Red and Blue realist

I liked the way Oliver is holding his arm back now to show he's being held, it only takes 1 or 2 free kicks against for a team to stop doing this.

He is probably just feed up of going to the umpires boss explaining the same thing and not getting anywhere. I can't recall any other ruck being bumped/stopped as what Max is, every around the ground ball up or throw in he has to fight his way to get there, and I'm very happy they finally paid a free kick to him last night, but he could have had dozens. It need to be stamped out and if the only way Goody can get that happen is through a press conference so be it, all other coaches do the same thing.

I think we should be trying to run an offensive and defensive midfield sets, with guys like Viney, Gus, Harmes and Trac roating in depending on where the game is up to. I see Gus and Trac as being very offensive players, get the ball and go deep forward at all costs, while Viney and Harmes (when in there) can bully there way a bit better or even stop/slow play if the other team is on top. Oliver has been fine either way, but I think last night was a great example of how the midfield could work, Viney was great in the first half, bullying and smashing into their mids, then went forward when Gus came in and worked the ball forward a lot better. The big issue with Gus has been his use of the ball, he was great last night, but needs to back himself in always, even if he does make a mistake or 2.

Don't forget it was only against the Blue's 2nds, which would be very very weak, so every chance our guys looked good, hopefully Richo played favourites and had our guys where he wanted them. Still, I suppose it's better than dancing with your sister!

I think Pickett needs a rest, he's certainly having an impact, but not getting involved consistently in games. Bennell also needs a rest, he seemed to have lost any sort of spark he's had over the last few rounds. Also no way Jetta can play, not only because of the head knocks but he also looked slow before those. I wonder if both Harmes and Brayshaw were given less game time to preserve them a little for Port? Both played poorly, but maybe they just tried too hard to have an impact when they went on? I'd be tempted to rest Pickett and Bennell, while also dropping Jetta and Hannan. I'd bring in TMac (leaving Melksham deeper forward and letting him run), Rivers (for Jetta), ANB (for Pickett and his fitness/pressure will be handy against Port) and also Hunt (extra speed).

Just to expand on your initial thoughts DFA, below is a list of the ground sizes (from last year so some names have changed): AFL BOUNDARY DIMENSIONS Ground - length - width UTAS Stadium - 175m - 145m TIO Stadium - 175m - 135m GMHBA Stadium - 170m - 116m TIO Traeger Park - 168m - 132m Adelaide Oval - 167m - 123m Cazaly’s Stadium - 165m - 135m Optus Stadium - 165m - 130m Spotless Stadium - 164m - 128m UNSW Canberra Oval - 162.5m - 138m MCG - 161m - 138m Jiangwan Stadium - 160m - 136m Etihad Stadium - 160m - 129m Mars Stadium - 160m - 129m Blundstone Arena - 160m - 124m Metricon Stadium - 158m - 134m Gabba - 156m - 138m SCG - 155m - 136m

He had a pretty serious injury, so it's likely he's over that but still needs a lot of conditioning and match practice before he'd be right to come into their team again.

No, we'll be based in Qld and just fly in to SA and Tassie for the games, much like in a normal season. I'm sure there looking at taking the players straight from SA to Tassie, given that's a 4 day turn around and we play at night in SA, so we won't be leaving until Thursday that week and have to play Sunday, so they might go straight there?

I expect to win all games, and hope the coaches and players do to! I know that won't happen but no point putting the cue in the rack before the balls bounced. I'd be looking a lot closer at match ups and how well we structure against the teams and basing decisions on that.

This is spot on, and there's already been talk (I know the media are ramping up their usual waffle at the moment) about other clubs mass resting players, I don't think we should take that approach but certainly take the squad mentality. I wonder if Burgess will have some say at selection meetings, with his experience in the EPL and soccer world where they have lots of short turn arounds, but mainly due to the difference competitions they play. This means they put out different squads for different levels of opponent (or how much they value the comp their in). The talk last night was the Geelong or Collingwood could rest 10 first choice players against the like of Adelaide/North etc. I don't think we need to be that harsh but certainly should be thinking about taking the choice out of players hands and forcing some to rest or positional changes (have Trac forward all game, or even Maxy to CHB and if needed use them to help win a game).

Way too early to start another thread like this without knowing what they are going to do with list sizes and salary caps next year and moving forward plus they've only just opened the ability to talk contracts again. It'll just turn into either people thinking we can go and get any player we want for cheap (Whitfield) or another bashing thread (ANB).

Part of the selection might depend on the fixture release, if we have a short turn around then we might start planning for the month coming up. Brisbane's strengths are their contested ball winners (same as us), their tall defenders and small forwards. I'd be tempted to bring Smith back in as a medium/small defender that could potentially go with Cameron or start on Rayner who has been looking good the last few games. We also need someone to continually distract Andrews, I'd be getting Weid to take him very deep all game, don't let him come up near the ball even if it sacrifices his own game, to do that we might need TMac as another tall marking option. I'd be thinking about Smith and TMac for Lockhart/Jetta and Melksham this week. Although it is hard to make changes after such a good win, the next block of games could be very condensed so they need to think about that early.

Not letting him off the hook, just not jumping up and down because he has a few off weeks. Of course he's got things he can improve, and we all should expect more from him, but also not having a pot shot at him just because it seems that we need to have someone to have a go at each week.

I don't see why there's lots of people on here, plus other fan sites, who like to jump on a player because they has 1 or 2 down games. Gus was very good at the start of the year, nearly our best against the Cats. However, when you run a midfield that has Oliver, Trac, Viney, Harmes, Brayshaw, plus what Max has been doing around the ground, there will be weeks where one or 2 will be quiet while the others feast. Viney was the target the week before last, Harmes and Oliver have been mentioned. If you have a look at all the great midfields/teams of recent times such as the Eagles - Judd, Cousins and Kerr were supported by Fletcher, Embley etc. The Cats had Selwood, Bartel, Ablett, supported by Kelly, Ling etc. The outlier might be the Hawks, not that Mitchell, Lewis, Sewell, Hodge etc weren't very good players, but their strengths came from their team game.

Not sure how you can say Brown is in form, there was no information from the scratch matches to say that, yes he kicked a few goals, but from some of the vision that was him just getting out the back, and his 1 game for us in the seniors was very ordinary. I didn't mind the way Jackson played against the Blues, he presented well, while he didn't mark many he moved well, I'd be using him in the role TMac did, up the ground and have Weid stay forward, while Smith I think, if he moved forward, needs to stay closer to the goals.

I counted 13, where the clubs will have first dibs, not all are equal of course but there's every chance that pick we gave to North for Pickett etc. could slide from it's current position of 4 to 8 or lower. None of those listed were from our zone, I think we've got a couple who might be close to being picked up later on in the draft though.

Another thing that needs to be brought up in this discussion (the one about the North pick swap, not the one's having a shot and May or Jackson) is the lack of similar players like Pickett year draft, at least at the top end. Cal Twomey wrote an article yesterday on the AFL site https://www.afl.com.au/news/465404/tall-athletic-and-versatile-25-of-the-best-draft-prospects which discussed 25 of the top prospects. There's only one small forward and he's tied to Sydney. So one question needs to be, have we paid slightly overs for a player type we desperately needed who wasn't go to be available the year after? And if so, does that matter? I think that if we had of kept our first round pick this year and due to the academy & F/S we ended up with a lack of true choice, then we could end up reaching even further? The argument might be to take the best available, but what if the next few best available are inside mids? I think the recruiters have to be praised for taking a risk.

Hate this sort of rubbish, King didn't play a senior game until round 9 last year. So was not ready to go, then in his first 2 games had a grand total of 10 possessions,1 mark, 1 tackle and 0 goals. He kept his sport purely because Gold Coast had no-one else, since then he's come on a little but he's no star at the moment (certainly has potential to be). Don't see any need to pot Jackson because he's a young kid who hasn't set the world on fire 5 rounds into the season, when you're comparison player hadn't even played a game by the same stage.

I don't have an issue with his tackling, his averages in that area are similar to AVB who you brought up before saying AVB tackles harder, of course he does he's got 6cm and 13kgs on ANB, he should hit harder. At no point am I not saying he doesn't have major limitations, but I'm also not saying his fundamental football skills are not AFL level, that's just rubbish. Against Geelong our biggest issue was letting them control the ball, they just chipped it around at will in our backhalf. We didn't make them use it enough so we could get it back off them to create more opportunities, ANB would have made it a lot harder for them to do that than what AVB and Hannan did on the day.

There's role players in each and every flag team, guys like ANB and AVB are role players, and there's nothing wrong with that, as long as they play within their limitations. As I mentioned before I believe had we played ANB rather than AVB against Geelong we would have won, we needed his role play that day. I agree Kosi has the potential to be a real star, but I doubt they'll play him each and every game, for a first year player in his role that would be dangerous, not just to his fitness but confidence as well.

I never suggested dropping him, just if he needed a rest then ANB wouldn't be a bad option against the Hawks. Sure, but one ANB pressure act is worth 10 from AVB, ANB's big strength is his continued running, and as funny as this sounds, no-one mans the mark better. He'll run flat out to slow the opposition from being able to set up or move the ball quickly. AVB is not that sort of player, he hits hard but isn't always great on the follow up. Anyway, as above my suggestion was only if Kosi needs a rest, I'd be doing it against the Hawks rather than against the Lions, purely because of the way both play.

I honestly think we would have won against Geelong with ANB in the team instead of AVB, but I don't think all of AVB, Bennell, Hannan and Kossie can play in the same team. I do think that with the way Clarko will potentially coach, which will be another keeping's off type game then ANB should be in high consideration. Yes he's limited, but his pressure acts, including slowing the opposition play down is very underrated. However, I can only see him playing if Kossie needs a rest as AVB hit some form against the Suns and Hannan has looked ok.

If anyone is going to do it, it'll be Essendon. Dorodo likes to get his name up in lights, so would be most likely to try and go down this route. From my understanding if they did that and drove a hard bargain, then the player can refuse to sign the contract and then go into the drafts? So Joe would have to be comfortable to be able to go into that situation. In a lot of ways our trading away a 1st this year, helps as that diminishes what they could ask for, in particular if we hold firm on not letting any players go (unless we need too for salary purposes) - that's if we even wanted him.

I think Smith will be a decent mid-lockdown defender as compared to a tall defender most seem to think he is. He's played his best this season when matched up against the explosive/power mids, such as Danger and Martin, who rest forward and who are very dangerous. A match up against teams that have those type of players could be very valuable, and could play then alongside Omac, May and Lever. As long as his role is defined then I think it can still work, but not against all teams.

Let's not get over excited about a scratch match with 14 players each, and with Richmond clearly lacking key talls in the back half (they brought in Bolta and Chol). But hopefully Weid has built up some confidence with his marking and Bennell with his running. Sometimes a scratch match won't tell you much about a team but can do wonders for individuals.