Lucifers Hero

Swans have a dream fixture: Teams they play twice: Suns, Giants, Ess, Freo and Saints. Only the Saints made finals last year Very hard to see the Swans not make finals this year and with that fixture they may even end up top 4..

North's complete failure against the Suns doesn't bode well for staying in Victoria. If they can't get a few wins and some decent crowds this year Tassie may be their new home in a year or two.

When is a suspension not a suspension? patrick-dangerfield-geelong-suspension-tribunal-vfl-practice-match Suspended players are being allowed to play in VFL practice matches. Not sure that is in the spirit of suspensions as commented in the article. I would think this 'allowance' by the AFL would not apply to VFL games for premiership points. imv, if suspended then suspended from all comps. Otherwise players could go and play in the lower (than VFL) comps just to keep up some match fitness. Then where does it stop?.

Thanks godees. I don't see that view of the AFL website on my android devices. Could you post or pm to me the link please.

Talking of gaining territory, nearly all our team kicked more than they hand-balled last night which to me, says we are now playing a 'territory' game. This is a shift away from the frantic 'chaos' ball game. We still have that but added a few more strings to our bow. Another string to our game plan bow which I noted a few weeks ago: The game plan now seems to be 'attack' (ala Tigers/Bulldgos) thru the Langdon wing for his speed and 'control' (ala Eagles/Cats) thru the Brayshaw wing for his smarts and vision. That is not to say we didn't try and play a 'control' game before just that we appeared to not have clearly defined or clearly understood roles so it didn't work too often. To me the Brayshaw and Langdon roles are becoming quite clear and team mates are learning how fit into those roles. Its still early in the season but it seems we have gone from being good at a one dimensional 'chaos' game to having an effective multi dimensional 'chaos'/'control'/'territory' game. I like it. I like it a lot!!

I've been a critic of one aspect of Oliver's game: lack of impact. Well, he certainly turned that around last night! He found space, had almost as many kicks as he did handballs (17/22), many of his kicks were sharp and went deep into the fwd line. I don't know where to get 'metres gained' stats but I would expect it to be very high, perhaps the highest he has achieved. It is close to his best ever game: a very balanced game played at an exceptionally high level with significant impact. Hope the Brownlow casting umpires take note. He doesn't get enough love from them.

Might have to barrack for Pies to beat Adelaide. Would rather play North in the first elim. Altho Feo has been ordinary of late, especially away from home.

If we end up 3rd we play North who are locked in at 6th.

Yes, 3rd and 4h play 6th and 5th respectively at their Home ground. We can't drop below 4th so the only question is who will be our opp.

We can fear no-one. Last 3 weeks wins over Lions, Crows and Freo. Bring on the finals. Lets hope Daisy can make it next week. Woo Hoo!. Home final!!

Time to switch to wet weather football. Get it fwd any way possible.

If we finish 3rd or 4th we get a Home final next week. Heaps to play for! Finish 4th and we play Freo at Home.

Roos beat Freo. Wouldn't mind meeting Freo in the first week of final. Their last 3 games: unconvincing last minute win vs Carlton, loss to Dees now a loss to Roos. On a bright note: Roos win snuffs out Carlton's chances of making the finals

Just read that the game will go ahead - Lions have been given an exemption by the State Gov't.

AFL has conceded it should have been a free to Bailey in the goal square. Hope karma comes back and bites Geelong in the backside.

Game scheduled to start in about 90 mins. Anyone know if its going ahead or even if Brisbane arrived in Melbourne this morning? Unfortunately can't find anything on AFL, MFC or Lions websites, twitter. Anyone down at Casey?

Looks like Geelong will make 'roughing up champion players' their 'one-wood'. Hope our players protect Oliver and Petracca, Geelong's likely targets, more than the Lions did Neale. They let him down badly in the first half.

Some doubt whether this game goes ahead. Due to a covid case in Brisbane anyone arriving from there since March 12 is required to isolate. Lions AFLW team is still in Brisbane. Huge implications for the order of the top 6 if this doesn't go ahead.

And a fair chance the ground will be dewy so the ball will be slippery. Will affect both teams - its just who handles it better. ...unless they close the roof early in the evening before dew sets in.

A fascinating round for 3 of last year's finalists and who will make it this year.. Pies, Cats and LIons are 0-1. Cats play Lions this week so one of them will go 0-2.. Pies play Carlton and if they lose they will also go 0-2. If Carlton loose and go 0-2 it snuffs out their chances of finals. In the last 10 years 58 teams have started 0-2 but only 5 have gone on to play finals. And in the history of the game only 2 poor starters (0-2) have subsequently won a premiership. So two of Pies, Cats, Lions and Blues will each have less than 10% chance of making finals. Even if Pies win and go 1-1, imv they have little chance of making finals. On my reckoning that is two final 8 spots for the taking! Now, let's beat the Saints, Dees.

The rhs of his head hit the ground when he fell to his right.

Destined to follow in the footsteps of the other FIGJAM - has a Brownlow, changed clubs for a much coveted Premiership medal but will retire without one. Icing on the cake would be if Adelaide win a flag before he retires. Unlikely but would like to see it.

Pure speculation on my part but I can see different elements to our game plan being applied when we play thru the wings:. fast, attacking play (ala Tigers/Bulldogs) thru Langdon 'controlled' football (ala Geelong/WCE) thru Brayshaw. But as I said earlier it requires good positioning/structures and players to be well versed in each style. These make us less predictable to the opp but more predictable to team mates. And we have more of a chance to to control the tempo of games which we haven't been good at in the past. But as I said pure guess work on my part,

Last year Brayshaw played between the arcs for a large part of games.. He was the 'go-to' player in transition. So if he plays on the wing I'm guessing his role will be as a link-up player controlling one side of the ground rather the Langdon type wing who is more a run-and-carry player because of his speed. The structures and players will need to be well set up to help them play those roles to optimise our ball movement out of defence. Despite not being 'fast', Brayshaw has very good footy IQ, has good vision and regardless of what some on here say is a good user of the ball. If my hunch is right about how his wing role might evolve then it could be good move.

Latest Injury List: Some serious outs for the Saints. They get Max King back but he is lacking match practice and would be having nightmares playing against May again. If any of our Hibberd, Viney or Melksham return they will at least have some match practice. Injuries will be no excuse for us should we lose this weekend as they are worse off than us. Petracca and May won us the game last time we played them. We need an all team effort this week. We must bank these early wins against wounded opponents. Edit: Just saw the news re Harmes' wrist. Fortunately, I think we have plenty of coverage for him and his role. If Viney is ready it is an easy swap this or next week.