Diamond_Jim

But the 13 fans who were there that day to support GCS may not make the trip this time. So needed to move that club to Tassie

Is it ever otherwise ?

Sorry I could not help but bump this post ? What a difference a year makes

Ah the rise of humanism. Who was your favourite

I doubt it. There were a few 6-8 month experiments a couple of years back and they didn't end well. Would be interested to hear but I think the wisdom is now a full 12 months. Round 7 maybe but you could be right.

agree very much but he may just give that balance we need. A very hard call. Would hope the VFL guys had a hard hit out over the weekend. That ill scheduled bye does no one any favours.

One thing to bear in mind is that although we won against the Crows by no means did we play well. We had a great scoring burst late in the third quarter that won us the match. Two lucky goals.. one to Melksham and the free to Hogan. I'm not complaining about the win. After losing games where we dominated or were relatively even we deserved some luck. If we are going to play Smith we need to give him instructions to lay the ball off to a designated nearby kicker. Similarly he needs to have killing the ball as his first priority. Each of Garlett, Spargo and JKH have something to commend them but the fact is we are not getting enough out of the sum of those three players. On the other hand the cupboard is not exactly bursting open at VFL level. A case can be made for Kent and AVB as players who might just deliver that bit extra. I will trust the selection committee but I hope they consider the team balance long and hard and not just go the easy path and reward the incumbents for being part of a winning team. Hogan and Petracca are vital to the next six weeks as is Brayshaw maintaining his purple patch of form. Get the first two to improve by 50% and we can really dare to dream.

Unlikely to occur but wonderfully worked scenario. I think we need to win 3 out of 4 to go into the finals with any sort of momentum. Given relative form lines, wins against GC and Sydney are a must and it's about time we won a 50/50contest. Anything less we are just making up the numbers. What I find even more interesting in coming weeks is the positions of the interstate sides and who has the home ground advantage.I know Bulldogs did it in 2016 but hard to see that replicated.

Have you done the maths on what is required to move the percentages at this time of the year. Last year we had one of the lowest percentages in the group vying for the 8. This year we have the highest percentage in the league bar Richmond. It's not a factor this year. Far more important is to practice a defence style that allows us to stop the run ons we have seen in the last two weeks. We're not going anywhere unless our defence improves.

was thinking the same thing myself. Worth a thread on its own at some time.

Just saw that Port have a diabolical run home. Arguably worse than ours. Hope those Crows can play for the honour of their jumper etc and do the right thing in the Derby next week. Looks like their game in outer space will be a win.

Come on Dogs ..... a Port loss would be great

I think it was the stadium used by the University of Michigan.Also blows your mind how big College football is as well.

The bye for Casey could not have come at a worse time. We had one about now last year. It can really kill the momentum for players trying to break into the senior side. Had AVB played a blinder I suspect we would have seen him next week but my guess is no change.

An aside... Liverpool played Man U yesterday in a pre season friendly in Michigan.Crowd of 105k at a sold out stadium. Man U played the kids. Amazing what people will pay to see these teams play. Another aside... apparently Mexico plays more times in the USA than in Mexico itself because they make so much more money than when they play in Mexico

The spare seats you were seeing were the ones allocated to the friends of FIFA ( the various Football associations etc). I suspect in the past these were sold for big money and who knows who pocketed the profits. With the apparent corruption crackdown may be a lot of the associations didn't dare scalp the tickets. I can assure you every game was a pre game sell out. Moscow is a great city and I suspect St Petersburg is even better. It is relatively easy to fly from Dubai to all the Russian cities and then move westwards. Flydubai (the low cost carrier owned by Emirates is good value.) Feel free to PM me if you want some other travel tips about the area. PS:I went with my son and boy did he enjoy the party !!

The Russian people made it a great tournament WWS. Won't forget South Korea beating Germany and France beating Argentina. Lucky to see both live along with three other matches including the Aussies going down to France. God help us if they ever allow vuvuzelas at the AFL. Not to mention Colombian football fans (don't think any of them know how to sit down and watch a game.) Could highly recommend Russia as a tourist venue. Extremely good value by comparison to Western Europe

tend to agree with you AF

Everytime I look at the ladder it is an amazing logjam from 3 to 11. So many permutations are possible. Anyone done the analysis on intra 3-11 games (8 point games) .. we have 3 of them. Collingwood have two.

Great point George That last quarter requires some analysis from both sides though perhaps some latitude can be shown given the rain and the apparent wind. Not having a sweeper back cost us that first goal (may have been the second) in the final quarter. Great win and onto next week to consolidate.

wow ...is that stat correct? If so that is monstrous or we are doing something very wrong in the skills department One small positive this year is that Clarrie is not getting pinged for throwing.I suppose the umpires now recognise skill even though the natural eye may be too slow to see it

thank you Chookrat for your optimistic prediction. Sadly we all know it could well turn out to be true ?

Well thats's one of the three we needed. Way off a given that we can find the other two. Need to play smart against GCS. Percentage is irrelevant (we are miles in front of everyone else) so a nice regulation 30 point win would be nice. Get a good break in Q1 and then just close out the game

Dogs deserve it but fascinating that they are paid by the State Government to play in Ballarat but we have to go to NT to get our dollars. Would love to be on a deal to play in Mildura instead of Darwin

do we ever have a clue.... when you are up by five goals you tweak the game plan to deliver the desired result. Sometimes you take more risk but when your season is on the line you dial down the risk meter. Goodwin is a babe in the woods sometimes