Adam The God

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.

Such a loyal bloke. We don’t know him. He'll see out his contract. The little bloke is all bluster.

Alastair Clarkson's Curse? ? One can only hope.

We shouldn't rest them all at once. I'd say they'll rest a few more next week.

Isn't this an oxymoron? They're depth for a reason.

Look at this play. Viney shakes off Williams and then Cordy a key position player, and then has the vision to see Kozzy and kicks it very deliberately out to the space in front of Kozzy. It's a brilliant piece of play. https://www.instagram.com/p/CRxhF0lHWPd/?utm_medium=copy_link

I've watched Viney carefully at stoppages for essentially the last year, since @Axis of Bob wrote that brilliant post about our stoppage set ups and Viney'sdefensive importance to them, but at this stage I just have to completely disagree. He ball chases. He doesn't trust his team mates to tackle and our midfield is noticeably unbalanced when he's in there. I'd even argue our dip in form as a team has coincided with his return. That's a loads things, but his return has also totally ruined whatever midfield synergy we'd developed over so many successful weeks. I'd take a fresh JJ over Viney as defensive midfielder just about every day of the week. JJ is a brilliant tackler, but is also beautifully clean below his feet and makes good decisions by hand and foot. He also stays within his wheelhouse and doesn't play hero. Viney forward on the other hand, I believe, is a completely different proposition. He overpowers small to medium defenders, even key position players at ground level, and makes good decisions, and his kicking shortcomings (mostly penetration) aren't an issue when he plays high half forward and deep forward 50. I wouldn't rule Jack out of the midfield necessarily in a final, particularly in bursts, but during the regular season I think he can add much more pressure to our forward half (to compliment Kozzy) without creating this bees to the honeypot effect in the midfield and leaving us exposed going the other way. Anyway, each to their own and I can't see them playing Viney permanent forward, but he and we IMO looked a lot better earlier in the season when he was playing more forward than constantly on the ball.

I'm not sure we can know what we're trying to do from clearances with Max's thumping as we're not in the inner sanctum. It sounds like you're saying the midfield is tired, not lacking in confidence. As for Oliver's ball use, I think aside from the Collingwood and GWS games he's been consistently damaging and territory taking with his kicking. That superb pass to Brown the other night was a perfect example. Brown then missed from directly in front 30m out. Not Oliver's fault. I've always thought Oliver has been marked harshly, but this year IMO he's been a model of consistency except for those two aforementioned games. As for Langdon, he looks exhausted. It's also telling that the three guys you first mention have played 90% TOG consistently all year. They look tired to me.

I'd be interested to hear who you're referring to here? If it's McDonald, I thought he showed some good leadership at the start of the third. Took a great contested mark and then converted, unlike most of his team mates. It sparked a comeback. I agree he's not having the same influence and it's probably a confidence thing, but I'm not sure mental fragility has been our undoing. I think clearly tiredness has. It obviously impacts on adherence to structures, concentration across 4 quarters and goal kicking accuracy. If we're a fresher team, we're the best team in the comp IMV. I'm just hoping that the intense loading that Burgess has been putting the players through pays off and at the very end and push for finals, we get a second wind. I don't think we ever 'deliberately' concede clearances, it's just that emphasis is not all down to winning the clearance. Winning a rushed clearance is good for territory but risks interception. Pressing the opposition post clearance heightens the chance we can intercept and get the ball on our terms. It's the Geelong model for almost the entirety of Scott's coaching career. If you look at Richmond, a similar thing. Clarkson's teams didn't always rely on them either. The most important thing is getting the game on our terms and then kicking straight. I've felt in at least the last two weeks in the wet, it's been about taking territory and bombing long to contests. This is a good back up strategy, but we were better when we switched the ball to uncontested players or had Max taking contested marks. As Max's dominance has diminished, we've reverted to 2019 territory, thump it forward, a bit haphazardly. It can work, but if we're just a little bit off defensively like we have been the last fortnight, then it gives the other side a chance. That said, IMV we lost both games due to goal kicking accuracy. Obviously can't know for sure if we'd have kicked on against the Bulldogs, but given they still struggled to score against us for large periods, had we taken our chances, I'd say we run over them.

I think it's clear our game stands up in the wet. We accounted for at least Richmond and Sydney in the wet. IMV, we were off 10% defensively the other night and clearly tired at ground level, which impacted on our cleanness and ability to get the ball moving back our way. Hibberd for example would have shut Bontempelli down earlier in the year, whereas he let him kick two of the easiest goals you'll see unattended. If there's a weak link in the defensive chain (and there were a few the other night- Salem was poor again, JJ was fumbly, where was Jackson, Hibberd fumbled, as did Rivers), most systems won't stand up. I think it's a testament to ours that we managed to get within 4 points midway through the last. IMV, our single biggest problem is goal accuracy and conversion. Even when we got so little out of so many, we were well in the game. Get that right and I think we'll be very hard to beat come finals.