4 hours ago, Demon_spurs said:

In: Hunt

Out: Tomlinson

I forgot Tomlinson was even playing till he bobbed up for a mark in the last quarter. Two pacy wingmen would be awesome.

So because you didn’t notice him he gets dropped? He is not even on the wing he is playing a key back role, which frees both Lever and May up. 
The game is not all about possessions.  

4 hours ago, picket fence said:

I have been a critic of Fritsch for a while! Agree Down hill skier that misses far too many goals for my liking! Id almost go Harley for Fritsch! 

Oh one other thing Big Punky Pruesster plays instead of Mc Donald easily!

No chance, he offers so much more than Harley, stopped getting sucked in by the player he was.  Harley has rarely hit the scoreboard and Fritsch hits it every week.  

3 hours ago, binman said:

Fritter is important for the forward structure.

And (I think) is our leading goal scorer.

And would be pretty high on our list of goal assists and score involvements.

And would probably be only behind the weed for rhe number of both contested marks and marks in general inside 50 per game.

Zero chance he gets dropped.

I must be watching a different game to some of our supporters.  Fritsch is a lock to play.

Fritsch is leading our goal kicking, makes sense to drop him. In all seriousness, not every player can be nor do they have to be the bash and crash type.

Edited August 16, 20204 yr by Ethan Tremblay

Seems odd to me, the fuss made about Collingwood's 4 games in 14 days.

It was also our fourth game in 16 days and fifth game in 20 days.

11 hours ago, Biffen said:

Yeah right.

We don't need any guys who just kick goals.

We can win it with missed set shots and sprayed snaps.

You do realise Fritsch has been going at 50% accuracy this year, right? You're basically describing his season when you say guys missing set shots and spraying snaps, which he's done consistently all season.

To make matters worse, when the ball hits the ground he's afraid of body contact.

6 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

I was impressed by Fritsch coming up the ground and taking marks/ getting involved on the flanks. He was an important target out of the backline.

His pressure around the ball isn’t good at all  but he does chime in most weeks with a sneaky intercept when teams underrate his aerial ability and closing speed. The spoil and tap back to keep the ball in play yesterday was the latest example.

Obviously has to improve his pressure but if he can hit the scoreboard and be a good target up the ground he’ll be making a good contribution 

I agree, he's much better when he pushes up onto the wing and across half forward. When it goes deep into our forward 50 he's a liability at times IMO.

5 hours ago, Demon_spurs said:

In: Hunt

Out: Tomlinson

I forgot Tomlinson was even playing till he bobbed up for a mark in the last quarter. Two pacy wingmen would be awesome.

Tomlinson is playing KPB and slowly settling into the zonal set ups back there. He's been solid with the exception of one kick into the corridor yesterday and being caught out of position in transition one other time that I noted.

If Hunt's going to make it, he should be looking very closely at the gut-running of Langdon and model his game on Ed's. He wouldn't be coming in for Tomlinson though. It'd be for someone like Jones.

Edited August 16, 20204 yr by A F

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

English might be more agile but he is incredibly soft. I remember watching footy classified months ago and he was highlighted with some soft weak efforts.

Pruess would only need to put a knee into him or rough him up around stoppages and I think English will turn to water.

It demonstrates the potential of Gawn and Preuss on occasion. Preuss to soften them up and then Max to dominate. Look out WC.

Would love to know from anyone why they think McDonald hold his spot? He is embarrassingly slow and his lateral movement reminds me of Cameron Ling with Osteitis pubis. i'm confident that if Tom McDonald came at me, I could side step him 3 times without even moving. A must drop

4 hours ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

If Max is ready I reckon they may seriously consider dropping TMac and maintaining the big Preusster as the second ruck forward. He is definitely getting around the ground better for longer and would offer a true chopout and less game time reliance on Gawn. As the second forward (which TMac is only doing the bare minimum of) he just needs to get the ball to ground in 50 and would offer a true ruck for inside 50 stoppages for us to control. 

I reckon it will be well discussed during the week. 

Reckon that's a really dangerous move if we do it. Our forward system is finally working and despite doing some ordinary things, McDonald is at least bringing pressure at ground level and bringing the ball to ground inside 50. Unless we try playing Max at the forward and ruck 40% and Presuss the remainder. 

Still, I worry about teams rebounding against us if we're playing a ruckman who is not Luke Jackson as the second tall.

4 hours ago, binman said:

This is absolutely relevant. A massive factor and is the key reason I expected us to win.

I applied this same proviso to our port game. So only fair to apply it in tgis game.

 Like us v port you could see their fatigue from the get go. Mentally flat too.

The all team zones both (In fact most) teams employ simply don't work if every player down At do the massive running required or apply sufficient pressure on the ball carrier.

Ironically the port loss to cats was a carbon copy of ours to them. They simply did not spread or pressure close to the level required. Think of how many one out opportunities Hawkins had. Probably more than he has had all season combined. Port were as flat as pancakes after their win v the tigers

I'm not sure I could say the Port game and yesterday's were carbon copies. We barely mustered a jog against Port, yet Collingwood were strong around stoppage. We got them on transition and stifled their ability to move the ball.

I agree that they were undermanned and had less rest time, but even though their defence was untidy at times and certainly got lost in transition because it hadn't played regularly together, I don't believe even with Roughead and Howe in that those two would have been able to stop a lot of our ball movement forward, which was excellent.

1 hour ago, Little Goffy said:

Seems odd to me, the fuss made about Collingwood's 4 games in 14 days.

It was also our fourth game in 16 days and fifth game in 20 days.

I dont think the issue is four games in 14 days. It is the four day break.

Every team has struggled after the four day break. Port won but were far from their best. 

The pies looked as shagged as we did v port and it was obvious in both games 10 mins in who was going to win.

10 minutes ago, binman said:

I dont think the issue is four games in 14 days. It is the four day break.

Every team has struggled after the four day break. Port won but were far from their best. 

The pies looked as shagged as we did v port and it was obvious in both games 10 mins in who was going to win.

Pies have been awful for a long time.  In the last 2 months their scores (in points) have been:  44, 62, 50, 49, 45, 57, 59, 48. 

The compressed fixture, travel and injuries have hurt them over the last 3-4 weeks but there is no reason for the poor form in the early days of hubs. 

I don't think they can improve enough to play finals.

11 minutes ago, binman said:

I dont think the issue is four games in 14 days. It is the four day break.

Every team has struggled after the four day break. Port won but were far from their best. 

The pies looked as shagged as we did v port and it was obvious in both games 10 mins in who was going to win.

If this year was the experiment to work out how a midweek block of games was possible they’ve probably found out the 4 day breaks are maybe just too much for the athletic rigours of AFL. 

I didn’t think Tom was as awful as what some have said, maybe we give Brown a chance in his place but I wouldn’t be rushing to mess with the mix. I was worried about the functionality of the forward line as previous occasions it’s looked like Tom and Weid got in each other’s way, but they seemed to have more defined space and there is connectivity between forwards and mids. 

With the calls to drop Tommo, again maybe I can see where it’s coming from but the team defence was held up as a reason for our upward trajectory so again I wouldn’t want to mess with it. I think trialling Tommo in defence is worth it, he’s got the size and athleticism, seems to have a good footy brain, it’s just his kicking that is a real worry at times. 

16 hours ago, Satyriconhome said:

Yes he did against North on the wing

AFL stats say Tmac took zero contested marks against North and Collingwood the last 2 weeks 

Unless Max is absolutely cherry ripe and assuming we have no further injury issues during the week, I'd like to see no change

Something to ponder; the Dogs have probably found some form after smashing the Crows, especially the mids. If Gawn plays, he’ll no doubt dominate hit outs and it’ll cause some real predictably at the stoppages. The Dogs mids will just look to shark his taps and they won’t even bother reading English’s. I still think Gawn plays if he’s fit, but I just hope the connection between him and our mids is there on Saturday.

1 hour ago, Demons11 said:

I must be watching a different game to some of our supporters.  Fritsch is a lock to play.

Agreed. He's a lock as he is everywhere and clunks marks.

4 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Something to ponder; the Dogs have probably found some form after smashing the Crows, especially the mids. If Gawn plays, he’ll no doubt dominate hit outs and it’ll cause some real predictably at the stoppages. The Dogs mids will just look to shark his taps and they won’t even bother reading English’s. I still think Gawn plays if he’s fit, but I just hope the connection between him and our mids is there on Saturday.

If hes not fit I'm down for a Pruess V English battle

20 hours ago, At the break of Gawn said:

In: Gawn

Out: Preuss

I’m not sure Bennell warrants selection again just yet. The only potential outs would be Tomlinson maybe Sparrow.

Totally agree re: Bennell. Until he's ready to put his body on the line, we're only adding a passenger.

I understand why he's be uncomfortable throwing himself around, chasing and tackling etc. but our game plan depends on effort from every single player on the field.

Edited August 16, 20204 yr by Cheesy D. Pun

Another huge game for us. A win and we go 4 points up plus 20+ % Infront of the dogs whilst being a game behind them. Would make it near impossible for them to leap frog us on the ladder given they will only have 4 games to play to our 5. 

If Gawn is 100% he comes in if not and other week off. I'm sure we will rotate another player or two. 

Will be a cracking game next week

12 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

Something to ponder; the Dogs have probably found some form after smashing the Crows, especially the mids. If Gawn plays, he’ll no doubt dominate hit outs and it’ll cause some real predictably at the stoppages. The Dogs mids will just look to shark his taps and they won’t even bother reading English’s. I still think Gawn plays if he’s fit, but I just hope the connection between him and our mids is there on Saturday.

The stuff about us not taking advantage of Max's taps is a bit overplayed.

A good example - during the Brisbane game, our boys read and received just about every first tap but fumbled in dewy conditions. Brisbane were smart in the way they approached it but they sharked the ball from our mids, not the ruck contest.

I don't think there is a prominent example where sharking Max's taps directly from the ruck contest has caused a genuine clearance win to the opposition.

Our mids need to be on song and if it's wet, we need to be a little more circumspect when approaching the first possession, instead of going all guns blazing and fumbling to the opposition sweating on us.

 

I'm gonna say this now. Bontempelli needs to be tagged,.

9 hours ago, Pickett2Jackson said:

Hes playing in defence mostly.

Hes also having a garbage season.

Top answer, great analysis

45 minutes ago, Moonshadow said:

AFL stats say Tmac took zero contested marks against North and Collingwood the last 2 weeks 

Unless Max is absolutely cherry ripe and assuming we have no further injury issues during the week, I'd like to see no change

Well the vision I watched, obviously they regarded it as a clean mark, even though there were players around

Of course Goodwin says, you don't have to mark, just a contest and bring the smalls into play, which is exactly what he did against Collingwood

17 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

I'm gonna say this now. Bontempelli needs to be tagged,.

Disagree. I will back our mids in over theirs. Play accountable but take them head on.,