Diamond_Jim

Agree 100% Remind me what Geelong "lost" to get Dangerfield

As the kick in is a major weapon to breaking the zone and a quick score at the other end the concept of "harassing" the kicker is certainly something to consider. Aaron was of course the consummate defensive forward. Who can forget those early years when he would run down a defender who would react with complete surprise.. He pioneered the role ....such memories.

Brisbane are imploding both from a playing and financial viewpoint. The Gold Coast are still in transition and exist only because of AFL support. The problem with the priority pick is that it impacts most on the lowest clubs who miss out on the potential star at pick one or two. It does not impact the higher clubs as much as the difference between pick 15 and 16 is not as important as the difference between the lower picks. Not sure what to do to help Brisbane but it is time the upper clubs sweated. Just joking but how about a free pick of a player from the Premiers !!

Did you notice how close the Hawks player was on our kick outs. It meant that when McDonald played on as he did several times he was doing so under extreme pressure. I was wondering if this is a normal Hawks structure and if so why is Shaw at GWS who plays on all the time not subjected to a similar tactic. Also I wonder if we should be scared to kick to a pack and bring the ball to a stalemate. With a dominant ruckman and good midfielders we should a la Brisbane at its height back ourselves to win the ball up/throw in. Not saying it should be the only tactic but it should be one we work on in certain parts of the ground. Finally it seemed to me that the Hawks gave us more space yesterday by comparison to other teams. They were content to stand just that little bit back and then hope to pick us off thus winning clean possession. That few inches of space made our game plan work. Not sure if it is as good with a team that sweats on the ball winner. All in all a great win and I am looking forward to seeing a strong showing against Port.

We have some great young players but this guy could be the One. Tall, quick, nimble .............fingers crossed

Just finished the replay In that last quarter I saw a glimpse of the future and I liked it.

Slowly watching the replay. Hawks certainly did miss a lot of easy ones (particularly in the second quarter) Lots of loopy handballs by the Dees but some great plays especially in the first quarter

To hold the ladder leaders and the winners of the last three premierships to 1:3 in the last quarter and only one behind after the 11 minute mark is a magnificent achievement.

Thank you Dees !!!!!!!!!!!

Swans 54...... Port Zero 10 minutes into second quarter ..........wow

Hi I am watching in Malaysia. The local cable is Astro and has around 6 channels. The oddity is that although it is an Asian feed the commentators this morning were our old favourite "Peter Donergan" and a lady and gent from the UK and South Africa. What's more they cut to an ad while the Malaysian team entered

Thanks a million Macca Have been looking for a decent schedule for days. I found the Google schedule and thought I was okay only to find out just in time it was displaying US East Coast times (not Rio time). This will be a godsend......... thanks again

Peter Gordon (Bulldogs President) on ABC radio this morning mentioned that the Swiss tribunal has held (indicated) that the appeal should be decided in accordance with Australian law. If it is the usual case of a tribunal applying a foreign law that means that the law is determined as a matter of fact by competing affidavits from Australian law experts. He mentioned that the 34 have some impressive members of the Australian legal field (possibly including an ex High Court Judge) weighing in on their side. Mmmmmmmmmm........... may be interesting still as the CAS decision was not exactly what one ordinarily reads in the world of Australian jurisprudence (mainly in the links in the chain vs the strands in the cable of evidence area). Also the concept of "comfortable satisfaction" and where it sits in the Australian concepts of "balance of probabilities" and "beyond reasonable" doubt is another area of possible contention given that the case law on "comfortable satisfaction" is in the main foreign decisions of CAS itself. Ahh..... the gift that keeps on giving

Sounds like Oliver is hot to go in the seniors !

No the opposite...... would he prefer a chance at Brisbane (with a good guarantee of games) against no/few games a la Grimes this year

Would you prefer a season full of games at Brisbane against being on the Melbourne list but not getting a game and then being delisted ( as has happened to Grimes this year,)

Begs the question why we did not use the last two years of non performance to front end a 6 year deal for Hogan. The Dawes money would have come in handy for example.

My main concern Old Dee is that we will keep him for another year but that he will be on the permanent outer next year and thus the Grimes scenario will repeat. Would it be better for Jack to go now with our blessing to a club where he can reasonably guarantee a start for say 10-12 games. I cannot see him getting that start other than through injuries in the present MFC team. Of course that makes him a valuable depth player as others have pointed out but I think he deserves more. Personally I would love to see him succeed but to see three captains "delisted" is not good no matter how hard nosed a supporter one might be.

We are now six weeks plus since Jack got dropped. Would be interested to see what others think of his chance of returning this season. It seems to me that while at Casey he has been playing well but not exactly blitzing it. Perhaps they are banking on the old "strong pre-season" and then re-assess theory. Would hate to see a repeat of the Grimes scenario

Hi came across this great post on Big Footy from 2011 on the subject of the forward press. It seems to describe MFC to a tee. Have looked at Shaw of the GWS on the kick outs. He almost always takes off from the square which gives them a chance to break the press. Interestingly the writer below does not include that in his/her 3 ways to break the press From a kick out, you start with your 18 man zone from 25-75 meters from the opposition goal. This means anywhere from 25-75 meters there should be no free space for opposition players to run and present an option for the kick out. Often you will see the full back (or 'kicker inner' now the FB doesn't really do that any more) kick to a target in the pocket (say the broadcast side pocket) where a free player is because the zone only starts 25m out. Because the player is now in the pocket on one side the effective '1 kick' length means he can now no longer reach say 65m out on the non broadcast side. Because of this you can start to collapse the zone towards the side where the player with the ball is (broadcast side in this instance) this congests the space further and means he if he wants his team to keep posession of the ball he has to kick back to the full back who is now near the goal line. Now because the man on the mark is 2-3 out from the goal line (as opposed to 15 out for a kick in) you shift the zone across to cover the field equally again but you move it 10-12 meters closer to goal. now because of the shape of a footy field a zone from 15-60 (as opposed to 25-75) won't have to cover as much ground there for is tighter with even less space for an opposition player to be free and you end up with the situation where all the FB can do is kick to the player in the pocket again (or the other pocket) really close to the line, now the zone collapses to that side and tightens up a little more, then the player in the pocket kicks it back to the FB (maybe not 15 and you can pressure and tackle) and the cycle repeats with the 'inferred' pressure building each kick. Eventually the player will have to kick it to a contest and give up effective posession of the ball. At any stage of my previous scenario the player in defense with the ball could kick it long, but if the zone is working properly it will be to a contest which is the whole point. Now the attacking team either gets the ball back (turnover) or causes a stoppage (neutral contest). The 3 ways I can think of that teams can get out of their defensive half from a kick in are; 1. Pinpoint passing with perfect skills (which theoretically shouldn't be possible with a well structured zone) 2. Kick to a big pack marking target 55ish out on the boundary line (Ben McEvoy for us when he is on song, I notice Freo use Sandi for this) 3. Long kick to the contest, ball is brough to ground, win the contested ball and spread. As you can see, none of these 3 options are guaranteed to come off which is perfect for the attacking team. It's also one of the reasons you hear coaches always talking about the contested ball stat. Here's the link to the Big Footy post https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/explain-the-forward-press-to-me.839514/page-2

The kick to handball number and ratio today are roughly the same as the Bulldogs on Friday night so it is not as though the number in itself is a problem. Clearly though we are inept at using handball to release a player and in fact tend towards the opposite result of handballing to a player in a worse position. This is clearly a coaching issue which should have been rectified weeks if not months ago.

Why do we continually not get real benefits from ruck dominance? It is not a new failing.... perhaps ruckmen really are the dinosaurs of the modern AFL game

Not sure if posted earlier but in interview of the Bulldogs coach on 3AW tonight they mentioned the the CAS decision is due in the next two weeks. The comment was made in the context of the possibility of Crameri playing for the Bulldogs in the remaining rounds. Will be interested to read the decision when handed down. The last one did not exactly reflect the norm in Australian jurisprudence no matter how many might agree with the outcome. But the players have to understand that in this area they are "no longer in Kansas Toto".

Love him .... hate him or even secretly jealous that he does not play for the MFC, as a football supporter I must say well done to Boomer Harvey for breaking the all time playing record. This is an achievement that we may never see repeated who knows. My admiration is for a player who has managed to maintain a spot among the game's elite during a time of great change in tempo, playing style and tactics. Well done Boomer !

I see there has been talk of scrapping the development league. The VFL comp structure certainly needs some work if it is to remain viable http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/localfooty/sandringham-gm-calls-for-afl-vic-to-keep-development-league/news-story/253b72167eba31709ed9c6b8310a58d4