The squad vs Pies (8 July 2018)

He was the difference last week.

Ok whatever makes you sleep at night.
Enjoy the game.

You don’t see the important difference?

I’m tipping a double dose of Valium very fkn certainly would.

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This guy speaks for me !

Crap - their team is substandard today. Too many of their best players out (like Swans against the Cats).

Only thing in their favour are the conditions - which negate our forward height advantage with Dunn out - and the possibility of Fantasia being out. If true, that’s worth more to them than the conditions factor. Balancing this it appears one their team - possibly Hoskin-Elliot - is out. If true, that cancels our loss of Fantasia.

We have a stronger forward line - even with Fantasia out - and a stronger backline.

Their strength is their midfield but we’ve been the #1 midfield over the last 6 years (or very close to, certainly #1 for clearances). We are missing Zaharakis but they are missing Treloar and Wells so that is in our favour. With the continued improvement in Langford and good form from Myers our midfield definitely bats deeper.

It will come down to:

  • Bellchambers not letting Grundy run amok in the ruck;
  • someone - McGrath? - not letting Sidebottom run amok on a wing and waltz into open goals;
  • taking our chances up forward when they present;
  • being switched on right at the start and bringing our midfield pressure to bare. We were definitely not switched on at the start last week and we can’t afford that this week.

And one other major factor in our favour - on Anzac Day we lost not 1, but 2, players in the first 10 minutes of the game in Begley and Green (who did come back on briefly at the start of Q2 to no avail). That severely hampered us for the rest of our game and we simply ran out of legs. I don’t expect the Pies will be so lucky this time.

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If we can’t win without Raz we dont deserve finals…Dons by 15.

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Pies supporters " that pelican McKernan will kick 4 goals and get Essendon over the line"
Essendon Supporters " that pelican Cox will kick 4 goals and get Collingwood over the line"

Different club, same fears.

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For those Blitzers outside Melbourne having to put up with rain panic merchants.
Current weather;
Patches of glorious winter sun, with occasional cloud.
0.4 ml of rain on the G in the last hour, and even less coming on the radar - ie sweet ■■■■■ adams
Moderate breeze from the SW so expect a typical swirly, but not too bad, breeze at the ground.

Don’t panic - it’s not gonna be wet weather footy, or even slippery ( outside Eddies coterie group anyway)

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No raz?

ENTER LONG

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Agree. We must stop Sidebottom. He regularly covers 15km+ for 30+ possessions. He hurts you on the inside, the outside and on the scoreboard.

Phillips also covers a lot of ground and gets plenty of outside ball. We need to watch him too.

But if we’re clean with the ball, we should be too good for them. However, if we’re fumbly (due to their pressure or the conditions), then they’ll turn the game into a slogfest and we’ll lose.

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Jake long warming up

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Gee, you’re there nice and early. Many there yet? We are on the train hoping to get some GA seats, should b there around 2pm.

MCG Car Park open?

I’ll be surprised if it fills up today, maybe 65k - 70k.

Yeah, the weather earlier today would have put a few off, and it’s a Sunday twilight game so most Bombers will have work tomorrow.
By the same token Pies won’t have work and kids are on school holidays which will help numbers.

Afl should just scrap sunday twilight and seriously commit to Thursday night footy.

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Franga and Merrett playing VFL. Long is not. No changes?

EDIT: the above assumes Dea is injured. Damn either way.

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