Lucifers Hero

I agree. I was a bit surprised by his frankness. He would usually just play a straight bat to it. Regarding the tactic, I reckon he valued testing end of game defence ideas and developing good habits when defending a lead. We were caught out a few times last year, namely the Adelaide match. Nothing beats practicing a tactic in real match conditions.

Too early to call 'Time' on Ratten's coaching career? Buckley available. Has said he doesn't want to leave Victoria while his sons are at school. But would he want it?

An interesting insight into our game tactics from Goodwin's press conf. He was asked about our trouble scoring in the last qrtr when we kicked 5 pts. His response (paraphrasing): "We didn't need to score to win the game. We had built up a lead that we needed to defend".

Based on Goodwin's press conf there are unlikely to be any unforced changes. He said Lever and Hibberd will be assessed. Their were no hints of other changes; may depend on recovery. Goodwin said he was very happy with our defence vs GCS , understandable as we kept them close to our goal of 60'ish points. Ess are missing a few fwds and with Cox out they won't have many talls. So we could give Lever another weeks rest.

Has he ever had 20+ touches? He isn't in the midfield. On your criteria he would never get back into the side!

As I said, I think it is all to do with lack of opp pressure for the likes of Coll, Hawks, Ess and to a lesser extent Carlton.

Can't agree with the first line. It isn't because Salem is left footed. When the team changes ends the whole team changes 'side' but the formation stays the same.

A Swans fan marked Buddy's 1,000th goal and excitedly left the stadium but lots of vision of him appeared in social media and the Swans implored the fan to give it to Buddy in return for personally handing the ball to Buddy at training. After the social media vision he may not have had much choice but kudos to the guy for giving it back.

While we had a lesser defence they had King and Rankine out so they weren't able to take advantage of our weakness. They also played on a 6 day break and a flight back from Perth. Under the circumstances they did exceptionally well.

Cox and Merrett finished on crutches yesterday. Merrett's injury reported as 'minor, at this stage'. For us, Rivers' heavily bandaged leg at the start of the game didn't bode well. He looked very proppy late in the game. Hope Gus' shoulder is ok. He looked a bit shell-shocked (pain, not concussion) when he came on to replace Rivers and even forgot his helmet.

Winning scores so far: Carlton 16.6 vs Bulldogs Swans 17.5 vs Geelong Collingwood 15.10 vs Crows Lions 15.7 vs Essendon Hawks 19.6 vs Port Demons 12.10 vs GCS It looks like phenomenally accurate kicking by the victors (not so much the dees). To me the goal efficiency above looks like poor defence, especially fwd and midfield pressure to allow such scores. It is not just the number of goals, when very few points are kicked imv it says there is little pressure inside d50 on the ball carrier coming in or when the ball hits the ground near goal. Some of the winning teams: Pies, Hawks and Carlton have easy draws by virtue of the 2021 ladder position which will help them this year. I'll wait 'til they play some of the better defensive teams to see where they sit. Is there such a thing as a 'pressure' ladder?

So far not much competition for this week's nominee. But the powers who vote these things probably figure he has a premiership medallion and there are more 'glamorous' players this year. They like it when a top 5 pick wins rather than a pick in the 20's albeit would make a better story. Would Bowey care? Nup!!

I would like to see a positional change for Bowey. Langdon hasn't played to his normal level lately which is probably because Salem isn't there. They are a wonderful link-up combo. Bowey played an excellent and attacking game so I would like him to play on Langdon's ie the attacking, side of the ground rather than the defensive side. Bowey has the vision, ability to stop and prop and the kicking skills we need on the attacking side. On the attacking side he would be in a better position to take May's kick ins as Salem normally does. We are missing Salem and while Rivers was the person to replace him no-one has really stepped into his role. The closest we can do imv is to put Bowey on Salem's side of the ground. That would enable Langdon to get back to his best.

Who did he tag?

I thought that also. Tuohy was walking slowly, the other guy was rushing and looking away from Tuohy and I'm not sure they saw each other. imv Tuohy's push was a reaction to being surprised by the guy getting so close.

I can't see our back 6 letting too many teams kick scores like 17.5 or 16.6 too often. Such goal kicking efficiency is against teams with poor all ground defence and deficient back 6 players/strategy which is not us. We consistently kept teams to 60 -75 points last year. Don't see a reason for that too change. It will be a while before other teams can copy our style of play with the same skill we do. Geelong is a good example: worked for them last week, failed last night when pressure was applied. Our style withstands pressure and we apply lots of it especially i50. Teams will perfect part of what we do but not sure many will develop all components of it in a hurry. Sydney is looking the most likely.

With all the Buddy mania, Geelong's woeful performance will fly under the radar. No media coverage of the actual game at all.

The old legs is old news! Selwood gave away 4 frees, the first of which became a down the field free which, iirc resulted in an early goal for Sydney. He did little for his team. All that aside, my post you quoted was about their 'new', much hailed game plan which failed when pressure was applied. They looked stuck between their old and their new method. Neither worked.

So much for Geelong's new 'territory' game plan. Geelong aren't coping with pressure. They look stuck between their old game 'control' game plan and their new one.

Thanks. I'm ok with reserved seat barcode. I'm asking about Ticketek barcodes as I would like to buy tickets for the ANZAC Eve game. Am hoping we can buy tickets when they are released to clubs rather than a day later when released to the public.

Yes. WA teams are exposed as 'close contacts' every time a player gets covid.

Thanks. Found that email. I didn't get the barcode info. I guess being a 'Redlegs' member I already have a reserved seat. Was the barcode the same as per our membership card last year? Cheers.

WA has a very narrow definition of a 'close contact': 15 minutes if both not wearing a mask. So most of the players probably don't have covid but are caught under that definition and have to isolate for 7 days. It can happen over and over again to WA teams.

Paddy MCCartin's comeback is quite a story. the-unbelievable-return-that-no-one-saw-coming Really wish him well. He deserves some luck. His comeback is right up there with Doherty at Carlton. And with that of our Jesse H who is in line to play this week.

I'll be interested to hear how it goes. pm's are fine. Ticket sales for Ess game are open but not sure if this applies to reserve seat upgrades. Worth a try.