Red and Blue realist

Very interesting if true, I did think we all of a sudden looked very tired again in the last 3 or 4 games, which we did last year. Could also explain why we suddenly seemed to drop off the drive we had from defense early in the season. I wonder if this was done with the intention of preparation for finals where the games seem to go a lot more man on man? Although we didn't make it, hopefully it might help over the next few years if players are again required to adapt with finals in mind.

I think they'll be asking for a minimum of our first this year or next, and for mine that price is about right. I doubt we'd be able to send a player like Kent and our second to get it done, maybe if Jeffy wanted to get home permanently after the things he had to go back for this year, but only raising him if he wanted to go back. He was All Australian 2 years ago, and was in the squad last year. Also had the 8th most disposals this year and only Clarry had a higher disposal efficiency in the top 10 but Clarry has nearly 3 handballs for every kick while Gaff kicks far more than he handballs. He'd fix the issue of delivery inside 50 and the transition between our back half and Fwd50. I think he'd suit our needs more than Lever if we could only get 1, dream result would be both but I can't see that happening.

I'd see Lever playing the role Frost should have until he became a bit lost in the last half dozen games or so. My backline would be below: Jetta OMac Lever Hunt TMac Hibberd That means TMac stays back, which I think he is better suited too anyway, and if during a game we need to switch things up he can always go forward for a cameo or 2. Lewis, Salem, Jones and maybe Vince (but I don't like him down there) would then rotate through when the others are either having a break or have moved down the ground. Lever and Lewis would be in charge of organsing the backline, with hopefully one of TMac or OMac picking up the skills to do that (alongside Lever) once Lewis is gone. One of the mids to go back to take the kick ins - in no circumstances are TMac or OMac ever to do it again.

Agree completely, I do think Lever would automatically make OMac and Tmac better players, and also make Hibberd even more dangerous. OMac and TMac wouldn't get caught in no-mans land as often as they do if we have a reliable 3rd tall who sticks more-or-less to the back half. We all know both the Macs do have a tendency to run down the field a little, not that that's always bad but doing it with Lever in the team carries so much less risk than say Frost who again can run forward with little regard to who's left behind - makes for exciting play but can also make us too easy to score against on the rebound. Hopefully then OMac and TMac combined can take care of those taller forwards.

Crameri has been talked about coming to us on other forums, not sure if it's just because of the Essendon/Goodwin connection, but he's just spent a year off then another year mostly injured. I'd say he's very very similar to Tim Smith and not sure he'd add much to the AFL team.

Honestly, we need to stop papering over the leadership cracks, which is what I think the club has started to do with Viney being made co-captain. Until Gawn, Tracc, the Macs, Watts, Oliver and even Hogan are seen as the true leaders of the club (I'm including Chunk and Viney as the top of that group) then there's no point in bringing in another guy for their 'leadership qualities'. We got Lewis for an empty pack of chips and he provides the same sort of player/leadership. As some have said we can't have another ex-mid going to the half back line without making us too slow. If Vince was to retire or the plan was to play him purely as either a tagger or forward (and at Casey) then McVeigh might work, again if he costs us nothing, but he's only a stop gap solution in both his playing future and leadership.

I think why people defend him, is that using the logic of needing to come in and dominate from the word go, you'd never have seen Gawn, Hunt, ANB, Pedersen, Hibberd or Jetta ever make it, and that's just from our current list. I acknowledge that he's not there yet, and he may never get to become the player we want him to be, but like so many others I'm not prepared to cast away a guy who coming to us was always going to take time to develop. No one's saying its a fait accompli that he'll make it, just that he has actually shown some signs that he's got a good chance if he continue's developing at the same rate. In fact you raised Hipwood and if you compare their first 10 games their stats are pretty similar, Hipwood had a few more goals but they mainly came from 2 games where he got a couple of cheap over the top ones, Weid has a lot more tackles which shows me he's prepared to be involved in the game even if not yet taking the big marks or kicking the goals you want. Hipwood then came on very nicely this year and that's what I'd hope Weid can start to do next year. If the conversation is still happening this time next year then I'd be worried, but a tall coming to the end of his second season having spent his draft year virtually out of the game should be looked at in the same light as some others who've taken longer to come on.

For years everyone on here banged on about letting players come through Casey in the right way. In fact if you go back to the preseason best 22 thread most said they wanted Pedo to start and let weid develop at Casey. If he had been forced to play every game would be best more developed, of course, but would that be the best for him? His work rate, in particular in the Adelaide and saints games was fantastic for a developing tall, as he gets stronger he'll also be able to put the contested marking he's shown at Casey on show. That's what people are seeing, if you can't that's fine.

That game against GWS when he took 2 shots on goal from outside 50 only taking 2 or 3 steps showed how little confidence he had in his hammy. I thought we'd be better at injury management this year, but we got it wrong with Watts, then everyone slams him for it.

Not sure if you've actually seen either play if that's your position.

I actually think our draw should be easier than this year. In an even comp who you play becomes less relevant for example North beat us 2x and also Adelaide, Brissy beat Essendon, Carlton beat Sydney, Freo beat us and Richmond, Gold Coast beat Geelong etc etc. What killed us this year was the actually draw timing. I posted this in another thread, but we got a horror run of 6 day games and also played few teams coming of shorter breaks. Given we were a younger team I think with a more even draw we would have been better placed to recover. You can see how we fared against the draw for the top 8 teams and clearly we got a poor draw, so I'm hopeful PJ will be addressing this and getting us the same advantages as other teams have. 6 day breaks Playing teams on 6 day breaks Games against teams with shorter breaks Adel 7 10 10 Geel 8 9 8 Rich 6 5 8 GWS 5 7 9 Pt Adel 6 5 8 Syd 6 7 10 Ess 7 7 9 WC 6 5 5 Melb 9 2 5

How much do you expect from a tall coming into a system after playing next to no footy in his draft year? When drafted if they said he might get a taste in his first year then play 5 - 10 games in year 2, we all would have thought that was fine, at last we aren't rushing guys in before they are ready and developing them properly. Hipwood had to be played as they had nothing else up there, plus he seems to have a bigger tank already, Curnow came in as a smaller ready to go player. If you want to compare look at the pick straight after Weid, Harry McKay, he came into the draft with pretty big wraps and has only played the 2 games and was very very ordinary in them.

Actually we had a horrid run this year, not who we played, given the evenness of the competition. In the table below (as long as it works), I've tried to show us against the top 8 teams and who had the most 6 day breaks (us!); who played against teams coming off a 6 day break (we played the least) and the amount of games against teams coming off a shorter break (we had the least games as well!). Given this takes who we actually played out of it, just the "luck of the draw" it shows we had a pretty ordinary run, especially considering as a younger team you'd think longer breaks would be more beneficial. 6 day breaks Playing teams on 6 day breaks Games against teams with shorter breaks Adel 7 10 10 Geel 8 9 8 Rich 6 5 8 GWS 5 7 9 Pt Adel 6 5 8 Syd 6 7 10 Ess 7 7 9 WC 6 5 5 Melb 9 2 5

Surely Jackson and Bartlett, bring this up when speaking with AFL about next year's fixture. I think Jackson has already spoken about those 3 consecutive 6 day breaks and it not happening again. Very good stats, I'm sure every club has a gripe with the fixture, but the amount of time off between games wouldn't be helping a younger team.

I don't see the Lever and OMac comparison as fair or correct, given that they do play different roles, and the way we play as a team being much different to the way Adelaide play. If OMac was playing for Adealide he'd be taking Hartigan/Keith's role, whereas if Lever was with us he'd be taking Frost's role (I know he's not playing at the moment) as the 3rd tall with Hibberd returning to a 4th tall/primary interceptor/re-bounder role. The Lever discussion should be about what he can bring to the team rather than who/what he could replace at the moment. I think he'd actually make guys like TMac and OMac considerably better players as they can both take the game on and might find a better balance when rebounding from Def50. At the moment some of the frustration is that Tmac, OMac and Frost seem to get caught out with their run forward, where Lever seems to have a better ability to read the play and would bring better leadership and structure to the backline.

Not sure why this has turned into a Lever vs Oscar thread, they would play in the same team if Lever came to us. With Adelaide, Lever plays with Talia and Hartigan/Keith as the 2 'bigger' guys and also has Jake Kelly in the mix. Ideally we'd have Lever, TMac, OMac and Hibberd, which I think would be an even better combination than Adelaide's. OMac incidentally average's around the same intercepts as both Talia and Hartigan.

Thought Tyson was in our best couple in the first quarter (same as against the saints) he then seems to drop off after that. He's very important for our starts but to become elite he needs to put 4 quarters together. No way he gets dropped though

Hopefully he'll be having a week off after the pies game before finals. I suspect they might have wanted him to have a couple of games then a break rather than one on one off

I don't see it as an out and out failure if we don't play finals - I'd love too but it's not the end of the world. A failed season is one where you don't know the answer to 2 questions: (1) have we improved and (2) are we closer to a premiership. It might be said that we have to play finals to be closer to a premiership, but I don't think that's the case. If we get to finals and put in a performance like Richmond did against Port in 2014, or the Eagles against the Dogs last year then where does that get you? Both of those teams stayed about the same the year after but hadn't improved. The Eagles are getting smashed right now because of their list and Richmond nearly sacked Hardwick, didn't make the finals last year and have made major changes to personnel and their game plan before improving (so making finals in 2014/15 was nearly irrelevant for them). When we make finals I want us playing to win, not just make up numbers. To that end I think our game style (when going at close to 100%) has the capability of winning a flag, while we still might be a year or 2 away from doing that consistently enough to get there, I see that as proof we are closer to a premiership.

Been out biggest issue over the last 6 weeks. We seem to kick long to a contest too often, which makes it hard to score freely. The saints would love if we did the same again. Bring Hannan in, get him and Trac rotating between high-half forward and deep leading forward and that will give us a new look inside 50. Hannan had a great game earlier this year doing exactly that. I'd bring him in for Pedo and get Watts or TMac rucking again. If that's too short then Harmes given a week off and Weid brought in as well. In: Hannan and maybe Weid Out: Pedo and maybe Harmes

Watts looked very much like he was carrying something on the weekend. He had 2 shots on goal from around 50 and both times he barely took more than 2 or 3 steps running in, looked like he still didn't have confidence in the hammy (which makes me think it was a mistake he played). Surprisingly the kick against the wind went through and with the wind dropped short. Hopefully with an 8 day break he gets over that, and then has a bigger impact on the game.

I assume you've got access to Champion Data stats that aren't readily found? I imagine that unfortunately one of our biggest culprits in losing one-on-one's would be Nev Jetta. The argument would be that yes Ben Brown should out mark him because he's 30cm taller, but that's too simplistic, why is Jetta trying to man up on someone way taller (it happens a fair bit) and the answer would be what GD67 was talking about. Unless you've got stats to say who our back 6 have lost their one-on-one's too (direct opponent or covering player etc.) then the OP having a shot at OMac and Frost may have little basis. Like others have done on here I think it's better to prevent the wound rather than focus on stopping the bleeding.

Some guys are just unlucky. Clearly the foot injury has robbed him of the speed, while not blistering was adequate, to make him as good a player as he looked like being. I still think his first 50 games or so was better than both Scully and Martin.

Pokies are really just an extension of what clubs are trying to do, which is increase their asset base and income opportunities by owing assets that seem to make sense to them - pubs and clubs. It would be great if we could diversify our income stream from being just football related (which relies heavily on the AFL) and excluding pubs/pokies but in reality no club has been able to do this well in the past - and that's across all codes. The EPL, NFL, NBA all heavily rely on 'sport' related activity - gate receipts, merchandise sales and sponsorship while the NRL more so than the AFL using pubs/clubs and pokies.

Think that's the next steps in the evolution of our team, Oliver, Viney, Tyson, Jones, Lewis and Salem need to occasionally have a game where they kick 2 or 3 goals, and average at least 3 collectively per game. So far only Jones and Lewis have kicked multiple goals in a game. Gawn has only kicked the 2 goals this year whereas last year he kicked 16.