binman

I saw the ground ball stat and refected on your point about going from losing the differential to winning it in the last few weeks. In 2021-23 ground ball gets were one of key indicators. Seemed to be less significant in a transition game as were winning games early this season despite handily losing ground ball. Contest is key to both methods, and we really dialled up our attack on the ball. It looked liked our best contest footy of 2021-23, but much better on transition 2024 style. That's the hybrid goody is trying to develop I reckon ie a blend of the territory and transition games. I heard goody say the youth of the team is a factor in terms of how they want to play. Which makes sense given even with no gus or smithy we still have a core of excellent senior players who are strong in the contest and hard at. But also have young players like Mcvee, Windsor, Kolt, Bowey and AMW with good wheels we want out in space (though fortunately all are had at in the contest too). That said, even with the hybrid model being perhaps less contest heavy games are still super taxing. Particularly for the young blokes. Must be some challenge to get the program right.

I edited my original post. My first draft was little less diplomatic.

Not bad. I could recycle all my pet hates and bad jokes.

Not your best work cranky. I mean, not even I thought we had the best list six years ago! Stick to the surreally ridiculous. A question. Do YOU think we have had the best list in the last 4-6 years?

Really, playing one down at stoppages has only been made possible by having generational players in maxy, tracc, clarry and jack. And as you've noted the clever tactic of having a high half forward, usually nibbla sitting of the contest. I reckon Jones, who played in that system, meant even numbers not an extra. Again, what drives me nuts is their lack of explanation about the impacts of that decision. For one thing, we use the spare created by playing one down at stoppages behind the ball in an intercepting role. Which would help explain why we didn't do that well in terms intercept and intercept marks differentials, basically breaking even whereas in past seasons we routinely smashed teams for intercepts, particularly intercept marks.

Jones said we were doing so on the coverage. Maybe he meant an extra in the sense we are normally one down? That's to say even numbers. He also said the high half forwards were pushing up to to stoppages too. It drives me nuts they don't show graphics with the set ups and all ground structure. The coverage of afl feels as if it hasn't improved or changed in 20 years. That used to he true of cricket, but coverage of cricket is brilliant now with fantastic use of special comments graphics and video. It's adds so much to my understanding of a game I love and know well.

I'll steal that!

Watching the case game, I thought don't sleep on Benny Brown. Looked in good nick and did some nice thing's.

Agree, and goody said as much ie next week is a different challenge. I'm not arguing we should stick with jvr, roo and turner - though I suspect we will - just suggesting goody implied that we have good reason to. That said, before this game i said i totally got the logic of going with jvr, petts and disco. And i see the logic in doing so again. Yes they have two excellent rucks, but if they run with roo against Darcy roo can exploit Darcy's lack of pace and run off him hard. And whilst petts can't cover Jackson's leap, petts had the strength to match him at around the ground stoppages. Disco too. Having just watched the Casey game I really can't see Fullarton offering anything more in the ruck than petty, and certainly less in around the ground marking and up forward. Ditto Verrell.

Agree. The bombers were pretty impressive. The scoreline flattered us a bit, as evidenced by the x score - 71.3 dees to 75.5 bombres Shows how important accuracy is. McKay was terrific, as was ridley. Their defence has improved out of sight, though still give up too many slingshot goals. Caldwell looks a player. Ditto martin. We did a good job negating merrett, but he is a total gun. Skinner was schooled by a kid, mcvee. And did some really selfish things. Must be a very frustrating player to have in your team. I reckon they went too tall on a wet night, as evidenced by subbing 2MP. Don's def tracking in the right direction. But here's a couple of things to consider in terms of where the dons are at compared to the dees. Take draper and merret out of last night's side, and how would they have gone (we had our two best players out, a ruck and a mid - maxy and tracc)? Caddy was the youngest player on the field. We had the next 7 youngest. The bombers had 3 players with 50 games or under. We had 7.

It's remarkable really. We win a flag and then out in straight sets x 2 and people call for goody's head. Do people really not understand how difficult winning a flag is? Or how difficult it is to finish top 4? I mean, surely of any group of fans dees fans understand these things? Sure we went out in 2 in 2022. But we finished top 4 in 2022 - the year after winning the flag. Ask dogs, cats and pies fans how easy it is to back up after winning a flag. We made top 4 again in 2023 - without a forward line. We are currently in the 8, still an outside chance of top 4. This despite losing 2 best 22, senior players prior to the season starting. And not having another in melk available till round 16 and losing our equal best player in tracc. And having lever and salo out for big blocks of time. And as a result having to field a team more akin to a team in the third year of a rebuild than a contender. What exactly do people expect?

With all sincerity, I love it cranky. I really value consistency.

Picket, to be honest you are coming off as not having a great grasp on what might drive selection in modern footy. I think it is reasonable to assume goody selection is largely driven by picking a team he thinks gives us the best possible chance of winning that game (I say largely because a factor sometimes might be an eye to getting a player ready for finals - so, an eye to winning future games). If goody is picking petts at this point in the season, in a critical 8 point game, it is reasonable to assume he did so because he believed it would help us win. Petty is clearly playing a role, and doing what is asked of him. He is a work horse who gets to contests and provides a down the line marking option. In case you haven't noticed goody has ALWAYS had a player playing such a role in his teams. BBB and Tmac are two such examples. It is a critical part of his structure and method - not least because it gives maxy a chop out from being smashed in such aeriel pack contests all game. And have a listen to goody's answer to another inane question about our forward line. Asked about the forward line mix working in the last 2-3 weeks, implying something radical had changed, he, politely, pointed out that the only change to that mix has been melk and that petts, jvr and disco have played together for most of the season. Cohesion is critical in sport he pointed out. And that takes time he also pointed out. It takes continuity. That's exactly what they have been doing - continuity in selection and building cohesion. And we are seeing the fruits of that approach. Dropping petty does not contribute to continuity or cohesion. And brining in another kid like Jefferson does nothing to help us win, or for cohesion - or the kid's development for that matter. And seriously, do you really think Fullarton would have helped us win last night? Bloke is barely passing muster as a ruck at VFL level Despite the frankly ridiculous hand wringing on here about selection, we won the raw clearance count - which by the by is not a particularly useful stat these days as it's not a measure of impact. What is a measure of impact is scores from stoppages, which critically we won by 14 points. In fact it was arguably the deciding factor in our win given they scored 3 more points from turnover. That doesn't happen without petty. Goody deserves credit and praise not brickbats. Which is why, when responding to a question about who we might play in the ruck against freo goody visibly bristled, before noting the option he ran with this week clearly JUST WORKED, implying the obvious- why would we change something that literally just proved successful?

We did. But equally if weren't so accurate we would have list more percentage- and might well have lost the game. The bombers were pretty impressive I thought. The scoreline flattered us a bit, as evidenced by the x score - 71.3 dees to 75.5 bombres

My point about salary is needn't cost that much more than it currently does. For example have 3 umpires per game. Ironically, apparently a factor in having 4 is as you suggest it's less taxing - and that means their best umpires can do more games.

Clearly not. Welcome back.

I'll never believe umpires are actually corrupt or would umpires to help even up the contest. But I suspect there's often some sub conscious stuff at play The obvious one is the whole noise of affirmation phenomenon. No doubt that's real. This scenario is similar. Game done and dusted, one team way down. How often they suddenly start giving soft free kicks? This game then had the opposite scenario - game tightens up and they 'Put the whistle away'. Infuriating. It's one or the key reasons why umpires should be full time pros. Just like footballers use sports psychologist and drills to improve decidion making under pressure, di the same for umpires (which no doubt they do now to some extent but as I understand it they only train once per week). Coach them to do the job better, incentivise getting it right in the form of bonus payments and selection for marquee games and finals, drop them if not performing, allow some media scrutiny. And they don't need to be paid much more than the current semi pro mob - who apparently get paid pretty well. Plenty of young people who love sport but won't make it to elite levels would see umpiring as a genuine career pathway even if say the average, base starting salary was something like 125k. Hell, that would be double the starting salary in the community sector - a sector where salaries even for CEOS tops out at aprox 175k.

I'm going to debut the binman Unleashed segment- a blatant rip off cornes' volcano. Just got to decide what makes me most angry. There's more than a few options. Go redleggers.

Caddy was the youngest player tonight. And apparently we had the next 7 youngest. The bombers are still in rebuild mode. The Kids are alright

Heart and soul. His critical defensive effort inside the bombers' 50 late in the first that started a scoring chain, ending with koz's goal was so important.

Credit to McKay. They would have been list without him. A thought experiment. Imagine taking draper and Merrett out of the bombers team tonight (the equivalent of gawn and tracc).

He was just brilliant. Gave Skinner a complete bath.

Thoughts on the non selection of a ruck?

Indeed. I expected we would win. So certainly not against the odds from where I sit.

That was bizarre umpiring in the last 5 minutes. For example the bombers throwing the ball all night and they pluck one out of nowhere against rivers.