13 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Our depth still has question marks for me.

If Salem goes down we have no one that comes even close to at least filling in his position if need. 

Can the Oskar Baker experiment just be done. Shouldn't even be on a list let along trying to play off a half back.

May and Petty are significant losses. There's no other to put it. Tomlinson was okay tonight but when Petty and May are fit they simply play instead of Tommo and Smith.

Hunt was woeful, Bowey was barely sighted and few others went missing when needed.

Yeah we missed the bulk of May, Hibberd and Salem.  We didn't have one left footer in the back half and were so predictable coming out.  Brayshaw was the only one prepared to go on his left

52 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

You get an idea of the mindset when the side are 7 goals down but lose by 5 points.

Not sure what you mean

13 hours ago, Cards13 said:

5. Williams the most over paid player in the comp?

I reckon Jack Martin is. Williams a close 2nd though.

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

That's true, I wouldn't have rated ANB in 2020, but he got a 2 year deal previous on the back of being a good AFL footballer. 

Baker is not a good AFL footballer, never will be. Mitch Brown having a list spot is some kind of sick joke. Melksham should've been paid out if we were fair dinkum. That's 3 who are offering nothing.

All those guys are in the best 22 apart from Melksham and Laurie! They can't be depth when they're in the side. Melk is finished. Laurie is an ok prospect as a midfielder, doesn't have the speed or size to do much at half forward for the time being. Bedford and Chandler aren't it either, so where's the turnover of options?

I'm not talking long term, we've seen these guys win a flag. I'm talking about round 1 and the early games of the season.

Last year we went smaller due to Brown and Weid's injuries and Tom did a very good job at CHF competing. It also allowed Jackson a lot of game time as a forward and whilst he was hit and miss he settled more in that role.

Brown dropped a few he would've usually swallowed last night and moved pretty well, so I hope that was just an off night.

But I do wonder how we best use Jackson and Gawn when the forward line doesn't really need them. Max goes deep forward with Brown and they can work together but if they don't mark it we are in trouble on the way out. And Jackson can get lost if he's not rucking and not getting asked to play more as a CHF. Especially early in the year where big guys often don't hold as many marks as they do once they've got their eye in.

Tom's not asked to do as much grunt work in a taller line up so he has to be holding marks and contributing on the ground when he's effectively a forward flanker at times.

Weid - he's really only back up for Ben Brown or perhaps the rucks. We can't have another tall who gets beaten to the ball or run off by smaller defenders when we're already overloaded for height. And no matter how many goals he kicks in the VFL he just doesn't hold his marks in the AFL and we should stop pretending he ever will by this stage.

All this based on a preseason game. 

How on earth could we afford to pay out Melksham under the salary cap? We shopped him around, no takers, so he remains.

How many times have you seen Laurie play? He's a 2nd year player who got injured in a Covid affected season. How anyone can make an assessment of him is beyond me.

You clearly have your biases against certain players, and nit pick whenever they don't have a good game.

Smith’s the one for me……I just don’t ever seeing him being any good.

59 minutes ago, Action Jackson said:

We typically have 7 defenders in the side - last years GF was May, Lever, Petty, Rivers, Salem, Bowey and Hibberd.

I think round 1 will be May, Lever, Tomlinson, Smith Salem, Bowey and Hibberd.

Yep, i was thinking about that (7 defenders).

On that logic, totes agree with your likely selections.  

14 hours ago, Nascent said:

Still don't understand why we pulled Weideman out at half time in the ressies to give him 10minutes in the last quarter. Not exactly setting him up to succeed with that game prep

Totally mystifying!! 

2 hours ago, DubDee said:

Like a lot of premiership sides, I think we will start the season slowly and I wouldn't be surprised if we are 2-2 after 4 games before we settle into the season and get our match fitness up.  We had a very short preseason.  On a positive note, we have virtually no injuries and not much off season surgeries so we should get into our groove before long

I wondered about this.  It was a warm humid night yet I saw the Dees running well right to the end.  Or am I missing something?

Only saw the last 20 minutes though.

Edited March 4, 20223 yr by Demon17
font

1 hour ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Do you reckon that the brown paper bag syndrome made its re-appearance last night? This is an extraordinary count of critical goal opportunities provided to Carlton at the micro-second drop of the hanky.

Nah I think HQ wanted to make an immediate impact with the rule change, and what better way than exampling the premiers while also giving a little boost to the pre season hype team.

In the North game and again last night we had little success in scoring from ground ball gets.

Last night we failed to control entries into the forward line for most of the first half and the rebound was relentless. Perhaps a few more balls to the pocket allowing an out of bounds and a reset might have been advisable.

Watching the home and away from 2021 that was often our tactic.

Could it now  be that with BBB we are prepared to go more direct. If so it gets you higher scores but it carries risk as we saw last night

Small defender depth is a concern… Chandler very unlucky to miss last nights game and I wonder if his best opportunity to break into the team sooner than later lays in defence rather than forward. 

16 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Nah I think HQ wanted to make an immediate impact with the rule change, and what better way than exampling the premiers while also giving a little boost to the pre season hype team.

Very noble of you, Clinto.

I'd hope that was the case - at the main thoroughfare. It does seem, to me, to be just a little knee-jerkish and amongst traditionalists, I'd reckon somewhere in the back of phootballing phanatics' minds, umpire abuse (as it were) is par for the course and an entertaining critique, at that; however, the 'new' rule does give the snot-goblins more opportunities to affect the outcomes of games.

Let's hope such a 'power' improves games in the very near future, rather than stimulate cynicism, as it has done with me at this early stage.

Carna Dees.

 

32 minutes ago, mo64 said:

All this based on a preseason game. 

How on earth could we afford to pay out Melksham under the salary cap? We shopped him around, no takers, so he remains.

How many times have you seen Laurie play? He's a 2nd year player who got injured in a Covid affected season. How anyone can make an assessment of him is beyond me.

You clearly have your biases against certain players, and nit pick whenever they don't have a good game.

If we can afford to pay Melk to play we could afford to pay him out and scrape together the money for an extra draft pick. 

I don’t even have to see these guys play at lower levels. They never get picked at afl level! The coaches are letting us all know loud and clear that Chandler, Smith and Hunt are about the best we’ve got outside the 23.

Laurie’s got some moves but he’s sub 180 without speed. Don’t need to watch him play to know it’s hard to get an afl gig on the flank as a young player with that combination. He’ll get fitter and stronger in time. 

My issue isn’t the first and second year kids, they need time. It’s the lack of list turnover from fringe players that doesn’t make sense to me.

 

15 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Things I’ve learnt today 

1. Give the umpires an inch and they’ll invade Ukraine with power 

2. No May and Salem without Petty and Rivers as backup = no good backline 

3. Poor discipline is always costly. We were arrogant and messy especially with setting up in the middle. That’s inexcusable. 
 

4. Nobody got injured. Big win!

Doubt Power would be interested in an invasion: they don't have enough rockets.

My namesake needs to pull his finger out and quickly. People will point to the fact that he laid 8 tackles. Big deal. Did any of them stick and cause turnover in our favour? Whether it's the position he is playing at the moment or something else, he is all out of sorts. He does not get to any of the right spots as a small forward. We literally had no representation at ground last night. He doesn't know where to be when we don't have the ball. I think he needs some serious guidance, as he is ineffectual at the moment, as he was on GF Day. I hope he can find his mojo, otherwise a spell at Casey may reignite the spark. Seemed to have plenty of 'leisure time' over the summer. Time to get serious. 

Edited March 4, 20223 yr by Kick_It_To_Pickett

4 minutes ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

Seemed to have plenty of 'leisure time' over the summer. Time to get serious. 

Had 8 tackles last night, 3 inside 50. Reckon this is an overly harsh assessment.

Just now, Lord Nev said:

Had 8 tackles last night, 3 inside 50. Reckon this is an overly harsh assessment.

He wasn't clean and I would think his role is to be crumbing packs. If it's not, then he is being wasted. 

According to the new Afl abuse rules, I've that  heard soon fans who endearingly refer to the umpires as maggots will face stiff new penalties. 

Two question for me:

1. Will Goody review the game and 

2. Is goody the right guy

🏆😉😉😉😉😁😁😁😁🏆

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

If we can afford to pay Melk to play we could afford to pay him out and scrape together the money for an extra draft pick. 

I don’t even have to see these guys play at lower levels. They never get picked at afl level! The coaches are letting us all know loud and clear that Chandler, Smith and Hunt are about the best we’ve got outside the 23.

Laurie’s got some moves but he’s sub 180 without speed. Don’t need to watch him play to know it’s hard to get an afl gig on the flank as a young player with that combination. He’ll get fitter and stronger in time. 

My issue isn’t the first and second year kids, they need time. It’s the lack of list turnover from fringe players that doesn’t make sense to me.

You have genuinely lost the plot. No AFL team has 40 players capable of contributing at AFL level, EVER. 

Our depth is a strength, and greater than any other team. 

 

 

1 minute ago, 1964_2 said:

You have genuinely lost the plot. No AFL team has 40 players capable of contributing at AFL level, EVER. 

Our depth is a strength, and greater than any other team.

I think he expects to have 15 Gawns and 15 Petraccas, and a few Olivers thrown in.

It all starts at the source and the midfield was spanked.

We lack a little depth and class there, which we can cope with if all play really well, but if one or two drop off (like Viney) then we can get exposed.

1 hour ago, Vineytime said:

Small defender depth is a concern… Chandler very unlucky to miss last nights game and I wonder if his best opportunity to break into the team sooner than later lays in defence rather than forward. 

Goody's "hate affair" with Lockhart and his treatment is completely OPPOSITE to Joel Smith. Nearly fell off my chair just now when Goody said Joel ( and Tommo who was ok ) put together nice games and were fighting for Harry Petty's spot.Last night should have ruled out Smithy as all he did was fly in the air with about 3 others ( even got some frequent flyers points but no votes!) and never got to the contest.
 Chandler as Vineytime suggests could Perhaps train as a back pocket type as I can't really  see him making it as a half forward. Can kick the ball a long way also! Refer last week vs North.

I'll be surprised if one Demonlander doesn't put his 2 cents worth on my post sometime today! 
 

 

Got ahead of ourselves, didn’t see that coming.

Edited March 4, 20223 yr by bluey