After Tom marked Harmes' goal and kicked his hardly any players went to him even tho it came at an important time and was the one to put us in front of a fast starting Hawks. 

Harmes wen to him and was animated but it looked more like 'what have you done' and Bedford was excited.  Weideman and Fritsch reactions were minimal at best. 

To me the overall lack of reaction says a bit about what teammates thought.

  On 02/05/2022 at 00:17, Lucifers Hero said:

After Tom marked Harmes' goal and kicked his hardly any players went to him even tho it came at an important time and was the one to put us in front of a fast starting Hawks. 

Harmes wen to him and was animated but it looked more like 'what have you done' and Bedford was excited.  Weideman and Fritsch reactions were minimal at best. 

To me the overall lack of reaction says a bit about what teammates thought.

Maybe Luci. But remember, there was a review, so that may have muted the celebrations?

  On 01/05/2022 at 00:28, jumbo returns said:

Smith out n out n out n out

Used to think he was okay

I thought Smith defended well. What was your issues with his game?

Moot point given he will likely miss through injury but interested in your thoughts

  On 02/05/2022 at 00:17, Lucifers Hero said:

After Tom marked Harmes' goal and kicked his hardly any players went to him even tho it came at an important time and was the one to put us in front of a fast starting Hawks. 

Harmes wen to him and was animated but it looked more like 'what have you done' and Bedford was excited.  Weideman and Fritsch reactions were minimal at best. 

To me the overall lack of reaction says a bit about what teammates thought.

Agree LH. No upside to taking that mark, only potential downside ... drop the mark, or not take a one touch mark then it has cost a goal. No Hawks player near, and the ball was heading through the goals at head height.  There was a reaction of WTF in the crowd around me when it happened.

Not team first !!

Despite being one of the best midfields of modern times, we've historically been quite poor at clearance. This is despite Oliver being the number 1 clearance player in the AFL in 2022. Any chance we could have Petracca coming off the back of the square for the centre clearances and trial someone like a sparrow in there or something? If we're not winning clearance it makes sense to put someone else in there, just for the clearances. Keep Petracca in the midfield but just have someone else in the clearance?

 

  On 02/05/2022 at 00:17, Lucifers Hero said:

After Tom marked Harmes' goal and kicked his hardly any players went to him even tho it came at an important time and was the one to put us in front of a fast starting Hawks. 

Harmes wen to him and was animated but it looked more like 'what have you done' and Bedford was excited.  Weideman and Fritsch reactions were minimal at best. 

To me the overall lack of reaction says a bit about what teammates thought.

It wasn’t Tom’s finest moment but to be fair him marking it made it a certain goal at an important time, for all he knew there could’ve been someone coming from behind to spoil it. It’s in the book for Tom, but I’m sure everyone recognises it as Harmes’s goal. 

  On 02/05/2022 at 01:13, Deedubs said:

Despite being one of the best midfields of modern times, we've historically been quite poor at clearance. This is despite Oliver being the number 1 clearance player in the AFL in 2022. Any chance we could have Petracca coming off the back of the square for the centre clearances and trial someone like a sparrow in there or something? If we're not winning clearance it makes sense to put someone else in there, just for the clearances. Keep Petracca in the midfield but just have someone else in the clearance?

Almost no chance at all given 6-6-6.

We won't be using one of our six defensive spots at a centre bounce on a midfielder who pushes up into the stoppage. That will leave us with an outnumber in defence and as Trac won't be getting first hands on the ball, we gain nothing in terms of the initial stoppage. If the three mids in the middle don't win it, a quick kick goes straight over Trac's head into an outnumber situation.

If Jackson is OK to play and Petty is also right to go, I'd be keeping Weideman over McDonald.  A simple decision I would have thought.

  On 01/05/2022 at 12:58, monoccular said:

Sorry I may have missed a reply, but do we actually know if the players in question were positive swabs, symptomatic, or just close contacts?  Will make one hell of a difference in return to duty planning 

Not a problem monoccular. I read it in an article on The Age. Doesn’t attribute to any specific source though.

https://amp.theage.com.au/sport/afl/we-ve-got-a-plan-yze-to-lead-demons-as-goodwin-ruled-out-with-covid-19-20220427-p5aghm.html

  On 02/05/2022 at 00:52, DubDee said:

I thought Smith defended well. What was your issues with his game?

Moot point given he will likely miss through injury but interested in your thoughts

He reminds me a bit of Sam Frost.  All the athleticism in the world and does lots of nice things, but just cant be... trusted (?) to be clean and make the right decision at all times.

We have a solid, reliable and smart back half now, so errors tend to stand out more than they may have in the past when I'm sure all of us could identify one or two players that made you cringe every time they got the ball.  

  On 02/05/2022 at 02:12, JTR said:

He reminds me a bit of Sam Frost.  All the athleticism in the world and does lots of nice things, but just cant be... trusted (?) to be clean and make the right decision at all times.

We have a solid, reliable and smart back half now, so errors tend to stand out more than they may have in the past when I'm sure all of us could identify one or two players that made you cringe every time they got the ball.  

Fair point. He does drop quite a lot of uncontested marks too. And he did so on the weekend again. 

  On 01/05/2022 at 11:30, Jaded No More said:

Viney didn’t train this week and he played. 

ANB has elite fitness and is extremely important to us. If he is feeling ok I reckon he plays. 
Of all the players who missed this week, he and Petty are the least replaceable. 
It would also be good to have Jackson come in as Ryder is in good form and our two ruck combo gives us the edge over them. 

I would also dearly love Sparrow back. He covers so much ground and is streets ahead of Dunstan. 

and if anb hasn't a;ready got a treadmill i'm sure one has been sent to him to use in iso

The forward line is NQR at present. 

Pity Melksham didn't display more on Saturday but I am beginning to despair of Weideman having a real impact. Two more weeks perhaps.

The Casey game next week is against Southport at Casey starting 35 minutes before the AFL match. Not ideal for the emergencies getting some match time not to mention the medi sub

 

  On 02/05/2022 at 01:03, Winners at last said:

Agree LH. No upside to taking that mark, only potential downside ... drop the mark, or not take a one touch mark then it has cost a goal. No Hawks player near, and the ball was heading through the goals at head height.  There was a reaction of WTF in the crowd around me when it happened.

Not team first !!

I don't recall anyone mentioning that Weid was nearby.   Surely he should have told TMac it was going through?  Did he?

unless we have details of how covid affected each player is and how much exercising each player has achieved in iso, then we haven't an f'n clue which players will end up fit for action

In: Jackson, Kozzy, Nibbla, Petty, Sparrow

Out: Tmac, Bedford (stiff), Melksham, Smith, Dunstan

Bedford is the tough call and would love to keep him in but would find it tough to drop spargs or keep kozzy out

  On 02/05/2022 at 01:13, Deedubs said:

Despite being one of the best midfields of modern times, we've historically been quite poor at clearance. This is despite Oliver being the number 1 clearance player in the AFL in 2022. Any chance we could have Petracca coming off the back of the square for the centre clearances and trial someone like a sparrow in there or something? If we're not winning clearance it makes sense to put someone else in there, just for the clearances. Keep Petracca in the midfield but just have someone else in the clearance?

 

I think part of this is that we look to have an extra behind the ball to intercept so outside of centre bounces, we are often outnumbered at the stoppage.  We can get away with this as with Gawn, Oliver and Petracca we have 3 of the best 10 players in the league at the stoppage and when we lose it it's about not losing it badly so our interceptors can capitalise.

What I'm also hoping is that like last year, these players go up a level - what we did to geelong (and the dogs and lions to a lesser extent) in the finals at clearance was unbelievable.  You also saw a bit of this during the season when we played other contenders.  It will be interesting this week as it's our first game in a while against a team that is considered to be a contender.  I have a feeling our players will lift to get the psychological edge over the saints in case we meet them in September. 

  On 02/05/2022 at 05:22, daisycutter said:

unless we have details of how covid affected each player is and how much exercising each player has achieved in iso, then we haven't an f'n clue which players will end up fit for action

And add that do we don't know if there are any more infections/isos, making this thread  even more speculative than ever.   I'll come back in a few days.

COVID is just quite the mischief maker with these threads, lots of interesting discussion thrown out by last minute covid withdrawals

BBB into Joel Smith into Lever/Viney into Petty/Kozzy/Jackson/Sparrow/ANB

As said above if anyone on the list can make it back into the game without training, its ANB he's a jet.

A good way of keeping everyone rested and on their toes selection wise tho aha.

  On 02/05/2022 at 01:53, Pates said:

It wasn’t Tom’s finest moment but to be fair him marking it made it a certain goal at an important time, for all he knew there could’ve been someone coming from behind to spoil it. It’s in the book for Tom, but I’m sure everyone recognises it as Harmes’s goal. 

Tmac has had a lot of stick for the mark, and I think he was unsure what to do. I read he was worried it may hit the line and bounce back to my mind it looked like he was also worried he may not be able to get out the way with someone behind him. A shame for Harmes who deserved it but the commentary has been over the top. 

  On 02/05/2022 at 05:42, Robbie57 said:

Tmac has had a lot of stick for the mark, and I think he was unsure what to do. I read he was worried it may hit the line and bounce back to my mind it looked like he was also worried he may not be able to get out the way with someone behind him. A shame for Harmes who deserved it but the commentary has been over the top. 

Really being over analysed on here

We are arguably 7 players off our best 22, and while those that came in are good, they not equal or like for like for Salem, Petty, Jackson, Kozzie, Nibbler, Sparrow and Hibbard. 

A lot of the Hawks ability to move the ball around and, at time open us up, would not have occurred with these 6+ back in and on.

That we still won without those players out has me thinking how well we would have won by if they'd played...

 

Edited May 2, 20223 yr by PaulRB

  On 02/05/2022 at 05:48, PaulRB said:

We are arguably 7 players of our best 22, and while those that came in are good, they not equal or like for like for Salem, Petty, Jackson, Kozzie, Nibbler, Sparrow and Hibbard. 

A lot of the Hawks ability to move the ball around and, at time open us up, would not have occurred with these 6+ back in and on.

That we still won without those players out has me thinking how well we would have won by if they'd played...

 

Well they opened us up last year when we drew against them...

Same as Adelaide...and Collingwood..

I think it's more mindset and execution than personnel. 

There's a difference between exercising and training, and the players who are housebound will have missed a week of training. Some will respond better than others coming out the other side, but I wouldn't assume that they'd all be walk-up starts just because they're available: ANB in particular and Petty possibly. Hopefully the other 3 will be OK, we really missed Sparrow for mine.

  On 02/05/2022 at 05:42, Robbie57 said:

Tmac has had a lot of stick for the mark, and I think he was unsure what to do. I read he was worried it may hit the line and bounce back to my mind it looked like he was also worried he may not be able to get out the way with someone behind him. A shame for Harmes who deserved it but the commentary has been over the top. 

Can't win them all, not going to slate him too much for it, in the GF he jostled on the line perfectly for Sparrow's goal. Doubt can creep in though I guess in terms of placement. 

Reminds me of the Quarter finals of the Champions League in 2003 poor Pipo Inzaghi chipped the keeper and was already celebrating the dramatic late winner and didn't realise Jon Dahl Tomasson had poked it over on the line aha.