Vipercrunch

Didn't May have Naughton for most of the GF, even with Petty in the team?

Some people have very long memories and very rigid mindsets. And seem to be unaware players can improve.

Libba is the poster boy for faux tough guys. He should be embarrassed with his nonsense in the GF.

A very enjoyable 16 minutes. It gave some great behind the scenes footage into what happened at half time, on the bench during the third quarter and then at 3 quarter time ("Take 2 deep breathes" - and they all do!!!"). Loved, loved, loved it. I get why the Fox doco had to deeply explore the last 57 years, but if you've lived enough of those 57 years like a lot of us have, Momentum contains the stuff we really desperately wanted.

I thought Brisbane were the second best side last year, so if not us, I think they'll win it. GWS and GC would be the easiest teams to watch win it though. Does anyone know someone who seriously supports (not vague, nominal support) either of them? And winning the whole thing is probably the only way the AFL will see any return for the huge investment that has been put into those teams, which begrudgingly benefits us all. Apart from Greene, they don't have any players I dislike.

Couldn't agree more. The fake "whose free is it" after giving an obvious free away in a 1 on 1 contest had to stop. Hopefully they also clamp down on the standing over of a player to stop them getting up and taking the kick quickly (ala Cordy on top of BBB in the GF).

Most pleasing - Harmes. Moved better and with cleaner hands than I remember him doing so. Really liked his game. Clearly rusty - Viney and Lever. Both missed last week so perhaps understandable. Lever's game did start to resemble normality in the second half but Viney has some way to go. Worrying - Pickett, Jackson, Jordan. As good and as important as Pickett's defensive stuff is, he needs to get on the scoreboard (both himself and with assists). The less he impacts the scoreboard, the more he seems to get frustrated and down on himself. Jackson was beaten in the ruck all night and struggled to take contested marks like we know he can. Jordan hasn't captured his form of early last year yet. I'm sure they'll come good, but it would be nice to hit the season proper with them in better form. Can't understand the hate - Smith. Played another very solid game I thought. Some others here saw it that way, others obviously see it very differently. Ask me in 6 weeks if tonight meant anything, but Goodwin has lots of talking points now as we focus on Round 1.

It would be disloyal of us to demand more $$ from our sponsors just after winning. Sure, when it's time to renegotiate, and perhaps with some ongoing time at the top of the AFL world, we should attract and receive more remuneration. But now is not the time.

When fit, our backline will consist of 7 (a back 6 plus one on the pine as per the GF) of the following 10 players:- May (AA and automatic selection) Lever (AA and automatic selection) Salem (stiff not to be AA and automatic selection) then 4 of... Petty Tomlinson Smith (missed PF and GF due to injury) Hibbo Bowey Rivers Hunt (lost his spot with injury and couldn't win it back) And we have Turner who by his selection yesterday must be tracking ok. Going to be very interesting to see who lines up in 19 days. I'm not sure about that. I thought Petty was a slight improvement on Tomlinson.

You are obviously a big Hibbo fan, but until Smith was injured on the training track before the PF, our selectors had Smith ahead of Hibbo. Both bring strengths and weaknesses. Tough to be a selector, and very tough for whichever defenders miss out playing round 1.

Should we be concerned about the strapping on Trac's left knee? Wasn't there in the GF.

Bowey I think is safe unless he struggles next week. Hibberd took Joel's spot last year so he's the obvious one, but Rivers isn't a lock, and nor is Tomlinson to simply step in for Petty either.

He hasn't had much luck with his injuries. Really bad timing. Had he not got injured in the finals he'd be a premiership player now because I don't think he did anything wrong before he was injured. He's probably lost his place in the seniors due to injury more often than form in his career so far. His disposal today was better than Rivers and even Bowey was not his usual polished self.

I liked his ability to defend the 190+ cm talls in the air, even when the ball is kicked to the forwards advantage because of his closing speed and leap. He is then able to defend the smalls with the loose ball, using his speed and agility to his advantage. I must have missed his bad disposal, but I thought generally he disposed of it well.

BoG for me was Clarry. Very powerful display. Most pleasing was Joel Smith. Not sure if he was beaten once and disposed of the ball very well. Really starting to use his supreme athletic gifts well. Even with Petty out, picking our defenders for round 1 will be a nightmare.

A few iffy ones, but lots of high tackles paid that looked very dubious and "drawn". Unfortunately Kayo wasn't doing replays. I would have liked some more looks at many of them.

Her kicking needs work yes, but her ability to get the ball, her disposal by hand and her work without the ball is all well above average. I expect her kicking technique will improve drastically before next season. Some great performances (Harris 😲), very happy with the win. I guess time will tell how much the Lions were affected by the schedule.

I thought 246 was Paul Johnson?

Back to the drawing board for these guys if they want to become relevant.

Hopefully they do get a full season in the VFL to develop though, something that would have significantly impacted all Victorian clubs.

This made me smile. First attempt at video editing. final_61c2af3c3fc9b900aecdcf5d_406842.mp4

I wonder if we (and other clubs) will want to hold on to list positions more so than other years given the lack of footy for draftable players in the eastern states. Unless they are really sure about how to use a pick, it could be a wise choice to save the pick and give the draft pool another 6 months to show something.

He might have gone up like that before every pick leading up to it also? Just a super excitable fella perhaps.

And the media went out of their way to make out that Buckley was a genius for playing him in the backline, totally ignoring he had payed there plenty while at Melbourne.

The rule was bought in to stop players manning the mark 5m corridor side of where the mark actually was. This made it so difficult to attack the corridor because one man could effectively block a large area of attacking territory. The rule has acheived what it was brought in to do. Now, to block the corridor, defensive teams need to have several players there, thinning out the numbers down the line. Yeah, there are things to look at and maybe tweak (when play on is called, who can man the mark, penalty for infringement etc), but it would be a big backward step to throw it all away imo.