Fromgotowoewodin

The game at AFL level requires intensity, and it would be some kind of miracle for it to come together for him at his 3rd club in Rd 23 of his 8th season. I think Grundy stays in as the tall target. Otherwise from that extended bench I’d have Brayshaw, Chandler & Tomlinson (would’ve preferred Hibberd). Jordan as sub, maybe Spargo but I think we’re small enough as it is.

Turned my phone off and then threw it at the couch. There were too many little alerts popping up with smartarse messages like “what’s happened?” Or “have the Dees stopped??” I made sure to reply later on..

Yes I’d say you’re right, there’s a toggle for regular season but I must not have clicked it

Never feel sorry for them. We still owe them some soul crushing finals defeats and about 500 points worth of floggings. There’s a long list of clubs we need to be grinding into dust any chance we get (Pies, Bombers, Cats, Blues) but the Hawks are right up there.

This is it, no point trying to manufacture an ideal matchup. Want a flag? You’ve got to beat the rest of the top 4 wherever and whenever you play them

By that token last year was an “off” year and we averaged nearly 44k and were 4th for average home attendance (incl 6k against Port in Alice). We did play the pies twice so got that benefit. We punch above our weight. We need to boost the numbers at the Norf, Freo etc games but we’ll do OK financially I think (even better if we can sell a couple of mil in Premiers merch).

It does, figures line up with the ones at AFL tables. While that GWS abomination was the lowest crowd this year to date we also have 2 home games in the top 10 H&A attendances YTD as well (vs tiges and pies).

Data is from footywire: https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/attendances We do even better when sorted by average home crowd. Bombers might jump us as they’ve got pies at the G in the last round, hopefully we draw a decent 40k against the hawks this week for our last home game.

That’s the thing, the rule never changes - they’re written vaguely enough that they generally stay the same but the “interpretation” changes. Marking contests are a perfect example, 18.5.2(b) [it’s a free kick where a player] unduly pushes or bumps an opposition player. But what does that mean? It used to be hands in the back was a free kick, now hands in the back are ok as long as you’re “protecting your space” and not pushing them forward, but where’s the line? Can they go a little bit forward, or not at all? It’s not in the rule book it’s in the interpretation, which can change at any time..

Free kicks in a ruck contest: The full laws of the game can be found here: https://www.afl.com.au/about-afl/laws-of-the-game Ignore all the 2017 videos, 2023 rules are at the first link. For some reason despite changing the rules every week they don’t want to update the example vids from 6 years ago.

It is a pretty vaguely defined sub-clause 18.5.2(a): Last week Lever got done for blocking when Eddie Ford tried to jump over him in what I would define as 18.5.2(e), but then this week Tom De Konig discovered that jumping on Gawn from behind while not touching the ball is a valid way to stop Gawn from taking a mark (did it at least twice from memory). What is or isn’t a block depends mostly on 1) the vibe, and 2) what side of the bed the umpire got up that morning.

I find this a pretty reassuring post so thanks @Red But Mostly Blue. Has our form been overrated? No, I think over the last 4-6 we’ve been as good as anyone as others have been a bit exposed, except maybe the Blues with their 8 on the trot. We’re right in it. What still worries me: 1) Forward line, still ain’t working right. We literally need Fritsch to hit the ground running and maybe TMac too if he can get moving. Gawndy doesn’t seem to work, at least in the fwd sense. I find myself wondering if maybe there’s a secret plan we’ll unleash in the finals where all of a sudden they’re kicking 3-4 between them but I think that’s just hopium. 2) Backline. I miss Petty back more than I do him forward (though admittedly until Fritsch/TMac/Super Gawndy/anyone comes good we need him more forward). Tomlinson back can get exposed by speed, Hibbo sometimes isn’t big enough so we almost need to play horses for courses whereas with May/Lever/Petty we just roll them out each week and they beat whoever they’re up against. I think there was more calmness and less errors in the backline when it was the same 6/7 each week. I hope we can start to settle in the next 2 weeks and avoid the need for too much more change, I think we saw this week that even bringing in a gun like Clarry isn’t an instant fix as he needed to settle in and the others also needed to adjust to having him back. And I hope Fritsch’s foot holds together as he needs to carry a big load when get comes in.

Edit: missed the obligatory “long time listener first time caller”. Looking forward to the pod as I chew my nails with finals fast approaching. First is to second @monoccular’s question, can we get Gawndy to work as it hasn’t seemed to (other than to split the workload), it certainly hasn’t delivered goals as yet. Other teams seem to make it happen (with lesser rucks) but we seem to be adding 2 all Australian rucks together and getting the output of 1. Second, was TMac as crocked as reports suggest or was he perhaps under instruction along the lines of “for [censored] sake just don’t get hurt”? Finally was it just me or did we seem to panic in the last few minutes against the blues? It seemed rushed and there didn’t seem to be a set play or plays to get a decent shot at goal.

Fritsch played on Darcy Moore on kings birthday

I don’t think he saw Acres out to the right and thought he’d have more time. If he’d waited the umpire might’ve cleared Acres out properly but he took off almost straight away and ended up kicking off balance.

Shame none of them are tall enough to play CHF

Fritsch hot and cold? Having a laugh surely.. Goalless 5 times in 62 matches over 2021-23. Everyone seems convinced TMac is past it based on 6 games this year (in which he kicked 8 goals) before injury, let’s see what he can do now he can run again. Schache agree is not the answer. Smith can’t put 4 quarters together but is probably the answer until Fritsch is back.

We did go away from the system, last 5min was everyone trying to win the game off their own boot. Need to stick to the plans and not panic.

Seemed to me that he took far too long to kick the ball on a couple of occasions too, wasn’t his best

Not sure how they missed that, pretty clearly took him below the knee and it wasn’t a smother. Annoying.

Pretty poor last few minutes, we’re supposed to have plans for situations like that except the plan seemed to be bomb it to a pack of 20 players, have a couple of hail mary shots from 50 (ok Salem’s wasn’t that far and he should’ve kicked it, Trac was robbed but it wasn’t the right option imo) and repeat bombing it. Gotta be better than that. Blues were good though, pressure was massive. Clarry not quite up to speed yet

What would you like me to do about that? I don’t do the fixture, I’m just stating why I think it falls the way it does..

Maybe I phrased that badly, we’re making onfield sacrifices for the greater good of making as much cash as possible so we never have to ask the AFL for cash again so our name doesn’t cross their mind when they’re looking for someone to relocate to NZ or China or whatever their next brainwave is. Let the saints and doggies take that heat. Collingwood doesn’t have to sacrifice cos they bring the numbers. Does the AFL want to send them to Blundstone to get 30k, or KP to get 40k or do they play at the G where they get 65k+? Easy decision. Is it fair? No, but we’re getting a better deal than we used to and if we keep bringing big club numbers we’ll get better deals going forward.

I think it’s more that they will continue so that our numbers stay where they are. Despite the onfield disadvantage of playing at KP, and the annoyance of playing in a ****hole like Blundstone the AFL I think looks after us pretty well in a $$$ sense. We get the big games of Kings Birthday, ANZAC Eve, we get our cashie in the NT, 13 at the G overall and this all adds up to cash in the bank. It’s a FIXture, not a draw after all. KP and Tassie are sacrifices for the greater good. KP is hard to win at but we shouldn’t lose in Tassie for the rest of North’s time there.

Both correct points @binman There’s a fair bit of shame and self loathing from Dees fans about our crowds, probably stemming from the sledging we cop on socials from halfwit oppo fans who don’t do math good and also only watch on tv where they can’t see a packed MCC and Olympic stand. Per the tables below, we’re 5th for overall average match attendance so far this year, and 4th for average home attendance (including whatever handful we got at Alice), in line with the last couple of years. Our numbers are good, don’t let any peabrain tell you different (especially hawkers who still think it’s 2015).