At the break of Gawn

I just don’t think the forward half intercept game is working anymore. We’re too pressed up leading to repeat entries that are just so poor quality. There’s no quality entries at all. What makes matters worse is that if the opposition wins it back they have loads of space and have easier opportunities. Goodwin and co need to bring the defenders back more. The press is just too high and it’s killing our forward entries.

I’d be happy if Goody even just did one of these. I think Dees in a close one (around 10pts). GWS are playing good footy and I don’t think it’ll be a walk in the park at all with the difficult conditions.

We did drop Spargo though. I think the balance is right now as usually one of those 3 are on the bench.

I think it’s a real danger game for us. If this game was at the MCG on Sunday (forecasted to be dry) I’d be very confident. But in Alice where it’s going to be wet, I feel like this a game where GWS could pull a rabbit out of the hat and Green kick 5 goals to sink us.

I like the changes but I wouldn’t be surprised if our final tall forward set up in 6 weeks time is Brown, JvR, Fritsch and the resting ruck.

Wouldn’t be far fetched at all to lose to a GWS team on the rise in the wet. A bit of Cairns 2.0 about it.

I’d love to know if part of our inaccuracies are due to where are shots are from? I concede that in the Collingwood game we missed some howlers, but I wonder if overall we’re having more shots from difficult angles, the pockets etc. I recall that in the first few rounds of the season we had a lot of good looks from the corridor where as the last 5-6 weeks we’ve definitely gone wider and have had more poorer entries due to repeat entries.

I’d actually argue that in those wet games it was when it turned dry our game fell away. For example we got up to a 3 goal lead against Port and I think it would have stayed that way if the rain had continued. When it dried up in the last, Port got on top. On Thursday night, when it dried up in the last, Geelong got on top. Even against Essendon, most of the damage was done in the first half when it wasn’t raining.

I think the ruck and clearance work is the best in the comp with these two and it was a real difference against Cox and Cameron. The problem is though, our other forwards aren’t kicking enough and it’s too difficult to carry both Max and Grundy when they’re barely hitting the scoreboard. Unless JvR, Smith, Kozzy and Chandler up their goal average we’ll need to make a change with these two.

I’ve got no doubt I’ll be admonished for this, but is the Gawn/Grundy combo really working? Is there an opportunity to look at a different mix? For example, what if we brought someone like Schache in who is a more natural forward and can ruck. We up Gawn’s game time and let him spend more time around the ball and down the line. It’s not the rucking that is the problem, it’s the lack of any return on the scoreboard from these two. Gawn hasn’t kicked a goal in weeks and Grundy at best will get you one. Is it too tall if we go with a forward line of: JvR, Schache (when not rucking) BBB, Smith, Fritsch and Pickett? Maybe no BBB but I just think we really need to reshape our forward mix and I just can’t see Gawn and Grundy contributing 2-3 goals a game.

You know they beat Geelong in Geelong a couple of weeks ago? This won’t be a walk in the park at all.

FFS the one thing I was counting on was that it was going to be a dry game.

In: Oliver, Tomlinson, Brown Out: Jordan, Petty, Chandler

I thought we were ok the first 3 qtrs, but that last qtr was just horrible. We had absolutely no room in our forward 50 and the repeat entries are just really inefficient entries if you can’t hit a lead up target. But the worst part was just defending their ball movement in that last qtr. We were so highly pressed up that they just got easy goals and so much space.

What about Lever’s double fist to the corridor straight to a Geelong player and then his opponent (Henry) then took the mark to let them kick the first goal?

Has anyone noticed we haven’t had one out the back opportunity tonight? They just have had a defender back there the whole night.

Tom Stewart has absolutely killed us. He’s shown no respect to his opponent.

Same thing happened last year. Got within a few points and then they blew us away with a flurry of goals.

Disgusting defence of rebound

We either run away with this or Scott pulls something out of his [censored] and we lose.

Grundy comfortably playing much better than Gawn. You’d almost consider subbing him off if he does nothing in the 3rd and put Spargo on.

We were $2.20 last weekend and the Cats were $1.80 then around the middle of the weekend it flipped and we were the favourites. Now it’s flipped again as the game got closer (potentially a lot of people saw value in Geelong). I can’t recall the last time I’ve seen our odds fluctuate that much.

Wouldn’t matter if Geelong was bottom 4, GMHBA is a fortress for them. Probably an unfair advantage on the comp as I think they’re the only team that train and play at their home ground? Anyway, with the weather forecasted I think it’ll be really close and could go either way. My biggest concern is that if Geelong get on top of clearances and trap it in their forward half, it’ll be very difficult to transition the ball out of their D50. They are also the best in the comp for lowest inside 50s against. If we don’t win the territory battle I feel it might be a bit like the Port game but unfortunately, Hawkins, Rohan, Cameron will nail their set shots.

Of course. It’s just a shame as he’s a walk up AA midfielder every day of the week but he might miss out now because of games missed.

There’s no way Petty will play forward. I think it’s as simple as they like the Smith forward setup, and Petty is in our best back 6 (while Tomlinson isn’t) and now that he’s back, he’ll play there.