binman

You live in Alice don't you rgrs? I'm assuming its a pretty important match for the nt government in terms of promoting tourism. Particularly now that people can't travel overseas. A genuine Friday night blockbuster. Massive ratings. The best bang for bucks of any of these matches. And it would be a big hit for the local economy. A friend looked at accommodation with thought of flying up. Completely full. The dees are in iso all week and will have daily tests probably. Could fly in on Friday morning and book a hotel area and be isolated. Then bus to the game. Flt out next day. What's the sense about the likelihood of it going ahead? Or how keen the government is for it to?

Agree with the first paragraph. Not the second. Brown was the incumbent. Both were average against the blues, but if anything Brown was better. So in my view deserved to retain his spot. Obviously the selectors don't agree, so who am I to say. I agree in a general sense with your comments about not needing every forward to be a pressure freak. And that is not what I expect of weed. But for mine he simply doesn't play with enough intensity and spends too much time at half pace But his benchmark should be tmac. Late in a quarter (can't recall which maybe the third?) tmac flat out sprinted for 200 metres to apply some pressure to a dogs plsyer running free through the centre square. Didn't quite get there but put enough pressure on for the kick inside 50 to be shanked. And we got an intercept mark. Even it hadn't caused a turnover the effort was inspiring. They will show that vision to the team. To be fair to weed they will also show his great run down tackle late in the second. But they will also show weed in his review of his half arsed effort near the start of tbe last 'chasing" durea at hb. Look at the vision at about 18:30. Jogged, where if he had been intense and really focused he would have been able to lay a tackle - or at least been able to disrupt the kick. He lucked out because the kick inside 50 was poor and didn't vmcost tbe goal it should have. A goal that might have given them a sniff. Simply not good enough. And strange from a player fighting for his spot in the team.

A couple of things nev. I meant it is woeful that both of our key forwards apply poor levels of pressure. They both concern me. And I understand your point about competition for spots, but by the very same logic it was a strange decision to drop Brown not weed for the crows game. Brown was picked first on form. And both had almost identical stats and impact (which was not great) against the blues. So why drop Brown? I suspect it was to give weed a run at afl level. And have a look at the set up with him as the go to forward. I'm not advocating Brown come in. But they wedged themselves a bit. And bottom line Brown is a better footballer. Takes his marks. Is stronger in the contest. Is a harder match up that demands more defensive coverage. And is a proven goal kicker. Brown has the runs on the board. Weed doesn't. Because neither apply enough pressure you can't have both in the same team. And without question Id have Brown over weed.

It is such an incrediblely stupid analysis. And I use the word advisedly. Like basketball and soccer, when you have a good lead against a dangerous opposition the last thing tbe dees wanted to do was go fast. The only chance the dogs had in the second half was a fast game, with lots of goals. Like the blues game where they blues continued to play fast rather than play tempo. Such smart footy by us. Keep the shape and defensive run. AND slow it down to suck minutes out of the clock. The goals the dogs kicked in the second half (all game really) were all hard work and against the run of plsy. And critically the best tbey could do was get 2 in a row (and then only once i think). And we responded to any goals to keep the four goal buffer. Which if brerereton bothered doing any work at all, that has been how we have played all season, with the hawks game the only one where we kept the pedal to the medal (and even then that was really more about the hawks completey stopping). How does that peanut accept his wages every week. Embarrassing

And there's the problem. Both sets of numbers are woeful

Referred pain. Don't think it is very serious

Just turned on pies cats games. Yikes. Perfect conditions and 45 points at half time. And pies goalless And two jumpers that clash

Exactly. Once is a outlier. Twice a coincidence. Any more and it is a pattern. Makes for tough games to watch. Unless of course you are a dees fan.

All good points. It is all about the pressure. A crazy thing though is I saw after the game we were 167 on that pressure meter. But they were 180! I assume that rating is an average across different points in rbe game. Suggests their pressure was better. At least in terms of applied pressure (tackles, referred pressure, one percenters, spoils, smothers etc). What i doubt it measures is the pressure of looking up and having sfa options to kick forward to. We cover and spread so well teams are constantly under pressure to try and find a way through, or around us. The dogs are the best in tbe league at doing so. But were all at sea against us.

To really feed my addiction, this year I have really embraced catch up radio for specific segments. Makes it so easy for an addict to get his dees fix. And because we are flying, heaps of any given segment is about us! And as a bonus no ads. Radio catch up musts: Max gawn extended interview on rsn breakfast, fortnightly from 7am. Every Monday morning from 7am on rsn jimmy bartel leads a review of the the weekend's games. He rates the dees and we get a good crack. Good tactical stuff. Tuesday rocketveade reviews the weekends game on rsn breakfast Leppa on Tuesday on wheatley on sen. Jennings thurs on wheatley on sen (though I'm not sure why, but he really annoys me) Friday night on sen i have come to really like jordon Lewis. And if super keen all the radio stations that cover one of our games have post match interviews etc All of the above can be found on the relevant websites. However my favourite two hours of radio is Sunday 12-2 on the abc. 12-1 Corbin Middlemas, Brett Deledio and Lauren Arnell on Grandstand AFL Sunday. Fantastic. Genuinely interesting and they have a great chemistry. My favourite radio show Then 1-2 is Alistair Nicholson, Jake niall and someone else. More about the game in general and politics etc. But good nonetheless

My name is binman. And I am a dees media content addict. But that is not the problem. The problem is I can't get enough dees media content. A great thing about playing Friday night games is allmosy post game media up till about 1pm sat is about that game. From last nights game if you have kayo i'd recommend first crack. The first half of last night's episode was all about the dees. Great stuff. Love the video to explain stuff. And I have to I really like montages analysis. Doesdy hurt he has been pumping up the dees and our game plan for weeks. On radio I don't like sen as a rule. And never listened to it all ladt year. But crunch time 12-1 or so on sat is good,. Del Santo and maher leve me cold. And I'm ambivalent about wheatley, but he knows his stuff and is well prepared. But the ace in the pack leppa, who is just fantastic. Smart, explains things well and discusses systems and tactics in a way that is easy to get.

This might sound strange, but having no crowd last night might well be a positive when we play them next. I reckon some dog's fans, and perhaps the team on a subconscious level, might use no crowd as a bit of excuse for their lacklustre performance. All teams feed on the energy of the crowd, but dogs particularly so when they get rolling. But it is bollocks. Think of the tigers, blues and cats games. We take the air our other teams tyres. They just struggle to get into gear. Really the crows have been the only team who could get going for anything other than bursts. Not only do we suffocate other teams we take their fans out of the equation. Cant wait for round 20.

Made some costly mistakes. A couple of bad clangers, allowing English to outmark him for a goal (though Lever didn't help the cause) and then getting too easily blocked to give English an easy mark on the lead and goal. But is much more attacking than tomorrow, and omac before him. Looks for intercept marking opportunities, zones off aggressively and really backs himself in marking contests. And is a much better kick than he has shown in the last two games. Could see him sharing kick out duties with may. He is a gun. And has huge upside. A future AA defender.

Obviously I am not completey objective when it comes to this issue, but it is out of control how much opposition teams get away with in terms of smashing him and using illegal tactics such as the one you note. And Max shows incredible equanimity. Has obvbiously decided there is no point going off. He'd be doing it all game. The blocking is out of control. Could not believe the free they gave against tmac in a marking contest with weed on the wing. Tmac was completely non plussed as he was in the contest. Might have even touched it. If that was the bar applied to the marking contests Max competes in, or more accurately unable to compete in, he would get a dozen frees a game. Same goes for hits to the head. Or as bonehead ex footballers in the commentary box approvingly call it- making him earn it. Makes be crazy.

Describes his whole career

You must be his biggest flan.....

Fool me once.....

Jones in to play the defensive wing tbat Gus has been playing. Gus to offensive wing

Jones in to play the defensive wing tbat Gus has been playing. Gus to offensive wing

Id drop weed. But I admit I may not be very objective. Backed the dees over 39 points. He shanked a shot to make it 42 points. Then his next two kicks, both of which should have set up scoring shots, were dead set clangers. Id still drop him. One tackle. And 10 half jogs and coraaling. Four possessions is rubbish. Sure 3 goals, but 2 were gifts. And he dropped mutiple marks that he should have swallowed

It was a great interview wasn't it. Such a cool customer. Thought it would be great to play some of it on the podcast, particularly his comments about how we would look to mitigate their strengths and respond during the match. Basically said we would set up to back our system and only change if necessary. Defintive we wouldn't tag at the start.

Closed

That means a seven goal loss is a one goal win for us at the g!

The silent fortress

This was always going to be a fascinating game. The top two teams in the AFL atm, and not just on the ladder. We are clearly the two best performed teams. Two different tactical models, but not distinct in the way say ours and the Eagles are. Of course all team have a focus on pressure and winning contested ball. But the dees and dogs have pressure and contested footy as foundation stones of their model. Where we differ is our defence system, the ways we transition the ball and the way we look to generate scoring opportunities. But no crowd and the open roof, no to mention the craziness of this week and both teams having covid scares, add random variables into mix. Last year, i found our early games with no crowds painful to watch in terms of the atmosphere, but also from a perspective of not knowing if the games would ultimately count for anything. And it felt like the players were going through the motions. But tonight those factors, particularly the last two are not really in the equation. Yes, the game won't have the same atmosphere, and will miss a lot because of it. But unlike the games with no crowds last year, in some ways it will have its own special atmosphere. Just the sound of the players, like a suburban game, playing a match for real stakes and two teams desperate to show who is the best going head to head. Might even have better umpiring without the noise of affirmation! Can't wait