Diamond_Jim

There certainly are a few hills in Hobart mate. You post makes one wonder what the economics of a roofed stadium in Hobart would require.

a pity we don't have Bruce to call the game but I assume BT will make up for it

you might get away with that on the Collingwood forum ET but not here on the mensa board with all us Greek and Latin scholars

thanks... a little surprised that Hunt is the emergency... thought it would be Hannan and Stretch Hope you can find somewhere warm to watch the match

yeah .. we must have a quiet thread one off season analysing how we became so bad

my God... WSTB must be around 12 at least

nah.... Suns for Tassie if North doesn't go there first (will be interesting if the AFL put some relocation money on the table after this Tasmanian review ... would upset hawks which makes it doubly good!!) ACT is not a bad market with Wagga and the Riverina ... has always been strong AFL country. GWS has to be careful though because the AFL wants to maintain the media appearance that there are two Sydney teams

Canberra is a very handy growth market for the Giants. Could be a good deal of corporate sponsorship money available for super boxes etc given the government business angle.

GWS at $1:10 and Freo at over $6. Strange given Freo's recent wins over Essendon and Gold Coast and GWS coming off a loss to Sydney

wrong thread

Gale on 3AW gave the impression that he was not particularly impressed with the MCG deal. Implied that the MCG needed to recognize they were reliant on clubs like the Tigers to stay in the black.

Not too many games this weekend that one would say are a must watch. The best two are MFC v Hawthorn and Essendon v Port ... both games in relative graveyard spots. In the context of the cricket deal I heard a stat on radio yesterday that pay tv reaches 30% of homes. The next AFL broadcast deal will be interesting.

How many of the emergencies are kept fresh for Sunday and will not play on Saturday night? thanks

as most of us thought..... would have been interesting if Tyson had not been ill

A very interesting point OD. The situation you outline has been the norm (percentage wise) for both Adelaide and WCE for several years now. Friends in Adelaide talk about the waiting lists for reserved seats. In those days it was the Crows but I notice that Port now have a waiting list as well. Of course a lot of those 90k Richmond membership numbers are interstate and three game members but even at say 60k worth of home and way members that is a huge number. As Demon supporters we can only dream of having such worries.

Richmond today announced 90,000 members Together with the reserved seat revenue they must be swimming in cash http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-12/tigers-smash-alltime-membership-record

Assuming two of the extended bench are kept as emergencies and therefore do not play Saturday night my hunch is Brayshaw in for Tyson with Stretch and Hannan kept as the emergencies.

same here.... suspecting there will be a heavy Tigers turn out. Anzac day will be a sell out but it would not surprise me if we have a higher physical attendance. Pies and Bombers supporters buy their reserved seats for the Anzac clash miles in advance. Shame there is no dynamic pricing ... it could even go negative the way the Pies and Bombers are going

One can understand the instruction run free and take the handball in the modern game but as many have pointed out the shepherd which releases the ball carrier can be just effective and in many case is a lower risk play than the over the top handball. The ball release is increasingly important because in todays game the opposition players other than the tackler will run away as well to cover the receiving player. Accordingly if the original ball carrying player can be released by the shepherd he will often not have an immediate opponent. Obviously it is not appropriate in all circumstances but like any tactic it has its uses. Perhaps the players are so highly drilled there is not much room for "improvisation"

Fascinating story PF. Helps us nobodies understand your vehemence on the concussion issue. Hope all ended up well mate.

and what is interesting is that they don't run away and thus open up space for the handball ... rather they hover nearby waiting for the short high one over the top. By the time they get it an opposition player is sitting on them or even worse intercepting. When Collingwood played GWS Pendlebury made a comment post game that they knew GWS were a looping handball type side and that allowed them to pressure the ball carrier into fluffing the hand pass

Melbourne 11 goals 4 to Hawks 6 goals 18 Not meaning to be facetious but many of our good wins last year occurred because the other side did not kick straight. Luck, pressure call it what you like but I hope it happens again.

Fully agree ... always great to see tactics discussed

Spot on Tiers ... some of those goal reviews over the weekend were pure conjecture from what I could see. To over rule the umpire there must be absolutely clear evidence. From what I saw that was lacking in at least a couple of reviews over the weekend. They also take too long. The very fact that they take so long means the video is not conclusive and should therefore be umpires call. We may as well do away with the goal umpire and have it called from a vault in AFL house the way it is going.

Noticed a few times on Saturday that when in the old days the play would have called out for a shepherd to release the ball carrier our non ball carrying player just stood off. I can understand the run away and take the handball over the top but what often happened is that the looping handball got touched and the play stopped or even worse. Just wondering if we have gone too far and that there is still a place for a good shepherd to release the running player. On a positive note I cannot remember too many of the old ring a rosie handball drills that we saw so often in 2017.