fr_ap

Not sure I entirely agree with this logic (bolded part) If we had come out and smashed two middling/lower teams we'd be loving life and super confident right now. Fact is - only the very good/best teams consistently smash the teams they should. What would make it more difficult to get a read on their form is if they beat both by 10-20, which would indicate they weren't functioning at a top 4 level. But that's not what happened. As it is, the magnitude and manner of their wins are indicative of their quality - which is that of a top 4 side. It's not hard to tell how good they are - they're clearly very good, as they were last year. They may even be better now, as a young side with continued growth and very few veterans getting to the feared 31/32 mark other than Buddy (who they were without in any case). Without Buddy, Mcdonald and Amartey combined for close to 10 goals. We know how tough, dynamic and accountable their midfield is. We should not be taking any confidence from them 'only' smashing GCS and Hawthorn. It's what the best teams do. Separately on us - I have a niggling concern that something we have changed - game plan or mindset wise - has resulted in far less accountability from our mids both at stoppage and in transition. I thought it was very obvious in the Dogs game that Treloar/Mcrae/etc were running relatively unchecked in transition. Repeatedly. It was extremely obvious during the period they were on top. For whatever reason, it ultimately didn't hurt us too badly as the Dogs were hesitant with the ball. It then clearly happened again vs the Lions - even worse - the Brisbane midfield appeared to play entirely unchecked for the majority of the night. At clearance, at stoppage and in transition. At different times, neither felt like Dees games and I felt more uncomfortable (yes, including the Dogs game even though we got on top) than I have since 2020. I can't quite put my finger on it but I wonder if in trying to have a little more dare and respond to the flavour of the month - attacking footy, Collingwood etc. - we've lost the balance that's served us well now for some time. If I'm right, the Swans (who have the most accountable midfield going round) will be a big reality check (and potentially, a really sizable loss). Don't hate on this btw - sky is not falling, far from it - but I can just feel something is a little awry...

There is something true to all walks of life about the Jackson trade - rarely do people who achieve significant emotional (premiership, fulfilment, contentedness) & financial success at a very young age go on to even better things. It's the reason child actors seem to inevitably go off the rails, happens in the Corporate world all too often and especially with junior sportsmen who very quickly achieve what they always dream of. There are exceptions of course - Joel Selwood would be one -but he has clearly always been driven by something internal (competitiveness, pride, a chip on the shoulder?) rather than external factors. All professionals need to be self-motivated - they'd never make it to the grade otherwise, but there would be degrees of it. Jackson is physically gifted, but could have picked basketball, and achieved plaudits, success and now money in his preferred environment very young. There is something to be said for the journey and discovery of delayed gratification. IMO those close to him have misguided him and selected short term outcomes over long. Nonetheless he has all the tools and I wish him well long term....but not so much this year for our draft hand sake! There are many other examples in the AFL of a newly hyped player achieving enormous success/money only to fail to carve out a long term career. Boyd, Patto, Hogan, you can keep going

It's actually a good presser. Helped me come to terms with it all. Worth watching that and tracks interview on the MFC website

Wouldn't count your lucky stars yet....Grundy hasn't played in 12 months and has been injury prone in the latter half of his career. If he shoulders the full load I don't have a lot of faith he'd last beyond about round 6 Schache is just about the only option we have

Given his height and age, if it's a medical we're probably looking at 8-12 weeks. If an ACL we all know how long. Either way, we're going to have to figure out how to play without him for a while, so let's talk about that. Do they pull the trigger on Schache? I thought Tom's ruckwork was very poor and directly cost us quite a few goals. Brodie will get better but he's a different player to Max and is not going to give us the contested marking presence we need. Not sure Schache takes a strong contested mark either. Max is irreplaceable but we will need to do something. Is KFW too raw? He seems further progressed than Verrall. I think Schache will come in for Gawn and they'll try to persist with Tom up forward until he either finds form or JVR kicks him out.

May out for 2 games, gawn out for one and Tom a bit lame. They are basically all our contested marking players

Pretty deplorable performance all round, hard to find a winner anywhere. Looked slow, reactive and the most bruise free I've seen us in years. Not sure why our tough midfield decided to basically white flag it. A shame on Gawn either way but honestly you can't tell me one player getting injured is a sufficient reason to basically give up, which it looked like the midfield did for large parts of the game. Some of the overconfidence on here today was genuinely ridiculous against a team that knocked us out last year, rarely loses at the Gabba and had a huge point to prove after a horror showing last week Worst I've seen us play since 2019

Jon Ralph saying Tommo a very good chance to take May's spot

Fair enough and don't want to distract from the point on Judd. Was indeed a good debut. Interested to see his lockdown capabilities. I can see him getting Charlie Cameron this week which is equal parts exciting and terrifying

? Petty's debut is widely regarded as one of the worst ever.

100% - the amount of Geelong fans commenting tells you how worried they are about him Witch hunt well and truly on

Sorry but this is just wrong. His disposal barely improved in several years on the list - he's a real butcher. As in, was the worst kick on our list. It was not close to anyone else on the list aside from maybe our lumbering rucks. He's a busy, high metres gained player and maybe the dogs are pleased with that. But ultimately he will need to hit targets in this game, another, or crucial finals and he'd be close to the worst amongst all starting 22s at doing so. He may have improved over the dogs off season and I wish him well (not too well against us!). But it was the right time to move him on.

One thing about him is he gets a lot of shots at goal. He only needs a night where they stick to really cement his place. He's much more capable of a bag of goals than Spargo for example. I hope he doesn't try to take on too many though. I'm also conscious his pressure off the ball isn't at the Spargo or anb or Pickett level.

Gee whiz not sure we'd deal with the attacking threat (or replicate it ourselves) of either of these teams

May's clearly injured his calfstring guys don't ask too many questions

Couldn't agree more.

Awful game, Rioli a cut above every other player on the field. The AA half back so far.

Correct. This notion that they're lumbering oafs is ridiculous. In fact, that more accurately describes gawn or Grundy when resting forward

Considering we have a stack of unproven talent - Chandler, Laurie, Mcvee and probably Tomlinson (jury's out) and they've added a seasoned ruck forward and full back, I think they are clearly the stronger side on paper. Not sure why we are saying 'their depth must be in trouble' with Baker when we're starting Chandler who's no more accomplished and a member of the same Casey premiership side

Gee whiz Tomlinson. Last I saw he couldn't turn, jump or push. Naughton will have an absolute field day. Disappointing they didn't go D Turner.

Not much has been said about Richmond - they werent much chop. Always difficult to tell what's one team being good and another bad - but I counted several goals that came directly from poor Richmond kicks under no pressure (Dusty in particular - they need to keep him close to goal now)

Let's just cool it on Laurie. He was a damaging player in U18s around goal and delivering to the forwards. He has a way to go and I don't expect him to light it up first game - but what separates us from the FD here is they are playing the long game. They seem to think he can make us better long term. Only way that can happen then is to play him - put his feet to the fire, build his experience and his confidence. The knock-on against Richmond I think showed them all they needed to see - smarts, poise, courage to take a hit for the team. They've always known he has the skills to play the game. They spoke at the end of last year about being bolder as an FD and giving the Casey talent the promotions they deserve. They're staying true to their word, starting round 1. We might lose the game but you never know what it could be the start of.

Wouldnt think it would be Woey or Schache as they would have been part of the announcement. Disco potentially...

Very very surprised on Laurie as I don't think he got time in Practise #1 (happy to be corrected) and in Practise #2 he had 6 touches for ~60m gained (inc. a very important knock-on) in 56% gametime. Woewodin had 5 touches for ~90m gained in 21% gametime.... That said, Laurie had a good finish to last year in the VFL. Hope he's fit enough to play at the level. Who would've thought McVee and Laurie before JVR???? If Taj isn't playing and we assume for a moment that May is, who is the final change from the team that took on Richmond? JJ? Can't be Schache as they will have told us as part of this video. D Turner?

Yeah I should have added that against the dogs, I think we'd be foolish to assume midfield supremacy. Dunkley and hunter aside it still bats very deep esp. if bont spends more time in there. I suppose my point is we often don't overload our backline and rely on our exceptional kpds to win 1v1s. They might lose quite a few to 4 200cm forwards...