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plugger66 wrote:I learnt that the 2 best sides are very very close in ability and if bothe make the GF then luck either way may decide the GF.
agreed. and by luck, i reckon we're talking injury luck. everitt in 97. hamill in 2004.
the injury to a really important and hard-to-replace player which gives the opposition an edge. top three that i'm worried about: hayes, riewoldt, gardiner. the rest are to some degree replaceable, but lose any of those and we'll be right up against it.
we also learned that a good big defender beats a mediocre little forward, any day of the week.
It turned out as I predicted last week - the key to Geelong is Ablett and SJ..if one is out of action, that puts Geelong under a bit of scoring pressure, as they haven't got a power CHF or consistant FF and rely on the the runners and flankers a lot. Their great white hope in Hawkins looked like a VFL reserves player.
I learnt that while the Saints can play better, the Cats cant.
Lance or James??
There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough." For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in <redacted>. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a <redacted>investigation followed by <redacted> witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for <redacted>and on me leads me to where I am today – finished with this nonsense. (Oops just got a spontaneous errection <unredacted>)
I learnt that the Cats take a great number of liberties with the game rules and get away with them.
Holding or tackling opponents without possession in marking contests, handballs that were really throws, outlasting tackles that the umpires refused to call.
The umpiring in that game beggared belief. I don't think I could bring myself to watch a replay of that one.
The Saints are a 5-6 goal better team... but not against that nonsense. Final figure published by Pro-Stats: 14-23.
I learned that we have got a lot of ticker. We were challenged on a number of occasions but had the resolve to absorb pressure and counterpunch. Even though the result was close our self-belief will rise from winning this game.
I learnt its all about pressure....I was always confident we would win the game when I saw the level of pressure we put on the opposition....that is the key to beating teams like Geelong
I learned that no matter what the Umpires have to say about it during the game or the opposition have to say after the game - 91 beats 85 every day of the week!
“Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, and drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever.”
― Aristophanes
If you have a Bee in your Bonnet - I can assist you with that - but it WILL involve some smacking upside the head!
Ross Lyon is on the right track and the team are on the same page. The pressure game plan works against the best Geelong were a rabble in the first qtr.
Geelong are beatable.
We can improve further : possibly Dempster in .
A close win by the Saints still has Geelong as favorites in the press , but thats fine .
What I learnt from watching the replay, that I didn't fully appreciate earlier...
*Didn't give enough credit to McQualter and Jones, would still class them as "newbies" and they really stood up in a high pressure match.
*Lenny must be black and blue, with bruising all over his body
*Just how much Gardiner wanted that win
*Mooney's curls have nice bounce
*Kosi really did a number on Scarlett
*Milne worked hard, but the marks just didn't stick
*Ross was very relaxed, but was really angry and animated late in the second when Corey kicked a goal. Couldn't really work out what aspect of it made him so dark
*Big deal about the advantage call late in the last that has caused so much hype, Geelong clearly won the ball back and simply didn't maintain possesion
Probably alot more to glean from the many replays....
I learned that no matter how bad the umpires decisions were our players never argued or carried on, asked the question but then just got up and picked up their players unlike one G Ablett who screamed like a baby when he missed out on a free. Steven Milne was very disciplined when that ridiculous free was paid against him in the dying minutes. While us in the crowd did our nuts, our players were very well drilled.