Chook

How was that kick from Petracca. This move into the forward line seems to have rejuvenated him a bit, he's so much more dynamic.

Uneducated post. Melksham could have had 3 goals.

Gawn looked to start tiring through the last 5 minutes of the quarter, which led to a lot of Lions scoring opportunities from clearance, including that one.

Ripper tackle and goal Pickett! By the way, Lever's cleanliness collecting dirty ground balls has gone up a level this year, and is really impressive for a guy who used to worry me with the ball on the ground.

We're giving them a few looks due to bad disposal, and they're making us pay on turnover.

How was that ruck and rove work from Roo and Viney! We're destroying them in that area with Gawn and Roo.

Melksham's giving away a lot of frees, but he's been in a lot of contests, which is a good sign.

Gawn's ruck work tonight has been spectacular so far. He's clearly really relishing a return to being the main man.

Holy hell what are we seeing, this is like the Gabba start late last year.

Trac, echoes of Dusty/the 2021 GF first goal with that wind up from outside 50. We're looking on, and so dynamic.

Melksham starting terribly. Two costly skill errors

Mids are on top early, and Gawn is rucking well.

Oof! Now we know why the Lions odds shortened so much.

I did - Glen Waverley line as well. It didn't help. I'm thinking it's probably not a factor in team performance -same as the odds.

Not a betting man. Does the Lions being favourites hurt our chances of winning or is it totally irrelevant?

I'm excited to see Brown, JVR and Melksham together. With the exception of Fritsch (who is a great individual forward but not necessarily a "team player" in the forward line) and with the exception also of Tom McDonald (though he isn't what he was), this is out crafty-est forward mix. I think a huge amount of our problems with connection are simply that our forwards don't know how to play forward - at least with Brown, JVR, and Melksham you have three talls with the nous to display proper leading patterns, which should hopefully provide good targets to our midfield. Throw in Petracca, Kosi (hoping for him to give us something) and ANB/Spargo, I think there's something to work with. Just have to win the contested ball, so Petracca's forward/midfield mix will be interesting. Petracca's more of an outside player in our midfield though, so hoping he goes forward and Viney/Sparrow/Jordan/Brayshaw can win enough of it and lower their eyes when going forward to the Brown/JVR/Melksham trio, with Kosi and Petracca lurking.

No chance Hibberd is cooked just yet. He was flying before copping a lacerated kidney. Sure we need to manage his body but he's in out best defensive mix come finals.

I rewatched our 2018 finals performances vs Geelong and Hawthorn and I think if you throw May, Lever, Petty into that side you've got the Dees' 2023 premiership team and gameplan. Very attacking and high scoring with solid defence and contested ball winners - only one genuine ruckman required. EDIT: Having said that, the premiers for that year blew us off the park in the prelim so maybe the gameplan doesn't stack up!

It's like a throwback to the 1990s right now.

6. May 5. Petracca 4. Viney 3. Hunter 2. Sparrow 1. Salem

Not at the game. Can anyone explain why we're trying to switch the ball so much tonight?

He was overweight and slow in our premiership year, but we used him in a way that hid those issues and accentuated his good positioning and work rate.

I've just about had it with Brayshaw's awful disposal.

Too handball happy in the back half especially, and lucky the saints have missed a few easy shots - overall you can see we're trying to lower the eyes which is grea.