Nasher

How about Crossy in the ice bath after a gruelling game as the team runner? Professionalism is a habit for some.

Lessons have been learned on how to steady and wrestle back momentum in those games when teams come charging. This is immensely exciting. Feels different to last week though - I’m overtaken by a weird calm. Great result, but job not done yet. Still going to indulge in a few bathwaters though

I’ve got a belly full of bath water that is now repeating real bad as the butterflies try and squeeze in there as well. ? I am confident though that this team will leave absolutely nothing out there. So long as that happens I’ll live with whatever the result is. We should win though. I’m sitting in my car typing this. I park in some random suburban street and walk the rest of the way. Some bloke just pulled up behind me and got out with his Dees scarf on. Going to be a good day I think. Lucky I’ve got a day pretty much jammed with back to back things right up until the game is due to start, which will be a welcome distraction.

2 years is the standard, not sure why it’s “short”. His next one or possibly even the one after will be his biggest pay day, so absolutely zero point in locking in too long a term.

*buuuurp* sorry, did you say something?

Brayshaw spent a lot of time on the pine in the first half. Only had 71% TOG for the game; only Tyson and Viney had less.

That’s why I went for “clanger rate” / clangers per possession rather than just the raw clangers. It pretty much irons out the bias towards players who get the ball the most. eg Oliver is top 5 (edit: top 1 in fact) in clangers because he gets so much more of the ball than anyone else, but was a long way down the list in clanger rate, and the team’s notorious ball butchers like Bugg and Frost oddly enough simmered their way to the top of the list.

I'm still keen on your answer to my quiz though :-) (You're not allowed to say d) though or I'll have to slap you)

Absolutely. Eddie let loose over it on the MMM interview before Roosy and Jones were in. As much fun as it is watching/listening to Ed explode, he was spot on.

That was ages ago now.

Not disputing that we’d miss him and that Smith is a downgrade - that’s why Hibberd is a lock 22 and Smith is on the fringe. Just that I doubt it would be the difference between losing and winning as the loss of other players who are completely irreplaceable would be. The gap between Oliver and our next available midfielder is nowhere near as large as the gap between Hibberd and Smith, for example. If for your life, you had to choose one from the following players to get injured, which would you choose? a) Jetta (best small) b) Hibberd (best flanker) c) Oliver (best mid) d) Gawn (best ruck) e) TMac (best tall) ?

He's had the season from hell with his injuries and form, but I hope he backs himself in to stay and work his way back in to the side. He's got the attribute set to get back there. As Frost and Weideman have both alluded to in recent interviews, sometimes you just have to put head down, bum up, work hard in the VFL and wait for your time to come. As we've seen, injuries and stuff to senior players happen - if Hunt does that, he'll make it back. I'd be disappointed if he cracked the sads and asked for a trade, but I don't think he will.

Weird isn't it? I'm still waiting for the stories of players barfing on each other, or photos of two moronic fringe players dressed in completely inappropriate costumes, that arguably end up costing them their careers. Training?!

Petracca was and is fine. He was instrumental in the Jones goal in the last quarter, when he sharked the ball from his opponent, weaved through traffic, and handballed to Jones without the skipper having to break stride. He also created a number of contests at half forward when delivery favoured the defence and he had every right to be outmarked. His goal kicking is a bit of a concern, but I think he's adding more than enough as a forward to persist. I'm not against midfield time as he's been good when he's gone there this year, but I don't see a pressing need for him there, unless he's going to rotate with Clarry. Petracca is definitely the better forward of the two at this stage though. I hate it when people refer to players as liabilities. Petracca is definitely not more negative to the team than positive, otherwise he wouldn't be in it. Melksham definitely had game below the standard we've come to expect, but I'm not worried at all. Every time we've started to wonder about him this year, he's followed it up with a huge game. I'm confident it will happen and am excited by the prospect of him turning it on in a huge final.

t_u, I reckon this is the first time in 11 years I've read one of your posts and gone "what?!". I fully understand the concerns over his ball use sometimes, and he had too many clangers against Geelong for sure (also an outlier compared to recent form this year IMO), but he exemplifies the way we want to approach the game. Of the names he's competing with, including Hannan, Spargo, JKH, Kent, Garlett etc - he is tougher, more contested and tackles better than any of them. It outweighs the occasional misuse of the ball easily. His name doesn't even come up if I'm in the match committee. Edit: some stats, if interested: If you use the "clanger" stat as proxy for poor ball use (I prefer it over DE% as what's defined as an efficient disposal seems totally arbitrary - a clanger is defined as a disposal that directly gives the opposition the ball back), the stats support your position - his percentage of clangers to possessions was 38% - second only to Melksham at 55% (want to drop Melksham?) - the only other to come close was Brayshaw at 31%. Looking at the team's season average, the median is about 14% and the mean 16% so the acceptable range is somewhere in the 11-20% range. On that basis, 38% is way out of bounds. Our worst players across the season have been Hunt, Maynard, Bugg, Pedersen and Frost. There are no surprises there, accept that none of them have played a lot of games, though most have been available for most of the season with the exception of Maynard, and Hunt if you really want to stretch the definition, which is probably not a coincidence. Vanders previous games registered 14%, 20%, 14% and 14%, so that would support my supposition that this game was an outlier. I know it relies on a heavy assumption that the CG stat is a good proxy for poor disposal (especially in that it doesn't account for the kicks that slightly miss the mark and cause a contest, where a better one would have put it down the forward's throat etc), but I thought it interesting and tells the story I thought it would. I know plenty of people will say "stats schmats", those people need not bother replying.

Hibberd is partial to a bit of soreness, so it’s probably just general management. Fingers crossed. While losing him wouldn’t be ideal, half-back also happens to be where we’re best equipped to cover anyway with the likes of J.Smith and Hunt primed and ready. It wouldn’t be a game changer. Great to hear Bernie’s firing. If he’s ready it’s hard to see him getting selected in the firsts, but Casey have a huge PF this week and having him in would help enormously.

I can't explain how excited I am about this. I don't think I've felt as good about our footy team as I do now. Even in 2000 - that was a great ride, but it was against the odds and we were never going to beat the unstoppable Bummers in that year. This year, we've navigated just about every hurdle we needed to (can't beat top 8 sides being the biggest), we're in form at the right time, we play a style of footy that is built for finals, and we're every bit as good as any of the teams we're going to come up against. It's the polar opposite of how I felt in the run of games prior to the West Coast game, where the leadup to every game felt like a complete grind. Just waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the team to clear that final hurdle to prove they are as capable as we all hoped. Finally they got there with the West Coast win. The game's obviously not won yet though and by Friday afternoon I won't even be able to pretend to work anymore and I'll be on the brink of a good spew - standard fare for all of us this week I suppose. I'll be bitterly disappointed if we can't get it done, but we also have to understand that by this stage of the comp, every team will be as determined as we are, and there can only be one winner in every game. I believe we will anyway, we are good enough. Go Melbourne.

Prior to the game he was 25.15. I know it's nitpicking as your post was intended to be positive, but I reckon it's harsh to refer to his miss as "trademark" - this was the first week his behinds outstripped his goals by more than 1. In general he's a decent shot for goal. Melksham and Petracca are the serial missers for mine.

Yeah, I’m due. TMac-Petracca chest bump should get the job done I think. If I can find a good pic today, up it goes.

Moloney, Sylvia, McLean, Bell?

@Fifty-5‘s point still stands generally, in that supporters looking two weeks ahead makes no difference to anything at all. Unless you have some (as yet unspecified) reason to believe the players are getting ahead of themselves, but that’s not what you made it sound like.

Uh, I... er... hate to interrupt, but did anyone hear the interview or track down a link to it?

Harmes has even developed a neat little don’t argue. Could be a whole game of no. 4s not arguing.

Ahahaha. A slow Sunday afternoon, @Demonland? ?

Much like with Brayshaw, necessity brought him some opportunity when Viney went out. My favourite part about this whole story is that since he’s started playing “stopping” roles, he’s become more of an offensive weapon than he’s ever been. I was curious to see how he’d go with Viney back, given he had essentially been playing Viney’s role. It’s an “inside heavy” midfield with those two, Oliver, Brayshaw and Tyson all spending time in there. All seem capable of getting on the outside when needed as well though. It’s turning in to one hell of a formidable midfield.