The Chazz

Did they have the work experience kids in charge of the cameras yesterday? Was bloody hopeless at times. And that bloke that commentated with BT, never ever heard of him before. Must have been some ring-in from a Perf community radio station or something. He was as bad as the cameraman.

Rest players in the last round, giving them 2 weeks off heading in to a final? Would be a very brave coach to do that. WCE would have the Brisbane game locked in as a win already. They only need to win one of their last 2 to lock in 2nd. If we come out and hit them hard early, then there's no reason for them to bust their ass at the risk of injury.

$1.34 on Sportsbet now, still $1.40 on TAB. If we keep coming in like this, it means either that Gawn is a definite starter, or that one of the Swans better players is in doubt, potentially a combination of the two.

Head vs Heart, Kenty. And to be honest, it helps deal with the disappointment if we fail. That said, if you weren't a Melbourne supporter, having a bet on us to miss the 8 at those odds is smart punting. We have a hard run home, we have very recent history of crumbling, and plain and simply, we haven't shown any reason this season that we can be trusted in the games we have in our run home.

Not sure if it has been mentioned on here yet, but it's actually possible for us to make 8th spot without winning another game. Would require North losing today and next week (against Adelaide in Adelaide), as well as Port losing their last two (which are against Collingwood here, and Essendon over there). Effectively means Geelong repose Port in the current Top 8.

Today won't assure us of a finals birth, but by crikey, it will go very close, especially after the Dogs upset the Roos in the curtain raiser to our game. Dees by at least 1 point.

So he's an out then?

How can we not barrack for Hawthorn today? We win tomorrow and it puts us 2 games in front of Geelong. Yes, they can pass us in the last 2 games, but that's presuming we don't win another game after Sydney, as well as Geelong winning by enough for their % to overtake us. And that's just one team. We beat Sydney tomorrow, puts us 1 game in front of them. They have GWS and Hawthorn to come, so it's quite possible that they won't win another game. North have Adelaide in Adelaide next week. I can't forthe life of me see them winning that. Again, we win tomorrow and we will be 2 games ahead of them and serious %. Top 4 would be amazing, and to do so we need to win at least 2 of our last 3, with some other results going out way. But as Roos has continually said, we need to make finals first, then we can look at going higher. The best part about a lot of these "8 point games" this weekend is that they are on today. Going in to tomorrow, we will know what a win will do to our finals chances. Could go very close to locking it in. Nb. That's not forgetting that Port or Collingwood could just as easily drop out, most likely Port given the run home of both clubs.

$7 for us to miss the Top 8. Load up on that, and if we win, then monitor other results from the weekend (if North and Geelong both win), and load up again the following weekend when we will be double figures. If we lose this week, we'll be in to odds-on to miss the 8. I see it as a form of payment for my MFCSS prescription.

Jury was out for me early in the season when a lot on here were excited. I think the jury has nearly reached a verdict. The kid can seriously play.

Reminds me of the movie Me Myself & Irene (would love someone to be able to past a gif of the exact scene). One of the funniest movies of all time, especially if your sense of humour is as warped as mine.

The thing for us for the remainder of the season is about W/L's, not %. We win the same amount of games or better than the 9th placed team and our % will get us through.

Problem with the Eagles is that they have Brisbane in the last round (I appreciate it is in Brisbane), and we have GWS, so I would expect that West Coast will leap frog us back. And let's not forget that GWS are half a game ahead of us. The only way we can finish 2nd is for us to in all our remaining games, and for the Eagles to lose this week. I think this scenario is highly unlikely, but I'm not against rooting for it!

The good part about this coming weekend is that we will know the results of the other "8 point games". I think Hawthorn are a lock to make it, so we need to hope they beat Geelong. If we win this week and Geelong lose, I can't see them passing us, even if we lose the last two and they (will) win the last two. Port also have a tough run, so we need to barrack hard for the Eagles to roll them. It's unlikely that the Eagles will miss the top 2, but there's also the possibility of Power dropping 2 of their next 3. Again, if we can roll Sydney, and West Coast beats Port, it adds a lot of pressure on Port to win their last two (against Collingwood and Essendon). There's no way I can see the Dogs beating North, so we're going to need to rely on Adelaide rowing North the following week. With North a game behind us, and with 2 very winnable games in their next 3, again, we will need to beat Sydney to give us that 2 game buffer on them, so regardless of our last two games, our percentage should stop them from passing us. With the results of the likes of Haw vs Geel, Power vs WCE, Pies vs Bris and Dogs vs North being known before our game starts on Sunday, if we have all the results go our way (especially a Hawks and Eagles win), I reckon we can lock our spot in the 8 with a win over Sydney. And if somehow the Lions and Dogs can get up, we'll be right in the hunt for a top 4 position. We MUST beat Sydney this week to make finals. A win over either West Coast or GWS I think locks us in for a Top 4 spot.

All due respect, Sue, I think you are missing my point. For example, if we are playing Geelong, and Gawn is on the ground but Stanley is off, leaving Geelong with no "dedicated" back up ruck. At the next stoppage, Gawn is standing there, so we know that he will ruck, but who is he rucking against? Let's say they only have Dangerfield, Selwood, Kelly, Duncan and Ablett around the stoppage. Our midfielders line up on them, but the reality is, one of them (Geelong players) will be going up against Gawn. The rules are that you are not allowed to block an opposition ruck from contesting. In the scenario above, and with all the tagging/blocking that goes on amongst midfielders at a stoppage, how do we know who we can and can't block? If they don't have to nominate a ruck, we will run the great risk of either blocking the guy that's "meant to be" going up in the ruck (thus giving away a ruck infringement free kick), or finding that their "ruck" takes a clear jump at the contest because our mids won't know which one they can and can't block. So again, in the scenario above, you would presume Danger is going to take the ruck contest. So that means we'll be able to put more touch on the their other players at the stoppage. It'll only take Ablett being blocked for them to say that he (Ablett) was going to be the one going up, but one of our mids didn't give him a fair run at the ruck contest. (Hope that makes sense).

Yeah, because sides that see Dangerfield floating around the pack are going to presume he's going up in the ruck? Seriously, if the AFL change this, they will need to implement something to stop teams from exploiting it. It will happen.

My main concern with getting rid of the nominating of the ruck is that for sides that only play one designated ruck, when that ruck is off, how will the opposition know who is contesting? We saw it happen first hand at Geelong when Dangerflog nominated late, and Brayshaw didn't realise so was blocking his run (which we know what that led to). I've wondered whether the old school basketball jump ball rule would work where if there's a stoppage because of a tackle, that the person with the ball and the first tackler go up. Would mean the traditional ruck is only required for bounces after a goal and boundary throw ins, which would disadvantage us given we have the best ruck in the league. (I'm not totally sold on this idea for that reason alone!). I'm happy to hear how not needing to nominate will work, but I can see the potential of teams exploiting the ruck rule by claiming a midfielder was going to go up but his tagger blocked his run.

A Sydney win could see Collingwood slide. For a team that is hampered by injuries, their draw isn't ideal, so those wishing for the Pies to miss out on finals, this could start the rot for them. All week I've actually been thinking that this game will be a draw. Not sure why. Not sure how this will impact the ladder either!

I think you would need to look at a break down of all quarters results to see if there's coincidence or not. If we find we are winning a majority of first quarters, then what does that tell us? Perhaps if @DaisyDeeciple feels like slacking off again today, they might be able to do a break down of quarter by quarter results.

I wonder if they have sent him to the US like they did with Petracca. I remember seeing some of the footage when Trac was over there, and thought that they were really getting the best possible rehab in place for him (not that I would know the difference between good rehab and bad rehab for this sort of thing!). Slightly off topic, but watching Scharenberg's knee just buckle on him was quite heartbreaking to be honest. When they slow the replay down, you can see through his skin how his knee just exploded on him. I still hate Collingwood, but it's never a nice thing to see a young player, any player, cut down by injury.

It's a significant achievement for Gawn to be (at this stage) the best player in the league by the coaches. Even with him leading this, I am actually expecting the Grundy will get the All Australian ruck gig.

For the punters out there, we are currently $5.50 to miss the 8 on Sportsbet. Im expecting us to win this weekend coming, so our odds of missing the 8 should blow out a bit more. What price are you willing to pay to watch the Dees in the finals? Me, I'll be putting $100 on us to miss the 8 after this weekend's win. Should get $8s, so if the worst case scenario eventuates, I'm ending the year with a few dollars in my pocket. That said, I'll never be happier with losing $100 if we make finals.

In answer to your last line... Very.

Harmes clearly feeling cocky...

Can anyone confirm if they have seen Rory Lobb and George McFly in the same place at the same time? I highly doubt that it has happened. @Ethan Tremblay you're probably the best to confirm given your contacts around tinseltown.