I think your recall may be faulty, Kruddler. I'd prefer a top heavy team over a vertically-challenged team, provided that the big lads can play footy.
Was it not you who was saying we didn't need anymore talls because the number on our list was the same as the number on other lists??
Yes, but that was before we lost four talls and got only one back. However, my position has always been that there's no point adding talls if they can't play.
I'm a firm believer in the "a good big man will always beat a good little man" adage but with "good" being the operative word.
I wonder if the club has thought of getting Poppy Scholz to work with Brodie Kemp on his kicking for goal. She has a relaxed, no nonsense routine and kicks through the ball really well.
In fact, the field and goal kicking in the AFLW seems to have gone up a notch this season, particularly with the distance the girls are now kicking.
It's not lost on me, that only a short while ago when we had Lemmey and a couple of others, a lot of fans complained the list was top heavy. At the time fans were content with Harry and Charlie with Pitto on hand and TDK coming into contention, and most were busy screaming for more midfield depth.
Now we have a midfield bonanza, at least at the moment, TDK and Charlie have buggered off, and all of a sudden it's list mismanagement!
Some navigate list management like Captain Jack Sparrow's crazy compass, always pointing to what you desire without showing you a direction!
Who was those fans that were complaining it was top heavy?
As best as i can recall, there was only 1 person who suggested as much and it was based purely on heights rather than ability to play the positions, and that was DJC.
Don't recall anyone else saying that.
I think your recall may be faulty, Kruddler. I'd prefer a top heavy team over a vertically-challenged team, provided that the big lads can play footy.
Good win by the girls and the six goal margin probably reflects the state of both teams.
Yasmin Duursma is really starting to realise her potential and did some nice things. I'm glad that we persevered with her.
The commentators mentioned that was our ninth consecutive win at Princes Park so we may be building a decent home ground advantage. I guess that means the AFL will shift the finals to another venue
Was Austins greatest failing that he couldn't find a couple of understudy KPF's and the reason why he was shown the door?
No, because as we know, our list management is determined by committee with the coach, head of football and CEO all involved and sharing responsibility for direction and decisions. Another couple of KPPs would be nice, but not if they're like Harry Lemmey or Josh Schache.
EB’s account was active recently. Lods and I weren’t sure whether that was because Lods accessed his email address but, account activity wasn’t logged when I accessed his email account.
There could be any number of explanations for that but I’m taking it as a positive 🤞
Whatever the situation, Brother Elwood is an important and well-respected member of the CSC family and I join with others in wishing him well.
In his presser after we beat Geelong in Rd 12, Scott was asked about our recent good record against the Cats. He denied being aware that we had won three of the four previous games and dismissed the question as irrelevant. In his pre-game presser, Scott spent quite a bit of time discussing our recent good form against them. He quite rightly made the point that our win in 2023 was irrelevant but conceded that Rd 12 was relevant, although both teams were playing better now.
All in all, it was a fairly open and wide ranging presser and very different to when he's sooking after a loss
We lost a lot of Flexibility with Haynes. He was tall enough to pinch hit if we ended up having to shuffle the magnets and release a tall to another role. He was genuinely able to play on a wing as well with good aerobic capacity.
From the remainders, if we had to choose a bit of a tweener type, it would have been Ison.
Emergencies list Boyd, Ison and Reiddy. Boyd wouldnt be a bad selection. Has played finals, is a running type, and has decent capability with ball in hand. Umpires seem to hate him though and he infringes a lot for borderline stuff. He has also been out of favour a bit.
The interchange lists Wilson, Hewett, Young, Evans and Cotters suggesting if the change were to occur and its a tall out, it would be Lewis Young.
Personally Young for Boyd is neither here nor there. We definately don't want Reiddy in. Ison is the one who probably would execute better in the conditions, and more capable of being a game winner.
One of our strengths is our versatility: Derksen, McGovern, Kemp and Young can all play forward or back. Dean, McGovern, Kemp and Cowan can all play on tall or small opponents - Cowan played on Cameron last time we met. Hollands, Cottrell, Cerra and Wilson can play forward, back or wing and Lord and Hewett can play inside mid or run with roles. Bringing in one of the emergencies would reduce our versatility if anything and I can't see that happening, unless it's a forced change. If so, I would opt for a like for like change rather than altering the balance we have now.
The forecast is for showers increasing from 4pm but with only 1-5mm expected from then until tomorrow morning. There's no sign of rain at our place (west of Melbourne) and the BOM radar shows light rain to the west of Ballarat. Unless we get a freak rain cell, I can't see the weather playing much part in the result.
Just on Byrner's "bad game" - it's hard to have an impact when you're sitting on the pine (do they still have pine benches?).
He did OK while he was on the ground, particularly with the pressure he applied.
Is your name Damian Truslove?? Can never bring yourself to say something remotely negative about someone.
Byrne dropped 3 chest marks. Had the fumbles. Pressure was up. Output not so much.
There was an article which rated all the players out of 10. Byrne was the lowest with a 4. Next lowest was a couple 5's i think. Lots of 8's and 9's.
I'm not holding it against him, i already said 1 bad game isn't an issue.....but it was a bad game.
For the record, he had 59% TOG, as did Young. Young had 1 more possession and the same amount of tackles, 1.
I don’t bag our players … and look at my signature 😇
Most of our players had the fumbles early on and, if you care to watch the replay, you’ll see that Byrner had more than one tackle and a couple of heavy bumps.
If it’s good enough for Josh Fraser to mention Byrner’s pressure, it’s good enough for me 🙂
Just on Byrner's "bad game" - it's hard to have an impact when you're sitting on the pine (do they still have pine benches?).
He did OK while he was on the ground, particularly with the pressure he applied.
We'll miss Haynes' reliability and cool head but Derker is a more than adequate replacement.
De Koning out for the Cats is unexpected but Blicavs probably provides more versatility. Sending Lewis Young forward might stretch Geelong's backs who will match up quite well with our smaller forward line. Hayward would have been handy but it is what it is.
Geelong has five players out with injury, one of whom, Max Holmes, is a test to play. Apart from Holmes, their most significant out is Rhys Stanley. Geelong has also lost Tyson Stengle who used to cause us headaches.
We have eight players out with injury, two of whom are inactive and have been replaced on our list, so effectively six players out. Two of those player, Nick Haynes and Wilbur Hayward, are tests to play. Both are important to our chances but aren't irreplaceable. Of the others, Matt Carroll and Nic Newman were best 23 when they were injured but I think that we have more than adequate replacements in the team now.
The six day break probably isn't ideal but our high performance staff know what they're doing and an extra day isn't going to make much difference. Geelong's week off could well be a negative 🤞
One of my mates used to get free tickets to TV Ringside (my second date with Ms DJC was an evening at TV Ringside - she was definitely a keeper!). Bouts between Tony Mundine and Kahu Mahunga were classic contests; Mundine was a clever boxer with a KO punch. Mahunga could absorb punishment and, if he hit you, you stayed hit.
I met Tony at a NAIDOC ball (I met Lynda Stoner that same night) and what I remember most is how soft his handshake was. Well, that’s not entirely true; I remember how humble he was and how willing he was to share his story with a white fella that he didn’t know from a bar of soap.
Sadly, Tony’s achievements in the boxing ring, and as an advocate for his people, are overshadowed by some of the foolish comments by his son, Anthony.
