Vipercrunch

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.

It seems all very fanciful, but I can't help but think how hilarious it would be if the Bulldogs were that immature and precious that the playing of this song upset them so much they wanted to fight about it. What sort of adults would get upset by that??

What is Melksham's status? There were rumours he was looking elsewhere during the trade period, but obviously nothing happened there. Is he still contracted for next year?

https://www.sen.com.au/news/2021/10/14/mcavaney-lauds-petraccas-astonishing-grand-final-performance/

I've been watching through the last 45 minutes with different radio commentaries. The SEN was a good as I expected it to be (Whateley and Huddo are the best going around imo). The 3AW one was actually better than I expected. Looking forward to watching more (ABC call up next). One thing I've come to realise is just how good the Sparrow goal was (2nd last one of the third term). In the ecstasy of the moment and the focus on the centre breaks, I hadn't grasped how good that kick was. Off a step from 50m out. Wonderful kick and great work by TMac on the line. He will become a great weapon going forward.

I think it's a given Chandler is on the senior list. Emergency in the GF. Two years headlining the 7 re-signings. All points to him being on the seniour list I think.

I'm surprised supporters are still writing players off as "wasted list spots" instead of backing the club to know what they're doing. How many times were ANB, JJ, Petty and several others that now have premiership medallions around their necks written off as not up to AFL standard? Some people are slow learners.

I think the week off before the Grand Final made the rest of the footy world even more keen to move on. All the 'stories' came out then, everyone one else has MFC and Doggies fatigue and it's time to move on. Also, because the team stayed in Perth, to a certain degree they have been less accessible.