binman

🍿?

Agree, we have to be switched on, though I'd be beyond disappointed if we weren't (and very surprised) - we're a long, long way from being in a position to take any team lightly. I expect we'll come out firing. Maxy in his interview on the ground after the game mentioned the bombers beating us the last 3 times in Gather round and that we owe them. By the by, we're ay at Adelaide oval, which is aprox the same size as the G

I'm sorry picket, but as a card carrying member of IPS (International Pedant Society), I have to say that makes no @$%@&^ sense! The Nova? Sure. The Astor? Absolutely. Village? OK. But Home Theatre System as a play on Cinema? Nup. I mean a home theatre is almost literally the opposite of a cinema!

Conversely rhe crowd noise by dees fans at the ground was incredible given there was only 24k there. I watched the replay last night and the noise really came accross on the TV, particularly the booing, so much so the commentators mentioned it several times. On booing i heard a few people around me say they would have booed tracc, which to be honest surprised me a bit (ie the angst towards him). With the mood the crowd was in he may well have copped some serious booing. And on the Suns crowd, i was sitting in the Olympic stand in an all Melbourne bay. The seats in the bay next to me, normally the seats for the President's lunch, looked like it had all been sold to Sund fans. The next bay along was all Melbourne reserved. Means the Suns fans were smack bang in the middle of loud demon fans going off. Welcome to the G.

I might have missed them, but had there been many posts seriously discussing finals?

Thanks @WheeloRatings . Is the handball metres gained for us right? If yes, points to clever coaching by King I reckon as our forward handball has been a notable feature of our game this season, averaging high 200s metres gained by hand coming into this game (Suns are #1 average something like 420 metres gained by hand) We only had 63 in this match, which had to be due to an instruction an tactic

I wonder if Matthew Lloyd thinks were still a 'poor side'. What a peanut

Yep super evident at the ground. We pulled apart their defensive structure and made jt really hard for them to transtuon the ball and enter 50 cleanly. And they were gettimg very frustrated

Agree. And I can't stand him. Explains why they lost/we won in the first couple of minutes super clearly. Contest, clearance, stoppages. And the dees aree good team with a blend of good senior players and talented young players, playing a difficult to defend game plan that is reconisable

Even Williamson?

I dont want to be Debbie Downer, but jeez that bloke is a dead set plonker. Always seems to crucify, but that might be confirmation bias But my big issue with him is its like he always wants to impose himself on the game.

I just heard that excerpt - what a stupid question given that it followed King saying senior players suggested the meeting and that it was well intentioned. Why would there be a trust issue? Perhaps raises some convern about competence od the FD, but trust? Nah. If there's Amy trust issue it would be players and partners wondering who they can't trust to keep things in house and not leak to Tom Morris (who by the by, I don't blame for running with the story)

Yes they appear to have breached May and his partners privacy, but litigation seems unlikely i would have thought, or at least civil litigation in the form of May and his partner suing the club (i guess there could be some workplace law they could get pinged for). What would they sue for? Can't be defamation as they would have to prove harm which would be hard given no specific details have thing has been reported on, and the information that has come out was not leaked by the club.

I don't think he heard you picket

Pay that

I could see that happening, but i suspect Laurie might come in. What we really need is our medium utilities (HF, HB. mid, wing etc) kicking more goals. We've seen some improvement in this space with Langdon, Chin, Sharpy, Culley and Langford last week all bobbing up for goals this season. Kolt is perfect for that role as he won't have to be asked twice to have got and goal and he is excellent, accurate kick

Agree Luci Beig charitable it was a well-meaning exercise, but a really, really stupid own goal.

And Cross jumped at a surprising number of packs to contest marks and bring it to ground. That's Melk's go too

Kentfield in if Fritter goes out? Or maybe Laurie, with Melk covering Friiters role?

Well i got that totally wrong on Melksham. Surprised, but in King I trust. He'll probably kick a bag. It's terrific that Turner is ready to come back in after just the one game. Just two changes is another big positive.

Great answer to that question EO. I'd add that in the Australian context I reckon a big factor in participation drop off is how sports like athletics, soccer, basketball and Australian rules football all have entrenched pathway systems that aim to funnel the supposedly best players into the elite level (eg AFL). My son was a pretty decent basketballer, and played at representative level. Domestic level basketball, which he had to continue ayimg, became a chore, and it showed. Which of course irritated teamates who only played at the domestic level (and me as coach!). One he plateaued, and it became evident he wasn't going to get any higher, his interest in basketball dropped. And he stopped playing all together. I read a few years back that one theory why Australian soccer has failed to replicate the so called Golden generation that saw us punch well above our weight at an international level and have mutiple players playing at the highest domstic levels (eg EPL, Serie A etc) was during that era there were less rigid elite pathways and players were not so 'over coached' Rather than being funneled off to eite rep teams, players like Viduka, Cahill, Kewell and Aloisi played in their clubs junior teams before being promoted into their club's senior teams (tgough from memory kewell went straight to Europe). The theory was that by staying with their club, they played with their mates, enjoyed their footy and were able to play instinctively amd with more freedom and creativity than would have been the case if they were taken out of that environment and put on an elite pathway with all the attendant coaching, discipline and training. The other part of the equation is by staying at their junior club for longer all their teammates benefited from playing with super talented players. A related point is young players develop at different rates, amd having quality teammates helped their development amd made it more possible to get to a higher level. The bottom line is despite a massive increase in participation and the development of talent spotting and elite pathways we are producing fewer world class players (particularly strikers) than we did in the mid eighties to the mid nineties. I'm convinced that the same issue is a big factor in the appalling drop in the number of indigenous players in the AFL.

Steven King has been continuously involved at the elite level of Australian rules football since he made his AFL debut in 1996. He played 204 games of AFL football, then after his retirement spent 2 years as an assistant coach at the Saints, 10 years at the dogs (including in their 2021 side we beat in the GF), two years at the Suns (including 7 games as senior coach after they sacked Dew) and two years at the Cats as their midfield coach. Then if course he was appointed senior coach at the dees. In other words he knows football. A serious question lorn. Given his comprehensive knowledge amd experience of elite Australian rules football, do you think that given King selected Howes in the seniors at his first opportunity to do so agrees with your assessment Howes is a VFL standard player?

Spot on red. I honestly find amazing how wound up some people get about this stuff. I mean, who cares.

Cripps and Walsh are our claz and tracc. Great ball winners, contested beasts, rack up huge disposal numbers and metres gained by foot - but slow and average kicks. Very blunt instruments not particularly suited to thevway the game is being played atm. Every team still needs some blunt Instruments- I just wonder whether, unlike say 5 years ago, clubs want their highest paid players being blunt instruments.

I'm not sure about that. I was really impressed by our defensive system against the Blues. And even more impressed with our pressure, intensity and contest- suggests to me that we're not just an outside team. Amd I'm not the only one. I heard Simpson say on SEN that before the blues game he had us pegged as an outside team that would score heavily against bottom teams but get beaten up by the top teams because we couldn't match their contest work. He said that he was super impressed with our contest, pressure and ability to match the blues at the contest and stoppages. Said we clearly more than the one trick pony he thought we were.