binman

That's my take too. On Hibbo, i reckon part of the thinking is also trying to reduce the risk of impact injury, which given the way he plays is always a risk, because Goody is dead keen to have him fit and raring to go come finals - which makes perfect sense becuase he is built for finals, Very similar approach to how the Cats managed Danger last year (not dissimilar players in terms of their intensity and attack on the ball). And with Smith, in addition to managing his minutes and keeping him match fit, it is very likely he is going to be designated sub come finals so it also makes sense to give him some really sold minutes down back to get used the defensive systems, build synergy with the other defenders and get good touch because he may have to come on early in games.

Agree. Very hard to win at the gabba. But the crows will give it a shake, it's an elimination final for them and they have a pretty good defensive system.

Wow, that is a massive drop in price a day out from the game (i just checked sb, and yep 1.57) A week out that wouldn't be so remarkable because the pool would have been relatively small and any big bets would have an outsized impact on the market. And it wouldn't be remarkable, though still relatively unusual, to drop from 1.70 to 1.57 incrementally through the week with a steady flow of small and medium bets on the dees (which didn't occur - we opened and have stayed at - 1.70, which as i noted in the run home thread i thought was a touch overs - i thought 1.65 was about right). But a drop from 1.70 to 1.57 the day before the game is huge - one of the biggest drops ive seen all season - because whilst the pool will still grow a bit, it would be near its peak now and so some serious money must have been dropped on the dees - most likely by a seriously big punter or punters (unlikely enough small punters like myself could move the dial like that). To answer your question, i very much doubt we will get any shorter. More likely we will go back out a touch, perhaps to the 1.65 i predicted. But given the amount of up and about blues fans who are likely backing their team (which i have stopped doing - except for flags, Brownlow's and norm smiths!) i'm guessing a big punters, or punters (or the bookies) might have some inside info and there might be a big out for the blues that has yet to be announced. If that's not the case then the big punters have really jumped into the dees because they agree with my assessment we were overs at 1.70 (we are the better team, have been playing at a higher level, have much fewer best 22 not available - and the blues form isn't as good as it looks from the win loss column - the Saints are average, the Pies looked flat as a tack, Port had seven outs and forget about the others)

I think this is so important, particularly now that Petty is out. A huge part of pett's role was to create a contest and bring the ball to ground. But with his ability to find leading lanes, mark on the lead, contested marking skills and ability to take his chances, Petty looked a natural forward. Grundy doesn't bring the same natural forward skills, but i'm confident he can do the job creating contests and stopping oppo defenders marring the ball - and all the other donkey working up and down the ground, as well as giving Maxy a chop out in the ruck. Any goals he kicks are a bonus. But that makes JVR even more important that he would have been with Petty in the team as he is the now the key pure tall forward. And for him to thrive we don't want him spending all his petrol tickets working up and down the ground, rucking and getting smashed up on the half back in marking contests from the long ball from May. We need maximum Van Ruin impact close to goals

For ever and a day i lamented the dees lack of genuine A grade talent in the middle. I remember being ridiculously envious of the lions midfield of voss, black (one of my all time fav mon dees player) and akermanis. And i have had now had the joy of watching a midfield the equal of that group- better if you include maxy. But what's weird is how quickly I have come to taking it for granted. Clarry out has been a great reminder of how lucky we are and I can't wait to see him play again. Man oh man. A huge positive of clarry coming back in is Tracc can play forward as much as goody wants him too - rather than as a rescue mission like against the tigers. And there wont be the need to run the A team - maxy, tracc, oliver and viney - at centre clearances UNLESS goody wasn't to go all shock and awe at some point. Flex.

Um, I think you'll find Grundy WILL be playing predominantly forward (70 - 30?). Where else do you imagine Grundy playing? Just coming off the bench?

Having a half at Casey means something different at a club in Cranbourne.

He'll play back won't he?

....and white

I wonder if Caro mentioned the Tigers could only rustle up 54k for their round 20 home game against us - and 70% were probably dees fans. Perfect day for footy, tigers still in the hunt for finals and playing an old Vic rival. And only 54k? Tiger army? More like a Cubs troop.

Yep, spot on. The blues, who had been struggling to transition the ball and had been very stodgy with their ball movement, had said they were going to have a real focus on fast, pies like ball movement. And we completely took that away from them by creating density, taking the corridor away and forcing them down the line. Just as we did the following week against the Pies (the original, and seemingly forgotten blueprint to beat the Pies). It will be really interesting to see if we employ the same method this week. I suspect we may go with a hybrid method. Hold them and restrict ball movement like last time. Try and stop them getting momentum, but when they inevitably do, make it really hard for them to take advantage of it. But when we get momentum, go fast and look to open them up and bang on quick scores in the way we have been employing since the Saints game.

I did actually. I really like sando, and was a pretty good segment this week - particularly his analysis of where the Pies are at. But on that analysis about the Pies, there was a couple of strange omissions i thought. Sanderson has, all season (rightly too I might add) highlighted how critical the Pies fitness is to their game plan. And he has made the point on multiple occasions that they are 'by far' the fittest team in the comp and it is the key reason why he believes they are (were?)so far ahead of every other team - even comparing their advantage to ours in 2021 (he said that is why were so dominant ie we so much fitter than every other team - stronger for longer was his description of us in 2021 and the pies this year). Weird then that he didn't mention fitness at all in his analysis of why the Pies have come back to the filed, particularly becuase they def looked fatigued against the Hawks. And it was made weirder still by the fact that on last week's show someone texted in with a question for him about 'pre finals loading' and rather than answer it Whately said they would hold it over till this week. Sando said it's a great question and he would prepare something. On his analysis of the dees v blues game, i thought the exact same thing as you DFAS. In fact i decided i would text in and say as much (something i rarely do). I sent the following text directly after the segment, so with about an hour of Whately's show - so plenty of time to read it out. He didn't (yes it's long, no surprises there from me, but he often reads out much longer texts): Binman from Altona. G'day Gerard. I look forward to sando's slot every week. Fantasic analysis and i always learn something new. But with all due respect to sando, i think he got the dees v blues game wrong in terms of two distinct game styles. In a nutshell, i think the blues have in fact modelled their game plan on the Melbourne game plan. Sando's point about Melbourne playing fast flowing transition football of late is correct, but as Goodwin has said many times this season the Demon DNA is forward half territory football, defence, and win the contest. Just like Voss has implemented at Carlton. Makes sense because the tiger's template model has won every flag since 2017, bar 2018 with the Eagles being an outlier. Another analyst i really enjoy on SEN is Daniel Hoyne. He is fantastic and i am much persuaded by his opinion that the reason for the blues dramatic turn around has not been their improvement in the stoppages and contest, but rather bringing in players like Cunningham and Cottrell to play the high half forward role (that Spargo and Neale-Bullen play at Melbourne) to fix their issues with transitioning the ball and stopping the oppo doing the same. But in terms of the contest, winning stopes and clearances, the demons will be very hard to beat on that front. In their last four matches' Melbourne are averaging north of 50 points from stoppages, which is very high. The blues are indeed in very good form, but so are Melbourne. I can't see the Blues beating the demons in the contest OR on transition. Melbourne will be too strong i think.

Agree. But I've always tgought it would be brilliant to get into the fisherman's bend area at the start of it's development phase. Thst said, its shocking the lack of action on that front. And caulfield, which of course has all the amenities and infrastructure (including a brilliantly located train station and mutiple bus routes) in the surrounding area, is perfectly located in terms of proximity to the traditional fan base for the dees and the Casey area (where we have a huge sunk cost). A no brainer really. Fingers crossed.

That's fair enough to hold that view, if that's how you feel, that's how you feel. Obviously, i have made it abundantly clear i hold a different view and do care what is said about my club in the media. And becuase this is football forum i choose to post about it. Which is surely ok too is it not? As many posters who share your perspective on this topic have, quite reasonably, pointed out to me, if it annoys me so much stop reading, watching or listening to the media. Respectfully, i think that advice also applies to the posters, such as yourself, who, ironically, feel the need to constantly note their frustration about posters expressing their frustration with the media. I'm going to continue to post my frustration with the media whenever i feel like it. If my posts on the topic bother you, don't read them or simply put me on ignore.

It won't be on the screen once the game starts. The only risk of an overlap is if it goes to penalties (which given how many full time draws there has been in this world cup - 13 I think - there is a fair chance it will).

Sheeple everywhere hey? This level of [censored] poor trolling is soooo 2004. Up your game.

It's going to be a funny experience cheering on the tillies with blues fans and collectively celebrating their awesomeness (on a related note, there is still time for the AFL to realize the complete folly of sending AFLW teams to play on sub standard round all round the country - and don't get me started on only 10 rounds). And then at exactly 7:30 realizing they are bunch of clueless bogans!

Juts heard, it's going to happen. Which is great. I had planned to go to Fed square, but it will be impossible to get into it i reckon (unless you get there at 12pm). And now i can just go the G, top of the Ponsford, get a good GA seat and watch the tillies roll the les bleus . And then watch the dees roll the blues. Sporting gold.

He has a really peculiar speech pattern where he finishes sentences dropping a tone making him sound apologetic (if that makes sense). Not great for any job involving speaking to an audience. But he has clearly been coached to address it, which is great, and i have been enjoying listening to him attempt to action his 'learnings'.

I think the idea is to have two ovals. One will be the exact dimensions of the MCG. The other can be adjusted as needed to simulate the sub standard, non elite ground the MFC might have to play on: Kardinia Park with it's non existent wings and 50 metre arcs that meet in the centre circle Boggy Tassie grounds with added wind turbine for verisimilitude Tiny, ammo standards grounds to simulate Cairns and Darwin with added ground water and humidifier for verisimilitude See above for the Gabba Beautiful ground with a branch from a gum tree over hanging the boundary line to simulate the Alice with added flood water and lifting turf to replicate once in century flood events A postage stamp ground to simulate Docklands with added capacity to dim the light towers as required to replicate the terrible lighting at a ground remarkably built in the last 30 years (they have contingency plan if finance becomes an issue - train at dusk and don't turn the lights on at all) The exact dimensions of Optus oval - just for feel good vibes when needed No stone unturned.

They're our snow bunnies

I just read the what they are saying at lygon st thread, and one of the quoted posts said the dees has won the last 8 games against the blues. Is that right?

Ignorant comment from blues fans stuck in their glory days back in the late 70s The bogan, blue brigade might, but we don't don't ski in july, August or September. Last time I checked there's no powder in Japan, Whistler or Aspen then. No, we ski in January or February. But they're right about moving our holidays back. For the last couple of years, my fam's annual sojourn to the Maldives has been in August. Long may the tradition continue.

A positive from how we started against the blues is we still got points and % boost - whilst still getting the obvious 'feedback' (mcrae is soooo next level)- if we start like that against the blues....