Lucifers Hero

I have a little sympathy for WCE as covid is not of their making but not a lot. Absences for iso reasons is looking like a smoke screen for other issues. Injury management. Overweight players Adequatcy of pre sesason work. They have rarely missed finals so do they have the grit to dig deep and play when each game is a drudge? Are some injuries and players being re-injured because their rehab effort hasn't been up to standard, rushed back too early or both? Inadequate game plan. We will never know but WCE could easily be bottom 4 even if they never had a single case of covid iso.

Somewhere I read that our 'pressure acts' and 'defence of ball movement' are well down on last year. I get what 'pressure acts' are and how they are measured. But what does 'defence of ball movement' mean and what elements are measured in that stat? I'm guessing it includes things like: opps goal to goal ball movement and a score maybe with us touching it or maybe not, turnovers when they have the ball, turnovers when we have the ball...? Any clarification would be appreciated. Then I can work if I should be worried...🤔

I would give Horne-Francis bonus points by the way he flew the flag for his team last week. Didn't flinch. Great leadership, character and tenacity. Hopefully the award is assessed beyond stats and flair.

It appears Freo may have a few players in covid protocols: "It’ll be a nervous week at Fremantle after its big win over Geelong. Rory Lobb, Blake Acres and Travis Colyer are believed to be isolating, ruling them out against the Roos, although the club is yet to confirm anything. Michael Frederick, Griffin Logue and Lloyd Meek were all notable absentees at training on Tuesday as the club waits on more test results...while Hayden Young and Heath Chapman will be eligible to return from their isolation periods". Lucky for them they are playing North this week. Given the first Freo covid HS protocol case was reported on Monday and they played Geelong on Saturday I wouldn't be surprised if cases turn up at the Cats, unless the Freo guys are only 'close contacts' (by WA rules) which would seem long odds.

If ANB doesn't make it back we have Pickett and Sparrow as front half players returning. Who goes out from Melksham, Bedford, Dunstan? Can see a case for each one to stay. Another difficult decision for selection committee.

I think it is more to do with not getting a training session into him and assess how he pulls up. As the game is on Sunday they might try him out on Saturday. Similarly Viney missed team training for all his iso time and had a training session the day before the ANZAC game and played. Having said that @Demons11 often has good intel so I wouldn't be surprised if ANB doesn't play.

It was one of the Fox shows. Its also discussed in this article: is-this-saints-tactic-legal-star-recruit-sacrifices-his-own-game

Goodwin was asked about that 'stop Langdon' tactic on AFL 360. He said something like: the coaches will work out some strategies to counter that. I would assume the same to counter the 'drop someone behind May tactic'. Having said that I wonder whether May leaving someone behind him was deliberate to support a defence that was short on manpower with Petty out, Lever not 100% and Smith going off injured. Commentators talk so confidently of ops tactics but seem to assume others will get away with it, not that the Hawks did as they still lost. Or that we will not counter. Of course we are going to develop counter tactics when a side tries something new! A bit like when Adelaide charged our defence thru the middle; the following week Lever was hoarse from yelling: 'close the corridor' to upfield mids/defenders.

Would expect Hunt to have the shut down role on Higgins, possibly Petty/May on King/Membrey. They don't have many other avenues to goal. As an aside, In a footy show they showed how Hill is blocking for King, sometimes illegally but because he is ahead of the ball the umps don't notice it. Hill runs straight toward where King is as if he is heading toward the ball. Then he runs between King and his opp or 'accidentally' runs into or bumps King's opp enabling King to break away and mark. Worked every time. Hill's op needs to detour him so we can get genuine 1vs1 or 2vs1 with KIng with Lever a chance to intercept.

A snippet from this 'Age' article about ruckmen ruck-trade-merry-go-round "The most significant signature of all is Melbourne’s out-of-contract emerging star Luke Jackson. Melbourne has outlined a compelling three-year succession plan for their premiership forward-ruckman to switch roles with Gawn and become first ruck and tall forward as part of their pitch for him to re-sign. Originally from Perth, Jackson enjoys living in Melbourne and is attracted to staying but is also weighing up if he wants to return to live in Perth at some point. When is the right time to make a move, and what is best for his football development?" My take: he will stay but mulling over whether he signs for a short/medium/long term.

From Saintsational forum: TheirThread Title: "I honestly believe we can beat the dees if: " ...Ratten leaves his ego in the locker room and makes a statement. Just like when Dal and Milne were dropped... ...Gawn, Oliver, May and Petracca all contract COVID before the weekend. But it will still be close! More seriously, even the best teams can be beaten if they have an off day. But, if Melbourne play to their usual form, they are certain to win ...if we swap midfields. ...we start playing 2 hours before they do and we don't kick a point! If we are to have any chance, which is unlikely, we need to make a few few changes to improve our skills, pace and decision making. The Dees haven't be blowing teams out of the water, I don't think they're invincible by any stretch of the imagination. Not writing us off because off a bad game in poor conditions but let’s be real, the demons are good, real good. That is not underselling our ability but I think Melbourne is just better so I am hoping they have an off day and we play well Yeah , we can beat the dees. All we have to do is kick a bigger score than they do. Easy peasy. Wouldn’t it be a great way to announce ourselves as genuine contenders. Not just beat them, give them a real spanking My favourite: The game will go 3 ways We play our best , they are slightly off , we win by a close margin . We play our best , they play their best , they have too much class and win by 2 to 5 goals . We play [censored] , they play their best and smash us , 6+ goals. Chances: 1 about 10%. 2 and 3 90%

@Damo For info, 2021 Official final figures: 2021 CLUB MEMBERSHIP TOTALS CLUB 2021 TOTAL Adelaide Crows 60,232 Brisbane Lions 40,289 (club record) Carlton 81,302 (club record) Collingwood 82,527 Essendon 81,662 Fremantle 50,342 Geelong Cats 70,293 (club record) Gold Coast SUNS 19,460 (club record) GWS GIANTS 30,185 Hawthorn 77,079 Melbourne 53,188 (club record) North Melbourne 46,357 (club record) Port Adelaide 56,532 (club record) Richmond 105,084 (club record) St Kilda 55,802 (club record) Sydney Swans 50,144 West Coast Eagles 106,422 (club record) Western Bulldogs 46,541

It appears on club websites but not all clubs publish them and when they do they are not easy to find. This is a recent update from a bigfootoy thread: Carlton 77,000. For comparison, other AFL Club Member Numbers From Club websites as at 7 April: Essendon: 70,482 Freemantle: 45,298 Geelong: 58,547 Melbourne: 55,595 North Melbourne: 42,234 * Richmond: 93,587 St Kilda: 50.891 Western Bulldogs: 45,503 * Note: North website says "42,234 members including 3,050 AFLW Members" It is hard to compare because of the different categories of memberships each club offers.

Feel for Smith. He can't take a trick. Another medium term injury. 8-10 weeks is huge.

Maybe. I think Dodoro and Mahoney are separate organisational units whereas at the Dees the two were combined under Mahoney's jurisdiction (until the 2020 restructure when they were split ala Ess). A fly on the wall at Ess might be fun if the two need to negotiate what they think is best for Shiel or anyone else.

Shiel is discussed in Point 5 of this article: six-points It talks about his strengths being assets at GWS but underutilised at Essendon where his weaknesses are then exposed. "The simple truth is this: Essendon, a young team that plays a short-kicking game and seems intent to move the ball slowly towards sole tall target Peter Wright, has no use for a player like Dylan Shiel." He has several years on his contract reported at $800k pa. If Ess can't use him effectively that is a lot of coin out of their sal cap. Like other teams that want to do sal cap dumps for a seemingly 'non-essential' player they may be better off cutting their losses and accept an average draft pic ala GWS (Patton, HWSNBN), Coll (Stephenson, Phillips), GCS (Brodie). If they want a good pick eg 2nd round they need to pay part of his salary for a few years ala Coll (Treloar). But then it is Dodoro clubs will be dealing with. We are not one of the teams mentioned where he might be needed.

10 Max Gawn (MELB) 7 Clayton Oliver (MELB) 6 Dylan Moore (HAW) 5 James Sicily (HAW) 2 Christian Petracca (MELB) Split: 5/5 Gawn 4/3 Oliver 4/2 Moore 3/2 Sicily 1/1 Petracca Slightly different weightings (except Max) but coaches seem on the same page. Hawks got a lot of good offence from Moore. I wonder if that would happen if ANB and Kozzie were in the team... Leader Board If Cripps keeps playing like he has he is going to be difficult to peg back. Worth mentioning that Cripps has played just 5 of the 7 games. But opps haven't tried to tag him, yet. 45 Patrick Cripps CARL 38 Clayton Oliver MELB 37 Andrew Brayshaw FRE 32 Lachie Neale BL 31 Callum Mills SYD 30 Christian Petracca MELB 29 Touk Miller GCFC 28 Max Gawn MELB 27 Shai Bolton RICH 27 Jack Higgins STK 27 James Sicily HAW 26 Jack Steele STK 25 Jack Crisp COLL 24 Darcy Parish ESS 24 Bailey Smith WB 22 Jordan De Goey COLL 21 Hugh McCluggage BL 21 Jeremy McGovern WCE 20 Jeremy Cameron GEEL 20 Steven May MELB 20 Luke Parker SYD 20 Jack Sinclair STK

^^^ Don't worry about it @Colin B. Flaubert Take solace in that none, not one of the tactics has worked ie that team has still lost the game. I don't count the Crows game as a successful strategy altho they won. And not because the umpire erred. It is because we were 16 pts up with 8 minutes to go, thought we had it sewn up and forgot to defend the lead. We handed it to them on a silver platter. But we learnt plenty, not the least the need to ice games when we have a good lead, as we do in games now. And ops tactics are unlikely to give them wins because we are very good at adapting to then in games: Close down a player or an avenue and another pops up. We will lose when we have a bad day but we won't lose the same way twice. Media need to do media. Its all fugazzi!

After Tom marked Harmes' goal and kicked his hardly any players went to him even tho it came at an important time and was the one to put us in front of a fast starting Hawks. Harmes wen to him and was animated but it looked more like 'what have you done' and Bedford was excited. Weideman and Fritsch reactions were minimal at best. To me the overall lack of reaction says a bit about what teammates thought.

Weightman got only one free after none last week. He may rue the day when he said drawing frees was 'a skill'. It translates as conning the umps! The umps are now watching.

I've had my Redlegs membership for over 20 years. In some years I knew I would get to few, if any games, for a variety of reasons. My seat sat empty. But I thought of it as a donation to the club. Have been to 3 games so far. Would love to go to every game but circumstances don't always allow.

Saintsational Haven't opened a 'preview' thread yet...not sure if they have one... Will add later if it appears. Big Footy Early on it was outrage at playing in Cairns, selling a home game and doom and gloom over their one pt loss. Then they realised the sky wasn't falling and not only were they still in the 8 but top 4! Unlike our opps in recent weeks they are quite chirpy about our game. Not so much Doom and Gloom. Our boys will be absolutely rooted after this game. At least we’ve got an easy kill next week. Well done club. Don't go there. You know he'll (Dunstan) be stepping up to rub Ratts face in it. Hopefully the club catches Covid and can't field a side. You obviously haven't watched much of Melbourne before. We need to re think how we play because if we have 2 players that can score big bags and not much else we will get taken apart. Expect the third quarter to be definitive. Both Melbourne and St Kilda have been third quarter teams this year. Which makes me think a fast start in the first two quarters could go a long way this game. Now we enter the storm. I'm not optimistic...and am fine with that. Overall I think we'll give it a red hot crack. If we pull a win out the port game is forgiven. I hope the boys have a sour taste in their mouths from cairns. Use that fire in their belly as the fuel to get a win this Sunday. I'd love to be the team that knocks Melbourne off. We are talking levels of delusion much further than previously explored as a supporter of this team. Optimism: In hindsight I thought we were really good just unlucky. Should account for Melbourne then Geelong pretty comfortably considering our form and mental toughness. I think we can give them a real shake and possibly even get a win if we play as well we did the last time we played at the MCG against the Hawks. What a way to win redemption if we can knock off the Dees at the MCG, I watched them today and they are ripe for the picking, let's knock them off. Actually think we’ll win this. Have felt like it for a few weeks. Do I think we’re better than Melbourne? No. But I think they’re ripe for the picking, and we get them at the right time You know what they say about things that bleed… I think Melbourne are far from invulnerable. Yes, they’re bloody resilient and at their best they will beat anyone. But, it’s our job to know what their best is and deconstruct it. It’s our job to match their resilience. I think we may flourish being the hunter. I'm hoping that the loss last night really hurts them and has also blow away a few egos. That's the only reason I'm tipping a win. I just don't fear Melbourne like other great teams of the past. That's not to take anything away from the dees. They're a great team and deserve all the praise. But compared to the Geelongs, Hawks and Tigers, those teams were just absolutely amazing on their day. I remember facing them and wondering how the hell do we beat them. But with this Melbourne team, idk what it is, it just doesn't scare me as much. My favourites: I can't see us winning. But I can see us winning. But I can't, but I can? 70pt win to us to paper over cracks further, Dees only loss for the season and they utterly pump us in finals as is right. 50/50 but it's us, so no actual chance except May to maybe break records for intercepts.

A fair assessment. I think there are several reasons for poor crowds, in addition to not enough dee fans attending. 1) opposition fans don't turn up. 2) We and most teams we play at the G don't have AFL members so that stand is near empty for many games 3) Few if any Friday night games means we don't get the 'neutral' fan to our games. Hopefully, more dees fans go to our forthcoming games vs 'better' and some 'bigger' teams. But I feel the 3 points I mentioned above make it difficult for us to regularly get 'big' crowds to our games. Edit: Now to put the counter point of view😉 our average Home game attendances have been better than most clubs and better than some 'big' Vic clubs. We sit 3rd. Being Home games it excluses the ANZAC Eve game. So perhaps we aren't as bad as we think. Source: Footywire after round 6.

Correct. Yze said he is the one that is least likely to be ready as he went into covid protocols late so may not get training in. Others will be able to train mid/later in the week.

Was rapt to see his 100th game recognised in the banner yesterday even tho it was the previous week. when appropriately the ANZAC banner took priority. He has become our lock down of small forwards. Completely shut down Shai Balton. He is our new Neville Jetta. Not as great, yet but it is terrific to see his has found his niche in the team. It is a niche that plays to his strengths and minimises his weaknesses. It is the sort of role that the less you are noticed the better you are doing the job. I'm biased but think his performance in that low profile role deserves more recognition. Interview post his 100th A humble and honest guy. Just love him!!