The decision to include Josh Schache as the sub after only two senior games this season appeared to backfire when the former Bulldog was not used, with Carlton sub Ollie Hollands making a significant impact with his outside run when he entered the game in the final quarter.
Fox Footy’s Garry Lyon described the call as “curious” while Jordan Lewis suggested Schache had potentially been included as injury cover for Max Gawn.
Goodwin confirmed as much post-game, telling reporters his inclusion had been necessary to cover for Gawn, who he confirmed had broken his big toe in the qualifying final.
“(Gawn) was never in doubt, he trained fully, but when you take one ruckman in … he had a broken big toe, but it was something he trained with all week and played with tonight,” he said.
“We just needed some coverage with our talls to make sure we could get through the game.”
The coach said he would meet with Brodie Grundy next week for a “really good conversation” about his impending departure from the club, while he said the Demons would again look at attracting players from other clubs to improve their list.
Gotta love Goodwin and his off the beam selection ideas, thanks Simon, enjoy the off-season now.
Daniher & Hipwood are spuds who tend to be 'conditional' players in that they pick & choose when or if they want to seriously compete, put the clamps on them and the Lions are going to rely on Cameron & Bailey to score heavily.
Even though I thought he was poor the other week, I'm certain McKay will come straight back in to further stretch the Lions shortish backline. This should give Curnow some extra freedom too.
In the middle of the ground is where the game will be won & lost. They have some terrific mids who hurt you by foot plus they bob up to kick goals as well. Keep them under some tight shackles and it will go a long way towards winning the match.
A small bonus is that we played on Friday night and this week's game is on Saturday which gives our players, who must be sore & tiring, an extra day to freshen up. I accept that it is only a small tenure but it may be telling in the end. Have a look at the Giants, they have been given the opposite schedule (Sat-Fri) so we should be thankful of how it has panned out.
We had a lot of players who were rather poor the other night, if they extract the digit and at worst, break even with their opponent, we area big chance this week.
Tackle hard, chase hard and never ever give up (i.e. second & third efforts), if you want it hard enough, you will get it !!
What a great time for my computer to have a malfunction and have no internet access, finally got back online this morning.
I'm still at a loss to understand how we pinched it but I'm bloody ecstatic we did, my heart specialist was on speed dial for those last 5-7mins.
Acres grubber goal from the square nearly hit the post, he should have run in closer so he didn't give me such a big scare.
Anyways, Pickett should be reported twice and given suspensions for both, dirty little screwing sniper !!
Melbourne tried to bash us into submission early, they were as physical as they could be plus where possible, attacked our players who were carrying niggles. Twice they grabbed or pushed on Acre's dodgy shoulder and Cripps got a few whacks across the kidneys & ribs too.
Weitering was in the horrors early but lifted his game immensely after 1/4 time.
Curnow was double-teamed, scragged & unfairly held or blocked for the vast majority of the game yet received no free kicks from the umpires, it was extremely frustrating to watch. I felt he had given up in the last quarter, his head had dropped, there were no second efforts and his facial expressions were that of a beaten man. He needs a big lift next week and hopefully kick a bag.
Probably TDK's best game for the club, kicked accurately too which totally surprised me.
Just hope our players aren't too physically wrecked after that game and the Lions, with the benefit of the week's rest, are able to run all over us.
I need to see a heart specialist after that, thought we were going to choke.
And of all the people to take two match-saving marks deep in defence ........ one of my whipping boys Jack Martin. He''ll get 2-weeks for belting Blakey though.
So many uncharacteristic actions tonight, a lot of the things we have done over the past couple of months seem to go out the door tonight.
McKay was really horrible, just so out of sorts, that concussion may be a blessing in disguise anyway.
Can't serve up that sort of crap next week against the Dees, they will walk all over us if we do. They are ripe for the picking if we want it bad enough.
Really hope that tonight's game style (or lack of it) was just a one-off blip due to finals nerves after not being there for 10-years and we return to that confident style that got us there.
Everything says we should win and win well but the massive media microscope on the players coupled with the onslaught of platitudes make me wonder if their heads may be way too inflated to do the job.
IMO, our biggest opponent is actually ourselves, if our players think this game is in the bag before it has even been played, then the Swans are the sort of team that will make us pay for that.
Hope I'm wrong & Voss has been drilling them all week about how much work is needed to win a final.
Did we put the cue in the rack or did they just have way more to play for ??
Some of the lesser lights were quite poor tonight, in particular Durdin who fumbled badly under pressure.
Was truly hoping to go into the finals on a high, we showed in the first quarter that we were there for the contest but as soon as Curnow got in front on the Coleman we packed up shop.
As a Blues fan, we should be use to listening to and watching broadcasts where the bulk of the commentary is against us, anyone who watched the launch of the new book documenting the 70s would confirm that when the media took Balme's perspective over Southby, ask @ElwoodBlues1 and @Lods what they think of Balme! ;o
Don't start me on Balme !!!
He is obviously a very good adminstrator in his later years but he was one of the dirtiest pricks to ever play the game in the 70's. When he took out Big Nick every Carlton fan went nuts, they nearly jumped the fence when he cleaned up Southby. I was a young lad back then but it was incidents like those that truly galvanised the Cartlon throng and turned them into a major force who insisted we win mega premierships as a payback.
TDK drops way too many marks at crucial points in a match, some of them uncontested too. If he can't fix that problem in his game and quickly, then he is a huge liability and waste of time.
