The MCG was a fortress for us for a little while and Docklands was an achilles heel. It seems thats flipped around. Problem is, finals arent played at Marvel (see Syd and the SCG).
The problem is no home ground advantage.
To finish top 4 you have to win as many games as you can.
We haven't finished the home and away season top 4 since we left Princes Park. The Bombers barring 2000/2001 when they were already a powerhouse might be the same.
I get the sentiment of this, but there are 2 problems with this.
1. That was not Geelongs home ground, it was more of ours. 2. Every game we play (except maybe Collingwood??) our crowd is louder by comparison, so we make it a home crowd at least.
I think we went in with our best balanced team. That was until we saw the weather forecast. In the end, Young was not needed and we needed an extra small. Wet conditions, marking is more difficult, ball spend more time on the ground, you need more smalls to adapt.
I think the weather exposed our game plan.
I think it exposed our forwards as not good enough.
I think the poor performers from last week were the same this week. Young, Byrne, gov, Kemp.
We missed Hayward.
We missed Haynes. Derkson was not up to same level. We got exposed when Harry Dean went off.
Happy with the balance. Definitely needed Young in the side.
Hayward needed to be 100% fit to come in with the way we need him to play, so good call there. Also difficult finding someone to drop....Byrne would be my guess based on last week alone, but overall he's performed well and everyone is allowed 1 bad game.
Ollie hollands didn't deserve to be dropped after his last game.....nor did anyone else.
All this is just deflection from the original point. That is, the AFL stuffed up by not playing this game on a saturday as they would get more people there. No. No they did not.
MCC reserved tickets and guest passes sold out today.
No public tickets left.
You mean reserved seating and reserved seat passes.
GA unreserved seating and all standing room only go on sale tomorrow at 9am.
Cmon fonzy, ypu can do it.... Wr..wro.....wron.....
PUBLIC RESERVE: General Public tickets for the 2026 Toyota AFL Finals Series match, First Elimination Final – Geelong Cats v Carlton on Friday, 4 September at the MCG are now sold out.
No update on Newman since 4/8, but that said 6-7 weeks, so you'd think he's still 2-3 weeks away.
i love newman, but I reckon father timr might be calling. 34 in January hasn't played much footy last 2 seasons isnt a good combo.
Yep.
Newy and Saad moved on at years end. Ollie Florent takes one spot. More time for Billy and Jeff (when his knee is right)......maybe even Ollie Hollands to take the other.
....with potentially Charleson if he doesn't get delisted as well.
Anyone seen the list of restricted items and bag rules for the NRL (Gridiron) game? Very restricted, no food or drink, no solid drink bottles, must be soft plastic and empty. No ipads, binoculars (unless small). Bags of only a small size and must be clear. Etc etc Bring in rules like this to AFL games and i hand in my membership I think.
NRL is rugby.
Gridiron is the NFL.
re ipads and binoculars.....thats because they can be used to help teams on the ground. Teams have ipads, but for pictures only, no video allowed. Showing video of how a play was run, and being able to 'draw' on the screen to illustrate such things is a valuable learning tool for teams. The binoculars is probably due to 'sign stealing' and lip reading. There's a good doco on why this is a thing and how it helps teams by 'cheating' and reading opposition plays.
You'll notice coaches calling plays to the QB via a headset, when he does so, he covers his mouth with the play card so you can't read his lips.....because people are 100% trying.
As for the food, drink and bags......not sure if thats an NFL thing, or if its a terrorist thing. I didn't have those problems when i saw NFL matches in the US. Who knows.
