Lucifers Hero

Crickets!

Also, he said one of the talls will miss. Not so sure that Brown will be selected after a week absence from the club @ the 3.00 min mark. He rejoins the group on Thursday (which is after teams are announced). As an aside, it is good they now have some mics in the audience to hear the questions (the audio quality could be better).

All doom and gloom at bigfooty: If Brown does miss, we'll at least get ten goals closer... We may do better in this game. No expectations, we'll be rank outsiders and there'll be less crowd pressure. It's deck chairs on the titanic after only 3 rounds 25k ? Id be surprised if 20k turn up at this point. I have been a member since 1997 and at the moment I would rather stick pins in my eyes then witness another week of that [censored]. Play the kids and see what they can do. We are done this year. I’m glad it happens this early in the season, so the club has time to search for a new coach. I’d be surprised if we keep this under a 80 point loss. A Dee-struction on the national stage will go down a treat. Ben Brown to kick another 10. We are f’ed, gave away all out depth when we were back to back prelim finalists..Joke of a club at the minute Max Gawn hasn't been killing 'em in ruck this year but once again Melbourne run two big men in Gawn supported by Jackson. It is amazing how other sides seem to be able to run two big men but we can't. I am losing patience with Connor Rozee as he has talent but seems to have hit a plateau. If Duursma can get the drop so can Rozee. He can take Motlop with him. I'm trying to envisage how Port can choose a 22 to win this game. Maybe if the Dees have a bad night in front of the big sticks, we might be a slim chance - otherwise 0-4 is a certainty. Honestly we are no chance. It’s a matter of how much. Even with a full list and Petracca and Oliver rested, we still lose. Our only hope is to have each team we play affected by covid but remain clean ourselves. My god we are going to get hammered. Melb by 71 points. Who ******* cares I suspect this Melbourne side would have given any of the sides; great Geelong side of 07-11, hawthorn of 13-15, Brisbane and port of 01-04, a good shake. So no chance we win. But you do get to see some of the game’s great players whoop us so….. And for good measure, a hint of optimism: I’ve got a strange feeling that we will win. The reality is it really should’ve been a 5 goal win against the crows if we didn’t butcher so many easy chances and the crows actually missed.

In Sept last year he signed a two year extension to 2024. Presumably to spread his 2022 contract $ into 2023 and in return he gets a longer contract. If nothing else he will be good depth for the next few years. It was part of the selfless attitude of our players, incl Lever and Gawn that enabled/will enable the signing of Salem, Petracca, Jackson, Oliver etc.

Brisbane: On the way to being top 4 again, maybe top 2. Sydney: Have the team for a top 4 finish. Likely to feature in the prelims. Geelong: Fixtured to play most of the the back half of the season in Melbourne and mainly at GMBA. Will suit their weary bones. They lost their last few games at GMHBA last year so they may run out of legs again. Will be praying on a top 4 finish/double chance. Carlton: Will make the to 8, maybe top 4. Unbelievable easy run: Play only one of 2021 top 8 twice: GWS. Play only two of current top 8 twice: Pies and Freo. Richmond won the 2017 flag from 13th. Carlton finished 13th in 2021 so theoretically could win it but Richmond had a few years of finals, albeit losing ones. They play 9 games at the G so will be quite familiar with it. Some crucial games to end their season: Cats, Giants, Crows, Lions, Demons, Pies. They may run out of puff by then. Doubt they will make a Prelim. A lottery for 6th, 7th and 8th spots.

@Storma and Wizjust joined to make that post about JVR debut this week This suggests he knows or he is a troll. If the latter he will have shot his cred on DL for quite a while. I suspect the former so lets not dismiss it too quickly.

Do you think English was stationery, DD?

Pendlebury: “Is there a fine for staging?” when Danger gets a free and a 5om penalty to kick a goal. The whistleblower replied: “I’ll leave upstairs to worry about that on Monday mate.” Video herein: scott-pendlebury-asks-umpire-if-theres-a-fine-for-staging-patrick-dangerfield-free-kick Can't see the MRO calling Danger out on the dive.

Even the MRO is going soft on the Bulldogs? On the Blakey hit, the MRO said: “English gets to a stationary position before turning his body and making contact with player Blakey. It was determined by the MRO that English’s actions were not unreasonable in the circumstances. No further action was taken.“ round-three-match-review-panel Take a look at the video in that article. To my eye English steadies for half a second, pivots on his left foot, leaving the ground then tunnels his right shoulder Blakey as he turns wd. Hits Blakey's head. I would think there would be a bit of force behind the shoulder while pivoting. Huge potential to cause damage. English also chose not to tackle when that option was clearly available to him. I don't know what or if there should of been a penalty. But. the MRO's explanation of English being stationery and ignoring the risks, both make a mockery of the review system and eliminating head high contact. Some other poor soul will get a fine or suspension for the same thing and the MRO will make up some other explanation...

https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/checklist-contacts Checklist for household or household-like contacts: Isolate at home for 7 days. Test asap Test again after 6 days Assuming the second test is negative, Brown will be available and can fly out Thursday morning and make the game. Whether that is what the club chooses is another question. And if he does play who is dropped?

The 'Heat Maps' for each quarter and the game would give that but I don't know how to extract them. Petracca rarely ventures back of centre but the 'Heat Maps' should show the emphasis between middle and forward.

Agreed. What impressed me was how he seamlessly he fitted into the team and our 'system'. He got good separation from defenders, lead well, contested well and didn't let his early misses affect his confidence for the rest of the game. And he kicked 4.2. That was a well rounded performance by him. Couldn't be happier to see him rewarded for his perseverance and hard work. Really hope he stays in the team.

Fair comments. tbh I'm not sure the team care too much how many G/B the opps kick. My read is the defence KPI's are: low opp i50, opps to score only a max 60-70 pts, keep play in our half of the ground and if we do those the opps goal scoring efficiency won't matter too much because we will have kicked a higher score by virtue of our high i50. Sure sometimes that plan may not work if say they had kick 16.4. If their 20 shots had given them 15.5 we still would have won.

Um, I did acknowledged that Petracca's role was in part to protect his knee. But, this: "We were able to manipulate a few things with him and get an advantage in certain areas of the ground. His selfless role for the team was outstanding...." taken from Goodwin's press conf, tells me there was more to his role than protecting his knee. I would stand by my earlier comments: "...or the tactics were for him to play a defensive rather than his usual attacking role. It looked like he was a decoy to lead his tagger (usually McGrath) away from the play/contest and stay out of Ess fwd line. This allowed Oliver to run amok without anyone on him altho Caldwell tried but to no avail. And it looked like Bowey took over some of Petracca's work, attending stoppages in our back half and playing higher up the ground when we attacked and to defend in the midfield" ... and add that they are more consistent with what Goodwin said than simply being tagged and being sore.

I chuckled each time Oliver placed a peck on the temple area of a teammate after they kicked a goal. At least twice last night.

Over the journey, Goodwin has talked about our high level of i50 and playing in our front half. When we do that, and minimise the opps i50 we win regardless of our goal kicking accuracy. He coaches to win not so much for %'age.

In his press conf Goodwin wasn't too worried about their scoring efficiency: 20 scoring shots (10.10) from 39 i50. He would have been rapt that we kept them to 39 i50! 39!! That means the game is being played in our half of the ground. Tough for any team to win with only 39 i50. Gus was a huge part of keeping the ball out of their scoring zone.

Petracca appeared to have an interesting role last night possibly to protect his knee but also to surprise the opposition. He had only 2 clearances which suggests he didn't attend many stoppages or the tactics were for him to play a defensive rather than his usual attacking role. It looked like he was a decoy to lead his tagger (usually McGrath) away from the play/contest and stay out of Ess fwd line. This allowed Oliver to run amok without anyone on him altho Caldwell tried but to no avail. And it looked like Bowey took over some of Petracca's work, attending stoppages in our back half and playing higher up the ground when we attacked and to defend in the midfield. All the while Brayshaw was like the Berlin wall with 20 marks. Not much got past him. A very good Lever clone albeit his work was just fwd of the d50 rather than inside the d50 as Lever usually does. If my hunch is right about Petracca being a decoy to free up other players and reduce Ess attacking capability it was smart coaching and planning.

A few players look to be carrying injuries: Rivers: Knee and lower leg still heavily bandaged. Had just 62% game time which is very low for our defenders. Gawn: Just doesn't look himself around the ground. When on the ground he didn't drop back or forward very much. Petracca: Full leg bandage at training and knee bandaged for the game. No where near his usual impact May: hasn't been able to chase for the last few weeks. After Port they get a 9 day rest so its time to grit teeth, soldier on and bank the 4 pts.

Did Goodwin say Lever and Brown are available next week or that they will play next week? Subtle difference. If Lever comes in a tall defender is the most likely to go; Tomlinson or Smith. Port don't have many talls playing at the moment and Dixon isn't due back for a while. Brown coming in is a bit harder to negotiate. Sam earnt the right to play again and have the chance to claim a spot. Not sure if TMc is carrying an injury but he just can't get off the ground to mark or spoil. He probably hasn't won his position for quite a while. And, I'm not sure that having no team training would matter that much for Brown so he could slot back in. So keep Sam and omit either Brown or TMc.

Did anyone else hear John Ralph talk about this last night on Fox? He said good progress had been made and the extension would be a 3 year extension until 2025. Then he waffled something about us being a 'tied' to the AFL club so we have to abide their rules, so 2 years were fixed and 1 'floating' (my word not his). I thought the club went to some length in the last two years to not be a 'tied' to the AFL club ie one that did not need or receive AFL special, covid related financial assistance, so we could run the club and make contracts without being beholden to the AFL's approval. We are now a very well run club, certainly in the top 5 of the AFL. It strikes me as odd that the AFL would be involved if we are not a 'tied' club. I guess In practice it probably doesn't matter whether the contract is 3 years or 2+1 years but 3 years give a stronger endorsement of our Premiership coach than 2+1 years. Ralph isn't always a reliable reporter.

I would guess TMc takes Brown's role in the fwd line and Sam replaces TMc roaming further upfield.

The Port game is in Adelaide so the latest Brown could fly out of Melbourne is next Thursday morning. Unless his iso started Wednesday night/yesterday morning, which is unlikely as he was named in today's team, I'm sorry to say he won't play vs Port.

That is a handy analysis. Looks like the umpires threw away the whistle for 'dissent ' against WB players and they missed a number of frees/50m, most of them at critical times in the game or in critical spots on the ground.

Last week Buckley said coaches train players to go two handed when near the ground. He and other commentators then talked about scooping the ball out but they didn't/wouldn't call it a throw. He also complemented a Pies player for being adept at lowering his centre of gravity to get a free. Such action is is illegal and is more like ducking. Some teams get away with it more often. Cue the Bulldogs.