Finals week one

[Hotpotato]

Swans
Melbourne for Neale Daniher
GWS
West Coast
Richmond
NOT PIES
NOT HAWKS

[stevoswan]

Maybe not a popular view but if we don't make it I would like to see Melb win.
Out of the remaining teams my order of preference to win would be SWANS, Melb, Rich, West Coast, Collingwood (yuck) GWS, Hawthorn.
If Melb make it to the GF heaven help their opposition. Another fairytale coming up.

All these fairytale finishes are good for the competition, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

As long as they're fair results......but the reality is probably more along the lines of 'as long as Victoria is happy'. So they're maybe good only for Victorian interests. The only chance of a 'fairytale' interstate winner would be if the Suns came good and threatened in the finals......ie: no chance.

[dejavoodoo44]

The Melbourne “narrative” is building a head of steam. Would NOT want to take them on in a GF

But we are related via Roosy

Yes, the main reason that I'm going, 'Melbourne, if not us', is that I'm a big Roos fan and he was instrumental in getting them back to being a real club.

[Mel_C]

OK , ta.
The panel reckoned it was some emergency ump sitting in the ‘dugout’.

I was listening to Triple M at the game and they said that the emergency umpire warned the umpires on the ground to watch the 2 players coming off the ground. So the non officiating umpire saw the incident and paid the free.

Unless the incident is something major I'm not a fan of reversing free kicks and penalising the side with the ball, especially when it's the player that retaliates that is caught. Perfect example is Buddy v Rance earlier this year. Funnily enough it was the same umpire Findlay that paid the free even though he could see that Rance had his forearm in Buddy's throat!

[stevoswan]

I was listening to Triple M at the game and they said that the emergency umpire warned the umpires on the ground to watch the 2 players coming off the ground. So the non officiating umpire saw the incident and paid the free.

Unless the incident is something major I'm not a fan of reversing free kicks and penalising the side with the ball, especially when it's the player that retaliates that is caught. Perfect example is Buddy v Rance earlier this year. Funnily enough it was the same umpire Findlay that paid the free even though he could see that Rance had his forearm in Buddy's throat!

Sounds like he's trying to 'raise his profile'...... Another deluded umpire who thinks the game is all about them.

[KSAS]

Coming into the finals a lot of the teams got players back who had been missing long time due to injury. We still had Reid, Smith, Mills, Melican & Naismith missing from our best 22 (could also inlude AJ). Glad Horse made mention of it in his post match presser. May've not made any difference to the way played yesterday, but it is still significant with our structure setup.

[Markwebbos]

Clarko made that comment about systems winning not tactics. But it seems like only our defence, if anything, works as a system, where a player can go out and be replaced with a similar player playing a similar role.

Maybe it’s that we lack depth everywhere but defence. And even then we’d struggle to replace Smith, Rampe or Lloyd.

Our midfield and forward line seem to depend entirely on a small number of key players - Buddy, (Reid), Parker, Kennedy, Hanners etc. if they are injured or negated we struggle as we don’t have others to step up.

In that sense I think we are much more like a player driven team such as Geelong, than a system driven one like Richmond or Hawthorn.

I would put our loss of form down to the absence of 2 players - Reid and Hanners (with not one mature tall forward available. With Hanners I mean the absence of form).

We haven’t had anyone and still do not have anyone able to replace them. Nor have we changed our game style to compensate.

[RogueSwan]

...

I would put our loss of form down to the absence of 2 players - Reid and Hanners (with not one mature tall forward available. With Hanners I mean the absence of form).

...

Towers?

[YvonneH]

Towers?

What happened to Towers after his eye injury?
He wasn't seen again, but before that I thought he was playing OK.

[barry]

If Towers is not injured, then you would think his career is up, because if he couldnt get a game as 2nd forward, pinch hitting ruckman in our current team, he never will.
He is un-signed I think, so may not be here next year.