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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL 2026 EF #1 Carlton vs Geelong Pre Game Prognostications
Last post by DJC -
Quote from: Thryleon – on
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.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL 2026 EF #1 Carlton vs Geelong Pre Game Prognostications
Last post by LP -
The chance of significant rain before 10pm is only slight, the chance of a tiny amount before 10pm is high. It'll be just enough to make it greasy but it should not be enough to affect field kicking or disposal. It's going to be windy, the G dries and soaks up moisture like a sponge.

Given we are perceived to be slower than Geelong a little rain slowing their disposal might actually assist us in applying pressure. The trick will be to remain clean with the footy.

The bigger problem for us is the wind, if it gets gusty the possession game is naturally harder to maintain.

Expect Dangerflog to be in Hyper Uber Accident Mode, just greasy enough for him to claim "I Slipped"!

How many Stops Up style marking attempts will be allowed against us this weekend, we suffered a barrage of them in recent weeks without a single free kick that I can recall? Can you imagine the furore if someone like Harry did that to Stewart?
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL 2026 EF #1 Carlton vs Geelong Pre Game Prognostications
Last post by Thryleon -
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.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL 2026 EF #1 Carlton vs Geelong Pre Game Prognostications
Last post by LP -
I find solace in the fact Derksen's marking has been substantially more reliable in D50 than F50.

Last week we had the fumbles, but we genuinely outplayed the Dees, the fumbles kept the Dees in it due to their efficiency scoring from entries / turnovers.

Our fumbling was mostly coming from our Forwards and Mids, our D50 was pretty reliable when given opportunity to get to the pill. If we fail to slow the opposition our D50 can do very little about it.

Surely we do not see Gov, Evans, Byrne, Kemp and Harry drop so many marks two weeks in a row, surely Smith, Walsh, Hewett and Cripps are cleaner this week!

I hope that result was the cure we need across the park to be more assured in the contest from any position on the ground!

After 1/2-time we were better everywhere.
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Ladies Lounge / Re: VFLW 2026
Last post by crashlander -
The VFLW girls play on Saturday at home at 13:05 against Port Melbourne.
We finished the H&A season 4th, which I think is a out best yet.
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Ladies Lounge / Re: AFLW Rd 4 2026 Carlton vs Collingwood at Carlton
Last post by crashlander -
Team as yet indeterminate, but here is what we know:

B:   1 Amelia Velardo   49 Madeline Hendrie
HB:   14 Siofra O'Connell   21 Harriet Cordner   36 Ciara Fitzgerald
C:   17 Dayna Finn   19 Erone Fitzpatrick   11 Yasmin Duursma
HF:   25 Keeley Sherar   7 Poppy Scholz   23 Lila Keck
F:   4 Claudia Whitfort   42 Tara Bohanna
R:   12 Jessica Good   10 Mimi Hill   5 Abbie McKay
Int:   6 Gabriella Pound   20 Lily Goss   24 Brooke Vickers   8 Lily Baxter   22 Brooke Boileau   55 Sophie McKay   35 Nell Morris-Dalton   13 Aisling Reidy

3 girls in, none out as yet.
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Robert Heatley Stand / Re: AFL 2026 EF #1 Carlton vs Geelong Pre Game Prognostications
Last post by Baggers -
Quote from: DJC – on
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.

Yep, a deeper dive into The Byrner's game against the Go Dees, as a number of commentators noted, was that he seemed overawed -- understandable -- in the first half making uncustomary mistakes, but found much better form in the second half.