3 hours ago, picket fence said:

Who gives a collective fuuuurg, season shot !!

Let's try not to give Essendon a top 5 pick at least.

1 hour ago, William said:

He has been abysmal all season and should not be played again. He is not the answer long-term and we might be able to get something from trading.

Tom McDonald should be playing and now the season is done we should see whether M. Jefferson can do the trick. I stood next to him today in the Betty Cuthbert room and he is one tall fellow which doesn’t mean he will work but he has the height.

I especially like D. Turner today who can take some great marks. But they should leave him in defence.

Petty is also not the answer down forward - he is quite languid and doesn’t seem to be able to hold his marks.

1 hour ago, William said:

He has been abysmal all season and should not be played again. He is not the answer long-term and we might be able to get something from trading.

Tom McDonald should be playing and now the season is done we should see whether M. Jefferson can do the trick. I stood next to him today in the Betty Cuthbert room and he is one tall fellow which doesn’t mean he will work but he has the height.

I especially like D. Turner today who can take some great marks. But they should leave him in defence.

Petty is also not the answer down forward - he is quite languid and doesn’t seem to be able to hold his marks.

Don’t want to turn this into a aa JVR pile on but hard to argue that he hasn’t regressed. No idea what his KPI’s are but doesn’t seem to be offering much to the naked eye. A few times today he seemed to hesitate when ball was in dispute. He doesn’t get great delivery but when ball hits deck he seems nowhere to be seen. Defensively, he and Fritsch can be hard ti watch at times. Would love JVR ro prove me wrong but he seems to have plateaued.

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

JVR was abysmal today and you want to keep him in??? Why?

With you on this. Gob smacked that JVR got a game in the first place. Has had ample chances and gives us nothing. His mate Petty was similar and whilst Fritta kicked 3 his efforts without the pill was ordinary at best and IMO probably lost us the game with blatant stupid decisions.

Viney if fit for Langford who needs a rest and Jeffo for JVR plus if weather is OK play Campbell to give Gawn a break or if not throw Petty in the relief ruck role and toughen him up.

26 minutes ago, Maldonboy38 said:

Until we can't make the finals we have to continue picking best 22. However, I want to see Jefferson and JVR in the same team, with Melk, Fritsch and Kozzie playing around them. I know these two younger boys haven't shown too much but I still believe they can.

Pick the best 22 but also gift games to KPFs that are the definition of struggle…

It’s not as black and white as an ‘either or’ - but is not far from it.

1 hour ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Petty should become May's replacement eventually. Stop with the experiment at Fwd.

Agreed

But Turner must stay back IMO. He's going to be our best tall defender over the next decade

We desperately need to find a couple of key forwards... anyone who can kick straight

44 minutes ago, picket fence said:

No change Nashman? You want to persist with JVR? No room for Jeffo??

59 minutes ago, Nasher said:

No change.

Viney?

Ins: Viney and Jefferson

Outs: Melksham (managed) and JVR

17 minutes ago, Stiff Arm said:

Agreed

But Turner must stay back IMO. He's going to be our best tall defender over the next decade

We desperately need to find a couple of key forwards... anyone who can kick straight

Or take contested marks.

JVR had a rough first half but came in to it a bit more and looked more confident fighting for position and jumping at the ball. I'd give him another week. He only played 60% game time, so take out the stints in the ruck and he actually wasn't forward all that much.

Where's the Viney was only a 1 week injury coming from? Official update is TBC. I wouldn't pick him until after the bye. He needs touch work after such a long time out, and I'm still not entirely sure how he fits in our midfield balance.

I think the big question is whether they want to persevere with Howes and what they want to do with Windsor. Obviously the bye is coming up after next week but I'd probably go with Windsor on the wing and Lindsay as sub and then reassess after the bye.

8 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

JVR had a rough first half but came in to it a bit more and looked more confident fighting for position and jumping at the ball. I'd give him another week. He only played 60% game time, so take out the stints in the ruck and he actually wasn't forward all that much.

Where's the Viney was only a 1 week injury coming from? Official update is TBC. I wouldn't pick him until after the bye. He needs touch work after such a long time out, and I'm still not entirely sure how he fits in our midfield balance.

I think the big question is whether they want to persevere with Howes and what they want to do with Windsor. Obviously the bye is coming up after next week but I'd probably go with Windsor on the wing and Lindsay as sub and then reassess after the bye.

Viney said pre game on triple M today.

5 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Viney said pre game on triple M today.

Doesn't fill me with confidence that he's ready to perform.

42 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Viney?

Forgot about him. If he’s good to go then Howes, Windsor or Tholstrup can make way. I’m probably leaning towards Howes.

3 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Diabolical fixturing not to give us a bye now, but instead a road trip off a 6 day break, followed by two more road trips.

The bye is the AFL's way of hiding the fact that we have 3 interstate trips in a row.

Only team subjected to that this year and quite possibly the last time it happened was 2020 during covid

Seniors

B: Lever, May, McVee

HB: Salem, Turner, Bowey

C: Langdon, Oliver, Langford

HF: Sparrow, Petty, Petracca

F: Fritsch, Melksham, Chandler

FOLL: Gawn, Viney, Pickett

IC: Lindsay, Rivers, Howes, van Rooyen

SUB: Tholstrup

EMERG: Windsor, Laurie, Jefferson

Casey

B: Hore, Adams, Smith

HB: Sestan, McDonald, Bonner

C: Billings, Laurie, Windsor

HF: Sharp, Kentfield, Henderson

F: Fullerton, Jefferson, Mentha

FOLL: Campbell, Woewodin, Culley

IC: Verrall, Brown, Hardie, Baldi, Yze

Drop fritsch for that burn that may have cost us the game

13 minutes ago, Superunknown said:

Drop fritsch for that burn that may have cost us the game

Does it every.single.game but yet never gets dropped even for his lack of defensive efforts.

He'll play next week.

Least favourite thread is the pre game one right now.

Probably rest one of Langford or Lindsay and bring in Laurie for a 4 quarter game. I think Viney should wait till after the bye and Jefferson needs to keep doing what he’s doing at Casey. I’d like to see Howes stay in as he was more than solid. Adam’s and Culley are the other 2 I’d like to see get some games. Play like that every week and we’re a top 4 team. My worry now becomes can the players keep doing that now that finals are so unlikely. One more loss could see us just drop our heads enough to lose more than we win. Disappointing season considering just how well we can play and how with just a few tweaks we’re Premiership material.

Yesterday: reminded me of those days you’d bang your rolled up record on to the back of the wooden bench seat in front of you. Had about a dozen of those moments yesterday.

Edited Monday at 22:285 days by Roost it far

24 minutes ago, Superunknown said:

Drop fritsch for that burn that may have cost us the game

Fritsch did not burn his teammate in that play, the mistake he made was to play on. He didn’t realise Quaynor was that close to him, he’d barely taken two steps before he was closed down. Should’ve gone back and taken the set shot. That’s the way I saw it from ground level and I thought that was his best game of the year by a mile.

We lost to the top team by one point! Why all the gnashing of teeth here?

The only change I would consider would be bringing in Viney if he's ready. I'm not sure who for, though. As much as I want to get games into the first and second year players, perhaps one of them needs a rest?

Fritsch won't be getting dropped but the question needs to be asked: did the 19 out of 41 points he contributed to our second half score outweighed the negatives throughout the game? You'd say probably and you'd also imagine that Port would rather he play for Casey than the MFC next week.

Re Melksham being rested: once again that's giving Port a bit of a gift and he can rest up at the bye.

I think we're a chance in this one. It's best to get sides after they've had a big/unexpected/inspiring win (per Port over GWS) as they might not be as mentally up for the game than if they were coming off a bad loss with a point to prove. Collingwood had a season best win over Hawthorn last weekend and perhaps weren't at their peak yesterday. Conversely, we got Freo, Richmond and Sydney after easy or inspiring wins.

I felt way more dejected after the Saint loss last week than yesterday. Thought we did ourselves proud aside from the usual issues that haven't been resolved.

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Fritsch did not burn his teammate in that play, the mistake he made was to play on. He didn’t realise Quaynor was that close to him, he’d barely taken two steps before he was closed down. Should’ve gone back and taken the set shot. That’s the way I saw it from ground level and I thought that was his best game of the year by a mile.

Fair enough - ta

I understand fellow DLs being upset after yesterdays game, but I really don't think it's time to swing the axe. As mentioned above, we lost to the top team by 1 point.

In regards to the pile on for Petty and JVR, I don't think it was a great day for tall forwards, and while Howe did beat Petty, Petty did get to a lot of contests and got on the scoreboard. As mentioned above, JVR only played 60% of the game, which is probably a question for another thread, but worked harder than earlier in the season where he was unsighted.

It should be remembered that he's been playing in front of 4 blokes and a dog in the magoos, then goes out in front of 80,000 with questionable confidence.

As for the rest of the changes, Viney should come in if he's fit. I'd give Kolt a spell and really try and work up some form and fitness.

The big issue for me is Windsor. They're clearly trying to get him to be a HBF, but it's really not working at this point. Given we have Bowey and Salem, I'd argue it probably isn't pressing. I'd give him back the wing and let Lindsay learn.

16 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Surely Petty is dropped?

Not sure if it would be worth trying TMac at Fwd.

He can hardly be worse than JVR and Petty. But we are now not viaing for a finals spot so let's try some guys at Casey to see if they have any worth at senior level. Jefferson comes in for JVR as a start. Leave Petty in to do the second ruckwork. It's now 2026 preparation time.