I had the wrong Hollands out, E not O For some reason, I thought Newman was suspended but its been brought to my attention he is available so he needs to come in also.
Newey’s suspension is up but he has only played limited minutes in two VFL practice games. I suspect that he will be underdone.
Just on the mark paid to Lalor after Young was taken out of the contest by an unrealistic attempt; the umpire explained his decision not to give Young a free as "I thought he touched the ball". Yes, the ball was touched and therefore not a mark to Lalor ... and it was an unrealistic attempt regardless of whether the ball was touched.
The other howler was the free against Young for blocking Lynch in the marking contest. Young had front position and is entitled to stand his ground. Kemp would have still taken the mark if Young had stepped aside and allowed Lynch through.
Thought Chesser was very ordinary with his disposal but Ollie Florent was even worse with nine turnovers and I can see why Cox had him in the twos. When your only job is to distribute the ball he has to do better than nearly a 40 % turnover rate especially with zero tackles. FWIW I'd suggest Acres will replace Chesser for the next game..
Nine turnovers! That's in the Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, Nick Daicos, Jordan Dawson, Bailey Smith, Chad Warner, Max Holmes and Matt Kennedy realm.
But then, with all footy stats, the devil is in the detail. Of those nine turnovers, four were giveaways or clangers where a skill error or mistake gave the opposition possession. Two of those were free kicks; the Steely Green dive and the Maurice Rioli run down tackle. The other five turnovers were takeaways where a kick down the line to a contest resulted in a Richmond ball, and in all of those instances, Florent had no other option. Florent's disposal efficiency was 83.3%; that's 20 effective disposals out of 24 and our fifth best on the night. His kicking efficiency for the season is 70.6%, up from 62.9% last season.
On the positive side, Florent had 606 metres gained and our next best was Sam Walsh with 480 metres. Ollie also had seven rebound 50s, three intercepts and two score involvements, so not a bad day at the office.
Chesser beat his opponent comfortably, even though he was the beneficiary of several Richmond chains of possession. Acres is a different kettle of fish altogether though and, if fit, he has to get priority over Chesser.
Zac Williams was good in defence and when he went forward. No midfield minutes this week but Vossy must be rapt to have such a versatile player.
Lewis Young was crucified by the umpires but took some crucial marks and made some critical spoils. It was good to see him throwing his weight around and supporting his teammates.
Mitch McGovern was good as a forward and when he went back. His work as a forward probably set up or win and his work in defence helped save the game.
Matt Carroll continued on from where he left off last season and any question marks over his selection were answered in full.
Campbell Chesser was probably the least impressive of the whipping boys but still had a decent game.
John Hammond passed away on Saturday at 83 years of age.
John was a prolific Blues guitarist and singer and one of my favourite musicians. I discovered him quite late when he came on Derek Guille's program on ABC radio. He struck me as a humble man with an encyclopedic knowledge of the Blues and Blues musicians. His father, also John Hammond, was a talent scout and record producer and John jnr grew up in the company of many of the Blues greats.
George Thorogood's tribute to John probably sums him up perfectly:
"For more than 50 years, John Hammond Jr. was an icon, a professional role model and, most importantly, a friend. While we mourn his passing, we celebrate what the man and his music meant to us, and to so many.”
My favourite John Hammond album is Wicked Grin, his 28th studio album and a compilation of Tom Waits tracks.
There is a lot of argy bargy about winning and losing this game.
Reality is the media have been predicting our loss since trade week, before the draw was even out or the lists were even settled! In recent history if we lose they'll say "I told you so", if we win it will be "An upset for the ages" or "A game the Swans lost!", most will never claim Carlton deserved the win!
Yes the media have done quite well setting this up so they can't fail.
It's always a big ask playing the Swans in Sydney and even more so when there's so many newbies in the team. I think that that will work in our favour and we'll continue on from where we left off in the practice matches; another score of around 15 goals and a comfortable if hard fought win.
Surely the main plan is to get Epstein off the front pages again.....
He'll run out of targets soon enough.
The problem is that the US has run out of munitions. Despite Taco's protestations to the contrary, they've used almost everything they've got and they're hoping that a round table with arms manufacturers will boost production. They're also hoping that allies will come to the party but Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Poland and Spain have made it clear that it's an illegal war and they won't get involved.
We've gone with three KPDs, two KPFs (one a little on the small side) and two rucks and Sydney has three KPDs, three KPFs and one ruck. I guess Cripps gives us an extra tall if he rests forward.
It would be interesting to see the average heights of the two teams. I suspect that Sydney would be taller.
