Ted Lasso

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..

Shame Nathan Jones couldn't be there to do it.

I'll go on some sort of tirade on social media calling supporters of opposition teams every name in the book. and then probably head to bitters basement, as per the usual end of season arrangement.

Ruck is going to be a huge concern for them, Gawn will monster English at the contest, and Martin might be a better match up at the contest but unsure if he's going to be able to go with him around the ground. I see some really clear advantages for us in this game. if our pressure is up we should be REALLY hard to beat. But i am more nervous about the dogs than i would have been port. i'd back us to beat Port 8/10

I'd be sending James Harmes straight to Bailey Smith. he's been the match winner the last 2 games. if you can at least prevent him from kicking goals, you go a long way to blunting the dogs.

Gee wiz you wouldn't wanna be a port or Doggies player in the GF, Jack is going to be cracking in like a madman

Not getting a medal on the day doesn't mean this wouldn't be Nathan Jones's potential premiership, and i'm sure they're saying that behind the scenes as well, we wouldn't be here without him, and seeing the team he played a huge role in saving win a flag is a great way for Nathan Jones to finish his career in my opinion. But we have to win, and if Nathan Jones was best 23, he'd in in the team now, I'm just about certain Steven May will play, and there won't be any changes to the team.

Geez the nerves have kicked in this morning! How bloody good would it be to send the Geelong aged care facility packing, short of another grand final, and head into ours in form, with momentum. I do genuinely feel the winner of tonights game will be premier, port are too flakey against good teams, and the dogs are too banged up.

I'm really interested in the reported pursuit of Adam Cerra for a few reasons, 1. we wouldn't make an approach if we didn't realisitically think we could get a deal done 2. what role is he going to play? is the intention for him to play on the opposite wing to Langdon? It seems to me that our 2022 first round pick, pick 36 and a fringe player or pick swap could be a reletively okay deal, but Freo will push hard for Jackson or Rivers to be included

Pretty good short term replacement for Cerra as well for Freo so a bit of a win for them, Brisbane should get at least a top 10 pick in return, had this happened a week earlier they might have had a chat to Matt Crouch to see if he was keen to move North

Absolutely, and with no Tom Stewart down there i think we could get some significant mismatches in our forward line, Selwood and Danger won't be keen to chase Oliver and Petracca deep forward and defend, so we just have to run the cats off their legs. i think you're right we'll spread and really make them run early, because they will run out of steam, they'd be nervous if they're not 5-6 goals up at 3/4 time because we're a strong finishing time, and i expect they might struggle late in quarters, and towards the games end just due to travel, playing the extra week, their age, and us being fresh. for me it seems that their best chance to win is for us to be a bit off, and them to really really punish us for whatever window we give them. BUT if they can be 44 points up on us, at their home deck and still lose, that's got to dint their confidence a little bit

I think our big advantage on reflection is going to be the open spaces of Optus, Geelong do seem a little bit banged up, and have had to come the hard way with an older list. if we can make the ground as big as possible and guys like Langdon, ANB and co make them chase us all day they may really struggle. they'll probably need us to be a little bit off in order to win

I can't really imagine a way that our pressure won't be immense, so with that in mind, it's quite hard to see a way the Cats can really get the game on their terms. so i think they'll be wanting to keep the game as close as possible