binman

I went to today's game snd stood behind the goals at the city end, which was the scoring end. Short answer is yes, if wasn't expected to be a key forward and hecame in for a handful of games. But he is a bit undersized for a key position role atm I reckon. That said he is just a fantastic competitor. One of Chandler's goals came after jvr willed himself to the marking contest, having tracked the ball from the wing. He was stuffed, couldn't get to the tbe contest to matk, and had to push super hard just to get a spoil, a smart two fist front and centre. And his contested mark and goal was just fantastic. I love his desperation and he us the sort of player who just want to be involved in everything. Demands the ball too, which I love. Watching him live, he really reminded me of Schwartz pre knee. Similar size and want for the contest. Similar kicking style too - nice and simple and good technique.

Feels like a real old school game day for me, which works for retro round. On the train to West footscray to see the dees against Footscray at whitten oval. 2.05pm Saturday arvo start. Drizzly old school Melbourne weather. Memories of being at the same ground in the final round of the 1987 season. Do it for Robbie. What a win. Go redlegs.

#deesmyths bingo

Expect a grinding performance, with, like last week, periods where we start to click into gear , and periods where it is arm wrestle. Won't be surprised if we lose. Willie thrilled with a win. In a horse racing analogy, our spring carnival group one target, our grand final, is in nine weeks, and we are in the the second week of this preparation. We are a genuine group one horse, and at our best we win the Gropu one, (and did last year), so despite not being close to fully wound up, and the other horses wound up for a early carnival win, our talent, naturtal briiliance and building fitness will get us close to a win. Pleasantly surprised with the first up win, a win second up will he a bonus, and connections thrilled. But like the trainer their eye is is on the group one prize. The connections trust their trainer to have our horse, redlegs, peaking at the right time and not to flatten her early in the prep, searching for win that isn't black type. Redlegs to be up on the pace early doors, control the tempo and stack them up, surge to a a two length lead at the top of the straight and defy a late charge to win by a long head. Trainer and connections excited about taking on tbe young colt from tbe West next race, and very confident of rolling him (and getting overs into the bargain). Connections holding off the futures bet for the group one till after this race as they know tbe mug punters will jump off redlegs loses, or even has a scratchy win.

.....movement of giant's people

I wasn't suggesting you only went on stats, apologies for the inference. I agrre with your observations. Id add he is now painfully slow. I also agree he is short term- and will likely go out this week, almost regardless of well he plays. He no doubt has been given a specific job in the dogs game. I suspect it will be negating Dale. And perhaps also doing his best to impact aeriel contests and prevent oppo intercept marks.

Yep, fair enough. I also don’t subscribe to the theory that Coaches and even Premiership ones, are always right and protected from criticism. We have long been conditioned as fans to use a player's raw stats as the key measure of their performance. So BB gets bagged over the last few weeks for his low possession numbers, low mark numbers and lack of goals. And Melksham gets bagged because he only had six possessions against Port. But i I have heard Goody say that they don't assess performance on stats so many times it's not funny - for example when asked about Kossie not scoring goals and/or getting very few possessions, or why BB or Tmac are not hitting the scoreboard etc etc. Ever since he became the senior coach, Goody has been crystal clear that every player has a specific role and that he judges their performance on how well they execute that role. The challenge for us as fans is we often don't know what their role is, or fully understand the nuance of what Goody has asked them to execute. Which can make it hard to work out why a player continues to be selected, despite, say super low possessions numbers or few direct involvements in the game. But i think it is reasonable to assume that in most circumstances where a player continues to get selected, particularly one who is not an automatic best 22 selection, that player will have executed his designated role to Goody's satisfaction

Ok

Why?

Is it?

Snap

Bowey says hi

Do you mean the fella Goody has selected two weeks in a row at a critical point in the season?

You might well be right. Over the journey, i've been one of Weed's biggest critics. But the the role really requires someone who is a genuine big tall, which neither JVR or Smith are. With Tmac out, Weed is the only other genuine tall on our list, and it is for this reason i think he will get first crack at the role.

I have no doubt we will select a third tall. I think Weed will come in next week. If he can't make the spot his own, and he won't have more than 2 games to make his case, JVR and Joel Smith are legitimate. options. if Weed can't make it work, it is hard to see where he goes next with the dees, particularly given he is contracted for next year.

Agree with all of the above. He obviously was selected with a specific role in mind last week - negate port's two interceptors, aliir and clurey He performed that role well - neither had an impact, which was particularly important in aliir's case as he is key to to Port's scoring method, which is heavily reliant on transition from the hb flank. The dogs also rely on transition from hb for scoring (and scoring from stoppages/clearances). Dale is key to that method, particularly with Daniel out. However, Dale presents a different challenge to aliir and clurey. He is not an intercept marker or tall (though he plays tall). He is a distributor and runs hard off hb for metres gained. A terrific player, and one of the best kicks in the AFL.. Melk will struggle to go with him pace wise.The key will be stopping him getting the pill and when he does smashing him and ensuring he has no time and space. If he gets away melk will need to hand off to, say jordon or langers who will press forward and close down Dale's space. If that is melk's role, goody won't care about melk's numbers - he'll care about Dales', as should dees fans.

I got sick at home once.

You wish you were involved in Norm Smith's sacking?

You weren't involved in Norm Smith's sacking were you? Wouldn’t shock me, given your penchant for criticising the coach that only last year ended a 57 year premiership drought - and the Norm Smith curse.

Or a horse.

Good call. He was picked to play a specific role - defensive forward. Split his time between aliir and cluery . Neither had an impact and critically had bugger all intercept marks. Big tick for Jake.

And by extension, most of the footy media, dominated as it is by bonehead ex footballers, who's ignorance about how the game is played in 2022 makes their analysis all but useless. People would do well to follow the modern player's lead, assuming they are interested in understanding how the game is ACTUALLY played in 2022. If not, carry on listening to King, Lyon x 2, Riewoldt, Brereton, increasingly Lewis and Montagna (who are both following the maxim that ex footballers become more irrelevant every year they are out of the game, because I assume they don't feel the need to keep on top of things), Carey, Brown, Taylor, Ling, 'sellars' (l mean please), etc etc etc. The only ex footballers I rate in terms of their analysis, and ability to communicate it are (in order): Sanderson (who, weirdly, has disappeared from sen), Lauren Arnell Buckley (but, like Sanderson he is a recent coach, so probably shouldn't be on the list) Bartel, Mcguane, Delidio Lynch, Pavlich, Dunstall. And I don't mind Lloyd too much. Daisy isn't an ex footballer, but she is a total gun. Knows the game and critically can communicate information (a skill I would have thought would be a kpi for anyone in the media - though sadly, this is clearly not the case). And I don't mind Jack Riewoldt's insights. I feel like I'm missing someone, but still, that is bugger all given how many ex footballers are paid to talk about the game. It's possible there are some others who do understand the game, but as Axis of Bob sagely noted in another thread, that doesn't mean much if they don't have the ability to communicate and convey complex information in a way the audience can understand. Unfortunately, Jones is in this boat, as is Watson, 'silk' and Hodge. In another thread there was some trolling about footy media appointments and merit. Which is hilarious because there are so many examples of ex afl footballers in the media who are embarrassingly woeful at their job and could not possibly have been appointed on merit. If you retrospectively applied a merit lens to the footy media, 95% of people would get the sack.

That's funny, I couldn't help but think of brereton. He tore up his first finals - had an immediate impact. JVR has a bit of derm's swagger and competitiveness. Plays similarly too. JVR also has some of Breterton,'s taent. Dermie was a fantastic player, particularly his first few years. Like JVR, not that tall for a key forward, but he had great hands, and super tough to beat one on one.

I can't lie. I would love to see him tear it up on a glorious spring day at the G.