Adam The God

Some nice MFCSS already building in this thread, just to offset the over confidence.

Post taper is optimum and then fitness fades progressively from there. We've got three straight years of evidence on how we approach player management. There's a possibility that Collingwood are managing loads, but why would you want to enter the finals with a string of losses? Historically, the premiers enter the finals series on a run of victories. The only outlier is the Bulldogs.

I'm not sure that was the case. He was pushed out the door and didn't want to go at all.

My point was more that like The Australian newspaper did for years in politics, the Fox commentary (and 7), sets the tone for the AFL media narrative for the following week. But you're right, it's irrelevant what they say.

I agree with all of this Binners except that Port looked fatigued. They looked dynamic playing on the counter and dynamic from stoppages to me, but whenever they were winning the territory battle, it was harder for them to score because a) they had less space in their forward half and b) they only had Marshall as a legitimate tall target (Lord doesn’t count). This is a problem we've seen with us this year at times (and other teams), that when we're winning territory we have no space to work back into when we generate re-entries. Upon reflection, Geelong will likely struggle even against a struggling Collingwood, but with finals on the line it should hopefully be a bruising encounter.

They're not loading. You can't load and then taper in time for finals... They're suffering from a similar experience to us in 2022. They've been the hunted most of the year, they've been repeatedly tested, and now sides have worked them out.

The commentary on the AFL website has the reason for Collingwood's demise yesterday being they didn't treat Hawthorn with respect. Nothing of sides being able to implement the same blueprint to beat them. No wonder McRae was twitchy in his post presser. 😉

Even with a close loss, Fox set the tone vis a vis Port after the game, by (probably rightly) discussing their injury list and outs. They maintained that they weren't worried by Port's form slump and they just needed to get healthy again (Brad Johnson). They've lost 4 games in a row, mounting injuries and are 3 weeks out from finals. Get real, they're in big trouble.

Which was also 2021...

Geelong are playing for their finals spot, to defend their premiership. (they'll likely be 9th at the end of this round) They've got Brisbane in Melbourne, desperately playing for top 2 to secure a home final at the Gabba. And they've got Essendon, who themselves have North and the Giants away. On current form, the Giants win that but that's still a huge game in Round 24.

You're definitely an odd poster mate. It's like you've stepped out of a cave in the last 10-15 weeks and realised we're a really good team, with a really good coach, but before that we fluked a flag and then somehow managed to finish 2nd last year.

IMV, he probably won't make it at the MFC, but we'll see.

I reckon top spot is on too. Macrae looked lost for words in his presser today. I knew sides would start to seriously tag Daicos in the back end of the year, and that Collingwood are all or nothing, without nuance to their game, or a plan B. Blue print continues to be clog them up at half back, choke them in the corridor and they have few answers.

Laurie is a half forward to be fair and hasn't had a shot quite yet.

Fair enough mate. I'll back JT in. Has he had a miss with a mid?

Minor premiership is not over yet either. Collingwood doing their usual thing and [censored] the bed. You beauty, but they're so exciting to watch, aren't they?

Petty did reasonably well as a forward in 2019 too...

Simpson would have been [censored] himself in the final quarter. When our initial correspondence occurred, Essendon were leading easily. Essendon are a hopeless, irrelevant football club, living off past triumphs. 😉

Agreed, but who do you think is lobbying the government to prevent robust framework? It's the bookies. So they're not angels here. The government should ban lobbying money, but that's a bigger conversation and problem.

So you wouldn't go after Reid, mate? And if you would, what would you be prepared to part with?

The Freo or Adelaide games are the only chance, but they'll want pick 1, so no chance really.

Surely, the commentator should have said "put that on a showreel already"? Not a stamp. A stamp? Who uses stamps anymore, ya nuffas.

We got unlucky with injury too... and clearly they've learnt from it. Look how many more personnel changes we've had this year in comparison to last. Look at the amount of experimentation we've done with playing different personnel combinations. Chalk and cheese.

There seems to be some revisionism going on here. In 2022, Geelong did not rest all their stars. They rested some of them, when they clearly needed it. Every player is different though and Geelong's list was much older than ours. Last year, our players were banged up and pushed through it. At the end of 2022 and start of 2023, the club spoke of ensuring we managed players better and were able to hit the finals without being banged up. This has always been our aim and we've managed players' TOG throughout the season, and used a greater amount of personnel to give ourselves options at the pointy end. There is also a load management variable that simply taking a week off for someone like say Viney, means he then has to make it up on the track and risks losing match touch. We're about to get Clarry back, Jack is a warrior and can take a defensive back seat a bit more with Clarry's inclusion. As for Max's comments about 2022, has Max said anything about being banged up this year, Cranky? Max missed a whole heap of games and had Grundy rucking much larger portions this year than Jackson ever did, so last year was last year, and 2023 is a completely different story. To say selection against North could see us banged up like 2022 is frankly a ridiculous call, not to mention it presumes that load management, injury and our fixture in 2023 was exactly as 2022. It clearly wasn't... we have a much softer run in this year. 2023 looks like North, Carlton, Hawthorn and a struggling Sydney in Sydney. 2022 saw us play Freo in Perth, Collingwood, Carlton and Brisbane at Gabba. You could only compare the two run ins as similar if you were acting in bad faith. FWIW, I would have played Grundy this week for Max, but that might have been a bit fancy, and it's much better to maintain continuity, so I can see where the FD is coming from. Then what do you do if Grundy is brilliant? We've made the right call.

Finishing 2nd means we don't leave Victoria. If possible, we'd want to play Port or Brisbane at the MCG in the QF.