binman

First time in the game day thread, once the game starts that is, for me in a couple or seasons. Quite a vibe - can imagine it would be fun in a game that had something riding it and we were losing. Some random comments: What's with the ragging on Hunter? It's 2023 - do people not understand he has a specific role, which he is playing to a very high standard? Turner doing well. His ability to zone off and work rate and pace to be a handball receive option is why he is in ahead of tomo, and why he is genuine chance to remain in the team May moving well, which is brilliant. Love him pushing up high. Dees playing 2 and 3 less at the stoppages in order to have players behind the ball is genius. Feeding our intercept game and remarkably we are plus 7 foe clearances. Love the focus on deefence. See you all in the post match thread

It's a joke. Such an infuriating rule. E Often either turns out not to he an advantage, or in the event every just stops, an unfair disadvantage to the team the free has been paid against.

They look in great nick. Sparrow, tracc and riv all look in the best shape I've seen them.

Port players are playing like they are scared of copping a pre finals injury.

Another 5 years or so of top 4 finishes and i might look back to that time wistfully. Not yet but.

MFCSS IS like syphilis- it never leaves the body. Ready to flare at any time

Yes. A possibility. But we then have the chance to do the same.

That's right. But it was more luck than good management, in the sense they were lucky they had a decent angle on it - the Fox coverage angle I'm guessing. It was just as likely for there not to be an angle, or frame good enough to over rule the soft call. And the point would have stood, as it did for tracc's goal.

A much, much better match up in my view. The Lions are a very good team who have modified their system to beat us - primarily with that chip mark, control game they use. And unlike the Pies, they also have a forward line that if it clicked at the same time, and they took all their chances, could run up a very big score. I am much more confident of beating the Pies, who will have no Daicos and Moore first game back from a hammy.

I'm confused. Did you not read my post? We won't play the pies week one if the saints win this game. If the saints and the dees win: We will play Port IN Adelaide if they beat tigers (which they will). Or if port lose we will play the lions at the g.

Huh?

Sure. But if they lose, port wins and we win we play port at Adelaide oval week one of finals.

Why?

C'mon lions ffs. What a boring, low skill game.

Never cared about the death ride anyway......

That's the thing - they weren't the pinging pies that day. We completely took away their running, transition game by pressing up, creating density and choking their outlet handball. And the Pies looked flat that day too (the flu, loading). So tomo wasn't really ever exposed by fast transition in that game. The pies will be a different proposition in a QF. Have to plan for them to get their the game on their terms at some point in the game. Last week Tomo was exposed at least three times when the Hawks got inside their 50 quickly by a young forward he simply couldn't go with. Why do yo think Goody subbed Tomo (for the second match in a row) and didn't pick him this week?

He's played a game a half. And looked terrific until he broke his jaw in his first game

Speed is my guess. Footy game plans shift and change but in the main follow the template provided by the teams winning premierships. The tigers set the template in 2017 and every flag since, bar one (the eagles in 2018) has been won using the same basic method - contest, defence, pressure and territory. In order to break down that method, particularly the defensive elements, Mcrae introduced a tactical tweak with the ultra fast ball movement from the back half. Adelaide have adopted a similar model (though they don't take as many risks defensively) and the Hawks have taken that model and given it further tweak. What i find interesting is that the Pies model has not won a flag, and it vulnerabilities have already been exposed and exploited (the pies are ridiculously vulnerable to goals on the counter becuase their defenders all participate in that wave running they do, leaving no-one behind the ball) but it is def had an impact on how the best teams play. And that impact is the importance of leg speed. Having enough players who are both quick off the mark and can cover ground at a reasonable clip is now super important - particularly in the back half becuase the faster transition game has also resulted in smaller forward lines, so more medium forwards who are quick and less lumbering talls like BB. I suspect a key reason goody likes Smith in the team is his acceleration from a standing start and his sprint speed. And i suspect why they are having a look at turner for the key position down back is he is quick of the mark and has a good cruising speed. Tomo covers the ground well enough once he gets going, though is still no gazelle, but he is dead slow off the mark. And with the ball coming in quick from fast transition the way it will when we play the Pies that is problem - as we saw a couple of times against the hawks. Not much a defender can do when the ball pings from the other end of the ground, there isn't time to set up a zone and a forward leads into an open leading lane. Their only hope is to have the speed to ensure the forward doesn't get separation. Tomo hasn't got that speed. And that lack of acceleration from a standing start means Tomo really can only play the one on one key defender role, not the hybrid one one one/zone off/intercepting role that petty plays when down back. Disco is pretty good one on one, quick from a standing start, an excellent intercept mark and zones of super well. And has good cruising speed. Good move i reckon.

None? Are you serious? 70% of the premiership team played in front of consecutive sold out finals at the g and in a losing preliminary (at optus oval, where they won the prelim and flag in 2021) in 2018.

This could be on the banner (with the grand final banner having the bar complety full and instead of loading - loaded):

Remind me again how Port, Pies and the Lions went in last year's finals.

I can't agree with this. Professional sport is littered with examples where up and coming contenders are worried about playing individuals and teams that are the real deal and have the record to back it up. This is true of both individual sports and team sports. There are a million examples in individual sports - every Olympic games is littered with them Tennis provides perhaps the best example. Of course Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have dominated the grand slam events world tennis for 15 years because they are just so good. But the aura they carry is widely acknowledged as a massive advantage they bring into every slam. Same is true of Tiger Woods and more recently Scottie Scheffler. There are even more examples in teams sport of teams being overawed by, or too worried, about opponents. The most famous is arguably the Laker's inability to take the Celtic's crown for nearly a decade. We definitely have an advantage coming into this finals series in that space. A massive advantage. We have the collective memory of 2018 to draw on, in addition to the 2021 flag. And last year's disappointment is fuel not an anchor (becuase we know we have what it takes to win a flag). Port have the ghosts of their previous failures in finals as do the Lions. And the Pies have to deal with last failure in finals AND the crushing expectation that has been heaped on their shoulders since last year. They come into the finals knowing that ONLY a grand final will will be considered a success. Which is ridiculous, but there it is. If the Pies face us week one, they will know they are coming up against a team that has been to the top of the mountain and has been building towards a second flag under Goody since 2017. The Pies have no collective memory of success , having lost two of three finals, with their only final win last year a low pressure fizzer against a team that had ran out of gas (i'm making a distinction between the Pies team that lost the flag in 2018 and this team becuase they are for all intents and purposes they are diff teams - diff coach, diff method and big turnover in players). Of course they will make all the right noises - anyone, anytime blah blah blah - but there is no way that sub consciously the Pies players won't be worried about facing us. Ask any Pies fan who they would least prefer to play week one of the finals. The answer will be the dees. The Pies players would never say that publicly, but that's what they will be thinking.

Yep, agree. And i think that's what we'll get. At the risk of patting myself on the back too hard the post bye phase of the season has followed the pattern i thought it would: Struggle immediately post bye (the cats) Incrementally look better and start running out games better (GWS, Saints) Very much running out games better and get back to our early season fast flowing, high scoring football (Lions, Crows, tigers, roos) Start reintroducing tempo footy and a greater emphasis on deefence, taking the sped out of the game and limiting oppo scoring (blues, hawks and i think also swans) I thought that would be the pattern, but hoped is probably more accurate as it is dependent on fitness and ability to run out games. And that is an unknown at the post bye stage - having a group of 40 odd players peak in September is a science, but a very inexact one, with a million variables that can mean it never quite comes together. For example, all season, up til the last few weeks, the Pies were lauded by Sanderson as 'the fittest side in the AFL, by some margin'. And maybe they were - pre bye. But it is increasingly evident that, just like us last year, the Pies are really starting to paddle. And the Pies' game plan is more reliant on a super running power and fitness than any other team. We at least had an elite defensive system to fall back on last year. The most pleasing thing for me, and the thing that fills me with most confidence, is, in stark contrast to last year, we are clearly the fittest team of the contenders atm. We are the only team increasing our pressure rating in the last quarter and the only contender regularly winning our final quarters (i think we have lost three last quarters since the bye). The other contenders are all starting to paddle late in games, like we did last year. And this year the contenders will have played an extra home and away game, which makes things that much more taxing. I can see us going into full on deefence mode on Sunday and completely shutting the game down. Come into the game with the goal of keeping them to 50 points. Create density and don't allow the Swans any space to run into - partic players like Goulden and the lizard man (the size of the SCG will help this). Control the tempo and don't allow it the game to become a fast, ball in motion transition game. Make it look like the sort of game plan (the anti pies method) that everyone hated in the first half of 2022 - suffocate the oppo. And using that method i think we will not only win, it provides the opportunity to use the bench to manage players loads and try and engineer a game that isn't the brutal tackle fest the Swans will want to turn it into (for example by doing what we did late in the 3rd and 4th quarter against the hawks - chip it around and have lots of kick marks). Of our key rivals only Port is likely to have bruise free, low intensity game. The tigers have put the cue in the rack so we can expect bugger all defensive intensity. Or any intensity. No tiger player wants to cop an injury that might ruin their prep for next season. But surely the bombers will want to show something after last weeks embarrassment. It is the very definition of their grand final. At the very least i hope they physically smash the Pies. The saints will go super hard against the Lions, and i actually give them some sort of chance of winning with their strong defensive system. And no matter what happens in the Dogs v cats game, the Giants will look to physically smash the Blues (a team they may well face in week one of the finals).

Two thoughts WCW. The Demon Army should hold of using that quote until we play the Pies - it's from The Fly Using a tagline from a horror film gives me an idea for a future banner WCW (replace jack with Goody): REDRUM

Exactly. That's why RBG had two sons! Excellent planning to mitigate the risk of not having a child who supports the mighty dees.