Preview Grand Final Sydney v Geelong MCG

[Nuggetz]

1 goal, 11 possessions, 0 Tackles, 1 mark, 55% DE, 4 clangers, 7 HO, 3 SI.

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Mcdonald had

0 goals, 6 disposals, 0 tackles, 4 marks, 83% DE, 1 clanger, 1 SI.

Mclean 17 Pressure acts and Logan 8

Not the best games for either players

 

[Bloods86]

I do think there's an element of risk to selecting McLean. Horse is basically backing a depth player to have a great game by his standards in the biggest game of the year.

But I like it. Risk has paid off for us this year.

Backing Stephens in when all prior evidence suggested Stephens was a kid not ready for the highest level.
Backing Clarke in when most assumed he was a reserves footballer just biding his time before he got delisted.
Backing Fox in to be a permanent fixture in the back half.
Backing Florent in to play in defence when he'd only ever been a mid for us.
Backing Paddy in despite all the concerns about his concussions.
Backing Blakey in to add the defensive side to his game on the fly.
Backing Rowbottom and Warner in to lead the midfield in a way in big finals.
Backing Parker to play more accountable roles in a final as our most experienced finals mid.
Backing the above two to get us back into the game from the centre against Tigers while we moved our best mid Mills into defence.
Backing Reid in when everyone thought we should be playing the younger talls and Reid was supposedly cooked.
Backing Sheldrick in to debut in round 1, despite the fact he hadn't even played in the pre-season games.
Backing Hickey in on numerous occasions when he looked banged up.
Backing Ladhams in earlier in the year when his reserves form hadn't been convincing.
Backing McInerney in to play on the inside and help win us the game against North.

This season has literally been defined by ballsy coaching moves and this is just another one of them.

Some of these have been out of no other choice. Also Fox and Clarke not really risks, seeing as Fox had done it before (and COR/Cunners got injured), and Clarke also, just doing it in a different part of the ground.

 

[Banyo Bloods]

I can’t envisage a scenario where Campbell isn’t sub.

Luke Parker 2012 sub. Went on to be a club champion.

Braeden Campbell 2022 sub. Will go on to be a club champion.

Did you miss the bit about it doesn’t even make sense.

I only hope it as I’m selfishly gutted for him.

No actual logic behind it.

 

[TheMase]

Also am I the only one that thinks that McDonald is a better sub than McLean?

If a forward, winger, or backman goes down McDonald goes straight in, and if an inside mid goes in a winger can go to the centre and McDonald can take the wing position. McLean also doesn't have match experience atm and would take longer to adapt in the sub position, whereas McDonald would be able to come in with the intense pressure more ready.

I’d be surprised if McDonald was named sub.

 

[Bloods86]

Campbell has been named as medi sub, not sure what the Logan sub chat is about?

We haven't named a sub.

 

[caesar88]

Our forward line setup wouldve been figured out by Scott, this throws everything up in the air

True. You can't wait until you have a loss, you've got to be proactive and avoid that loss. It very nearly happened last week.

 

[SSwans2011]

Don't mean to alarm you guys but the only time I've melted over a selection this hard in the last half a decade or so was when we dropped Clarke

 

[Gimmeafree]

Slight pivot, who goes to Clangerfield?

 

[2006_Eagles]

Gutted for Logan

 

[Bloods86]

Well that was a pre-game melt worthy of a toastie.

I think there's a few people who've said this helps Geelong, and some of us think there were better options, and said so calmly.

Where's the melt?

 

[Gimmeafree]

Heard Bell was going to ……nah now’s not the right time

 

[caesar88]

Slight pivot, who goes to Clangerfield?

Mills. Worked perfectly last time, and Dangerfield was flying then too.

Unless Blicavs goes to Mills to try and shut him down, in which case... Chris Scott is dumber than I thought.

 

[Gimmeafree]

I think there's a few people who've said this helps Geelong, and some of us think there were better options, and said so calmly.

Where's the melt?

I for one am Guilty as charged

 

[Nuggetz]

Does McLean play shoulder to shoulder/tag Stewart all through the game?
Does McLean just stay with 30m of the goal à la Tony Lockett, keeping Stewart accountable?
Does McLean do the ruck duties I50 so Hickey rucks 2/3 of the ground, does not rest I50?
Does McLean play on the opposite of the ground to Franklin?

1. Yes
2. No, I don't think they'll care too much and will back their own defenders to win the ball in the air.
3. Big yes
4. Unsure, I think Mclean will just follow Stewart or Stanley and disrupt Geelong ability to win the ball in the air.

Fascinating tactical move imo.

I think McLean will play Franklin's role. In both finals, Franklin has had to be the full forward target in the goal square wrestling against May or trying to crash packs and bring it to ground.

I think McLean will be that big physical target at full forward, Franklin will roam and Reid will play half forward.

Franklin is also a good crumber and it'll allow him to roam further up the ground like you've said. Hopefully he can utilise his elite field kick and hit up targets in our forward 50 instead of bombing it long (to the benefit of Geelong).

 

[BloodRet]

We haven't named a sub.

 

[Donza]

View attachment 1515307

Eh?

 

[BloodRet]

Eh?

I think it means Campbell out cos he was on the field last week and is named medi-sub again or am I wrong

 

[Bloods86]

View attachment 1515307

It does that for every game the prior sub isn't named in the 22. He's an emergency along with 3 others, likely to be sub again though.

No-one names their sub until the final teams about 1.5 hours before the match.

 

[Donza]

It does that for every game the prior sub isn't named in the 22. He's an emergency along with 3 others, likely to be sub again though.

No-one names their sub until the final teams about 1.5 hours before the match.

Yup.

 

[Punts]

Reid is playing guys

Don’t stress

 

[Gimmeafree]

Rewind a year or so, who could have predicted we’d be sweating on the state of Reid’s adductor as pivotal to the grand final.

 

[zyzzbruh]

We have mostly all agreed on this over the last few years.
Buddy looks far more a threat to the opposition when up the ground passing to our forwards. He then also becomes an unpredictable threat when forward with tbe ground ball of front & square.
I feel he too must be feeling sore after crunching the packs last week & we are fortunate that he wasn't hurt badly. Crunching pack is what McLean has for breakfast. He also has played for us against the Cats in our last two wins & has the smarts to make their defenders panic.
He kicked 4 goals last year & 1 this year. They need to show him respect.
It also means that Blizarvs needs to be concentrating bdown ba k a bit more to assist Stewart.
This is really about making their backline uneasy in the air & rush possessions when they win it on the ground.
It also allows us to cover for Reid & have a small as a sub.
Reid's experience can cover for much of what McDonald brings in such a big game & we all know that if Horse had his time again in 2016, he would have scratched that itch & named Reid in the GF for his first game for tbe year after injury, that's how much trust he has in Reid. No doubt we can agree that Horse loves Sam Reid because he does what is needed & one out deep forward would scare the s**t out of the Geelong defence.
It's growing on me & well picked Punts!

I'm not sure which crunched packs you speak of... It's mcleans biggest weakness.

 

[Tedeski]

I do think there's an element of risk to selecting McLean. Horse is basically backing a depth player to have a great game by his standards in the biggest game of the year.

But I like it. Risk has paid off for us this year.

Backing Stephens in when all prior evidence suggested Stephens was a kid not ready for the highest level.
Backing Clarke in when most assumed he was a reserves footballer just biding his time before he got delisted.
Backing Fox in to be a permanent fixture in the back half.
Backing Florent in to play in defence when he'd only ever been a mid for us.
Backing Paddy in despite all the concerns about his concussions.
Backing Blakey in to add the defensive side to his game on the fly.
Backing Rowbottom and Warner in to lead the midfield in a way in big finals.
Backing Parker to play more accountable roles in a final as our most experienced finals mid.
Backing the above two to get us back into the game from the centre against Tigers while we moved our best mid Mills into defence.
Backing Reid in when everyone thought we should be playing the younger talls and Reid was supposedly cooked.
Backing Sheldrick in to debut in round 1, despite the fact he hadn't even played in the pre-season games.
Backing Hickey in on numerous occasions when he looked banged up.
Backing Ladhams in earlier in the year when his reserves form hadn't been convincing.
Backing McInerney in to play on the inside and help win us the game against North.

This season has literally been defined by ballsy coaching moves and this is just another one of them.

Excellent!

 

[Wolfgang West]

I was once an assistant coach at a football club that dropped the captain for GF. He was a centre half forward who had ruled the competition he had played in for 10 years. He had not had impact in the last 3 games of the season and 2 finals games. We replaced him with a 21 year old key forward from our reserves who had played 2 senior games for the year and in the previous weeks reserves prelim kicked 5. The team we were playing against had lost only one game for the year against us coincidentally where the young Key forward played one of his 2 games. In that game he kicked 3 goals against the best key back in the comp. We went into the GF making one of the most gut wrenching decisions I have had the misfortune of being involved with. We won that GF as rank outsiders and that young CHF kicked 4 goals. Our winning margin ? One point. Sometimes life is tough especially when it can cause heartbreak but the end goal is the most important thing.

 

[caesar88]

Also what a massive kudos to Beatson & Dalrymple this will be if we win. Forget about the rest of the team, we have five players playing on the weekend from the 2018 off-season alone!