binman

I'm a Smithy fan, but I prefer him up forward. I have to say he really is the ideal sub given how many positions he can cover.

Rescue our season? Give me a spell. If we lost we still would have been 4th at the end of the round, with a soft run home. The media's addiction to drama is mind numbing. The same sen crew were talking about Grundy getting traded at seasons end such was hysteria over Grundy being omnited. Manufactured drama.

There's a thread about media bias. Could care less about media bias. But the ridiculous bias against us by some posters, who supposedly 'support' the dees, and just parrot the medias weekly talking points, does my head in.

FMD - just heard the call by sen in the last 30 seconds. Whately: 'Melbourne rescue their season" Rescue? The footy media is pathetic

Only 39k but at the ground the dees fans were brilliant and super loud in the last quarter. I have zero doubt it was a big factor. Good work dees fans.

Hate seeing that on the ponies - always worry the owners have jumped off.

We were never 1.38. Or anywhere near it

Great point. I reckon we'll know 10 mins in where we are at. If we are moving it quick we will def look to score quickly and put the lions on the back foot from the get go. When on, we really look to put score board pressure. A point of discussion the dees have over our key rivals is our ability to make it hard for the opposition to score AND pile on goals quickly. That's a big reason why are always in games.

First para under the first headline (author: Buckley): The dees were too good for the lions, but with the lions' record at the are still big question mark in my mind about their ability to beat the top 2 sides.

Agree with all of the above. I don't think he'll come back in for the crows game though. The work on his forward craft stuff gives them cover so not being selected for the crows is not made an issue by the media. And the crows leg speed will trouble us, so one less tall makes sense. Also gives brodie a decent chop out - no game this week and managed minutes playing as a pure forward (so no being smashed in the ruck) next week. Back in against the plodding tigers.

And then there is the whole Alanis morrisette ascribing the wrong meaning to irony thing.

Exactly. Far from putting a question mark on brodie's place in the team, going back to work on his forward craft reinforces their commitment to the two ruck, resting forward model. I actually think it is as much a comment on Maxy's forward craft in the sense that to maximise his strengths he has to play more ruck time coz he is average up forward. The same could be said of brodie, but maxy is the big dog. And a better player, so it makes sense to have him playing his optimal role.

Or risked being scored against on the counter. We didn't have the run in the legs for fast play in the last quarter and the oppp cant score if they dont have the ball, so tempo footy was smart. But if I'm right, we might well look to put the lions to the sword if we get 2-3 goals up.

It absolutely will be. But, one I think we are a better team with a superior method, particularly defensively. And two, we match up really well against them and despite them winning the last two games we have had the wood on them under goody (and even in the loss in the finals, our advantages over them were evident in the first half, before we ran out of gas). The other factor is, whilst both teams are coming off six day breaks, they have to travel and we dont.

Disagree. My take is, much like the Pies match, this is a target game for us. Meaning we will have freshened up, and even with a six day break, will be running over the ground better than we have since the Pies game. There are only three other contenders, the Lions are one of them. Beat them on the g to create more doubt in their heads about their chances come finals And on top of that there is real enmity between the two teams. I don't think this group of dees players will ever forgive or forget the sledging of Petty by Zorko. And then there is the fact they beat us in the finals last year. We will be looking to make a statement. I'm predicting it will be high scoring game, with us doing most of it. And unlike the Pies game, i think we will be looking to push the pace, go fast on transition from the back half, and be more daring with our ball movement, with more use of the corridor and aggressive lane changes. Against the Pies it made perfect sense to play slow, protect the corridor and force them down the line because doing so blunted their advantages over us - their leg speed and kicking skills. But we match up much better against the Lions because their strengths are contested ball and stoppages, and we more than match them in both areas. In fact we smash them in contested possessions. We are AFL #1 for CP (just ahead of the Saints)and they are mid table (AFL #10), barely above league average. The last thing we want is a low scoring maul because that plays into the Lions' strengths and mitigates their key weakness. Very much opposite to the Pies, the Lions' biggest weakness is their lack of leg speed, which i think is the reason they struggle at the G. I think we will look to exploit that weakness with fast ball movement, keeping the ball in motion and if sufficiently fresh, running in waves to create free plays ahead of the ball and inside 50. I suspect one of the drivers of brodie's (who is not quick at the best of times and looked like he had concrete in his boots against the saints) omission is looking to inject more speed and run. Last year's round 15 mauling of the Lions (37 scoring shots to 18!) will be the template. A key will be stopping Andrews intercepting as he is as important to them as May and Lever in terms of connecting defence and offence. The other key will limiting the impact of their medium forwards - Cameron, McCarthy, Raynor, and when he pushes forward Bailey. Dunkley is not at Oliver's level, but a case could be made for Dunkley being at least as important to the Lions as Oliver is to us. So i think Dunkley not getting up is massive. Dees by 43 points. By the by, contradicting my confidence, the Lions have continued to shorten in the betting and the game is now close to a 50 50 toss up betting wise (we are 1.85 and they are 1.92).

It's the gift that keeps giving - every second match has some bearing on the ride! Like the freo circle of death

Go get goulden dees.

Blimey, how good is the bont.

So I guess he gets a good rest then.

Fair call. Ever was over the top.

Fair point MB. It's true to say my starting point is to defend the players. But perhaps you're right and i was too dismissive of the concerns about Kozzie's form. Four possessions is a pretty poor output regardless of his role. I find how they're managing him quite interesting. He has struggled mid season every year so far, and to my eye look like he needs a chop out this year in the same way other young players like Chandler, JVR, Bowey and Spargo clearly did. But unlike those players they haven't sent him back to Casey. He has played high time on ground in this period - i think it was 95% against the Giants, so perhaps playing senior footy is better for Koz in terms of getting the required load into him. The other thing i factor in is i don't think there is any debate that Goody's number one priority is to win the flag and that all his selection decisions are informed by that goal. And there is little debate Goody places a huge emphasis on players carrying out instructions and playing their assigned role. Goody is not going to select any player who is not performing their assigned role over multiple weeks, so the fact he continues to select Koz suggests to me he is ok with how he is travelling.

All good points. But with the pies, why the confidence they will continue their form till the end if the season (I'm assuming you mean to the gf?)? Tbey didn't ladt year, losing two of their three finals and bowing out in the prelim

That's almost exactly what Scott said last year- tgough he said they were prepared to miss the 8 to give the cats the best chance of winning the flag. The big change to last year's program is replicating the cats squad approach and managing mutiple best 22 players like jvr, bowey, bb, Hibbo, chandler, grundy and spargo (something we didn't do hardly at all last year)