Rossmillan

Barring Jake Lever, all our key defensive stocks are 30+.  Let’s face it Jake Lever is almost with them.

It makes sense for us to make changes that are in the right age profile where possible in an incremental way.  Rather than us losing 2 or 3 in one hit.

Seems like the right type of player to me.  I’d rather take a known quantity in the key defensive posts than risking drafting for one given our current age demographic in this area.

Some people have the funniest jobs

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-23/afl-mullet-count-data-analysis/103850072

Analysing footy mullets now I have seen everything

5 hours ago, Dee*ceiving said:

I think the four day work week is already available to a sustantial portion of workers.

Many workplaces would be open to an employee working 4 days with a 20% reduction in pay or no reduction if outcomes are measurable to the degree that 100% output is confirmed/maintained. 

A sole trader/self employed individual could simply choose to only work 4 days. 

The potential/likely income reduction and the percieved loss of opportunity for promotion are sticky points.

Where do I sign up to this 4 day work week ?

This is an interesting read:

https://chewthestat.com/freekickeveryone-a-study-of-the-free-kick-count-as-the-football-fans-favourite-scapegoat/
 

Im just curious, out of the 11 free kicks paid to Carlton in the first quarter, which ones didn’t you like?

Or conversely is there some we should of gotten but didn’t?

Or is it a combination of both?

Viney, the desperation, to keep us in it, just Brilliant.  
 

just one of those nights where we things didn’t go our way.

Time for some payback for last years final

9 hours ago, binman said:

Not sure about the uncontested mark stat  I'll check.

But we used a very similar tactic against the dogs - ie using uncontested marks to control the tempo, frustrate the dog's ability to get into a rhythm and transition the ball from their back half.

In that game we had 141 marks (the second most under goody), in this game we had 117

And i suspect a high % were in the first half, as was the case against the Dogs.

I think that is part of a strategy to not let those teams settle into how they want the game to look.

There is an interesting parallel between the dogs and cats.

Both teams are helmed by coaches that like to tactically mess with their opponents in terms of having specific strategies that disrupt opponents game plans and method. 

But in both games it was us who disrupted their method and refused to let them settle into their preferred method.

Scott reckon his players were off at the start.

Whilst he is right, the reason they were off is we never allowed them to settle into a rhythm because goody schooled scott (supposedly a tactical genius) tactically.

I hope the media point that out, but I won't hold my breath.

In addition to this, Steven May seemed to indicate in his post match on Fox footy, this tactic was to also fatigue the cats forwards, presumably by chasing us to defend.  Very clever in my view.

It would be interesting to see Jeremy Cameron tracker numbers, I wonder if his shanks at the end of the game can be attributed to extra running and fatigue.

Stevens Mays post match interview on Fox footy was quite enlightening.  He said when asked about the game plan in the first half that there was a strategy to take some uncontested marks and make them defend for longer to “take some energy out of their forwards”.

It definitely appears that our first half’s are geared towards tight contested footy, and then we unleash in the second half.

Are we simply grinding teams down?

8 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Most podcast players have a fast forward button. 

I like including the audience and rewarding them for helping us out with the feedback and giving them a shout out to feel included and see the podcast as an extension of this community that we have built together over a quarter of a century. 

For what it’s worth, I love that you guys include the audience, take questions from everyone and allow us all to feel connected to a community.  I think it’s one of the key reasons for the success of the pod and the site.

After we got 4-5 goals up, did we put the cue in the rack, slow the game down and manage the margin for the last quarter?  It just felt to me that coming off the 5 day break, we did what we needed to do, no more than that.   I feel there was more in the tank if we needed it, but we didn’t.  

How can players have long sleeves, I’m sweating it up

In case I don’t get to post again, good luck to Jack Viney in his 200th.

On a positive note, warm day, with no rain.

Those conditions should suit us

3 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

Take your family of four with no concessions, parking and snacks and booze and you'd be lucky to be under 400 bucks.

Sheesh 

There are 5 of us, $268, for one game of footy and we are in the cheapest seats you can buy to reserve a seat.  I really think that 15 and 16 year olds should be included in the family ticket.  

But when all is said and done, I will enjoy every minute of being there.  

1 hour ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Just got a seat for $75 to sit in the nose bleeds behind the goals at the river end.

Free for MFC members or $35 for the same seat Vs Adelaide in Gather Round 5 days later.

Stupid question, but what does a GA ticket cost at the G this year.  My tickets are also behind the goals at the river end for my family and in my opinion ticket prices are way too expensive in Adelaide.

2 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Webber, is it just semantics on words “cracked and fractured” or medically, are they quite different when discussing rib injuries?

Whatever, I see May missing both Adelaide games and then the Lions and with the bye, he would have a 5 week recovery.

That is the non medical assessment of course.

Non Medical but seems the most sensible to me as well.  There is a short turn around to the Adelaide game and then why not rest him for Brisbane coupled with the bye just to make sure.

Agree with the sentiments here, far too valuable a player to rush back.  We have the bye coming let’s give it as much time as needed.  
 

Whilst no one replaces May and Lever in terms of quality, we do have plenty of capable options in these positions and it shows how valuable swingmen like Petty and Tmac could be for us to get through this period, with Tomlinson in good form as well.

Binman said in the pregame thread:
Goody said before the season last year they planned to use the sub in two ways - tactically or as part of their load management strategy.

What is panels thoughts on using the sub as a load management strategy?

Personally I don’t like it, for the exact reason in this game you lose key players early in the Match.

Note I’m not suggesting it was used in this way for this Match because I don’t know if it was or wasn’t.  Marty Hore ended up being the best replacement given the circumstances!

6 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Not really pertaining to this thread but thought folks might be interested to know in advance. The players are training on Monday at Gosch’s then flying to Adelaide either Tues or Weds. They’re staying in Adelaide until after the gather round match, ie. not coming back to Melbourne for the five days in between round three and gather round. 

Thanks.  Any idea if there will be some training sessions for us SA based folk to attend?

My wife did tell me there was some sort of Gawn and Petracca event where you could pay to get merch signed on the Tuesday night in between games, but thats not my thing.

A few posters are talking about the sub like it is spare player you can use in a way that suits your management of players.

I see it as a player who needs to be fully fit in case we lose a player early in a game.  Break glass in case of emergency.  Preferably someone who can fill multiple roles, or the next best available player that can be shuffled into rotations.
 

I’m happy if the FD have decided Petty is fully fit to play him.  But it won’t be an allowable excuse that he’s underdone, if something happens requiring an early sub in my eyes.  Only they can know the risk they are taking.

Perhaps they see Petty at 75% is better than the alternatives.  As long as they don’t risk his long term prospects for the season, I’m AOK with that.

4 minutes ago, monoccular said:

Why to Collingwood get an away game at their 'home' ground when Saints' home is Docklands??

Apparently (well according to Eddie) it’s because when The AFL wanted to renegotiate the MCG contract to allow prelim finals to be held interstate, the MCG requested as compensation that it get the top drawing crowds during the home and away season.  Eddie did a deal at that point to guarantee 15 games for Collingwood at the MCG.

Came up in my YouTube feed this week, some podcast with Eddie and Bartel if you want to watch it.  But I’d recommend listening to the Demonland podcast twice if you have time :.)

My wife: Are you just sitting there smiling because Collingwood is losing

Me: Yep

13 hours ago, Rossmillan said:

Can any of the panel explain why Tomlinson was dropped?

Who was manning Jamara ugly Hagar during the match, it’s hard to see the match ups on tv.

Thanks for all the work on the pod guys!!!

Bloody autocorrect.  It wasn’t intentional to write Ugly, although that’s how it felt watching him play really well against us :.)

Ugle-Hagan is what I meant.

Can any of the panel explain why Tomlinson was dropped?

Who was manning Jamara ugly Hagar during the match, it’s hard to see the match ups on tv.

Thanks for all the work on the pod guys!!!

7 minutes ago, sue said:

I got the impression Fox didn't focus in on the cheer squad with their Gus helmets.   If so, why?  Yes, I'm probably paranoid.....

They did very early in the coverage show it and mentioned it.