Red and Blue realist

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.

I think people are now discussing is that weakness because of our defenders or because of the way the team plays? For mine nearly every team would have the same weaknesses if the opposition is allowed to move the ball as quickly away from stoppages/the center and we've allowed lately.

I think it's a bit too simplistic to blame the defenders (not all have I agree) without looking at the whole picture. It's much like when the Australian Cricket team kept 'rotating' the fast bowlers when they were beaten and leaving the batsmen alone. There's another article on afl.com.au today about where we've dropped off lately, and it probably shows some of the reasons why it's so easy for teams to score against us. In a nutshell, in rounds 1 - 13 we averaged over 7 more contested possessions a game, 2.7 more points from stoppages and 4.2 more points from center clearances. Since round 14 that's changed so we average 3.8 less contested possessions, concede 9.8 more points from stoppages and 10.3 less from center clearances. Put basically we're allowing the oppositions to get their hands on the ball too easy, which then results in getting the ball quicker and better into their forward line, so it's easier for their forwards (and harder for us to defend). If we win the ball in the middle and around stoppages, it's harder for the opposition to score because they can't move it as quickly. No coincidence that Jonesy has been out for all those games and Viney also missed 2.5 of them.

The AFL haven't even got round 23 settled this year because they need to wait to see what the ladder could potentially be. Imagine the issues around trying to get round 18 sorted out under this model . They'd have to allow for teams that would have 6 day breaks, travel, hotels etc like you mentioned and they'd have from Sunday night to do all that by say Tuesday to give enough time for teams/supporters to get organised. Surely this is the season that they can look at and go "it's not broken, why the F do we have to try and fix it?". Maybe they just need to give their people something to do so they stop shagging the support staff?

Doubt someone like that would leave to become a back-up player, I know he's out of their team at the moment, but surely he'd prefer to go somewhere to be guaranteed games. If he came to us, it'd be on the back of a promise to get Hunt into the middle so he take's his spot.

I think the majority would have Lever in a heartbeat, it's just that most are now debating his cost/value. Realistically we can't sell the farm for one player because we're still going to have to pay guys like Tracc, Hogan, Gawn, Salem, the Macs and Oliver either by the end of next year or 2019. So we need ensure that we not only have enough to keep them, but also continue to invest in the future as well.

They should have been up and about as well - they were in a game they had no right to be - we'd just returned from Darwin, had 4 guys returning from injury who were going to tire and they'd just been gifted 2 goals, on top of this Gawn had rolled his ankle. I'd like to think that other teams watching our last quarter efforts would have more fear of their ability to get back into a game with us that if we had of just ran out winners by 10 goals. What we did to kill their momentum and win the game (while slammed by some as boring???) shows we do have the ability to put the contest beyond reach even under trying circumstances.

The Hawks doctor was on the radio last week and went into quite a lot of details around concussion - he is the league's expert and was just about to head off to a world conference. Anyway, he was asked about helmets and basically said they could help prevent the impact type concussions (punches, ball hits etc) as they can help to soften the blows, the concussions caused by "shaking" where as you said the brain floats around and causes the injury the helmet would have no effect. The issue of repeat concussions was also brought up, and surprisingly he said that there not really connected as the brain has different areas which have different functions. So while there is a need to be careful, one concussion doesn't really lead to another or is connected with a previous one, good news for Gus I'd hope. Might explain why he's wearing the helmet, one of the concussions was from the ball hitting him on a wet day at Casey and another was from a hit behind play, so the helmet may have helped to lessen the blow in those instances.

He's the type of player who would be substantially better in the seniors than down at Casey. He'd be attracting 2 or 3 defenders down there because there's no other real tall target, plus the conditions are not normally anywhere near as good - ground, personal or delivery. I'm sure given another pre-season to get fitter and stronger that he'll make a very worthwhile contribution to the club, he did miss the whole of his draft year, so is coming from a long way back plus as a tall will naturally take longer anyway. I would like to see more tackles and pressure, similar to the Adelaide game, so he makes a contribution even if not kicking goals.

He got 5 against first time round last year, although he's having a significantly better year this season (overall). Let's hope it's like the round 21 game last year where he barely gets near it and goes goalless.

Just read Goody's presser (on the MFC twitter feed) and he's said that Jeffy flew back in yesterday and is good to go tomorrow!

Yeah, I do too, this was in response to a question of who of the emergencies would come in should he miss. I think he'd make our forward line significantly more dangerous, Port don't really seem to have a smaller stopper, Broadbent, Harlett and Byrne-Jones all try and play that rebounding defender rather than a lock down like Jetta can do for us, plus none of those are particularly quick.

100% correct, just think there either priming themselves thinking they have a good chance to continue the hoodoo or like Abe put have started tanking, in which case we bank the points and get a little closer to finals action.

I'd think they'll either bring Stretch in and then push ANB back towards the forward line, which would be a shame because I think he's last 3 weeks have been great. Or they'll bring in Smith, in part to combat the height in Ports forward line but might also see what he's got as a forward then push TMac back. Hope if Jeffy isn't available that they don't think of permanently moving Hunt forward, I like him spending a little time there, but not the full game.

I see that North are resting Ziebell this week and haven't recalled a couple of others who sound like they might be ready (Woods and Williams), is that because (a) they think we're very beatable next week because it's both in Tassie and we've been their bunnies for a long time; or (b) are they starting to manage their season so potentially their draft position might improve? Could have an impact if they are resting up to give us a good run next week, although I'd still think we should get the job done even if they were full strength.

I wonder if they've also waited until after a bye in the VFL. I know some of the grounds are still quiet heavy underfoot so probably gives him the best chance to be really fresh. Maybe they'll give someone like Hannan a rest then play Trac forward all game and have the midfield cover?