binman

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?

But did he not have someone behind him? I don't recall him looking back. Great still shot by DeeZephr - particuallry the umpire indicating play on (which must have been almost straight away). But lets assume he had no one to kick to. As beezlebub says then it is on his team mates. At least, one but ideally more, of his team mates should have been busting a gut to provide a short option. Terribel that they weren't and cost us the game.

Agree. Made stranger/worse by his elite basketball background. Basketball 101 is managing the clock and preserving a lead at the death. And rule number 1 is not giving the ball back to the opposition. If you have it they can't score And you have achieve that by holding it as long as you can yourself before making a pass to team mate who repeats. You don't even take an open shot if it involves giving the ball back with time for the opposition to score and win or draw (which at the elite level can occur even if say 4 points down with only 10 seconds left - a quick score and a turnover under the basket and you can still draw or even win if one play is a 3 pointer). Which is what jeffy did. Trac would have run that scenario a million times in his basketball training.

The bolded bits are true. And after we did get get in we made a number of mistakes - jeffy should have looked for a pass rather than a shot on goal - even if it meant going backwards, A pass to someone on 50 would have allowed us to eat up 30 seconds. Even if he couldn't find someone another ball up would have been likely given the congestion. Once he elected to go for goal he only had one option - kick the goal. Then from the kick nu why did we not flood back and get numbers clogging up their 50? And why di Vince spilke the ball away. Given we didn't flood back how did we allow them to transfer it up the corridor. Surely we had to be man on man. Then Frost gets - as RJAY 9i think) - so rightly says, gets caught in no mans land and allows the tic tac. And no one in the hole in front of Touey? Beggars belief. But all that said i disagree with the unbolded bits. Trac simply had to hold onto the ball as long as possible (the umpire had not called play on when he kicked it) and then look for a short target. Surely at least one would have been possible - and if not that is another failing. It was only 90 seconds to go. Even one chip kick then the long bomb to to the boundary would have eaten 20 seconds away. Three chip kicks and the long bomb would have iced the game. Trac looked as if he though t we needed to score not them.

This rubbish infuriates me. I read most stuff on DL and i reckon there has been maybe one post suggest he MIGHT make AA. One. It goes without saying i'm a huge Omac fan - but even i have never suggested he would be AA - or even a star for that matter. Omac was beaten tonight. By a player in rare form who is arguably the second best one on one forward in the the AFL. A player who is in his prime and is probably 5kgs heavier and much stronger. It happens. He has just played his 50th game of AFL football. He has more composure than almost all in our team. In th efrantic last 90 seconds he takes a key contested mark and pin points a 40 metre kick to our number 2 draft pick. Who proceeds to bomb it long rather than go back and ice the game. OMac will be mainstay of our defence for another 10 years. I hope you (and STMJ) enjoy the journey

You just made my [censored] list. Ignore for you.

Case in point.

You have had an extraordinary number of posts since you started posting on DL. Your posting history is almost a perfect analogy for our inside 50's. Lots and lots of them but far too many fail to hit their target.

I think we are a much better side than the Cats and think we are a huge chance, in large part because the ground suits us. Let's hope the umpires don't play a role in this game.

Hannan out with a knee. Apparently.

Hypothetically if it is two weeks then back for the Suns game. Which you'd reckon they would not play him in if not 100% cherry ripe. Back the following week against the Swans.

Not spoiling for a fight but the fact they are not as strong as they have been in the past few years does nothing to argue against the point they are a 5-6 goal better side at home than away. In fact the quote above strengthens the contention they are better at home. Despite being poor they have only lost there once this season (and were leading by 4 goals at 3 q time in that game) We maybe in a better position this year than previous years to win kardinia park because they have dropped off and we have got better but that is a completely different argument/discussion. Again there is no question they are a better side at home and are therefore more likely to win games there than away from home. Which is why, despite being below us on the ladder and us being in better form, they are overwhelming favourites with the bookies at $1.58 to win the game.

Again, this may be true but you rubbished the idea they were a 5-6 goal side at home. Not sure why. But i agree we have a shot.

Great win. Gawny's break out game - killed them in the second half. It also wrecked the Cory Enright 300 game celebration which was a nice bonus