bing181

Just to put this into context, I can get a Paris > Perth return, going out Thursday, come back Sunday, for 900 euros (around $1460). (Etihad/Thai if anyone's curious). Ridiculous prices and just blatant profiteering.

FWIW, I think this is the one game too many that will catch up with us. Not being pessimistic, it's just that the physical demands of the last 4 matches, and especially the last two where it's all gone up a notch, will start to catch up with youthful bodies. Not only are West Coast older, bigger, stronger (especially the first), they've had a week off, a week of not putting your body on the line and getting knocked from pillar to post. As always, I could be wrong, and the 8 day rest including effectively a full weekend to rest/unwind could prove invaluable, but I wouldn't be surprised if we just can't match them physically for the whole game.

In J Smith, Fritsch to wing, Tyson out.

Also, a bit of Spargo love please. Not big numbers, but all of them seem to be important numbers, and great to see him getting on the end of a couple.

This season has surpassed expectations by some distance. To have made the finals was already a big tick, but to win two finals ... phenomenal. Team is maturing before our eyes. Now watch Goodwin win coach of the year. (toss up between him and Clarkson).

This is what inexperience looks like. Can't fault the endeavour, but polish lacking. Hopefully they settle a bit in the second half.

We can still go up a gear here, a few not quite "in" the game yet. Though of course, so can Geelong. Impressive structural work down back, really shutting down their avenues of attack.

Need to get past Geelong before we start talking about the Hawks.

Put away your glasses, Richmond for the flag, only question now is who makes the GF. Scary good, and the buy-in from the players is a thing to behold.

Agree. I think the interview brings home once again how on-field performance only comes on the back of club-wide behaviours, and you can never really lay the blame for failure or the credits for success at the foot of a single individual. Yes, after this we got Roos, but it was the changes on the admin and Board side that really started to steady the ship and put in place the foundations for what we see now. Yes, Neeld made some poor decisions, but so did many others around him at the time, and from the top down. Still, easy to say in hindsight.

That's not the way it works. You don't escape being done for drunk-driving just because you managed not to run into anyone.

Good to see Hannan, Hunt and Joel Smith included. Gives us some options for the following week.

Not sure that we can presume that Hannan will be available.

Though the toughest part is dealing with people who seem to think that it's anything more than informed guesswork. Decision making under uncertainty.

I know little about him, but we already have one injury-prone talented junior on our list in Pat McKenna, and that doesn't seem to be working out too well, so hard to see Freeman being of interest.

Given the year they've had, not much leeway down there at the moment I suspect.

and ...?

In an ideal world, would prefer Tyson to whoever his replacement would be. His games since returning from the VFL have been more than decent - even on the weekend, in less than a half of footy he managed 13 disposals - and at 100% efficiency.

The decision to draft him at the time was the right one - it's only in hindsight that it appears not to be the case. As an 18 y.o., he was doing everything you could ask and had the runs on the board. He's one of those players that looks like a million dollars at a lower level, but for whatever reason, can't translate that to the big stage. Good luck to him, he's still not all that old, I wouldn't be writing him off yet. In any case, he has a decent SANFL career ahead of him, which isn't to be scoffed at.

Which is what, by definition, makes it a bias. And yes.

Just so important for the younger players, the Brayshaws, Olivers, Harmes, Fritschs. THIS is what teams like Hawthorn and Sydney (especially) have had through all these years - and we haven't. By the time Lewis moves on, we'll have established a Melbourne way of doing things, the kind of tough, take no prisoners, nose to the gindstone, just get the job done, ownership approach that characterises successful teams. IMV, can't overestimate enough his contribution to what we're seeing now.

Bizarre.

WatchAFL works well - believe you can register just for a month (or something like that).

I suspect one of Tyson and Kent will get up. So for mine would be: Viney for JKH Joel Smith for either Tyson/Kent, then move Fritsch up the ground (wing or forward). If Garlett plays another decent game, selection could get tricky, especially as the logical out if he comes in would be Spargo - which would be a bit stiff.

I wouldn't be so sure. 2 weeks is a long time in footy, especially come finals.