/half back flanker or a power forward that can partner up with JVR is more important to our list evolution.

Thanks for this. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I like the expected score stat. Sometimes the final score doesn’t tell the full story - for example you’ve got some teams winning games due to the opposition’s inaccuracy rather than the winning team’s general dominance. Another example was GWS winning a bunch of games last year on unsustainable accuracy, only to lose both finals. Not surprised we lost to North and Port (round 3) on expected score. We all left the North game that night feeling in a sour mood feeling as though we lost. The Port win at Adelaide Oval we couldn’t miss if we tried. Surprised we lost to Essendon on excepted score. Felt like we were far the better team on the night, and did hold a 7 goal lead before Essendon’s junk time goals. The Carlton game - Carlton had 6.0 by quarter time in the wet with many of their goals being from difficult areas. Had they of been 3.3 at quarter time, we likely win that game as we got better the night went on. Lastly, the Dogs loss at Marvel could’ve been an absolute massacre based on X score.

For Sunday's game, how do you go from potentially 70mm of rain to potentially just 5mm of rain in the space of 24 hours. I was leveraging off GWS slogging it out in heavy conditions in preparation for our game next weekend, but now it looks like it could be a dry game

That's a really good question and I'd be keen to know as well. The Port game in round 3 was definitely one we got away with on expected scores. Whilst the GWS and Carlton losses I'd say we would've won on expected scores. Maybe even the Collingwood loss on Kings Bday as they were nailing everything and we couldn't hit the side of the barn.

Aside from Whateley's Poindexter like voice, he's a decent commentator and Huddo's one of the best in the business. Apparently BT's not doing Friday night footy anymore. Al Nicholson has taken over. Reckon his constant errors and calling players by the wrong name has caught up with him. Be interesting if he's still calling the GF this year.

Agree with all of this. Amazing that the AFL took advantage of a cyclone to program everyone into a wild card weekend going forward. I'm sure there were tons of viable options to play the GC/Dons game prior to round 24.

Unfortunately Green’s actually now a chance to return to for our game according to their injury report, but Hogan appears very unlikely. I had a feeling the time line of a round 3 return for Green was a bit over exaggerated.

Neitz kicked 24 goals in 4 games around the time of those highlights. That is just plain sick.

I think this is the soft launching pad towards a wild card weekend from next year, to get people used to football again in the weekend prior to finals. I know the thought of a wild card upsets and angers people greatly, but I think this is where we are heading. 7 v 10 and 8 v 9. Essentially the top 8 will become the top 6 in terms of having a genuine crack at the flag, which is fine.

An idea would be for Gold Coast and Essendon to: 1) play Port and Carlton respectively on Thursday and/or Friday night of round 24. 2) then play each other in the postponed game on the following Wednesday night - 10 days before the Saturday of week 1 finals. 3) ensure either or both teams (GC and Essendon) play on the Saturday of week 1 finals to ensure they have a 10 day break into finals - should one or both of them qualify for finals.