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On yesterday’s effort at Whitten Oval best you don’t hold your breath. Plenty of gym hours needed there.

Top post and I need to temper my expectations. Either way, it will be interesting.

We're definitely thin down back

Nup Essendon losing always gives me joy. Love to see West coast win. It's really not 2 exciting games today.

We lost, so I’m not in the greatest of moods, but I’ll be cheering for West Coast and Essendon. I really want Port to go 0-2 and experience the joys of seeing North fans come crashing back down to earth knowing the team they beat last week is utter [censored].

Are you suggesting that there shouldn't be any scrutiny or that young players are beyond being critiqued ? Or that if you do critique them you must have an addendum at the end of said critique that references their age or lack of experience ? So, every time I assess their output I need to end my commentary with said addendum ?

I think your assessment of Lever is spot on. He did work his way into the game but his last two 1st quarters have been disappointing. There have been a number of times in our system under Goodwin where we would drop a game because May, Petty, Tomlinson, Turner, * insert 1v1 defender * weren't playing and Lever had to take an opposition key forward. We gave him the pass because we knew when the system had all personel that Lever would play at his best. Well the coach got sacked like a lot of people wanted, the system was removed and the broom came through to wipe the slate clean, along with that May retired. Due to this I don't think we can look at Lever the way we did in the past. We don't play with an extra back anymore. We are rebuilding the backline and if Jake was really was so disappointed at being dropped last year and not wanting it to happen again then he would understand that he now needs to do some 1 on 1 defending occasionally. Clayton Oliver was told to evolve or move on (amongst other things yes) so it kind of surprises me that Jake is allowed to stay exactly how he is with exception? I love the guy but this is an adapt or die season.

One good game doesn’t make a lock

Do I assume you're new to football or the MFC ? Oliver won a best & fairest in his second year playing most of the season as a teenager.

Disclaimer- I’ve never been one for starting a post, so please move or merge if this Is covered elsewhere. While last night was a disappointing start to a game where we had the chance to showcase our new gameplan against a very good opponent. We didn’t handle the pressure, stopped running in waves and moving the ball forward by handball. While the team fell back into some old habits, I think understand that this will happen with a different style of play. So need to be patient. This side is not a premiership side in its current form. Yes we will need to add some layers over the coming years. But I’m keen to hear what people think we can change this year to bolster areas of weakness. For mine I see the Backline being an issue where we play sides with very good talls, or elite smalls. Freo, Bulldogs and Adelaide concerned me for the talls as do Brisbane, Hawks, GC for smalls. I think we are short 1 strong defender and 1 good utility and small defender. So what do we have at our disposal this year. I think Petty and Turner can do a job, but we will need to look at Kentfield or AJ (if his body can handle it) down back. The 3rd Tall/interceptor is between Howes/Lever/Taylor. The quicker Taylor comes on the better. I want Lindsay to play on a wing for now. Smalls. I think we will see AMW come in and hold that small defender role, Kolt is also earmarked as a defender when not tagging. The other glaring one is the midfield. We did expect some issues here, but this year I can see Langford looks like he is not ready to play in the centre, so he might be better served at half forward. Koz is electric and Steele is workmanlike. Windsor is not a pure mid, Rivers looks a bit lost as does Sparrow. I think we need to find the mix of energy, clean disposal- especially by hand and tackling ability. I’d like to see Chin play a bit of midfield time, but only when Koz rolls forward. This is a very early review, things will change and I hope they do. We have some talent and some players who have been on the list a while and not yet taken the next step. Hoping that might happen this year with a change of role and freedom. Keen to hear what people think on positional changes. Or anything they would like to see this year with what we have.

Excellent point. Reminds me of the fragility of human psychology in the investment space. Just look at the newly released (highly anticipated” video game “Crimson Desert” and the developer Pearl Abyss, despite still scoring a pretty good average score of 77, their stock price literally plummeted a good 15% just because it wasn’t a 90+. 77 is still a damn good score, but just because it didn’t meet sky high expectations, investors just panicked and sold, not regarding the fact Pearl Abyss could update the game over time to further improve the game when it launched. There is no way to know how things will play out. Bonds, stocks, property, gold, etc will ALL have their time in the sun. What it does mean however, is markets are typically influenced by human emotion. Even fund asset managers make mistakes on the daily. Investment markets are very predictive, NOT usually indicative. You also have to judge why an asset is down. Is it down because of catastrophic errors by management? A long term change in the business environment, fraud of some sort or any other illegal activity? If so, I will personally just eat the loss and sell. Point being? Looking at last night’s result in its entirety and within context, panicking after yesterday’s result is just lunacy. Also, a massive factor in the loss is we were traveling off a 6 day break playing in back to back matches where heat was over 30 degrees. We owe Carlton big time, so I’m hoping win number 2 comes next week. I’m confident we will bounce back.

Just please get CJ out, he seemed like he had some good moments but overall he made me cringe most of the time. I guess that's one decent game vs Saints and one shocker vs Freo...maybe try him again? Would be keen to see Langford be less [censored] this week. Also not sure about Trelly, he was pretty awful this game and cost us. He's brand new though really, so we're expecting a lot, but maybe he isn't ready. I don't mind just strapping in for the ride though, ups and downs, let's be honest there will likely be more downs this year but so long as you can see where its headed and no one gets too sad about it.

Need to see Harvey Langford starting in the middle from first bounce/toss up.

Exactly the reason we traded the other 2 away also. No leadership and poor culture. Anyone that’s piling onto the coach and list after 2 games really has NFI when it comes to football. The kids need time in a good environment

Gawn Steele Langdon Salem Fritsch Rivers

I didn’t realise Riv had such low centre square attendance. Possibly we decided we needed more help behind the ball once Disco went down. It’s interesting what you said about overlap run. It was driving me nuts watching on, and I think it directly played into how poor our delivery was going forward. I wonder if King was a bit surprised that we seemed to regress, and what he’ll try and do to get the boys to keep taking the game on, or if it was more structural to how Freo set up. It’s always hard to see that stuff on the TV.

The AFL Live app also lists the goals incorrectly…

Great format change guys. I think it will work really well.

Fair call. It's just I feel we missed someone like him yesterday. I dont think I'm qualified in the slightest to judge the club which I kind of did, but given Petty hasn't played as a defender for eons and Lever's run of injuries and game time last year, maybe we fixed our forward line only to find our backline wanting. But plenty of time for those two to turn things around. And with their best , along with an improving Turner, all could be very well. The Panglossian strikes again.

Was always going to be that kind of season. Enjoy the ride, if not…don’t get on.

Isn’t it interesting, as soon as we have an Arsenal visitor, some revert to soccer tactics instead of putting their body over it and picking the pill up. Salem did it numerous times. And Freo grow a leg of confidence from it smelling blood. Can they teach Langford to handball and on both sides of his body? Because he is an incomplete player if ever I’ve seen one. He only has a left foot and even that was missing last night.

May was forced to retire which is justified by he’s behaviours enough said, instrumental in our premiership but after that….you don’t need to be a rocket scientist with departures over the last 2 seasons.

Was having a laugh bud

6 - Gawn - carried us, as always 5 - Langdon - hit the scoreboard and ran all day 4 - Steele - plenty of ball albeit sloppy at times, still a lot to like going forward 3 - Tholstrup - solid tagging effort, especially considering the experience differential 2 - Salem - didn't think I'd have him here much this year but he was solid in defence 1 - Lever - did his role, but let's be real we're probably scraping the barrel a little by this point On to the lacklustre baggers.

I mean, i get it though. Why go to the footy if you dont have some hope of a win?