binman

Not me. Not even at the +30 points line. One of my Golden rules of footy betting is don't gamble on really rubbish teams. You can't trust em. And the roos are truly woeful. If I was forced to have a bet in that match I'd back the under the total match score of 179.5.

Yes, that gastro bout was a shocker. Very embarrassing at the TV week awards. Oh, hold on, misread your post.

I can't remember. Back in the day get woke, go broke was rhyming slang not a silly culture war slogan.

Yes.

Demonland logic: Pre cats game: We are an average side, going nowhere. Beaten no one and a team that would have beaten us by 100 points if they didn't put the cue in the rack just got smashed by the giants. Reality check time. Post cats game. We are an average side, going nowhere. Yes we we won by 4 goals, but the scoreboard flattered us. And we've still beaten no one. Sure the cats were unbeaten, but coming into the game their wins were against teams 9th, 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th and 18th on the ladder. And they also had two less days recovery. Reality check time next week against the blues, who will smash us. Their mids will destroy us, and yes we have a good defence but we can't expect them to rescue us every week. And fair warning, I don't want to hear the predicable excuses trotted out by the pollyannas about the impact of the five day break.

Cmon Billy, if you want to be a trolling hero you have to do much better than that. Or perhaps, Billy, don't be a hero.

A key factor in our ability to defend clearances is having one less at tbe stoppages. The fact we are number 2 for attacking from clearance and dominate in scores from stoppages (bar the lions game) playimg one down at stoppages shows how good our midfield and set ups are.

I agree with all of the above. Contest and pressure is absolutely the foundation of our game. It is fir all clubs. And for the dees the other fundamental is defence. And I'd agree that come finals our game will revert back to a large degree to a forward half, territory game. That's finals footy. But hopefully key elements of the new, transition from back half method will remain in place. And hopefully playing a less contested, coal face game during the home and away series will mean we are not as banged up come finals as we were in 2023 and 2022. I mean think back to those seasons. At the end of 2022 our first pre finals training session looked like an episode of MASH with all the bandages and limping. At the end of last season our forward line was missing so many players that we had to bring in an injured tmac. It is obvious, and clarry said as much, that they want to make the home and way season less physically taxing. And there is hardly a more taxing method than that used by the dees since the start of the 2021 season. It makes perfect sense to implement a less taxing methodin the home and away season and kudos to goody for doing so - particularly given the associated risks, winning fewer games being the obvious one. But in order to change something so fundamental we are going to have to wear some funky stats, some out of character performances and some losses too. Rome wasn't built in a day.

That surprises me TU. I had you pegged as a bit more realistic. But perhaps I've misunderstood your scaling parameter, and it isn't subjective to objective. By the by tmac is an excellent field kick. Which is why he I'd going at 81.8% by foot this year. By way of contrast salo is at 70.6% But salo takes on harder kicks I hear you say. Fair point, though there is still a 11.2% gap between the two.

Meant to include Bowser. Brain fade. Have to see macadam first.

I'm with you col. I have always liked the giants. Almost agree with your daughter too. Second best song.

I did no such thing. For petes sake, a third of the way through the season we are 5-2, 4th on the ladder with the 4th best percentage of any team, having played 3 of our 7 games interstate. 5-2. 4th on the ladder. 4th best percentage. With four of our best 22 to come back in (salo,Bowser, Hunter and melk). And it feels as if we are no good? Man oh man we see the game differently.

That assumes they get through their game against the blues on Saturday injury free. I'm predicting two hammy tweaks and a suspension.

Agree. Though I could see goody wanting to bring hunter in for his experience and grunt. Possibly at the expense of woey or Laurie (if the latter woey sub).

To be honest, it feels as if you are simply searching for proof we are no good. Clearance numbers mean squat. It's about the score from clearances differential. As I noted above we have smashing teams for scores from stoppages. I've no idea what yoy are talking about with our pressure. We had one quarter out of 28 with a pressure rating of 150 and that's evidence our pressure had been off? Apart from the lions game, when blund freddy could see we were gassed, it has been largely fantastic. Go check out the stats file thread. The pressure numbers are there for every game. And even less idea what you are talking about in terms of our last 3-4 weeks. Poor against the lions, but we still only got beaten by 22 points. Poor in the first half last night, we piled on 10 goals to 2 in the second half to win by 43 points (against the same team who rolled the swans a couple of weeks back). We beat the crows. At Adelaide oval off a five day break. And in one of the games of the season, and arguably one of our best games since our flag, we beat Port at Adelaide oval. But we all see what we want to see i guess. You're not a Smiths fan by any chance?