binman

I was joking sue.

Liking my bet on swans not making finals now.

Soft. It is supporters like you that have us trapped in a veil of mediocrity

i reckon Swans will miss finals. For those who like to punt they are $3 to miss finals. if they lose tonight - which i suspect they will - that will come into$1.80 or so so if keen load up tonight (i'm keen). Critical game for them. I think Essendon will be too quick for them. A bombers win would be great for us. they won't make it and swans fall out of the 8 that will help us. Our percentage is the ace up our sleeves.

I'm not sure i entirely agree with that Nasher. I reckon he has shuffled fringe players quite a bit in the first half of the year. Too often i reckon. Certainly Roos was much more likely to make no changes. Billy was out after a week, Pederson has been in and out, Wagner similar, Weeds and most recently petty. Bugg too IIRC? I think it is terrific he is going unchanged. A real show of faith in his team, which is important and i i think perhaps might evidence of Goody developing and improving his coaching.

And bad dad jokes at that (i am an aficionado of dad jokes). The coverage goes for so long, wit so much filler. People seem to love roaming brian. Can't stand it. Treats it all as a joke and brings zero insight. Incredible access and wasted. We could actually get some proper insight if done well.

Great. We're on. Id still love jacky boy hitting targets inside 50. Obviously you're rr no fan. Gives me an idea for an avatar......

Unfortunately you are probably right

I agree it is difficult to replicate the intensity of a match but thwy can - and do - practice that sceario. So when the times comes they don't have to think. Just do what they have practised. The smart players know when to deviate from the team method. As i have noted clock management is a critical element in bbal and at the elte level run last minurte scearios all rhe time.

I think we will make finals. Lets have a friendly wager. Winner chooses loser's avatar until the eve of round one next year. Good bet for you given your confidence

Add to that list of failings - and all of orhers - you can add jkh coming off with 90 seconds to go. As soon as omac kicked to trac he should have turned and spinted to give an option. In the centre. Would have been impossible for cats to man him up. Cant blame him as he wouldn't have felt authorized to make that call (you'd hope a senior player would) but rhw eunner or benxh should have told him to do it. In any case why take him off wirh only 90 seconds to go and leave us one down?

I reckon we beat crows, suns and swans.

Some excellent points there Choke. I heard some fella call SEN or 3aw and say that perhaps the ratings have dropped because the commentators are so poor. Got cut off and all in the studio laughed and dismissed it/him as joke and moved on straight away. i don't think he was joking and he makes a great point. I can't stand channel 7 or Fox commentary teams or how the game is presented. Fair dinkum how someone like Breton could be paid to mangle the English language and provide zero insight is beyond a joke To your excellent list of ways they could improve Choke i'd add having expert comments from actual bloody experts, who can provide some actual analysis. Their only criteria for 'experts' seem to be ex players. Daisy is the only one who i have heard actually bring something positive to the coverage. Had to laugh in the last crows game when some wacka noted our accuracy and she pointed out it is largely due to the fact when on our game plan involves kicking many of goals from within 20 metres of the goals (and proceed to do exactly that all game). Sh did her homework and the others were clueless - good get Daisy some dick said. The footage of Ling jumping for joy from his boundary line spot as a special comment man when they won made me sick. 7 highlighted it and made a virtue of it. That said all you need to know about how they go about covering the game. Oh and how about some proper anlaysis at the quarter breaks of the sort Craig Foster did in the SBS world cup coverage that actually helps understand what is happening (or not as the case may be) tactically and strategically. Or highlighting specif players. Properly.

Except they don't train there. That said there has been questions asked if they Olympic park (where they do train) surface is a contributing factor in their soft tissue injuries. Which would be weird given it was purpose built for pies to train on

Agree. And not just in terms of personnel. Our game plan works well against them because in many ways it is similar. Their press is not has high or aggressive but, like us they do press up, don't really flood their back line (which we struggle to overcome) and like to run hard forward and attack. Our recent record against them reflects the fact we match up well with them. I think we will win this game. In fact i'm tipping 40 plus.

A terrific little goal sneak too. The only player in that team who doesn't struggle kicking goals from an angle.

I don't understand why it is rumour file worthy? Is the implication he was faking his injury so he he could make a movie session? Is the leggy blonde famous woman? Is the leggy blonde a famous bloke?

The question is not who our lock down KPD is. it is who is our intercepct player. That is what we are missing

BBP might not. Goodwin will though. Happy to go with the judgement of a bloke coaching at the highest level over some random, anonymous bloke posting on a football fan forum.

Agree. he has something i reckon. Very early days for him and clearly the club see real potential there. It is worth remembering in that context he was selected round 1 last year.

His terrific reading of the play would also have been handy. In fact he could play the intercept role i reckon - not as an all the time thing, just in emergencies. Lloyd highlighted on Footy classified how much more time maxy has been playing back since Lever got injured and suggested it might take too big a toll given how much running back is involved.maybe instead of maxy going back so much he pushes forward and Hogan goes back for a bit. Maxy is a better contested mark as is Tmac. Hoges is strong enough to crash packs and athletic enough to get to contests and run off forwards. And as you say BB it would mix things up as at the moment opposition teams are just clogging up our forward half and sitting players in the hot spot.

Exaclty. And further, why, when the Cast seized the momentum did we not put two extras in our back half for a few minutes just to stem the tide. Tmac or Hogan could have been sent back to take hawkins and allow omac to fill the hole You could argue i suppose that sticking to your guns and scoring a goal would have stopped their momentum but the problem is it was clear we were losing all the key indicators. The game was lost really in about 5 minutes of play when they scored four goals.

Well that's because 3 of our best defenders are out injured. So hardly surprising the mix is an issue is it?

In the absence of an answer, if you mean the latter i agree. Goodwin said as much after the saints game. Our poor all ground pressure, drop of in intensity, lack of spread and gut run to cover players on the outside was poor in that game and is the cause of of many patches where we get scored on heavily. Saturday night was yet another example. But i suspect you are referring to the former. I agree that with lever and Hibberd out our back line is down on quality. That is not surprising given the quality of those two players. But the real issue with them out, particularly Lever is we don't have an intercept player and our structure and system is designed around having one. OMac is slow across the ground, no doubt, and Hawkins exposed this on a couple of occasions. He was also beaten one on one a few times - unsurprising given the experience and weight differential. The lack of an intercept defender magnified these issues. Jetta's failure to spoil Tuohy on that last play, having been left to compete one on one was a good example of the problems caused by a lack of an intercept player. A Lever or Hibberd, as someone pointed out, would have got to that contest (its interesting that Jetts has received no heat on DL for this failure - i guess people understand there was a weight differential, he was left one on one, no one came across to help - or filled the hole - the ball was kicked under no pressure and to Tuohy's advantage). But i say again the defensive unit is not the problem - well not nearly as big a problem as you seem to believe. I doubt i am going to convince you of this but perhaps there are some who are swayed by your argument that i can convince to see things more clearly. Let's say you are right and the defensive unit is largely responsible for giving up 8 goals in the last quarter. By that logic they can therefore take much of the credit for only conceding 8 goals in the preceding 3 quarters. But in reality they can't. Sure the back line unit functioned pretty well but the real reason we held them to 8 goals was our all ground pressure was incredible, our gut running to cover outlets unrelenting, we won the contested ball, we won the centre clearance battle, our forward 50 pressure was soild and our high press worked a treat. So what happened? Stats can be misleading, but in this case the numbers don't lie. in the last quarter the Cats won consented ball 18-10, smashed us in center clearances (8-1) and perhaps most significantly of all beat us 61-37 in uncontested possession which suggests we stopped gut running and spreading to stop them moving it quickly, rendering our press useless and exposing our back line. The last play was the perfect illustration of the point i am making. They were able to bring the ball up from our 50 to theirs almost under no pressure. Duncan run and carries and under no pressure hit Hawkins who gives off to Menzel (i think) who is also under no pressure, who weights a beautiful kick to Tuohy who out marks Jetts. By your logic Jnr, Jetts is to blame for that mark. He is defender after all and it is his job to stop his opponent marking the ball. But does anyone seriously blame Jetts? I don't think so. Do we get scored on too easily at times. Yes. But getting the cause wrong only leads to the wrong mitigation strategies and solutions. I am pretty confident goody and his team are not going to fall into that trap.

What do you mean defensively weak? Are you referring to our defenders or our all ground defensive pressure?