Adam The God

That was my first thought too, but I reckon it's more likely Viney they work on IMO. Good luck on Trac, he's too powerful and big, but Jack is smaller and was key in breaking up stoppages last week. Port targeted Jack and I suspect Collingwood will do the same.

Again, Clarry is the best player in the competition IMV, but we will beat them without Clarry.

Exactly and it makes us less predictable without Clarry in there. Don't get me wrong, he's my favourite player and we need him there for finals, but we can and will win without him.

Yep, given Higgins is super flakey, inconsistent and poor defensively. That said, he too managed 3 tackles inside 50 last night, so maybe I need to give him more credit.

Butler was very good in this area last night. 5 tackles inside 50, which puts him number 1 in the league for the moment, 1 ahead of Koz.

I like the Gawn behind the ball suggestion, but there's some interesting psychology behind that move, because Cox got Max's kidneys last year. He'll do it again of he gets the chance, however I reckon it's worth risking it, so Max provides extra cover for our defence. He needs to find his 2021 form in the air though.

I'm watching on delay, but watch this game and tell me fatigue isn't a huge factor in modern footy... skills are appalling. Often under little pressure. For the record, Sydney look to be suffering far greater fatigue, but in the first five minutes, you could see multiple players breathing in the big ones, hands on heads and hips etc. It's naturally continued into the second quarter.

And he missed, what, two games?

What does the article actually say, please, for those of us without subscriptions to the HUN? :)

I reckon it'd be even better if we gave Clarry another week off and beat them anyway.

I'm confident either way, with or without Clarry. Our mids will be under pressure to step up if Clarry doesn’t play. That'd hold us in good stead.

If Daicos can't get the same amount of ball because we beat them in the contest and pressure the outside ball, he becomes less of a problem. I think we've got the best system, it just has more evolution to come.

Exactly. So it's not about covering him on kick ins. You back your system in to beat theirs and have players responsible in each phase of the contest and area of the ground. And you set yourselves up to score big on turn over. Tick. Which means they'll be -1 in the back half. If they choose to send another half forward or winger up to the contest to be a +2 at the contest, that makes them -1 at either end of the ground. I'd suggest that what many of us have said, RE Smith playing a defensive role on Moore will also come to fruition. This means the rest of our forwards have a +1 advantage and hopefully Smith can take out their best interceptor. I'm really hoping we give Clarry another week off and we test ourselves against them without the best contested player in the league.

This is another reason we've tried to model our game on theirs and early in the season, our accuracy was very much like theirs in key games last year. But much of this is about where their players kick goals from. Often very central positions.

I don't mind him taking kick ins. And I suspect neither will we. It's the outside work that we'll try to stifle.

I hope Collingwood go tall and then it pours down.

Well, it's interesting, on their defensive 1v1s mentioned in my previous post, according to the AFL ap, Daicos of the Nick variety, hasn't had a 1v1 this year or hasn't won one. He's 0.0%. He doesn't intercept, he doesn't even rebound heavily. He's a good old fashioned loosey goosey receiver. He knows the right spots to get into and is an elite kick, and he has a great tank. Will be fascinating if we put extra time into him. I'd imagine we'll have a plan for him in each area of the ground, but I can't imagine we'll do much more than that. We'll back our system.

I never go near Level 2, 3 or 4. It happens every week on Level 1.

We were still allowing -1s at the contest against Carlton.

Because the attraction for me is live football. The food and beverages have nothing to do with it. Each to their own, until of course you start blocking my view because you're off to get another round...

You're not one of those MCC members who leaves their scarves across seats to save them, while you're off having dinner are you? Because as the attendants always say, you're not supposed to do this. It's prohibited. That particular approach gives me the S's. We pay $10 a ticket to reserve seats at the big games. It's worth it. Then we can turn up whenever we want.

I wonder what crowds would be like if there was no alcohol served at the footy. I go to watch the footy, not network or to have drinks with my mates. As far as I'm concerned, you may as well stay at home if you spend half your time in the bar. But again, some MCC nuffies go purely to network. I'm not advocating no alcohol at games btw, just that I think a significant portion of the crowd wouldn't attend without it. It's become so engrained in the fabric of footy. The last few weeks in the MCC has been intolerable. People stand up in front of you 25-30 times a game, mid play. They don't even wait for stoppages anymore. I'm sorry to hear this about your co-worker. That's pathetic.

IMV, this is what makes him stand out from the rest of our defenders, other than maybe Bowey. Once he gets a little stronger, he could well become that Nev Jetta lockdown type, but with an offensive ability that Jetts never really had. He's been a great pick up. Struggled for a few weeks there, but unlike some of his team mates, seemed rejuvenated on Friday night.

The commentators and many Demonlanders too. You watch.

I agree. The quietness of Melbourne crowds do my head in. They're not always quiet, but often they're quiet at the wrong times. I remember going to a game against Port at the G in the early 2000s. There was something like 12k there. It sounded like 50k, so we can make noise (think Geelong and Hawthorn 2018 finals as well), but we don't do it consistently. And I have to say, sitting in the MCC, there are so many Melbourne people that just simply don't understand the rules or have a decent feel for the game. But all clubs have nuffies.