At the break of Gawn

Call me negative, but I don't see what's with the strong push for JKH. He had his chances in 2015 and 2016 and gave us nothing (his 2014 was ok). Seems to panic with the ball like Toumpas used to. I get that he's had a terrific preseason and it should be rewarded, but if he fluffs his chances again on the big stage, then we might as well shelve away back to Casey. Kent on the other hand is a proven performer, albeit a goal hog from time to time.

34 minutes ago, Pates said:

Dusty always seems to have a day out against us and he's dragging others into the game. 

Not sure about that Dusty comment. If I recall the last two games against us he was very quiet. Cotchin tends to always play well against us though. 

I agree with the OP. This is a huge game. As Paul Roos likes to say "It's all about momentum". The Tigers have plenty of momentum coming into this game albeit a few easier opponents. Nevertheless, If you look back on our last 3 wins against them, they were struggling form wise during that part of the season when we faced them, while we were doing OK. This is the first time we've played against them when they've come in on red hot form.

2014 - Round 9. Melbourne had beaten Adelaide (in Adelaide) and lost narrowly to the bulldogs the week before. The tigers on the other hand were floundering at that point and couldn't even get it up after the death of Tom Hafey

2015 - Round 4. We were doing "OK" after a win against GC in round 1 and a spirited loss to Adelaide in Adelaide. Tigers again were struggling to kickstart their season.

2016 - Round 5. Melbourne had just beaten the Pies easily and were 2-2 while Richmond again were struggling (1-3) despite making the finals the previous year.

If we lose this. It's 3 losses on the trot and a 4th could easily happen at Etihad stadium against the Dons.

Just watched the last 2 mins again of the last qtr. Noticed these mistakes. Feel free to add:

1. Vince's dinky kick which missed the target.

2. Weideman's fresh air kick on the wing

3. Frost's punch although had good intentions

4. McDonald's terrible high kick at CHB (after the deliberate call) to harmes (had Watts in the corridor albeit one on one)

5. Bernie's stupid torp which looked like something you'd see in the amateur's

6. Harmes hail Mary kick on goal with players free to his right. 

I know I'm probably missing some...

JW's flying for the ball has him taking some good contested marks now. Goodwin's extra work with him on this is being repaid. 

14 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Did Harmes have anyone on? I can forgive his a little more, at least he had a genuine chance to score, he may not have known how long was left (30 secs?) so may have been worried the siren would go, he had the crowd willing him on and the forward line was crowded so difficult to pick out a teammate.

Vince's torp was unacceptable 

Harmes had Jetta to his right all alone. To be fair was 30m to his right. Not in immediate vision.

1 minute ago, Night Crawler said:

Where was this tweet? I checked his twitter account and the game day feed and cant find it.

I just looked back then too. Looks like he deleted it. Probably because he tagged Vince in it. 

He should've learnt his lesson against the gold coast. But no, he did it again. So frustrating. David King's tweet summed it up well  "Poor efforts from @bvince23 in that last quarter. Far from an elite performance, dropped marks. Poor kicking, disgusting for a leader."

3 hours ago, big_red_fire_engine said:

Is quicker than you think. Harder on the spread. Plays on the edge. 

Bugg came first in our 3km time trial. Fittest guy in the team

5 minutes ago, 71 Molloy said:

Any music authorities comment on quality of line up?  

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/hot-dub-time-machine-announces-2017-hot-dub-wine-machine-tour/

Mainly electronic acts

Bloody hell. Watts is dying in a ditch from exhaustion from rucking all day and Hogan is smoking darts at a music festival...

10 hours ago, FireInTheBelly said:

Elephant 4 - I love Watts like a brother, but has he ever taken a mark in his hands out in front? Ever? He was terrific today but he dropped some easy marks, and some tough ones, but he should be expected to take them. I'm a little concerned he's been training at the Chris Dawes school of marking.

Never had the hands to just clunk marks. If he did, he'd be a superstar.

5 minutes ago, praha said:

Jones - Led from front

Viney - Schooled by champions

Salem - Reliable and confident

Watts - Answered the call

Petracca - Damaging albeit slow

Gawn - Solid before injury

Tyson - Must improve disposal

Oliver - Learnt from best

Stretch - Commanding and driving

Kent - Erratic yet useful

Melksham - Solid defensive game

Hannan - Battled but beaten

Vince - Needed to lead

T.McDonald - Great defensive form

O.McDonald - Tired by end

Weideman - Needs a rest

Hunt - Exciting but erratic

Neal-Bullen - Having great 2017

Garlett - Solid and pressuring

Smith - Great first half

Jetta - Mr Super Reliable

Harmes - Was almost damaging 

That's pretty accurate! Although I reckon Tyson was more of went missing

I can't recall too many games where a player is virtually unsighted and you start to look at the team sheets to check if they are actually playing. Sam Weiderman had one of those today. Needs to go back to Casey for a bit.

Elephant 1 - he's definitely out of form, but I think he held Dangerfield quite well early on. Faded in last qtr.

Elephant 2 - Watts did play well and I think everyone has forgotten the preseason circus. Would have loved him full time in the forward line today.

1 minute ago, dino rover said:

Bernie - time to move him on

Oscar - give me frost any day 

Frustrating lack of composure trac watts jones anb kent thanks

Bernie's tackle on Hawkins was huge though.

6 minutes ago, DemonOX said:

IMO the only negative of the night was goal kicking. 

Spencer time to step up and show us what u got. 

 

Yep. Spencer better dominate. He's got Sandilands up first. He's been asking for his opportunity and now he has it.

Upon reflection, it honestly didn't matter that Gawn went down. We were still winning the clearances at 3qtr time. Missing 20 shots on goal did. When you put that much effort to control the game with all that defensive pressure, you have to nail the goals. Instead we just blew it. Extremely disappointing, because a win like that with our backs against the walls would have been season defining. Instead we fluffed simple set shots. 

6 - Jones. Just so inspiring.

5 - Hunt. Dashing off half back really set us up in first 3qtrs

4 - Watts. Was BoG at half time and was serviceable in the ruck. Got tired in last qtr.

3 - Kent. He missed some sitters but he was very dangerous after qtr time.

2.Stretch. Didn't do much wrong and his contested work was very good.

1.AnB. Despite that shocking backwards kick I thought he tried his guts out.

Smith is a great story. But geez, if goody had a crystal ball he would've played Spencer or Pederson today to take the ruck duties. Had no forward line after half time. Watts efforts were admirable, probably BoG at half time but faded due to fatigue.

Shattering loss. Really thought we deserved to win that. Curse those damn set shots.

I'm worried about Viney. Seems to second guess himself these days.

11 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Dean kent is back, you beauty,  Still underrated by most,  hard as nails, fast, raking left foot kick, coming off a breakout 25 goal season.

Always found him a bit selfish around goals though. Let's hope he's worked on that shortcoming over the summer. 

43 minutes ago, dieter said:

What no-one has mentioned so far is the amount of shoving and body punching Rowe inflicted on Hogan before Hogan finally snapped one back. Hogan cops a lot of physical abuse with absolutely no protection or sympathy from umpire. Rowe is a dwarf sniper who got his comeuppance. If I had been Hogan I would have thumped him a lot earlier. 

Yep, gave Brayshaw a cut eye (although later) and punched Watts in the back of the head too. Rowe does it every week. 

1 hour ago, chook fowler said:

If Weed and Watts have to play key forward all game, Gawn will have no one to relieve him in the ruck. So I guess that means either Spence or Pedo comes in.

Pretty sure Pedo won't be back-up ruck. Didn't play that role against the Hawks last year and surprisingly, Roos (and now Goodwin) think Watts is pretty competent at it. 

I'm actually opting for Spencer on this. Geelong has a big issue with their Rucks. Spencer and Gawn tower over Stanley and Blicavs by >10cm. Secondly, Geelong doesn't have a tall enough defender when either Gawn/Spencer drift forward.

Bigger worry could be our defence. Menzel is a hard match-up and in pretty good form. Melksham will have his work cut out for him and could be a defining game for him if he has to play accountable.