Game Day AFL Finals 2024 - Match discussion party thread

[Crow till I die]

This was Port's Battle of the Buldge one last desperate push and will run out of steam next game.

Yep, they were so emotionally charged last night and expended a massive effort to get the win. How many times have we seen a performance like that and the week later the side sinks without a trace. I think it really was their GF last night

 

[Rotayjay]

I don't have a problem with Ginnivan, Sicily and Hinkley exchanging words after the game. Trash talk is part of the theatre, and people are allowed to have a personality. Play on.

 

[Mr_Moogle]

I don't think coaches should directly engage opposition players. It's always a bad look.

 

[relapse]

Ken let his emotions get the better of him at a time when the game was won and it was time to pay respects to one of the best small forwards of the modern era. It was a time to respect Breust and he spoilt what should have been a moving moment for the Hawthorn champion. But for Ken it’s allways about him as he has showed at various games this year and the showdowns.

He should have left a quip or a reference to what was tweeted at a presser rather than leaving a sour taste in a defeated rival. It smacks of a cheap shot and unworthy of a
Person in his position.

The karma bus and the footy gods are now in operation

I completely agree with this.

There was a time and place for that stuff and it's not when you're standing over there about to honour someone's 300th game and definitely not by the coach either.

These sorts of classless displays at inappropriate times is on brand for this club though, let's not forget that their supporters booing Walker during the Phil Walsh medal presentation, Choco abusing their major sponsor on the Grand Final podium etc.

If that was the Crows I'd be embarrassed about that type of display happening when it did.

 

[I Lost My Keays]

I think Sydney for me still.

Defence:

Allir will cover the tall players fine, but I can’t see how they will stop papley and Hayward. Port let 3 goals to Watson, 2 to Ginnivan, 4 to Stengle, 3 to Miers and 3 to Mannagh

The defence can hold Port’s forwardline where I expect Rampe to blanket Rioli and McCartin going on Georgiades. Port will need to contain the run and carry of Blakey

Midfield:
JHF, Drew, Sweet , Rozee, Wines and Butters
V
Gulden, Warner, Grundy, Rowbottom, Heeney, Lloyd

The midfield is 50/50 imo, if Mills was playing I’d say Swans.

Forwardline:
Outside of Georgiades and Rioli they are thin down there. Dixon is cooked and Marshall will most likely be out with concussion. I can’t see the small forwards like Evans and McEntee causing trouble. Rozee will most likely need to play a role in the forwardline.

Sydney has a better forwardline due to the influence of Papley and Hayward. McDonald and Amartey can pinch a few goals and Parker would be playing forwardline now.

Also the influence of home ground and extra week off will help.

 

[Scorpus]

Sydney probably should have lost last week, have been mediocre for two months and lost to Port by 20 goals in round 21.

Port beat them in a H&A game which is completely meaningless given Hinkley is a different (worse) coach in finals

 

[Crows I Am]

I think Sydney for me still.

Defence:

Allir will cover the tall players fine, but I can’t see how they will stop papley and Hayward. Port let 3 goals to Watson, 2 to Ginnivan, 4 to Stengle, 3 to Miers and 3 to Mannagh

The defence can hold Port’s forwardline where I expect Rampe to blanket Rioli and McCartin going on Georgiades. Port will need to contain the run and carry of Blakey

Midfield:
JHF, Drew, Sweet , Rozee, Wines and Butters
V
Gulden, Warner, Grundy, Rowbottom, Heeney, Lloyd

The midfield is 50/50 imo, if Mills was playing I’d say Swans.

Forwardline:
Outside of Georgiades and Rioli they are thin down there. Dixon is cooked and Marshall will most likely be out with concussion. I can’t see the small forwards like Evans and McEntee causing trouble. Rozee will most likely need to play a role in the forwardline.

Sydney has a better forwardline due to the influence of Papley and Hayward. McDonald and Amartey can pinch a few goals and Parker would be playing forwardline now.

Also the influence of home ground and extra week off will help.

Port looked cooked at the end of the game too with plenty of sore bodies. Sydney will be coming in fresh after a week rest with time for any players with niggles to freshen up.

 

[Cap]

They also don't rebuild.

It's becoming clearer and clearer that full rebuilds are a terrible strategy for any football club.

Find a way to get a core of decent talent, then keep topping up and polishing the list.

Even Hawthorn didn't full rebuild. They cut early, and moved players on over multiple years to top their list up.

Full rebuilds are the sign of crap management and poor development.

 

[Scorpus]

Same thing would have happened with Rachele's comments before the showdown. Port thrives on this sort of stuff, love to play the 'us vs the world' angle to fire themselves up. They go down that path all the time before showdowns with the fake trash talk they sprout about hating the crows.

Any club or player that gives them ammunition before a game after this is stupid. Take that away last night and they probably lose.

Except Port came out flat in that Showdown

 

[Cap]

This is the kind of bogan Ken Hinkley is appealing to.

The coward waited how many years ?

 

[Scorpus]

They also don't rebuild.

It's becoming clearer and clearer that full rebuilds are a terrible strategy for any football club.

Find a way to get a core of decent talent, then keep topping up and polishing the list.

Even Hawthorn didn't full rebuild. They cut early, and moved players on over multiple years to top their list up.

You can't seriously think Hawthorn didn't do a full rebuild.

They turned over the list as much if not more than we did

 

[cleanhands]

I don't think coaches should directly engage opposition players. It's always a bad look.

Players ok, but coaches no, it just confirms to me Hinkley is a smug arrogant prick

Footy goods please do your job

 

[El Doederino]

Ken let his emotions get the better of him at a time when the game was won and it was time to pay respects to one of the best small forwards of the modern era. It was a time to respect Breust and he spoilt what should have been a moving moment for the Hawthorn champion. But for Ken it’s allways about him as he has showed at various games this year and the showdowns.

He should have left a quip or a reference to what was tweeted at a presser rather than leaving a sour taste in a defeated rival. It smacks of a cheap shot and unworthy of a
Person in his position.

The karma bus and the footy gods are now in operation

Spot on

Port used this as motivation

As the Swans will next week

 

[El Doederino]

You can't seriously think Hawthorn didn't do a full rebuild.

They turned over the list as much if not more than we did

They did a full rebuild

Just a lot better than ours

Step 1 for a rebuild. Get your coaching group right. We failed at step 1.

 

[Archie87]

The Hawks nailed their draft picks with the likes of Day then moved on senior players to prioritise the midfield time of the kids... Meanwhile Nicks has to be dragged kicking and screaming into even sneaking our young mids into a forward pocket and clings onto Laird and Crouch in the CBAs.

 

[Scorpus]

What people have forgotten about Ginnivan's comments is those sorts of comments also fire up and motivate his own team. Gives them confidence and belief. It isn't some huge net negative that only Port drew from

 

[jackster83]

Same thing would have happened with Rachele's comments before the showdown. Port thrives on this sort of stuff, love to play the 'us vs the world' angle to fire themselves up. They go down that path all the time before showdowns with the fake trash talk they sprout about hating the crows.

Any club or player that gives them ammunition before a game after this is stupid. Take that away last night and they probably lose.

Port are an emotional team. They thrive on backs to the wall and when they cop it from the media and opposition.

Sydney won't make that mistake this week.

 

[Crows I Am]

Except Port came out flat in that Showdown

The last showdown? They came out with a clear intention to be overly physical and to try and rough up our players from the start of the game. I wouldn't call that being flat.

This then resulted in the Rankine bump.

This would have all stemmed from Ken firing them up over the Rachele comments.

 

[Crow till I die]

They did a full rebuild

Just a lot better than ours

Step 1 for a rebuild. Get your coaching group right. We failed at step 1.

Was their rebuild a lot better though?. Look at the following players and tell me if they would not get into this hawthorn side?
Michalanney
Thilthorpe
Rachele
Curtin
Soligo
Fogarty
N Murray
Worrell
Rankine
Dawson
Hinge
Keays

Its not the rebuild to me, its 100% the coaches - all of them. The hawks have a young aggressive, uncompromising and forward thinking coach who has surrounded himself with like minded people not frightened to enable his players to play their natural game and play to the strengths of his players. Remember our forward line last year under rahilly? Go back some years and remember it under teague?

If we could upgrade our coaching panel, i have no doubt we would see a vastly different level of performance. Just my 2 bobs worth

 

[BRL121]

I completely agree with this.

There was a time and place for that stuff and it's not when you're standing over there about to honour someone's 300th game and definitely not by the coach either.

These sorts of classless displays at inappropriate times is on brand for this club though, let's not forget that their supporters booing Walker during the Phil Walsh medal presentation, Choco abusing their major sponsor on the Grand Final podium etc.

If that was the Crows I'd be embarrassed about that type of display happening when it did.

I don't agree that was the case.
Hinkley had a smiling dig at Ginnivan well before they started moving across for the presentation. It was the Hawthorn captain who carried on and on about it when they were approaching the lineup. He was disrespecting his teammate.

 

[Crows I Am]

Port are an emotional team. They thrive on backs to the wall and when they cop it from the media and opposition.

Sydney won't make that mistake this week.

Agreed, Sydney won't be giving Port any ammo this week.

 

[Crow till I die]

Port are an emotional team. They thrive on backs to the wall and when they cop it from the media and opposition.

Sydney won't make that mistake this week.

Sydney also have a very big point to prove to not just the outside world but themselves after getting pantsed last time they met. I would expect an intensity like we rarely see from them in the upcoming prelim

 

[Scorpus]

The last showdown? They came out with a clear intention to be overly physical and to try and rough up our players from the start of the game. I wouldn't call that being flat.

This then resulted in the Rankine bump.

This would have all stemmed from Ken firing them up over the Rachele comments.

I didn't think they were overly physical as a whole team. They were down at half time and floundering

They got on top only because we completely shit the bed after Rankine was KO'd. It had nothing to do with Rachele's comments

 

[Scorpus]

Port are an emotional team. They thrive on backs to the wall and when they cop it from the media and opposition.

Sydney won't make that mistake this week.

The media will also be praising them and take the foot off.

This match against Hawthorn was their grand final and even with all that extra motivation they only just scraped over the line

 

[relapse]

You can't seriously think Hawthorn didn't do a full rebuild.

They turned over the list as much if not more than we did

There's a reason why certain posters will argue that Hawthorn didn't do a full rebuild.

If you admit that Hawthorn did a full rebuild then you no longer can use it as a blanket excuse for our failure.

They'd rather pretend that Hawks didn't do a full rebuild than face the fact that Mitchell has destroyed the rebuild narrative that keeps being used to shield Nicks from criticism.