Deespicable

Yep, after staying so loyal to the boys in Adelaide and overlooking any five-day break tiredness, I reckon we now face a few tricky decisions. Firstly we need to find a small defender to replace Salem and the loss of Bowey also hurts that area. The obvious move, to me, is to send Ed back and bring in Hunter to the left-side wing. Ed is a good match up for Baker or Bolton or M.Rioli with McVee getting one as well. Kozzie comes in up forward and that means Kolt goes out, but hopefully he is retained as the sub - an ideal role for him I suspect at this stage of his development. The other must-play is Bailey Laurie - you don't lay 20 tackles and get ignored - to not play him this week is to say, extraordinary effort means nothing. Yes, I like many of you, have doubts about Bill - whether he has enough speed to make the big time, but he deserves to play against one of the weaker sides and he deserves to play in the middle so everyone can assess his worth. He's 22, he's fit and if he is going to make it, it is now. Given Oliver's surgery, it is the ideal time to play Bill in the guts instead of him. Then there's the issue of the forward line and getting the guy we recruited as a Gawn helper a game. Fullarton may not have kicked straight but he apparently dd enough to warrant coming in. And as with Laurie, a game against a weaker opponent is ideal to see how a player fits in. So he must play and the question is which of our big forwards come out and clearly all three of them were quite putrid for three quarters against the Lions, so it's a tricky task dropping one and not the other - but it must be done as this is the week to find out if Fullarton can provide a spark and ruck back-up. So for me it's: Out: Salem, Oliver and one of the three bigs. In: Laurie, Hunter, Fullarton And there should be close watched on the following: Blake Howes - his form has slipped a bit since rd 1 and I suspect he's quite tense pre-game as his first quarters recently have all be howlers. It's a big ask to become a regular in a top-tier side, but he does seem to have both the skills with his long kicking and the speed and with his height can play on mid-sized players - Dusty this week? But he has to have the confidence to say I can cope at this level, just as McVee had to last week. Jack Billings - we all saw how good he can be against Hawthorn, but since then he seems to lack confidence in his abilities - a legacy of all those bad Sainter years I reckon. It didn't help last week when Jack Viney ignored him on a really good lead, but he has to rise above it and back himself in and kick cleanly when he has shots on goal. We wanted him back in 2013 and he brings a lot of the qualities we need with his running power and skill. he also is not a bad tackler, even if if Ross didn't think so. But he has to believe in himself more or his career is all over. Woey: He's been on the fringe for over a year now and he's yet to really show he belongs. A spot in our back seven has become available and now's the time for him to grab it. He's a lovely kick and he does have smarts - he's now got to translate them all to an AFL game.

6 Gawn - our only clear winner. 5 Rivers - a very good first half 4 Chandler - the only player up forward that looked dangerous. 3 T.Mac / solid game down back mainly on Gardiner. Should have been sent forward and swapped with Petty at halftime but the coach was also in bye mode. 2 Langdon - ran hard all night. 1 Viney - beaten badly in the first half like all our midfielders but came out after half time and provided a gutsy spark.

Hard to believe that there are a few bloggers who think we have this game in bag. The Crows will be so fired up for us it ain’t funny. If we win this we are in great shape, but psychology this week is all in Adelaide’s favour, irregardless of how much better a side we are than them. Hopefully we rest a couple of those with knocks given it is just a five-day break. Hard to see Chandler playing and even though I agree with those who say May shouldn’t play, I am sure Goody will rush him back. Billings spot also in question. Hopefully Kolt plays but I reckon they will bring in Laurie for Chandler, May for Hore and Woey for Billings with Kolt possibly the sub.

Suggest you go back and watch the replay. Petty went forward after half time and then was sent back again in final term where he played a very good quarter. It was the first time under Goodwin that I have seen a player moved twice and just shows the value of having flexible players who can play at both ends.

Agree we will not have a hard tag as Sparrow, Viney and ANB (when in there) are all highly disciplined and will play close to Butters and Rozee and the hyphen if he plays. But a hard tag will go on Oliver by Drew. As to our lineup, I just hope Goody and his team finally realise that backing up five days requires fresh legs to win, unless you face a team on a similar five-day break. So even though I don't expect them to play this one, both Fullarton and Kolt should be inclusions for the Adelaide game with our ageing warriors Ben Brown and T-Mac rested along with any other players that pull up sore. But given it has taken more than two years for Goody to realise that picking the smallest side in competition history is a no-no, then I don't hold out much hope for a clever overall plan for two games in five days

Yep Hawks were almost as dirty as the Lethal days. But we coped well and one of the reasons that I hope everyone is aware of is that we have gone back to picking a tall side - the same combination that took us to the 2021 flag in fact. And surprise, surprise our small forwards look even more lethal - probably because there isn't 10 of them queuing up for a spill that never comes. And we looked like a senior side - unlike the junior-sized rabble we threw out on to the field last finals and in round zero against the Swans. This is not to say that Spargo and Bowey and Laurie aren't good players - it's just that when the balance is all askew, you end up creating problems that you can't overcome. But don't get too excited - the Power will be a huge task next week - they have a gun midfield like ours and plenty of bigs to quell.

Let's hope Goody doesn't go back to fielding a side full of smalls - the balance of bigs and littles was just so much better than against Sydney, not to mention that we have a better balance of quicks and slows this year with Windsor complimenting Kozzie, Langdon etc. This week the Hawks are likely to have Lewis, Chol and either Gunston or Kossy, which means we can again go big down back. Personally I don't see how anyone could drop Brown after his game, but if they are desperate to play him, then happy for him to be the sub.

Wow, I cannot believe Tommo is out. He was one of our best against Sydney and I just checked to see if the Dogs were going small like us, but no they've picked Naughton (May), Ugle-Hagn (Lever) and Lobb (Hore). Of course it's possible that T-Mac will come in and play down back on Lobb, but like many here, the shock is how Tomlinson gets the chop after Amartey and McDonald virtually diodn't touch it and only Mclean took a few marks - one was clearly Gawn's fault, another was on May and yes I think one was on Tommo. This is not to say that Tommo is a must play team member, it's just that T-Mac isn't either anymore and I can only presume that T-Mac will be in the final and play on Lobb. Of course, it's possibe that Goody will go even smaller than last week - leaving out T-Mac, BBB and Fullarton from the extended squad. That may sound fanciful to some of you, but given the obsession that Goody has with smalls, he might just even smaller.

Goodwin - small minded belligerence

6 Viney - into it from word go 5 May - always in correct position 4 Tomlinson - one of his best games ever - Amartey and McLean quiet, except latter had hot period on Gawn in Thursday term 3 Salem - quick thinking all night 2 Fritter - gets this for the quality of his third term but he only had six posies. 1 Oliver - as with Trac, fumbly early but kept at it all night. Kicking let him down a fair bit.

Agree with all you said except there has been no quick ball movement. Just boring short stuff with a couple of panicle dumps.

By the way Schache has presented well and covered heaps of ground. Dropped a pretty easy one in second term but otherwise has been quite serviceable.

Yep. That’s because we decided to bring back Spargo. Size doesn’t matter, says Goody!

Swans doing plenty of short chip kicks which is safe but boring. we are wasting chances like last year and noticeably fell away for five minutes whenp Gawny was off. viney best, Windsor impressive as is Bowey and Tomlinson but Spargo short of a gallop which is not surprising given he was rushe back into a side that was already the smallest in the league. Go figure. cooler wind coming through now so slippery skill induced errors may be less in second half.

Highly unlikely to be any changes, other than Kozzie, from the side that defeated Carlton. The Swans are likely to go big, so we have to make sure we are tall enough though, especially as the SCG is a short ground, suited to bigs. Unless we have banned Oliver, then he has to play and with Kozzie out, there's a spot for him. The big issue is the sub. Normally we go small and a player like Tholstrup would be ideal, except that in our case we have to have a back up big because if we lose one of our bigs, we are then in danger of being smashed in the air - Sydney will have Grundy, Ladhams, McDonald, Amartey and possibly even McLean. Personally I'd have Fullarton, so that he can cover the rucks, but I am not sure how well he went in reserves - if he struggled then it lends itself to T-Mac being sub. That means: B: McVee May Tomlinson HB: Rivers Lever Bowey C: Langdon Salem Windsor HF: ANB Schache Billings F: Chandler JVR Fritsch Ru: Gawn Petracca Viney Int: Sparrow, Oliver, Howes (def) Laurie (fwd) Sub: Fullarton Emerg: K.Brown, T.Mac, Tholstrup