Preview Rd 4 Geelong V Melbourne Fri April 4 2025 740 pm @ GMHBA

[Footy Smarts]

By my count Melbourne had 13 of their 2021 premiership team out there last week. And are likely to get Lever and Pickett back.

It's pretty crazy that we're talking about a team with 15 recent premiership players as easy beats. On paper it still looks like a pretty stacked lineup.

In comparison we only had 11 of our 2022 premiership team out there and Stewart is the only likely in.

Actually Spargo is also a test for this week so they could make 16 of the starting 22 from the 2021 flag team.

The only ones definitely not playing are Brayshaw, Jackson, Neale-Bullen, Brown, Hibberd and Harmes plus Jordan who was sub.

 

[bulletproof]

Our inability to play a full game at high intensity and how quickly we lose control when this drop off occurs makes us vulnerable to any opponent at any time.

We can play great football at times, but this has been going for a long time now. Fundamentally there is a problem there that seemingly can’t be fixed.

 

[iameviljez]

Our inability to play a full game at high intensity and how quickly we lose control when this drop off occurs makes us vulnerable to any opponent at any time.

We can play great football at times, but this has been going for a long time now. Fundamentally there is a problem there that seemingly can’t be fixed.

This is normal, the only teams who get this sort of consistency are flag material.

 

[bulletproof]

This is normal, the only teams who get this sort of consistency are flag material.

I think the disparity between our best and worst is unusual. And the frequency of these big in game swings is not normal.

A team capable of leading a prelim with minutes left, shouldn’t really be played off the park for a half by St Kilda and Brisbane. Or concede 4 goals in five minutes against Freo for that matter.

 

[iameviljez]

I think the disparity between our best and worst is unusual. And the frequency of these big in game swings is not normal.

A team capable of leading a prelim with minutes left, shouldn’t really be played off the park for a half by St Kilda and Brisbane. Or concede 4 goals in five minutes against Freo for that matter.

It is normal - even in that prelim, we were played off the park by Brisbane for a quarter. Don't forget, at one point against GWS in that semi-final last year, Brisbane conceded seven goals in a row to go 44 points down and then mounted a huge comeback.

Hawthorn and GWS are both seen as the "it" teams at the moment - on the weekend, GWS rattled off the first six, but gave up something like the next eight.

These kind of ebbs, swings, flows are normal - we have just been insulated by it through being so good for so long.

 

[Catman]

Well this is interesting.
Let's say that the game will finish at roughly 10.20pm.
You then have to wait at South Geelong for the bus to rock up at 11.15pm. This bus stops at every station and will eventually get you to Southern Cross at 2.05 AM. That's a very long bus trip.
I have found a better way.
There is the Gull Airport Bus that departs from McKillop St also at 11.15pm. This bus will get your to Melbourne Airport at 12.25am. You can then get on a Skybus and get to Southern Cross station at 1.05am.
You are reading right, going via Melbourne Airport will get you to Southern Cross station "one hour" quicker than V/Line.
Someone needs to have a word with V/Line.

Timetables – Gull Airport Service

gull.com.au

Seriously, give it up. These works are planned months in advance and involve plenty of organisation with contractors, authorities, etc. They do their best to limit the disruption for travellers, particularly with footy fans, but you are never going to find an ideal time to do them and unfortunately, sometimes they are going to fall on game days. As I said, this would have been in the pipeline well before the fixture came out.

 

[CatToTheFuture]

Seriously, give it up. These works are planned months in advance and involve plenty of organisation with contractors, authorities, etc. They do their best to limit the disruption for travellers, particularly with footy fans, but you are never going to find an ideal time to do them and unfortunately, sometimes they are going to fall on game days. As I said, this would have been in the pipeline well before the fixture came out.

Anger should be directed more at the afl not scheduling around the works where possible

 

[cats_09]

Seriously, give it up. These works are planned months in advance and involve plenty of organisation with contractors, authorities, etc. They do their best to limit the disruption for travellers, particularly with footy fans, but you are never going to find an ideal time to do them and unfortunately, sometimes they are going to fall on game days. As I said, this would have been in the pipeline well before the fixture came out.

I'm now used to the idea that the Geelong line will impacted at this time of year for a 10 days to 2 weeks for Vline works

I know they normally prefer to do the works during the school holiday period as there can be less daily commuters, but that usually involves starting after Easter as that long weekend signals the start of the holiday period

With Easter being at the end of the school holidays this year it makes sense bringing the works forward somewhat, as I can imagine the complaints of no trains over Easter being worse than no trains for a Friday night footy match

 

[cats_09]

 

[SkittleCats]

Seriously, give it up. These works are planned months in advance and involve plenty of organisation with contractors, authorities, etc. They do their best to limit the disruption for travellers, particularly with footy fans, but you are never going to find an ideal time to do them and unfortunately, sometimes they are going to fall on game days. As I said, this would have been in the pipeline well before the fixture came out.

I dont give a **** how long it's planned for. How can you do works over Easter School holidays when it's a prime period for football? You shouldnt need to involve "various stakeholders" to know that planned works over Easter School holidays is going to cause huge disruptions for football. Either it shouldnt happen then or it should take that into account. Not doing so is why a large proportion of the population is getting fed up with all these works (myself included). The ideal time to do it is literally any other time of year. But no, this is the 4th year in a row these school holidays have involved big disruptions.

 

[iameviljez]

I dont give a **** how long it's planned for. How can you do works over Easter School holidays when it's a prime period for football? You shouldnt need to involve "various stakeholders" to know that planned works over Easter School holidays is going to cause huge disruptions for football. Either it shouldnt happen then or it should take that into account. Not doing so is why a large proportion of the population is getting fed up with all these works (myself included). The ideal time to do it is literally any other time of year. But no, this is the 4th year in a row these school holidays have involved big disruptions.

I know it sucks. But I reckon there is every chance they have crunched numbers and found it impacts fewer journeys this way.

 

[newcs]

Seriously, give it up. These works are planned months in advance and involve plenty of organisation with contractors, authorities, etc. They do their best to limit the disruption for travellers, particularly with footy fans, but you are never going to find an ideal time to do them and unfortunately, sometimes they are going to fall on game days. As I said, this would have been in the pipeline well before the fixture came out.

I have a friend who lives in Lara who has confirmed that there are freight trains still running. I can understand that having a passenger train every twenty minutes would make it difficult to do the works. But if they are still able to let some freight trains pass through then surely a couple of football specials should be able to squeeze through as well.

 

[Catman]

I dont give a **** how long it's planned for. How can you do works over Easter School holidays when it's a prime period for football? You shouldnt need to involve "various stakeholders" to know that planned works over Easter School holidays is going to cause huge disruptions for football. Either it shouldnt happen then or it should take that into account. Not doing so is why a large proportion of the population is getting fed up with all these works (myself included). The ideal time to do it is literally any other time of year. But no, this is the 4th year in a row these school holidays have involved big disruptions.

There are literally no games in Victoria next week, so that's one of the two weeks of works not affecting any people. It's just one round that is affected.

 

[Catman]

I have a friend who lives in Lara who has confirmed that there are freight trains still running. I can understand that having a passenger train every twenty minutes would make it difficult to do the works. But if they are still able to let some freight trains pass through then surely a couple of football specials should be able to squeeze through as well.

Freight trains operate on a different gauge to V/Line services and have their own designated track, so that could explain if some are still running via Lara.

 

[iameviljez]

Freight trains operate on a different gauge to V/Line services and have their own designated track so that could explain if some are still running via Lara.

This is no time for knowledge, facts or logic! That’s very 2000s.

 

[Mad_Hatter]

I dont give a **** how long it's planned for. How can you do works over Easter School holidays when it's a prime period for football? You shouldnt need to involve "various stakeholders" to know that planned works over Easter School holidays is going to cause huge disruptions for football. Either it shouldnt happen then or it should take that into account. Not doing so is why a large proportion of the population is getting fed up with all these works (myself included). The ideal time to do it is literally any other time of year. But no, this is the 4th year in a row these school holidays have involved big disruptions.

It's literally not.... and exactly WHY it's started this week...so it doesn't effect Easter.....
**** sake grow up and get some logical perspective.
"Oh I just hate all these works!!"
Cool. I guess you are ok with deaths due to derailments and failing infrastructure then?

 

[Hamingja]

It is normal - even in that prelim, we were played off the park by Brisbane for a quarter. Don't forget, at one point against GWS in that semi-final last year, Brisbane conceded seven goals in a row to go 44 points down and then mounted a huge comeback.

Hawthorn and GWS are both seen as the "it" teams at the moment - on the weekend, GWS rattled off the first six, but gave up something like the next eight.

These kind of ebbs, swings, flows are normal - we have just been insulated by it through being so good for so long.

It happens with the 6-6-6. When the 4 in the centre square are not at the level, the back 6 get no protection. Very hard to stop a run on. Go back 10 years and you drop an extra behind the play, now you can't from a centre bounce.

 

[iameviljez]

It happens with the 6-6-6. When the 4 in the centre square are not at the level, the back 6 get no protection. Very hard to stop a run on. Go back 10 years and you drop an extra behind the play, now you can't from a centre bounce.

Very good observation

 

[dudusmaximus]

I don’t need to be ChatGPT to predict a sizeable chunk of any Preview Thread..

Stop underestimating our upcoming opponent based on (their performance last week | their performance last time we met | ins & outs | venue | weather conditions | coach disparity | ..).

We’ve been the inconsiderate bully, bloodying everyone for 18 years. Expect them to play out of their skins. Legends are made. Reputations sullied. Coaches sacked even. They cannot under-deliver. We should expect to play every opponent at their best.

Flipside, we fast-track our young'uns growth as they will learn more from such losses. A baptism of fire. Bleeding edge stuff. Every week.

 

[cats_09]

I dont give a **** how long it's planned for. How can you do works over Easter School holidays when it's a prime period for football? You shouldnt need to involve "various stakeholders" to know that planned works over Easter School holidays is going to cause huge disruptions for football. Either it shouldnt happen then or it should take that into account. Not doing so is why a large proportion of the population is getting fed up with all these works (myself included). The ideal time to do it is literally any other time of year. But no, this is the 4th year in a row these school holidays have involved big disruptions.

More like going on a decade

As someone who previously commuted daily for work purposes for the best part of 10yrs and then on weekends throughout the year would travel to Melbourne for various sporting events & other activities, I can honestly say that other than September school holidays, the other school holiday periods were the best time to travel by train as they were much emptier than outside those times due to the number of workers taking time off for school holidays & kids

And the main reason September school holidays is crazy is due to the Melbourne Show - as a regular commuter, it was rather annoying to see seats unavailable due to people dumping show bags & toys on them

With the works starting yesterday, there'd be more commuters inconvenienced this week as we're not yet into school holidays than those who'll be impacted next week once the school holidays start or even those who would be traveling to Geelong on Friday night specifically for the footy

If Geelong was playing in Melbourne this weekend, many more would be impacted due to the train works than when it's a case of Geelong playing in Geelong - though we've dealt with no trains for Melbourne games before, which is no frustrating but you plan accordingly. It gives a good excuse to go up a bit earlier and have a drink before the game

 

[cats_09]

I have a friend who lives in Lara who has confirmed that there are freight trains still running. I can understand that having a passenger train every twenty minutes would make it difficult to do the works. But if they are still able to let some freight trains pass through then surely a couple of football specials should be able to squeeze through as well.

Not that simply when you look at the look at the scope of the works which includes:

• track works in the Geelong tunnel between Geelong & South Geelong
• track works & upgrades between North Geelong and North Shore
• level crossing upgrades at Little River & Lara

The tunnel works will include the use of excavation equipment & heavy machinery during this closure period, so most likely means no trains able to run through the tunnel

The track upgrades between North Geelong & North Shore includes ballast replacement & tamping; so again not suitable for passenger trains

For the Lara works, they've totally closed the McClelland Avenue level crossing to pedestrians & traffic for the duration of works to be able to upgrade that level crossing. Freight trains operate on their own gauge which is why they'll continue, but until the test trains satisfactorily past the required tests, they wouldn't be permitted to run passenger trains through that location. Add in that they're doing works on the line between Lara & Little River that would stop passenger trains running


So yes, there'll be an inconvenience for Friday night but the AFL in Geelong isn't that special that they'll change all the plans to work around it

 

[iameviljez]

I don’t need to be ChatGPT to predict a sizeable chunk of any Preview Thread..

Stop underestimating our upcoming opponent based on (their performance last week | their performance last time we met | ins & outs | venue | weather conditions | coach disparity | ..).

We’ve been the inconsiderate bully, bloodying everyone for 18 years. Expect them to play out of their skins. Legends are made. Reputations sullied. Coaches sacked even. They cannot under-deliver. We should expect to play every opponent at their best.

Flipside, we fast-track our young'uns growth as they will learn more from such losses. A baptism of fire. Bleeding edge stuff. Every week.

I'm waiting for the following:

- Boomer to state that Chris Scott needs to give players "a rocket" and "tell them to go for four quarters"
- Someone to make reference to "guarding grass"
- Overtly enthusiastic Football Manager type to suggest dropping someone who's not been dropped since forever in favour of some unheralded debutant - my early money is on Ollie Henry out, Retschko in
- Someone to suggest that playing three shit ruckmen is the obvious solution to losing with two shit ruckmen
- Someone to raise whatever point they consistently hammer on in the Draft and Trading thread (Clark over Phillipou, Thurlow over Grundy, We Should Have Traded In Some Ruckman No I Don't Know Who are all favourites)

Good ole fashioned Game After A Loss bingo.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Recovery after the humidity of last week may see some changes

 

[SkittleCats]

More like going on a decade

As someone who previously commuted daily for work purposes for the best part of 10yrs and then on weekends throughout the year would travel to Melbourne for various sporting events & other activities, I can honestly say that other than September school holidays, the other school holiday periods were the best time to travel by train as they were much emptier than outside those times due to the number of workers taking time off for school holidays & kids

And the main reason September school holidays is crazy is due to the Melbourne Show - as a regular commuter, it was rather annoying to see seats unavailable due to people dumping show bags & toys on them

With the works starting yesterday, there'd be more commuters inconvenienced this week as we're not yet into school holidays than those who'll be impacted next week once the school holidays start or even those who would be traveling to Geelong on Friday night specifically for the footy

If Geelong was playing in Melbourne this weekend, many more would be impacted due to the train works than when it's a case of Geelong playing in Geelong - though we've dealt with no trains for Melbourne games before, which is no frustrating but you plan accordingly. It gives a good excuse to go up a bit earlier and have a drink before the game

Most people would be driving as a result of the works, so nobody is having any drinks before the game.

 

[SkittleCats]

It's literally not.... and exactly WHY it's started this week...so it doesn't effect Easter.....
**** sake grow up and get some logical perspective.
"Oh I just hate all these works!!"
Cool. I guess you are ok with deaths due to derailments and failing infrastructure then?

I never said dont do works, i said find a better time: i.e the 6 month where no football is getting played every year.