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My explanation for Harley is that his program management was already mapped out for a 2:1 play and miss at this stage. And this may be the plan fir the next block of three games till later in The season or occur fir the the whole season!

Last  weeks intraclub was matchlike In time And tberefore he has played 2 games and now needs a rest in his 2020 program.

Liken it to a horse having a very serious track gallop if th races are cancelled and is on a schedule fir the major Cup races. The plan in fitness is not altered.

I don't have any doubt what Goody said and it has proved truthful.

Why doubt it Picket???and etc!!!

Kossie Angus Jacko and Lockhart (or Jonesy for Jacko) I expect to be the changes.

Nev is off the boil but will come back Smithy is very lucky but FD and Goody  seem determined to give him a favourable run. Time will tell but I also hope he has to switched forward during  the match. Maybe to win the game.

We need to play well and be competitive vs Cats after last year and to get our season really started seriously.

Win the rucks and mids go to town with pressure and ball carry so their defence is under pressure all day.

Pace is one of the keys and ball movement essential and Kossie and Jay and Angus plus the wingers must play boldly. 

Lets see it will be fascinating.

Go Dees 

 
1 hour ago, Beetle said:

Unfortunately that comes back to Goodwin’s inability to just be himself and speak logically to the media.

“Yeah, he’ll be fully fit, he’ll be ready to go...” being his initial (rubbish) response, followed by the half decent response to the question.

All he had to say was that he could play this weekend, but the club are managing his return, despite his eagerness, to ensure his longevity in the game. 5 second simple response.

Unfortunately Simon isn’t capable of speaking like an average person in front of the media.

Maybe he is being himself? 

Waiting another round to see Bennell and Kozzie play together feels like such a tease. They should have played together vs Carlton but Kozzie got himself suspended through poor judgement, they should've played together last week but Essendon went and ruined that (they're very good at ruining things), and now I finally thought they were going to get in a game together and they choose to omit Bennell.

I fully expect this is just management, there hasn't been any word on him hurting himself so I picture the fitness staff had this worked out in advance. 

As for who stays on the bench, I feel like they had a plan for the forward line and how they were going to tackle the ruck situation without another tall so Jackson might miss out. At a guess I'm going to say: Pickett, Brayshaw, Jetta, Hibberd. But truthfully I've been pretty out with the selections so I kinda give up now!

 
8 hours ago, Beetle said:

Unfortunately Simon isn’t capable of speaking like an average person in front of the media.

Maybe he is just treating the media with the disdain they deserve.

Do we have a scratch match this weekend? Haven’t seen anything mentioned, although these aren’t close to the real thing they are somewhat important for development purposes. 


11 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Do we have a scratch match this weekend? Haven’t seen anything mentioned, although these aren’t close to the real thing they are somewhat important for development purposes. 

They're just waiting to see if a cats player gets covid before making any plans

In: Lockhart   Out: Bennell

Harmes to play a bit more through midfield to open up a spot for another backman to come in. Harmes could possibly tag Danger. 

Selwood is still the key to the Cats to me. I’d be sending Viney to him. 

Dees by 23 

11 hours ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

So AVB and Hannan are certain starters, I hope Lockhart is also. 

Update: Our forward line seems too small, does Jackson stay? 

Was always going to be my concern, Ethan, hence why I was calling for Brown to be called up.

What it has allowed Geelong to do is "rest" Taylor, who can be a liability for them, and bring in another hard, mature, running half back, which is an area that is of greater strength than our half forwards.

The ball is going to be bouncing out of our forward line so quick that our backs will have no chance of stopping it.  Hawkins will likely kick 5 or 6, and the usual suspects will be putting all the blame on May.  He (May) is on a hiding to nothing in this game.

I'll tolerate a loss, but if that Miers kid has a day out, I could literally throw up on my TV.  Need to bring in Lockhart to shut him down, will be the only one that can. 

 

Another inept selection performance by Goodwin & co. Minimum 31 players used in 3 games; at least 9 but probably more changes in 2 weeks, none of which are due to injury. That suggests to me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are making it up as they go along.

How about picking a sensible, well-structured side and giving it a few weeks to come together, rather than throwing everything in the air each week?

Hannan, Fritsch and Melksham in the same forward line? Have any of them ever laid a tackle or taken a contested mark?

 

21 minutes ago, Pulp Fritschon said:

In: Lockhart   Out: Bennell

Harmes to play a bit more through midfield to open up a spot for another backman to come in. Harmes could possibly tag Danger. 

Selwood is still the key to the Cats to me. I’d be sending Viney to him. 

Dees by 23 

Agree about Viney to Selwood and perhaps Harmesy to Danger 


54 minutes ago, binman said:

They're just waiting to see if a cats player gets covid before making any plans

feral cats are known super-spreaders.

2 minutes ago, poita said:

Another inept selection performance by Goodwin & co. Minimum 31 players used in 3 games; at least 9 but probably more changes in 2 weeks, none of which are due to injury. That suggests to me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are making it up as they go along.

How about picking a sensible, well-structured side and giving it a few weeks to come together, rather than throwing everything in the air each week?

Hannan, Fritsch and Melksham in the same forward line? Have any of them ever laid a tackle or taken a contested mark?

 

Fritsch takes one on ones and Hanna  took one in the third quarter just before 3/4 time in the semi vs Hawks in 2018 and late vs Saints at the G in 2017 from memory!!!

25 minutes ago, The Chazz said:

I'll tolerate a loss, but if that Miers kid has a day out, I could literally throw up on my TV.  Need to bring in Lockhart to shut him down, will be the only one that can. 

As will I, he needs to be locked down. If he’s allowed to run free and do what he wants, I’ll start gryan. 

6 minutes ago, poita said:

Another inept selection performance by Goodwin & co. Minimum 31 players used in 3 games; at least 9 but probably more changes in 2 weeks, none of which are due to injury. That suggests to me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are making it up as they go along.

How about picking a sensible, well-structured side and giving it a few weeks to come together, rather than throwing everything in the air each week?

Hannan, Fritsch and Melksham in the same forward line? Have any of them ever laid a tackle or taken a contested mark?

 

Melksham vs Stewart

Fritsch vs Henry

Hannan vs O'Connor

Tmc vs Blicavs

AVB vs Kolodjashnij

Hunt vs Tuohy

We can play those three in the same team, but they just need to give each other space, and be quick to work out who is on top of their opponent.  For example, the Melksham/Stewart math-up needs to start in the goal square.  Stewart hates playing last line, so drag him back there.  That means Hannan, Fritsch and AVB just need to clear out.  If Stewart manages to get on top of Melksham, then Melky needs to take him out, and Fritsch is to drag Henry back, because I think Henry is the next vulnerable defender out of that group.

McDonald needs to take Blicavs anywhere other than our forward 50.  I'm happy for Tom to have zero possessions, if it means Blicavs is nowhere near it.  Either that, or McDonald picks up his possessions high half forward.

An interesting aside, looking at Geelong's bench, they have (from) Ablett, Bews, Guthrie, Duncan, Steven, Henderson, Parsons and Clark.

The 3 I underlined will play, so based on that, I have crossed out the ones I don't expect to play.  That only leaves Bews or Stevens, which I expect them to play Stevens.

Based on their selections, and watching their game last week, this is a big week for K Pickett.  Geelong couldn't stop Betts last week.  Big ask for a 2nd gamer, but he has a chance to do something special this week.

Our focus HAS to be getting these match-ups right and won.  We win this area and it takes away Geelong's entire forward movement, and on their day, our half forwards can kick goals, and lots of them!  We lose this area, it won't matter what connection our defenders have with each other, they will get belted, and so will we on the scoreboard.

23 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

As will I, he needs to be locked down. If he’s allowed to run free and do what he wants, I’ll start gryan. 

I thought you might have gone for the full "I'll start gryan miers out" line, but thankfully you showed some restraint instead. WD ET.


57 minutes ago, poita said:

Another inept selection performance by Goodwin & co. Minimum 31 players used in 3 games; at least 9 but probably more changes in 2 weeks, none of which are due to injury. That suggests to me that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and are making it up as they go along.

How about picking a sensible, well-structured side and giving it a few weeks to come together, rather than throwing everything in the air each week?

Hannan, Fritsch and Melksham in the same forward line? Have any of them ever laid a tackle or taken a contested mark?

 

Not sure I agree. Injury changes are a two-way street. Hannan and vandenBerg coming into the side are because they've recovered from injury and someone has to make way.

57 minutes ago, The Chazz said:

Melksham vs Stewart

Fritsch vs Henry

Hannan vs O'Connor

Tmc vs Blicavs

AVB vs Kolodjashnij

Hunt vs Tuohy

We can play those three in the same team, but they just need to give each other space, and be quick to work out who is on top of their opponent.  For example, the Melksham/Stewart math-up needs to start in the goal square.  Stewart hates playing last line, so drag him back there.  That means Hannan, Fritsch and AVB just need to clear out.  If Stewart manages to get on top of Melksham, then Melky needs to take him out, and Fritsch is to drag Henry back, because I think Henry is the next vulnerable defender out of that group.

McDonald needs to take Blicavs anywhere other than our forward 50.  I'm happy for Tom to have zero possessions, if it means Blicavs is nowhere near it.  Either that, or McDonald picks up his possessions high half forward.

An interesting aside, looking at Geelong's bench, they have (from) Ablett, Bews, Guthrie, Duncan, Steven, Henderson, Parsons and Clark.

The 3 I underlined will play, so based on that, I have crossed out the ones I don't expect to play.  That only leaves Bews or Stevens, which I expect them to play Stevens.

Based on their selections, and watching their game last week, this is a big week for K Pickett.  Geelong couldn't stop Betts last week.  Big ask for a 2nd gamer, but he has a chance to do something special this week.

Our focus HAS to be getting these match-ups right and won.  We win this area and it takes away Geelong's entire forward movement, and on their day, our half forwards can kick goals, and lots of them!  We lose this area, it won't matter what connection our defenders have with each other, they will get belted, and so will we on the scoreboard.

I too want to see Melksham start out of the goal square. he's very good 1 on 1 and if he's not gonna chase then they may as well leave him in a dangerous position.

Geelong by 5 goals, cannot see our forward line kicking a winning score.

Edited by old dee

10 minutes ago, old dee said:

Geelong by 5 goals, cannot see our forward line kicking a winning score.

Agree and Im also in the Terry Wallace group regarding Harley, just nonsensical but again that's MFC, but what do I know??


It amazes me the strident certainty with which people post about the coach, team and player performance and role, after ONE GAME in 3 months... which we won.

if “Old Dee” and “Picket fence” recon Harley out is a mistake, and have us getting beat by 5, I have to go VDB and Hannan to kick 5 between them and we’ll beat the [censored] in a canter in Sunday.

;)

Edited by PaulRB

20 hours ago, demonstone said:

"Warm the bench" has become something of an anachronism these days with the constant rotations that we see.

agreed. so has the "best 18" or "top 18" 

there are 22 in a side. it's not uncommon for a top 10 player to start on the interchange

 

 
4 minutes ago, TheKozzieExperience said:

Dees by 5 goals.

Kozzie,  Fritsch and Melk to kick 10 between them.

Are we talking July or Sunday?

That Geelong team looks average, especially without Stanley. 


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