binman

Do you have trouble with your eyes?

To be honest if i was cats fan (shudder) i'd be more worried about the dees physical pressure. Cheap shots aside we are playing some of the most ferocious football i have seen. The tackling in the last 3 weeks has been cray cray - from every player. Then you have players like VDB, Viney and even Maxy who are wrecking balls. VDB reminds me a bit of Dipper in his hey day. Physicality is one of the reasons i think they will select Tyson and Hannan and perhaps even Smith. All are early to mid twenties, strong and have a bit of weight. Perfect for our game. Mini wrecking balls.

If Tyson plays then kent is the only injury. Viney comes in for kent. they won't need to drop anyone for Tyson. But as i've noted elsewhere my strong suspicion is that they will select Hannan, mots likely at the expense of JKH (who would be very unlucky). Smith would be a curve ball. They would have to drop someone else and the only person at risk of being dropped is Spartacus, i would have thought. But do they want to make 3 changes to aside that played so well?

Was funny day with a mixture of long odds winners and a few shorties. Ended up having a good day after an average start and some big hits on Vega Magic and Voodoo Lad who i thought would smash them. No idea what happened to Jameh - who i also took a big hit on! I backed Redzel who was brilliant. Drifted too so happy with the odds. First time i've backed it. I um and ahhed on who to back against Le Romain, swinging back and forth between Coming Through and Dixie Blossoms. Landed on Coming through, had a saver on Dixie and took them in the quin, which i thought i had snagged. Got Unforgotten and then pure elation and only just realised that was four Sydney winners in a row. Should have all upped! I backed Lite in Veins and thought it might win mid race. Win only unfortunately, though the Sportsbet (and Bet Easy) deal of 50 back for 2nd or 3rd is a great offer. Got three of those back for the day. Snagged a couple of winners at Caulfield so a profit on the day - though not as huge as all the winners might suggest. We bet in every Sydney and Melbourne race so plenty of losers too.

Very intersting selection dillemmas this week. Kent out but for the sake of argument lets say tyson is fit to play. If so i think they will select him. His ability to win contests were very important in the wc game and the first half of the gws. Both were played at near finals like intensity. I think they will want his physical strength and ball winning skills on friday. Viney is a certainty to be selected. But he is not a swap for kent and surely will mostly play as a mid. Which creates a bit of an issue in so far as tyson needs to be in the middle. Perhaps viney can play an outside, wing role. I suspect they will want hannan in the side for his forward smarts but also his physicality and strength. So who comes out? Unfortunately for spargo and jkh i rhink it will be one of them, with jkh maybe being the unlucky one. He was the in for hannan against gws and plays the outside wing role that viney could slot into. Would be tough on him as he was terrific against gws and by all accounts was one of the standouts at training on sat.

I liked your wattsy avatar better

Beautiful - like an Aussie haiku

Don't agree with this. I thought they were really good up until about half way through the second q when we started to get on top. It was very high quality game up until that point with some of their field kicking brilliant. What we did well was spread hard and not allow them as many uncontested marks as they would have liked. When they got one we worked hard to stop them playing on and moving the ball quickly. They struggled to get out the back of our press. After we got on top they did fall away but that was at least partly due to our incredible pressure and swarming intensity. We just didn't let them play well at all. Our last goal deep in the last was the perfect example. A series of crushing tackles as they looked to move the ball through the corridor led to a turnover and goal. Our all ground, all team pressure was awesome and clearly the team has responded to Goodie's criticism from the Sydney game that our defensive running was not up to standard (as close as he has come to giving the players a public bake). Keeping GWS to 47 points on beautiful day for footy was impressive, particularly with two rotations down for most of the match (one down for all of the match practically)

Indeed. Or he might have put talks on hold ro give himself a shot at playing well in finals and drive up his price.

Not a logical assumption

You might. Club won't

I have backed agaonst le romain today. Yet to win at 1400 after 6 goes is a worry for a 2.90 fav.

My best on what might be a good day for favorites is Jaahmeh. Race 1 no 3 Caulfield. In a small field with only one orher realustic chance, red alto, 2.20 is terrific value. Surprised it is not in the red. Though surely will tighten. Could have gone cega magi or redzel but like races with 8 or less runners. Less chance of trouble in running.

Of course he will be. Just as he was when we had all defenders fit for thw first 8 rounds of the season. Sure frosty has been good last couple but not a patch on omac. The coach obviously agrees given last year and this year omac was selected ahead of him. But happy to make an avatar bet. None of his critics took my bet that he would play every game up to round 11. Im happy to bet he wont be dropped next season. He wont be dropped until rhe end of his career.

A terrific season. Still a kid and huge upside. A beautiful (and much underrated) kick as evidenced by the sublime kick to lewis that set up our first goal and the later one to maxy. He is very calm and makes excellent decisions with his disposals. The coach and team mates have complete trust in him. Rarely beaten one on one and has some big scalps this year. He is already strong but but will get much stronger, fill out and possibly still get a touch taller over the next three years. He is already one of the fittest players at the club and will only get fitter. Very durable which speaks to a fella who does everything right to prepare and recover. His key weakness is his pace and really is unlikely to get much quicker. So that will remain an issue but not a deal breaker, particularly with a fit and firing Lever playing alongside him. Like most big fellas won't hit his peak until he is 25, by which time he will have close to 100 games (and a handful of finals) under his belt. As i noted at the beginning of the season will be a 200 plus game player for the dees and a mainstay of our defence for the next decade.

Well yes. But in this instance Jessie's manager and his coach has come out and categorically stated he is staying at the dees. Which never happens when move is on the cards. So it is safe to assume he ain't going nowhere. Super offer or no super offer.

Of course clubs pay overs. Get desperate if that is the word you want to use. But in each of the above scenarios the player chose to leave so they could get more coin. It appears you are making the assumption that if a club makes a huge offer the player will naturally choose to accept it. But there are plenty of examples of plaers knocking back bigger offers. Kelly resigning with GWS is just one example . I'm sure Jessie himself knocked back a much bigger pay check from freo before resigning with the dees as did TMac no doubt. Riddle me this. Why would players knock back much bigger offers? Two reasons come to mind - loyalty and chance of winning a flag. Every example you listed above the clubs involved were an even money chance of winning a flag or better, but certainly no worse. Why on earth would Jessie leave a club that is a very good chance of winning a flag in the next 5 years and go to one that has zero chance of winning a flag in that same period. Players want success. They want to win flags. And even if they are motivated by money success brings coin. Being in losing team in the west for the next 10 years might earn Jessie a good salary in that time but that's it. Winning flags for a Melbourne club will provide opportunities to earn income for the rest of his life.

I think so. Weed was average in that period.

I can absolutely see the dees playing Weed, T Mac and Hogan together in the forward line and fully expect, if all 3 are fit, to see them line up in the forward line round 1 next year. I think they have shown their hand this year. I understand why some might query the wisdom of 3 bigs up forward, particularly with small forward lines being all the rage atm, as i don't think there are many examples of it working but TMac and Hogan are such aerobic beasts that they can get around the ground, offering down the line options, and Weed can play as the classic full forward leading from the square. With Weed and Tmac also providing great chop out duties for Max there would be big chunks of the game where only two of them would actually be in the forward line at the same time. Hogan for me is the CHF, Weed full forward and Tmac the third tall. Huge nightmare for defensive units and opposition coaches as not only do you need height and strength you need players with motors to match Tmac and Hogan. Throw in a team that gets huge inside 50 numbers and hopefully improved delivery of the ball into the forward line and you have a huge offensive weapon. Bring. It. On.

Not quite the Geelong way. Laughing and pointing to his head after kicking the goal is the Geelong way.

Hello DrD. I can only assume you have not seen this or the other posts directing you to it. Other wise your avatar would be changed already. So once again here is the your new avatar - i look forward to seeing it next to your name: So paging Dr D here is your new avatar (note; please ensure if needing to crop the picture below you get Mark's whole face):

Hello Dr. Please see my last post in this thread.

Hello Dr. Please see my last post in this thread.

Is that a skin condition?

Or alternatively recontact them for another 3 years as the MCC has recently done (despite a long history of this very issue occurring)