Adam The God

Of course, but West Coast in particular are great at hiding talent they're really interested in. Bit hard if your brother is Paddy Cripps though, I'll admit. It's funny, when I saw you'd quoted me mate, I figured there was a grammatical error somewhere. 😂

Thanks for that mate. Jeepers, Paddy has a brother coming through now? So there's like an 8 or 9 year age gap? What's he like? Cripps is one of my favourite non MFC players, despite going down hill a bit the last few years. Would love to get his brother if they're at all similar. Carlton would be in prime position to lure him... or even West Coast I suppose.

Haha, I can see what you mean by honesty, but I'd call a side honest if they get it done in pressure matches. We've done that all year (with the exception of the most recent Bulldogs game). Port have stumbled at every hurdle. The Bulldogs have stumbled a few times when challenged too, as have Geelong. I'd argue we're the most honest side. The games we've lost didn't highlight mental vulnerabilities that will hurt us in finals. They've simply showed a side can't be up all year.

Not sure I agree. Our game is based off intercept. We rely on marking just as much as their bigs do. Fortunately, they don't have a lot at ground level, except Cripps.

Reckon he'll be top 5 KPFs in the game in 3 years time. He's already close to that now. He needs to work harder and he'll be a star.

It was a Showdown though where prior to the game, Port had won 25 times and Adelaide 24. This was to level it up. I turned it back to the Swans game as soon as the two Crows collided and Port kicked a goal from it. It seemed like a pivotal moment in the game, of which I'd watched very little. Too busy enjoying Sydney losing. Figured Port would run away with it after that. I was surprised to turn it back after the Sydney game to see Lynch kick a goal for Adelaide and with 3 and a bit minutes to go, Adelaide be within a kick. Port are deadset ordinary IMO.

I reckon he did 2 or 3 times and just beat Hawkins hands down. It was quite an incredible display, but I agree on playing Petty on Hawkins and trying to play off him by 5m, so there's little engagement in a strength battle. I think it was FIRST CRACK that talked about this about 5-7 weeks ago. The way you play Hawkins is you zone off him a bit and try and arrive slightly behind the play, but close enough to intercept or spoil. Easier said than done of course, but if the pressure up the field means the delivery to Hawkins is rushed, this strategy becomes much easier.

St Kilda have modelled themselves on Melbourne in the second half of the year, I reckon. They've nicked our set up behind the ball and place a greater emphasis on post clearance pressure and around the ground clearances, and ground ball gets. It was a similar sort of match tonight to our game against Sydney, in that the Swans were monstering the centre clearances, but St Kilda were intercepting those shallow rushed kicks that barely penetrated 50. Parker is a major offender at those rushed, nothing clearances that get intercepted. He was an offender against us too. For me he's a vastly overrated player. He's good, but not clever or particularly skilled. Certainly wouldn't provide us anything different to what we already have if we were to go after him. It also makes you wonder if Sydney are simply happy to take territory off winning the centre clearances, rather than have quality of clearance first and foremost. We're the opposite. We'd much prefer to get the most damaging centre clearance possible or put enough pressure on the opposition with their clearance so we can intercept. It's a different story with our approach to around the ground clearances of course, where we're quite happy to take territory. I thought St Kilda also exposed their lack of pressure forwards by rebounding with extreme pace off half back. They cut Sydney to ribbons, and stretched them out of shape with angled, wide, excellent ball use, and looked for thst corridor kick almost every time. They're a good team to watch, St Kilda, when they get going.

I'd prefer Weideman than some speculative KPF, yes.

We won't be sending Petty forward, so unless we can effectively replace Sam with another KPF under 25, it does potentially destabilise our long term list build. It also undercuts any forward depth we've had this year, which has been handy. I think we hold onto him unless we can win the flag and attract a Ben King type.

On the flip side of Taylor's brilliant game, Kreuger played one of the worst games of footy you'll see. That game would have made Isaac Weetra blush. He's a key defender in a top 4 team?

And... loving it.

This aged well. He murdered Hawkins in the last. And players always seem to get shiners playing on Hawkins...

How good has Taylor been on Hawkins? He's a nice kick too. You'd expect Hawkins to have most in the contest but Taylor has beaten him a number of times and taken multiple important intercept marks.

For a much lauded defence, Geelong have conceded a lot of goals out the back tonight.

How bloody good is GWS' ball use by foot? There has to be a player or two that'd be gettable there. That said, we now have Salem, Rivers and Bowey who are all good by foot off half back and May is a reasonable kick, while Lever and Petty are reliable kicks. Still, we have no one whose kicking can break the game open, whereas I reckon GWS have 3 or 4.

What are your thoughts @Nasher?

Yeah, different times though. That was 2017. This is 2021 and he just needs to play a role. As for Viney and Harmes, they had me pulling my hair out yesterday, but despite their constant holding the balls, I think they're both building to something. Further, they're allowing JJ some rest from the batter of defensive mid that he played so well earlier in the season. If Viney and Harmes get their decision making right, they, along with JJ, compliment the offensive ball winning ability of Oliver and Petracca. Our midfield has better defensive cover than either of the Bulldogs or Geelong IMO. The Bulldogs are almost all offence, except Libba. In the clinches, this could prove telling come finals. There's no doubt Jack and James have to tidy up their ball use, but they still have the next 3 weeks to sort that. And FFS play Jack majority forward.

I notice some are mentioning Salem might be a little sore. I'd look at Melksham playing that half back quarterback role. Obviously started as a half back in his early career, so if Christian is sore, no experience or foot skills lost there...

I'm intrigued by your news channel mate. From memory, you were also anti Bartlett towards the end. What's the goss?

So presumably we're kicking in somewhere between $250k-400k. That's a good result for a redevelopment and leaves us cash rich to backstop the 2020-2021 financial hits to revenue.

Is this clumsy from Browne guessing that the funding is coming from the pokies sale? Surely it's co-funding with the State Government and our cash generated from the pokies sale...

Thought we looked tired at certain times in the second half and our mids seemed to drop away in the last. Good to really put the foot down though. Bloody good time to be doing it. Need to do the same again to West Coast and Adelaide.

Not a player out there worth a game in the AFL.

No. He never gets on the park.