Stu

And Billings kicks it 😀

Great forward pressure, and certainly trying to lower the eyes. Some concrete hands ruined excellent F50 entries, but the intent and commitment to the style has been encouraging.

🤣Yeah I hit submit about 3 seconds too early

Sestan's kicking is excellent

"The problem with Arsenal is they always try to walk it in..."

My read on this game is that we will be too strong for North and play 4 solid quarters. I think our ability to shift up our game plan will frustrate them. They have moments when they look to be gaining moment but we will stifle them and then score when the momentum swings back. Dees by 42.

One quality of Spargo’s that we’ve missed is his ability to hit kicks off the inside and outside of his boot. It allows him to disguise which forward he’s kicking it to, not allowing the opposition defenders from peeling off their man to where the ball is going.

It shows that he is thinking through what to do next. It shows he is a quick decision making and observer of the game. Very valuable. Players who don't have that skill are light grunts in the army - you can teach them some version of skill and smarts through pure repetition, but their ceiling is very limited. XL is clearly not a grunt.

Footage was taken:

Hore offers good versatility and allows match-day flexibility to get the right match ups for May and Lever to be more free to intercept. Against North, we could have Petty on Larkey, TMac on Darling, and Hore on Zurhaar, leaving Lever to play the intercept role.

According to last weeks injury report Hore was 'Test' so he may be available this round to replace Howes if we want to keep the mid-sized defender AND keep Rivers in the middle. Excitingly, by the time Round 4 vs Cats rolls around we are likely to have all of Picket, May, McVee, Hore, Spargo, and Melksham available for selection. That adds a lot of options and selection pressure.

In '21, we ran out quarters very well. I think it shows the margins between a premiership and an also-ran is pretty thin. Being off 100% concentration for 5 minutes of one quarter can lose you games, and ruin a good season. I think the fire will burn long after this one, and I expect very strong performances over the next two weeks.

More generally, adding strategies to our game like short kicks to hold possession, having Windsor come off half-back, and hopefully scoring 2-3 goals more from turnover, all gives opposition teams a lot more to worry about. Ultimately, what we're good at we're REALLY good at, and teams have worked out how to beat us if that's all we do. Adding other ways we can play makes teams adapt, and not just focus on one game plan to beat us. We don't have to become the best transition team, and score the most from turnover, but if we can add a little bit it can be enough to allow us to get the game on our terms because teams are off balance having to adapt.

GWS are a very good clearance side, but I think the stat that the FD will focus on is scores from clearance, which we won quite comfortably with fewer clearances.

I completely agree. GWS have the bye this week, and then play another 5 rounds on the road before there next home game, so they were going all out in that last quarter to win. On the balance of everything, I'm excited for what the year will bring, and that I think we will get stronger as the year goes on and the game plan solidifies and the young players gain more experience. It will be a good cross section to see how we perform at Marvel next week in 'perfect' conditions. I'm bullish on Jefferson taking a few nice grabs in the dry conditions.

They must’ve heard some lunatic driver with a MFC member sticker ditched his vehicle in the Yarra and was fleeing on foot directly to Gosch’s…

The average age of Sunday's listed players - 25.5 - is over 2.5 years younger than the team Collingwood fielded against GWS last weekend (28.2). There are 15 players under 28, and 8 over. Under 23: 8 players 23 to 27: 7 28 to 29: 5 (Fritsch, Lever, Langdon, Petracca, Salem) Over 30: 3 (Viney, May, Gawn)

It actually took me a minute to realise the term I had used was for a different sport.

Sunday's forecast suggests rain is most likely before 2 pm. Hopefully very minimal rain after kick off. The temperature is set to drop nicely for a game of footy, so less chance of fatigue for our players.

The article with White reminded me that for a few years, we had Jeff White, Darren Jolly, and Mark Jamar on our list!

And he was limping on the telecast pre-game.

Thanks for all your efforts to maintain this site for us tragics Andy 🙂 I don't login with emails or read banners

Tim Membrey is member of the Kent Kingsley Forwards Club - he will kick a few against poor defences, or teams having a bad day. But he won't help you in big games, especially finals. @Roost it far is right - he'll likely twinge a hammy, quad, or calf at least once or twice through the year. The Pies are 3-4 injuries to their old stars away from middle of the road mediocrity.

It's an overcorrection. Players are told 'Stop bombing it long, or taking low percentage shots', which can often result in going too far the other way, like the examples you mentioned. They'll find the right balance I'm sure. My main query is will it last deep into the season. Last year we saw for the first 9 rounds, players hitting around 20 metres out from goal with low flat kicks that were harder to intercept. But due to the grueling opening to the season, fatigue, injury, and a diminishing lack of confidence, the new approach fell away. The key will be if we persist with these new strategies well past the bye.