binman

Pretty comprehensive list. Loved them all. Also really loved: The beautifully weighted kick from Hannan to TMac to set up the first goal. They were playing an extra defender and had three set up directly in front of TMac, Not one even touched him, let alone a big spoil attempt The beautifully weighted kick from Trac to TMac to set up a goal in the last quarter. Again defenders set up in front of Tmac and trac got it over the top of the screen Good kicking is good football

.........choice of there theme song?

My thoughts exactly.

A 200 game player for the dees and a mutiple premiership winning defender.

Hello mark.

Apologies for lateness. My best is fighting harada at morpehitville. Race 2 no 1.

I think this a really good point. We didnt play our best footy against either cats or hawks. Against cats perfomances even accross the board but we didnt take chances. Against hawks (as reflected in joeboy's analysis) performance was less even. But we took our chances at goal. But our field kicking was terrible. If we put it all together we can win. A big factor will be how key players pull up. There will be some very sore players, not least maxy, viney, brayshaw and oliver. They were smashing maxy and oliver and there were some huge aeriel collisions, particularly in the second.

Im going. Wasn't going to before last night. Couldn't not after last night.

Said something similar straight after the game. His pressure was first class and the reason he is in ahead of Jeffy.

Not bad JB. Agree with most. Tyson was good in the last. Lucky for him or else he might have gone out. Melk sat on Sicily according to Goody in the presser so whilst he was quite he did his job as Sicily didn't hurt us. Fritter made a few bad errors but jeez he has good hands and reads the ball beautifully. Great move putting him down back. Omac - aka Dr Cool - played a super committed game. Got pole axed big time at one point in the second q and wobbled up to fight another contest. Ahe is a really nice kick. Fritter, Omac, Salem, Hibberd and Jetts are all good reliable kicks which is super important coming out from our back half. The back six and maxy saved us in the second quarter with their fantastic desperation.

I was supremely confident last week. Before and during the match. Not once did i think we would lose it Confident again but not as confident. Well more nervous perhaps. Hawks a better side than the Cats - but not better than us. The talk has been about this being won or lost in the midfield but i think the game will be won or lost on our gut defensive running to minimise uncontested marks and when they do get them stopping chains of them and holding them up. I have no doubt we will bring the heat and tackling. When we have lost this year it has been because we haven't spread and run defensively well enough. Bring the gut running and we win. The problem for the hawks game is that it is hard to execute under pressure - and compared to a few years ago they have too many average skilled players who miss targets when the heat is on. Conversely for our ballistic game the benefit of that model is that pressure is not a skill issue it is an intent issue. We will have the intent. So our game will hold up. A couple of thoughts about the game. I predict Trac will have his breakout game. He is marked hard, in large part because of his obvious talent and draft position but also because of 'Hollywood'style and brashness. But his numbers are actually really good and he is often involved with crucial assists. No more crucial than the smart kick to TMac for our first, critical, goal against the Cats and the brilliant intercept (pure basketball!) and handball t Jones that set up the sealer. I suspect he suffers from nerves pretty badly - he is an emotional guy. Last week s game will have done him the world of good. I think he will turn it on tonight and be a huge headache for the Hawks defence. The other thought is VDB reminds me a lot Dipper in his hey day. A big, strong winger who runs in straight lines and sets the tone with his ferocity, hunt and tackling. i'm expecting another big game from him tonight.

Did you say orifice? Uncomfortable

The grace darling in Collingwood is the go. Goid pub. Half price pints of coopers 5-7. Good outside area. 20 min walk to ground

Yes, an important point. Given that history it is interesting that we are such short priced favorites as i suspect almost every side listed above that lost the first week would have been favorites in those games. I think the anomaly this year is that Hawks were a tad lucky to be have finished top 4 and we probably should have finished top 4 and the points difference between us was small (and we had much better percentage). Most years the top 4 usually are a fair bit better than the 5-8. We certainly have been in better form in the last six weeks. And i think we are a more talented side. The other variable is the bye between the end of the home and away and the finals. Not sure of the impact but it may level things out a bit in terms of resting weary players or getting them back from injury - Tyson But of course the same is the case for the higher finishing team.

He has already notched up 60 games. Not many key position players have played that many games at such a young age. 60 of a possible 68 games is impressive.

Dr Cool remains in the house! From the article: Dr Cool has developed into an integral part of Melbourne’s side, and a mainstay in the team’s backline. Dr Cool made his AFL debut in round 22, 2015 against Fremantle at Subiaco, which also happened to be Nathan Jones’ 200th AFL game. The 22-year-old Dr Cool has played the past 40 matches in a row for Melbourne and his form in recent weeks has been another reason for the team’s rise. One of his most staunch fans, Demonland's binman, had this to say: Well done Omac. You have been driving the haters mad with your excellence, calmness, decision making and ability to beat the best forwards in the game, week in week out. So much so that the haters are now as rare as a humble Hawks fan. But beware young man. They are still lurking, waiting for a single error so they can make silly calls like 'lets bring May in' or 'you should be allowed to further develop in the twos now that Frosty has surpassed you'.

This is the only reason i have any angst against them. They hay bullied us big time in the last 10 years. Their fans have become increasingly smug too. Time for a new sheriff. (inset gif of oliver running through selwood and/or jetts crushing selwood and/or Weids crismashing Dangerfield - and giving him a mouthful - or any one of VB's involvements in the same game.)

I have heard some woeful sledges in my time but this one takes the cake. Surely you can do better than that?

Is this a reference to the differing tactical philosophies of Goody and Clarkson: Kaos v Control

Is it usual to train the day before they play?

They have some stats to measure those qualities. Pressure rating being the most obvious one. Effective tackles another.

Very small sample.

He could have played a straight bat and certainly not been as effusive or dismissive of the idea. One of the brothers. A rising star winner who averages over 2 goals game. A star.

Cue 'well he would say that' or 'what else is he going to say' type comments......

Exactly. Add to that Weed and TMac are both excellent in the ruck at centre bounces and Jessie ok from throw ins. This allows Max (who is incredibly mobile and athletic for such a big fella) to play a kick behind the ball, 'rest' up forward, fill the hole down back or have a solid break on the bench to recharge his batteries (essentially giving us another mid/runner on the ground whilst he is on the bench). (Giving Maxy more time on the bench might be important next year because surely we will want to mange Max's time a bit more next season given the load he carries and his importance to the side.) On top of that the athleticism of our bigs and their ability to play in multiple positions makes us very unpredictable as they seem to be very fluid in terms of role and field postion at any given point in time. Hogan, Tmac and in the last few games Weed also go well up the ground to provide the marking target down the line All this fluidity creates huge match up issues for opposition coaches and headaches for opponents. How many players are strong enough to compete one on one with Hogan or Tmac but also good enough athletically to run up and down the ground with them too. Sure they can 'hand off' but this creates confusion. it also creates space in our forward line. There were two great examples in the first quarter against the cats of the problems this fluidity and movement from our bigs causes. The first was the Harmes goal. We go down the line (in what is obviously a set play/team rule) to Tmac who takes a big contested mark. He kicks quickly to Hannan in the corridor (the 45 degree kick the commentators are talking about now). The forward line is completely open (in large part because Tmac has dragged his man up the ground) and Hannan hits Spargo who hits Harmes running into open space. The second example was the final goal by Weed. Weed delivered the ball lace out from half forward to Melk - so about 70 metres from goal. He then runs a big arc and ends up unmarked behind the defenders (including Blicvacs) and takes an almost uncontested mark 5 metres out. They completely lost track of him and were defensively all over the place. This versatility is huge weapon for us and a massive point of difference to the Tigers - or any other club for that matter. It means we have the tigers ferocity, territory and chaos style but can control possession more. It also means there is no issue at all playing Hogan, Tmac and Weed in the same forward line. Not least because there would be very few occasions when all three were actually in the forward line together but also because of the incredible endurance and athleticism of Hogan and TMac. I can't wait.