8 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

You reckon he's this years Hogan or Watts mate?

Same personalities 

Gus played only 65% game time tonight, and was exclusively playing on the wings. He attended one centre bounce all night. Below is his heat map. Can’t help but think somethings not right with him at the moment seeing that.

 

I’m starting to worry about him. Either they need to play him inside or they need to reinvent him. He plays [censored] all minutes for a mid and when he plays he plays where he isn’t suited. Something needs to happen here. 

7 minutes ago, Jaded said:

I’m starting to worry about him. Either they need to play him inside or they need to reinvent him. He plays [censored] all minutes for a mid and when he plays he plays where he isn’t suited. Something needs to happen here. 

Hard to find a good solution though. 3 ideas:

1. In one of the short breaks we play Petracca as a full time deep forward and Gus plays full minutes on ball. 

2. Harmes plays wing/forward and Viney takes more minutes as a half forward.

3. Gus to half back.

He’s jogging on the spot in our team right now. 
9 possessions.  1 mark. 2 tackles.   He’s back next week but needs to have a huge lift in his performance 

I feel like he's a good inside mid in a team that doesn't need him for anything other than depth

i think there is an opportunity for a win-win trade here if we could get something we need in return. 

44 minutes ago, Lord Travis said:

Gus played only 65% game time tonight, and was exclusively playing on the wings. He attended one centre bounce all night. Below is his heat map. Can’t help but think somethings not right with him at the moment seeing that.

 

Our best three mids are viney, Oliver and tracc.

With 16 minute quarters, more tempo footy and less goals (so fewer centre bounces) they can all play big minutes on ball.

Gus has to adapt  to whatever role he is given.

The commentators were banging on about his game time. Just as BT did ladt week.  They were all perplexed as to why he had low minutes.

I suspect the answer is obvious. He is his simply not fit enough.

Edited July 26, 20204 yr by binman

45 minutes ago, Patches O’houlihan said:

I feel like he's a good inside mid in a team that doesn't need him for anything other than depth

i think there is an opportunity for a win-win trade here if we could get something we need in return. 

What's his trade value to a team crying out for an inside mid?

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

Hard to find a good solution though. 3 ideas:

1. In one of the short breaks we play Petracca as a full time deep forward and Gus plays full minutes on ball. 

2. Harmes plays wing/forward and Viney takes more minutes as a half forward.

3. Gus to half back.

4. Trade him.

The thing is, the moment he get 90% tog in the guts he'd be another top10 brownlow finisher 

sad to see him fall off even further than he has

his disposal and his defensive accountability is atrocious and has been since his second season

no club should offer more than a third round pick for him; someone might offer us a second rounder and we'd be crazy not to take it given his exposed form for the last season and a half

1 hour ago, adonski said:

What's his trade value to a team crying out for an inside mid?

Try to find a team crying out for an inside mid and that pretty much answers the question.

I think we're going to have to be willing to pay a decent chunk of his contract so it reflects his true output over the last two years just to get a team interested.

Freo might want to take the load off Fyfe and Walters with Mundy nearly done. Sydney could be keen on a mature body to pair with Parker once Kennedy is done. Geelong need to replace Selwood and seem keen to stay up the ladder. The two South Australian sides if Crouch and Wines go. I can't see anyone crying out for a player like Gus tho.

Almost the entire league has shifted to inside mids who can run and use the ball, instead of midfields with 4 players like Gus most teams are playing 1 or 2.

9 hours ago, binman said:

Our best three mids are viney, Oliver and tracc.

With 16 minute quarters, more tempo footy and less goals (so fewer centre bounces) they can all play big minutes on ball.

Gus has to adapt  to whatever role he is given.

The commentators were banging on about his game time. Just as BT did ladt week.  They were all perplexed as to why he had low minutes.

I suspect the answer is obvious. He is his simply not fit enough.

He did have that elbow injury in the pre season so perhaps he isn’t all that fit. 

With lots of short breaks coming up, I would like to think he would get more minutes on the ground. The emergence of Trac has all but killed his career unless he finds a new position. 

Wouldn’t be opposed to trying him at half back. I don’t know why we insist on playing Salem so far back in the field but certainly Salem on a wing and Gus at half back could work. He is not a bad user of the footy. 

42 minutes ago, Jaded said:

He did have that elbow injury in the pre season so perhaps he isn’t all that fit. 

With lots of short breaks coming up, I would like to think he would get more minutes on the ground. The emergence of Trac has all but killed his career unless he finds a new position. 

Wouldn’t be opposed to trying him at half back. I don’t know why we insist on playing Salem so far back in the field but certainly Salem on a wing and Gus at half back could work. He is not a bad user of the footy. 

He did but you woudn't think that his fitness was affected much given he could and did run. 

It might be why they're not playing him in the middle. If its an elbow ligament they can take ages to repair. The strength takes a long time to get back to normal. Maybe he doesn't have the strength for the heat of the centre square bounces.

12 hours ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Same personalities 

I'd say he's become 2018's Dom Tyson more like it. Brilliant 2 seasons beforehand but now on the outer and can't play a wing role. 

13 hours ago, binman said:

With 16 minute quarters, more tempo footy and less goals (so fewer centre bounces) they can all play big minutes on ball.

 

Interesting aspect you raise @binman. Less need for midfield rotations could be what's leaving Gus out in the cold.

12 hours ago, Lord Nev said:

4. Trade him.

I think it should go more like this:

4. Drop him

5. Trade him

15 hours ago, adonski said:

He's gone. What's he worth? Teams like Carlton, Essendon, Saints, maybe even Swans who need an inside mid would be keen, but what's he worth?

If he was in Essenscum jumper they’d be demanding a top 10 pick.

i reckon he’d be worth a late first/early second rounder, but I’d rather trade him for an already established player.

Edited July 27, 20204 yr by Demon Disciple

I genuinely feel we'd be better off trying to lure a decent young half back, moving Salem into more of a mid/half back rotating position and then using Gus as trade bait to get someone who better compliments our side

Unfortunately it's a ruthless business and Gus just isn't cutting it at the moment

Is there a chance he himself has asked to be traded at year end to a team in Perth? 
 

Explains the lack of urgency and possibly the reduced game time from the perspective of trying to keep it under wraps which holds his trade value. If it gets out that he wants a trade, we then lose the upper hand.

15 hours ago, Lord Travis said:

Gus played only 65% game time tonight, and was exclusively playing on the wings. He attended one centre bounce all night. Below is his heat map. Can’t help but think somethings not right with him at the moment seeing that.

 

Great pick up Lord Travis, I think this nails the issue. 2019 review from the AFL to Melbourne highlighted the requirement of the wing position and the reason why we targeted Langdon and Tomlinson in the trade period. Wingers need to create outside run and spread, overlap, help stop gap in defense but also create forward drives in attack. They are mainly outside players, run all day types. Brayshaw is an mix inside/outside mid who is also very capable on the back and forward flank. Playing him in a position that exposes his weakness in speed, agility and doesn't take advantage of his footy IQ and contest work. 

Goodwin did a great job recognizing mistakes in the team structure:

- Adding a FF in Weid instead of playing a running CHF in TMac in a role that doesn't suit him

- Moving Harmes in a Fwd/Mid role

- Playing OMac which allows May and Lever to be more aggressive which, with Gawn's assistance, has made for a very strong performance from our backline

Either have Brayshaw switching with Salem in the halfback (give Salem some midfield time as well) which Brayshaw has done well in the past or have him rest up forward and switch with the mids from there. Goodwin pushed him forward in a last ditch effort against Geelong where he laid some key tackles and kicked two key goals that nearly got us over the line...Play him in a position that maximises his strengths not his weaknesses.   

I like Gus and if Viney or Petracca were injured he'd be straight into my starting midfield mix. 

That said, I was proposing we trade Gus at the end of 2019 when his currency was a bit higher.

I fear that if he continues on this trajectory we'd want to trade him, but wouldn't get enough for him, so may as well keep him as midfield depth. It really does only take one injury and he'd be straight in there though.

Edited July 27, 20204 yr by A F

he has two years to go on his current contact on - if you believe the scum's guesstimates - some pretty hefty coin

no club would in their right mind offer more than a third rounder for him

can't kick, won't chase

I think the next month will tell us a lot about Brayshaw.

Petracca and Oliver have both shown they are able to play forward.  If they are not going to rest players, you would think both should spend a bit of time for for the next 3 games.  This should allow Brayshaw to actually play in the centre square - let's see what he can do.

Because if Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw are all ahead of him, then we should be playing someone with more pace (and ideally skills) on the wing in his place.

He seems like a ripping bloke and has all the attributes (kicking both feet, able to mark over head, courage etc) - I'd love to see him succeed - but it's not clicking for whatever reason.  I think he's got the next month to show what he's got otherwise he won't be at the club next year - with the likes of Sparrow and Jordan nipping at his heels.

1 hour ago, deelusions from afar said:

I think the next month will tell us a lot about Brayshaw.

Petracca and Oliver have both shown they are able to play forward.  If they are not going to rest players, you would think both should spend a bit of time for for the next 3 games.  This should allow Brayshaw to actually play in the centre square - let's see what he can do.

Because if Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw are all ahead of him, then we should be playing someone with more pace (and ideally skills) on the wing in his place.

He seems like a ripping bloke and has all the attributes (kicking both feet, able to mark over head, courage etc) - I'd love to see him succeed - but it's not clicking for whatever reason.  I think he's got the next month to show what he's got otherwise he won't be at the club next year - with the likes of Sparrow and Jordan nipping at his heels.

Sparrow should be playing.