Ted Lasso

Kozzie Pickett could absolutely light up the big stage as well. It's hard to imagine a way Petracca doesn't lift in a grand final. he could win the Norm Smith by a mile

Tom McDonald. all the focus will be on Brown, Fritsch, Kozzie and Gawn/Jackson. Tmac is going to get a lesser opponent, and i see him having 25 and kicking 2-3 goals

Reckon he's re-negotiated his wage, and it's all to help us bring in Cerra and maybe others

I remember there being a few years where the brownlow winner was on the losing team, i think in 05,06 Cousins and Goodes won and played in losing teams, i might be wrong but i remember reading it was a bit of an omen

Yeah the thing is though, we have played 1 match is 28 days, where as the dogs have travelled to Tasmania, brisbane, adelaide, perth and played several games in the last 5 weeks, so we are undoubtedly going to have much more run in our legs. it's just going to be a question of reflexes and being "match fit" and after belting the cats by 83 points, i'd say we are fine. if dogs are skipping a practice match, to me the only conclusion is they know they're banged up and unless they can get some rest in they'd know we're going to be running a lot better than they are.

Dogs not playing a practice game is a huge mistake in my opinion. i think that's pretty common place in finals byes to have a pretty intense match sim in between, Hawthorn, Richmond and co have all done it, bit of a risk by the dogs to help a few sore/underdone players i'd say.

I reckon Bontempelli wins it, which might be a good omen because from memory when the Brownlow winner has come from a GF team, that team hasn't general won the game

This has got to be the biggest beat up ever. the facility is 30 minutes from the CBD, meaning they've got plenty of time to go out and grab dinner or whatever they want to do, no doubt the club isn't going to lash them if they're 10 minutes late. but i think it's a good rule in general, prevent the young guys from having a sesh or anything stupid.

Fair enough, could have another 2-3 good years in him at another club. sounds like a win-win. might be the experience the Suns are looking for

I think this is the play, Gold Coast Currently have pick 19, If it were me i'd be attempting to Bundle up Sam and Pick 34 for that pick, and then attempting to engage Richmond on a swap of our 2022 first round pick, and a pick upgrade for them, for their second first rounder pick 16. The temptation for the Tigers would be if we have a premiership hangover they could get a much better pick next year, but worst case they should get an equal return on investment for that pick, plus an upgrade. Pick 16 and 19 in my opinion is a good starting point for a deal to bring in Cerra. so effectively 2022 first rounder, 34 and Weideman for Cerra

for us to get the deal done i'd be looking at the Gold Coast, they've stated they're open to trading good picks for established AFL players, if we had a couple looking for opportunity there may be a chance there, but that's how i'd see that deal getting done, unless someone else left and we bundled picks into a first rounder for Freo

Geez i bet Bailey Fritsch is being nice to Goody after 2018 haha

Round 19 was a really interesting game for us imo, i think we did a few things that would probably qualify as experimental, i guess you can be a bit like that in the position we were in. I am really torn on Libba because while i think all their centre work starts with him, Viney, Oliver and Petracca are in such good form i'd be really tempted to back them in. I suspect you're right and we will attempt to put on extreme pressure to blunt the effectiveness of Dale/Daniel, but i also think a key is going to be Spargo/Neal-Bullen being offensively potent and making them defend.

My Norm smith tip is Tom McDonald, i think all the defensive focus will be on Brown, Fritsch and Kozzie, Tmac will get a lesser match up and i see him kicking 2-3 and having 20 odd touches and a bunch of marks and providing a great link for us.

To add to this, i don't think we can underestimate the role Angus Brayshaw has played on the wing as a result, i'd suggest he will feature quite highly in the Bluey for his team first defensive wing role, he works his backside off helping offensive transition, but is always back helping out the defenders as well, rarely lets his opponent influence the game. Issac has had a great year for the cats, and i doubt even Simon Goodwin thought we'd have been beating the cats in a prelim at the start of the year

Issac is a great bloke! and i think he was genuinely considering coming to the Dees but at that stage it would have been 2 years knowing he'd be having a crack at a flag vs 2 years of maybe scraping into finals if he was lucky. I also think Geelong the town was a pretty big factor in his call. Nice to hear from a bloke who's won a few flags that he thinks we're in a strong position though

I'd imagine Weid gets offered a contract no matter what, and Mitch Brown goes off the list, and Gunston hopefully signs on

Oh phew, i was worried it might have been someone who had some idea what they were talking about. noone really knows who has an advantage with the current layout, much less 4 never played football journo's :)

for me if you look at the midfields and forward lines, i see them as being pretty even, but ruck and backline we have a clear advantage, we're probably stronger at the contest and they're probably a bit more classy on the outside. for me it's going to be really simple, win the contest, deny them the outside time and space with pressure, and take our chances, we should be too strong. Max Gawn plays anything like he did against the Cats and it won't matter what they do

Smith has been spending a lot of time between wing/half forward. so i imagine a change over would occur there, but he needs to be tightly checked because without him, they don't make it past the semi final this year. he's been huge.

Doggies supporters

Dogs looking at up to 3 changes to their team, the incredible thing is the amount of players used, and changes made and they haven't suffered with any real lack of chemistry. to me it speaks to elite allignment between AFL and VFL. It's hard to imagine the Doggies won't hit a bit of a wall as this goes on given all the travel they've had to do in the last 5-6 weeks

I agree, i think given Smiths age, Harmes could all but stop any influence he's likely to have on the game, and given he was the match winner against the Lions and probably been the player of the finals, that's a huge win. in terms of the rest of the mids, i'd love to see us go head to head. back ourselves in to beat theme

2 weeks out and i feel like it's 10 minutes before the game starts. going to be a long 2 weeks.

they're not all off their faces on drugs 99% of the time, and compared to a lot of teams that's a good effort. if we were playing Port... my goodness..