binman

The podcast is run by Elon musk this week - which is why it's not working. Good thing too. That was the most frustrating loss I can recall for a long time. Our kicking skills were absolutely horrendous. As were our ball handling skills. Good lord, we missed Oliver.

Def agree to disagree on tank - no chance bowey had the tank or high cruising speed of nibbler - an ability that is fundamental to the role. They are completely different types of athletes. And for context, unlike nibbler who never comes out of the side, bowey was dropped for a big chunk of last season and has played at Casey tgis year too. Whilst nibbler But leaving that aside, it makes little sense to take Bowey away from his best position as a distributor of half back and make him a high half forward, a role he has never played. And even less sense to take nibbler away from a specialist role he has trained and played in over three seasons and made his own to such a high level he is a clear best 22 lock. I mean a few years back, they encouraged him to look at other clubs. He stayed, and has played so well in that position that the club put him in the leadership group and resigned him on a new contract.

Bowey does not have the tank to play nibbler's role. Just about noone else does. Not yet. I find it so perplexing why people still callfor nibbler to be dropped. I mean, for one thing, he plays a very specific role, one tmac had said is the HARDEST role in football (his words, not mine), that there isn't an immediate replacement for. And leaving that aside, he has been selected in the ones for almost every game for two and half season. He has played something like 58 of our last 60 games for pete's sake. And that includes a premiership. Is there another player who can boast that record? Goody is a premiership coach, with a 58% win record. The idea that nibbler being one of the first picked and a best 22 lock is somehow related to goody having favorites, being stubborn or irrationally 'glued' to nibbler is an insult to goody. I mean c'mon, goody is the business of winning flags. If he didn't think nibbler helps us achieve that goal he's not in the side. Simple.

Lead. Bur agree - I've heard him do Casey a couple of times. Really like his work. The woman doing special comments, whose name escapes me but is an AFLW player, is good too. It makes such a difference to hear decent commentators.

Good thing we bear the other mob by 10 goals then.

Totally fair comments. I don't usually post my footy punting tips, bar the occasional comment on particular games. Was just struck by what I saw as great value accross so many games, and thought I'd share. But I get that people are sick of the infiltration of betting in footy. Me too. So I'll refrain from such posts in future.

Yep, that's exactly what I mean. Of course, I am likely wrong. But it is a possibility, one not considered if the game is assessed in isolation as opposed to being piece of the campaign puzzle

The suns don't have to win for me to win on that game.

Hodge makes Kelli Underwood sound like Dennis Commetti. How on earth can someone get job as a commentator when they can't talk properly, or without that weird resigned inflection at the end of every sentence - it is like fingernails down a blackboard. I mean, c'mon seven, cant you spring for some basic professional development and/or elocution lesson? Jesus wept.

The best betting round of footy for the season thus far i reckon (there is hardly ever so many game i consider good value - having already won on the Swans to make their line, and baulking late on the lions and leaving that game alone). Bets i like for the rest of the round: Adelaide to make their 44.5 point line - very long i know, but Roos coming off a bye and the Crows two games hence - and looking for percentage Gold coast to make their +6 point line - i think they win, so a six point line is good value Bombers to make their +12 point line - Port coming off a bye and Bombers two games hence, will run at Port and try to make it a running contest Hawks to make their +18 point line - Blues coming off a bye and Hawks two games hence, will run at the blues and try to make it a running contest Dees to make their 16 point line (in from 19) - Giants coming off bye and we will be looking to attack and run hard. Best bet of the round Saints to make their -50 point line - the Eagles are uncompetitive, not AFL fit, the saints will be desperate to take the opportunity to build some percentage and the weather is perfect for footy The only game therefore i don't have feel for the value is the dog freo game. The dogs are coming off the bye and Freo are up and running now. The line is a health -10 Dogs' way, so i give freo a real chance of beating that handicap mark. But i just have a feeling the dogs will buck the post bye trend and come to play today.

It was a weird Freudian slip. In cricket i always strived to make the ones. But struggled to get out of the 3s - hence the on3s.

1. Maybe, maybe not. There could be any number of other drivers for that call - refocusing the players at the half way point in the season, some training away from prying eyes, to practice a routine for our inevitable game down there next season, strengthen squad mentality etc etc. Even if its only purpose was 'to provide an edge to win the game', it was still an experiment that risked increasing our chances of losing. In the strategy segment on SEN, Sanderson was asked about it and said he didn't think it worked and the players wouldn't have liked it because it would have thrown their routines out of whack. My point is, would they have risked such an unusual change to their routine, and processes, if we absolutely had to win that game? I don't' think so. 2. Agree

I think one of the hardest things for fans to get their head around is the idea of a campaign that has as its goal peaking in September. Goody has said a variation of this at least five or six times in post match pressers. But his comments don't land, the instinct is to wave them off as coach speak. I think people get the concept in the abstract (premierships are not won in june). But not in terms of it informing their assessment of individual games. We have all been conditioned to see every game as critical and as some sort of litmus test or accurate meaure of the chances of ultimate success. Each game becomes a stand alone event unconnected to the arc of the season. The dees get beaten mid winter by the reigning premier on their home deck, a ground they have a home ground advantage bettered only by the lions. That loss confirms for many why we aren't a contender - despite the fact we had just vanquished the flag favourites. And there is the attendant gnashing of teeth and criticisms of: selection (why bring an underdone petty in! Spargo as sub?), coach (why so many handballs?) and players (dumb - just get it forward, no skill). But see the game as a stepping stone in our campaign and the perspective is different. Petty is selected, despite being underdone because it is the best thing for his individual program (and therefore the team) in terms of peaking later in the year. Or maybe they had been really worried Brown would not ever be fit enough to play the key tall forward role. And decided they needed Petty up there. Perhaps they got good news on Brown, changed course and decided they want Petty down back and wanted to give him as many games in defence as possible to get into the rhythm of the role. That might also explain why they didn't send him forward until near the end of the game after Cameron's injury. There are better, more versatile options for sub than spargo, but as flagged by goody at the start of the year they will use the sub role for both tactical AND load management reasons. Another sub might have increased our chances of winning this particular match, but the eyes are on the prize and spargo being in peak shape is an important piece of the puzzle. Give something up now and be rewarded later. We have had real struggles in the wet with our ball handling, but want to be prepared to stick to our method of chaining out handballs come finals - even if wet. So the direction is to continue to use handball in the cats game because the best way to embed something is apply it in a match. We turned it over way too often and as a result, for one of the only times this season , we were outscored on turnover. But perhaps the team was encouraged to take the high risk kick on because we they weren't encouraged to do so against the blues and pies games and they want to turn the dial a bit more to risk in this phase of the season to get us ready to play like we did rounds 1 - 6. These are all guesses of course. But they are possibilities not considered if the game is assessed in isolation, as a standalone, discreet event where the only goal is to maximise the chances of winning that individual match. But at the end of the day, for genuine flag contenders the campaign is about winning the war, not the individual battles. If our sole goal was to beat the cats, I am 100% sure a lot of things would have been done differently. Even our preparation might have been different - would we have experimented with the staying over night in Geelong stuff if that was an absolute must win game? Of course they wanted to win the game, but there were other objectives as well - winning wasn't the sole goal. And I think it is helpful to assess games, at this time of year in particular, through that lens.

The forecast is for 8 degrees tommorow. Low of 5, top of 8. What the? Forget Alice Springs locals, that would turn off a lot of Melbourne residents. I can't ever recall going to the footy for a day game that cold. Maybe one game at tge g when we came back from a huge 3/4 time deficit to win in one of our bleak years ' maybe 15 years ago. RGRS, how well does traeger Park drain? Forecast is for 5-15mm there today and 0-5mm tommorow morning. Hopefully it's not cold AND wet.

The Adventures of Bitters, Queen of the Desert.

Double header in the TV room Sunday arvo. The magoos as a curtain raiser for the on3s. Old school (except for the watching a huge flat screen from the couch bit)

100% agree.

Great result for the dees all round. Makes it harder for cats to surge. But two points to both swans and cats might keep them ahead of freo.

I'm glad I took the +2 point swans line, rather than the win, which was my first thought.

Nor do I. I think we'll win 8 of our last 9 games.

Not sure how long you have been following the dees, but we have a very different definition of what could be considered a disappointing team. I have been following the dees for aprox 45 years but started going to games regularly in 1978 (by myself back then - no one i knew barracked for the dees). That year we won the wooden spoon. Fun times. We had a stellar year in 1979 and really started our march up the ladder, ending the season in 11th. Not bad until you consider there were only 12 teams. And that time Fitzroy thrashed us by a still record margin was such a gas. But boy o boy, was 1980 awesome. We were marching up the ladder! Jumped up to 9th (in a 12-team competition)! Oh, oh - 1981 wasn't much fun. Yet another wooden spoon. So bad were we that we came within a bees whisker of merging with the Hawks and the oldest sporting club in the world almost ceasing to exist. 186. The Neeld years. Et cetera; et cetera; et cetera. Hopefully, you get my drift. In all seriousness, we are currently 4th on the ladder with an ok injury list and a soft run home. We are currently equal third favorite to win the flag (but will enter the finals as favorite IMHO). We are $1.40 to make the top 4 (by way of contrast the Cats are next best at $6 to make the top 4 and the Saints, who are only four points behind us, are $7 to make the top 4). For context, we are 1.40 to win Sunday and Winx ran around at that price. A serious question - do you rate the Pies? Well, a reminder, we beat them, the favorites for the flag, just two games ago! Can't have your cake and eat it too - if we are a disappointing side, the Pies must be pretenders not contenders. But really, in what universe could this current dees team, premiers in 2021 and finished second on the ladder at the end of the 2022 H&A season (and yes, we went out in straight sets in the finals), be considered a disappointing team? Not in my universe i can assure you.

Agree. Of the teams around the 8 bubble, i rate the Crows, Suns and Giants (in that order) as the teams on the rise. All have chance of making the 8 this season i reckon - though the Cats will make it hard for all three to do so. The Giants and Crows have both adopted the Pies fast ball movement, but i think the Giants have a better defensive system (to be clear - not a better defence) than the Pies and Crows. And all three teams are strong in the contest and have a good mix of grunt and silk. And the Crows, Giants and Suns all have very strong lists, loaded with first round draft picks. Stronger lists than the teams around them at similar stage of their development - Saints, Bombers and Freo. And at the end of the day, teams don't win a flag without a quality list. On the Suns, i really hope they stick fat with Dew and resist any temptation to be seduced by having a premiership coach in Hardwick swan a=in and take over. Dew has done the hard yards and his players have bought in - as evidence by resigning some key players. Stay the course.

Noooooooooo!!!!!!! Don't mention the switch!!!!!!!!! Way, way too triggering for some. By the by, here's how I see the next few games - which will involve intermittent switch flicking before the switch gets permanently flicked. Nine day break into the giants game (and travel, so essentially forced rest) - attacking footy and run all over the giants (who are coming off their bye). Look a different team than the dour, gassed unit in the 4th quarter against the cats. Win. Six day break and travel into the saints game - much to the chagrin and consternation of many DL posters, another dour, defence first match with little fast transition from the back. Fortunately the saints, with their dour, deliberate ball movement and defence first game plan can't exploit our lack of run - particularly at marvel with its lack of space. Win. Six day break into a Friday night game at the g v lions - dour, but not as dour as the saints game. Some fascinating variables: the lions are also coming off a six day break, but unlike us have to travel; 8 point game (could well determine if lions get a gabba final week one - potentially against us); lions are slow and so won't be able to exploit any lack of run we have the way, say the dogs would; the G factor. 50 50 game. Round 19 - 24 - hello moto; starting with a 9 day break into the crows game, we have a great run home with only one short break - six days between the roos and blues games. Two travelss - tassie and Sydney. But the Sydney game is followed by the pre finals bye, so no post game impact. Unleash the beast and a return to the offensive power of rounds 1-5 (and round 16). Wow. David King says we changed our approach. DL posters say the same. No mention of 'scoring problems'. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Win. Happy days.

Demonland hypocrisy alert #472 On selection, they are clearly taking a squad mentality atm. I reckon any posters who stridently criticised goody last season for not rolling fresh players through the side at this time of year, being 'stubborn', too rigid, too boring, not managing players, nt doing what the Cats were doing etc etc should refrain from criticising him this season for doing exactly what said posters wanted him to do.

On Smith, i know they can always pull a swifty, but I've always understood when they name a squad, anyone named in the on field 18 (ie not interchange), they are a definite in.