Ted Lasso

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

I reckon it might do the opposite Dazzle, they were 44 points up on us, on their home deck where they hardly ever lose and still couldn't beat us. they'd have to be wondering what chance they are away from home. also they'd have to be aware they're not getting an easy path out of centre bounce goal side this game, we had one eye on finals and probably only played Dees footy for 1 quarter

I reckon the 18 prelim will fuel the boys in a big way, i reckon not only do we win, but i think in the first quarter we make a big statement and grab a decent lead

People also speak as though Port being our GF opponent is a sue thing, i don't agree that it is. the Dogs and Lions are both good enough to beat Port at Adelaide, the Cats were putrid in the QF and the Power have a disgusting record against anyone good. I think there is a very good chance the Dogs will be playing in the Grand Final

How many blokes can Mummy injury in 4 quarters? surely if Geelong win, they'll have to quite literally limp through

I've got this really strong feeling the Giants are going to cause a massive boil over here. i've had it all week. noone expects them to win so they'll just go for it, and the cats are under all the pressure in the world, the Giants pressure, combined with external pressure could easily break the cats