Diamond_Jim

what a wonderful dream for any supporter 46 points up 8 mins into the last quarter Hell.... I'm jealous AND then the Crows kick 2 quick goals !!

From the afl site... probably the story of this game: Richmond now lead contested marks 11-7, and when the teams met earlier in the season, the Crows took a competition-high 25 such marks.

if the Norm Smith were awarded at half time Houli would go very very close

Crows need to play the corridor and rely upon their superior skills. They are falling into the same trap as GWS last week and playing the boundary which allows Richmond the easy stoppage. Why play their scrimmage style

Came on here to post the same. It's a very hard place to have an impact but they were good .... must investigate their music

We can judge people on many criteria but I don't think this is a valid criteria. If anything it might be a great move to gain some useful intelligence

on that basis it is over ...no question The only way Jack will stay is if no one wants him and that is not really a good result for anyone including Jack. To say I am not happy about Goodwin's management of Jack is an understatement

I hear Melbourne are playing in the GF tomorrow. Hot favourites to win after finishing the season on top of the ladder. A great club that really knows how to win. Go Storm !!!

Has a slight "Birdman Rally" feel to it. By the way whatever happened to the 7 a side (or whatever) game they were going to play for the teams that didn't make the finals?

Coaching an aligned VFL team must be a nightmare. As I understand it the AFL listed players train in town while the Casey listed players train at Casey and it is only at finals time that the team might train together. With no Development League next year training at Casey could be a lonely exercise given the reduced number of players.

which one,,,,, from three jacks to one king

This could start to explain the GWS membership figures that some were mentioning last week

Not to worry... we will be playing GWS in the GF next year and we'll be the only ones there !! It seems that the GF this year is a hot ticket. A relative had no probs getting a ticket last year ($500) at the last moment but I see on Gumtree people are offering $1K plus

If you think that we as supporters were not entitled to think we could beat the bottom team and a team that was missing many of its star players and had nothing to play for then you have very low expectations as a supporter.

you'd have to be crazy to that deal unless we need salary cap room

good point .. but hell those talls are so good. I think he plays the boundary line too much as he backs his talls to take the mark. The marking player is then expected to give off the handball to the quick player running past who then repeats the play. Looks great but more often than not the ball ends up out of bounds around the 50 metre line. The opposition are left the corridor to counter attack. Needs to back his talls in and move the ball in a more centralised zone. If he doesn't think that will work he should as you say go smaller. Most other clubs would give almost anything for one of their talls so trading is relatively easy if they want to change the game strategy. Went to watch GWS play Carlton at the Ice Dome known as Docklands. How they were beaten by Carlton is text book as I described above.

I don't think this thread is about "making a call on Goodwin" but rather constructive commentary on the performance of the coaching staff (which Goodwin leads) during the 2017 season. There is little doubt that he did not get the best out of many players this year. Was it his fault .... probably not. Could he have improved in some areas...Undoubtedly. Finals in 2018 is a must with a top 4 finish as the stretch goal.

as Lampers mentioned,,,,, part of the deal is that GAJ takes a lower salary to play for cats and thus the "money" is returned. Fascinating ..... does require as I see it a direct player swap which could be the issue

Just preparing for the big trip to Melaka next week. Well it is not really that far ... about 500k but in the Malaysian context that is big ........ Car is serviced .. went for shave and haircut while that was being done. Boy when you get the old second scrape you don't need a shave for days. Tickets still a conundrum. The Australian Supporters group are offering a match day package for A$250. Hell one could live for a month on that. Present plan is to rock up to the stadium the day before and with my impeccable Bahasa Malay vocab (usually used only at the nasi kandar stall) make inquiries of anyone I might find. In keeping with Malaysian tradition my most important decision will be where to stop for lunch. Bean sprouts and chicken in Ipoh perhaps or roti cenai at Kuala Kangsar. The roads are very good with big clean roadside stops replete with food halls about every 100kms. Local coffee is fantastic. The local greeting by the way is often not hello .. but rather is sudah makan kah which loosely translates to "have you eaten yet". Looking forward to trying the Portuguese styled Nonya food around Jonkers Walk in the evening. Last week we had the tail end of the typhoon that hit Vietnam. Did it ever rain. The west coast of Malaysia is actually very benign when it comes to weather events due to the massive island of Sumatra being a mere 100 or so kilometres across the Starits of Malacca. So fingers crossed for no rain. Local coverage of this match in the media is about nil ... well from what I have found it is nil. So until the next exciting instalment...

I hear they might want money as well in the form of a return of cash because his contract for the present three years (now at the end of his second) was heavily front loaded. Wonder how that works under the salary cap. Presumably it reduces what Geelong can pay other players in 2018 but what it does for the GCS salary cap I have no idea as it is money already spent. (In reality it is of course just AFL money.) Also begs the question of who pays the money.. the clubs or GAJ... after all the money is in his pocket at present. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/sep/26/gold-coast-indicate-willingness-to-allow-gary-ablett-to-return-to-geelong Ablett’s contract is believed to be heavily front-loaded, meaning the Cats may be asked to provide some level of financial compensation to secure his services.

that is a bit of a problem as you say .... I suppose the difference between 16 or thereabouts (that they would have had) and 20 is not too bad from a GCS viewpoint

being so near yet so far over the last two years after ten years of nothing does tend to temper the optimism Ernest. Actually I am upbeat on the next five years but I know that it wont come easy.

First rounder for Ablett albeit a late first rounder ... interesting call given his injury history and age... is Geelong going with head or heart? Will he retire if GCS play hard ball?

Great thread and brilliant post BB ... while many will not agree with everything it is well thought through and well argued.

ah yes.. sorry forgot about him... probably would have been delisted to be honest had he not had another year on his contract. credit to him ... he was a very good player for a considerable period