I'm rewatching the last quarter of the 21 GF to remind myself that these players *can* kick straight.

If Oliver had come back and re-injured his hamstring, the club would have been blamed. If he stays out longer than we all hoped, the club still gets it in the neck. I know it's frustrating, but in my view the medical staff have a much better understanding of when he will be ready than non-expert posters on this site.

Given Goodwin's ultra-cautious approach to selection and tactics, I don't expect many changes. Maybe he will bring back Tomlinson and send Petty forward again. Jordon surely has earned a recall and almost anyone would have to be an upgrade on Harmes and ANB after their performances against GWS.

I tell you what, it’s going to be exciting when we win a few on the trot

9 minutes ago, Dee-monic said:

Maybe he will bring back Tomlinson and send Petty forward again. Jordon surely has earned a recall and almost anyone would have to be an upgrade on Harmes and ANB after their performances against GWS.

Yeah, Harmes tackling was woeful for at least first half, and Jordan is a sharper kick. Saints are quick, suspect ANB is safe as we'll need the run

As for Forwards, can't stand the thought of Petty as he's proven that he just want's to play a body on body backman style. Really need to get some separation happening.... From opponents and also from each other, instead of competeing against each other for a high ball in the pocket

And ensure the defensive winger and flanker are covering the quick exit!

 

If JVR weren’t to come in who’s next?

it’s funny but I’d quite like Grundy or Gawn to get a minor niggle and need 3-4 weeks off. I think we’d be better off

8 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

If JVR weren’t to come in who’s next?

it’s funny but I’d quite like Grundy or Gawn to get a minor niggle and need 3-4 weeks off. I think we’d be better off

Please tell me you’re joking. Don’t think DL has gone down the path of wishing injuries upon our own.

Demons playing Ross Lyon's Saints

Not looking forward to this from an enjoyment perspective

I'm tipping zero goals in the first quarter

Out Fritsch

In JVR

Smith will get a good run of games with Fristch out, assuming he stays fit.  He was poor on the weekend but hopefully he can strong a few good games together

Brown and JvR would be me ideal key forward set up currently. Surely we look at this sooner rather than later.

I took from that Presser that JVR is a few weeks away. 

3 hours ago, rpfc said:

Evidently, this ‘building resilience by playing and training through niggles’ has hit its lowest point.

Badly mismanaged by someone.

 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Oh dear 

 

Found him!

 

But which one???

6 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

I took from that Presser that JVR is a few weeks away. 

Me too. But I have no idea what he’s not doing well. He’s been as productive in front of goal as any of our other forwards. He kicks well, he competes well. 

Without Fritsch I would have thought JVR would be the perfect replacement. 
 

I have no idea where our goals are going to come from. 

Any lip readers in the building?

3 hours ago, Brownie said:

Gee we're looking wobbly.

Missing out best midfielder (which we're proving we can cover)

And

Missing our best goal kicker (which we could in theory cover)

If

We change our tactics 

The one huge benefit we have is that St Kilda would be expecting us to play exactly the same way we have for the past 6 to 8 weeks.

So, we could catch them out if we actually took the corridor on, moved it fast and lowered our eyes for short kicks to forwards leading into space.

JVR, BB and Kozzie could get it done if we just changed the way we play.

Who's confident we will?

I've just closed my eyes again
Climbed aboard the dream weaver train
Driver take away my worries of today
And leave tomorrow behind

 

Ooh, dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh, dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light

I think all of us are hoping that the indoor stadium means we are cleaner in our ball movement and able to spot up targets when going forward.

But against that we have lost our best leading forward in Fritter and that in itself should force a restructure of sorts from the match committee. 

The issue as I see it is that we don't have any explosive leading players, apart from Kossie, and as we tend to go into forward 50s via the wings on most occasions, so it's easier for defences to pick us off and push our forwards under the ball, hence why Stewart and then Haynes have had field days the past two weeks.

The other issue is that we tend to use only one player as a cut back option through the middle before launching forward and that player is Nibbler. He played that role perfectly in 2021 and early in 2022, but after being hammered by Maynard in the QB game last year, he has since struggled for consistency in the role.

Nibbler is still the hardest-running player in the side, it's just that he's been unable to make the key plays when we go inboard to him. Part of that is because he lacks penetration with his kicking and other sides are often smothering his short, low offerings. And as we've seen in recent weeks, his confidence in making the crucial play has been a tad low, he's even fumbled the odd handball etc.

Axing Nibbler is tricky because he is still our hardest worker, but ultimately Goody has to have the courage to replace him in his role as the mid-forward conduit. We can't keep serving up the same squad.

And he has to decide who is our best option to play that crucial role. To me there are only two players on our list who can do that presently - Petracca and Bowey. The choice of Trac would be similar to the Pies choice of De Goey in the role but it would rob us of some of our clearance dominance. The choice of Bowey would enable us all to gauge how quick and clever he is (and he certainly is swift with the hands) and also he is a thumping kick so capable of scoring goals as well. Nibbler's goalscoring has dried up almost completely this year. The downside of Bowey is that he is smaller in the air, so passes inboard to him have to be on the money, but there's absolutely no doubt he has the courage and fitness for the role. The only other player on our list who has the physique, skill and pace to do this role is Oliver Sestan, but he is still a long way off based on his VFL efforts to date.

If we go Trac, it frees up a midfield spot for Jordan, who is absolutely dominating at VFL level, but failing to measure up at AFL level where he jumps from half-forward to occasional midfield bursts. But if we are to fix our forward structure, then we have to give him a sustained run as the main man in the middle with Viney and Sparrow with Rivers/Angus/Trac and Harmes all going through in bursts.

Two other quick suggestions:

1) How about we actually start Grundy on the ground - he's a physical player and games are almost always at their most physical in the first 10 minutes. Why we start him on the bench and not as a forward waiting to replace Max on the ball is beyond belief, given that all of us rate him highly and in our best 10 players. 

2) The four incredibly small forwards option worked well early this season when it was dry and games were fast, but more recently we have gone back to three smalls and that still hasn't worked. Nibbler and Chandler have combined for two goals in our past six games. Maybe we have to look at just two small, small forwards as other sides do - Kozzie plus one other - Bowey is my preference (sight unseen). It's also time we went back to the three big forward structure that won us the flag in 2022. Yes it makes us less mobile but hopefully with better ball movement we can isolate the right tall with the wrong match up.

Finally one other thing, and it's just an observation, not fact. but we may need more of a "taking a hit for the team' attitude. There's a reason why Harmes and Nibbler and Ed and Salem and others all played so well in our flag year and that's because they were role players first. Maybe a few have starting thinking there's an 'i' in team.  

Goody not giving anything away at the presser

don't read too much in to it.

We need JVR, no choice but to bring him in

7 minutes ago, Young Blood said:

Any lip readers in the building?

Clayton - "what do you mean I'm out"

Selwyn - "I saw your leg move mate, take the loss and go back to the start"

Clayton - "that's bs mate, I was frozen still, no way was I moving"

Selwyn - "you suck at Giants treasure mate, don't be a sore loser and go back to the start"

Clayton - "it's cold as balls out here, I was shivering, what more do you want me to do, I want that Mars bar"

Selwyn - "I'm walking away from this, you moved your leg and I caught you, go back to the rooms"

Pretty sure I heard on the radio at 4pm that Oliver had failed the big fitness test - clearly he was gutted and doesn’t agree!

23 minutes ago, Nascent said:

Clayton - "what do you mean I'm out"

Selwyn - "I saw your leg move mate, take the loss and go back to the start"

Clayton - "that's bs mate, I was frozen still, no way was I moving"

Selwyn - "you suck at Giants treasure mate, don't be a sore loser and go back to the start"

Clayton - "it's cold as balls out here, I was shivering, what more do you want me to do, I want that Mars bar"

Selwyn - "I'm walking away from this, you moved your leg and I caught you, go back to the rooms"

Funniest fo a whiles..

Cheers...needed that.

I’m on leave and have had a few. Listened to Goody’s press conference and am 100 % still on board with him and the footy club. It’s a tough gig. Best thing I can do is rock up to Docklands this weekend and back our boys in. Over and out - (hope the auto correct did its job)

Just got tickets for me and my partner. Going to get loud baby, really loud! We'll roll the saints and it'll be off we go

I’ve gone from being angry and very disappointed in the last couple of losses to very confident we will win our next block of games.

we perform better when our backs are against the wall and I reckon they are champing at the bit to prove the doubters wrong 

Edited July 5, 20231 yr by DeeZee

24 minutes ago, DeeZee said:

I’ve gone from being angry and very disappointed in the last couple of losses to very confident we will win our next block of games.

we perform better when our backs are against the wall and I reckon they are champing at the bit to prove the doubters wrong 

Now we’re talking…..get yourself tickets to the weekend it’s the beginning…..or is that next weekend…..fkuc I don’t know 

Judging by goodies presser JVR won’t be coming in.

My guess would be: 

out: Fritta and Harmes 

In: Tomlinson & Jordan 

Petty moved forward, smith becomes third forward. Tomlinson moved back into defence (should never have been dropped after KB)