Preview Semi Final - Geelong vs GWS, Fri 3 Sept @ 1950 (AEST), Optus Oval

[Isaac Norm Smith]

I'm very happy to have Tuohy back in the side. I must admit, I thought at the end of last year he was nearly done. But he has had a fantastic year, and I think his run and good ball use will be very important for us tonight, and hopefully in the coming weeks ahead.

 

[Zuta]

Yeah me too. Incidentally there is an article on the afl site ranking all our players on how they perform between week 1 and week 2 finals over the past 10 years or so. (Yeah, we've lost that many QF to do statistics on this sh*t!) Duncan is one of the one's who normally improves the most in second week. Who is top of the list I hear you ask? Wait for it.. Luke Dahlhaus.

This just suggests that Dal 'lifts' because the team plays well as a whole. When the chips are down he struggles massively. I wouldn't suggest Dal is the reason the team plays well.

 

[BigCat1]

Speaking of which, I’m a little bit worried about second-up blues from Duncan.

I’m worried they will allow him to just run around and get the cheapest of possies in the back half.

I wonder who his man was last week as he was nowhere near them all night so I assume some Port player was also running around free as a bird.

I’d rather see Duncs get 15 possies if 8 of them land inside 50.

 

[Jhye Clark 13]

So if we win tonight you're quietly confident we can make the GF?

Yes I am.

 

[Vdubs]

Speaking of which, I’m a little bit worried about second-up blues from Duncan.

I was too, but there just is no time for that this week.

 

[Chinacats]

I agree. I'm more worried about GWS than Melbourne. I think we match up well on Melbourne, and I think the bigger and wider expanses of Optus oval will really help us against the Dees. I'm quite confident we can beat Melbourne.

In terms of tonight, we really do need to lower our eyes and hit up leading targets in our F50. It's a tall forward line, so just blindly bombing it in will result in GWS mopping up and getting us on the rebound. They're really fast and that type of rebound / transition footy is what will lose us the game IMO.

Hawkins and Cameron are at their best when the ball is put out in front of them, not on top of their heads. I do expect the more open ground will assist us in delivering the ball into space so Hawk,Cameron and Rohan can do their thing. But if we bomb it in or our foot skills are off, we could be in strife..

Yeah big expanses of Optus. Interesting they bring in sav and go tall up front. I hope we can lock it in our top half.

 

[kickazz]

Perth weather forecast for tomorrow arvo/evening is NO RAIN.
This should suit our precise mark/kick/ball control game style.
A whole lot different to the Dockers game earlier in the season where it did not stop raining all night.

It's a funny one that - in some ways I recon we are better off with rain because it stops us from piss farting around with it too much and it brings our slower, good wet weather players like Parfitt, Menegola and Hawkins into the game more

 

[Vdubs]

I'm very happy to have Tuohy back in the side. I must admit, I thought at the end of last year he was nearly done. But he has had a fantastic year, and I think his run and good ball use will be very important for us tonight, and hopefully in the coming weeks ahead.

Exactly my thoughts.

 

[JohnZ]

It's game day bitches. Cats by 40?

 

[BigCat1]

Scott is still one of the best coaches in the league so whilst the Giants have so much top end talent and they will have all sorts of disciplined plans for us I’d like to see us exploit thier bottom end. I’m sure Scott is working on that.

Guys like Connor Stone, Bruhn, Hill, Stein, Idun, Sproul, Llyod and Mumford. We need to get them in vulnerable positions and match ups.

We need huge games from Selly, Danger, Guthrie and Parfitt. There is no doubt their main danger is their A grade midfield of Kelly, Taranto, Hopper, Ward and Perryman. They are deeper and probably a fraction classier.

The only two stats I care about this week is contested ball and hitting 55 inside 50s.

 

[fpm84]

Changes from our round 21 team that lost to GWS to tonight's team:

OUT: Stewart, Higgins, Clark, Zuthrie, Dahlhaus, Narkle, Kreuger
IN: Cameron, Duncan, Henderson, Atkins, Smith, Miers, Holmes

Dangerfield, Rohan and Tuohy were all injured during that game too.

 

[winty]

Let's move the discussion here...

Game Day - 2nd Semi Final - Geelong vs GWS

It's game day folks. Here's hoping our season doesn't end here and we live to fight another day (or two).

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