binman

He's starting to mount an argument as the best ruck in the modern era. Def the best ruck at Melbourne, and that's no disrespect to White, Jimmy and Baker.

Agree we still have a pretty tough run home. (But I'd add we have games against the Eagles at roos at the g to come) But that wasn’t my point. My point was our run home is not as tough as our first 11 games. Two five day breaks. A six day break. Four interstate games. Both Adelaide teams at home. Have played the swans, port, cats and blues, meaning 4 of our 11 games have been against teams currently in the top 8, 2 against top 4 teams. And we are 4th. The ladder doesn't lie (well perhaps for the bombers it does). As much as some on here might try to convince people otherwise, you can't magic up 4th on the ladder after 11 rounds with the fixture we have had.

Had a family lunch, so had to watch the game as live. Just finished it. Great win. Haven't read this thread yet. I assume posters, even the ones convinced we are hopeless, have given us full credit and not putting some sort of asterisk on it. The ladder doesn't lie. Fourth on the ladder close to the halfway part of the season with our toughest games and schedule behind us. Go redleggers.

No, not someone. Thousands of people, including professional punters risking serious coin, have backed us to win, which explains why we are 1.33 to win. Of course that doesn't mean we will - you only have to go to one harness meeting to understand 1.33 favourites can get rolled. But the thing I like about the betting market is we punters do our best to strip out emotion and be as objective as possible. After all it's cold hard cash on the line not a throw away prediction or a lead tipping comps. (And even if there are some emotion driven punters adding a drip to the pool, a big chunk of them are probably woe us us dees fans backing the saints) Which is why the betting market is by far the best predictor of the probable outcome of any given match.

Old mate Scotty didn't disappointed. I admire his confidence. He could have gone safe in his attempt to win the coveted Poor sportsmanship- coaches division award (or as it is colloquially known, the sour puss). After all he has a handy lead over mcrae, who has surged of late, scoring big with his patented go to passive aggressive routine. But, no, Scotty decided to attempt the rare triple pay the opponents no respect move - and totally nailed it. Respect. The cats apparently played poorly for 3 quarters against the giants, port and dees - and still almost won (he got bonus points for using the under a goal line - the judges loved it). Though he missed a chance to try the even rarer quadruple disrespect trick by not disrespecting the suns a bit more. Though he did pick up some easy points by acting if having 160 points scored against them is no big deal. And really, probably didn't need the extra points after totally nailing his signature 'no disrespect with a backhanded compliment twist' trick. As scott noted, a big factor in the game was the giants taking contested marks But, with 'no disrespect', the giants' old school strategy of kicking long to a contest was very basic - but only worked because the cats marked poorly. And the judges gave Scott extra points for that trick for the litte twist only the true sour puss aficionados would have picked up - that backhanded compliment was the ONLY time he mentioned the Giants. Personally, I loved how Scotty slipped in the tried and true trick of, apropos of nothing, mentioning that the cats have young players (all 3 of them) A bravura performance.

Essential viewing: The Scott press conference.

No. You hang it up to iron.

Easy to do, such is the power of the Demon myth spell.

#Demon myths We smashed them from centre clearances: Summary Category Score Against Diff Kick-in 0.0.0 0.0.0 +0 Centre Bounce 4.1.25 1.1.7 +18 Stoppage (Other) 5.1.31 4.4.28 +3

Loving the pies tears about the free on the radio.

So if this list does achieve success you will reassess?

Sorry, not sure i follow.

Funny you should mention that. He did the half time interview they do walking with the coach to the bench. Was rude and didmissive. Made some lame joke at the end about Sarah knowing how much he 'loves' those interviews. Passive aggressive was exactly the thought i had. I wondered waht that was all about given hsi image as Me Media Then when they went back to the commentary team Brian Taylor contextualized his comments and tone, saying Mcrae doesn't like in match interviews which is why he doesn't do them often. What coach does? [censored] poor if you ask me

I have an uneasy feeling. Backed the pies to win by more than 25. Looking good on that front. But I still want them to lose.

5 rushed skews things doesn't it. Not all of their rushed were misses as such. And rushed points all add to the score, so i don't think it makes sense to not include them in the actual score. If yoy incude the 5 rushed to the actual score above it's it score 88 to expected score of 92, and their accuracy looks better. The problem for the dogs was the actual and x and actual score lines diverged the wrong way in the last quarter.

Imagine if the people paid to cover the game did their own research...

That's fascinating data in the first paragraph. I didn't know that ie the slide in shots per inside 50. Crazy to think we #1 in 2021 - I'm guessing the swans are number one for that stat atm with an very different game plan (one we are trying for size now). That's an interesting point in the second para. There was an element of that with the pies last year. And perhaps part of goody's thinking is mixing it up this year will make it harder for opponents to get a beat on us.

I don't know, but I assume so. The dogs really should have won, swans had stopped to a walk. Though to be fair the dogs had injuries. That last quarter looked like a dees game with all the misses. That 50 was a shocker.

But those are key elements of our previous game plan because a big part of that method was getting it forward into our front half AND keeping it there. Either literally by creating a stoppage, or mutiple stoppages, and trapping it inside our 50. Or force reentries by setting up a wall, putting pressure on the defender and forcing a dump kick to one of our players.

Not sure what you are referring to here....

Would you believe....

Of course I'd rather the three peat and spend 5-6 years in the wilderness. 5-6 years in the wilderness? To butcher the Monty python gag, luxury, sheer luxury - I followed the dees through 50 years in the wilderness. But the last of the lions three peat flags was 2003. A generation ago. The hawk had their three peat in 2013/14/15 - a decade ago - and have been in the wilderness since and you'd think it will be another 2-3 years minimum before they are a genuine contender. The tigers almost did it, but couldn't So i'm not sure your second option is a realistic one anymore. For someone who has followed the dees through decades of failure and struggles to even make finals, let alone winning a flag, i find the option of staying in the premiership window for as long as possible (like the swans, cats and ironically this iteration of the lions) very appealing. Goody had said that is the aim, and that is supported by the way we have engineered the demographic spread of our list and playing so many young players.

Not this person.

Teams still need the bulls, particularly come finals, but agree, also need multiple players like Warner, McCluggae and Zac Bailey. But such players are often hybrid half forward or wing types. Which is where we have invested some capital in the last 3 seasons - Hunter, Billings, Windsor, Kolt, Laurie, even Woey and Sestan, who both also sort of fit that bill (ie good foot skills, quick, can play forward of center, bit also as mid if needed for whom KPIs include clean kicks inside 50, score involvements, goal assists and ideally a goal a game on average).

The irony meter is getting a big work out. As you suggest TU Demomnland has been clogged up for the last 2 seasons with cries to change our ugly, forward half game plan. Now we have, and people are pining for the old game plan. I don't think we are using the current method just to preserve bodies/fitness until later in the year, though i have no doubt that is a huge driver. Probably the biggest. As i noted in the saints pregame thread i think we will largely revert to 'our' tried and true method, but hopefully retain some of the elements of our current method, eg hitting some high risk corridor kicks, using the lions style 20 metre forward kicks on the 45, and some run and dare off the hb. Those elements are important I think in terms of reducing the frequency of reentries back into a crazy crowded inside 50 (which had historically been a big driver of our low score to inside 50 ratio - or inefficiency as it is oft described). On that point i 100% agree with @MurDoc516 and you that the way we played in 2022-23 contributed to the inaccuracy we had in finals. It's an interesting factor to consider, particularly as it relates to the discussion about us changing our game plan Last nights game provided another example of a possible correlation between a contested, forward half, high inside 50 game style. The dogs dominated inside 50s, particularly in the last quarter. For the match, the dog were +12 for total inside 50s (60-48) and were +33 for contested possessions (which is nuts - i don't reckon there would be too many times a team has won being 33 cps down). I think there is enough evidence now to suggest the time in forward half model, high inside 50 numbers with lots of reentries into a crowded forward line (ie our 2021-23 game plan) contributes to inaccuracy.