One of the positive things I noticed was that we had some spread. Against Richmond we had too many players trying to win the ball from a contest leaving us no "out" and transferring the heat so to speak.

Even though we had some poor disposal, they were trying to hit targets. I'd rather see us make a mistake this way than the bombing it long. Yes it happened but less so. Confidence will come.

Gold Coast's pressure was high, they had their chances to win. This is a good win by us. 

14 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Small steps Dr but good to see, Even Oscar had a very good game.

Much more composure, better selection, held on to the ball more. A lot to like.

A question for you: Why does it take us to be pilloried by the rest of the competition/media for us to respond?

That's like asking me what is the meaning of life? 

1 minute ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

That's like asking me what is the meaning of life? 

You don't know it Dr?

Great to get the win, we did keep them in the game though.  Good to see us hit targets inside our forward 50m arc but there should have been 5-6 more with players still missing a lot of easy options.  Take the win but we still have massive room for improvement, tidy the turnovers going inside 50 up we win that game by 5-6 goals.

My take:

Kudos to Oscar. The two best parts of his game were his spoil on King on the wing when he was right on his tail and then going for the mark on the goal line in the last quarter rather than spoiling. It was his best game since QB 2018 and he looked more confident. Max Gawn was on 3AW on Sunday and was saying how Oscar is our best reader of the play down back and helps organise our defence, with Lever the main beneficiary. I am sure this is true, but he also needs to make sure he competes strongly, otherwise he is a liability.

Some of our defensive efforts in the backline were a bit lacking and our small defenders were ordinary IMO. The second quarter was particularly disappointing given they had only 6 entries and 5 scoring shots. I think Jetta is almost finished and Jones or Rivers would give us a lot more drive out of the backline.

Oliver and Petracca got a lot of it but were very sloppy at times and need to improve for us to take the next step.

Viney was fantastic and Gawn played much better (although his kicking was poor).

Weideman was both good and bad, but he is a key for us going forward and we need to persevere.

Our forward entries were a little bit better and having Weideman as the main target meant that we weren't out marked as often. In saying this, he still needs to work harder when out of position on getting the ball to ground. Hopefully it gets better again with TMac and Weideman playing together.

Hibberd is having a better season and looks to be getting back to near his best.

Our kick in strategies are uninspiring. We allow too much ground to be taken off the mark in defence and May's kicking is inconsistent and the option is predictable.

I would like to see Melksham and Harmes swap ends. Melksham is out of form but still one of our best kicks and could do with a stint at high half back and Harmes is better forward/on ball.

If TMac is unable to play, I hope we go with Smith as a forward. He has the capability of competing in the air but also the speed to apply pressure on the deck. I feel like Smith is a player we need to get games into as a forward, because with his athleticism, he could take a big step.

Edited July 13, 20204 yr by Fat Tony

1 hour ago, Fat Tony said:

My take:

Kudos to Oscar. The two best parts of his game were his spoil on King on the wing when he was right on his tail and then going for the mark on the goal line in the last quarter rather than spoiling. It was his best game since QB 2018 and he looked more confident. Max Gawn was on 3AW on Sunday and was saying how Oscar is our best reader of the play down back and helps organise our defence, with Lever the main beneficiary. I am sure this is true, but he also needs to make sure he competes strongly, otherwise he is a liability.

Some of our defensive efforts in the backline were a bit lacking and our small defenders were ordinary IMO. The second quarter was particularly disappointing given they had only 6 entries and 5 scoring shots. I think Jetta is almost finished and Jones or Rivers would give us a lot more drive out of the backline.

Oliver and Petracca got a lot of it but were very sloppy at times and need to improve for us to take the next step.

Viney was fantastic and Gawn played much better (although his kicking was poor).

Weideman was both good and bad, but he is a key for us going forward and we need to persevere.

Our forward entries were a little bit better and having Weideman as the main target meant that we weren't out marked as often. In saying this, he still needs to work harder when out of position on getting the ball to ground. Hopefully it gets better again with TMac and Weideman playing together.

Hibberd is having a better season and looks to be getting back to near his best.

Our kick in strategies are uninspiring. We allow too much ground to be taken off the mark in defence and May's kicking is inconsistent and the option is predictable.

I would like to see Melksham and Harmes swap ends. Melksham is out of form but still one of our best kicks and could do with a stint at high half back and Harmes is better forward/on ball.

If TMac is unable to play, I hope we go with Smith as a forward. He has the capability of competing in the air but also the speed to apply pressure on the deck. I feel like Smith is a player we need to get games into as a forward, because with his athleticism, he could take a big step.

This is staggering, has anyone watched the replay and seen if they done anything but out to the left had flank to Gawn?

Didn't even see the old barrel down the middle (which seems to be our only other option)

Seems strange to not mix it up at all. 

On 7/12/2020 at 12:37 PM, Nasher said:

On the topic of TOG, Gawn had 98% TOG yesterday. It’s normal for him to be in the low 90s but that’s nuts since he is essentially a midfielder. That says to me they weren’t prepared to break our forward structure to put Weid in the ruck to relieve Max - it makes Brown a must next week if TMac is unavailable. 

So when converted to a normal game time his TOG is the same as 2019. His % is increasing but his actual minutes compared to last season is not. Thats why he can play almost 100%.

Just re-viewed the first quarter.   A lot of barracking for GCS by the commentators and stupid comments about McDonald's eye being injured, both the non-existant delay and the injury to the" retina". Now I'm no anatomist, but if someone scratched his retina they'd be little left of his eye at all. 

Re the kicking-out not varying, I guess if Max is dominating why would you do anything else but kick it to him?  Must be highest probability of success.   I'll be interested to see where it is kicked when he is not dominating. I don't think we are as regular with this as some have made out. 

19 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

I love that people are still taping shows. VHS? 

Foxtel IQ3, I use the word tape, being an old fuddy duddy, instead of record.

Coaches votes:

9 Max Gawn (MELB)

7 Christian Petracca (MELB)

4 Jack Viney (MELB)

4 Charlie Ballard (GCFC)

4 Izak Rankine (GCFC)

2 Clayton Oliver (MELB)

 

Looks pretty fair to me.  Vote split looks like:

• Max:  5/4
• Christian: 5/2
• * Viney 3/1
• * Ballard 3/1
• * Rankine 4/0
• Oliver 2/0

Whoever gave Petracca 5 gave Oliver 2 or from the other view whoever gave Petracca 2 gave Oliver zip.

* Votes could be switched between the three players.

On the Leaderboard best placed Demons are Petracca at 11 th spot (20 votes) and Brayshaw at 13 (19 votes).  Overall leader Neale (40 votes).

At this rate Petracca may win his first B&F.

Edit: had the wrong Brayshaw.  Thanks for tip @Bring-Back-Powell

Edited July 13, 20204 yr by Lucifer's Hero

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

On the Leaderboard best placed Demons are Petracca at 11 th spot (20 votes) and Brayshaw at 13 (19 votes).  Overall leader Neale (40 votes).

Fantastic to see Petracca in the leaderboard.

I think the Brayshaw you referred to above is Andy from Freo. No chance our Brayshaw would be on the leaderboard.

1 hour ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Coaches votes:

9 Max Gawn (MELB)

7 Christian Petracca (MELB)

4 Jack Viney (MELB)

4 Charlie Ballard (GCFC)

4 Izak Rankine (GCFC)

2 Clayton Oliver (MELB)

 

Looks pretty fair to me.  Vote split looks like:

• Max:  5/4
• Christian: 5/2
• * Viney 3/1
• * Ballard 3/1
• * Rankine 4/0
• Oliver 2/0

Whoever gave Petracca 5 gave Oliver 2 or from the other view whoever gave Petracca 2 gave Oliver zip.

* Votes could be switched between the three players.

On the Leaderboard best placed Demons are Petracca at 11 th spot (20 votes) and Brayshaw at 13 (19 votes).  Overall leader Neale (40 votes).

At this rate Petracca may win his first B&F.

Edit: had the wrong Brayshaw.  Thanks for tip @Bring-Back-Powell

 

Amazing how a lot of people see the game.  The rise of Trac continues.  So happy for him.

4 hours ago, Josh said:

This is staggering, has anyone watched the replay and seen if they done anything but out to the left had flank to Gawn?

Didn't even see the old barrel down the middle (which seems to be our only other option)

Seems strange to not mix it up at all. 

Occasionally May feigned that he intended to kick it to the right only to kick left and close to the boundary line. For goodness sake, let's mix it up and even try the long bomb down the guts once or twice a game.

 

 

7 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

Our kick in strategies are uninspiring. We allow too much ground to be taken off the mark in defence and May's kicking is inconsistent and the option is predictable.

That was very much my take as well, Max was marking it so well all night that it made it work. Perhaps their belief is keep going to him if he's clunking them, but if he doesn't seem to be in good marking form perhaps they look at other options. I'd like to see more variety with our exits from behinds, look for short kicks in the centre of the arc and launch from there. We just look really predictable. Also May is usually a good kick but that was definitely not the case Saturday night. A bit heart in mouth at times!

Talk about applying the brakes against the Suns. On The Couch showed we played on 13.4% during the game. Our lowest play on % since 2015. Apologies if mentioned already.

Edited July 13, 20204 yr by Dee Zephyr

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Talk about applying the brakes against the Suns. On The Couch showed we played on 13.4% during the game. Our lowest play on % since 2015. Apologies if mentioned already.

Really happy to hear that, our play on at all costs style has sent us into trouble way too many times. 

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Talk about applying the brakes against the Suns. On The Couch showed we played on 13.4% during the game. Our lowest play on % since 2015. Apologies if mentioned already.

From chaos-ball to zen-ball in one week. 

It’s going to be interesting to see how teams adjust to the change in style and then if we go back to chaos ball to counter the adjustment.

 

20 minutes ago, Cards13 said:

It’s going to be interesting to see how teams adjust to the change in style and then if we go back to chaos ball to counter the adjustment.

 

That would infer that Goodwin has a Plan B @Cards13 and also a Plan C, however many here have argued, that he is stubborn, so I just assume that when he adjusts again to counter other teams adjustments, he is just using Plan A without flexibility.

Edited July 13, 20204 yr by Engorged Onion

Surely Campbell Brown is extracting the urine. 

No Viney or Gawn. Ellis? Really? Good player that kicked two of the [censored] goals. 

Max's best game of the year by far imo. I didn't see Goldstein's game, so can't comment specifically on that. I did see NicNat's though, and no way did he have a better game than Gawn.

15 hours ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

Coaches votes:

9 Max Gawn (MELB)

7 Christian Petracca (MELB)

4 Jack Viney (MELB)

4 Charlie Ballard (GCFC)

4 Izak Rankine (GCFC)

2 Clayton Oliver (MELB)

 

Looks pretty fair to me.  Vote split looks like:

• Max:  5/4
• Christian: 5/2
• * Viney 3/1
• * Ballard 3/1
• * Rankine 4/0
• Oliver 2/0

Whoever gave Petracca 5 gave Oliver 2 or from the other view whoever gave Petracca 2 gave Oliver zip.

* Votes could be switched between the three players.

On the Leaderboard best placed Demons are Petracca at 11 th spot (20 votes) and Brayshaw at 13 (19 votes).  Overall leader Neale (40 votes).

At this rate Petracca may win his first B&F.

Edit: had the wrong Brayshaw.  Thanks for tip @Bring-Back-Powell

Gawn is on 17 and equal 20th (8 v Carlton and 9 v GC).  Interesting to note that Goldstein is the highest rated ruck by the coaches this year, followed by Naitanui, Witts and then Gawn.  Grundy follows on 16.  In the Age player of the year, Gawn is equal 3rd with Pendlebury (both on 30) with only Goldstein and Neale ahead.  Gawn has also polled votes in three out of 5 games in the Herald Sun (1 v Carlton, 1 v Richmond, 3 v GC). Bearing in mind Max has a game in hand on everyone bar Petracca.  It's all in the eye of the beholder but I'd say Gawn has made an excellent transition to the Captaincy and continues to play excellent footy.

Based on Goodwin's post match comments he gave Gawn 5 and Viney 4.  I think Dew didn't vote for Viney. Not sure how he saw Tracc as a 5 vote game given he went at 40% by foot but he is having a wonderful season and he did have a significant impact on the game.

59 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Surely Campbell Brown is extracting the urine. 

No Viney or Gawn. Ellis? Really? Good player that kicked two of the [censored] goals. 

Just another well trained AFL puppy Andy