Lucifers Hero

Parish is overrated at # 22 as it is based on 2/3 of last season when other key mids (Shiel and McGrath) weren't playing. He will be a good player but needs to put in that performance for a few years to deserve a ranking in the top 3% of players.

Just for the heck of it I extracted each team's Twitter follower stats: I recall that a couple of years ago our figure was approx 40K. So 70K is a big improvement. However, we are right down the ladder across the AFL. It is a bit disappointing given we have just won a flag. Our figure may reflect our fan demographics ie much older fans who typically don't use social media. Nonetheless, it says we have work to do to win over a younger generation.

The question isn't if he should play in our midfield. It is: if he harbours a role in the midfield he will get it elsewhere and he may just take it rather than spend the next 5-7 years on the wing. There aren't many clubs that wouldn't chase him for their midfield. His dees teammates will always be his teammates and he will always be part of our drought breaking premiership team. It just depends on how he sees his career panning out. Still, hope he stays.

The run home: the-run-home I have summarised the scheduled for ease of comprehension (8 pt games in red): My thoughts: I reckon Adelaide has top spot sewn up so am hoping they beat Freo this week. All top 4 teams will win their round 10 games. Unfortunately not gaining big % boosts vs lower teams has cost us ladder position (again) as other top teams have gained that boost. So, to claim a Home final and have a pre-finals bye we need to finish top 2 which means beating North and Freo. If I have the finals sequence right, to avoid Adelaide until the GF we need to finish 2nd or 3rd.

I think it took a lot of people time to wake up to and acknowledge the role Gus was playing. People saw the role thru the prism of how Langdon plays it rather than the 'defensive' wing he was asked to play. It is worth watching replays of the early games. From very early on he was rolling back to help the back six, intercepting the ball for a throw in rather than taking possession, not trying to take marks, holding his field position, staying in his lane and playing the team game. All things one would think would be rewarded in the coaches votes (not to mention sacrifice). He was never going to get stats, 'be noticed' or have a highlights reel.

Jack Niall is also of the view that Gus' decision will be highly influenced by whether "His defensive wing role limits him showcasing and using his talent. Is it satisfying enough for hm? Does he want to be a role player for another 5-7 years... A different (midfield and perhaps a leadership team) role might be enough to entice him away". Quote is from my post on page 1 of this thread. Niall's article is here: a-career-decision-brayshaw-doesn-t-need-to-stick-with-demons. An interesting comment from Niall: "Brayshaw was 14th in the club best and fairest last year. If his sacrifice was widely praised, and he has a premiership medal to show for it, one could imagine that he would be stung slightly by that ranking of 14th by the coaches". To me it isn't that he was 14th but that his score of 332 was less than half that of the winner and well outside the score for the 10th spot with 408 votes. Given that our BnF scoring is independent of another player's performance one wonders what the coaches expected of Gus to rate him so lowly. Assuming Oliver re-signs, the earliest a mid-field spot will come up is 2025/6 by which time he will be 29/30. In his early years he was touted as captain material, voted our most courageous player by his teammates in 2021, has footy smarts and is talented. I wouldn't hang around on a wing for the rest of my career if I could get role that better suited my talents and career goals.

It will be good to see some footy again but the result means little: 2021 we were absolutely thrashed by the Bulldogs in the preseason and then, the rest is history!

Fox has a blog for the game: https://go.arena.im/live/fox-sports-australia/q9ckwvX?v=2 NMfc also will: "There will also be full coverage of the game on NMFC website and app and on the NMFC Official accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook." Can't find a ref that mfc will run a commentary but will check the website/twitter when the game starts.

Well, well. A new round 10 fixture has just been released. Friday, March 11 Geelong v GWS Giants at GMHBA Stadium (Foxtel), 6.10pm AEDT Saturday, March 12 Collingwood v Richmond at Victoria Park (Seven), 3.10pm AEDT North Melbourne v West Coast at Arden Street (Seven), 5.10pm AEDT Melbourne v Carlton at Casey Fields (Seven), 7.10pm AEDT Sunday, March 13 St Kilda v Adelaide at RSEA Park (Seven), 1.10pm AEDT Western Bulldogs v Brisbane at Mars Stadium (Seven), 3.10pm AEDT Fremantle v Gold Coast at Fremantle Oval (Foxtel), 2.10pm AWST r10-fixture Affected games in 'Bold'.

Ah, ha! Yes, that is the answer: to reshuffle all/most of the round 10 games so Bulldogs and Freo don't play each other again and instead play a team they aren't playing. Good pick up, 'Meggs'. If my reckoning is correct, the teams they are not playing and (who that team is scheduled to play in round 10): Freo: Brisbane (Richmond) Coll (GCS) Geel (GWS) Saints (Adel) Bulldogs: Brisbane (Richmond) Carlton (Melbourne) North (WCE) Saints (Adel) We haven't played Geelong, WCE and Colllingwood so if we lose the Carlton we will get one of those. But I could almost guarantee that the AFL will substitute it with Collingwood to make round 10/finals placing 'more interesting'. This gives us a more difficult draw than we would otherwise have and play more (all?) of the 2021 finalists. Having said that we could dispense with Collingwood however the other teams will more likely allow us a bigger % boost which will be critical for finals 'Home' games. Good luck to the AFL trying to convince another team to give up their round 10 opponent. eg just can't see Brisbane or Adelaide respectively giving up their Richmond/Saints games which will be certain % boosters for them. The AFL could have shuffled the round 9 and 10 games to solve this. Maybe they didn't know they had a problem when they locked it in round 9. I reckon the cleanest/fairest thing is let Freo and Bulldogs play each other again. Surprised this is not getting any media attention.

Just had another look at the rest of the fixture. It seems the other club that will be on 9 games is Freo but they have already played Bulldogs so there is still a problem... Maybe the fairest thing to do in terms of both teams having skin in the game is they play each other again in round 10 as @Whispering_Jacksuggested. That way both teams are playing for premiership points. Oh well, I guess we will know soon enough when the round 10 fixture is announced.

Not sure who works harder as they play different roles. Oliver is in the thick of it to get the ball, Petracca is the burst player to go forward. Yep, great to have the two. Who is better? Depends on criteria and one's emotional investment in each player. But, now that Oliver has learnt to hold his ground in or run out of a pack, instead of treating the ball as a hot potato and blindly hand pass out of congestion, I reckon he has a few more levels of improvement. Now that is a truly scary thought.

In the latest Gus and Gawny, Gus describes Oliver as "...looks like superman, no-one can tackle him". It will be scary for the opposition to have two immovable forces in the middle who can both turn on the jets at will.

I think the AFL have snookered themselves. To keep the season going they rescheduled games but also mixed and matched teams that weren't originally scheduled to play each other. Somewhere in those mixes and matches they have miscalculated the number of games. The result (according to my summary of the season) all teams will have played 10 games except the Bulldogs who will play 9. Can't see a way of fixing this that will be fair to all teams. The teams they haven't played are Lions, North, Saints and Carlton. It wouldn't be fair to the first two who will be in finals to play another game for no points. And it wouldn't be fair to teams in the finals for them to play Saints or Carlton for whom it will be an exhibition match and virtually gift the bulldogs 4 pts. The best thing that can happen is that after round 9 the Bulldogs are well and truly out of contention for finals or cannot progress higher up the ladder if in finals, so the 10th game doesn't matter and it is forfeited. I assume someone at the Bulldogs has alerted the AFL to this rather glaring anomaly.

By late cancellation of the Geelong vs Freo game the AFL seem to have woken up to the problem. You have answered the mystery by noticing the extra Geelong game and that a Freo vs Bulldogs game will fix the problem. It can be played in round 10 as both teams currently have a 'bye' according to the afl website. Bulldogs are playing well so it could be a key game to determine the final ladder order. Edit: I just noticed that Freo and Bulldogs played their round 10 game on Feb 1 which Freo won. So there must be a mismatch elsewhere in the fixture, at least in the one published on the afl website. Hopefully, the clubs know who they are playing...

At the time DIO made her post the round 10 fixture had not been announced.

I recall in an interview last year Goodwin said something like: Petracca's knee can blow up after a game so he doesn't do much with it at training on a Monday. Going on his burst of speed from centre bounces, displayed brilliantly in the GF, he isn't impaired by the knee in games. Probably all part of the Burgess mantra of building 'physical resilience' and not resting players with 'niggles' from training or from playing.

I know. The point was that the club has shown it is willing to re-contract players if they show what the club is looking for so it challenges them to do so. I was musing that the club could be doing that with Gus, albeit the different back story.

I'm a bit more optimistic. I can envisage that if Gus is looking for X of $/term/role the club says ok, shows us this, this and this. TMac and ANB were in a similar 'show us this, this and this' situation last year and the club extend their contracts by several years.

Wondering if the fixture on the AFL website is the latest? Bulldogs have played 6 games and by my count are scheduled to play 3 more in rounds 7 to 9. That is a total of 9 games for the season. (They round 10 game vs Freo was brought forward and played a few weeks ago). However, I can't find a substitute game for their round 2 postponed Lions game...

Gus doesn't seem the type to be motivated by money and doubt he would be looking for a FA type windfall. He would know he won't get what he is worth at the Dees but will most likely have a minimum $/term/incentives he would sign for. On the other hand, as much loved and as courageous as he is, the club may feel he is the easiest on-baller to replace with the range of players waiting in the wings. His 15 minutes in the 3rd quarter helped turn the tide in the GF. A cameo? Maybe. But the spoil then mark and goal were inspirational. He gave us the lead and team belief went up. His defensive wing role limits him showcasing and using his talent. Is it satisfying enough for hm? Does he want to be a role player for another 5-7 years... A different (midfield and perhaps a leadership team) role might be enough to entice him away. Would understand if he left. Hope he stays.

Robbie. Would love to see him hold up the cup.

"Western Australia has set a goal to re-open its borders on the weekend of March 12-14. The tentative date, which a WA government source confirmed as the state’s preferred scenario to foxfooty.com.au, would be a huge win for the AFL and Cricket Australia. Both organisations are awaiting official confirmation but have always been confident the WA border would ease by mid-March at the latest". WA to open borders mid March That's a good start!

Yes, it does matter. The rest of the competition will improve this year as we must. If we expect players to improve the rest of the club and the resources around them need to improve. And we owe it to the new players coming through, that may not be as elite as our current top 10, to ensure they can be the best they can be. Facilities will play a role in reaching their potential.

Teams in the AFL go thru long periods of being in the bottom part of the ladder and not being competitive with the top sides. We know only too well in the men's game. The new AFLW teams get enormous draft benefits and it takes time to build a winning team/culture/game plan to get towards the top. Again as we know only to well in the men's game. I don't think re-drafting is a good idea. It will bring the top teams down with no guarantee the bottom/new teams will lift. That would not be good for the competition given that the initial teams are just becoming to play good football.