Macca

Factoring in time lost, the first test against Sri Lanka has lasted 6 sessions Travis Head with 4-10 ... who would have thought!

Yeah ... he wasn't outstanding but looked a lot better as he was in the play by default (2nd ruck) And he'll get another game next week if Gawn is held back (as seems likely) As a key forward, Sam hasn't nailed down a spot but elsewhere he looks more at home (without being a standout) I see him as a depth player being of more value than Mitch Brown, Melksham or Majak

He's better suited up into the play in my view but when Gawn comes back there may not be a spot for Weideman As a key forward he falls short and Fritsch is our 3rd forward so that spot is filled as well Someone here suggested running 3 in the ruck on rotation but I reckon we'll be using LJ more in the ruck after his game against the Lions. So Gawn in turn, would have more time forward And Bedford will stay in you'd imagine. We need his finishing skills in the forward line But by the looks of it, Gawn may not be available next Saturday so Sam will get another go at it. Good luck to him I say ... play well and make it difficult for the selectors

We had a form lull and we are/were increasing our training loads (as we did last season when our form dropped away a bit, mid season) However, there were aspects to how we played (in those 3 games) which can't be attributed to the loading. We went away from our strong disciplines for a time. Not only did we look slow & listless, but our skills and kicking to position dropped away as well Losing May for those 3 games was a big factor of course. Our most valuable player? Bombing it forward, playing from behind, not using the corridor and a lack of real teamwork were issues that are hopefully, behind us But nearly every dominant team has a lull at some stage of the season. Or just the odd bad day. In over 120 years of footy we've never seen a team of invincibles I'm still a bit concerned with our forward line DJ but if our defence reigns supreme as it did against the Lions, we'll get plenty of opportunities to score In my view, the defence is the key and we need a fit & firing Steven May as the general back there

There's no real comparison ... May went down against Freo which threw our whole defence out. And we dominated Freo for at least a quarter and a half up until then Steven May is probably our most valuable player in the sense that he can't be replaced. Oddly enough I asked my circle of friends that question a couple of weeks before May was concussed and they all answered with May (ahead of Gawn, Oliver & Petracca) He's the general of the backline apart from his obvious football skills Brisbane didn't really look like it after breaking even in the first quarter ... we shut them down and then demolished them. It was compareable to the PF & GF

Spot on, DeeZone Best win by any team this season ... factoring in that it was 1 vs 2 on the ladder, prime-time FTA and how well we played To win by over 60 points sends a message about how good our best is. No other team has done that the same way this season And all that with the best ruckman in the game being unavailable Got 2 minutes of airtime on the Sunday footy show. They could have gone to a little bit more trouble especially as to how we dismantled the Lions And Bedford for Mitch Brown worked ... the added small seemed to spark up all our smalls. Competition within the ranks? Does that work in the future? Looking ahead, Gawn will come back in but for who? In September we might need another tall in the forward line but not if they can't take a grab

A lot to like tonight The lowering of the eyes kicking into the forward line was very pleasing. I hope Goodwin highlights that aspect when we review the match with the players. Make it a priority Our pressure and relentless tackling all over the ground was immense 2nd & 3rd efforts all over the ground. After a scratchy first quarter we then turned on the afterburners Small forwards contributing 6 goals as well as exerting immense forward line pressure Our backline was supreme. May makes such a difference to his fellow defenders. Lever in particular was back to his best and Salem was improved as well LJ looks like he relishes the no.1 role ... he played so well that we didn't really miss Max that much. Who would have thought? Viney played like a man possessed ... beast-mode with extras Overall the connection between all our players and the various lines from the last line of defence forward was most pleasing We made the Lions look 2nd rate yet going into tonight's game they were on top of the ladder ... in the end they were just kicking the ball anywhere without any purpose Easily our best performance for the season

That Viney corkie will be sore in a couple of days time! Got 9 days until we play again so he'll be right Tough as nails!!

And we've seen a big glimpse on how good LJ could be ... relishes the no.1 role by the looks of it

We've lowered our eyes well tonight And we've pressured the other mob into kicking the ball without purpose or direction More of that please!

Intelligent punch forward by Oliver ... and then Fritsch nails it! Excellent footy Playing like winners

And there is no denying that a number of our better players have missed games because of injury/illness or are just out of form (or below their best) So if we judged each and every player on their best footy/output, many of our players would fall short this season Without using non availability as a reason, only Oliver, Gawn, Brayshaw & maybe Viney have been at their best in a consistent manner Others go close such as Petracca & May but many are falling short And last year's premiership is the benchmark. You need a lot of things to go right to win big From that premiership we are missing Gawn, T-Mac & Rivers ... replaced by Jordon, Weideman & Bedford So on paper, we are weakened with the loss of Gawn and to a lesser extent, T-Mac but 19 of the 22 who played in that flag winning team remain Against all that we did win our first 10 games this season and we may well be involved in a loading phase (which is a legitimate practice) Tonight could tell us a fair bit but if we lose a close one we may still be left in a quandary! (as supporters)

We are built from the backline but we've had all sorts of woes back there Backline players not being available is the big issue but that effects the other biggie ... stability & cohesion in the backline and our ability to transition out of the backline in a cohesive way. It's often been slap-dash out of the backline this season and especially in the last 3 matches In turn, that puts pressure on all the links through to the forward line (and our forward line isn't star-studded so it needs dominance elsewhere to function well in my view) Our all over the ground pressure and defensive aspects has dropped away though ... this may have a fair bit to do with loading (hoping) but it's fair to say our standards in that area have dropped away too much Rivers is out of form and therefore out of favour but if he was up and running we'd then be able to slot Brayshaw back onto a wing A back 7 of May, Petty, Salem, Lever, Bowey, Rivers and Hunt/Hibberd all playing well and working well together is the key ... once that breaks down our weakest link (the forward line) suffers the most Delivery from the midfield to the forward line would improve immeasurably if those midfielders weren't under so much pressure with their disposals So our midfield to forward line connection woes is the clear visible issue but if our backline was reigning supreme, that connection issue to the forward line would not be anywhere near as pronounced But we can't let the forwards off the hook either ... their movement is too slow and we play from behind way too much up forward. And our crumbers aren't coming to the rescue either One year on our crumbers haven't advanced with regards to hitting the scoreboard. That's an issue as defensive pressure by our smalls up forward is not enough And we need our bigs (and mediums like Fritsch) up forward working a lot harder to create space & separation If that happens we'll then need our midfielders to lower their eyes and hit some targets But it all starts from the backline ... that's our real strength when we are up and running

Re the worst crowds since 1996 ... A lot of the games were played at the same time back in 1996 (average 3 or 4 games at 2pm Saturday's and 2 or 3 games at 2pm on Sunday's) So attending more than one game back then was difficult (as opposed to these days - MCC members & AFL members can attend multiple games) We might have to go a lot further back than 1996 to find the real answer as to the worst season for crowd numbers My guess is that these days the neutrals have dropped off in terms of attending the games. And in my view it's the over 45's who are dropping off in terms of attending (for various reasons as previously stated by many here) The worry for the AFL is if there is a flow-on affect with TV numbers. They'd have to be concerned from a business standpoint

Yeah, you are probably right, old dee Rugby League do it better with their FTA scheduling. They still get blow-outs but the games seem to nearly always be the right sort of fit. They often play at smaller venues (with full houses) which transfers well to TV And the AFL not having the 3pm game today at all (again) gives a free pass to the NRL. Not everyone has cable or Kayo

You're right about that, Civ It's a matter of getting the match-ups right on the right days (and at the right venues) for the FTA games But if they go back to a locked in, 23 round fixture, the mismatches are bound to happen. 6 weeks out and there are no real excuses It's like the AFL are happy to take the large dollars on offer but at the same time not being overly concerned with the match-ups

The AFL are beholden to the broadcast rights cash ... and that amounts to 1000's of millions of dollars But at least they (the AFL) have recognised that they have a crowd numbers issue And Thursday night footy is a major factor in amongst the other discussion points So if the fixture (Thursday night footy) is going to be a made-for-TV event to be played on a regular basis, the game would probably work better under the roof at Docklands or played around Australia chasing the warmer weather The game on TV needs a crowd at the game to create a good atmosphere so playing the game at the MCG in wintry conditions is almost certainly not the way to do it A number of the Interstate teams are more than competitive (Freo, Lions, Port, Syd) so matching those teams up against the bigger Melbourne teams on a Thursday evening shouldn't be too difficult to organise ... played at venues outside of Victoria By contrast, Friday night games or games played on the weekend don't offer up the same issues As an example, this Thursday's upcoming game would work better if the game was played in Brisbane. Do that and there would be no real chatter about the expected crowd numbers, the talk would be about the actual game

All clubs have roughly the same proportion of fair weather supporters ... all the rest of it is finger pointing & chest beating. Related to bragging rights But I'd say our club has a higher proportion of membership in relation to actual supporter numbers. So in my view, we have a lot of members who aren't particularly interested in going to the games. Older types who don't like the cold, can't stand all the noise, prefer to walk up on the day, don't like the ticketing system, don't like night games, don't like public transport and are covid-shy We'll get bigger crowds once we have a lot more younger members ... and that might take years to achieve Despite all that, our numbers stack up quite well against the other clubs Come finals time, we'll get bigger numbers but so will all the other clubs (I'm assuming we will participate in the finals!)

This team reminds me of the '74 Socceroos ... and back in the day only 16 teams qualified for the World Cup. England not qualifying back then was another big story (did Poland deny them their spot?) We surprised a lot of people back then much like this current team has as well Unknowns became names that we won't forget ... remember watching 2 games live (against East & West Germany) Rooney, Warren, Abonyi, Alston, Schaefer, Reilly, Wilson, Mackay, Buljevic & Richards are names that I can remember ... great days!

Nathan Jones hinted on radio today that we could be in the loading phase So if it is true then that explains a lot. I'm hoping that is the reason but we still have some game plan issues and we still need to fix our forward line woes and our speed & delivery into the forward line As others have mentioned, we need to take the game on more with quicker movement going forward and we need to make greater use of the corridor We've looked a bit tired & listless (to varying degrees) from the North game onwards (mainly in the 2nd half) Up until then we've looked good in nearly every 3rd quarter and then closed the games down in the last quarter's We'll soon find out about our ability to come out strong in the 2nd half of games as next up is Brisbane. Better to be tested right now The dilemma the selectors have got is do we persist with 2 key forwards along with Fritsch & a resting ruck in the forward line or do we play a decent medium sized player forward instead of Mitch Brown (who plays like a medium sized player anyway but doesn't get the ball enough) We have to persevere with Ben Brown as even though he's not in great form, the alternates are worse (or unproven)

Apparently we play France first up so let's hope the French come out a bit tardy ... some of the bigger nations can start slowly in these big tournaments so it's good we're playing the French first up But it's a tall order to hope to win against France and even a draw would be a mighty effort. But you never know with soccer Still, as big underdogs we've already achieved in my opinion. In the whole scheme of things, compared to most other nations, soccer is a small sport in this country. And our population isn't big either Rugby league, Aussie Rules & to a lesser extent, cricket, gain most of the talented sportspeople

Fantastic result to make the World Cup finals once again. This team of largely unknowns have excelled expectations So we are in a group consisting of France, Denmark, Tunisia and ourselves ... might be able to eke out a win and maybe a draw and that in itself would be a major achievement. Advancing past the group stage is a tall order but you never know Against all odds we've qualified so any wins or draws from here on in is a complete bonus in my view

F4 in the Straddy paid $25k! And apart from the up & coming 'Isotope' (which had drawn well and was only carrying 52.5kgs) the other 3 had won at G1 level Anyway, there is a huge meeting at Belmont Park (New York) later on tonight ... 8 x G1 races with some high quality fields I fancy most of the favoured horses so a few small outlay multi's might bring a decent return ... got a handy double up (G3 & G1) last night in the warm up meeting at Belmont Park Ideal lead into Royal Ascot starting Tuesday So all the overseas form, odds & tips can be found at www.racingpost.com

Good on ya! I missed the exacta as I only had AB in for 2nd in an exacta ... ugh! Scored 4 winners at Morphettville today though, so it's been a reasonable day

The Alligator wins!! Hope you got on it