Red and Blue realist

I suggested last week that we don't take him on the plane with a back injury, so no hindsight, just turned out to be one of the few errors the FD have made this year. He might have seemed right, and wanted to keep him with the rehab staff, but at the end of the day it looks like it's going to cost him at least 2 matches out of the team.

Hopefully it shows they are confident it is just a minor issue, but sitting on a plane for 7 hours, playing then jumping on a plane for 4 more hours the next day and I'm surprised there weren't a few more injuries. The club must have thought their medical guys were better equipped to take care of him over there? And maybe he's closer to being right than they are letting on, but now we have top 4 guaranteed they are being super cautious.

Shouldn't have gone to Perth, one of the rare mistakes the FD has made this year. I'd bring in Weid and Smith this week, with AVB and Hunt going out, with JJ back to the sub role, just to give Sparrow 1 more week of full game time and then plan to swap them over next week.

I actually think Hibberd would be better served with a scratch match than a top level game. He was incredibly fumbley in his last few games, so going back with a little less pressure to find touch I think would serve him better than maybe increasing the need to perform. Get him back in the team with confidence as he was finding the ball ok, just then either fumbled or used it badly. I'd give Smith a go off half back as some have mentioned, to see how he goes when he's not trying to be a key defender.

There have been scratch matches going on, but it seems from all clubs the reporting has ben very low key this year. You only hear about a big name coming back from injury, but they have been going on.

Ideally we finish 1st and they finish 4th or we finish 2nd and they 3rd, they way we know all our finals will be in Melbourne - if they are even played here?? Finish 1/3 or 2/4 and if we lose the first week there is the possibility of playing them in Adelaide in a prelim.

Dean Margetts just retired from West Coast - https://www.afl.com.au/news/662950/statement-afl-umpire-dean-margetts-announces-retirement

Not officially yet, but why in the world would they risk him? We're guaranteed to finish top 4 it's smart to rest anyone with soreness or injury concerns. At least save them for Geelong who were likely to play first week of finals as well.

I can't see us making any big moves this offseason, but doesn't mean it still can't be productive. I wouldn't mind if they went for a little more mature depth, we've got 5 guys who'll finish the season over 30, and I think only 1 will definately stay (hibbo - maybe daw as backup). While I think our leadership is pretty good and getting better, if we can grab a couple of guys that could play a role in the seniors if required but are generally good role models, I think that would help. Guys like Hamish Hartlett, Tom Lynch (Adel) etc. would come cheap, both in salary and because we could get them as free agents or very late trades.

He hasn't ben anywhere near Cal's draft lists, and I can't find him rated in the top 2 rounds for any of the big footy drafts, of course they can change now he's had a little exposure, but he's not going to an early pick but looks very consistent when you look at his game stats (I haven't seen him play so can't speak to how he actually looks).

No, we need more than that, West Coast also had Embley, Chick, Braun, Banfield etc. So a good mix of at least 7 or 8 who can roll through the middle at various times. All great sides have more then just 2 or 3 great mids, they have have at least 7 or 8 guys per game who can at any time go into the midfield mix, I think between Trax, Clarry, Viney, Harmes, Gus, JJ, Sparrow, Kossie, ANB, Langdon, Salem and Rivers we've got a pretty good mix to throw in, with Trac and Oliver as the mainstays.

Haven't seen him to high on any mock draft boards, so hopefully we might even be able to get him in the rookie draft, or at a minimum will be matching very late if we choose too.

The revenue per member ladder would be very very interesting, not that you can blame some clubs for being creative, but I think that ladder would tell a very different story for a few clubs (St.K, Carlton and GWS in particular).

If the incident was half as bad as some here are making out, why didn't the umpire - who was all of about 3 meters away - do something about it? No free kick, just told them to stop wrestling. Given Collins has around 10cms and 15kg on Viney, if it was that bad he would have tried to push him off, not held onto him the whole time - look at where Collins grabbed Viney's jumper, which actually locks Viney's arm into position, his only other option would be to fall flat on top of him.

Not sure how they can come up with a grading of serious misconduct without the hint of an injury? It's not a great look at all, but it seems like another decision the MRO is scared to actually make a judgement so they've passed the buck

Spot on, supporters are too quick to jump off players, most would have had TMac gone at the end of last year, Jones wouldn't have played 100 games if you listened to supporters early on! Or are they more subjective than the ordinary supporter who has a preconceived bias that magnifies any mistake/error a player makes? Where a supporter highlights the miss-kick or holding the ball decision, is the reporter seeing the things the player does well and the contribution to the team - not just the mistake?

Funny how preconceived ideas form the basis of a lot of people's changes, although I haven't seen 1 call for ANB to be dropped this week (so far), so that's refreshing. Both the HS and Age had Harmes in the best, yet around half the calls on here have been for him to be axed. No way will he go out, yes cleaning up some disposal and taking the first option would make him a better player, but his defensive skills/efforts (5 tackles in the 1st quarter when it was still actually a game!) go overlooked on here but I'm sure will be noted by the coaches. No change for mine, unless TMac's back is still sore today, then no point putting him on the plane - take and plan for Weid to play, hours on the plane on Saturday and then hours more today could lead to a longer term back issue, so unless he's right today, I hope they take no risks.

This is another evolution of the rules, initially the father son rule meant players actually by-passed the draft (Ben Cousins as an example), then they incorporated them into the national draft but at a 2nd round cost also allowing a 3rd round pick to be used if you had 2 (Matty Scarlett was a 3rd round F/S), that then changed so a club could only take the 1 F/S but at a cost of a 3rd round pick (G Ablett), then changed back so the 1st F/S was a 3rd round and 2nd one costing a 2nd round pick. The Tom Hawkins, who was the clear number 1 pick went for a 3rd rounder (bloody hell Geelong have used their sperm well!) they changed to a bidding system where a club used their next pick - we got Viney for pick 26 but a bid came at pick 7. After that they changed to a points index system where there's discounts for F/S. So the change to the NGA system after the Dogs got lucky is no surprise, these things have been fluid. But, lets be honest, Mac Andrew was not rated by anyone as remotely close to a top 50 pick even a year ago, he's done very well to come along like he has, and if we miss out, we miss out. Just a shame it's happening the first year the rules have been changed that way.

My guess is that McGuire heard the game might be in the NT and automatically went with Darwin, not realising the work we've put in around Alice Springs and that our NGA zone is linked to Alice Springs, while Gold Coast now have Darwin in their zone. I'm near certain that if we are playing a home game in the NT it'll be in Alice Springs.

That would only happen if they rescheduled all the game timings, and have the broadcasters agree, we couldn't play at 3:10pm in Darwin - it'll be 32 degrees! Whereas at Metricon it's only projected to be 22.

Wouldn't think so, Spargo was rated the 2nd best kick inside fwd 50 in the whole competition, it was something like 75% of his kicks inside 50 resulted in a score. So while he might not get much of it, he's what we need when we're struggling going into 50. Jetta has got much more of a defensive mindset, and we all know Jones is better at getting the ball than delivering it

I think if it was a different area of the ground, he'd say we require extra work (and has done that this year and in the past), but when it comes to goal kicking we've all seen clubs go through the 'yips' where it all of a sudden it seems like they'll miss everytime. The only way through that is backing what they know, their routine and eventually the confidence comes back. He's trying to remove doubt around their routines because that'll only make it worse. BBB looks shocking in front of goal at the moment, but a guy who's kicked nearly 300 goals in his career won't need a heap of extra work, just confidence, which is what goody is trying to show them he has in them - but they'd 100% be doing a heap of work on it in the background.

Our backline has been our shining light all season, but I think it needs a tweak right now. We're fantastic when the ball is kicked in high, either marking or spoiling and forcing a stoppage. However, we're not great when the ball comes in quick and goes to ground, and I think other teams have been working on getting the ball away from Lever/May and don't care if it goes towards one of their players or hits the ground to become more of a chaos ball. All our backs - Lever, May, Petty, Hibbo and Rivers are better at marking than when they need to run onto the ball on the ground. I think we need Bowey or Lockhart in there to try and force a contest or stoppage. We once again had more marks inside 50 - and yes conversion is probably our biggest issue - but it shows that teams are still able to score against us when they aren't marking. Stoppage goals can happen, and that's on the midfield as much as the defenders, but those goals we give up when it's the defenders vs forwards seem to me to be increasing and cost us a few goals a game.

I think Jetta's much better when he's got a set opponent, which is not really the way our backs are playing, they still like to zone, but I fear bringing him in won't help a great deal with those ground ball chaos kicks, because he'll stay on his man rather than attack it.

I'd rest Jackson, bringing in Weid, which then also means Weid is the 2nd ruck, something that has really helped his game at Casey. I've always thought he's one of the players that needs a hard contest early to get going and going into the ruck will help that. Jordon also should be rested, early season his tackling was elite, but that has really dropped off which is a sign that his tiring and probably being forced onto the wing a bit too much. I'd drop Hibbo, he's been very fumbley and I think we've got the defensive mix wrong at the moment, we need a smaller ground ball operator, other teams have worked out that kicking it high and long suits our defenders so hitting grass and getting chaos is working, so that's why I think we've sent Brayshaw back more lately, but he's not the answer - and having Salem doing that job has curbed some of his run/creativity. We need a really defensive small so I'd go Bowey or Lockhart. So out: LJ, JJ and Hibbo In: Weid, Bowey and either AVB or Melk (both play high half forwward, Melk has better delivery but can go missing, while AVB might offer an additional hard edge).