binman

Two rushed (they don't count them for some reason)

We did win by six goals after all.

Their kicking was woeful in the main. And it seemed as if we dared them to take on the corridor and the saints refused the invite. That said, 54 of their 66 points were from turnover. That's nuts. That's only 4 points less than we scored from turnover. And is nearly 11 points more than we concede per match on average. I can't imagine that number pleased goody.

The swans are the deserved benchmark for the turnover game But I think it's worth noting that they have been using that method for the last 2 seasons and are the most settled team in the AFL in terms of forced changes. Consider the impact if they lost 2 of their 3 best kicks that are key to their transition game - say blakely and gulden.

A couple of factors come to mind. A key one is having 2 of our 3 best kicks - salem and bowey - out of the side for a big chunks of time. That iss compounded by both players being half back flankers, the engine room for creating high quality scoring opportunities on turnover and transition. Given the key role elite distributors play in the turnover game, its no surprise we look much better on transition with those two in the side. I think another factor is that we have a number of players who ate not great kicks. And perhaps the biggest factor is we are trying to implement a new system, which will always be a challenge, particularly for a team that is so systems based, and one that has a super defined system drilled into them for 3 plus years.

There's an interesting potential correlation with the loose ball gets as per wheelos terrific addition to his stats. Melbourne's Forward 50 Loose Ball Gets: -14 Post clearance Loose ball gets: -19 Pre clearance Loose Ball Gets: -3 I suspect one of the causal factors driving the post clearance, inside our forward 50 and the ground ball numbers, is the Lyon defensive flood. They often seemed to have at least a couple of extra players defending our forward line.

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.