binman

I was thinking about this too. Salem is so important to how we transition the ball that most clubs are now putting time into him. All season they have been training bowser as a Salem style quarter back (though, unlike salem, he does the kick out at Casey). Smart move to bring him in now. Coz as you say shut down Salem and we have the option of playing through bowser. Apart from his kicking skills, the other thing he brings is some toe, meaning we have rivers, hunt and him for some strong overlap run and spread. This is important because that sort of overlap is critical to how we generate scores. And in finals speed is super important.

How on earth could anyone pot Ben Brown's game. He was fantastic. Easily in our best 5 players. Not better than my boy Nibbler though

How can i say Viney will go straight back into the midfield on his return? Because that is exactly what will happen. Note i didn't say it should happen. I said it will happen. But for what it's worth, I think it should happen

I fully admit to having a pretty strong confirmation bias against Melksham, particularly in regard to his intensity and pressure But i thought he was terrible in the first half. No tackles, did my head in a couple of times with the stupid corralling he does (rather than attacking the man) and sat off a contest on the half back line, where he simply just had to put his body on the line. I acknowledge that he had a defensive role on Hurn and then McGovern, and did an ok job, but by the shadows of half time i had had enough of him. But then he showed great intensity to stay in the contest and make second and third efforts, in the play that ultimately ended up with the Kozzie free and super important goal. And he carried that intensity into the second half. That's all i want to see. He will always do the brilliant stuff. Just has to keep doing the hard stuff He showed intent, continued to do well on McGovern, set up the harmes goal with smart, quick play and kicked two clever goals himself. The first of those was exactly why Goody needs him in our finals team. Brilliant, super smart kick on his non preferred kick. And coming after a terrific effort to mark it. There is not one other player in our team who i would be confident to kick that goal. I was sure Melksham was going to. With him and Bowey in the team our kicking skills have received a massive boost. Makes us a better team. But please Melk - no more corralling!

I got the vibe he might consider not bringing another tall

I have enjoyed leppa on SEN this year. And he has been a good addition to the 7 coverage. Unfortunately he is seemingly going the way of every special comments person they hire. Invariably their special comments hires are a recently retired ex footballer or coach, whose knowledge becomes less useful and insightful in direct correlation to their time out of the game. They often talk in footy speak that is full of footy work jargon, which can require decoding, so is annoying. however, having just come from the game often have up to date, interesting insights. Unfortunately almost every single one seems then to not make nay effort to stay up to date about trends, players, teams etc etc. So, despite their job being providing analysis and insight, as time passes they offer less and less of both. It feels like they just trun up for the game and don't do any research or preparation. Bartel is an exception i find. He is excellent. Daisy too - though she is still involved in footy. Leppa was assistant coach last year at the tigers. In that role he was scouted all oppostion temas and been accross how they play and their strengths and weaknesses. But as i gather is out of footy now, apart from his media stuff, and his knowledge is not as current. In addition to his super baffling comments about Melksham (the ultimate competitor? please, not even his mum would agree with that assessment), in talking about Bowey said they like his speed and ability to run and carry from defence becuase that is something we needed. What? Has he not heard of Hunt and Rivers? I mean he was politely corrected by, of all people, Richo, who gave him an out by saying that that run was important with Hunt out of the game. There was something else he said that jarred becuase it was so inaccurate, but i can't recall what it was now. Oh, now i remember - it wasn't tactical. In the last quarter, near the end of the game, one of the bald headed eagles dropped his knees to milk a too high free from a terrific Nibbler tackle. The umpire with the deep voice, god bless him , immediately called he dropped and rightly did not pay a free. Leppa reckons he saw no difference to the one Kozzie got on half time (which turned out to be crucial). WTF? Whilst Kozzie dropped a bit, it was 110% a free kick. Every. Day. Of the week. The umpire quite rightly told a whining unfit eagle, yeo buddy, it was a clothes line (or some such). You cant round arm a bloke in the head and expect a free not to be paid.

Ask them if they think maxy should have got a free late in the last quarter when i think Darling (maybe Kennedy?) shoved him full force in the back with two hands and marked it. It drives me nuts how few frees maxy gets. Every game he is blocked, scragged, hit in the head, shoved in he back and yet barely gets any frees. And then my head explodes when they pull one out of their posterior agianst him. Like the free nick Nat got for too high in a ruck contest. Technically there, but please, pay that and pay max 25 frees a game for being wrestled out of ruck contests.

Much to some people's chagrin, Viney will come straight back to the midfield once back. Harmes will then move to whatever role they need to him play - which i suspect come finals will be to tag a gun opposition mid. On gawn, i amazed how athletic he is for such a tall fella. That goal he set up after coming out of the centre and kicking on his left was unbelievable. As was an earlier ground ball collect and evasion before another inside 50 kick (which i think also set up a goal).

Nothing can be taken from the last 15 minutes of that game. Other than yet another reminder of our poor kicking for goals. We went into save mode with a full 10 minutes of the game to go. Half a quarter. And as a result conceded something like 10 plus inside 50s in a row. Should we have kept the pedal to the metal? Nope. If anything we could have looked for even more opportunities to slow the game down eg chip it around our back half. And in the back of all the players' mind would have been, having the game sewn up, not wanting to get injured with so much to play for. We saved a bit of energy - and i was so pleased we didn't cop any more injuries - and still won by close to 2 goals. Job done. If the game had continued (ie no lightning break) we probably would have put the cue in the rack at the same point of the game. But likely would have had a seven goal lead. The rain was lashing down and we had the ball trapped in our forward half. But the key things was, as you say nik nat, who i maintain is the most over rated player in the AFL, was getting completely smashed by Gawn and Jackson. In large part that is becuase Nik Nat is so obviously unfit. Must be carrying 5-10 kg too much weight. He was totally out on his feet. And so was half their other players. The break was a gift from god for them. 15 minutes of burst football is all Nik Nat can muster.

He came back on after he injured it, so hopefully that is a good sign it is not too bad. In the second half of the season he has become one of our most important players. Would be a huge loss. And very hard to replace his run and carry

Wet the bed?

Also says gawn will struggle with tbe distance from 45 metres. The bloke is just about the longest kick in tbe team!

The reactions to your post suggest others di not share that view

That analogy makes literally no sense. You can't win the war if you don't win the battles. You might as well have said I wanted to get to the summit. Bur not climb tbe mountain. Fair dinkum. Afteer all the hidings the dees have copped in Perth by the Eagles, what sort of supporter looks to diminish a win like that.

Ummn, by the logic of the post that was quoted no victory through year is worth dlddliesquat. Hard to acrue sufficient points to make the finals without the occasional win

My favourite player.

Probably strike twice

Not reliant on bont and mcrae? You're kidding aren't you?

His mentor must be Gary Lyon.

See, there's the problem. Peeps should have been buying their healing crystals months ago. So much complacency.

Exactly. No changes to our basic game plan or structure. Perhaps just a couple of tactical tweaks against whoever we play in finals. For example if we play Cats week one, instead of sending may to Hawkins, put Petty on him and get him to play like Taylor did last week - ie sit off him and don't engage in a wrestling match, zone off, run of him when possible etc. Or against the dogs tag Mcrae rather than Libba. And i suspect they will introduce the occasional subtle tactical tweak and set plays in terms of our ball movement. I think we saw a couple of those last week. For example May went down the middle a couple of times from the kick out - on one occasion hitting Spargo, who was all by himself, perhaps because the Suns, for good reason, were all covering the left wing. And i wonder if there is some set plays they are introducing, like the 45 degree kick from Viney the week before last to the a player in the corridor 20 metres out from goal. They all might well have been working on different tricks to win some more clean clearance all year in training and unveil a couple coming into the finals, or in the finals.

ATAGI played no role in creating fear. ATAGI did not vacillate. They adjusted their advice based on evidence as it came to hand. And from the beginning made it clear their position was informed by the risk environment vis a vis the number of people infected by covid. The scapegoating of ATAGI has been shameful.

Ok. Still confused. So, do you think ATAGI has been one of those culprits demonising AZ?

Sorry Lh, I'm not sure what your point is. Are you arguing ATAGI did install completely unnecessary fear in the community by demonising AstraZeneca? If so, let's agree to disagree and move on.

I agree with this. Our poor kicking skills will be exacerbated by the rain, just as they were in the wet against the dogs. For this reason, it was a good move to bring Melksham in. And Bowey helps the kicking cause too. Conversely their better kicking skills will come to the fore. Helps that Ryan is out though as he is one of the bets kicks in the AFL. However they rely heavily on a chip and mark tempo model, which is much harder to implement in the wet as it is harder to mark the ball - and harder still if we are constantly up in their grill with intensity and pressure. And they way they score is built around their three talls inside 50 taking contested marks or marks on the lead. Even in the dry they would struggle to take marks inside 50 with our defensive system. In wet it will be all but impossible. And even with Ryan and Shuey (who also out) in the team they are not brilliant at winning ground balls inside 50. But as you say its all about the pressure we apply.