Lil_red_fire_engine

How is it obvious? How many times was he out marked today? I cant recall one but may have happened. Did you see the two long pack balls he clunked in the second half? May come out if we choose to not play three talls but that will be the only reason he doesn't play I reckon.

In Petracca Out Tyson NB: Weid may come out if we choose to go smaller forward but I would stick to the one change.

Brayshaw in the middle really made a difference for him and for the impact of the team at the stoppages. His third quarter was massive. Was great to see Spargo, Hannan and Fritsch all work hard and get reward on the scoreboard. Proof that you can have players that do both. We still looked slow on the spill and the spread through the middle but that second half would have done a world of good for their confidence with moving the ball.

Remind me how often Weids was outmarked today? May get dropped for a smaller forward dynamic but won’t based on his output for Ped or T Smith in that role.

6.Gawn 5. Brayshaw 4. Jetta 3. Jones 2. Hannan 1. Melksham

Excellent post. This is one of the biggest things holding us back. Salem is playing midfield but only played 68% game time. Trac is playing almost solely midfield but 74% TOG. They need to be in a role on the field 80% where they can have a strong impact. Even Oliver seems inconsistent in his output regularly with half of his disposals coming in one quarter (last night the third).

With the short turn around and playing at Etihad offers the perfect opportunity to try some of these even for the week. I would suggest ANB is the one NQR I would stick with. His work rate is massive and I think his skill will come granted it hurts at times. Would happily see Stretch, Harmes, Tyson, Kent, Vince dispatched this week for Hannan and Hunt on the wings, Spargo, Balic and Fritsch forward and Baker back.

I don't think any of this helps your argument. Their stars are experienced and on field leaders. Viney aside (who you have not mentioned due to not being on the park) our potential stars are not, Gawn has only played 78 games. I would suggest dig up some Punt Rd End threads from this time last year or even after StKilda dispatched them late in the year by 67 and you will get a very different view on Grimes, Short, Grigg, Ellis, Castagna et al.... They have confidence in each other and their game style validated by it winning them finals and games so far this year. We need to make some calls on some players and back in some games in the untried that may bring some attributes we lack in speed and skill. We need to tweak our style to build confidence in our list and to cover our flaws until they can be better addressed. The query for me is whether Goodwin is willing to adjust selection and style or will stubbornly stick with the current approach.

Can someone confirm is Balic injured or was he one that was rested this week like Tim Smith was. If so will not be surprised to see him debut for us on Sunday.

Out: Kent, Stretch, Harmes In: Fritsch, Spargo, Hannan NB: Garlett deserves to be dropped but I wouldn't with back to back Etihad on the way.

No. Hogan needs to realise he is not a midfielder and go and spend some time in 50 and kick some goals.

Add can anyone recall and advise when he was out marked when he got to a contest. He split most of them. Needs to play until TMac returns.

Hogan disposal efficiency was 50% and he on numerous occasions held up the ball too long. Unclear how you got to that observation.

A great balanced post. Aside from skill execution we were well in the game until the last with the team touted to be the best around. The last was a major disappointment but the wrist slashing is over the top. We are not as good as pundits predicted so far this year. Nor were Richmond in 2017 but they made some tough decisions at selection and in style and got momentum in the back half with a run of no injuries. Our current state with our lack of mature leadership and the gap with Viney and T-Mac this is not surprising. We need to fix our forward structure (which was much better second half) including maintaining Hogan closer to goal with short grabs up the ground not vice versa. We need to trust that one person can get the ball in the stoppage and retain people on the outside for the first ball out. We need to stop having three up in a contest forward and back. We need to realise that spread is needed for 4 quarters. We need to remove most of those players who cant execute basic skills like Tyson, Harmes, Stretch, Hunt and ANB. We need to maximise our major advantage in Gawn and he needs to realise that every tap is important. We need to have a plan to get the ball out of 50 from a kick in that is not a bail out near the boundary to Hogan/Gawn. Once again nothing is as good or as bad as it seems. Left disappointed but can see it may start to come together if we make some adjustments and that is the most frustrating bit.

Curnow was gifted games early last year without warrant and has played 3 times the games Weideman has played to this point. It really has only started to come to together for him in his last 8-10 games. I suspect most of that is due to continuity of senior games afforded to him. Prior to this year he had not kick more than 2 in a game. He has been great in one game this year and up and down in others including not kicking a goal the last two. He has a great engine but shows no defensive intent from what I have seen. You would see similar inconsistent output I think if we had stuck with Weid without fail since the start of last year. I am not saying that they will end up as good as one another but I assume you get my drift. I dont expect Weid to cut loose tomorrow night as I don't expect that of a 10 game forward who will likely cop Rance. I expect he will off us a long ball target (missing last week), get to plenty of contests,bring the ball to ground if he doesn't clunk a few and offer Gawny a better chop out than Harmes recent weeks. Hell he might even get on the end of some but at worst it will accelerate his development at least until we wait the return of T-Mac in coming weeks.

I would suggest with Fritsch it's more of a rest and will be the reason why he was not named tomorrow, nor played yesterday. I think the changes work and give us both more polish, run and height. I thought one of Melksham or Harmes would also miss and suggest both are on thin ice if they turn another poor performance. As far as the choice of tall its time to back Weid in ahead of Pedo. Pedo is a stop gap who we know can play a role but really will not kick bags at AFL (nor may Sam yet) and is better as the first follower than the second ruck. After watching the VFL yesterday I struggle to see how well a developing forward can show in that environment once they get used to playing against bigger bodies. He may well drop back when T-Mac returns but lets see where he is at and his form at VFL and on track has been worthwhile by all reports. Its time we invest with measured expectations and acceptance that development will come with inconsistency just like Carlton are doing with Curnow (goals over first 5 rounds 5,2,2,0,0,) and Brisbane with Hipwood (goals over first 5 rounds 1,1,3,0,3).

Interesting that none of Hunt, Stretch or Balic are in the Casey squad for the weekend. Vince, Hannan, Garlett, Fritsch, Wagner, Bugg all in the squad so at minimum must be on the interchange from assumed for Tuesday before emergencies.

How much time does an individual player spend with the ball in his hands and how often running to spread, pressure or get to the next contest. Granted he needs to clean up his use but a player than can cover that type ground can be massive structurally. Particularly in a team like ours where many of our players can cover no more than the standard ground of an average midfielder. There is a very large gap between the potential and impact of ANB compared to Harmes and Melksham. No chance he will be dropped. Will be very surprised if the other two and Bugg survive for Anzac eve.

I have no inside info but his JLT was poor aside from a quality second half of JLT 2. We now have serious quality depth and he does not have runs on the board to be named without decent form or performance. I rate him highly but he needs to show more and I suspect if we hold him back to when he's cherry ripe and in hot form it will likely be the last time he is not a permanent first 22 player.

Expect Hannan to play over Frost.

The alarmist almost fatalist attitude on here is embarrassing. It is disappointing but better to manage for it to happen now and try and get them right for rest of the season than to lose them in the back half. They are both high quality players but we can cover them particularly with our early season run. The argument could be old school MFC may have let TMac continue to play through the pain due to no depth and make it worse but because we take a no risk attitude everyone goes into meltdown. As Goody said we have a list of 40 healthy players. When have we ever entered a season with 40 to choose from? Particularly when most I would be happy to see as true quality options.Take no precautions particularly with their importance and ensure they are right for the second half of the season when they are even more vital.

Could not agree more. Our absolute priority needs to be locking Petracca away on a long term deal. Sloane is a good mid who can't play a tag. You don't pay overs for that type and you will need to to get him.

I read somewhere that statistically those best placed for the flag usually have the highest % of list in the 25-29 bracket. I believe we currently sit 17th however we have in 2 years times a massive glut of players that will start to fall into that space to give us a serious window of time to have an extended assault at the flag.

Could not be happier. Hope he gets a good run at it and fulfills the promise he originally had.

that answers that then. its a no from me.