Red and Blue realist

I'd say we've lost more games this year because the forwards haven't been functioning as compared to the backline not performing. What I want to see is the backline with Lever, May, Jetta, Hibberd, Hore, Frost, OMac, Petty etc. all functioning well together more so than winning games. Yes winning is great but for the future, them knowing each others games and building trust is more important. I think that group could be the best backline in the comp but need to learn to play together since we haven't had them all to choose from so far this year. The forwards and mid-forward connection is something that can be improved upon quickly, from last year only Hogan is really missing, so there hasn't been a big change in personnel. Down back we've now got Lever, May and Hore to fully integrate.

We did just lose Lever and Hibberd to injury who are best 22 when everyone is fit, plus Garlett who would be on the fringe of that. We only replaced them with younger guys and ANB who are all (when everyone is fit) fringe players. I'm more interested in seeing the backline working together and forming strong partnerships, especially when Lever, Hibberd and Jetta are back and the forward line becoming more productive including better ball movement to them. I don;t really care now if we win 3/4/5/6/7 games on the way home, more about the functionality of the team and ensuring we have minimal delayed starts to the pre-season.

Unfortunately on these type of internet forums supporters want all players to be superstars from game 1 otherwise they turn very quickly. Not all players will make it (actually a lot don't) and some might play 50-100 games as pure role players but they are vital to the team, others take years to develop then become very good players. However along the way a lot of those that take time to come good get bagged out at every opportunity, at the moment we've got Harmes, Gawn, Frost, Jones, Hunt, ANB and TMac (just from this weeks team) who've at one stage or another been called a spud, called to be delisted or traded or 'never to play again' on this forum alone. Gets very tiresome

Early on, but mostly he played back in his last year or 2 of underage footy. A connection at the rebels once told me he'd be a better back than Tom and Tom should have been playing forward. This was when Tom was looking like he could join the elite backs.

Maybe they thought the 'core' was well drilled in so they made changes to go up another level. Glad they've identified it hasn't worked and looked to fix it rather than wait.

Think he mostly played back as a junior. Tom certainly was a forward, but not Oscar. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try it but I don't see him as a natural ball target

I'd like to see tsmith play on Ryan, while still going for the ball. He's been there best intercept player so stopping him is a must

There not going to come out and say anything about a game plan mid season, that would be inviting thrashings. To be honest i don't think the game plan is all that wrong, it got us to a prelim last year. What's gone very wrong is the execution, which can be partially be blamed on injuries (hello backline) but a lot should fall onto those in charge of execution, so the shake up of the coaches should only be a good thing. In a poor season we've still manged to record a very high inside 50 count, very bad teams have not only a lot kicked against them but also can't get the ball inside 50. I think our issues this year are fixable and I'm hoping these changes will have 1 eye on getting everything right for next year and beyond.

You could run a book on the AFL having this up their sleeve for when they needed to bluff their way out of a situation like the crowd beef.

I thin it'll be a combination of Frost and Lever, Lever when he moves up the ground, he can match him in the air and with the read of the play, while Frost when he goes deeper forward. They only have Cox as another tall forward, so May/Frost will have the right coverage there. my ins/outs: TSmith (for TMac), ANB (for Garlett) and Lockhart (for Wagner)

Got 2 unopened slabs sitting out in the shed

Anyone know if there going to put merch on sale as well? Those beer glasses look great

We've hit the score board but can't get it through the big ones! Just hope to have a week where we kick far more goals than points! We've only managed that in 4 games so far, good kicking wins games and lowers the blood pressure of fans i reckon.

He hasn't been our worst, but given he's played 180 odd games and is one of our eldest I just expect a lot more from him, and think at the moment we wouldn't be getting much less from guys who are in their 1st or 2nd year. The experience they can get will be much better than continuing to play someone like Jeff who I reckon will be gone next year.

But he isn't clean anymore, he's dropped lots of marks, fumbled the ball where we expect him to swoop in and has kicked the bulk of his goals through getting an easy over the top handball/kick rather than creating heaps of pressure. I think we now have to have 1 eye on next year, we know what Jeff can do, at his best yes he's best 22, but he hasn't been at his best for a very very long time now, and was basically getting games because we had no-one else. Now's the time to be trying Lockhart or getting more games into Spargo (although they do play different positions) because more than likely he will be gone next year.

He looks slower than Lewis at the moment, and like he'd struggle to run more than 20 meters without stopping. Clearly he's not right, it might be something that the medico's have said won't get any worse, but it hasn't seemed like he's getting any better. So instead of sending him to Casey, give him a break for a month, if he thinks he's OK then come back via Casey to see if his running capacity is back. I believe we need to try and play as much of our 2020 team as possible, so bringing TMac back late would be better than sending him away for the whole season, unless he really needs that. For next week my outs would be: TMac, Garlett & Wagner Ins: ANB, KK & TSmith. With May and Lever back and Frost hopefully not knocking himself out again, Wagner should be redundant so we should bring in a better runner/returner for the backline so that's why I'd bring KK in. ANB is incredibly important in locking the ball in our F50, he doesn't get much credit on here for the job he actually does, just panned for his ball use and missed goals, but he will chase and give the oppositions back something to think about, while they just disregard Garlett at the moment (spargo runs hard and chases as well, which is why i prefer him). TSmith is a natural forward as compared to Preuss, so he gets the nod there.

Evidence says we made the prelim last year, With omac as part of the zone. So to say omac never adjusted is just wrong. We recruited may and lever so that zone went to the next level. I suspect we only drafted hore because of the injury to lever. It's a great pick up and I'm hoping hore and lever will be able to play together, but he's been given the licensee this year to zone off while they've been giving Frost and omac assignments each week. That's great for Frost because he needs that but doesn't play to omac's strengths

The thing omac hasn't adjusted to this year is the way we've been forced to defend. We had been playing a zone and recruited may and lever specifically to work within a zone structure but they haven't been available so we've gone back to a more 1 out defensive model. Works great for Frost because he needs a job which is why he's improved. Omac didn't have the strength or speed to play 1 on 1 all game but fits in well when all the defenders are relying on each other. Get may and lever back and if he's in the team as well I'm sure omac will play a lot better

Plenty have blamed him directly for this and other losses. I doubt had we kicked better and won by the 6 or 7 goals we should have that such a negative, attention seeking thread would have been started. He still deserves to be dropped but not hung drawn and quartered on the back of last night's game

He should be though, he's offered nothing all season. Or move him to the wing, but it looks like he's lost his running capacity this year. In: lever, may, hore, ANB, Salem (all best 22 so not just reactionary to a loss) Out: tmac, omac, Wagner, garlett and stretch. Fritsch moved up the ground to try and find some form.

We kicked 3.12 in the second half so undid all the good work we'd done up until then

No doubt when may and lever are available that omac will be dropped, not arguing that. I'm just sick of people having cheap shots at players when really we've got other issues. Plenty on here have jumped on your omac hatred to blame him for the loss and every other loss we've had since he started playing. I've just been saying, we literally had no other choice last night as all other defenders were injured, omac wasn't anywhere near our worst player and had we kicked better I doubt you would have started this

This thread is dedicated to Oscar costing us the game, I'm just saying that's not the case and we had no other real alternative to him. At no point have I said he played a good game, what cost us the game was bad kicking and bad forward play, but that's been overlooked in here

He's the only player who had an individual topic dedicated to his performance tonight, with calls he never plays again. We don't have better options as they weren't available and if we kicked straight then we win by over 5 goals

I don't think we were the worse side at all. We just didn't convert, we kicked 1 goal 8 behinds in the last, even if we went 4.5 then most on here would be happy. I know a lot blame omac for everything, and I'm not saying he was great but we literally had no one else, and reading on here you'd think he had 10 kicked in him