Dee Zephyr

Richmond constantly allowed the Pies to chip the ball around half back. From the TV, the Tigers has 5-6 players in a line in the middle going across the ground and seemed happy to allow the Pies to methodically move the ball from one side of the ground to the other hoping eventually it would be turned over up the field and rebound. It felt like I was watching the round ball where a team parks the bus and waits for a counter. A poster here a while back started a thread about a basketball team that plays a full on press all game for good results. Richmond rarely pressured the controlled slow Collingwood ball movement out of defence. FWIW Hawthorn just about lost all the stats last week, possessions -73, contested -18 and uncontested - 64, inside 50s yet walked away with a 32 point win in Adelaide. Probably a bit early to determine whether the zone defence is dead, but a good talking point nonetheless.

After the initial fall, Jumping Jack kept grabbing at his wrist just about after every other contest he was involved in for the rest of the game. The guy was in obvious discomfort yet he stayed out there for the majority. Was this a similar case to our J Smith in a sense it couldn’t get any worse or they simply didn’t have a clue it was that bad?

Does Grimes get a week for the high hit on Elliott? Or, nothing to see here because Elliott is a tough cookie and got up straight away.

Big effort needed by the Tigers in the last. GWS away and Port away the next two. Could they go 1-3?

Costly banana Dusty.

Surprising to hear, good luck young man. I’m guessing Spargo out.

Interesting to see how Toiges go without Rance and Houli. I’m thinking Pies will win, just. Let’s see if Cox replicates his prelim heroics.

Bloody Watts playing the goalkeeper, why don’t we ever use a sweeper? Unlucky Sparrow, kick nearly carried.

When things are quiet, Ben Guthrie is our reporter and tweeting the players are doing a bit of top up conditioning work at the end of training. He also said Viney out there with no strapping on knee but still not 100%.

To all reporters, has Viney watch commenced?

Personally, I wouldn’t omit Hunt. To me it looked like Hunt was designated a negating role on Motlop in the back half and did well in that regard. I could be wrong, but he went to Motlop numerous times whereas our other defenders seemed to be chasing the nearest Port forward. We all long for Hunt to show the dash of 2016-17 but maybe he was instructed to play a defensive role last Saturday.

Nothing to see here folks. For all the talk about off-the-ball incidents I read no actual changes have been made to the way the Match Review interpret them. Is this correct? The clampdown on intentional punches is meant to come from the umpires by paying free kicks for behind the play hits hence the league coming out and saying the nearest ump to Cunnington was at fault for not spotting the punch. A free kick is a greater deterrent than a measly fine as per coaches suggestions for these types of hits. When does an actual suspension enter the equation as the biggest deterrent?

Will we beat Geelong though?

I’m almost convinced journos read Demonland to get their info. It’s possible someone was sent down there, but with no coverage of the Casey game at all from either Casey or the MFC on social media the ‘Around the state leagues’ report is identical to what our posters provided. Preuss - Good in the ruck winning his fair share of stoppages, but Pittonet had his measure around the ground. Keilty - His marking was a highlight. KK- Got plenty of the ball. Stretch - Was impressive.

Hopefully it was precautionary LH, although the AFL site is reporting he will miss at least two more weeks with the hamstring injury. Regardless what people think of Lewis, he would have been handy on the weekend with his voice. One captain spent a substantial amount of time on the bench and a vice-captain was getting pounded behind the play.

Get well soon Macca.

Poor Dom, he would want to see the back of Optus stadium rapidly. 148 point combined losing margin in his last two games. Good to see Ben Brown get looked after at least, 6 frees for 0 against.

Unless May couldn’t physically play, why weren’t we allowed to use May at Casey today? There’s probably a simple answer, but Gaff was allowed to play AFLX and JLT this year.

Freo on 75 points with 42 inside 50s at half time. Way to go Ross.

Not much going on overnight, I’ll put something up anyway. Euro Qualifiers Monday at 06:45 Netherlands v Germany - Draw $3.40

That’s what stood out to me numerous times. Our two tall forwards would push up the ground and even when they marked the ball it was someone like a Harmes sprinting into our forward 50 to create an option in between 3 Port defenders. Our defensive transition yesterday was nonexistent, it was no fluke we looked really good last year during our six game winning streak when Lever was hitting his straps playing alongside Lewis as generals. We lacked that yesterday. Wagner was ok on debut but at times he looked confused at to where he should set up when Port where attacking from the back. No fault of his own, first game and all that in a new system. Just putting it down to a really bad day as evidenced by one of our 666 set ups in the last quarter when it looked like we started with 5 in the back to allow Gray to have a coffee, read the paper and mark the ball inside 50 straight from a Port center clearance with our nearest defender in the next post code. Massive task next week but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we pull it off, hoping anyway.

I don’t know Werridee, is there such a position anymore? A few times today I saw T Mac and Weid lead up to the middle/half back for marks. When we won the ball off the pack we would go forward quick and suddenly realise we had no one to kick to especially in the last quarter. Imo, I’d have Trac deep and isolated as much as possible.

Again, unless we’ve been told a big fat lie, Smith is out for 4-6 weeks WERRIDEE.

Oh oh , Thor has lost his hammer.

Solid debut, was still having a massive crack well into the last quarter. The two times we looked like scoring in the last was when the ball was in his hands. Shame his kick didn’t carry another metre for a goal after the Jones dropped mark.