Macca

I listened to the game up until OKC were 8 points in front with a few minutes to play. Work intervened but I was assuming that OKC had won Watched the 'Mini' when I got home and sure enough, the Pacers got up and won! A number of the pundits have commented that the Pacers are very hard to match-up with

Yeah, @Gorgoroth , it's becoming quite the circus with Rodgers I'd like him to do well and not spoil his legacy but he's definitely not the player he once was It might work under Tomlin at the Steelers ... but it's a big if. The outcome may end up being more on the average/ordinary side of things But the Steelers made the playoffs last season so that would be the minimum standard you'd imagine

How 'bout those Pacers! They play every minute and win the first game on the road

As a team, we were not switched on. A lack of teamwork around the stoppages and between the arcs What we displayed against Freo, Lions & Swans wasn't on show in the Alice I lost count of how many long kicks forward led to negligible results. And of course, our kicking for goal was woeful Old habits die hard

Australia 1 Japan 0 The scoreline doesn't tell the story but what counts the most is the result. Japan had a lot of the ball but a lot of it was tippy-tap So barring a mathematical miracle, the Socceroos have qualified for the World Cup (for the 6th consecutive time) Kudos!

Uncontested possessions vs St Kilda - 177 Against Sydney - 244 Did we forget how to share the ball yesterday? And the amount of wasted long kicks forward today was a reminder that old habits die hard. We kept handing the ball back to the Saints with rushed kicks forward By contrast, the Saints often hung on to the ball until they saw an opening 17 more inside 50 entries against St Kilda, yet our goal kicking effiency was off the charts, woeful There is barely a player who looks confident kicking for goal (when we're having a bad day) Other days we are fine. Jekyll and Hyde We were outplayed today but we still could have won the game if we'd kicked straight

A couple from another classic album (Eric Clapton 461 Ocean Boulevard)

And there needs to be a complete buy-in from the players as well (obviously) There's been plenty of chatter of late here with regards to what we are doing when we've got the ball ... but there are also other major factors as to what the team members do when the ball is in dispute and also, what we do when the opposition has the ball So to have a dramatic game plan change is going to create issues until everyone is on the same page There's a lot to learn but thankfully, we are starting to see the results As you said in another post, rjay, it's never just the one thing

In 1975 North started 0 & 4 and were then 3 & 6 after 9 rounds

For the next week and a half the French Open is on every evening on 9Gem from 6.30pm Aussie Alexie Popyrin (25 seed) will probably lead things off tonight with his 2nd round match-up against Alejandro Tabilo And the Demon (de Minaur) got through his first round match last night in straight sets On the Women's side Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic is up against the 4 seed Jasmine Paolini

Another high amount of uncontested possessions (244) emphases how we're becoming a share-the-ball-first team 16 marks inside 50 highlights the space we are creating forward as nearly all of the 16 marks would have been uncontested 20 inside 50 tackles is another big plus We turned the ball over 70 times against the Eagles but only 53 times against the Swans ... we are getting better at keepings-off To the eye we're often playing the boundary until we get to about 70 metres from goal and from there we go direct to a player making position in the created forward line space or to a 1 on 1 ... but more so away from the boundary line So our forward 50 entries are becoming more efficient, match by match

Late in the game Langford's centimetre perfect deep pass to Melksham who then casually slammed it home from 55 was a thing of beauty Speed, precision and execution

The noticeable change is that our on-ball brigade are sharing the ball a lot more by hand or foot (Gawn, Langdon, Oliver, Petracca, Rivers & Sparrow) Viney? Way less long kicks forward to packs or bombs into the forward line Corridor use when applicable only. Longish kicks to 1 on 1's being the variable With the rest it's kick to position as the first option (notably Salem, Bowie, Langford, Lindsay, Pickett, Windsor, McVee, Chandler etc) It's like we've got 2 types of players out there

Channel 9 (Gem) are also covering the Conference League final next Thursday 4.30am (Chelsea vs Real Betis) Also, the CL final is on 9Gem at 5.00am on Sunday June 1st (Inter Milan vs PSG) The 2nd legs of the A-League S/F's are on this weekend with the Saturday evening S/F on 10Bold (Melb City vs Western United) The Victory/Auckland S/F is on Friday evening on Paramount (streaming)

Could go either way Although, a guaranteed Champions League spot for winning the Europa League Cup is the equivalent of finishing 5th or better in the League so there's that Ange is on $10Million per year for the next 2 years but the payout out figure may only be for 1 years salary All things considered, I reckon Ange will stay on (for now, at least)

@Grapeviney @roy11 @layzie @Palace Dees @At Least I Saw a Flag @Jumping Jack Clennett @BDA @No. 31 @Jibroni and others 9Gem are covering the Europa League final live from 4.30am tomorrow morning (Spurs vs Man Utd)

Oh yeah, for those at the club it's a game at a time Where as we can speculate and it won't make an ounce of difference We live in hope

In effect @Dr. Gonzo if the players weren't listening or adhering to the new message re the new game plan, then the onus would then fall on the coach at some stage But it does look like we've turned things around, but having 6 losses already means we can't lose any games that we should win ... and we'll need to beat a very good team or 3 in the run home For instance if we can win 1 of the 2 games against the Pies and if we can somehow get a couple of wins against the Doggies, Adelaide away, Gold Coast away or Hawthorn But we've just beaten the Lions at the Gabba so there's that

What is also interesting is that we tried to change our game plan last season but abandoned it some time later Just goes to show how difficult it is to change a players ways no matter how talented they are The aforementioned 7 or 8 players in the above post have probably been kicking the footy forward in the same way for 15-20 years So to ask them to either handpass the footy off or to kick short to another open player does take time for those players to adjust A good example is Langdon on Sunday ... 10 kicks and 15 handpasses is unusual in the sense that his numbers are often close to the other way around (9/6 Cats, 19/6 Ess, 13/6 GWS) *9/19 against Richmond

The 2 secondary trophy's up for grabs in Europe now means that more teams from the big leagues have something to aim for (notably the EPL but also Serie A, La Liga, and the Bundesliga) FA Cup winners and even teams finishing as low as 7th or 8th can get a ticket into the European knock-out comps For instance, a number of teams in the EPL have something to play for in the last week of competition (CL spots up for grabs) I also really like the new Champions League concept with the 9 lead up games played to obtain a position in the knock-out rounds

In my view it was always about the players all buying into to a completely different game plan We had about 7 or 8 senior players who needed to get away from bombing the ball forward or rushing their kicks forward ... notably Gawn, Rivers, Sparrow, Petracca, Viney, Langdon & Oliver So now that the whole team is playing small ball and sharing the ball around, it's all systems go We've got plenty of skilled players to enact a more possession based game However, old habits die hard and we are still guilty of turning the ball over too much with indiscriminate kicks forward The Geelong game was a good example of what not to do when advancing forward The catch-cry should be to give the ball off by hand or foot if the way forward could turn into a negative result. Heads up, eyes down The long kick forward to a pack could become a thing of the past much like the bump or the sling tackle has become a practice from yesteryear We are now playing like we trained all summer to do Exciting times ahead as we've got a number of established good players with a number of up and comers with real talent The players just need to all get on the same page as well as get games together so it all becomes 2nd nature

Yeah, well done!! 164 years is a reasonable wait for a major trophy!! Although, winning the Championship or Division 2 x 8 are also achievements especially for a non-big club My Hammers for instance have a similar record ... more knock out trophies as such but nonetheless, any sort of trophy is hard earned So Palace have now earned a spot in the Europa league for next season ... which is another trophy worth fighting for Speaking of which ... Tottenham & Man Utd go at it for the Europa League trophy at 5.00am on Thursday

What is noticeable is that our players that are better by foot have a higher ratio of kicks to handpasses as compared to those who have previously been prone to bombing it long (or rushing their kicks forward) So Oliver, Petracca, Sparrow, Langdon, Rivers, Viney & Gawn are all handpassing the ball a lot more along with using the short pass a lot more Kicks/Handpass ratio for those players who have excellent kicking skills (against the Lions) Overall Kicks/Handpasses 228/142 (Total for the team) Kozzie 14/7 Melk 11/0 Salem 17/3 Lindsay 14/5 Langford 11/8 T-Mac 12/4 May 14/1 McVee 11/2 Petty 8/2 Fritsch 5/2 Windsor 6/0 Chandler 7/4 Those in and around the midfield are sharing the ball a lot more either by hand or by short passes Oliver 8/15 Petracca 13/18 Gawn 12/10 Langdon 10/15 Rivers 14/10 Sparrow 9/7 Bowey 12/10 The buy-in to playing short ball (or small ball) as opposed to rushing kicks forward (or long bombs) by our midfielders is at last starting to happen For those who were looking for the new game plan, it's starting to evolve But whether we can consistently adhere to sharing the ball more remains to be seen (even against the Eagles we had 70 turnovers often caused by errant kicks forward) That one extra handpass can often diminish the chances of the need to rush kicks forward (or the long bomb) ... to do that requires all the players to do that extra bit of running at pace (to provide the option)

For those following the Giro d'Italia, the last week is brutal (Sun Stage 15 - Sat Stage 20) ... no fewer than 9 Category 1 climbs along with 12 other categorised climbs in a 6 day stretch (Monday is a rest day) But the riders are in the mountains on Stage 7 (Fri) Stage 8 (Sat) & Stage 11 (next Wed) Roglic is favoured to win from Ayuso, Yates & Storer

Good point Pennant, but maybe the MC want to see that side of his footy all the time? Especially from the get-go We've seen Viney turn his season around once we re-designed his role (tagging and run with) ... and Petracca just needed to regain his confidence again (that's happening) Gawn has lifted big time and Rivers is using the ball really well now instead of bombing it. As are a number of others But that's just the footballing side of things The MH issues that Clarrie is battling is a completely different story of which we know very little about ... and the media should be observing his privacy right now. They observe that privacy with other players To be fair, it's only a few in the media acting up (this time)