Lucifers Hero

Giants are up and about. Their A players seem very switched on. At this rate they will build a decent %'age. Hoping the dockers find their mojo, fast! Terrible one side umpiring - all for the Giants.

Saints have dropped Carlisle for an extra on-baller giving them a shorter backline and more mobility around the ground. Little doubt how they will play.

I can't see the article and not sure what time frame it covers but comparing their trade-ins of the last 3 years with ours (named above) their's have collectively been a lot better: Hill, Jones, Ryder, Howard and Butler. Their flop is Hannebery due to his recurring injuries. They have used their last 3 top 10 draft pics wisely: King (2018), Clark (2017), Coffield (2017). That is virtually recruiting a new spine and wings with some mid field additions. They are greater improvements in the last 3 years than ours.

Could someone pm me the article or post a summary. Cheers.

If finals weren't on the line I'd think we are tanking!

I was typing quickly!

So much for stabiising the team. Richardson made two comments yesterday about team selection: 1. Players will be rotated over this compressed fixture. Maybe why Lochhardt is out. 2. We will definitely bring in speed - looks like he lost that argument at the selection table! Goodwin prevails!! Ryder and Marshall will work Max over. And who will relieve him in the ruck? I certainly hope it isn't Weideman!

2020-free-agents-unveiled

With two fwd spots opening up Smith, Hunt and Bennell would have to be in the running.

Yes, it was good to hear. He said something like we "will continue to seek clarification on Alex's behalf" which I assume means the club has been talking to the AFL. Won't change anything but good to hear the club is asking questions and sticking up for Alex in light of this weeks decisions.

Fixed.

I like to think there is room for positional changes as well as extra effort. In the 3rd against the dogs we had no defensive pressure in our f50 so they waltzed the ball out and down the wings. So hypothetically could Harmes and/or Dunkley Lochhardt have swapped with Fritsch and/or Melksham to curb Johanson's and Crozier's drive from their d50 after 3 goals and change the tempo of the game? That may be a silly example but I would like to think there are some things the captain can do or suggest to the coach at their next rotation.

Many good points in that post, RN. Just want to focus on this aspect. Jordan Lewis said the other evening it is quite difficult for coaches to change things mid quarters. But how many unanswered goals is tolerable before the leaders on field do something: 2 maybe 3 goals? (I'm not sure Max playing last week mattered in this regard as on-field in-game direction/adjustments hasn't been a strength). A bit rhetorical but do our leaders have a licence to make changes, especially when the ops are getting on top or a specified run of goals? Undoubtedly May and Lever could see the bulldogs dominance upfield unfold before their very eyes but do they have licence to do something? Or did the official leaders listen. No idea the answer to those questions but I think on field leaders need to take some responsibility for last week's lack of action after x unanswered goals. They needed to do something! Just hope the leaders go in with some action plans this week: if op does A or B happens our options are x,y,z, if they do C or D happens our options are m,n,o etc. No need to wait for coaches. Unless they don't have licence from the coach to take action, which is unimaginable really. Failing all that the captain goes to the bench and gets on the phone to the coach!!

That was one of your suggestions, which is what I was responding to, adding I didn't see him playing this week. Regardless, would still like to see him in Alice in some capacity.

Unfortunately, Jordon is injured. Agree re Jones. Its hard to see where he fits in this week. The wing isn't an option as he would be up against Hill or bro Zac. While the latter has some nice romanticism about it he and Hill would run rings around him and burn him for speed. I would love the moves you suggest that see Jetta come in for this, the Alice game but hard to see it if the club is looking for speed. At least I hope he is an emergency as he is so popular with locals and given he designed our indigenous jumper he deserves to be there in some capacity. This is when I really miss the training reports from track watchers... ...reportedly we want speed so are Baker or Bennell options...

Hated Ess winning. But a great example of how a coach can totally turn a game by a positional change (Hooker fwd took McElvoy out of the game) and made a few tweaks on ball movement from stoppages. Their intensity went up and Hawks couldn't get the ball. 11.5 to Hawks 3.1 in the second half.

Why would they rest King when they have a bye next round? It would suggest some arrogance (and a tad of disrespect...) to simply leave out a key fwd in such a critical game.

Hawks vs Ess on now. Ess are rubbish. No system at all. Eagles vs Tigers on later. - Hope tigers lose so more likely to miss the double chance of a top 4 finish.

My point was if people are vaccinated everyone is safer and we won't need lock downs. Can't see our governments going with the Swedish 'herd' immunity and we are very risk averse as our closed state borders demonstrate. They also have low political tolerance for a 'normal' level of daily cases. So if there is no vaccine they will need to think of something else.

Not sure that is entirely right. Eddie brought in Gubby Allen to take Balme's job so he was demoted/moved sideways. Pert was CEO at the time. Balme was offered the Director of Coaching role at collingwood. At some stage Richmond offered Balme the GM Football position which he accepted. Pert himself lost his CEO job 6 months later. I have no idea the relationship between the Pert and Balme today but it is hard to know how much of the Allen/Balme thing was Eddie's doing and whether Pert had a role.

So you are happy that we all go back into Stage 3 or 4 lockdown every time there are a series of breakouts and our health and hospital systems can't manage the workload and they are getting covid. Hospital wards close and fewer and fewer non covid procedures are carried out. Shops close, schools close, restaurants close, no concerts, football, cinemas etc etc. I truly hope that you and your family do not get this wretched virus, are not one of the frontline workers or someone who will lose their job or lose their business because of the lockdowns. One way or another everyone suffers from outbreaks. Won't happen? Look at New Zealand. No cases for 3 months then within a week there are a hundred cases and Auckland goes into lockdown. Not sure they yet know how this 'patient zero' caught it. Lockdowns will continue until there is widespread vaccination. It isn't about protecting you. Its about protecting everyone around you that you might infect.

Grand Final date confirmed to be Oct 24 which keeps the WA Optus venue option in play. There will be a pre finals bye.

I think Sydney will be tough to win. Not because they are better but the travel we have to do. Alice is on Sat night and we fly straight out meaning players get back to hub in the early hours of Sunday morning. Syd fly to Cairns from Adelaide early Sat evening. On Thur morning we fly to Carins for the 4.40pm Sydney game. The extra hours/night rest Syd get may not be a lot but throw in our same day flight and the fatigue might start to kick in. Generally, Syd beat us by having a player outside the pack to receive and run the ball fwd. If we aren't prepared for it nor spread quickly we will be playing catch up. The next game vs Freo is 4 days later and also a challenge. They are on a role and are giving up miserly scores against. They have an extra day rest and don't travel. Any travel advantage will depend whether we stay in Cairns after the Sydney game or fly back to Maroochydore and fly back to Carins for the Freo game. Hopefully sanity prevails and we stay in Cairns giving us a travel breather. St Kilda is massive as it is an 8-pt game. They won't leave anything on the park as they have a bye after the game. As noted above our travel/break schedule is quite gruelling. Hopefully our players also give it their all and not try to 'preserve' themselves. GWS is the other 8-pt game for us. tbh I don't see any definite wins. But then we could win all 5!

Finally a commentator compared the ANB and Dahlhaus tackles. Last night on 360, Lewis said they were identical actions but the outcome was different ie one had concussion. And if the AFL want to stop sling tackles they need to penalise the action not the outcome. Whateley then said the tackles were different - the Tribunal had adjudicated that because Crouch's head didn't hit the ground (sure looked like it did to me) it was a body tackle and not 'high contact' and downgraded the charge. They conveniently ignored the principle of 'potential to do damage'. Just like they introduced it to suspend May last year for his 'potential to cause damage' bump on (I think) Berry then conveniently ignored the same principle thereafter. Back to ANB I think it was the 'optics' of a player out cold and the Crows' medical report that condemned him. The media wanting a scalp closed the deal.

The person I'm most disappointed with is Gerard Whateley. Most others are 'click-baiters' but he generally seems measured in his commentary. He led the charge with the 'throw the book at ANB' rhetoric. This week he comes out and says "punishments on some recent dangerous tackles are impractical and don’t pass the “flinch” test as the footy world grapples with the harsher assessments...Whateley said the initial suspension handed to Powell-Pepper was “inappropriate”, adding the definition of a ‘dangerous tackle’ had been taken too far...“It seemed like, all of a sudden, any player that tackles another to ground was guilty of a dangerous – and that’s skipping steps,”. dangerous-tackles-gone-too-far No mention of ANB and his stance on him. Whateley has become AFL'd! Its like the ANB suspension has been wiped form the record books. Bizzaro stuff.