binman

Our defensive system is rock solid. One change should be fine - even one as important as May. Petty will come in for May this week. Petty is not an intercept defender i don't reckon - at least not in the Lever/kelly mode. He is more the the classic man on man full back. So a like for like replacement for May - well not as good obviously, but you get my meaning. And i really rate Petty. A potential A grader. Before Jordon elevated i thought he was our best young player to come back into our side this season. Its actually pretty good timing in terms of the tigers' game. Petty will have a game to get up to AFL speed against a relatively weak forward line and set himself for the tigers. I reckon he'll go to Riewoldt as he has the mobility to cover him. Hard job but as i say he will set himself and being a night game the likely slippery conditions will help his cause. And Thomo will take that whiner, Lynch. If he can handle Hawkins - who must the be the strongest one one one player in the AFL - he can manage Lynch.

Fictional? Dang it. Another shattered illusion.

No biggie.

So many user problems. Another is that to find stats you have to go to the match reports. The button for that is on right side, but for some reason I often click on the match video button, on the left side. Which is my issue i guess. The problem is you can't navigate back by clicking the back arrow, as is the case on 90% of Windows. You have to close the video windows first, then click back. And the button is hidden in the top right corner of a black screen

Fair dinkum you can be obtuse jimmy. Melk not best 22 last year? Is that why he never got dropped? Clearly goody didn't share your assessment. Very few unforced changes are made to winning sides. It is a fact jimmy. Coaches love settled sides. Reward players that bring wins, as they should. Unchanged is an aim. Of course there are some exceptions to that rule (most notably bringint back best 22 players), but they simply prove the rule. And when they do make an unforced change it would be rare for it to be more than one. Which brings me back to my question. What doesn't add up? RalphiusMaximus noted that 'you don't change a winning side unless forced. . Of course it is not literally true on every occasion. Hence my examples. But it is an accurate statement about the prevailing selection philosophy of AFL coaches. You don't change a winning side unless forced is a maxim. One that holds true. For good reason, because in spite of your confusion it makes sense on a number of levels (you can work it out) not to change a winning side wherever possible. Which is why the only change this week is, RalphiusMaximus suggested, likely to be petty for may. Because you don't change a winning side unless forced. And why after our previous three wins we only made one unforced change. Melksham in this week If RalphiusMaximus is correct, which i suspect he will be, and we don't make any unforced changes this week we will had 4 wins for a grand total of one unforced change. So what doesn't add up? It was a genuine question. Are you disagreeing with RalphiusMaximus that the only change should be petty for may? Are you arguing the philosophy of not making changes to winning sides is not agood one? Or are you arguing that no such philosophy exists in the AFL?

What doesn't add up? Obviously it happens that unforced changes are sometimes made to winning sides. For example a clear best 22 player coming back from injury (like buddy or melk this week). Or perhaps a player breaking team rules, or some other misdemeanour. Or perhaps after a scrappy win against an easy beat. Or just coz. But as a general rule, coaches are loathe to make changes to winning sides. It has always been thus. A mantra if you will.

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!!!