Diamond_Jim

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.

My Road to Russia continues.... Late one night recently I check my emails and there is a message from my Kazan airbnb host. In Russian of course so out with handy Google translate and it says he wants to cancel my three week booking as he wishes to increase his price. Having consumed a lovely bottle of red you can imagine how the exchange of emails then went. Quickly onto the airbnb site and of course the only available accommodation is worse and astronomically priced. Fast forward to next morning and I ask him the new price. Answer around double. Well the natural thing to do is yell.. we have a contract etc etc and report him to airbnb... but when you think about the alternatives not to mention the cost of air fares etc saner heads prevail and we agreed a new price which I am sure will pay his rent for the next year at least. And just to round it out I found that one of my two days in Moscow coincides with a public holiday they call Russia day. It apparently is a recent holiday to commemorate the establishment of Russia as distinct form the Soviet Union following the collapse of that wonderful national grouping. In practice it means Red Square partially closed for " celebrations". And Japan sacked their coach ... perhaps we are not so badly off with the flying Dutchman after all.

Liked the Womens 10,000 last night but the sub text was Bruce hyping everything up and Sebastian Coe calming him down...classic Example Bruce ... very important where you are positioned etc etc Sebastian... being on the inside or outside is about one extra stride every 100 metres... just go where you are comfortable

The interesting thing about many of those bombs on the weekend were that they were to around the 40-45 metre mark in front of the players. I get the bomb behind the forwards and let them run onto them but dropping it in front of them just begs the opposition to rebound. Would be interested to hear from the tacticians whether the bombs were simply short or whether this is the strategy.

at the match I made the comment that Pedersen was impressing me more than Weid. Pro Dee queried me as an apologist for Pedersen or similar. Your point DS is what I was trying to say... while the Weid was getting the goals it was not necessarily by imposing himself upon the other players. It was a good game but Coburg lacked big body tall players. I noticed two Coburg players on Weid while he was in the forward line. They were both at least a head shorter than him. Good game but like the Frankston practice game the week before it was a mismatch. (Remember that Frankston beat Coburg in a practice game.) Must admit from my position behind the goals I cannot really comment on his round the ground ruck work but the sheer weight of numbers in the talls available to Casey certainly assisted that dominance. The next three games are Werribee, Richmond and Geelong (followed by another ill timed bye before they play the Hawks.) Not suggesting we wait the full five weeks but one or two more would be advisable perhaps.