If it means so much (especially to fans), why are they playing it on gather round?
Surely this would be a chance to draw a decent crowd and build the rivalry by playing games at home and letting home grounds get involved.
As for the match itself....7 changes...That doesn't fill me with...
Got to respect that effort from Richmond.
Game they were expected to lose (I tipped 'Carlton by a lot'), 3 players down, on a 5 day break from a hot/muggy GC game, and still kept it to under a goal.
Lacked a bit of class/finish at times, but you'd have to think they still would have won if...
Away game, and so the Carlton fans will fill/have dibs on most of the seats as the home team.
I dare say the game will be close to/effectively a sellout (~80K+), and Richmond will have 25-35% of the crowd. (so maybe 20-25K Richmond).
Might seem like they 'didn't turn up', but it'd probably be...
I saw on the AFL site that "Tigers swing axe" and thought something was up.
Then after I fell for the clickbait and realised that it was due to the return of 2 of their best players (Martin, Lynch), their Captain (Nankervis) and one other guy who had been injured (Mansell).
Only the last one...
Oh, I understand the reasoning, but it's just blatant/nasty that when you have 10 teams sitting around doing nothing, teams are selected even though it will give them a short break.
It does seem odd that Carlton and Richmond are playing in round-0 thereby guaranteeing them an entirely avoidable short break (with travel/heat).
Seems the AFL was desperate to both get big Vic clubs involved and to play on the Dimma factor.
MCG tenants have been forced to play home games at docklands since it was built. The awful deal there was one of the reasons some of these teams sold games.
The AFL doesn't support anything Richmond does if they can avoid it.
Success for Richmond makes Benny Gale look good, and they could barely keep him out of the CEO job this time.
I think of it more as affecting the margin.
The dozen extra frees the Saints got (or Richmond didn't get) probably made about a 2 goal difference, which let's face it, is a pretty significant influence.
In this case that only really changed the percentage, but had things gone a bit different...
So am I, and can only put it down to form.
Saints started very strong but have dropped off, while the tigers have been building through the past few weeks.
I'd consider a bet on the saints to be better value here.
You're missing the point.
Richmond has been playing every tall player they've got.
Form, ability, suitability for the role, none of that matters...If the coach has to tilt his head up when he looks you in the eye, you're in the team, end of story.
Geelong has serious injury issues, no doubt...
I think injuries get really bad when there is a combination.
e.g. if you lose your 4 best ruck options, well, Number 3/4 (even #2) might be 'nobodies', but having them unavailable would still really hurt in that situation.
Not sure what it looks like this week, but I remember looking at...
It'll be interesting...They're playing against a Richmond forward line of a 'past it' Jack Reiwoldt, and a couple of inexperienced players who seem more suited to 'second ruck'/'learning the game' than key forward (although they'll also be playing 1st ruck).
Richmond will have height back...
Development? You'll already be playing every young tall who can get on the park. (except perhaps Bauer).
Young/Balta/Grimes down back isn't bad.
Reiwoldt as a KPF and Ryan/Miller rotating through ruck/2nd forward mightn't be ideal, but it's what you've got.
You can add Bauer to that as a...
Not just the names, but the injury list covers most of their possible replacements too.
Of the 10 tallest Richmond players, only 3 are available (Ryan, Miller, Young), and they're played 20 games between them.
Add Balta, Grimes, and Reiwoldt and that's the likely 'talls' for the next few...
So, the question that must be asked after the last couple of years is...will North actually turn up this year?
and if they don't how much longer can they keep this game?
On form so far, you'd have to pick the Saints, and probably by a fair margin.
But the Suns would have gained a lot of confidence out of last weeks win over Geelong. You could see things starting to click as the game went on and in the last qtr they looked pretty good. On the other hand, St...
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