binman

He was our for one week just prior to that photo. Landed awkwardly. Now 4-5.

Good thing we are an 8 goal better side.

You're probably right rj, I'm clutching at straws. I feel sick at the thought of the dees plying in a grand final and not being there. One of those straws is that there is still time for crowds at the G to be possible. The GF is 6 and half weeks away. If we get to low - zero cases by Thursday week - which is a good chance i think - then there is 5 weeks to navigate. If there continues to be low - zero cases then say two weeks with no crowds. Then three weeks of building up to say 50% capacity. And reward the club members and give tickets only to them.

The best kicks do this. Weight the ball to their teammates advantage. Up to about the late 90s i reckon this skill was standard for most players in the AFL. Even the average kick. Footy 101. One of my great frustrations of following the dees in the last 20 odd years is how few of our players have had this fundamentall skill.

True. But If say it is two Victorian teams. There is every chance we will be out of lockdown in a week. The gf will still be five weeks after that. So, if we were to remain covid free the border to WA might well reopen. So different scenario to international arrivals.

Agree. But surely there would be huge public support for an injection of $200 million into the state.

Not even if they were fully vaccinated and had to have a clear PCR prior to flying? Not much risk in that scenario i would have thought.

In all seriousness, if the Grand Final is in Perth, i could see McGowan allowing participating club members (except any from NSW) to come to WA. But only if fully vaccinated. And perhaps with a clear PCR test within 24 hours of flying in. So perhaps something like 40% of the capacity for locals, 10% for corporates and 25% for each of the two interstate teams. Given it is very unlikely to be a WA team in the GF he could sell that to people in Perth. The big money WA will earn from a GF is people coming from interstate and spending money on accommodation, restaurants etc etc. Assuming full capacity, a mix like the one i note above, would mean something like 40, 000 interstate visitors. Which would mean a lot of money coming into the state. Lets say on average each visitor spent $5000. That would be $200 million pumped directly into the WA economy over a handful of days. That sort of coin is nothing to sneeze at. I went to the 2018 prelim. Obviously it was a woeful experience. Made more woeful by the insufferable Wet Coke fans and poor fashion. And it was damn hot. Fortunately i was sitting under cover so had protection from the sun. But there was an inexplicable design flaw. I could not see the scoreboard from where i sat, or all the grounds or that matter as the stand above blocked the view. They have TVs hanging from the stand above so you can see replays etc. $1.5 billion to build a state of the art stadium and and you have seats where you cant see the $50 million scoreboard and parts of the ground Leaving that design flaw aside, it is an amazing stadium. And would be a crazy place for a grand final with a full crowd. Particularly if that crowd did not have any peanut Wet Coke fans. If the dees were playing, and they allowed vaccinated visitors from interstate, i'd go in heart beat. That said, i shudder to think how much the flights will be.

Add his on the fulls to his point tally and it would be 22.65. I wonder what tracks set shot percentage is. Terrible technique - including the ridiculous ball spinning Max does. The best set shot routine I have seen in recent years was Watts. Short, slow run up with few moving parts In his first full season I'm sure he had a simpler set shot technique. Shorter run up and kept the ball still. Not unlike Watts method though the punched the ball a bit harder. Was very accurate from inside 40. Tracc should go back to that style. Like his first goal he is so strong he can rely on his power to keep it straight. And punching means he kicks through it properly, whereas he often seems to lean back on it.

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