fr_ap

Still think so? Right now he does not want to be out there.

I'm not sure how true this is, but someone once told me the place was built in the wrong direction. i.e. all the plans and permits had the stadium travelling west-east, which would have been preferable from a sunlight (grass growing) POV, but the building contractor mistakenly planned the site & laid the foundations south-north. I remember this being blamed for the significant issues they had early days getting the grass to grow (the G is also laid on concrete, that shouldn't be a factor). You got to Marvel on any given weekday and they have a million hydroponic lights fixing the turf. They've figured it out, but it must cost them a fair bit.

Why do people think Howes is ahead of him? Blake plays a less contested game in an easier position (HB), and gets less of the footy with less impact. Woey brings attributes we lack into the side - he is a good short passer of the ball and has good composure/decision making. He's also no slouch in the contest and quicker (slightly taller too) than the likes of Laurie Pleased with the debut & wondering who it is at the expense of - Harmes or Chandler I would guess.

Might just be me but I thought the clips Lyon showed barely made his point at all. Most involved risky 15-20m hit up kicks to players 45 out in the corridor. The Petracca kick to the 3 on 1 in the pocket in particular - neither of the short Sparrow or Brayshaw kicks were on & would likely have resulted in a corridor turnover leading to a score against. It's very easy to watch from afar & make a judgement on kick difficulty without any real sense of depth/difficulty/conditions. Trac assessed the options - and decided it wasnt worth the risk. This is also why neither brayshaw or Sparrow asked for the ball. I'm not saying we should never take those kicks - but there is a time and a place. Hitting them into an already flooded d50 from a slow play off the HFF/Wing is not the time. Collingwood hit them - but they hit them when they are streaming down the ground and have defenders scrambling (or off turnover). Ironically, Rivers actually took the kick Lyon was asking for to a leading Brown on the fat side in the other example, even though Lyon in that case said he should have handballed to Chandler (which I agree with). The result was Rivers missed the kick, Taylor marked and the Giants took it down the other end for a goal. Let's not pretend he is some savant footy analyst. Our gamestyle has proven effective at turning us into a top team over a long period of time. It's not perfect, and at the moment its a little broken, but we've fixed it before. Throwing all caution to the wind and trying to hit risky corridor kicks that our skill profile doesn't allow is not the way.

This might be unpopular, but I actually didn't mind how we looked with Grundy as solo ruck. We missed Gawn's marking around the ground (which could be offset if we had any decent tall forwards...), but I didnt feel an overt loss through the middle or at stoppages. Grundy was very poor defensively though in the early part of the year and he was a big reason for our Essendon loss when both Draper and Phillips (!) had career days... Nevertheless, the Grundy play overall makes much more sense to me in the solo ruck context. I'm not convinced that playing them both is doing us any favours at the moment.

That's fine. I take your point, we could try any number of different things. Personally I don't think Judd is well suited to the midfield at all. Yes he's elusive, but when he's caught and under pressure he's actually as poor a kick as everyone else. He's not going to get away in the heat of the midfield. I like the suggestion of him to the wing though - I've said a number of times Hunter is good structurally but a huge turnover merchant. Ironic given we brought him in for his apparent ability to hit targets i50. But in general, rolling a 15 game half back through the midfield for 2 rotations is not the solution to our problems

It's really not that simple, so tiring people say this as soon as someone can kick...'put them in the midfield'. In the midfield you generally do not have time to dispose of the ball properly. That's why most midfielders other than the very elite (Merrett, Bont) are considered poor kicks. Plus, all of a sudden you have responsibility for winning contested ball in outnumber situations. That's not Judd's go (yet). It's the same reason Salem doesn't play midfield. He ain't a midfielder

He's gone to absolute water since 1) the bailey smith suspension 2) signing his contract Looks like he cannot be bothered and his lack of focus is self evident. Can't hit a target, can barely possess the footy without fumbling, and just can't seem to make the right decision. All of those things used to be absolute standout features of his game. It's been an extremely sad demise. It's weird and counterintuitive, but sometimes when you 'make it' and start getting paid really well to do something you love, it kills your love of it. That's what it looks like to me. He's not having any fun and he's going through the motions entirely. Very sad.

He's doing far, far more than that. He is quite literally changing games the instant he comes on. He was on the bench first 10 mins against adelaide....comes on and the game never looked the same. Collingwoods entire winning streak started once he'd taken 5 games to find his feet. Yes he's relatively uncontested - but that matters less and less the way the game is going. I love Clarry and trac and think the world of Bont, but pound for pound, no one is impacting games more than Daicos this season. He's winning the brownlow.

It happens in other sports. The difference being in those sports, players are paid so well that they can literally flip & burn houses (through agents) and pay it no mind. To that end, if the AFLPA were to ever agree with this, I would expect it would be a tradeoff to get players a larger slice of the pie & elevate their earnings significantly.

I actually like Joel Smith for the sub. Can do a job forward or back, and in either scenario we have the flankers that can move into midfield if it's a midfielder getting subbed out.

Yeo absolutely despises Melbourne. Hates us.

Just a question - who did Tommo actually play on against the pies? A combo of resting ruck and the incredibly lazy ash Johnson? Whilst he was very good, who he played on needs to be taken into account. It's hardly like he shut down a top forward and the week before, he was well beaten by McKay. If lever is to play 3rd intercepting, the 2nd key back needs to be trusted to beat or neutralise the games better forwards - the likes of Hipwood, J Cameron, etc. We know Petty can shut these players down Tommo was to some degree lucky that Collingwood don't have that player in their current line up. Geelong have quite a few...

My degree in MFCSS says 7 days

Not only that, but to have the statistical dominance we did when free kicks are 22-13 takes some doing. That equates to 9 one on one contest wins at all points over the ground - huge differential

Whilst it wasn't a particularly enjoyable game there were aspects of the Dees brand that showed up tonight. Hard to score against, contested possession, time in forward half. Was a long way from perfect but for all the moaning about forward woes and connection, we still had 15 marks inside 50 which is an ok number. A lot of our forwards lack craft though - Fritsch is really the only semi-consistent natural dangerous forward we have. I would normally include Koz but he's way off the boil post-contract. Really hate the way he's playing, flies when he shouldn't, can't find space, flops about for free kicks and no longer wins hard balls. He looks like he's being told not to play to his hard edge instincts.

That's actually a better hit rate than the 1 goal a game we are getting from JVR and Tom...

Agree entirely. My realism is often characterised as negativity. Drives me insane

Hewett is concussed is he not? Or has that changed?

You seem to have something misconstrued mate. I haven't posted anything in this thread other than at the start when I said we all felt despair. For what it's worth, I'm completely skewed to the negative and constantly clash with my brother who is the opposite. He and I sadly often reach the point where we won't speak after a game for a couple of days - so personally, the long explanations from both sides of the coin have helped me. That's all I was getting at. Think you have me confused for someone else?

Carlton are not playing that poorly. They would have beaten Sydney if McKay and a few others kicked even 50% of the shots they had. They had a really strong intercept night, move the ball pretty well and have dangerous forwards.

Wherever you sit on the negativity spectrum, I think the discussion in this thread has been both instructive (in the perspective it's provided) and constructive (in bridging the varying viewpoints). Kudos to all.

Why won't McKay play? Or do you mean Lever

You're right, but I think what we're all sensing and feeling is further success slipping away. There is immense, palpable disappointment in the air that isn't far off despair. The losses are one thing; the missed tackles, lack of appetite, shirked efforts, finger pointing, lack of enjoyment and utterly destroyed chemistry/cohesion is another thing entirely. I think this is what has people so upset.

King's stats are good for discussion - hopefully they've been compiled the right way in the background. He says our general contest win rate drops to 10th without WCE, Haw and NM - presumably when calculating a #10 rank, they have also stripped WCE, Haw and NM away from other teams that have played 1, 2 or 3 of them and re-ranks them as well. In which case - for the teams that haven't played any (Collingwood), or only played 1 (Lions) or 2 (PA), their ranking includes data from a greater number of games. This won't lead to totally wrong conclusions for a % based stat like contest win rate - but when he quotes scores from stoppage that are cumulative - I'm not sure how it's been compiled and the methodology gets tricky. Presumably those are averages, but -50 scores from stoppage doesn't sound like an average. -160 from D50 stoppages doesn't sound like an average either. Long story short, pulling these rankings in the middle of the year when not every team has played one another is inherently flawed. Throw in the effect of Home Ground Advantage, uneven travel schedules and significant injuries - you get the drift. There are also a good number of positive metrics you could also mention depending on what narrative you are seeking to create. We are: #1 in Inside 50s #2 in Goal Assists #1 in Total Scoring #4 in Disposal Efficiency #3 Tackles i50 #2 Contested Possession #1 Goal accuracy #1 Intercepts Yes - we've had the benefit of playing WCE, Haw and NM which no doubt helps many of these stats. Port have played 2 of those teams and are top 4 in some of those stats, but not all. Brisbane have played 1 of those teams and again are top 4 across a different set of statistics. I agree to my (negatively biased) eyes there is a lot that looks off, but truthfully mid-season, it's all guesswork with incomparable bodies of work and evidence being gathered in entirely different circumstances for different teams. The W/L column (which itself is a result of fixture) is the only thing that matters at the moment and we are still sitting top 4. Big tests to come.