Demon17

Johnathon Brown said on The Couch that Leigh Mattehws told his Brisbane teams that the one stat that really mattered in winning games was front of goal accuracy which he placed most importance on above others.

You probbaly meant this tongue in cheek, but if not Sam's was 5 minutes into the first 1/4. But either way your'e spot on as it lifted the stadium and set the scene.

Very good point re bont. Interesting libba also only kicks a goal every 3rd game and more handballs than kicks. But clarry is way more handsome.

Bont kicks a goal every game. Clarry kicks a goal every 3rd game. Very differnent players and surrounded by differing midfields anyway. Appreciate them both.

The Swans will take the Blues to the cleaners when they meet. "And Cripps owes us one...?" The Australian Tax Office owes me money but theyr'e never going to pay up.

I agree esp your comments on maturity. I am so over the ' go home' factor after constant Hogan speculation that I no longer care and consider the issue. If they go - then they go. I moved for work reasons, 8 times over 40 years and 15 houses. Its life and/or reality.

Not necessarily. Forward entry and lowering of eyes (maybe that's just better decision-making) is signifcantly different. And the absolute manic forward pressure is huge.

A great piece of thoughtful posting AD. Well done. You remind me of the 1987 team that was the first success I saw, and thinking about the makeup, with Northey as coach, it was full of new and undamaged players. Very few from the early Barassi years. Viney, Lyon, Spalding, Stynes, O'Dwyer, etc. abd interstaters like Johnston, Warren dean, Chopper Lovell (1988). Once they made the charge in 87 the belief was obvious. Very few early 80's player in comparison.

Spot on comment and a great opinion-starter of a thread topic. Why wev'e improved? Selfless team Yze, Williams Maturity Gawn Forward entry Laver/May convergence Hunt re-birth Jason Taylor - by definition Langdon, May, Lever, Pickett , Jackson.......................... Failure is an orphan. Success has many parents. All of the above have a part-claim, but to give Goody credit, he's the guy in the spotlight and it doesn't happen without his leadership. Some will, but not all.

Just because he's short doesn't mean he's tired. I love his quote from his grandfather that he's menitioned: "...Charlie, If you good enough, your'e big enough.." He's big enough in my book.

Good observations G . And I agree with David King. We're in uncharted waters here as a supporter base. usually - in my entire lifetime, its been a case of how many games to make the 8. Now its a paradigm shift for everyone. We need to win only 3 of the next 14, so the 8's a lock. The key issue now is how many do we need to win for Top 4, then how many for Top 2.? As hardwick correctlty says (and the great jack Dyer said it first) Flags are won in September, not April. And that means hitting GF Day at peak . This was also Malcolm Blight's mantra, execpet he used a clock, and likened GF day to 1 minute to Midnight, or peak time. This was demonsrated by the Crows NOT being the best overall team in 97 and 98, but trained to reach peak at GF time. Goodwin emphasisied the holistic team apporach at his presser on Suunday when discussiing Weideman, by reiterating its a team game and a team approach to player selection and management. This comment gave me great confidnece in player management this year, especcially as there is good quualaity depth and options, to ensure late season peaking. I'm sure match cttee are on top of this.

A friend of mine played under Barassi at north in the 70's. He still says now that Barassi would have him wanting to run through a brick wall if necessary for the team success.

This comment probably fits into this selecton thread. I'm worried about the forward structure after last night, and admittedly only 1 game, But it looked very different with Brown in, and may have impacted Fritsch's output. Fritsch has been great all year but last night there seemed to be continual rotations, with Brown off a few times. Obviously not because of fatigue, and I wonder if this selection is a work in progress from the coaches, trying to figure out how the pieces fit. I fear losing Fritsch's aerial strength which is a winner for him. Time will tell next week, on a hopefully dry day. Brown's impact was his usual forte - straight kicking and high pack marks and on last night only prefer to perservere with him than Weid.

35K

We thought this also and said some decison making looked like the bad old days for sure. Sparrow in.

A good 8 point win for us in some respects as the swans are going to beat plenty others this year. Just not the dees.

Mistake ridden performance.

I suspect you might be right. Keeping up for 7 weeks straight is hard for the inexperienced in this mindset. It will/could show up some weaknesses for fixing now rather than when its too late. The team's not perfect thats for sure. Especially the premiership defenec we had befroe Tomlinson's injury. Or could just be more of the same and 8 - 0 after the game? Importantly the Swans will beat many good teams this year in Sydney so rather lose to them than Blues or Pies.

This is why I'm confident abotu beating the Swans. Last week the Cats won clearly all over the ground and in the stats except on the scoreboard. Ridiculous I know but in the past 61 games since 2000, teams with these stats have won. Swans were lucky with some umpire assistance. The Dees are better.

She gave Dusty and the club heaps a few years ago when he threatened a female diner in Prahran with chopsticks I think it was.

Exactly. Daisy Pearce said this morning On SEN she was just " praying for a 3 - 0 start for once" or at least a start that wasn't behind the 8 ball early. 7 - 0 was beyond her wildest expectetcions. You don't get to 7 to Nil in any comp just because its easy. Most say there's no easy games at AFL standard. Saints and GWS are going to beat pleenty this year. Just not the Dees , being ahead in quality fro once

I felt the same at the time but he showed a bit of courage aftyer 1/2 time. But looking at his metrics, he is a bit taller than tomlinson albeit several Kgs lighter, so maybe he can play that 3 rd tall support to May and Lever if he's up to it? If he is, he's the future for sure.

Who will make way for him? Just asking

That's true about Goodwin, but the foundation was laid by Roos and Jackson for whom we should be forever grateful. Roos got the dollars sure (and he enahncedh is coaching reputation), but the club got what it paid for as well. Self respect, a level of credibility and the bleeding stopped. Without that Goodwin had nothing to build on. A house built on sand will not last. In terms of the present, not being inside the tent we will never know just how much an impact on performance we have seen as a result of the master appointments of Williams and Yze. I suspect nothing changes without their skills, strategic and teambuilding influence on Goodwin. The quick 100% turnaround to the selfless, lowering the eyes style of play tendered as eveidence. The true talent of the list has now been exposed by many. Success has many parenets, failure is an orphan as they say and kudos to Goodwin for keeping it together in 2019/2020.

This year just gets better and better.