20 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Which allows Koz to play more time forward. In the past (when playing significantly more minutes forward) he has been our best F50 pressure player.

But losing Koz from midfield is huge. He's a crucial cog in the way we move the ball now.

11 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

But losing Koz from midfield is huge. He's a crucial cog in the way we move the ball now.

I love him.

3 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Given we’re down a couple of soldiers in Viney and Petty I wonder if they could’ve deferred the resting of Melksham by another week.

Suspect that it's a little more than "resting". At his age he could be one of those players who is week to week in terms of getting up for each match.

Am I the only one that thinks we'll pump them....

45 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

These changes take me back to the forward line that looked lost and uncompetitive at ground level. I would love to be proved wrong but i just don’t see us being able to compete at ground level with those selected.

2 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

But losing Koz from midfield is huge. He's a crucial cog in the way we move the ball now.

I think Kozzie in the midfield has been big reason why we've been winning.. He's lightning fast bringing pressure to the contest and so the game perks up bringing fast early forward 50 entries and so, more space for forwards. With Chanlder firing and Spargo pressure maybe speedy Sharp as crumbers with Sparrow as pressure and Fritsch..there as mid/ semi tall, I reckon as much Kozzie as a mid makes us a better team. I just hope JVR doesn't gum up the works...maybe instructed to bring it to ground..at least he takes one defender out of the game at this stage. I was hoping JVR would be a Jonathan Brown type of CHF...can't see it yet...maybe later, but needs to impose himself on the game..not doing that yet

Danger payers Newcombe I like the idea of tagging the No1 mid..seems to have worked well so far....when youre on a good thing, stick to it, and Watson...someone needs to wear Watson like a glove...Maybe MacVee...and get him into the game after his layoff

I like Ginnivan. Don't know why we didn't pick him up...Has X factor..always kicks a few. Watch him make space...!!

22 minutes ago, adonski said:

Am I the only one that thinks we'll pump them....

Was quietly confident until I saw Viney and Melksham out - reckon those two have been super important to our resurgence over the past three weeks

Still, Hawks aren’t in great form either and Port have shown the blueprint of how to beat them - pressure, pressure, pressure

Bring the pressure we’ve brought over the past few weeks and I reckon we’ve got them

5 hours ago, DeeBlood said:

I think Kozzie in the midfield has been big reason why we've been winning.. He's lightning fast bringing pressure to the contest and so the game perks up bringing fast early forward 50 entries and so, more space for forwards. With Chanlder firing and Spargo pressure maybe speedy Sharp as crumbers with Sparrow as pressure and Fritsch..there as mid/ semi tall, I reckon as much Kozzie as a mid makes us a better team. I just hope JVR doesn't gum up the works...maybe instructed to bring it to ground..at least he takes one defender out of the game at this stage. I was hoping JVR would be a Jonathan Brown type of CHF...can't see it yet...maybe later, but needs to impose himself on the game..not doing that yet

Danger payers Newcombe I like the idea of tagging the No1 mid..seems to have worked well so far....when youre on a good thing, stick to it, and Watson...someone needs to wear Watson like a glove...Maybe MacVee...and get him into the game after his layoff

I like Ginnivan. Don't know why we didn't pick him up...Has X factor..always kicks a few. Watch him make space...!!

Just to add to that comment about us missing Ginnivan...Wasn't it the start of '24 we let James Jordan and James Harmes go, missed Ginnivan and took Billings.

How did that all work out, eh?

So we're going to have Oliver who just bangs it on his boot to no one in particular, have fritta and van rooyen in there competing for the same contest & who don't lead. They just stand there.

Also I hope van rooyen has learnt to stay on his feet & not go to ground

How on earth does Jefferson get a game ,Roo is lucky as well

10 hours ago, Jack Vineys Anger Manager said:

I saw on X that"Clap for Clarry" is a thing that is happening on Saturday. 13 minute mark first quarter. Clap one of our all time greats to show our support.

Just don’t confuse it with ‘the clap’. That’s the last thing he needs.

8 hours ago, adonski said:

Am I the only one that thinks we'll pump them....

I wish I had your confidence. I think they'll be far too strong. Their backline is a fair bit ahead of our forward line, I reckon we'll struggle to kick a score. Viney is a huge out too. More than happy to be proven wrong though!

4 minutes ago, BigFez said:

I wish I had your confidence. I think they'll be far too strong. Their backline is a fair bit ahead of our forward line, I reckon we'll struggle to kick a score. Viney is a huge out too. More than happy to be proven wrong though!

Is Viney injured?

1 minute ago, jackaub said:

Is Viney injured?

Delayed concussion from last week

Viney is a big out this week, he wasn't 3 weeks ago. He's been a great tagger and that's a role he can continue to play. Oliver back will help fill the hole so we should cover that ok. Oliver just should never kick the ball, feed it out to the runners. If we get the third quarter against Richmond from him we'll be more than fine. Melksham is a tougher loss. I think Jefferson has been bought in to man Sicily. He's played a fair few games in defence at Casey and I think it's good to give the kid a focus. If he nullifies Sicily, helps create a few goals and perhaps kicks one or two then that's a massive win, looking forward to watching that contest. Because we'll be leading late Sicily will go forward where I think TMac can cover him. There's no doubt Petracca is finding his mojo again as he gets better week after week. I'm expecting a big game from him and another from Gawn. The others are all playing pretty good footy, Windsor had his best game for the year last week, Lindsay is just rolling along beautifully and Bowey is loving his footy atm. All up I'm predicting the Dee's by 40 although it could be closer if we put the queue in the rack late. Unlike Collingwood we don't have the luxury of resting our stars for whole games, we're going to have to do it during games. Don't be surprised to see Max and Tracc on the bench for the last 10 minutes after JVR kicks his 4th to take us 45 points up.

12 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Viney is a big out this week, he wasn't 3 weeks ago. He's been a great tagger and that's a role he can continue to play. Oliver back will help fill the hole so we should cover that ok. Oliver just should never kick the ball, feed it out to the runners. If we get the third quarter against Richmond from him we'll be more than fine. Melksham is a tougher loss. I think Jefferson has been bought in to man Sicily. He's played a fair few games in defence at Casey and I think it's good to give the kid a focus. If he nullifies Sicily, helps create a few goals and perhaps kicks one or two then that's a massive win, looking forward to watching that contest. Because we'll be leading late Sicily will go forward where I think TMac can cover him. There's no doubt Petracca is finding his mojo again as he gets better week after week. I'm expecting a big game from him and another from Gawn. The others are all playing pretty good footy, Windsor had his best game for the year last week, Lindsay is just rolling along beautifully and Bowey is loving his footy atm. All up I'm predicting the Dee's by 40 although it could be closer if we put the queue in the rack late. Unlike Collingwood we don't have the luxury of resting our stars for whole games, we're going to have to do it during games. Don't be surprised to see Max and Tracc on the bench for the last 10 minutes after JVR kicks his 4th to take us 45 points up.

what’s the opposite of MFCSS? ;-)

4 minutes ago, Wells 11 said:

what’s the opposite of MFCSS? ;-)

Firstly I reckon the Hawks are over rated.

Secondly I think we're in reasonable form

Thirdly I think they'll be coming off a little after their circle [censored] last week.

Fourthly I hate em, all of them, the whole club, the supporters, the entirety.

So we have to win, it's been glorious years beating them and I'd like it to continue.

So Melksham needs to be rested after playing 1 consecutive game, are they for real? Maybe don't take an almost 34 year old to Perth to play the bottom side if he is not capable of backing up the following week in a much more important fixture. Hard to believe that Jefferson is the best replacement either.

3 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Firstly I reckon the Hawks are over rated.

Secondly I think we're in reasonable form

Thirdly I think they'll be coming off a little after their circle [censored] last week.

Fourthly I hate em, all of them, the whole club, the supporters, the entirety.

So we have to win, it's been glorious years beating them and I'd like it to continue.

I get the feeling you dont like them

9 hours ago, Adam The God said:

But losing Koz from midfield is huge. He's a crucial cog in the way we move the ball now.

I'm not saying take him out of the mid entirely. Just shift his split between mid / forward a little more to the forward side to compensate.

He seems to play his best footy and impacts the most when not playing super heavy mid minutes anyway a la his stellar BOG against Flagmantle.

9 hours ago, bing181 said:

Suspect that it's a little more than "resting". At his age he could be one of those players who is week to week in terms of getting up for each match.

'Managed' could easily mean that massive gash above his knee from a few weeks ago isn't fully healed.

14 hours ago, watchtheeyes said:

As much as I’ve been a fan of Melky this year, the reality is he’s a placeholder.. we need to find out what we have in Jefferson.

Big games coming up for both him and JVR in the context of their careers.

There's no way Melksham is a placeholder. His delivery into F50 this year has been elite. He's a valuable asset for his footy smarts alone. As long as he's fit, he's an automatic selection for me, every week. Jefferson also has a place, but it's not to replace Melksham (*this year).

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

All up I'm predicting the Dee's by 40

I'm not sure if you're a punter or not, but you can get $101 odds if the Dees win by 39 or 40 pts or $21 odds if they win by 40+ points.

9 hours ago, adonski said:

Am I the only one that thinks we'll pump them....

Heck why not. We've only been playing 1 or 2 good quarters even in our wins. The talent and match winning ability is still there we just need to play 3 quarters, let alone 4.

Hawks do nothing bad but don't do anything particularly well, they are ranked 4 to 8 in most areas, except one.

They are by far league leading marks inside 50 (16 pg) we are 17th (9 pg 🤮). Its not just the big guys as Hardwick, Macdonald and Watson all have had more marks inside 50 than all but one of our players (Fritsch with 12). Throw in Bruest and they have a very clever and agile forward line. Wouldnt label our defenders clever or agile apart from #4. I can almost read the game day posts that some so and so 30 yr old defender is cooked.

Up forward must play front of Sicily. He plays front spot so well. Melksham would have been great.

Edited Thursday at 23:224 days by Jjrogan

13 hours ago, binman said:

5

For the same reason the pies didn't chang their plans with managing players after a loss, we aren't with melk.

As mcrae noted the program for managing players is months in the planning.

And though he didn't say so its also true for the overall conditioning program for each team. Planned to the minute and metre.

I really wish the footy media drilled down on the impact of team's high performance programs given how critical it is in terms of influencing the result of each game.

My tip about the freo pies game - freo wil look a completely different team to the one last week that looked like they had led in their boors such was their appalling defensive running

Why? They are set for this game, and will have planned their program accordingly months ago. Part of that planning is a calculated gamble of of a performance like last week.

And of course pies are coming off a five day break.

Another tip.

In the wash up analysis this won't be mentioned at all. It will all he freo came to play, look how much better their defensive spread and running was compared to last week, blah, blah, blah.

All symptoms, no diagnosis.

Alan Richardson also said Melky reported soreness after WA trip

We need another great game from Max to win this. He’s. been able to dominate Reeves, but Meek will be a tougher matchup.