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Squiggle tips Demons at 77% chance -- What's your tip? -- Team line-ups »
Two of the big points of difference between this game and 3 weeks ago were Mumford and Hopper coming in.
In round 22, they had Dawson Simpson in the ruck. He was actually dominant for most of the first half, especially the second quarter where the GWS midfield got on top of us. Then for the whole of the second half, he could barely move and jump. Trengove was pushing him to his physical limits in the stoppages, and easily got on top the longer the game went on, which lead to us smashing them in the middle.
Today they had Mumford who, even if you hate him, is a far better player than Simpson, and was a physical presence in congestion for all 4 quarters. On top of that, Bev dropped Trengove for no good reason, so we were left with poor old Tim as our only good ruckman. Tim had a good game, but he's still skinny, and should never have been given such a difficult solo job in his first final. Schache is a dismal second ruck, and like many of our other players today, no finals experience.
Add in Hopper (30 disposals) to further reinforce GWS's midfield and all of a sudden, the midfield battle from 3 weeks ago has done a complete reversal.
Thats libbas domain.
Otherwise we are bereft of enforcers.
I agree, they genuinely got up because it’s us. It’s a genuine rivalry. We lost, let’s make sure it ain’t a habit.They played with that intent today because they hate us. And we we clearly hate them. They were out to get us, to prove a point, to atone for the 2016 prelim, to get us back for Bont's hit on Haines three weeks ago...you name it, they had ammo and wanted to knock our collective blocks off. They also played a much younger side with less mature bodies, on their own home ground. Well played.
But watch them sh*t themselves next week.
Yeah he was poor. Started badly and never recovered.Duryea had an absolute mare.
Stark contrast to the rest of his season
Naughton has it and west has it once these guys get experience and confidence it'll come outBailey Smith is about the only bloke with genuine campaigner in our team. Couldn’t give a s**t about a small forward, I want a player who can bash a few noggins
It is but can he still do it?
Smith in 2-4 years. Maybe as early as next year.
Sorry but I disagree with every word of this other than Libba
Duryea had an absolute mare.
Stark contrast to the rest of his season
Bailey Smith is about the only bloke with genuine campaigner in our team. Couldn’t give a s**t about a small forward, I want a player who can bash a few noggins
He had 13 touches. Credit to him for battling away and yes he was tagged by probably the best tagger in the comp, but ultimately his inability to overcome it was part of the reason our midfield got smashed. He wouldn't make excuses for it and I don't think we should either.
Duryea was my biggest disappointment today
We brought him in and preferred him to Further developing Williams all year, and Duryea has been good but absolutely stunk when it counted
Upside today I thought Richards was OK and West when he got a go down forward looked ok
Kudos to our backs Cordy and Young who kept competing under pressure and I thought Wood was good also
Big preseason ahead in gym for our boys we got beat up in an old fashioned way today
Bevo's presser showed he was pretty pi**ed off with the attention Bontempelli received.
Good on him. It was crap and it needs to be called out. There’s playing hard which is fine, but he left the ground with blood all over his mouth. Hmm.
How many jumper punches and late hits did they get away with today?