If we win this game I will be surprised. Such poor selections make me wonder if we are tanking so North get a better pick. I can't see how we are going to kick enough goals to win. We might fall over the line because we are playing the crows but I would not be surprised if they get a run on and win. Poor outs and poor ins. 

7 minutes ago, John Lord said:

Oscar is our best fit for Walker. 

May will carve him up.

7 minutes ago, John Lord said:

Oscar is our best fit for Walker.

Tex Walker would approve.

Still way too many inside mids.  Amazed we are carrying all 4 of Harmes, Brayshaw, Jones and Sparrow.   Should be two at the most but ideally just one of them.

12 minutes ago, dl4e said:

I would have kept Bennell until North. Would have Rivers in the side.

I wonder if it is (after all the talk) a management decision. Play Rivers against North, rather than back to back games.

Jones should have no place in the team, but let's see where you lines up.

6 minutes ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Still way too many inside mids.  Amazed we are carrying all 4 of Harmes, Brayshaw, Jones and Sparrow.   Should be two at the most but ideally just one of them.

Reckon we'll get away with it this game. But I agree. They still haven't found the right mix in the midfield or the backline.

21 minutes ago, Drunkn167 said:

Dropping Oscar doesn’t make sense to me, thought with him the team it allowed May and Lever to play their roles a lot better

Agree.. the backline was starting to look stable other than one spot (Jetta/Rivers etc)

Perhaps the problem is that they aren't getting any drive off the backline from the existing bunch and thus Tomlinson

The Oscar wars have recommenced! Just with the coach. 

Jones,  Brayshaw and Tomlinson. Speed to burn

I think Omac been more effective and composed with the ball than Lever.

This could be the slowest team we've ever fielded. We are screaming out for some pace all over the ground.

I like the selections personally. 

Would have brought in Hunt or Rivers for a bit of speed perhaps. But Adelaide arent a quick side either.

Edited August 4, 20205 yr by dazzledavey36

I don't get it, and I don't like it.

Oscar was poor last week, but we've had a settled and functioning backline since he came in. Last week we had a disgusting drop in pressure and increase in turnovers, so it's no wonder the back half performed worse than it had the previous month.

Adelaide has a relatively tall forward line (Himmelberg is 198cm, McAsey is 197cm, and Walker, Fogarty and Lynch are all 193cm). Was this the game to throw the third tall defender out and, presumably, rely on Hibberd to play on someone 7cm+ taller than him?

Or are we sending Tomlinson into defence when he hasn't been training as a key defender all year?

Or are we really dumb enough to put Fritsch back into defence after the abject failure that was Fritsch in the backline in 2019?

It doesn't make sense to me.

Meanwhile our midfield last week was poor and we've made no changes. All of Sparrow, Jones, Brayshaw and Harmes retain their spots.

I don't mind Bennell and ANB changing up our forward half mix, and I absolutely agree with TMac being dropped, but I'm concerned that we're going to disrupt the improvement and progress we saw in our back half. 

Maybe it's MFCSS, but I can see one of Adelaide's talls doing a Kent Kingsley and bagging 5 against us, making Lever and May look woeful as they repeatedly find themselves out of position trying to cover too many talls without support.

40 minutes ago, Drunkn167 said:

Dropping Oscar doesn’t make sense to me, thought with him the team it allowed May and Lever to play their roles a lot better

I think they’ll play Tomlinson back 

5 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I don't get it, and I don't like it.

100% agree.

At least we've brought in some foot skills tho........ ?

I’m a little meh about selection this week, I’m worried the match committee have had their good period across GC to Lions and they’ve gone back to form. 

I feel like they needed to drop one of Melksham, Fritta, or Hannan as collectively they haven’t been great recently. Hannan missed some tackles badly last week so perhaps it’s a bit of a message. 

I like the INs, they address issues we had last week.

Bennell - shocking skills

Lack of run - ANB and Tomlinson

Appetite for contest - AvB

 OUTs wise the only eyebrow raiser is Oscar as at least having him in the team provides another option should May not be having a good day or if he gets injured. I feel like we’re being short down back. 

Ultimately the midfield has to put in a much better showing, they are the lucky ones to have missed out on the chop. Brayshaw, Jones, even Harmes you could’ve quite easily argued for being dropped. 

20 minutes ago, binman said:

The Oscar wars have recommenced! Just with the coach. 

Jones,  Brayshaw and Tomlinson. Speed to burn

Regardless of how supporters feel about Oscar, it should strike people as an odd move.  @titan_uranus sums it up well and I briefly mentioned it earlier in the thread too - he seems very stiff to get dropped, and we don't seem to have brought someone in to replace him.  If you look a the 'ins', you would assume that Tomlinson is the only close thing to a 'like for like' change, but why would we play him there?  We got him to play on a wing, and then we started asking him to pinch hit in the ruck, and now we are potentially asking him to play down back?  Very strange.

I agree with the posters that thought OMac should be retained. The defence was looking ok and building.

I would not have retained Jones for this game As I have not seen very much over his last couple of games.

Short turn around for the North game so I would expect a few to be 'rested'. 

Thinking this through, surely Tomlinson is going to play defence.

If he does, we have a back six of Lever, May, Tomlinson, Hibberd, Salem, Lockhart. Jones/Harmes (vom)/maybe Sparrow seventh defender.

Forward six then is Weideman, Jackson, Melksham, Fritsch, ANB, Bennell. vandenBerg/Jones/Sparrow maybe seventh.

The rest are midfielders: Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw, Langdon. Harmes/Sparrow/vandenBerg rotating through as needed.

If Tomlinson plays wing, we're short in numbers and height in terms of defenders, and we then have too many players trying to fit into the limited minutes we can give to the five non-Gawn midfielders.

2 minutes ago, Wiseblood said:

Regardless of how supporters feel about Oscar, it should strike people as an odd move.  @titan_uranus sums it up well and I briefly mentioned it earlier in the thread too - he seems very stiff to get dropped, and we don't seem to have brought someone in to replace him.  If you look a the 'ins', you would assume that Tomlinson is the only close thing to a 'like for like' change, but why would we play him there?  We got him to play on a wing, and then we started asking him to pinch hit in the ruck, and now we are potentially asking him to play down back?  Very strange.

I actually think O mac has been performing better then Lever but the coach wouldn't have the guts to drop Lever will be a media frenzy, wrecking we could have done with the strength and speed of one S Frost down back

I'm all for the Tomlinson full back experiment.....will probs line up in the guts at the expense of Gus tho I'm sure!

1 minute ago, Rednblueriseing said:

I actually think O mac has been performing better then Lever but the coach wouldn't have the guts to drop Lever will be a media frenzy, wrecking we could have done with the strength and speed of one S Frost down back

I wouldn't go that far with it - Oscar being in the side has allowed Lever to play his natural game in defence, so in some ways, both have benefited over the last month or so.

I don't think we miss Frost at all to be honest.  May is essentially his replacement and he's having a far better year.

Not impressed. I think we will win anyway but potential for heart attack/(more) grey hair.

57 minutes ago, Forest Demon said:

Interesting that the other 3 teams playing tomorrow have loads of players “managed”. We actually have the least changes out of any of them. Adelaide have a good 7/8 changes.

The players had their rest against Port.

I'm surprised and confused about the Oscar dropping. We can never achieve any backline harmony if we don't play these guys together and Adelaide have the match ups for 3 talls. 

I just don't get it. 

8 minutes ago, Rednblueriseing said:

I actually think O mac has been performing better then Lever but the coach wouldn't have the guts to drop Lever will be a media frenzy, wrecking we could have done with the strength and speed of one S Frost down back

Lever was unquestionably in our best last week, but feel free to maintain your bias.

Frost and wrecking go well together, though.

52 minutes ago, Hell Bent said:

I'm really surprised Jones gets another gig. No idea what value he is adding right now.

Thought Jones offered little to no leadership. A bit of a worry if Goody is too scared to drop him.