The Non-Richmond Games Thread 2012

I have to admit, GWS did a lot better than what I thought they would, even if they did come up against a Collingwood 2nds team.

I thought the Western Bulldogs were very ordinairy. I guess with a new coach though it will take a litlle while for the players to adjust to a new gameplan.

I swear it's finally time for us to beat the Dogs. The time is now, can't stand losing to them any longer.

Officially 11000+ people turned up to north Hobart oval last night for Melbourne Storm v Broncos NRL trial game. Actual crowd figure was reportedly 13-14k as kids in for free weren't counted.

North Melbourne v GWS at bellerive....hmmm, be lucky to crack 5 figures I reckon.

I thought the Tassie folk supported AFL games played there no matter what the team?

The crowds at Aurora in Launceston have been around 15k as an average. We have had hawks v interstate teams mainly, with north being the Vic team down here recently. The hawks tigers game still holds the record at just under 20k.

I will be surprised if north pulls good crowds after this year, and I'm doubtful Hobart will turn out this year if it's wet and windy, especially for west coast and GWS!

But they are clearly going to play the run and carry game, similar in style to the Kighter plan.

When it came together, they moved it out of defence very, very fast.

Freo played a very defensive lock down style of game, guess that is Lyon's influence.

WCE looked good

Freo look like they will be lucky to turn out 5 goals a game this year.

Begs the question would you rather play finals no matter how you have to get there?

(I know what our answer will be)

Clear answer is I want to win premierships and defence is a big part of that.

Lyon did the same with the Saints. Got them defending first then worked on thier attack = two grand finals one of which they should have won.

It was interesting hearing Lyon talk about this last night.

He said it was his belief that flags are only won by teams top 4 in defence and attack.

And a bit of luck. You really need a lot of things to go right for you to win a flag. No injuries to your star players is a start.

Interesting watching Big Issy Folau today, layed a couple of big bumps and tackles and took a huge grab up forward.

Kicked 1.2 from 8 touches.

If he was a kid you had drafted and saw him do that in Rd 2 NAB you would be slapping each other on the back and saying you beauty.

He will become a player, no doubt.

They'll probably play him all over the ground this year as part of his education, but a full year up forward and he'd win their goal-kicking I reckon. Watched a lot of his local comp highlights from last year, and whilst it's obviously not the same intensity etc, he can definitely take a grab.

Can't agree. He tried to turn St Kilda into Sydney. But Roo's lock-down, defence at all costs formula only worked for one year for Sydney - just. It made sense for a team with home games at the SCG. It failed at St Kilda, and if Lyon is silly enough to try and get Freo to play it at Subiaco then you can write off Freo this year. We'll have a better idea tomorrow of course.
Incidentally, how is the schadenfreud over Essendon's stuff up? They have the coaching panel of the century, wisdom piled upon wisdom, resources and all sorts of cleverness and yet they decided to fly to Wangaratta when it was under water!
My Mum lives in Benalla and I can drive there from my home in beautious St Albans in just a titch over two hours. Moreover, the silly buggers weren't even flying to Wang. They were flying to Albury which means they would have had a bus trip of about an hour in any case. Also, I read somewhere online that some of the precious darlings were vomiting on the plane.
And not a vuvuzela in sight!