Oppo Camp 2013 non-Geelong AFL match and general discussion

[bulletproof]

Pretty chuffed with Port result. The universal love for the bloods, led by chief cheerleader Paul Roos, was getting at me.

They have put in three dreadful performances this year now and their form line is not nearly as strong as was being made out. In fact they look like a classic case of returning Premier struggling to maintain hunger from week to week, like us last year or in 2010.

I am far more concerned about Hawthorn, who i think are the only team who could beat us at our best with a powerful performance.

 

[The rabbi]

I hope the Dogs get up. Picked 'em as a roughy to beat the Tigers and a Richmond fan at work took offense.
I thought that it could be a possibility. I have been berated into a bet with him, so if they should get up it will be more than face saving.

 

[manboob]

Just heard on the radio that this win was their biggest upset since the H&A game against geelong in 07. Did they forget what happened a couple months later...

But that port were 10x better than this one.

What the feck happened to the swannies just woke up and saw the result!

 

[thejester]

Pretty chuffed with Port result. The universal love for the bloods, led by chief cheerleader Paul Roos, was getting at me.

They have put in three dreadful performances this year now and their form line is not nearly as strong as was being made out. In fact they look like a classic case of returning Premier struggling to maintain hunger from week to week, like us last year or in 2010.

I am far more concerned about Hawthorn, who i think are the only team who could beat us at our best with a powerful performance.

Hard not to like this Port side either. They've got some exceptional youngsters but it's also nice to see some of the old stagers like Cornes and Schultz rejuvenated.

EDIT: I should also expand...I only watched the match in snippets, but in that last five minutes they were ferocious. Made some poor decisions and were a bit sloppier by foot but tackled really hard and put their heads over it again and again. You win friends doing that kind of stuff.

 

[bulletproof]

Hard not to like this Port side either. They've got some exceptional youngsters but it's also nice to see some of the old stagers like Cornes and Schultz rejuvenated.

Yeh, they deserve more respect as a club. They bounce back strongly.

 

[manboob]

Yeh, they deserve more respect as a club. They bounce back strongly.

It's the Geelong in them! I love the irony (I guess you'd call it that) that one of the blokes who totally destroyed this club in 2007 and sent them into a spin of despair has come to their rescue!

Reminds me a little of this:

 

[GeelongFTW]

It's the Geelong in them! I love the irony (I guess you'd call it that) that one of the blokes who totally destroyed this club in 2007 and sent them into a spin of despair has come to their rescue!

Reminds me a little of this:

DaFAq did I just watch?

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Pretty chuffed with Port result. The universal love for the bloods, led by chief cheerleader Paul Roos, was getting at me.

That doesn't bother me so much, but it's a fantastic result for us that Sydney dropped that game. Our performance against the Lions is even more critical now...a golden opportunity to move 2.5 games clear in the top four, with only 10 games remaining. And if the Roos (with their season on life-support) can pull off another huge upset against Fremantle, we'll be two games clear in the top two. Massive game.

As for Hawthorn, it's well-known around here that we haven't won all four quarters of a game this year, but I'm tipping the Hawks haven'tdone it many times either. They're just going at the moment.

 

[Willo_]

Hahaha just learned my lesson when I was happy North lose to WC on NicNat mark then Saturday night we lose to Collingwood ... I know our boys don't lose game like that ...

Emperor you don't happen to be in the cheer squad and wear the gold jacket do you?

 

[Vdubs]

That doesn't bother me so much, but it's a fantastic result for us that Sydney dropped that game. Our performance against the Lions is even more critical now...a golden opportunity to move 2.5 games clear in the top four, with only 10 games remaining. And if the Roos (with their season on life-support) can pull off another huge upset against Fremantle, we'll be two games clear in the top two. Massive game.

As for Hawthorn, it's well-known around here that we haven't won all four quarters of a game this year, but I'm tipping the Hawks haven'tdone it many times either. They're just going at the moment.

Still the team to beat, 2 years running.
Whichever team beats them wins the flag.
That is hardly a big call. Only 3 teams can do that, imho, Swans, Gee, Tigers.

 

[GeelongFTW]

I don't get or like the term "bloods". It's not "awe inspiring" in any way. What, are they on their periods?



( no disrespect to anyone who is on their period)

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Still the team to beat, 2 years running.
Whichever team beats them wins the flag.
That is hardly a big call. Only 3 teams can do that, imho, Swans, Gee, Tigers.

My point is we've been a bit concerned with Geelong's sporadic form (me as much as anyone), but it's not like Hawthorn is blowing teams off the park.

 

[Selective Retention]

The swans result was a great result for us.

Beat Freo at KP next week and it's just about a top 2 spot ensured.

 

[Vdubs]

My point is we've been a bit concerned with Geelong's sporadic form (me as much as anyone), but it's not like Hawthorn is blowing teams off the park.

They smashed the likely contenders- Swans, Pies, WCE, Freo to a lesser extent, but not us-not yet, anyway.
We took care of Swans, Ess , Tigers well enough, but right now, anybody can see that Haw is more impressive than Geelong. Still a way to go.
When we play them rd 15, their team will have been improved immensely with Hodge, Roughy's late form, Lake, and Gunston, Breust and Buddy make an awesome fwd line. Meanwhile, we have lost Chappy, Varcoe, AND APPEAR PRETTY UNSETTLED, BUT WITH MASSIVE POTENTIAL.

 

[manboob]

I hope they try and keep this form up for the next what 14 weeks... lets seem them limp into the finals like we did in 08.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

They smashed the likely contenders- Swans, Pies, WCE, Freo to a lesser extent, but not us-not yet, anyway.
We took care of Swans, Ess , Tigers well enough, but right now, anybody can see that Haw is more impressive than Geelong. Still a way to go.

You've got to go back to Round 7 to find the last truly impressive Hawthorn victory. My point is they've been having a string of these frustrating 'just doing enough' wins (same as us) and it's nearly been going for half the season.

 

[GeelongFTW]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the past couple of matches hawthorn looked like they were getting smashed in the clearences, this is from the limited gameplay i have seen.

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

I hope they try and keep this form up for the next what 14 weeks... lets seem them limp into the finals like we did in 08.

It's totally inaccurate to say that we were just going when we headed into the finals in 2008. If anything, that's the big knock on the team, that we just put too much in to every home and away result and didn't put enough faith in young players to rest the older stars and ensure we were cherry ripe for the finals.

Some numbers from that season:

• We won by 99 points in Round 22.
• Our smallest winning margin in the second half of the year was 11 points. No-one else came within five goals of us from Round 12 onwards and we won 8 of those 11 games by 50+ points.
• Our average winning margin was 68.9 points in the second half of the year. The median was 63 points.

We looked much more ordinary heading into the finals in 2009.

 

[manboob]

It's totally inaccurate to say that we were just going when we headed into the finals in 2008. If anything, that's the big knock on the team, that we just put too much in to every home and away result and didn't put enough faith in young players to rest the older stars and ensure we were cherry ripe for the finals.

Some numbers from that season:

• We won by 99 points in Round 22.
• Our smallest winning margin in the second half of the year was 11 points. No-one else came within five goals of us from Round 12 onwards and we won 8 of those 11 games by 50+ points.
• Our average winning margin was 68.9 points in the second half of the year. The median was 63 points.

We looked much more ordinary heading into the finals in 2009.

OK

 

[GeelongFTW]

No 2008. No 2008, too many bad memories. More 07, 09 just no 08.

 

[Vdubs]

You've got to go back to Round 7 to find the last truly impressive Hawthorn victory. My point is they've been having a string of these frustrating 'just doing enough' wins (same as us) and it's nearly been going for half the season.

Objectively, where do you place the 2 teams in terms of all round strength and readiness to go all the way?

 

[GeelongFTW]

they have, their clearances would have to be as ordinary as ours and plodders like Simpkin won't improve that for them.
Mitchell and Sewell look a step behind this year, lack of size is going to get them again, teams who load up the midfield with big strong bodies have the edge and was no surprise Selwood, Priddis, Gaff and Shuey broke even around the ground while their ruck stocks are completely useless.

Hale and Bailey are complete spuds

If we can somehow win the QF and the PF and we meet them on a GF surely our clearance work won't matter coz there's sucks too!

 

[MC Extra Dollop]

Objectively, where do you place the 2 teams in terms of all round strength and readiness to go all the way?

One and two. Not really fussed on the order.

As far as 'all round strength' is concerned, I would suggest that Hawthorn (only Rioli and Whitecross to come back in) is far closer to full strength than we are right now (Chapman, McIntosh, Rivers, Varcoe). In my opinion, we are also much stronger in terms of our AFL players in our reserves side at the moment (Thurlow, Smedts, Brown, Caddy, Walker, Simpson) than the Hawks (Whitecross, Osborne, Grimley, Cheney, Spangher).

I'm not sure how you could possibly objectively measure such an abstract concept as 'readiness to go all the way'. All we can really go by is the wins and losses columns and it's pretty even there (assuming we can win tomorrow).

 

[Vdubs]

If we can somehow win the QF and the PF and we meet them on a GF surely our clearance work won't matter coz there's sucks too!

fwiw, and I've been around a long time, but I don't think we 've ever lost a GF against a team that had one of our discards/rejects. So I'm hoping, IF we are lucky enough to get there, and we play Haw, that they play Simpkin.
It is a good sign that our " reject " makes their GF team.
BUT, getting way ahead of myself here. Rd 15 will suffice.

 

[Vdubs]

One and two. Not really fussed on the order.

As far as 'all round strength' is concerned, I would suggest that Hawthorn (only Rioli and Whitecross to come back in) is far closer to full strength than we are right now (Chapman, McIntosh, Rivers, Varcoe). In my opinion, we are also much stronger in terms of our AFL players in our reserves side at the moment (Thurlow, Smedts, Brown, Caddy, Walker, Simpson) than the Hawks (Whitecross, Osborne, Grimley, Cheney, Spangher).

I'm not sure how you could possibly objectively measure such an abstract concept as 'readiness to go all the way'. All we can really go by is the wins and losses columns and it's pretty even there (assuming we can win tomorrow).

Spot on. I value your assessment