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I’ve been handed the baton to write this week’s preview.
My first reaction was, “No problems”. Now I’ve started writing it has struck me that I don’t actually ever watch a game anymore that doesn’t involve the Dogs, which means I’ve seen the Roos play precisely once this year. Oh well, here goes.
Why we want to win
You don’t drop games like this in August and still finish top 4.
Why they want to win
With Sydney and Carlton playing Geelong and Collingwood, North have a massive chance to make up for their monumental balls up last week. North are just the one game out but their % is crap (that’s partly our fault). They do have winnable games coming up against Freo, WCE and Melbourne so they could still sneak in.
Last time they met
Us: P-lenty
Them: Bugger all.
(127-57 for those of you who are pedantic).
One of the most thuggish games of AFL footy seen in years. Behind the play sniping like you see in bush reserves footy but a very disciplined Dogs side put their collective heads over the ball and put North to the sword.
You might remember there was a tiny bit of publicity about that Hall bloke trying to choke to death a no talent hack named Thompson (which cost Baz 3 large). I admit I was very worried that our Hall experiment was going to end that day (possibly with Hall on murder charges).
The thing that amazed me most was the North supporters giving their side a standing ovation at half time when they were about 8 goals behind. Easily pleased, obviously.
Brian Lake broke the record for the most possessions for a defender ever and while Josh Hill kicked 4, we had 13 different goalkickers.
Form
We’re in a run as good as I can remember in years. We’ve won 5 out of our last 6 (by an average of more than 10 goals!) and our only loss was by 3 points to a flying Hawthorn (in a game we should have won).
We seem to have got over the obsession with kicking the ball to Hall every time we go forward and have had big numbers of goalkickers each week.
North have only won 2 of their last 5, dropping games against Essendon, Geelong and Sydney. Their two wins have been against Port and Richmond.
Team selections
Eade has already said Ward will miss and Jones will play. While it’s always exciting to see a new kid debut, I wonder how we will use Jones, Grant and Hall up forward considering our other usual forwards – Johnson, Higgins and Giansiracusa – aren’t exactly blessed with blistering pace. I wonder if Eade will do a Phil Davis and rest Grant as a reward for getting a rising star gong at last?
So where does that leave Everitt? I thought his first half especially was very good last week and only team balance would stop him from being the replacement for Ward. Jones is hardly a like for like replacement for Ward either so I have no idea what Eade has in mind.
What I do know, however, is Moles >>>>> Eagleton and any suggestion that Eagle should get a recall needs to be put to bed.
North are missing quite a few. Petrie, Wells, Anthony, Ziebel, McMahon, Thomas, Wright, Grima and perhaps Hansen and Campbell. They might have to start elevating rookies to be able to put 22 blokes on the park.
Matchups
This is seriously hard to work out; I don’t even know who will be in their side! Morris will probably get Edwards, Williams to Hansen and Lake to the ruckman, Hale (if he plays), Goldstein or McIntosh.
Picken usually gets Harvey (bad result for my Supercoach team) and Swallow is the only other North midfielder worth considering a tag. Perhaps Cross will be told to keep one eye out for him.
Rawlings will go to Cooney and Thompson will have another crack at Hall (with a bit of luck the maggots might pay attention for a change and Baz could get a soft one early to keep Thompson in line).
The bottom line is that it shouldn’t really matter too much about who plays on who. Even at their best North aren’t that scary, with the number of blokes they have missing this should really be all one way traffic.
Dogs will win by a lot.
My first reaction was, “No problems”. Now I’ve started writing it has struck me that I don’t actually ever watch a game anymore that doesn’t involve the Dogs, which means I’ve seen the Roos play precisely once this year. Oh well, here goes.
Why we want to win
You don’t drop games like this in August and still finish top 4.
Why they want to win
With Sydney and Carlton playing Geelong and Collingwood, North have a massive chance to make up for their monumental balls up last week. North are just the one game out but their % is crap (that’s partly our fault). They do have winnable games coming up against Freo, WCE and Melbourne so they could still sneak in.
Last time they met
Us: P-lenty
Them: Bugger all.
(127-57 for those of you who are pedantic).
One of the most thuggish games of AFL footy seen in years. Behind the play sniping like you see in bush reserves footy but a very disciplined Dogs side put their collective heads over the ball and put North to the sword.
You might remember there was a tiny bit of publicity about that Hall bloke trying to choke to death a no talent hack named Thompson (which cost Baz 3 large). I admit I was very worried that our Hall experiment was going to end that day (possibly with Hall on murder charges).
The thing that amazed me most was the North supporters giving their side a standing ovation at half time when they were about 8 goals behind. Easily pleased, obviously.
Brian Lake broke the record for the most possessions for a defender ever and while Josh Hill kicked 4, we had 13 different goalkickers.
Form
We’re in a run as good as I can remember in years. We’ve won 5 out of our last 6 (by an average of more than 10 goals!) and our only loss was by 3 points to a flying Hawthorn (in a game we should have won).
We seem to have got over the obsession with kicking the ball to Hall every time we go forward and have had big numbers of goalkickers each week.
North have only won 2 of their last 5, dropping games against Essendon, Geelong and Sydney. Their two wins have been against Port and Richmond.
Team selections
Eade has already said Ward will miss and Jones will play. While it’s always exciting to see a new kid debut, I wonder how we will use Jones, Grant and Hall up forward considering our other usual forwards – Johnson, Higgins and Giansiracusa – aren’t exactly blessed with blistering pace. I wonder if Eade will do a Phil Davis and rest Grant as a reward for getting a rising star gong at last?
So where does that leave Everitt? I thought his first half especially was very good last week and only team balance would stop him from being the replacement for Ward. Jones is hardly a like for like replacement for Ward either so I have no idea what Eade has in mind.
What I do know, however, is Moles >>>>> Eagleton and any suggestion that Eagle should get a recall needs to be put to bed.
North are missing quite a few. Petrie, Wells, Anthony, Ziebel, McMahon, Thomas, Wright, Grima and perhaps Hansen and Campbell. They might have to start elevating rookies to be able to put 22 blokes on the park.
Matchups
This is seriously hard to work out; I don’t even know who will be in their side! Morris will probably get Edwards, Williams to Hansen and Lake to the ruckman, Hale (if he plays), Goldstein or McIntosh.
Picken usually gets Harvey (bad result for my Supercoach team) and Swallow is the only other North midfielder worth considering a tag. Perhaps Cross will be told to keep one eye out for him.
Rawlings will go to Cooney and Thompson will have another crack at Hall (with a bit of luck the maggots might pay attention for a change and Baz could get a soft one early to keep Thompson in line).
The bottom line is that it shouldn’t really matter too much about who plays on who. Even at their best North aren’t that scary, with the number of blokes they have missing this should really be all one way traffic.
Dogs will win by a lot.
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