DistrACTION Jackson

I'l head to the snow

The ratings run over a 40 game period I believe, or something similar. I think we will see Clayton at number 1 in the next few years,

I was looking through the player ratings and noticed that Clayton Oliver has now cracked into the top 10! Outstanding effort for a guy who turns 21 in a couple of weeks!

Our form turned around at the start of the season when Spargo came into the side. Goodwin and Co just have to get the balance of this side right soon, otherwise we are looking at another wasted season. In: Spargo, Garlett, Frost Out: Weid, Petty, Tyson B: Jetta O Mac Hibberd HB: Salem Frost Lewis C : Fritsch Viney Brayshaw HF: Petracca Hogan Spargo F: Melksham TMac Garlett R: Gawn Oliver Jones Int: ANB Harmes J Smith Hannan We need Spargo, Garlett, Melksham and ANB to continuously harass and tackle in the forward half. We need only one of Hogan, TMac & Hannan flying and bringing the ball to ground, the rest need to be ready for the crumb or lock it in. Most of all we need the whole side to get the work-rate back to where it was when we smashed sides, as this was the reason behind those wins.

This thread is dumb. So what a 18 year old key position player had a poor first game. Wow that must've never happened before......

I don't. It happened in the first quarter I think. He kicked at goal and it missed, Gawn was chasing him and slightly touched him after he kicked.

Wow that's bad. Wouldn't have mattered though. The worst of the day was the 'late hit' free to Billings. Gawn hardly touched him it was ridiculous. The 50m penalties also need to be reserved for very clear infringements! They shouldn't just be given out easily.

In: Frost, Spargo, Garlett Out: Petty, Tyson, Hannan Pretty simple really, we lack foot speed and defensive pressure. When Spargo came in we won 6 straight, not sure the reason but I think he contributed with the little things he did. I think Petty will be a solid key back but he's too young. It's do or die for the rest of the season so we need 'experienced' key backs in.

There's the selections for the game and then also selections for roles within the game. This is my take on our side at the moment and where we struggled today: 1) Jack Viney is a midfield weapon, not a tagger! When did Goodwin get the idea that our number 1 mid (still most influential when up and going) should be doing a negating role? It beggars belief and we are shooting ourselves in the footy even before the ball is bounced! If we want to play a hard tag every week why not bring Bugg in for that role? He's got a big tank and loves niggle. Stupid, stupid, stupid. 2) There is no point playing guys who are 'in form' out of position, as they will just find themselves out of form. Dom Tyson is not a wingman, he's an inside mid. If there is no room for him in the engine room then he must bide his time at Casey. We were wayyyyyy to slow on transition today and he is not up to it in that position. 3) We that the most successful side in the compeition at the moment has a lot of small forwards. So what do we do? Play pretty much no small forwards. Garlett and Spargo should both be in, yes I know Garlett isn't tearing it up at Casey, but he's a proven quantity and at least has some speed. 4) This is not a knock on Harry Petty as I am sure he will turn into a fine player for us, but Frost has to play starting next week. 5) Goodwin how about we work on getting our 'press' to a reliable level. Our defence is so bad at the moment I would actually laugh if it wasn't so dire. Glad to get that all off my chest.

I'm going to say that Frost & Spargo will be in, probably at the expense of Tyson & Hannan (but I would prefer Vince out).

Tim Watson also proclaimed that Collingwood can win the flag, after they beat Carlton by 20 points....... I really don't listen to anything he says.

What is everyone's obsession with the draft? We have been there for years and we have got a heap of top end talent that is still young and developing. I'm not saying we completely ignore the draft, but the fact is we are now entering our premiership window, time to load up on ready made players to fill the holes we need to win it all.

The answer is yes. I used to absolutely love this game and was so proud it was the Australian version of football. Now it's bee turned into some type of monstrosity, where the rules are so complex and difficult to comprehend, that there are ridiculous mistakes on a weekly basis. If it wasn't for my love of the Demons I would just stop going completely. However, while I used to watch 3-4 games a weekend, I am now only really watching the Dees and then maybe a Friday night game if I'm really bored and here is nothing else to do. Though that is rare with things like Netflix and also reading good books!

Didn't Jetta come back on the field? If that'a the case I would assume he didn't have concussion. Judging by Goodwin's comments on Saturday I would say we will be bringing in a tall defender. My pick would be Frost based on the VFL reports. He has all the ability, just needs to do the simple things more often.

100%. One of Lewis or Vince just has to go as we can't keep carrying both in the backline. My pick is Vince. Ins: Petty & Garlett (if he performs). Outs: Vince & Tyson B: Jetta O McDonald J Smith HB: Hibberd Petty Lewis c : Salem Viney Brayshaw HF: Fritsch Hogan Melksham F: Garlett T McDonald Petracca R: Gawn Oliver Jones Int: Hannan T Smith Neal-Bullen Harmes I want them to roll the dice and give Petty a crack. We need Hibberd playing as the backline runner and he is unable to do that effectively at the moment. We can all see that having both Vince and Lewis down back is too slow so one of them has to go. Lewis is a better user so he stays. Tyson is too slow and unless he is playing as a pure mid he is next to useless. I would like to see us trade him for someone with pace to play as a wingman. This is my hope but I know Goodwin won't drop Vince.

I want to see Petty get a game. Don't like the under-sized backline. Put him on McCartin who is also a young player. Either Spargo or Garlett also in, whoever performs better at Casey this weekend.

I agree Jaded. Hibberd was our best rebounder last year. This year he is way off that form.

Good game to debut Petty as it hopefully won't be as hot as tonight's game. I would be happy to drop Vince for Petty.

It's key moments that count and tonight there were a few that killed us when they took big marks. I'm not going to both arguing anymore but if they don't add another tall defender in the next few weeks I'll blow my lid.

And we didn't because they flooded back and crashed the packs with tall defenders. End of the day this side is not good enough to win a flag, yet. We need better outside runners than we have now and we need more mature key backs.

Check the stats mate. 10 marks inside 50 to 7, even though we dominated inside 50s. I'm not saying this is the reason we lost, but we can't continue to play with an under-sized backline.

We went inside 50 68 times for 7 marks. Port went in 39 times for 10 marks. Now this is partly because we butchered the ball, but they also have 3 big talls to crash packs in Howard (199cm), Clurey (193cm) & Westhoff (200cm) who plays both ends. We had Oscar (196cm) and Smith (191). I know we will be better as Petty gets older and we get Lever back, but we really need to find another option down back. Joel Smith is just not good enough to play as a second tall.

As I said to Wiseblood it wasn't just the goals. They took a heap of contested grabs and also got some very soft goals deep because we were under sized. And yes I watched the game you [censored].

Do you remember that mark on the line? Or the marks they got 15m out directly in front? They have multiple tall forwards so no one 'gave us a bath', but they took a lot more contested marks than us. We need tall defenders to be killing those contests on the wings.

How do the match committee think we can play with 1 tall defender? Against probably the tallest forward line in the comp? Please bring in Petty and give the kid a crack! He can play second tall and Smith 3rd. Garlett needs to come in for Tyson. He's completely lost it.