KingDingAling

Gawn - effective Oliver - GOAT Langdon - continued his dominance Sparrow - amazing. Just amazing Bowey - no surprise, experienced 200 gamer Brayshaw - one of his best games this year, proper player. Rivers - on the up. Neal Bullen - Sh*t when mattered. Really really poor game. May - no words really, heading into his own category as a back man. Heading into GOAT territory. Petracca - Shocking effort. Harmes -typical Harmes. Loves the heat and fades out once the jobs done. Pressure and checks out once games over. Barometer Dunstan - Got better. I’d persist with him because he failed to handle the pressure that comes with being a Dee, but adapted, pretty rare to see that within the space of 2 quarters. This guy will improve us. But needs to be better than tonight. Needs to be shown tapes of Toby Bedford and bring that to every contest. Petty - Most promising back in league. Underrated. Good early when mattered. Jordan - OK. Fritsch - always good. Spargo - Good. Hunt - below average when it mattered. Jackson - See Petracca Brown - see Jackson Weideman - perfect. Love the intent. Stats smatts. Great game. Keep doing what you’re doing. So confident in this kid. My type of guy. Pickett - see above. Cannot speak any higher. Really had a crack early when blokes were 100 at contests. Smith - needs to clean up things a bit but obvious an improving player. See why Gawn likes him, Smith clunks marks under pressure and drops them when not, I can live with that.

Our mids are getting beaten it ain’t the forwards fault

When it comes to games like this, pressure games, proper pressure. We learn a lot about our players. Good that you mentioned Kozzie. Anyone who bags Kozzie for whatever reasons needs to watch this first half. I loved Kozzie before tonight and I’m sure we all do, but wow, really impressed by him tonight. Has he had limited opportunities? Absolutely, so that’s why the casual observer, and probably limited knowledge of football supporter, would deem Kozzie to be having a quiet game. But the kid has been willing, and mostly important, has shown great intent. I will give you some beyond sh*t players for tonight. Petracca, Neal Bullen, Luke Jackson. Probably more, I assume McDonald ain’t out there.

Tomlinson looking clean. Above this level. Bailey would be above this level if he could handball properly - put some strength into it. Otherwise he looks to have all the tools to make the next step. Woewodin got caught not dishing off the hands in time. Lucky not to result in an opposition goal.

May. Petracca Viney Fritsch Spargo Gawn

We aren’t playing very well, and should still be 6-7 goals up if not for poor umpiring. GWS really are hopeless. Without umpire assistance they’d probably be about 10 points.

Yep and it’s bullsh*t too. I’ve about had it.

Pressure around the ground outside of clearance work - is better than usual today. We have definitely done our homework. I watched GWS last week against Freo. Seems I wasn’t the only one. We dissected that and went to work implementing a strategy. We are forcing them to bomb it in.

That’s expected when you have a dip at taking the game on. They will get better with this. Jack Steele demands his players implement the coaches game plan. Hell of a captain

Footballers like Heeney and McInerny must pull this hair out playing in that side. Majority of Sydney players just play for themselves. Very poorly coached side to be fair. If they make finals hopefully it’s the fourth spot and we meet them in the first final.

Getting a flag this year would be nice. If we want Jackson then let’s play for him. Winning two flags in a row, and being a part of a young dynasty list, it’s hard to pass up.

Important to get some game time into him. I suspect he is a depth player, but it’s vital he has more experience to be ready if we need him to be (at any stage). Smith is still relatively inexperienced. We need to see what he’s got, is he improving? These are questions we need to answer, and we do so because we have had injuries. Hunt is in the same boat. We are going to need to play these guys throughout the year, whether it’s when we test players or whether they step in for someone injured. To my eye, Smith made a lot of sense while Lever was out, but equally, I also didn’t like what I seen on game day, where Smith opted to mark instead of punch, and wasn’t great by foot. Maybe he’ll be better with Lever in, or maybe we as a side will be better off without Smith. This is something worth persisting with till we know the answer. Clearly Smith is rated within the playing group.

If Gawn was rested we’d probably go with 3 tall forwards instead, and have Weideman play a similar ruck role than he does in the VFL.

Laurie wasn’t even nearly ready for VFL last year. This year is just a development year for him. To get the best out of himself he needs to be in physically able to cope with the loads placed on his body. He is explosive and nimble, it’s why we drafted him. Last year he looked soft in the body. This year he looks better, but still some way off. I suspect next year we will see the finished product. Injuries in his first year prevented us from seeing that this year. Once ready we will see all the attributes on display. He will be a great addition to our main side when ready. I also think Bedford looks ready. He has worked very hard, and shown himself capable of massive improvement. Definitely up and about this year. I think he’ll get a game soon. Not sure his ceiling is that of a Laurie, but not much players would have that scope for improvement (that Laurie has). Bedford can improve to be an AFL level player, no doubt. He will just need to find a role.

A lot of vital ones came late. I suspect the umpires gambled on the game. They didn’t really need to do the late ones, but looked like they were making sure. GWS players pretty much just give up after some bad calls. But giving up doesn’t solve anything.

Yep. Umpiring was disgraceful and quite obviously bias to Fremantle. But GWS just dropped their head after the bad calls. And good clubs don’t do that. We get worse calls than anyone by the umpiring, we are consistently on the receiving end of terrible umpiring, yet we always wrestle back the momentum, as good teams do. GWS aren’t a good team. They look to me like a team with ridiculous talent, but no one has taught them to play to a structure. Their midfielders are out chasing kicks, and bombing it in the forward line without a care. I suspect Clarkson will take a good look at GWS and probably put his hand up for the job. The list is there.

Under 11 level style of footy from both sides today. This hack it on your boot style of football is evident this year in all levels (men and women). Pretty poor coaching really. People are quick to pot Tayla Harris, but I can’t imagine Id have great body language if the ball kept coming in high and I had 3 defenders on me. Nevertheless, my observations on the game is that McNamara was/is in a league of her own in contested footy, stood out evidently, just looked far superior when she went near the footy - just wasn’t near it enough. Daisy plays clean and neat, but doesn’t get utilized as a second or third chain because of our sloppy game style of pressure and effort, which is what I used to tell the kids in under 11. Hopefully we evolve from this, perhaps getting some help from our senior side. Pretty surprised to see such a poor level. And lastly, Bannon. Now, I don’t watch much of this AFLW, and after today I see why, it hasn’t improved much, sadly the girls are let down by poor coaching, but this Bannon, looked really sharp. She’s good with her hands, has great football instincts, and looks to have a lot of ability. Probably one of the more capable players I’ve seen. Could even bring me back to watch another game.

Yeah I thought we were poor leading into tonight, but it was a slow grind tonight, and I think we’re probably on the up now. The majority of last year our forward entries weren’t great, but we were winning. It was only in the last few games of the season we got it right and didn’t look back. I think we’ll get it right earlier this year. We are coming good now.

I must be a pessimist because I’ve actually backed Port to win at the $3.50 mark. I don’t think we are playing good footy. I think Essendon are a legit VFL level side, and we struggled with them for much of last week. I also think we carried many passengers from the week before into that game. Also, it’s in Adelaide. The umpiring will be next level. How much longer can we keep wrestling against momentum in matches where umpiring dictates the flow of the game. At some point a team gets tired. We are constantly umpired out of games we somehow wrestle back momentum and win. Due for a loss.

Lever and Petty compliment May to perfection. He struggles with tall athletic type forwards, and Lever and Petty cater for that. Petty can take them on his own, but having Lever come third man up makes it tough for forwards. Having those two back in will ease the burden for May a lot. We will be a far better side for their inclusions. We’ve had to contend with Norton and Wright having their way with us so far this year. We shouldn’t have to deal with that happening again.

They are screwed.

I’d drop Spargo and give Chandler a chance. Lever comes in for Smith, who hasn’t done too much wrong, just needs to work on his marking, and can do that in the VFL until a spot becomes available. TMAC goes out for Brown, no brainer, Stewart absolutely toweled him last night. It was a bad game for us. Multiple changes need to be made when we struggled with an undermanned Essendon outfit, who really are no better than a good VFL side at present.

That’s why I’m hoping the bulldogs lose tonight. I don’t want to meet them in the finals because they play with 19 out there. Momentum is everything in finals and we can’t afford to have it constantly taken away due to bias umpiring towards our opposition. I’ve never seen anything like the consistently favorable calls the bulldogs get week in week out.

If Oliver plays all games I think he wins the next few brownlows. Never seen anything like him. Best midfielder I’ve ever watched.

Woey looks good. Milford hasn’t done much.