Nasher

Phew - official confirmation that it’s a good decision.

Pleasantly surprised Goody didn’t automatically fall back to Lewis. Not that C.Wagner is an enormous upgrade, but it puts to bed any thoughts that he won’t change his thinking on his veterans.

Fair enough; I tend to be in the camp of assuming that won't happen. They've already ruled ANB out, so I'd expect them to have already ruled out Smith too if there was doubt. The rationale being I'm in no position to assess whether it's a 'risk' to play him or not.

A player plays an otherwise good game that has an obviously positive effect on the game, but has one blemish in it. Would you prefer the blemish be: a) 1 dropped sitter? b) 1 shanked set shot from 30 out, directly in front? c) 1 failure to 'go'? For some reason, everyone eventually overlooks (a) and (b) but (c) appears to be a completely unforgivable sin. I reckon if the player committed 5 of them in a game, maybe I could get it, but I reckon too much weight is being put on one error for Garlett. For those who see the world in black and white and think I'm suggesting it should be acceptable not to 'go' when required, I'm certainly not. I'm just suggesting it's one of a suite of things that should be non-negotiable in AFL football, but it seems to get a disproportional amount of focus, despite the fact that it probably has the same outcome on the scoreboard, or arguably less outcome on the scoreboard, than the other cardinal and very rectifiable sins.

All the changes will come from the extended bench. Smith will be named in the final side and expected to play.

Pretty hard to pick from that extended bench - Harmes is the only lock. Stretch and Fritsch are both only hanging on by a thread; you'd think Goodwin would pick Lewis even though most of us now wouldn't; I really want to back Weideman in to get going again; Preuss was playing okay before injury. I don't think Spargo or Wagner play. I'd pick Harmes, Stretch, Weideman and Fritsch (in: Weideman, out: Neal-Bullen). I think Goodwin will pick Harmes, Lewis, Preuss and Fritsch (in: Lewis, Preuss, out Neal-Bullen, Stretch).

I applaud your creativity in finding a way to use an overwhelmingly positive thread about another player to pot Petracca for no reason. Well done ? ?

All the players named on the extended Melbourne bench get named at Casey, it’s just how it works. Harmes is very obviously not going to play there. Stretch and Fritsch might though.

Chris Mainwaring was a Malthouse era star, if anything can be inferred from that.

Great post, particularly agree with your analysis of Preuss vs Smith. I thought Smith was important last night - not just for the mobility he adds as you said, but also for the times he didn’t fly when TMac had a one-out. That’s how he got his goal - he stayed down and it fell out the back, but a few minutes earlier he stood to allow TMac to fly, which should have resulted in a mark. He forced accountability in their defenders, which disappeared as soon as he was knocked out. I also think the rating of Preuss around here is way over the top too. I’m a fan, but in a “now we’re not stuffed if we lose Max” kind of way. He’s a lumbering dinosaur as a forward, which makes him useless defensively. The likes of McGovern could defend against him and still peel off, all with their eyes closed.

Oscar and Hore give him the P off DH shove and attend to their mate lying on the ground. Correct response IMO. Would you have preferred them to leave Max on the ground and go and start a brawl with some tool who isn’t worth the time and effort?

Kicking has always been a weakness of his - or maybe non-strength is a better word. His inside contested work is elite, he’s very strong overhead for his size, and he works his arse off to get it on the outside when we’re running, even though he’s the slowest of all our mids. I think we have to be a little realistic with expectations; no player is going to be great in every aspect of the game. To me there’s no doubt Jack is a hugely important player to our game, and high up there with the least of worries.

It should be illegal to tackle a player to the ground pinning both arms. I know there’s the dangerous/sling provision, but that specific one should be covered. There’s no reason to pin both arms, you already prevent legal disposal by pinning only one arm, and it is obviously very dangerous as it prevents the player from being able to break the fall. If we have to have a bloody rules committee farting around with the rules every year, they should be focusing on rules that are unclear or not sufficiently ensuring player safety, rather than ones that change the look of the game in whatever whimsical way some executives think it should have.

I said it at half time too, but I thought Hunt was great tonight from start to finish. Was super clean with the ball and used his pace magnificently. Great to see him back - didn’t look the same player at any stage last year.

Frost did a massive Frosty at the end, so I reckon it’s rough to point out the mistakes of others in the same sentence of praising Frost. And anyway, there are a million mistakes made in a game of footy.

Nah. The Cripps non-throw hurt, but it was no worse than usual. Can’t control the umpiring, but you can control missing set shots and easy goals. Let’s concentrate on that rather than the umpires.

Played our best footy of the year by far, and lost. That’s life. I made the call early in the week that the watchability of the Gold Coast win was of no concern because it would be irrelevant to the standard the West Coast game would be played at. Pretty happy with that call.

Really enjoyed Hunt’s recent form after such a horror season last year. He’s been clean with the ball and using his pace to full effect.

Twice in a row Tim Smith doesn’t jump when he’s in the vicinity of TMac. The first one TMac misses the mark by a whisker, the second spills out the back and he gets a goal out of it. Forwards who don’t spoil each others marks - it’ll never catch on.

It’s not possible for us to limp in to the finals. From where we are now, the only way to make it is to come barging through at full tilt. Why wouldn’t you want that? Not suggesting for a second that it’s actually going to happen of course.

Geelong are depressingly good. Play at 50% for a half and still take a healthy lead in to half time, then put the afterburners on and absolutely slay sides. It makes me sick. Bugger off and let someone else have a turn ya bastards.

Hibberd out really hurts. He hadn’t reached the heights of previous years, but he’s a very smart defender who knows when to peel off to help. With Jetta out, we’re left with OMac and Frost as the defensive brains trust. That’s terrifying; I’d be tempted to pick Petty just to be sure the Hibberd replacement has defensive experience, otherwise we’re in to the makeshift group like Fritsch. Alternatively we could pick Smith and move Keilty down there, he has played as a defender for Casey, even if not recently. Smith was good against Richmond and had a good game for Casey yesterday by the sounds. Preuss is a no-brainer for mine. I’m assuming Melksham will play, only because the alternative is unpalatable. Another top 10 player out to replaced by the 35th best player would not be good news. Not fussed one way or the other about Lewis.

Love this player. On track for a top 5 B&F finish I reckon. Two way runner, plays tough, consistently uses the ball well.

I’m in the same camp. The other thing is that both teams contribute to the overall standard of the game. Gold Coast are at a stage of development where they’re heavily focused on building their defensive and contested systems, and are using those to keep themselves in the contest until the end. The games will of theirs I’ve seen have all ended up gritty and hard to watch. Add slippery conditions (notwithstanding accusations of Goodwin and McDonald lying about that), you get last night’s game. Which we won, I might add. I think the game next will be played at a much higher standard, and I think we’ll rise to it. We may not win, but I reckon it’s skewed logic to claim that because the game against Gold Coast was played at a low skill standard, we’ll play exactly the same against West Coast and get beaten by heaps.

TMac said post game that it was dewy and slippery. Another filthy liar too I suppose.