Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's Gerard Waitley. Thanks for listening to the podcast.
Chapter 2: What observations are made about the record-breaking Origin crowd at the MCG?
In this episode, observations from a record-breaking night of origin at the MCG, the eye of the coach with Adam Simpson, Strategy 2026 with Brenton Sanderson, and know your history when New South Wales beat Victoria with Shannon Gill. You can get in touch at any time. Waitley at sen.com.au. Thanks for listening. Enjoy.
Sail now. Melbourne's forecast, showers windy and 18 for today. For tomorrow, showers and 15. Showers easing on Saturday, 15 again. And this Saturday morning from 5, join Simon Hill and Andy Harper from Seattle for the Socceroos and the US. Live and exclusive here on SEN.
Business owners, pay.com.au it and start earning rewards today. And manage your fleet with Radius GPS trackers. Visit Radius.com and enjoy great deals at Hyundai E-Office. On now at participating Hyundai dealers. Thursday morning. This is your town. This is your station. This is Waitley. Good morning. Sport is doing its thing at the moment. These World Cup games are sensational.
The exploits of Messi, Haaland and Mbappe yesterday, leading to a brace from Harry Kane this morning. There's no slow burn in the first round. It's straight to full throttle. And Saturday morning offers us the lure... of our biggest up yours to the US since the America's Cup. How could you not feel patriotic? Last night at the MCG, well, that was sensational.
A record-breaking origin crowd of 91,671 on a Wednesday night, second only to Anzac Day at the G this year. The NRL stages a brilliant event. The light show, the theatrics, the presence of Cathy Freeman. The travelling New South Wales contingent felt enormous, both in the ground and then particularly on the way home. The first half was enthralling.
The second half onslaught from Queensland was captivating. And when the Queenslander chant broke out, well, finally, the G belonged to the Maroons. Origin is worthy of that stage, and it's a major event Victoria should covet at the right interval. So a couple of other takeouts from last night. The rectangle at the MCG is a complete non-issue.
Every time I go to one of these games, I come away thinking, what on earth are people whinging about? The NFL had representatives there last night. They loved what they saw. September 11 is going to be amazing. And the event was a timely reminder of the importance and the majesty of the MCG in this town as planning intensifies around the redevelopment of the warm stands.
This is a vital project for the state. It needs the best and boldest and most imaginative minds to conceive the MCG of the future. And it needs a budget commitment to match the legacy ambition. There is no more sacred gathering place in this city than the MCG for locals and for visitors alike. The stadium has to be a central part of the attraction as well as the events.
Done right, it will serve our children's children's children as it has done for generations past. The MCG of the future is worth every dollar. Last night was a timely reminder. Your thoughts throughout the morning, 1-300-736-736. And the 40 Wings temper text is 0433-981116. The difference is temper, especially if you were there last night.
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Chapter 3: What were the highlights of the NRL event and its impact?
And then when Queensland got rolling and the Queenslander chant broke out, yeah, it was everything you'd expect from a preliminary final crowd.
The equivalent of a try from the back half, is it like a goal from the centre bounce? Like a Jackson out the middle taking a bounce, handball received, kicking a goal, like, we heard just before.
It's sort of, it's a punctuated build because it goes from tackle to tackle and it, so it rises and rises and rises and then they're through. Yep. Okay. Yeah, it was, yeah, I loved it. But that, that idea of Wharfie time, so this is the, This is the perfect fusion of how do you get your crowd involved to your advantage? Strategically deploy. It's only a couple of times so far.
And the great mystery is who calls the wharf-y time. I don't think it's just- Well, I like to think that it is, quite frankly. I would be taking over that. I'd have a button in the box. And honestly, I'd be going, we need it.
It's strange it's not every game. Like it's the old three. We used to do- We tried to do, you know, the I Won't Back Down song, and I tried to get that played at three-quarter time. Right. I thought that would be real. I pitched it pre-season to the marketing teams, and they did it. It didn't really hit the mark, but I really liked that song. Johnny Cash version. Yeah.
And I think it was, I'd wanted, I was, I'd pictured the crowd all singing it and, you know, but it didn't quite come to fruition. But yeah, it's, it's something that's definitely there. I just, I'm just surprised they don't do it all the time. Even if they're, when you're 10 goals down, it's a challenge, but it just gets the crowd going.
Yeah, I think they like to use it as a strategic point when it's most needed. So they played it when they were a goal behind Hawthorne. They were on the move, but they were still behind.
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Chapter 4: What key takeaways are there from the NRL's performance and event staging?
And then it infuses the go-ahead goal and the goals that flow thereafter. Out of all the teams that don't care about that is Geelong. I just don't think they would rattle them at all.
But if you're a young side over there and you've got a half a chance and suddenly, I know what it's like getting a crowd behind you, and that stadium in particular is like no other.
All right. What are you thinking? Well, it's the system of Fremantle versus the strategy of Geelong, isn't it?
So I don't think this is going to be ā
i don't think we're going to see everything tonight in terms of they might meet each other in the finals at some some point i don't think freeman are going to hold back at all because they just play their way they've got their roles they've got their good players back this week as well they're not arresting anyone they're coming off their buy you know not long ago so i don't think they will hold back anything they'll just go full tilt and i don't think you'll see any massive surprises from a strategy point of view from freeman so i
Um, that's the way I used to coach. It's just, here's your system, here's our roles. And let's just take these one or two things away from Geelong. And that might be, um, corridor ball movement. It might be a player. It just might be one or two things, but the rest of it, we just do us. So I don't think you'll see anything different with Fremantle. Geelong is completely different, isn't it?
They're more, we'll beat you, um, we'll beat you in the box a little bit. We'll, we'll, this chess game we're playing. We'll make a few moves you won't even know happened. You know, you've played Geelong and it's like, what's going on here? Why are we five goals down? And it takes you to halfway through the third quarter to work it out. And then before then, they've changed again.
So it's like you're always bamboozled. Not always, mind you. But when Geelong are at their best, I think they play a certain way, but they've got some more tricks up their sleeve. And I never thought tricks won flags before. But they've bucked the trend to a certain degree. And I think you'll see something different tonight, maybe briefly. And they're not going full strength.
So, you know, if someone's 50-50 this week, they're not playing them. Whereas I would have. You know, we've got Fremantle. Let's go. Let's win this game.
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Chapter 5: How do Fremantle and Geelong compare in their current season performance?
Who's going to win seven and three? That happens every, I reckon every second year. So we've had premierships won from 13th at this point in the season at the bye.
You know who's 13th now? Richmond and Brisbane. Collingwood.
No.
North the 13th. Shimboners. Come on, Clarko. So yeah, I think, so you got Suns 9th, Saints 10th, Giants 11th, Collingwood 12th, North 13th, Carlton 14th. And then you got West Coast, Port, Richmond and Essendon. They're probably not in the mix, but yeah.
That group is six or seven teams. Someone's going to get on a run. I mean, Carlton's already got four in a row. So yeah. And then the wildcard round's making it a little bit more sexy too.
Because if talking about, you know, 12th versus 14th probably doesn't float your boat last year, but now it does. Now it matters. So I think it's a big winner. We spoke about this, the wildcard round, and I think there's going to be a team. And I thought it was going to be the Giants, but they should have won last week if it was going to be then. Exactly. It could be anyone.
It could be the Saints. They look good. They've got the dogs this way.
Saints-Bulldogs is such a good game. Yep. Right game at the right time. Can it be the Suns?
Yes.
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Chapter 6: How does Geelong plan to counter Fremantle's midfield strength?
His, his athleticism allows Fremantle to generate a lot more clearances and, and a lot more transition advantages from stoppage. So I don't think Geelong need to necessarily win hit outs, but what they need to do with, with Jackson, they've got to have a plan to cover him post clearance. So who's going to run with him and who's going to match him aerial?
I don't think it's Edwards, but maybe it's someone like Blitzov. He's potentially the one or he's the one that can run with him and potentially contest with him in the air. But he's just not a pure Ruckman Jackson. He's effectively their fourth midfielder. So they've got to have a plan for him.
Chapter 7: What strategies must Geelong implement to secure a front half game?
Another question he's going to ask his coaches is how do we get a front half game against Fremantle? We know that up the stadium, Fremantle are so good at controlling field position. And I know Geelong's best performances have historically come when they can trap the ball in their own front half. So it's red alert.
Geelong have got to make sure they prioritise pressure on Fremantle's ball users tonight. So force rush decisions, create turnovers on every exit, and just prevent those uncontested chains of possession that Fremantle are now doing really well. So...
I think there's three or four things there that Scotty would have asked his coaches to provide some answers to, and I think they're the sort of answers that he might have got from his coaches this week. Right. You know I'd love nothing more than a list of live stats to follow during a game. Yep. What are we focusing on?
I think what will help with Geelong tonight, if they are going to win this game, is you've got to share information with players during the breaks and just some really basic fundamental stats that you know you can measure. So big one tonight is going to be clearance differential. So plus or minus, are we winning clearance?
Chapter 8: What key performance indicators are crucial for Geelong's success?
What will determine field position will be inside 50s. So once again, you've got to own that differential. So once again, at the breaks, we're either plus or minus. We're either green or red for inside 50s. The big thing I think for Chris Scott tonight is going to be forward 50 tackles.
So put that measure up and anything like 10, 12 plus indicates you've got your front half pressure up and turnovers forced in out in Geelong's forward half. You can provide that information to players. And I think the last one, so that's probably three or four, probably the last one I would share with the players will be scores from stoppage.
is Geelong were either plus or minus on that one as well. So just some reds and greens tonight, just some live stats for Geelong. Clearance differential, inside 50s, forward 50 tackles, throw in intercept marks, and then scores from stoppage, plus or minus. I think they're probably the key indicators tonight that Geelong have got to see more green than red on the whiteboard during the break.
Yeah, and so this is the whiteboard that's gridded up for each quarter and that's come and held out so the players can, and it's literally green or red the way that it's done with the texters. And you see it probably about half the huddles across a weekend, I reckon.
It's really good information for players if you've got a couple of KPIs that you can measure in-game and you can get live feedback for the players. You can even have it, most clubs now have the computer monitors on the bench with that information and it's either green or red so you can get some live feedback. when you come to the bench as well. All right. So how does it all mash up?
Well, I think it's hard to tip against Fremantle in Perth. I do like Geelong's offense and it's going to trouble Fremantle's defense at times, but it just feels like it's really hard to kick a winning score against Fremantle at the moment, particularly at Optus Stadium. I thought they're probably a two goal better side than Geelong at the moment, particularly in Perth.
But that might blow out a little bit further now that Bailey Smith is out. Plus you get Cox and Sorong back for Fremantle. I think that's quite significant too. So it probably feels like a two to three goal win, I think, tonight for Fremantle. Right, they're set up for Thursday night footy.
You'll hear the call here on AFL Nation, Brenton Sanderson with a leaning towards Fremantle to extend its winning streak to 13. For City Power, Melbourne's weather, a shower or two windy, a top of 18 before bad weather hits. Be prepared and sign up for SMS outage alerts all at citypower.com.au. Friday night footy we will look into next as Gold Coast hosts Hawthorne.
Ring Gerard on 1300 736 736. Now, back to Waitley. Well, at the end of the day, we lost to the reigning premiers two weeks ago. They've always been a side that we've struggled to get across, and we understand that we've got to grow in that space. We lost to the runners-up on their home deck last week. We had a disappointing last quarter versus North Melbourne.
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