19 minutes ago, Go Lordie said:

And JVR.

He has a physical presence, he just hasn't been taught/learnt to use his body to his advantage.

JVR is a good second ruck who gets involved when the ball hits the ground. That's not lacking in physicality.

1 hour ago, Engorged Onion said:

I am genuinely surprised that people forget what this is like... (or maybe I am not)...

Absolutely true and I'd buy it if he didn't have form prior to having a kid. His defensive game, IMO, has almost always been poor.

Winning last week with fast, exciting football. Winning this week with dour grinding footy. Winning two different ways is useful.

6 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Nope. Next test is next week vs West Coast.

This team needs to play consistent pressure football to avoid flaming out to a bottom 4 finish. We don’t get to skip a week. If we lose to West Coast, the commentary on here during the 0-5 run will look tame by comparison to what we see next week.

Yep, we shouldn't be thinking about Hawthorn at all. West Coast towled us up over there last year and are a different proposition in Perth to playing in Melbourne.

Let's. String. Wins. Together.

Every win is a building block. I hope that's how they're thinking.

42 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I tend to agree.

I still wonder if there's space for AJ if thats what they're aiming at.

He should come in for Fullerton as our second ruck / forward.

His aggression and second efforts are just fantastic.

Not the classiest player but the forward50 pressure was what got us over the line.

As for Fritta, I just think JVR offers more.

I can still see a way where Petty, JVR and AJ can work in our forward line.

Johnson had 5 tackles and 111 fantasy points in yesterday's VFL game off the back of 6 tackles the week prior. His physicality and ability to ruck would be so beneficial for JVR to just simply focus on his forward craft.

If and only if West Coast plays the way did against the Bombers we will get exposed on the outside as the Eagles will fling the ball outside and that's our Achilles heel midfield pace but if the Eagles play like Freo did get sucked into a scrap well that will favour us, will interesting to see if their ruckman will jump into Max to nullify him at centre bounces.

18 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I can still see a way where Petty, JVR and AJ can work in our forward line.

Johnson had 5 tackles and 111 fantasy points in yesterday's VFL game off the back of 6 tackles the week prior. His physicality and ability to ruck would be so beneficial for JVR to just simply focus on his forward craft.

I don't like the three tall forwards, but if we're to ever play three talls, AJ has to be one of them as be brings the heat at ground level and provides a contest in the air.

We played one really good quarter and 3 bog average quarters. Obviously needed a rev up at half time, which is a concern

Bowey & Salem kept us in the game until our stars decided to lift their intensity

We're going to have to do better than that to defeat the Eagles

I'm not sure we would have beaten too many teams last night

We can play so much better but it's a 4 quarter game. So we need to bring our best from the get-go

It's a win but unimpressive

1 hour ago, Young Angus said:

Really was keen for Fullerton but can’t see him getting another game for a while after that, not while AJ was so dominant in VFL. We must have some sort of plan for when Max retires because it isn’t that far away. He is awesome!!

I reckon Max has no plan to retire in the next two seasons. Still BOG and a star of the comp.

I imagine they will trade heavily for a ruckman when his time is up and hope that young Khalani is a hit too

13 hours ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

Not a great first half, in great part because we were getting very little from Trac, Clarry and Kozzie. No surprise that things turned with a big second half from each of them. Maxy was huge.

Disappointing way to end the game, some useful % wasted.

Anyway, happy for the win, we continue to build some momentum. Over to the west to make amends for a bad loss last year!!!

Could have a percentage of around 75-80 but because of stupid arrogance by Goodwin resting Max we win by 20 instead of 50

34 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I don't like the three tall forwards, but if we're to ever play three talls, AJ has to be one of them as be brings the heat at ground level and provides a contest in the air.

Yep. To me he's like another midfielder once the ball hits the ground.

Still my preferred option as 2nd ruck to Max above anyone else.

2 minutes ago, Brownie said:

Yep. To me he's like another midfielder once the ball hits the ground.

Still my preferred option as 2nd ruck to Max above anyone else.

He lacks class and finishing. That's the problem. I'd hope JVR would have kicked that goal late against GWS to seal it. He doesn't really look like hitting the scoreboard as a forward. For that reason I prefer JVR.

287 uncontested possessions last night tells a story on how we are trying to transition to the short-ball game. But still too many long kicks to packs or 2 on 2's inside the 50 (with that final possession on the string of possessions)

So we need another link to provide another option when entering the 50. Takes another runner to sprint to position or sprint to extend the chain of possessions. Running into the gap being ideal

Easier said than done of course, as the new game plan is a work in progress

Edited April 25Apr 25 by Macca

Would you prefer Max miss a few minutes of dead time or a full week somewhere down the track?

Gosh the carping is tiresome

17 minutes ago, Macca said:

287 uncontested possessions last night tells a story on how we are trying to transition to the short-ball game. But still too many long kicks to outnumbered teammates inside the 50 (with that final possession of the string of possessions)

So we need another link to provide another option when entering the 50. Takes another runner to sprint to position or sprint to extend the chain of possessions

Easier said than done of course, as the new game plan is a work in progress

I think it's more about being disciplined. The first half we bombed long too often. It was bad, like we were trying to conserve energy. But the game style will work if we're patient in our build ups, rather than just kicking long to out numbers. Keep chipping the ball around, so the opposition have to press up, which opens space up behind. And if the opposition allow the switch, then we need to go quickly and we need forwards and mids leading up at the ball carrier.

Tholstrup had a moment early in the game where he was loading up to blaze at a goal, stopped mid kick, and passed it instead to someone in a better position, which led to a goal (i think trac?).

Clearly listening to the coaches. Play him all year.

34 minutes ago, Dave1711 said:

Could have a percentage of around 75-80 but because of stupid arrogance by Goodwin resting Max we win by 20 instead of 50

Honestly, I don’t actually mind resting Maxy. We will need to look after him this year, and sitting out half a qtr is fine if we’re up by 7 goals.

But

It seemed like everyone else went off with him!!! 🤣

I dunno. On one hand it was a wasted opportunity to build some % but on the other the boys came off a 5 day break (same as the tigers I know), so maybe they were just gassed. Fitness is a question mark I guess.

50 minutes ago, Macca said:

We played one really good quarter and 3 bog average quarters. Obviously needed a rev up at half time, which is a concern

Bowey & Salem kept us in the game until our stars decided to lift their intensity

We're going to have to do better than that to defeat the Eagles

I'm not sure we would have beaten too many teams last night

We can play so much better but it's a 4 quarter game. So we need to bring our best from the get-go

It's a win but unimpressive

I’m not sure about that, which is no real disagreement with the overall point that we’re still an average side.

When we were 0-5, West Coast were statistically worse than us pretty much everywhere that matters. IIRC they’ve only won 2 of 3 quarters in their 6 matches.

We can’t get complacent at all but even last night’s football should be enough. West Coast have so far this year been incredibly bad.

Beyond that though…

People seem to be annoyed we took our foot of the gas in the last quarter and I get that, but for me the much bigger concern is we only put our foot on the gas in the third.

Where was the intensity in the first half ? We were a different side once we decide to have a crack, lift our pressure and put a few tackles in. Prime time slot, amazing pre game ceremony over 70k fans. Apart from KB our biggest game of the year and we only went to proper levels of intensity for one quarter.

Are we not fit enough? Or just not interested enough?

1 minute ago, Adam The God said:

I think it's more about being disciplined. The first half we bombed long too often. It was bad, like we were trying to conserve energy. But the game style will work if we're patient in our build ups, rather than just kicking long to out numbers. Keep chipping the ball around, so the opposition have to press up, which opens space up behind. And if the opposition allow the switch, then we need to go quickly and we need forwards and mids leading up at the ball carrier.

On occasions last night we kicked long forward to a 2 on 2 ... what is required is that one of our forwards needs to lead away to create 2 x 1 on 1 scenarios

Instead of that outcome we end up with a mini-pack situation and thus, a wasted opportunity to score

It's basic footy practised at suburban or country level but our forwards on a whole are too statuesque ... creating seperation is also needed to create non-pack scenarios (not just on their opponents)

In other words, our forwards need to get on their bikes (get moving)

4 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I’m not sure about that, which is no real disagreement with the overall point that we’re still an average side.

When we were 0-5, West Coast were statistically worse than us pretty much everywhere that matters. IIRC they’ve only won 2 of 3 quarters in their 6 matches.

We can’t get complacent at all but even last night’s football should be enough. West Coast have so far this year been incredibly bad.

Beyond that though…

The Eagles aren't much chop but you have to always factor in that they might have one of the better days (or their best day)

You can never assume that a poorly equipped opponent is always going to perform poorly

And they are playing on their home ground. If we start against them like we started last night, we can give them a sniff and they can win

Let's not forget that they defeated us by 35 points last season

We bring our best we'll win, but we were a long way off our best last night

By contrast, we played very well last week against the Dockers and won well

13 hours ago, BoBo said:

I reckon it needs to be said, Richmond absolutely had our measure in that first half. Watching their wins against Carlton and GCS, that was Richmond’s best half this year BY FAR and we were playing really good footy. They pressured us more than any of the games I’ve seen.

North/ESS/GCS/GEE… we played some of the worst footy I’ve seen for probably 10 years. Couldn’t hit 2 meter handballs, couldn’t hit targets by foot, couldn’t tackle, constant long bombs etc. etc. etc. woeful football.

First 3 quarters tonight were really good. Last quarter wasn’t great for sure (and it’s a problem we need to address) but we got the win when it easily could’ve been a loss.

Well I must have watched the wrong

Match. To suggest Tigers dominated first half is so much nonsense

35 minutes ago, Macca said:

287 uncontested possessions last night tells a story on how we are trying to transition to the short-ball game. But still too many long kicks to packs or 2 on 2's inside the 50 (with that final possession on the string of possessions)

So we need another link to provide another option when entering the 50. Takes another runner to sprint to position or sprint to extend the chain of possessions. Running into the gap being ideal

Easier said than done of course, as the new game plan is a work in progress

Agreed the new game plan is a work in progress. But you can see the change and that is positive. At times we look like a different team. We are not the only team at times to bomb long. But we are starting to look good when we go short. Fast ball movement is the key and the confidence to take it on.

4 hours ago, DemonOX said:

Agree I am worried about him too. Maybe it’s to do with having his first child and his mind and attitude is elsewhere. Either way he should be in the seconds until he is back in form on all accounts.

He's been a problem for 20 or more matches

It's not the baby. He's more worried about how his hair looks than team play

3 minutes ago, hemingway said:

Agreed the new game plan is a work in progress. But you can see the change and that is positive. At times we look like a different team. We are not the only team at times to bomb long. But we are starting to look good when we go short. Fast ball movement is the key and the confidence to take it on.

Yes I agree, Ernest

To Richmond's credit, they pressured us well in the first half, so our short game broke down on many occasions

And that's going to happen, we don't get to keep the ball to ourselves. We have to work our way to the right solutions against spirited opposition

Resting Gawn in the last quarter was the correct move as we had the game in hand. We lost percentage as a result but winning games is more important (right now) And if JVR or AJ were in the ruck instead of Fullarton?

Anyway, my thinking is that we've lost 5 games and we need to hold off for as long as possible before we lose a 6th game