binman

Under sized forwards? Witch's talkin' about Lewis? Weed and jackson are 195 and 199 cms respectively. How tall is frost and frawley?

Don't mind that selection at all. Gutsy. Will be interesting to see if he plays up the ground like tmac was, with weed deep. I assume he will as he is not a FF. One option that it gives us is giving jackson an extended stretch in the ruck and putting maxy forward. Maxy is marking it so well at the moment and he would really stretch their backline (any back line really). Just has to hand the shot at goal off!

Doesn't leave him too many positions then.

Yes and no. If we had gone into that game with Tom as the one key forward and he went down we would have had no key forwards!

Thanks Fork em. And i don't mean that sarcastically. I promise That video clip is literally one of the funniest things i have seen. Watching it i thought this simply has to be a parody. A brilliant one at that. One made even more funny by the fact the fellas name is Tom Macdonald. It is just so pitch perfect the way nails every grievance of disenfranchised white men/babies fearing a future that does not involve them holding all the cards and being in power. Men, who, without irony, see themselves as the real victims, victims that struggle to have a voice in this time of woke, cancel culture gone mad (which reminds me of the irony of Fox news, the most watched news outlet on the planet, railing against so called mainstream media). As i say it simply has to be a parody, I did quick google search and he he names of some of his other tracks include; “Straight White Male” “Everybody Hates Me” and "Coronavirus" - that of course pushes conspiracy theories. You couldn't make this stuff up. Fantastic. Well played Fork em and big props to the comedic genius of Tom Macdonald.

Its all about reducing stoppages. Which is not the job of the umpires. Drives me nuts. Same with ignoring players being pushed in the back and driving them into the ground. Which us made worse when they then get pinged for holding! Just pay the free kicks. And at stoppages just throw the ball straight up.

i thought about that and i reckon Harmes would do a top job shutting down Smith. But i wondered about taking him out of the midfiled where he is really damaging (and can shut down say Mitchell or Omeara). Langdon head to head with Scully would be good watch.

I punt on footy with mate. And we do ok as a rule. But he has banned bets on the dees because i always think we will win. And we don't. With that caution from a punting perspective i reckon the dees are terrific value this weekend. I'm amazed hawks are favorites. They are rubbish. Sure Clarkson is great coach and no doubt will have a good plan to beat us but as you say they simply don't have the cattle. They are a slow so find it hard to cover and spread. They have few weapons up forward and with poppy having slowed done and not in great form can't really exploit the issue we have containing small forwards (and perhaps this will save Jetts this week from the chop - he'll thrash poppy). With Ceglar (i am assuming he is out) and Patton out we have an advantage with our three bigs and that advantage will allow Lever and in particular May to play higher and be more aggressive and damaging. Ceglar out also means Maxy will be more dominant and give us a big edge at stoppages (which we'll have even if Ceglar plays). As george on the outer noted on the demonland podcast Smith is key for them as he generates a lot of their attack and i assume leads their metres gained. We could opt to have a player run with him, but i think that is unlikely. More likely is goody having Langdon go head to head with him and exploit Smiths lack of two way running. I agree that the smaller ground suits us - the evidence is compelling on that front. And conversely does not help the hawks as they can't stretch opposition with their kicking they way they like to. But the smaller ground also negates the impact of Smith a bit because he has less space to run into and his kicks inside 50 are less damaging because it is more crowded - which in turn should help Lever take intercept marks). The other player who is key for them is Sicily and it will be interesting to see if they put a defensive forward on him whose role is to take him away from the corridor to negate his intercept marking. But most of all they have too many poor kicks these days to execute Clarkson's preferred game plan - the tedious kick and mark routine. If opposition teams apply enough pressure and run hard both ways it will break down eventually. It is a game plan that has a weakness in so far as it relies on denying the opposition the ball and therefore the chance to score. Which is all well and good - until the opposition do score and get say a three goal break as chipping it around your own back line might stop opposition scoring does nothing to help your own team score. A good example was the game last night with the cats caught between two games plans and struggling to bridge the 3 goal margin established at quarter time - something they were able to do against the lions the week before (who got 3 goals up half way through the second) but couldn't against the pies tighter, more defensive game plan. On the Hawk's game plan i won't be surprised if they look to attack from the get go to catch us off guard. Prior to their game against the Cats i heard an interview with Clarkson and he was banging on about it being a dour, low scoring game with both teams employing a similar chip and gold model. They then came out and went all out attack, jumped the Cats kicking 6 odd goals. Interestingly it was on the small, narrow Kardina park - a ground with similar dimensions to Giants stadium. Back to punting. For the reasons noted I won't be backing us but i suggest others do. Take the dees line bet (+3.5) and also back us to win over 24.5. Sit back and count the cash.

And he has so much time and space

Weed can give maxy a chop out. I reckon he's actually pretty good in the ruck.

Surely to goodness they won't make more than the one forced change to a winnning side? And I can't see Smith playing back any time soon.

Have to play a defensive forward on Frost. He could really hurt us. Smith the obvious candidate.

Cats could not buy a free in the last. A couple of clesr in the backs in their forward line.

It would be strange in so far as it would be reverting to the one big forward line surrounded by small and mediums again (even though Smith can play big, sort of with his leap). And that set up just wasn't working.

No brown. Must be annoyed. That means jackson or Tomlinson for tmac.

That's exactly what my 17 year old son is always telling me!

Demonland masks?

Sounds like much of my 20s!

I reckon Goody has been on the cones. Suuuper chilllled. He must use his visene effectively

Has to be. I means why get him otherwise Jackson might be in the frame i guess as he has pace and might be a hard match up but he looked too raw round one and the Hawks will work him over. And in some way i don't think we will lose too much if brown comes in for Tmac, who has not been in great form anyway. Brown would have to play the same role - get p the ground and compete. Weed to play out of the square (i had suggested to opposite ie Tmac out of the square - but having seen him last week i'm not sure he is strong enough).

Here is another fantastic analysis article from ABC news in what is obviously an ongoing series (there have been at least 4-5 so far - last weeks was about the Suns). This exactly the sort of analysis i have been banging on about there needs to be more of during coverage of games, on the AFL website, in the print media on radio etc etc. Less gossip and guffaws and more information. It helps people understand the game better and appreciate the tactical work that underpins modern footy. It also shows just how hard the players run up and down the ground and how little space there is as a result. With the way footy is covered you just don't see that and even at the ground if you are sitting on the wing or near ground level it is hard to really appreciate. Whilst about the tigers this article is also very relevant for the demons as a we employ a similar, though not exactly the same, game plan (for example we are much more focus on winning contested possessions). Which is why we are close to the tigers in many of the statistical categories the article notes. It goes a long way to explain our struggles scoring and out low inside 5O conversion rate. And most of all it demonstrates why good kicking is so critical in modern footy. The giphs are super useful to help understand the point being made.The final one highlights a deep kick from Lambert to Lynch that sets up a goal. Of equal interest is the second last kick in that chain, I can't recall who it is from or to but it is kicked from the wing to a player in the centre square who has hawks all around him and has to go over the top of a hawks player (the hawks are all guarding space). In some ways this a new kick in footy as it requires a different skill than drilling a 40 metre pass to player leading into space. They have to be able judge the height of the kick and how to weight into space. No easy thing i'm guessing when you are bout to be tackled. The other thing about this article that is relevant is obviously we are playing ht e hawks and predominately uses examples of the hawks negate the tigers. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-16/richmonds-afl-dominance-shrinking-now-tiger-trap-sprung/12456660

C'mon ref that has to be a knock on! THEY'VE BEING DOING IT ALL GAME!!!!

I do indeed whatwhatsaywhat - the hunner's high water mark. Brilliant, clean production (horns sound great). Some of their best song writing and every track tight and punchy. All killer no filler. Somewhat controversially i don't reckon there are that many great Australian albums. Lots of great singles (and i reckon My pal by GOD sits at the op of that list) but oz bands have always had to make their money from playing live and have not had the time or money generally to spend long period in the studio. That said i'm with you Born Sandy Devotional would have to be at the top, or very close to it, of my list of great oz albums. A near perfect record.

I respectfully volunteer to be captain of team Oscar. In terms of experience i was previously captain of team Anthony 'Spud' Dullard, like Omac an effective but much underappreciated big defender (and occasional ruckman) who played his last game in 1981. A (as an aside i I just checked Spud's page on demonwiki - the single greatest website in the history of the internet - and was amazed that he also wore number 28, a fact i'd completely forgotten. Sorry Spud. And further he holds the club record for games wearing number 28 - 108. Omac is on 74 so all things being equal he will break that record. And when he does i might have little Team Oscar celebration and invite Spud. I can't see Omac passing Spuds 49 goals but with some luck maybe he might exceed Spuds 10 career Brownlow votes though he might need to get wriggle on) For many years team Oscar felt like a very small team. Growing in numbers now it seems. Little Goffy and handful of others can say we were into Oscar before he got big. But if he gets too popular i might have to find a new, unfashionable, but cool team. Like when i was into Hunters and Collectors (down there in that cavern where heaven grows) before they went mainstream and went off them once they did - i mean Holy Grail, please!. Any ideas of who the next underground, alternative player for the true believers might be? personally I'm thinking of joining team Smith.

I haven't watched on the couch all season. But watched a bit on kayo ans skipped through to the bit where they t a liked about the dees. A few reflections. You've stacked on some weight. Are you trying to compete with Billy Brownless with that as well? I thought you and 'browny' were a bad enough combination. But good Lord adding big Nick just completes the set. Nice if you to take credit for the win. What is that show all about? Are you supposed to analyse games of football? Do you actually prepare yourself? Or is every point and stat researched by the 16 year old work experience kid?