1 hour ago, rjay said:

I heard someone say this today and it's not necessarily true.

The way we set up very definitely crowds our forwards and makes it hard.

I think we need to spread more rather than bunch up to make it easy for defenders.

Jennings is supposed to be a football genius but I can't see his logic here.

Quite possibly Rjay.  With Viney out there is a bit of a forced opening here and from my horribly amature seat i'm thinking....

>  Viney out with no direct replacement, leaves the mid field stocks down one rotation.

>  We have an out of form Tracc who isn't firing across HF (outside of the Swans match).  Opportunity/challenge time.  Tracc has/is played through the mid occasionally in short bursts from what i recall/understand?  He is asked to step up tomorrow and play significanly more time through the middle as a plus one (straight after any center bounce also) to cover the bulk of Viney's role.

> Assuming Fritschkreig plays off HF, then he, Melk, Keilty and T-Mac should, in theory have a little more space to work into allowing a few more connections coming inside (if they lower eyes and are reasonably accurate).  This assumes only one of Fritschkreig / Melk are playing inside 50 alongside Tracc.  Of course the Hawks might play a plus one / sweeper across HB.  If so we need to work the switch hard, be patient and connect well coming inside 50 wherever possible.  If we bomb too much we will play right into the sweeper's hands and it will pop straight out again (most teams know this and do this pretty well against us now anyway as we know).  Obviously the bail out is unavoidable at times given the opp's pressure levels.  Hopefully Kielty might clunk a couple here as a bonus and T-Mac would be nice also.

>  Chunk plays a deep forward role alongside Jeffy.  Lockhart rotating with these two off the bench.  Chunk and to a lessor degree, Jeffy, also spend some time through the mid as a plus one while Tracc is off.  Leaving Jeffy at home for the entire match is not an option with Pruess not playing out of the goal square IMO.  Needs to get busy up the ground a little and help out otherwise he will leave us a fair wack down on mid field (outside) rotations and might help keep Tracc and Chunk a little fresher when they're in there.

Edited May 3, 20195 yr by Rusty Nails

I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I'm not unhappy that OMac comes in to return to defence while Tom goes forward again. I didn't think Tom looked bad against the tigers in defence and I'm holding out a little bit of hope that the little break from being "the man" up forward might just bring him back into form. Dec coming in is a great reward for effort and I wish him all the best of luck.

I'm not daring for a win though, I just want to see us get back to some confidence and play the brand we played last year.

5 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

I am just interested in how much support these players are expected to provide for OMac, distracting from their core roles and functions, their direct opponents and the Whoreform game plan. If it is again 'full-on', then it will again fail whereby clearances will be strained and intercepted. Good luck, backline. Sounds like recruit footballers being exploited as face-savers. 

Any forward line is likely to tear us a new one if they get easy supply under not much pressure at the moment 56. 

Hard enough when you have a solid 6 with a stack of experience playing together, some close down speed with good spoiling/intercept skills and decent run / finish.  With the addition of Hore and to a lessor degree Frosty, we do have some reasonable intercept happening.  Add Hunt and there is also some potential to run the Hawks a little the other way and fatigue their forwards.  But at the end of all that (and any run off HB) we need to hit targets and connect more often up forward instead of so many turnovers.

It's the turnovers that kill off any general play and minor momentum we might be seeing (in super small doses) this season.  We are our own worst enemy here and it makes us super easy to play against.  The Hawks will be banking on this and any time we might look like we're starting to get something going i think they'll no doubt be so well drilled by Clarkson & Co. they will simply up the pressure and things are likely to to get ugly....again!  Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst here.

6 hours ago, Drunkn167 said:

GENTS!!!!!

I've known about this since yesterday but have had to keep quiet until the official release. 

Over 12 years of blood, sweat and tears has gone into this day. Dec has worked his [censored] off and finally gets his chance, debuting at the glorious MCG. 

I am lost for words. Lets hope he kicks a few goals.

Carn Dec and Carn the Dee's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

You should take him out tonight on a pub crawl to celebrate.

If you get home at 5am he will still be able to get a few solid hours sleep before the game.

I am very pleased that Dec gets a chance, and I will be cheering him on to have a brilliant game.

I find it interesting that as Smith came out, they didn’t bump Weids back in.  Obviously the decision was made to send the Weid a lesson, to go back and work.  I think Dec will be a good inclusion, backing Maxy up in the ruck and taking some nice grabs in the f50.

Tim Smith out with back soreness after 1-week back in. Ridiculous.  10 days off. It’s now a joke.  Tanking will be mentioned shortly and it’s round 7. 

In: ayra stark

out: everyone

 

Hawks by 10 goals

l’hiver is coming 

Would absolutely love us to win,    by any margin,   but with 13 players out injured, we do not have the quality to beat Hawthorn. Unless they lay down thinking its a given.

 

I hope the injury reports are accurate because in 4 weeks we will have some more senior players returning,  all at once or a couple in  for Casey. In any case a much better second half of the season awaits.  2019 has gone west, lets look towards next year. at least we should have a better draw and bigger odds.

 

Come on Dees smash the dawks    Go Dees !!                                                hawks by   6 goals in a canter!

2 hours ago, Superunknown said:

In: ayra stark

out: everyone

 

Hawks by 10 goals

l’hiver is coming 

we have dragons... and Gilli......mind you we had Sam as well but they dropped him

12 hours ago, Rusty Nails said:

Any forward line is likely to tear us a new one if they get easy supply under not much pressure at the moment 56. 

Hard enough when you have a solid 6 with a stack of experience playing together, some close down speed with good spoiling/intercept skills and decent run / finish.  With the addition of Hore and to a lessor degree Frosty, we do have some reasonable intercept happening.  Add Hunt and there is also some potential to run the Hawks a little the other way and fatigue their forwards.  But at the end of all that (and any run off HB) we need to hit targets and connect more often up forward instead of so many turnovers.

It's the turnovers that kill off any general play and minor momentum we might be seeing (in super small doses) this season.  We are our own worst enemy here and it makes us super easy to play against.  The Hawks will be banking on this and any time we might look like we're starting to get something going i think they'll no doubt be so well drilled by Clarkson & Co. they will simply up the pressure and things are likely to to get ugly....again!  Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst here.

Interesting summation. End to end, it feels like we won't be terribly pretty. Concurrently, it is a worry that we are all considering the likelihood of turnovers and missed targets at this stage of an 'already'-started season; it begs the question: what have we been doing at training in the larger picture? 

36 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Interesting summation. End to end, it feels like we won't be terribly pretty. Concurrently, it is a worry that we are all considering the likelihood of turnovers and missed targets at this stage of an 'already'-started season; it begs the question: what have we been doing at training in the larger picture? 

Possibly 'trying' to play catch up on fitness and conditioning 56? if the Tracc incident is anything to go by... 

1 minute ago, Rusty Nails said:

Possibly 'trying' to play catch up on fitness and conditioning 56? if the Tracc incident is anything to go by... 

Hmmmmm....

10 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Tim Smith out with back soreness after 1-week back in. Ridiculous.  10 days off. It’s now a joke.  Tanking will be mentioned shortly and it’s round 7. 

Maybe they had given him a bag full of bricks to balance of his head while doing to hypoxia session and he tweaked his back..

On 5/2/2019 at 2:04 PM, P-man said:

I have a good feeling about this week which is pretty much all I'm hanging my hat on. The only other time I've had a good feeling going into the game was against Sydney so we shall see if my spidey senses can go 2 from 2.

Spidey senses on song.