Chook

Well this has been a bad last 10 minutes. Frisch's foot gone? Gawn's eye half-dislodged, and 3 quick goals to the Swans. Why am I unsurprised?

Nibble won that ball in the forward 50 to nearly set up a goal, then halved the contest in the defensive 50 to save one. We gave it up anyway but damn, he's so valuable for us. He's really elevating his attacking game over the last month too I think.

That's what I'm getting at. I'm really surprised he's doing this as well. Guess it means enough to him that he would get past the shyness to go out and give thanks to his home crowd. I wonder what he thinks of his time in Melbourne and at Hawthorn. I think if you asked him he'd consider himself 95% a Sydney player despite playing fewer games there and getting no flags.

Interesting call from Buddy to do a farewell at the SCG but not do anything at the Grand final. I guess Sydney is his home now and he's played there for years. Nothing more to it?

Happy to be in front against an always-difficult opponent on a ground that is difficult to play on. Sydney's contested marking is giving them some looks, and our fumbly ball handling is costing us at times.

ANB's tackling is elite. If Hunter could tackle like that, I would be so happy.

Just making our thoughts plain. Sorry for differing from your opinion. How do you rate his tackle pressure and disposal?

Hickey is great, and is a fantastic matchup on Gawn. Glad he's retiring.

Happens a lot. Can't tackle either. He also does a lot of weird underground 1-2 handballs that confuse his teammates.

No way Turner is AFL ready. He looks like a kid still and didn't have the strength to hold that mark. Tommo for me.

Tackling to hurt again, 23 weeks after his suspension. He's gotten over it finally.

I don't rate Hunter at all - his disposal kills me. I would rather Jordan in the side and use Langdon as our attacking wing.

Forgot about Hibberd. Yes bring on the pig.

Bowey has been dreadful for weeks in my opinion. Unfortunately I don't think we have anyone better in that role. Maybe Jordan.

I could see it happen too. The Dogs have heaps of finals experience and are a different side in September. Carlton have started to dip and are finals virgins-so-to-speak. One of the only times you'll find me barracking for Footscray.

You kidding me? Even I felt the finals experience from 2018 and I was sitting on my couch half drunk. Finals experience is enormous.

I hope we select him as the substitute and make that sub relatively early in the game (mid-3rd quarter or along those lines).

I'm very excited about the game. Assuming we go in with "the Finals team" (I think we will, as this is what Goodwin's philosophy would dictate), this is our first chance to see the side that 23 rounds of football has thrown up as our best chance to win it all. Very enticing. Wish it wasn't being played on a postage-stamp of a ground though. Absolutely hate the SCG as a football ground.

I got 13/15 right. Missed Corey Maynard and Ben Kennedy. Who, you might ask? Exactly. Thanks for your services guys but clearly didn't make an impact on me!

2 Fritters would be totally fine with me They're not the same anyway, as Georgiades is far more of a lead mark player, getting up on the wings while Fritter is closer to goal.

I'd worry about our rebound from defence without Rivers in there. McVee does well when he gets it but isn't super damaging, and Salem and Bowey are 50/50 as to whether they'll end up costing us with their disposal these days.

McDonald is fine to go on in my mind, as his issues stem from lack of fitness due to foot trouble. Brown's knee is never going to get better, so he needs to just manage it and play as much footy as his body lets him.

Might as well blame him for Gawn's knee injury as well.

I love how Collingwood supporters are so feral that the media is actually afraid of the blowback for even suggesting they're not that good. "Oh please don't come after me pies fans you're a chance". Spare me.