binman

The pies or us?

I think i'm right in saying that a couple of weeks back, the Pies were 18th for score from turnover (we are number one). This is a guess, but i doubt any team has won a flag without being at least top 10 in scores from turnover because teams are twice as likley to score from a turnover than a clearance and therfore is it a more important score source. And it's not as if the Pies are killing it in clearances either - they are 10th in total average clearances. We are 15th in total average clearances, but interestingly 3rd in centre clearances (pies are 11th). https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_stats_team.html

After ten rounds of football we have conceded the third least point against, behind the Pies (who have won 2 more games) and the Saints, and we are bleeding in the back half? How then to describe what's happening with the other 15 defences? What's next - we are struggling to score despite being the highest scoring team in the AFL?

Indeed. Funny you should mention 20 20. I am ambivalent about 20 20, though i prefer it to one day cricket, and never watch it. The other night i decided to watch some IPL to give it a go. I know almost nothing about the IPL and could only manage about an hour of it before losing interest. But the coverage was fantastic. The use of stats was illuminating and used to provide context, not just random numbers and factoids. The commentary was clever and the experts really knew their stuff - and what's more could actually articulate their knowlege. And they avoided pointing out what i could see with my own eyes. And none of the blokey, jokey rubbiush that makes the BBL all but unwatchable. In that hour, i learned heaps about the IPL, strategies employed and also got a good sense of how the game has changed tactically. Impressive.

Yep - we played the dogs at home, so no Whitten Oval game. And we play Willy at home, so no game there either (which i'm spewing about - beautiful ground to watch footy at and a 15 min drive door to gate for me)

Sure. And that's essentially what i have done (I have almost completely stopped watching or listening to any footy media – the two ABC radio footy shows on Saturday and the catch up of Sando’s Thursday half hour on SEN are pretty much all I regularly consume). But my comments about how much the football media frustrates me wasn't limited to the 'review shows' – it is the entire footy media eco system. And why shouldn’t that frustrate me? I love the sport, am passionate about it and am always trying to better understand it. So to basically have no mainstream media options that help me understand the sport and that I really enjoy engaging with, is super frustrating, and in my opinion a sad reflection on the industry. I mean c’mon, the AFL and the media love to look to the States as the template. But apart from stupid loud music at games as some sort of manufactured game day experience, they ignore all the fantastic ways their sports are covered. As an example, I haven’t followed the NBA for a few years, so am out of the loop where things are at. But i watched the Denver v Lakers playff games because I love Nicola Jokic and LeBron James is simply incredible. I learnt more about basketball, the systems of the Nuggets and Lakers, their relative strengths and weakness etc etc in the first 30 mins of game one than I have about footy from the football media in 3 months of this season. And that’s just the live commentary – their ‘review’ shows are next level and as a rule, incredibly insightful. I had much the same experience watching the superbowl this year. I havent followed the NFL for 20 years, so am even more out of the loop than i am with the NBA. But the team covering it did a fanstastic job to help me undertsand what i was watching. Ditto for the coverage of the PGA championship. I know footy, but watching the TV coverage makes me cringe and does nothing to help my understanding of the game. It's a joke. And its not as if it is an Australian thing. I love Test match cricket almost as much as football and have played a lot of cricket. I know the game. But unlike the coverage of footy, the way test cricket is covered helps me grow my understanding of, and love for, the sport. The coverage is fantastic in terms of explaining the game, it's use of data to help do so and drilling down on tactics, techniques, stenegths and weakneses.

In Werribee. Great ground to watch footy at - beautiful location too down by the river.

Very frustrating becuase i live in Altona and would def had gone to the gfame. Great ground to watch footy at.

I just posted this on the podcast thread: Thanks AF for that info. The coverage of football [censored] me to death. Collective memories of particularly slow gold fish. At this point last year the media were all the cats are dads army, the cliff has come blah blah blah. Cut to the finals and the media is lauding their fitness, their experience, their slow build and banging on about how well they managed their players (echoed on here too - suddenly the cats were the exemplars in terms of resting players, more players thru the middle etc etc). And then they trot out the line that clubs always look to the previous flag winner for cues. And that is exactly what the cats did - copied our preparation and essentially game plan too. Well, it would very much appear that is what we are doing this year - ie copying some of the things the cats did to win the flag last year. And as we approach finals, after a couple of months of pearl clutching about the dees form around the middle of the season, and the dees start stringing the wins together again and begin to look very ominous, the 360 and first crack peanuts will suddenly have the exact same revelations they have every year - the flag is not won in May and June, there's essentially two seasons - H&A and finals - and it is all about peaking in September blah blah blah. And then, like this has suddenly dawned on them, despite having put much the same graphic up every year, they will put up a graphic with the sort of info below to support the idea that dees are building very nicely thank you very much: W-L record of last 10 premiers after round 10 2013 Hawks 9 wins 1 loss 2014 Hawks 7-3 2015 Hawks 6-4 2016 Dogs 7-3 2017 Tigers 6-4 2018 Eagles 9-1 (ironically massive flag favs all season, tigers, were also 9-1) 2019 Tigers 7-3 2020 Tigers 6-3-1 2021 Dees 9-1 (but in next 7 games went 2 wins, 4 losses and a draw) 2022 Cats 6-4 2023 Dees 7-3 10 seasons is a pretty good sample size. The pattern is pretty damn clear. Seven of the ten winners not better than 70 30 after 10 rounds. But sure, let’s write off the dees premiership chances at round 10 on the back of a 4 points loss against a team coming off six straight wins. on their home deck, in conditions that suited them better and off a six day break plus travel. It’s like some weird footy take on the quote from philosopher George Santayana, ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.

Thanks AF for that info. The coverage of football [censored] me to death. Collective memories of particularly slow gold fish. At this point last year the media were all the cats are dads army, the cliff has come blah blah blah. Cut to the finals and the media is lauding their fitness, their experience, their slow build and banging on about how well they managed their players (echoed on here too - suddenly the cats were the exemplars in terms of resting players, more players thru the middle). And then they trot out the line that clubs always look to the previous flag winner for cues. And that is exactly what the cats did - copied our preparation and essentially game plan too. Well, it would very much appear that is what we are doing this year - ie copying some of the things the cats did to win the flag last year. And as we approach finals, after a couple of months of pearl clutching about the dees form around the middle of the season, and the dees start stringing the wins together again and begin to look very ominous, the 360 and first crack peanuts will suddenly have the exact same revelations they have every year - the flag is not won in May and June, there's essentially two seasons - H&A and finals - and it is all about peaking in September blah blah blah. And then, like this has suddenly dawned on them, despite having put much the same graphic up every year, they will put a graphic with the sort of info below up to support the idea that dees are building very nicely thank you very much: W-L record of last 10 premiers after round 10 W-L record of last 10 premiers after round 10 2013 Hawks 9 wins 1 loss 2014 Hawks 7-3 2015 Hawks 6-4 2016 Dogs 7-3 2017 Tigers 6-4 2018 Eagles 9-1 (ironically massive flag favs all season, tigers, were also 9-1) 2019 Tigers 7-3 2020 Tigers 6-3-1 2021 Dees 9-1 (but in next 7 games went 2 wins, 4 losses and a draw) 2022 Cats 6-4 2023 Dees 7-3 10 seasons is a pretty good sample size. The pattern is pretty damn clear. Seven of the ten winners not better than 70 30 after 10 rounds. But sure, let’s write off the dees premiership chances at round 10 on the back of a 4 points loss against a team coming off six straight wins on their home deck, in conditions that suited them better and off a six day break. It’s like some weird footy take on the quote from philosopher George Santayana, ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.

Not for our chances of winning no Not for the atmosphere. But it won't matter to our financial bottom line if it has sold out already.

Yes x 1,000,000. Of course, it was brilliant to win the 2021 flag. But for me it still feels not quite real because it was in Perth. I went to the 1988 and 2000 grand finals. God awful experience both. But, living in Melbourne, the week leading into both games was brilliant. I want the brilliant build up AND witness a victory on the hallowed turf of the 'G. You make an excellent point about 'the finite window that exists for clubs to be in with a shot of a flag when everything is in order'. Even though we had poor 2019 and 2020, you could argue that window opened in 2018 given our finals run. For the sake of argument, and taking a line thru the Cats, let's say, with excellent planning and list management, the premiership window is open for 10 years. We are more than halfway thru my nominal 10-year premiership window. Five more cracks at it.

Spot on. All of it - particularly the need for a public statement from the club (personally id prefer it come from the CEO or President, but Goody works too).

Yep, very stressful job - particularly if you factor in the rocket science, brain surgery, constantly having to reaffirm his Catholicism and his inexplicable need to regularly [censored] in the woods.

A lesson in how disinformation spreads in 2023: person x reads article by journo who's main goal is to get clicks not accurately report information person x posts their take on this grey info (on social media, forums, etc ) person y reads person x's take and further confuses the original information. Outcome - dimma says there is no more stressful job in the world, including MICA paramedics, the Pope and Thai cave rescuers.

Yep. Maybe he had health issues, or has another gig lined up next season (eg port or the suns) and needs a break, or perhaps he feels he needs to support his great mate who is struggling. Or perhaps he is simply burnt out and doesn't feel he can do the job justice. Maybe it's a combo of all these things. Or not. Until there's more information I'd prefer to wait before jumping to conclusions. But whatever the reason, tigers fans will be poleaxed. They're probably still coming to terms with loss to the bombers and the fact that finals are most likely now out of reach. And now they have to deal with tgis palaver and bedding in a new coach. Wowsers.

Indeed. And almost all jobs on that that long list would be paId way, way less than what Dimma would be on. My MICA paramedic mate says hi.

Really? If he is experiencing personal issues and needs to get away from football for his well being then ok. But if not, surely he owes them the commitment he made at the start of this season - to see the season out, to honour is contract. Remember he must have been the driver of going after Torranto and Hopper and his pitch prusumably was we are still in the premiership window. Otherwise why tie up so much salary cap space for two mid twenties players on long term contracts? How does a new coach rebuild?

This should be the Demonland motto. Perhaps a Latin translation to give it an air of authority.

His worst game for some time. I found myself saying c'mon kozzie a number of times.

First 10 minutes will tell the tale.

Steve may said much the same thing in his Demonland interview

Tmac can do the donkey work leadimng up the gound, leaving the Ruinator to prowl around conserving energy inside 50, ready to launch at every high ball that comes in.

Good hypothesis I reckon. Salo can basically slot into the role he has played his best footy in - true half back, playing off his opponent, hard at it when needed, good with the ground ball and neat, forward 30 - 40 metre kicks that hit targets. Mcvee plays as more a lock down defender and bowser can sweep up out the back and push forward and get creative. So we have three tough half back flankers who win their own ball and have elite kicking skills. And Salem will relish that we are taking more risk with our kicks this season. For a team that is already one of the best at scoring on transition, a set up with Salem, McVee and Bowey is something to look forward to.

Yep, good points. But they could have swapped the round 18 Lions v Dees game with the Cats v Bombers game, which is on the Saturday night (which by the by is at kardina park, not the G which means a small crowd given the stand won't be completed). The bombers and cats both play the previuous Saurday, so no issue with the break between games or fairness. And the lions rond 19 game is on Saturday and ours Sunday so issues with breaks for either team into their next games A Saurday night game would still mean a free to air game in prime time- albeit not the friday night which i assume is the most valubale slot from a commercial perspective. And given that lions and the dees will almost certainly be the match of the round, i'm guessing Channel seven would want that game on a Friday night.