binman

What is?

ANB would change the balance. Is a key player, not least because there isn't really a clear replacement for his role with his aerobic capacity

Absolutely. Which is why Smith is important against the cats becuase he can go one on one against Rohan and/or Cameron, as he did in round 23.

But neither are really one on one defenders. Both need freedom to run off their man and float as interceptors

Agree. he can take any of their talls, with the exception of Hawkins, so offers terrific flexibility. And his speed and ability to cover ground will be important on the expanses of Optus Oval, particularly given the cats are likely to try and spread our defence (eg by switching before kicking inside 50) to engineer one on ones. However IF we win i could see a scenario where Smith makes way for Hunt.

I swe your logic dazzler about hibberd. But I reckon there is zero chance he comes in. In fact I don't think there will be any changes.

Like a dees haiku

That's a good point. Given we won't give them space to lead into, surely four talls means they end up with a lot of high and long inside 50 kicks. A lot of talk about Ratugolea being a really important in from a structural perspective. And that playing him will negate levers impact by forcing him to be accountable to a big. Both valid points perhaps, but when it is all said and done he only had five possessions and one mark against an average Giants defence (how slow was Davis?).

Ethan (and other Perth based posters), what's the vibe like over there atm in terms of the footy? I was amazed the Cats v Giants game had a crowd of 44, 000. Incredible, particularly given one assumes there is no historic giants fan base. I was even more amazed people were still booing the iumpires!

Four talls - Rohan, Hawkins, Ratugolea and Cameron And I 100% agree. Dalhous makes way for a big. Parfitt is out. They have Close. And obviously some good mids. But surely four talls creates a huge issue for them in terms of winning ground balls inside their 50 - or even just creating stoppages. And when we win defensive ground balls or intercepts, we will look to run off their talls at every opportunity. They are a slow team as it is. Four bigs, two of whom are lumbering types, just makes them slower.

Nor me. A musical giant. So under appreciated Another under appreciated giant of modern music died last week - Lee Scratch Perry. One of the most influential musicians of all time, in particular on electronic music and to a lesser extent hip hop.

Agree. An issue for the cats against us is that their controlled ball movement plays into our hands on two fronts. One, it allows us to set our defensive zone up - and in doing so making it hard for the Cats to transition from the back half, and therefore hard to create one on one opportunities for their forwards. And two, it is a model that is susceptible to the sort of intensity we bring, as we push right up on them up and every possession becomes a turnover risk. And if it is turned over it is often in our half. Their best chance of beating us is really fast ball movement because that is their best shot of isolating their forwards and scoring enough to beat us. In a funny way, their burst of goals in round 23 is the blueprint - not so much how they generated those inside 50 entries (because they are unlikely to get so many clean centre square clearances again), but more the speed of ball movement and engineering one on ones. They definitely looked to move the ball quicker from HB against the giants. Tuohy was a big factor as he looked to run and carry at every opportunity. So you'd think they will try to do so against us. Maybe. I say maybe, because playing fast creates a catch 22 for them as we are at our most dangerous when there is speed on the ball. Play fast and if we create a back half turnover we move it super quick down the ground against a defence that has not had time to get back and set up their zone. This play is our most potent offensive weapon. In much the same way soccer teams that don't have the firepower of an opponent often play, the Cats might decide their best bet is to take as much time out of the clock as possible and try and win a low scoring dirge.

At the risk of having a circular argument, I'm not 'adding in extra players'. YOU were comparing Brown, Tmac and Fritter and Hawkins, Cameron and Rohan- not me I was talking about our talls in our forward line v theirs because that is who King was referring to. He was pointing out Ratugolea added to Cameron, Rohan and Hawkins and that was a forward line the dees would 'die for', implying it is far superior to ours. Which is bollocks. Which is the point I was making. Our forward line has had four talls most of the season, assuming you count fritter, which I do as he is a marking target, not a crumber. The current iteration - Jackson, Brown, Tmac and Fritter - is a good group of tall forwards. The cats tall forwards in Ratugolea Cameron, Rohan and Hawkins is also a good group. But do you really think it is one that goody would 'die for'. Quite the contrary. Bringing Ratugolea in at this late stage is evidence the cats don't believe the others can do the job in finals. And probably an admission they need a player like Jackson who can do solid minutes as an around the ground ruckman (not a bull who only takes inside 50 stoppages - that by the by we negated last time by simply using Max more often at ruck contests inside their 50). Hawkins is one dimensional and really can only play out of the square. He has limited impact if not kicking goals. Which would not be a good fit for our game plan. Our forwards have to be able to run up and down the ground all day - particularly tmac, Jackson and Brown. And good zones beat the old school wrestle gorillas. Cameron would slot into our side and game plan perfectly, and keep say tmac out. But Fritter has rohan covered in every respect. And Jackson is so far ahead of Ratugolea its not even a discussion. So all things considered king's assertion they have a forward line we would die for is bollocks. If you agree with King then that's OK. Each to their own

You forgot to include Jackson's 15 goals. So 130 to 116. 14 goal difference over a season. Bugger all. And none of their talls can provide a decent on ball ruck option.

I didn't say we had a better forward line. My point was that their forward line is not one we would 'die for', which is literally what he said. But on the topic of their forward line, Rohan has a dismal finals record and if Hawkins is not kicking goals he offers little else because unlike tmac and Brown he struggles getting up and down the ground and impacting outside 50.

The other thing King said that burnt my bacon was the cats had a forward line that the dees would 'die for' (in reference to their talls) Seriously WTF is he talking about? Fritter is arguably the best medium forward in the game atm (I'm not counting Cameron). Brown is hitting his straps and is kicking goals and taking marks. Tmac has been down the ladt couple, but has been a star for us this year. Jackson is starting to clunk his marks and is an incredibly tough match up. And gawn can push forward, as can tracc. Look at our first final. We had 15 odd marks inside 50. And whilst he was talking about talls, we have kozzie. And tbey have......

Agree. With daisy my favourite media analyst. By a big margin too. And he has a really good skill of countering king's arguments without it becoming a dead end conflict. And he can articulate his points clearly.

It's funny you say that AF. I just watched it an hour or so ago too. And was also thinking King is a peanut too. Though for a different reason. He got cut off fortunately, but he started to say talk about how evenly matched we were based on our last game. Do you take the cats in the first half or the dees in rhe second he asked. Peanut. Montagna, to his credit, responded indirectly to that comment a bit later by noting the dees were actually in top for most of that game and that rhe cats got their first half goals in a 5 minute burst. The cats kicked 2 bloody goals in the second half. Surely that is alarm bells. Not for king it seems, who after that game was lauding their 'star power'.

Agree. Our game is built for big grounds. One because we spread and run in waves in transition. But the key benefit is the comparative advantage we have. We have the best defensive web/zone and move across the ground to stop the switch and transition better than any other club. Small grounds, eg Kardinia Park, reduces that advantage. Would not surprise me if they look to switch a bit more and spread early doors, as they did against the lions, to make the cats have to run .

Exactly. The club has lost a lot of money this year with no crowds. It would love some more membership revenue

If that is his real name? Comedy gold adonski. If that is your real name....

Exactly. Stop transmission? No, not completely. Reduce transmission? Yes. Which is one the reasons why it is so important to get Vax rates up in Sydney and Melbourne And why it is so important we now suppress the spread. And why misinformed views suggesting vaccines do nothing to stop the spread are so dangerous

Once again, this is simply wrong. And it is really dangerous misinformation, not to mention unhelpful.

I'll bet you Damien Barret agrees with Alanis Morissette's definition of irony. Don't let the sliding door hit you on the way out Damo.

That is just plain wrong. Please save yourself the effort of replying, arguing or asking me to explain why. Do some reading of the basic facts. There is reams of useful, accurate information out there. For Pete's sake, how people could not understand the basics about this disease and the response to it this far into the pandemic just blows my mind. But it certainly explains a lot of about peoples choices, their behavior and the situation we are in.