old55

I don't care what you call it, Spargo and Chandler play the same role and ANB plays a different role from both of them. It's evident to my eyes and in their heatmaps.

Who failed to put their body on the line? I didn't see that happen.

No I don't accept that Chandler, Laurie and Spargo play a different role. That is my whole point and there is no evidence that they do in the heatmaps or anywhere else AFAIK. Chandler's heat maps show just as much activity in the densive half as Spargo's or Laurie's. I totally accept your premise that ANB plays a different role and that is apparent in his heatmap. Laurie and Chandler are both in the side at the expense of Spargo.

61 i50s to 39 i50s does not agree that Hawthorn "picked our zone apart for most of the game". And when they did manage to go inside 50 we intercepted - 69 intercepts to 63.

The heat maps for all players for all matches are available on the AFL Mobile App. I compared Spargo's and Chandler's heatmaps across the season and to my eye there is no significant difference. And Laurie's was not significantly different yesterday either.

I found player heat maps are available per match in the AFL mobile app by clicking on the player name in the Player Stats section. It also shows "% in defensive half" and "% in forward half" - I believe this is % possessions not % gametime. It doesn't show kms covered AFAIK. Some interesting information is available there.

I agree, in that top image there is no clear evidence that the ball misses the post. There is clear air between ball and post in the second front on image, but there is no clear air in the image from the side where the ball is behind the post. If you zoom in there is yellow pixelation all the way to the post. The goal umpire should absolutely have called for a review given the state of the game and the closeness of the call, but if those two pictures were the evidence then I could not have over-turned his call.

Look I think there's essentially only one poster who is guilty of that, and they cannot find fault with anything MFC does, so it's best to ignore them.

A someone pointed out earlier, I'm pretty happy that Grundy is not at a flag competitor this year and if he leaves at the end of the year, as seems likely, then I'd prefer for that to continue. To Geelong rather than Sydney for example.

Goldstein and Xerri are the only ruck pair in those 4 sets. Daniher, Thilthorpe and Miller are forward/rucks. Before Jackson? That was in 2019 - 4 years ago - the whole point is Max is 4 years older now. Look I get it - if we win the flag you'll be "we did it in spite of carrying Grundy" and if we don't it'll be "because we carried Grundy"

Very wise not to ignore the water that Max rafted on to full fitness at this time of year compared with last.

I think more likely Blake Howes hopefully.

Bit of early crow there boys? Seems Max is playing fit and well at this time of year compared with this time last year. I think that's got to do with the ruck minutes he's shared with Brodie throughout the year, ruck minutes we wouldn't have been able to confidently put into a third stringer. So there's that contribution from Brodie in the bank. I noticed that Mason Cox came on last night and played with a purpose to put his name in front of the Collingwood selectors for the first final, and we're likely to be their opponent. Are you completely happy for Max to go solo against Cameron and Cox if that's the way it turns out - particularly with Cox's tendency to try to hurt Max? What if we lose and face Carlton in week 2 with Pittonet and TDK vs a beaten up Max, again solo? There's a bit of water to flow under the bridge ...

I think we want Port to defeat Freo so we finish 4th. I think it's most likely that Collingwood defeats Essendon next week and finishes top. QF vs Collingwood at the MCG has more appeal than vs Brisbane at the Gabba.

Not in the PF or GF if we finish a lower ranked team gets thru to play us.

I think they'll get an exemption on covering a bid for Sanders inside pick 40 and get an end of 1st round compensation for McKay. I think there might be a riot from the other clubs if they get the Sanders exemption AND pick 3.

Blanck (22 games), DGB (27 games) are their tall backs. Koschitzke (46 games) and Ramsden (1 game) are their tall forwards. Reeves (36 games) is their ruckman, presumably with help from Ramsden - it's hardly land of the giants ...

Did I suggest otherwise?

It's dollars and age that are taken into account so the fact that McKay is 25 works in North's favour. The points bidding rules are exactly the same for Academy and F/S - 20% discount on the points. The only difference is that teams other than GC, Brisbane, Sydney and GWS can't cover a bid on Academy players in the first 40 picks. That's the rule North has to get broken (if Sanders is added to their Academy)

JJ being subbed last week indicated the FD weren't convinced by his performance. There aren't many compelling mid/forward alternatives though - Spargo, Woewodin, Laurie, Dunstan ...

I know it's incidental, but Hibberd is on 196 games, it's getting tight to reach his goal of 200.

I generally like your insights Watson, but that's a massive stretch. Spargo only had 2 turnovers in that match. https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/ft_match_statistics?mid=10899&advv=Y I don't think that was the reason. 11 possessions and zero tackles inside 50 might be closer to the mark.

Harder for GC against Carlton with King out.

I'm not disputing that there is a "high half forward" role. I am disputing that there is any evidence that Spargo plays it more effectively than Chandler. Again there is no available evidence AFAIK that Spargo has superior athletic attributes to Chandler. I looked at the Tracker on the AFL App which records the top 5 performers in the match across a range of running attributes. Here's the total number of times Chandler and Spargo have appeared in the top 5 in those categories this season. Total Sprints: Chandler 7, Spargo 0 Repeat Sprints: Chandler 5, Spargo 2 Distance at High Speed: Chandler 3, Spargo 1 Average Speed: Chandler 1, Spargo 1 Average Speed in Attack: Chandler 0, Spargo 3 Average Speed in Defence: Chandler 9, Spargo 1 Maximum Speed: Chandler 10, Spargo 1 I think it's very clear that Chandler is quicker than Spargo and there's some evidence in Repeat Sprints and Average Speed in Defence that he has good endurance and covers the ground defensively. You were critical of Chandler vs Carlton last week, but he was top 5 in Maximum Speed, Total Sprints, Repeat Sprints and Average Speed in Defence.

Or go with Smith who provides an aerial threat and a forward pressure on the ground ball.