rpfc

The chant at the end was ‘Jonesy’ not ‘Melbourne’... jus sayin... The MCC chanted Jonesy, the other parts of the ground chanted Melbourne and it ended up sounding less harmonious than it could have been...

Here lies TGR, who died the way he lived... It sounded like a combine harvester, it looked like a combine harvester, but he refused to see a combine harvester... *Apologies to Rowan Atkinson

Not to labour the point here but, honestly, how about now? He has been our best midfielder, arguably our best player, in the finals. This is the real Jack Viney. He wins you finals. He wins the ball. If win a granny in the next few years, who do you think will win the Norm Smith?

Shuey. And yes, we will win a lot of footy and put a great deal of pressure on McGovern, Hurn and Barrass... Needless to say, I'm confident. But the footy gods don't care about what the team looks like on paper; names don't win footy, effort does.

Here is my game preview - haven't done one of these for a while... This will be a different game to the Rd 22 - with Darling being injured early and Kennedy out. Defending together WCE like to isolate their talls but will dump it in if they have to. It is a luxury but does, as Jordan Lewis says, make them more "predictable" than what they were in Round 22. We will have our moments like we always do where we dominate the possession and have it in our FWD 50 for long periods, how they escape and how quickly will be crucial - having separation between their forwards will mean our talls against their talls in centre wing - how those kicks will be pressured is key; if they have time to put it advantage side we are going to have problems. When we can crowd the bomb in we also have to trust Gawn/Weed to kill it because Le Cras, Cripps, Ryan and Rioli will stay down and are smart enough to do some damage. OMac to Vardy/Lycett, Frost to Kennedy, Hibberd to Darling, Jetta to Cripps, Salem to Rioli, and Lewis to Le Cras. The McGovern-or Hannan played off his back shoulder last time to keep him looking in 360' - as soon as he can see his direct opponent, the ball and the target of the footy - he will cut off those entries forward. Move it quickly and lower your eyes and you will be a man my son... McGovern has to be made to hesitate and that will be enough because McDonald, Melksham, Hannan, and Petracca are a dynamic group of offensive players that will get help from Spargo, Vanders, and ANB when the ball hits the ground. McDonald on Barrass, Hannan on McGovern, Melksham on Hurn, Petracca on Schofield, ANB on Jetta, and resting mid on Duggan. It's the midfield, stupid This is what it comes down to really - we all know that - Gawn vs Lycett/Vardy and their group of hard running mids versus our contested bulls. However, Melbourne are +18 in CPs, +16 in UPs, +10 in tackles, +7 in Inside 50s, and +2 in clearances... That reveals who should win the midfield battle - how efficient the teams are when going forward will decide the game. Shuey, Redden, Masten, Sheed, and Yeo vs Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes, and Jones. What a great opportunity to play in a Grand Final for these boys...

Take him over as the extra, but I don't see any changes...

Find out in 2019 ?

Someone is going to miss out on a Casey GF next week and possibly an AFL GF the following week; we will take an extra over to Perth one would think.

Yes, it would have been great to stay at one club and win. Bit this isn’t happening in a vacuum; we needed young midfield talent so Brayshaw wouldn’t be helping us into a prelim if Frawley was still around and, again, we knew he was going to get us a top 5 pick so we didn’t actively keep him. I just don’t think it is a a genuine argument to have a go at Frawley for being less loyal than Jones - we wanted to keep Jones...

He did. And he had a weekend off two weeks ago.

I believe in Melbourne.

Our best mid in two finals in a row... Who thought he was a ‘one trick pony’ again? Just doing what Jack Viney does.

Well he has only had 3 touches in the FWD 50 in each of the last three games. Lot of ball on the wing. Averaged 17 possies in last three games.

Harmes to Mitchell then. He will have 15 tackles... I hope we don’t overthink this. Harmes to Mitchell and everyone else just hunts the footy. Hard at the man and the ball, cause turnovers and get the ball moving forward.

I don’t know him too well, but I know enough to know he is a modest person who works hard and has a lasting relationship with former teammates and coaches (I think this says a lot about an AFL player - last week a he was at a local footy match in Bayswater because a few of his former Ainslie mates were playing for South Croydon). Has been through a lot and is getting rewarded. It’s life affirming.

We also played him as this super aggressive wing when had it forward. It didn’t work...

No

Dropping VDB for this game is a ridiculous notion. He has players worried about his presence now - he causes turnovers being in the vicinity of the footy. The ferocity of a final means Vanders and his disposal becomes less of an issue because the skills of all bar the best players are rushed and imperfect. I was being flippant but, seriously, WTF.

Melbourne supporters. So unused to finals...

We didn’t want to keep him and got Brayshaw out of him...

Viney injury allowed more time on the footy. He’s confident in his ball winning and never hesitates when around the footy. I do have to say that being third fiddle (now 4th) behind Oliver and Brayshaw helps and so does a generational ruckman... But that isn’t a knock - he is in fantastic form.

Gotta speak truth to power...

Pert has got huge shoes to fill. What a fantastic administrator.

Also we would have taken Billings. So Salem, Tyson, and Hunt for Billings and Gardiner. Its a great deal. Almost as good as the lambasted deal for Sam Frost when we gave up ND23 (Pat McKenna) for Frost, ANB and Oscar. And then recruited McKenna for a pick in the 60s a few years later...