binman

Don't hold the bigs and you don't concede 78 points against the best forward line. You concede 120. Three bigs down back is a furphy. Lever is not that tall and certainly not that strong and is never going to take a big forward. So that makes it 2. And May who is tall and strong plays on bigs, mediums and smalls. And often plays outside the 50 mere arc, leaving only one big, omac, deep. So may, lever and omac all have to play. If omac got dropped they would still have to bring a big in.

It will be no issue at all Rjay. Unlike Chadstone the AFL will be able to exercise a large measure control over movement. Lets say 30, 000 at the G (and worth noting that perhaps a quarter will be kids under 15 who are extremely unlikely to have the virus). They can make it ticketed entry for specific seats. use all stands and all gates. From memory there are ten gates, so 3,000 enter each gate and each gate has say 4-5 turnstiles so 600 though each turnstile. People naturally stagger their arrival to the ground but easy enough with that number of people to create staggered lines with barriers etc and waiting say 30 seconds between people going though the turnstiles. They could even do temperatures test and refuse entry to anyone high. Four seats between all people and no food or drink options. Attendants at the toilets counting people in an out and controlling entry. No bars open will mean less traffic to the toilets anyway (and on the causeways for that matter). So, very little issue with social distancing in the ground during the game. Getting there is also not really an issue. Most will drive these days but even if half don't that is only 15, 000 on various transport routes - two trains stations and two tram lines. The only real issue i see is at games' end. But in reality it would only be 3,000 people leaving each gate (assuming no one leaves early) and given they are moving, it is basically in the open air and people are not really passing each other as they are going one direction (meaning social distancing is easy) it is very low risk. Your average Bunnings is more risky, let alone a Chadstone (how many people will go to Chadstone this weekend - or in say 2 months when i reckon fans will go the G?). Given all of the above and the the fact that by making it ticket only you could create system to record contact detail of all fans gong to the footy will be one of lowest risk social activities people can participate in.

They scored 78 points.

I thought that had been outlawed. These days you have to stick to your opinion, not consider other opinions and only talk to people with the same opinions (unless you want to fight).

If there is serious second wave that leads to widespread community transmission then we will go back to lock down and everything will be off, not just football. But widespread community transmission is relatively unlikely whilst we have our borders closed and they have the capacity to test, trace and isolate (remembering they can do this so much better now than 3 months ago) Second wave or not infections will happen in the community. 100%. But they are now controllable and are very unlikely to trigger mass infection. :Look at the cider meats clusters. Such was their confidence they could contain that and find everyone who might have become infected they still went forward with the next phase of lifting restrictions. At the footy they could make sure each ticket had an allocated seats and require members or ticket holders to provide their full contact details. And if someone tested positive immediately contact everyone in their bay, stand or even the whole ground. Compare that to say the train.

I can hardback (see it happening). In fact I will be surprised if it doesn't. Going to the football will be relatively low risk. Easy to limit crowd and enforce social distancing (e.g. mandatory four seat spacing, no food or bars, no members dining, stagger entry, temperature tests at entry, maybe even mandatory installation of the covid app etc etc) and critically is outdoors. Transmission appears to primarily have been in clusters, certainly in Australia. There has been almost none here where there has been random, fleeting contact. Which is why the case in QLD in the news today is causing consternation for official (How did he get it?) All the clusters here (and seemingly most in other countries) have been in environments where people have shared space for a good chunk of time indoors (weddings, work places, cruise ships, family homes, restaurants . We had covid in the community at likely a higher level in say early March to mid May than we do now. In that period, just prior to the restrictions we had 95k people at the world cup, mutiple outdoor music festivals (I was at one) and concerts etc. When the restrictions came in - and close to the peak - thousands crushed into supermarkets to panic buy. I'm not down playing risk and fully support the restrictions and the need for social distancing and cleaning etc but the fact that there seems to have been very little community transmission in those environments in that period suggests they are relatively low risk. Not no no risk of course. In July we will have thousands of people back on public transport and working from offices. That is high risk. Compared to that football is low risk. Again not no risk but with mitigation stratgies and ability to respond quickly test and isolate, an acceptable risk.

And a health warning on anything from the aptly named Ralph

I'm going with H bomb

Agree. I have said on here before but i saw him at the g (social distancing not required at the top of the Ponsford that day) destroy us early in his career and thought he was destined for greatness. At the risk of hyperbole i remember one of the purest footballers and best movers i have ever seen. If he stays fit i see him playing as a permanent half forward who will be incredibly difficult to find a good match up for. Terrific overhead, fast, tallish and can easily cover 60 metres with his kicks so a threat from anywhere near the 50 metre arc.

3. 1 and 2 causes much consternation on Demonland

You're probably right - session will be closed to the public. Despite it being unnecessary. An opportunity for the club to put some good video content up on the website. All they need to do is have have raw footage and it will be watched. Look at ho many views that AFL fella gets (can't recall his name). Perhaps i can write some fictional accounts of training. Omac might feature heavily.

I sort of see what twomey is getting at but really he is talking about a parallel universe where covid don't happen. What's the point of thinking about that? You might as well say wc and Freo are the losers because they lose their considerable home ground advantage. Where we are unlucky is having to play west coast in round one. Both in terms of the game coming straight after the announcement the season was on hold and having that game in Perth. It's possible, but probably unlikely, that no other teams will have to play there. But personally I love the fact we only play each team once. It is how each season should be (with an expanded finals series of some sort). The finalists will all deserve their spot this year

Fans will be able attend training this year. Outbreaks will occur but the pattern is clear in Australia (and elsewhere now) that they will be in clusters. And these clusters will all be related to people sharing indoor spaces for more than 30-60 minutes. Like offices. Outdoor things like attendng footy training are very low risk. Once the last stages of the current restrictions are lifted in vic (likely mid july) then going to training will be fine (probably will be before then, arguably is now). I have little doubt we will be able to go to games before seasons end. So training won't be an issue.

It sort of got lost in all the drama about covid. Devastating for him and his family.

You make some good points DD. And i can the see the logic in only playing two talks back. I think though that really lever doesnt play tall. He is poor on on one and he is simply not string enough to take s asy a darling. But we didn't recruit him for that job. We recruited him to play the rance intercept role. And that is where we need him. Sure May can take a big, and will but we need him to be a weapon. A player who can launch attacks from defence. Can kick a 60 metre dart from hb to hf. Can play on a big, medium or small (the job he did a job on Cameron for example) I 100% agree omac is a full back stopper. Meat and potatoes. Play a clear role that involves team high one percenters (spolis basically). A role every team needs to fill. f he Omac doesnt fill there May would have to if you only played two bigs.. And he can't be a weapon there. A couple of other points. I agree omac's lack of speed is a worry. But disagree about the other two. May is super quick for such a big bloke and lever reads the ball well. And forget Hibberd one on one. He's worse than lever. Not strong enough, cant leap and spoil to compensate (like say smith) and doesn't read the ball well enough. Mcgovern, or any half decent big, would kill him. Which is ok because it is not his go. Besides out problem is not our defensive bigs. Look at who scored against us last year, and again in round one. Small and medium forwards.

The issue is not so much match ups as structure. Modern defensive units are all built around structure, system (primarily zone - some teams have an aggressive zone other team less so, but all employ some form of zone) and every player playing their role and being totally predictable to their defensive team mates. Synergy is critical, which is why coaches are loathe to make changes to their defensive units. Omac's role is to be the true full back - akin to a goal keeper in soccer. Plays behind the last line where of course usually a big forward also lurks. So takes that player. If his player pushes up the ground (as the big forwards often do) more often than not he will let them go and rely on his teammates to cover them. He then fills that hole behind the line making, 30 or so metres from goal, making a long kick into space ineffective (remember how many goals we gave up out the back in the first half of 2018? - since then we hardly give up any up). He can mop up or if a teammate wins the ball be a switch option, which is why many of his kicks are uncontested. And unlike almost all of his team mates we can rely on him hitting a target with that kick. But if the blues go small then will take whoever plays deep. And yes he might struggle with the speed of a smaller forward but zones work because they block space in the forward half - forcing teams to bomb the ball in and making it very hard for forwards to lead into space. So their speed is negated. The effectiveness of the classic zone was on full display against the Eagles. Their zone forced us to kick high where their defenders could dominate in the air. And to an extent this will always happen with good zones (unless they can be broken through speed of ball movement - as occurred a few times in the match, mainly by them unfortunately). Teams need a true full back. One who plays that role week in, week out. Playing in that position every week. ATM ours is Omac. Sure if his form is not up to it they will look to put someone else in that position but as i say coaches are loathe to change defensive units and it is his spot to lose.

I would love it if he actually tried to pinpoint a pass rather than kick helicopters

Footy is back. And so is some of the the same nonsense here on DL Round one is irrelevant? After a full preseason and every single key defender available (bar petty who has been ear marked as forward) who does Goodwin select to play against arguably the best forward line, with two of the best 5 key forwards? Omac. On that evidence Goodwin clearly considers him best 22. Omac plays round one and keeps his direct opponent goalless and he barely takes mark. With May, our best defender on the day. We don't play a game between that game and our second game. So apart from training drills and some match sims (which also took place preseason and resulted in Omac being selected in round one) Goodwin has no other game to base selection on. Yet round one is irrelevant. Really? Omac will be selected. Whilst round one is obviously not irrelevant where i do think it might have an asterix in terms of selection decisions is with players who were really poor in that game, not the ones who played well like Omac. The asterix might mean Hibberd gets game. If he does he will be very lucky as he was flat out terrible in that game.

Obviously hard to tell from photos but those pictured look in great nick.

Footy is (almost) back. Love it. Mark my words, (limited) crowed will be back before the end of the season too.

Have taken a break from DL, by in large. Not a conscious decision as such. But after a preseason and then no footy I ran out of posting energy. Have occasional dropped in and scanned some threads. And every thread I've opened it has been clagged up by the Martian fella. Deeluded you say dazzler. Makes sense. Cue my favourite L7 track. Should make it easier to post again. Omac looks in ripping nick.

First time poster, long term (occasional) lurker Totally agree sue. Once the decision was made that the season was going to be postponed they simply had to call that game off. It was dangerous not to do so. They were told the season was on hold little more than an hour before the game (after a week or so of speculation it would be) The players heads would have been spinning, particularly our boys who faced a plane trip home not a taxi. It was hard enough watching that game let alone playing. I felt sick wirh the thought of a player getting injured and in shock about the pandemic. At that point it seemed the most likely scenario was that the season would be called off. And our boys played accordingly. As did the eagles. Remarkable to think given how poor we were that they only won by 27 points. They'd just about take that

Could he be persuaded to keep if if say demonland asks (the site, not you).

No wonder he is such a great leader. Can do infinite military lifts.

An interesting perspective given PJs reticence to endorse pert on the demonland podcast