Preview Changes VS Hawks - Elimination Final @ MCG Friday 6th Sep 7:40pm

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Weird question...

I know its our home game, but does anyone know to what extent considering its a Final? Like would there be Race the Rocket and what not during the breaks and extra lights/fireworks when run through the banner? or would it be simply neutral since its a final which isn't even at our home ground?

I know it has no affect on the game I was honestly just curious, not easy to know when you haven't had a home final since 2015 lol.
 

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This isn't netball.
You're right, it's far more valuable to have a tall 2nd and 3rd forward in AFL than it is in Netball.
 
Weird question...

I know its our home game, but does anyone know to what extent considering its a Final? Like would there be Race the Rocket and what not during the breaks and extra lights/fireworks when run through the banner? or would it be simply neutral since its a final which isn't even at our home ground?

I know it has no affect on the game I was honestly just curious, not easy to know when you haven't had a home final since 2015 lol.

Rocket's out for the season with a hammy! :'(
 
The Hawks chatter reminds me a lot of our chat in 2019 when we returned to finals for the first time since 2016.
I remember we were very cocky, confident and from memory had a decent supporter base fly to Sydney (Including me) as we were expecting a repeat of the 2016 Prelim. Only to be absolutely smashed by a bigger, better and mature side.

I honestly hope come next Friday we are able to step up and just take the game away in the first quarter like we did with Geelong and Sydney.

Hawks are playing very good footy though and I don't want to take away from that, it won't be an easy game.

Bookmark that this is what happens. I feel it in my bones, my balls and anything else that tingles. We smack this mob and give them a reality check
 

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Tell you what, our opposition fans are doing nothing to shake that long reputation of being arrogant w***ers.

Cant they just POQ back to their own board to continue their circle jerk in privacy?
I made a sarcastic post on the main game thread, saying I might as well not rock up, since everyone, especially Hawks fans were saying they will smash us, and have already have the game won.

Then got a smart ass reply from another Hawk saying "nice melt, game is in two weeks". I was thinking the f**k? What melt? Trust people on big footy to add something in that was never there. I replied saying "my post was entirely sarcastic, no idea where you could get melt from?" And get another reply that very much ignored me pointing out my sarcasm, and runs with the melt claim telling me to cope. Just a smart ass non response really. Do people really enjoy being a troll / w***er on this site for no reason?

Anyway, they completely edited their original reply much later. Saying how dare fans have fun and confidence. I have zero issue with fun, confidence or thinking there is a good chance to win. But there is massive gulf between that, and being absolutely classless and super cocky, like the game has already been won. Of course those acting like d heads on here are getting back slapped by other Hawks fans. Never seen suck cockiness and rudeness from fans of a mid table team.

Either way. Neither team will be smashing either one. It will be a close physical contest, and I can see something like a 85-75 scoreline.
 
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I made a sarcastic post on the main game thread, saying I might as well not rock up, since everyone, especially Hawks fans were saying they will smash us, and have already have the game won.

Then got a smart ass reply from another Hawk saying "nice melt, game is in two weeks". I was thinking the f**k? What melt? Trust people on big footy to add something in that was never there. I replied saying "my post was entirely sarcastic, no idea where you could get melt from?" And get another reply that very much ignored me pointing out my sarcasm, and runs with the melt claim telling me to cope. Just a smart ass non response really. Do people really enjoy being a troll / w***er on this site for no reason?

Anyway, they completed edited their original reply much later. Saying how dare fans have fun and confidence. I have zero issue with fun, confidence or thinking there is a good chance to win. But there is massive gulf between that, and being absolutely classless and super cocky, like the game has already been won. Of course those acting like d heads on here are getting back slapped by other Hawks fans. Never seen suck cockiness and rudeness from fans of a mid table team.

Either way. Neither team will be smashing either one. It will be a close physical contest, and I can see something like a 85-75 scoreline.
I have learned to stay off the main board better off talking about the game on here
 
Weird question...

I know its our home game, but does anyone know to what extent considering its a Final? Like would there be Race the Rocket and what not during the breaks and extra lights/fireworks when run through the banner? or would it be simply neutral since its a final which isn't even at our home ground?
Finals are run by the AFL and are usually pretty neutral (the ones at the G at least).

We will maybe get some extra bulldogs branding on the advertising boards but that’s about it. They’ll prob do fireworks with the banners for both teams. They've sometimes done fireworks off the scoreboard after goals for prelim finals the past few years, but again I think equally for both teams.

And they will almost certainly have a generic Toyota promo as the main AFL sponsor instead of the rocket.
 
Finals are run by the AFL and are usually pretty neutral (the ones at the G at least).

We will maybe get some extra bulldogs branding on the advertising boards but that’s about it. They’ll prob do fireworks with the banners for both teams. They've sometimes done fireworks off the scoreboard after goals for prelim finals the past few years, but again I think equally for both teams.

And they will almost certainly have a generic Toyota promo as the main AFL sponsor instead of the rocket.

How does the revenue split from tickets and the like go, is it just 50/50 or any advantage for home team?
 
How does the revenue split from tickets and the like go, is it just 50/50 or any advantage for home team?
Nah, it's all central AFL revenue, though they do distribute some of the money to cover costs for the club (ie we have to pay staffers to work these games and flick the lights on at the club etc.), but we don't necessarily profit from ticket sales or anything.
 
Just doing some analysis of the form of both teams using the results from R16-R24, so post bye for both teams. I believe that this is both a big enough sample and also using the team structures that both teams will be looking to use in the finals and obviously their recent form.

For the Dogs this means it includes Lobb being used in defence plus Naughton back from his knee injury and Libba back from concussion. So Dogs forwards and midfield basically at full strength (although Naughton missed basically two of those games including the loss to Port where he was concussed early in the first quarter) and our defence was only at full strength for half of that period with Liam Jones missing the first 4 games including the win against the Cats.

Hawks were missing Ginnivan for a couple of games including their loss to Geelong and Will Day has missed a couple of matches more recently but otherwise were fairly healthy in terms of their main players post bye.

In those 9 games both teams went 7 and 2 with the Dogs losses coming to the Power and the Crows while the Hawks losses were to Geelong and GWS.

The real issue is who each team played over those 9 games. For the Dogs, 5 of those 9 matches were against Finals bound top 8 teams, however for the Hawks only 3 of their 9 were against fellow top 8 teams. Each teams record against those teams is the Dogs went 4-1 whereas the Hawks went 1-2 with their only win coming against 8th placed Carlton with no Charlie Curnow playing for Carlton. Even so it was a big win for the Hawks by 38 points. Over the same period the Dogs beat 3 of the current top 4, including 2 of those being away, as well as beating Carlton when they were basically at full strength while the Dogs were without key bookends Liam Jones and Aaron Naughton and Adam Treloar also missed that game as a late withdrawal. Our only loss was to Port Adelaide which Liam Jones didn’t play and Naughton was concussed early in the first quarter.

I’m not counting games against teams that now don’t matter. Filling up by smashing teams down the bottom like we did against North Melbourne twice and Melbourne or by the Hawks against Richmond, North and West Coast don’t count for anything. I believe it’s your record against the top 8 that should tell you whether or not your game is prepared for finals. There is also no point looking at games in the early part of the season because both the form and the team structures are completely different now than they were back then no matter who you beat or lost to, it’s somewhat irrelevant. So I think post bye games against top 8 finals teams is the only games worth assessing.

On that measure the Dogs are well in front with the 4-1 win loss record compared to 1-2, and both of the hawks losses were to top 4 teams. Their only win coming against a somewhat depleted Carlton who they got to play on the MCG as an away game. The Dogs on the other hand beat 3 of the top 4 (two of them as the real away team and not away but on its own home ground) and one also against Carlton but where we were the injury depleted team, not the Blues. Yes we lost badly to Port but based on their form and we were the away team missing multiple key players, it’s understandable.

Against top 8 teams the dogs are plus 99 points in points for and against. The Hawks are minus 15.

The Dogs held their opponents to an average score of 69 points in those 5 games and Liam Jones only played in 2 of them.
The Hawks held their opponents to an average score of 89 points in those 3 games.

In terms of average points for over those games it’s fairly close with the Dogs being an average of 89 points and the Hawks being an average of 84 points.

So overall despite both teams definitely looking like they are in great form heading into the Finals the stats would say that the Hawks overall ratings post bye would have been a bit inflated by the fact that two thirds of those games were against teams that are not playing in September and a few were certainly big fillups against bottom dwellers. Whereas the Dogs definitely had the harder schedule having to play 5 top 8 teams and managed to win 4 of them even though 3 of the 5 were played away from home and we played all four of the top 4 beating 3 of them. Definitely a massive difference in terms of degree of difficulty and then the outcome.

So while some Hawks fans seem to be lingering on our board saying we appear a bit over confident, I would say there is reason for confidence. I still think it will be a close game and the Hawks can win for sure, but not if the Dogs are switched on and get a decent amount of luck with their goal kicking accuracy. If both teams bring their absolute best which I hope they both do because it will make for a cracking game, I believe the Dogs best is better. If we bring the same pressure we brought against GWS, Sydney and Geelong I really think it will break the Hawks down and make it difficult for them to get that ball movement going that they rely on, and our talls will cause them trouble.

The Hawks recent record against the best teams in the competition suggests they are close but not there yet where as ours would say we are more than ready.

Go Dogs!!!
 
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Random stat.

In the last six meetings between Hawthorn and WB, the team leading at qtr time has lost.

This doesn't include the practice match this year otherwise it would be the last seven times.
 
Do we run the gauntlet and bring back a green JJ Johannisen? It really comes down to LEGACY VS FORM. He can't play anywhere else but the Back Flank and Bramble(Our weakest link down there) has done enough to hold his spot, at least for now.

I say, If he performs well in the VFL final and we squeeze past the Hawks. A semi Final comeback could be on the table.
 
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I’ve done it the right way. Next 9 days in Thailand then fly in Thursday morning for the game.
Back when we were playing like shit and sitting well outside the 8 I agreed to take a trip to Thailand and Hong Kong with my girlfriend over the coming school holidays. At the point where we beat Melbourne and had stormed into second favourite for the flag I had to have some difficult conversations and build in an emergency flight back from Thailand for myself only that lands in Melbourne on GF morning but can be cancelled if needed and re diverted to another flight to Hong Kong to rejoin my girlfriend if we don’t make it. Suffice to say it caused a little bit of tension but she understands what a Doggies Grand Final would mean to me so even she said I had to make sure I wouldn’t miss it.

So hopefully that means I will be enjoying Thailand (Phuket) and relaxing/freshening up for a big GF day if we can win our way through.

I do think your way sounds much better but with kids I can’t get away outside of school holidays.
 

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Preview Changes VS Hawks - Elimination Final @ MCG Friday 6th Sep 7:40pm

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