binman

No chance jetts gets dropped. He was fantastic today. On a day for small forwards, the type of players that often score the bulk of opposition goals, none of theirs did any damage.

The weather will fine. So to speak. Rain will have cleared. Ground will have drained. It will be cold and a touch windy but conditions will be pretty good.

On reflection, the right call. Melk adds some real silk. Close to our best kick, off both feet. And the opposition will have to man him to make sure he doesn't get off tbe chain. I won't be surprised if he gets some midfield minutes either. If he can get the ball goal side of centre bounces then his kicks inside 50 are a weapon.

They were simply too good. Great defensive set up. But our innacurate kicking for goal has again come back to haunt us.

A medium like swallow or Jones.

There is zero chance Jackson will get dropped. Wed is competing with Tmac for spot. And Tmac has the advantage of being the incumbent. I really hope Weed goes up a level this season. He has the talent. But if he is at the level he was last year i'd have Tmac ahead of him ATM.

Question: If the Dees play the Pies at the G next week how many people will attend (some context: the 2019 AFLW GF at Adelaide Oval had aprox 50k fans)?

They certainly have covered a lot bases in terms of coverage!

Just back from the shops. Two teenage girls walking just ahead of me. One said how exhausted she was last night after footy training. Women's football is going to help Australian rules football thrive and ultimately become tbe number one sport in Australia. Without Women's footy that would never happen, given its competitors are international sports. It is something worth keeping in mind when talk about pay comes around.

Fair point. The coaches may well feel they can't have someone with melksham's talent sitting on the pine. If they do pick him he better improve his pressure on last year's insipid level

Disagree. Agree with jaded. Hibberd is average at best one on one. And having him as lock down defender means that he can't play to his strengths - which is run and carry. Hunt and Rivers both ahead of him ATM IMHO

That's a great stat. Ta It really provides some evidence for my observation that our defensive set up/zone makes us a really hard team to score against - something that i think i fundamental to goodies tactics. Add to that stat this comment from AOB easlrier in this thread and you start to get a great picture of key elements of our tactical model - and how effective it is: 'We are currently first in intercepts (quite comfortably) and first in intercept differential (by an absolute mile)' There has been lots of talk about the new rules and the supposed more open play they have created. Whilst they have had an impact i tend to think a bigger impact has been a mindset one - teams have been more aggressive. And i actually don't think they had been a big factor on how we are playing from tactical perspective. I think the stats noted above are the biggest shift in our game and they are largely independent/unrelated to the rule changes. And i reckon our defensive system nullifies the fast ball movement that many teams have adopted this year by: closing space in front of players transitioning the ball down the ground (with the the fluid, cell like zone i talk about). and through our structure/set ups around the ball at stoppages as noted by its time when he called into the podcast last night (thanks for the call IT - terrific stuff) and so well described by AOB in this post

How good would it be to beat the pies at the g to win a grand final. Our first grand final win since beating the pies at the g

Absolutely. Max is next level marking threat up forward. If we play two talls and Jackson, they have the option of giving Tmac, Brown or Weed a rest when Max goes forward if they are worried about being too tall. The other thing have so many mobile talls in the teams is their ability to push up the ground and provide down the line marking options from long kicks out of defence or kicks from the half back to high half forward. West coast use their three tall forwards (Darling, Allen and Kennedy) for this all the time, and it is a huge weapon, particularly late in quarters and games. It also has the effect of pulling defenders out of the forward line, which creates space for the small, mediums and the other bigs to go to work. Think about how often it is one of Darling, Allen or Kennedy kicking it inside 50, often to one of the other bigs or setting up Ryan to take an unimpeded fly at a pack mark. They killed Port with this tactic. No doubt the kick from Viney to Max was a set play. Langdon did an almost identical kick, with much the same result.

The Jackson 6 wrote that in response to the idea of three talls - Weid, BBB, and Jacko - in the forward line. Responses to the response might be interesting... Its a fair question. I think part of the answer is that Jackson would almost directly replace the small/medium (eg sparrow), both up forward and for midfield rotations. For context (thanks AOB) Jackson led Melbourne for ground ball gets on the weekend, along with Jack Viney (9 each), had a career high 15 possessions, 11 contested possessions (behind only Viney, Oliver and Gawn) and ran close to 15 odd ks in the game. Jackson is phenomenal below his knees as evidenced by those ground ball gets and i'm convinced he'll do some mid field time with max rucking. And even when he takes the ruck solo he is almost another mid the way he plays. He might have to improve his tackling but my point is he can play as a small/medium. The other part of the answer is that which ever two players of Tmac, Brown and Weed are selected they have to make sure they are applying pressure and tackling. I'm on the record as saying weed was woeful at that last year, and i wouldn't lay him if doesn't improve this aspect of his game dramatically. Whereas Tmac as been terrific in this respect this year, and for this reason I have him ahead of Weed at this point in time. I don't know how Brown goes with forward half pressure, but he too has to pull his weight when he comes in. So, I think three tall forwards can work, assuming one of them is Jackson. If it doesn't - and maybe it is a week to week call - then i am 100% positive it won't be Jackson coming out. Jackson will play every game he is fit and available for. He is a star. And will become the dominant ruck man in the AFL within the next 4-5 years. In the meantime opposition coaches are going to have work out how to deal with him and Max tag teaming. And if he does play as a small/medium alongside two genuine talls, work out who the heck they are going to play on him (something they don't have to worry about with Sparrow).

What the hell was dermie rabbiting on about with that. Great response from spazza. As if dermi would have let a teammate get a wack in rhe head and not remonstrate.

Engorged cockerel?

They have their testicles everywhere

[censored] is a banned word on DL? Bloody woke, PC police, cancel culture, vitrtue signalers!!!

Will Mark O'Connor tag for a third consecutive week and go to Melbourne's Christian Petracca on Sunday? Should he instead return to the backline, a defensive teammate may have to fall out if Jack Henry isn't used as a forward again. The Cats are set to be forced into two changes with Shaun Higgins (hamstring) and Francis Evans (ankle) injured. Luke Dahlhaus was again quiet against the Hawks, but debutant Max Holmes looked up to the level. Sam Menegola (shoulder) is in to return and Brad Close is edging towards a recall after a pre-season foot setback. Medical sub Charlie Constable impressed when given the chance but wasn't used much after half-time. Josh Jenkins and Ben Jarvis remain around the mark after five and four goals respectively a fortnight ago in the VFL. R3 medical sub: Charlie Constable (replaced Evans) Verdict: Jenkins as an extra marking target alongside Menegola and Close in place of Higgins, Evans and Dahlhaus. - Mitch Cleary

From the AFL site: The Demons are rolling and enter this weekend's clash with the Cats full of form and momentum. Therefore, don't expect many changes. The side has liked to rotate their medical substitutes, especially given they are yet to use one after three weeks, so Jake Melksham could either come into the 22 or play VFL to get some footy under his belt. Jay Lockhart is also on the cusp of a return after suffering a nasty [censored] injury. Tom Sparrow was relatively quiet against the Giants, but don't expect Simon Goodwin to make too many alterations to a winning formula. R3 medical sub: Jake Melksham (unused) Verdict: Melksham to get his first taste of senior footy this year, replacing Sparrow. - Riley Beveridge

As my wife would be happy to tell you, I don't do concise.

Jetts was good in the first two games and ok against the Giants. No knock at all on him for being beaten by Greene. As much as i think he is a total [censored] knuckle (and have heard some pretty wild stories about his off field behavior), Greene is an out and out star and is about the best one on one player in the AFL. Hibberd for jetts is not like for like, as Hibberd, whilst having more toe than Jetts, is average one on one and his go his running of HB. So more like for like for Hunt. But Hunt isn't going to get dropped. Hibberd might come in, but i reckon with Dalhaus, Parfit and that toss pot Miers we will need a lock down small, and concerns about his pace aside, Jetts is that player atm (and might well be until Lockhart gets back).

Like Mt Waverly and Glenn Waverly, ever since I first made that mistake, they are interchangeable for me!

The other thing about Jackson is that he has bulked up enough to do some serious minutes in the ruck. And do well. Plenty of teams will resort to flooding back lines, like the giants did. Running Jackson as a ruck gives us terrific tactical flexibility at creates the opportunity to play Max at deep full forward, as was the case on Sunday night. This is a great option to combat the flood as we have three talls, who if they can't mark will bring it to ground, where kozzue the mozzie and his two comprades can go to work.