1 hour ago, bing181 said:

If Brown is back, McDonald out. 

You might be right Bing.

Brown is one of the players that cones straight back in when fit (Lever and petty are the only others that are currently not in the team).

So a tall has to come out - and weed made a very strong case it shouldn't be him. 

And tmac didn't have a good game, on the back of a couple of just ok games.

But it really depends on how well he has been playing his role - in particular his gut running up and down the ground, providing a hit up target, blocking and bringing the ball to ground.

On the final one, he failed to do so a few times whe out marked inside our 50.

But the others are harder to assess.

Does weed have the tank, and strength in one on one contests, to play tmac's role? 

I doubt it, so expect tmac to keep his spot. 

Tomo will definitely make way for Lever when he comes back.

Edited April 3, 20223 yr by binman

2 minutes ago, binman said:

You might be right Bing.

Brown is one of the players that cones straight back in when fit (Lever and petty are the only others that are currently not in the team).

So a tall has to come out - and weed made a very strong case it shouldn't be him. 

And tmac didn't have a good game, on the back of a couple of just ok games.

But it really depends on how well he has been playing his role - in particular his gut running up and down the ground, providing a hit up target, blocking and bringing the ball to ground.

On the final one, he failed to do so a few times whe out marked inside our 50.

But the others are harder to assess.

Does weed have the tank, and strength in one on one contests, to play tmac's role? 

I doubt it, so expect tmac to keep his spot. 

Tomo will definitely make way for Lever when he comes back.

I don't think you can afford to have a key fwd as a role player Binno, I'd be pretty staggered if McDonald doesn't make way for Brown. 

I really hope Weid is like Petty last year. Gets a gig due to injury, with reasonably low expectations, but continues to build and eventually becomes a valuable piece and we don't look back. His recent history says that is unlikely, but he certainly has the ability..

3 minutes ago, adonski said:

I don't think you can afford to have a key fwd as a role player Binno,

That theory is about to be tested.

This was last years named team, which won pretty easily (red not available next week)

B [29] Jayden Hunt,[1] Steven May,[8] Jake Lever

HB [14] Michael Hibberd,[35] Harrison Petty,[3] Christian Salem

C [23] James Jordon,[5] Christian Petracca,[15] Ed Langdon

HF [36] Kysaiah Pickett,[25] Tom McDonald,[10] Angus Brayshaw

FF [30] Alex Neal-Bullen,[50] Ben Brown,[31] Bayley Fritsch

FOL [11] Max Gawn,[13] Clayton Oliver,[7] Jack Viney

IC [4] James Harmes,[6] Luke Jackson,[9] Charlie Spargo,[24] Trent Rivers

So Bowey for Hibberd, Joel Smith for Petty and Brayshaw for Salem (Sparrow for Brayshaw) are the differences between last year's team and this for mine, with Tomlinson missing out for Lever my only change. I think BBB and Weid are competing for the same spot, I'd be happy to give BBB another week to get back up to full load.

On 4/1/2022 at 10:22 PM, bing181 said:

Brown won't come in, he's only out of quarantine on Thursday, and will have had a week without full training. Could be wrong, but I'd be surprised.

Brown will come straight in, a week is nothing off the track 

Edited April 3, 20223 yr by Demons11

Can’t remember which qtr but TMac was having a set shot city end, close to the boundary around the 50 metre arc. Oliver was standing by himself for calling for the ball. TMac ignored him, went back had the shot and missed. I’m all for forwards backing themselves in but Oliver was directly in front probably 35-40 metres out. What happened to team first? 

2 minutes ago, Demons11 said:

Brown will come straight in

Yes, unless they want to give weed another week to make his case and not have to make the tmac v weed call this week.

Just now, binman said:

Yes, unless they want to give weed another week to make his case and not have to make the tmac v weed call this week.

T Mac will go out in my opinion

Jeepers some of the comments are panic stations !

On 4/1/2022 at 11:54 PM, DeeSpencer said:

How have we gone this far and no one mentioned that May couldn’t get out of a jog all night. Huge issue.

Tomlinson couldn’t either but he was playing on nippy smalls and that’s never been his go. 

Maybe May was off with the fairies and trying to protect the deep entries but he’s my first worry. Only if he’s fit would I then worry about Tomlinson who was fine against the dogs and good enough against the Suns when tasked with an opponent. Tommo’s biggest issue tonight was a lack of confidence to launch and mark. He likes to work talls under the ball to spoil or mark, against smalls he has to back himself to out mark them. 

McDonald in big trouble forward. But I’m still not sure on the Weid Brown combo. Has all the hallmarks of going pear shaped quickly. 

 

Much like everyone else I would love to see the Weid succeed and string a few games together.
The reality is however that last weekend was his best performance at either level for a number of games both this year and last and in my book he needs to earn that spot.  I thought the forward line looked crowded with Tommy and Weid they just don't seem to understand the concept of creating space for each other or Fritta for that matter.

28 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Can’t remember which qtr but TMac was having a set shot city end, close to the boundary around the 50 metre arc. Oliver was standing by himself for calling for the ball. TMac ignored him, went back had the shot and missed. I’m all for forwards backing themselves in but Oliver was directly in front probably 35-40 metres out. What happened to team first? 

Our forwards rarely share the ball that well, it’s a bug bear of mine. Fritsch a repeat offender, who doesn’t like to give goals away with the extra handball. Tom’s similar too. 

I’d like to see more sharing on the run it in to goal kind of scenarios. That said, messing around with set shots often ends in disaster as well. The wind was so swirly on Friday a 15m chip kick was rarely a sure thing. Especially if it’s to a stationary midfielder and sometimes wider too. Plenty of teams will mark 40 out and chip it wider 30 out and have only achieved passing the buck.  

2 hours ago, bing181 said:

For mine, Tomlinson has gone back to the "why did we trade for him?" player of a couple of seasons back, an almost player without any standout qualities. It's true he'd got it together at the beginning of last season, but he hasn't recaptured that form post-injury and doesn't seem to be improving either.

May has struggled a bit with one-on-ones on the lead without Lever. Tomlinson has his limitations without Lever and May as a combo, as would probably Petty. Our defence is a unit. I don't think it's an issue of head-to-head between Tomlinson and Petty in the current environment, but who can best play the role as a third tall in our ideal set-up. They both performed in that role last year, and were difficult to split. Should we sustain a long-term injury to one of our top two KPDs, they are auditioning to step up into one of those two roles. I'm not sure who gets the gig.   

How good is it that we have competition for spots and with such varied opinions it means we run deep with options.

My biggest worry is the forward structure where Fritta gets crowded out and our biggest threat to the opposition looses space and focus to really hurt teams. Balance around a Fritta needs to be a major focus of the brains trusts thinking moving forward.

1 hour ago, Skuit said:

May has struggled a bit with one-on-ones on the lead without Lever. Tomlinson has his limitations without Lever and May as a combo, as would probably Petty. Our defence is a unit. I don't think it's an issue of head-to-head between Tomlinson and Petty in the current environment, but who can best play the role as a third tall in our ideal set-up. They both performed in that role last year, and were difficult to split. Should we sustain a long-term injury to one of our top two KPDs, they are auditioning to step up into one of those two roles. I'm not sure who gets the gig.   

Lever and Petty compliment May to perfection. He struggles with tall athletic type forwards, and Lever and Petty cater for that. Petty can take them on his own, but having Lever come third man up makes it tough for forwards. Having those two back in will ease the burden for May a lot. We will be a far better side for their inclusions. We’ve had to contend with Norton and Wright having their way with us so far this year. We shouldn’t have to deal with that happening again.

On 4/1/2022 at 11:54 PM, DeeSpencer said:

How have we gone this far and no one mentioned that May couldn’t get out of a jog all night. Huge issue.

Tomlinson couldn’t either but he was playing on nippy smalls and that’s never been his go. 

Maybe May was off with the fairies and trying to protect the deep entries but he’s my first worry. Only if he’s fit would I then worry about Tomlinson who was fine against the dogs and good enough against the Suns when tasked with an opponent. Tommo’s biggest issue tonight was a lack of confidence to launch and mark. He likes to work talls under the ball to spoil or mark, against smalls he has to back himself to out mark them. 

McDonald in big trouble forward. But I’m still not sure on the Weid Brown combo. Has all the hallmarks of going pear shaped quickly. 

Still worth a try though early in the season. If it works would add greatly to our structure.

3 hours ago, binman said:

You might be right Bing.

Brown is one of the players that cones straight back in when fit (Lever and petty are the only others that are currently not in the team). **

So a tall has to come out - and weed made a very strong case it shouldn't be him. 

And tmac didn't have a good game, on the back of a couple of just ok games.

But it really depends on how well he has been playing his role - in particular his gut running up and down the ground, providing a hit up target, blocking and bringing the ball to ground.

On the final one, he failed to do so a few times whe out marked inside our 50.

But the others are harder to assess.

Does weed have the tank, and strength in one on one contests, to play tmac's role? 

I doubt it, so expect tmac to keep his spot. 

Tomo will definitely make way for Lever when he comes back.

** Salem says "hi"!

Would TMcD make versatile medisub?  Tall forward, tall back, flanker or even wing?

 

2 hours ago, binman said:

Yes, unless they want to give weed another week to make his case and not have to make the tmac v weed call this week.

If BBB is cleared to go , I just can't see any valid reason for not him playing. 

The Tmac decision will simply have to made.

T Mac has next to zero mobility and has the turning circle of the Titanic. Three very average games means he is relegated. Definately keep Weeds who was solid and of course BBB comes straight back. At the other end Lever for Tomlinson seems like a formality. Chandler to replace Bedford as Super sub would be the only other change!

When Brown and Lever return, on current form there is no spot for McDonald. 
I would rather leave Weid in the side. There is zero point in letting him languish in the twos. It’s now or never. 
The fact McDonald has a contract until the end of 2024 is concerning.

2 minutes ago, Beetle said:

When Brown and Lever return, on current form there is no spot for McDonald. 
I would rather leave Weid in the side. There is zero point in letting him languish in the twos. It’s now or never. 
The fact McDonald has a contract until the end of 2024 is concerning.

McDonald would have signed for peanuts and can play at either end of the ground. I was surprised they re-signed him for a further two years but can't imagine it'll influence any list management decisions. He'll be good depth or rise from the ashes once again, either is fine.

Edited April 3, 20223 yr by adonski

3 hours ago, Skuit said:

May has struggled a bit with one-on-ones on the lead without Lever. Tomlinson has his limitations without Lever and May as a combo, as would probably Petty. Our defence is a unit. I don't think it's an issue of head-to-head between Tomlinson and Petty in the current environment, but who can best play the role as a third tall in our ideal set-up. They both performed in that role last year, and were difficult to split. Should we sustain a long-term injury to one of our top two KPDs, they are auditioning to step up into one of those two roles. I'm not sure who gets the gig.   

I think Tomlinson is so poor overhead that Petty, Smith and of course Lever are walk up starts in comparison. Last week against the Suns he had six or seven contested marks taken on him. This week he avoided a couple of aerial contests. He's tall but doesn't play tall.

2 hours ago, Dees2014 said:

Still worth a try though early in the season. If it works would add greatly to our structure.

I agree, but we might have to lower both Weid and Brown's usual game time, possibly even throw Weid in to the ruck for a brief stint in order to use Jackson at CHF if we need mobility.

 

On 4/1/2022 at 11:43 PM, Rod Grinter Riot Squad said:

I reckon Smith has been much better than Tomlinson this year, the latter to be replaced by Lever. BBB for TMac

Yep!

essentially meaning - “hey Joel, play Pettys role”

this will be perfect for Smith

10 hours ago, Zimma said:

How good is it that we have competition for spots and with such varied opinions it means we run deep with options.

My biggest worry is the forward structure where Fritta gets crowded out and our biggest threat to the opposition looses space and focus to really hurt teams. Balance around a Fritta needs to be a major focus of the brains trusts thinking moving forward.

Fritta usually does his best work leading out laterally or to a frontal space. We cannot allow him to become static so it's heads up for the leading Fritta, for mine.