stevethemanjordan

It's been that way since the start of 2018. 'We just' makes it sound simple. It's a worrying trend and I can't see any positive change in any part of our game post the prelim final as of yet.

Scott has swallowed his pride and reinvented Geelong's forward-line. They're now a very dangerous outfit. Let's hope Goodwin possesses the same level of maturity and realises certain cattle he is playing just simply don't cut it.

Anyone that believes ANB playing half-forward long-term is crazy. I've hated him playing there since day one just like I hated Tyson on a wing. He simply does not offer anywhere close to what is required for the modern-day half forward.

Strongly disagree. That's what our winning formula is based on. Repeat entries and beating teams in the contest. A "forward-half" game. We lost the game by 80 points but won clearances and inside 50's convincingly. Please tell me how that is not a massive fail and break-down of individual play along the way? We are not learning a game-plan anymore mate.

I'll weigh in with some things that baffle me. ANB had 8 possessions at 44% efficiency last night. Came out of the draft as an inside mid who was known for throwing it on the boot. Tom Sparrow is an inside mid whose weakness is his ball use and is playing his second game. Both of those guys were our half-forwards. Compare to Geelong's half-forwards. Miers, Rohan and Dalhaus. Dynamic and skillful players who are true forwards. That's one example of where Goodwin is failing. Backline - Why would he bring Steven May in to play a Jake Lever role? He is a one-on-one specialist and should have been on Hawkins from start to finish. How many times do Melbourne defenders fly for the same spoil? At one time, I saw four in the air with some leaving their opponents on the ground to pick-up loose ball. How long are we going to continue leaking such easy goals? Why do they all try to be superman and then look at each other in such a confused way when the ball bobbles only to result in a goal? Goodwin needs to change our defensive system, that is one thing I'm sure of. This rotating on players, guarding of space carp is becoming ridiculous. We continue to leak goals and cannot seem to stop runs of goals. We're far too aggressive as a backline. Mids - We've drafted for contested players. Naturally, they gravitate to the contest and this is a massive issue for when we try and win the ball but don't. It means all of our mids are in the same small area and oppo teams will just hand-ball out of traffic to a man in space. We see ball, get ball and bang ball forward without a care. This system will not always work and is not always necessary when there's space and time to look to where the best option is. I am so so sick of seeing players kick as quickly as possible forward without a care. There must be a change to this. West Coast and now the first two rounds. Signs are not good.

17.54 second quarter of the Port game. Have a look at Oscar's spoiling attempt. Actually unbelievable that he does that on an all too often basis.

Named back pocket? I genuinely have no idea where he's been playing at Casey or what kind of attributes he has to offer the side. Anyone other than the bearded-one care to shed some light?

We're an extremely inconsistent example of a zone defence. I've always hated it. May and Lever in the same side will change that somewhat though.

Forums are for questioning selection decisions and I question our selections for this round. Geelong are a different side with much better pressure in their forward half this year with Rohan, Dalhaus, Miers and Atkins. I'd have dropped one of Oscar or Frost but I'll say O-Mac due to match-ups. Frost (athletically speaking) is far better suited to Ratatouille and May obviously goes to Hawkins. I'd have given Preuss a gig to bring more physicality to the contest, a break for Max and the flexibility and threat it would allow us positionally speaking. Max would be able to sit back in the hole or go forward to create headaches for Geelong. If posters are correct in thinking that Frost will be rucking to give Max a break, I fear for Oscar playing on Rata who could run rings around him given his attributes. Their small forward-line concerns me also if we have three talls in defence. The only way I see us getting a result is if we get back to bullying the oppo at the contest and clean up our forward entries. We need to be efficient if we're any shot. Can't see it happening but I hope we're on.

It's your weakness.

We can still be friends.

Wiseblood, Wiseblood, Wiseblood.... That makes absolutely no sense. If he were pushed out because of what you stated, it would most certainly be a knock on him. It would ultimately mean that he doesn't provide us anything that we don't already have. (I believe that he is already at that stage and our recruiting of both May and Lever is evidence of that, regardless of the fact that he keeps playing). Oscar should never have been our number one or two key defender. I have called him and the club out for years about this and hopefully by mid year we will either see him playing a role that suits his play style or he'll be out of the team. Physically, it looks like he's barely changed since year one. Am I wrong? He is slow, his reactions are slow, he lacks intensity and his defensive play is incredibly inconsistent. His only hope is to play a really defined and minimal role as a third tall defender. Play lock down on the third best or slowest oppo tall forward and make sure he gets a fist on the ball. This will allow May and Lever to do what they do best which is both intercept and kill contests. It means players like 180 cm tall Neville Jetta and medium defenders like Hibbo won't feel as if they need to fly up for a contest in the fear that Oscar or Frost are going to miss-judge a spoiling attempt etc. I mean, a scenario like that tells me everything I need to know. When you have your smalls going up because of a lack of trust in their tall defending team-mates. May and Lever need to play asap and as many games together as they can. I've conceded that we're still a year or so off because of how young we are. That's not to say we can't do damage this year. But our core are still a bit off prime years.

I was second level on the wing. Jones was in a far better position and was significantly closer to goal. Jones fluffed it. Never seen him do it in his career. Game changing moment.

Not sure what you were watching. Tom was about 60 out on no better than a 45 degree angle. He kicked it to Jones who was 40 out directly in front.

Weird thread. But I do agree that Oscar is the most overrated average key defender defender on demonland. It's a funny one with certain players. Once they get knocks, (for generally spudding it up) you tend to get this strange reverse group think where posters end up defending a player so vehemently, they end up congratulating what would normally be termed as elementary defensive play. A spoil for instance. Haha. It's actually a hilarious thing to witness. Oscar may be okay as a third tall once May and Lever are in the side. But other than his great field kicking (for a key back), he doesn't possess a single trait that excites. Athletic, agile, fast? No. Reaction time, awareness, physicality? No. Intercept player, killing contest beast? No. General elementary spoiling in a contest? Absolutely hit and miss.

I still can't understand why the group thought is that Port won due to superior speed and we were tired etc. If you watch the entire game closely, you'll see that almost all of their length of the ground runs came from mistakes or bad kicks inside our forward 50. We had so many opportunities to put the game to bed early and again we didn't. ANB. Twice. Unbelievable. Their first goal was from a brain fade from Harmes. Wasn't goal side of Boak at a stoppage from a throw-in at Ports 50. Unforgivable. It's under 15's stuff. The theme we have is that once we're ahead, it's as if we lose composure, patience and system and just expect it'll happen. They got easy goals early from our mistakes and then we just kept making them. They took advantage in the ruck around the ground when Gawn was off so once they hit even with us at the coal-face, the difference was skill execution and nothing else. Port's ability to hold the ball, draw players and then handball their way out of traffic was an enormous factor. The only other thing I was stunned by was the complete lack of intensity, aggression and physicality from our entire midfield for the whole game and absolutely no protection for Gawn. I could have sworn I heard our leaders say multiple times how much that prelim loss burnt and how it was going to spur them on all summer. And that's the level of intensity and aggression we get in round 1? Unbelievable really. How could you possibly choose to drop one or two when almost everyone should be playing at Casey this weekend?

I'm going to share a story and it doesn't bother me whether or not posters believe me. I'll start firstly by asking if anyone else noticed Jack's clear limp during the last half on Saturday. There is absolutely no way that he was moving in that manner due to fitness. Watching him shuffle from contest to contest was almost unbearable and from second level MCC it was clear as day that Jack is either playing through pain or not being entirely honest about his pain. And neither is the club. Goodwin said we came away 'unscathed' in his presser but I don't think we're being told the truth about Jack and I'm fearful that he's in a similar position to Vanders in that this will always be an issue for him. Here's my story: Two years ago I was suffering from plantar fasciitis which started over the pre-season (Same as Jack's injury). As soon as it became a constant ache and pain that wasn't going away, I got in touch with a physio from a previous club I'd been at who had just finished up working as North's physio. He suggested a relatively new non-invasive procedure that involved a needle which he said some AFL players had trialled with success as there's barely any recovery time. The more traditional surgery (the one that Jack had), is where an incision is made to cut the fascia and relieve the pain. But the recovery time is greater. However, this particular physio said that Jack's foot was in a shocking state after the surgery. Basically that it would never be the same and that he (like Vader's), will have to manage it from now on. He knew the guy who did the surgery. I realise this is probably suspected by many already but at the time I didn't want to believe it and thought I'd wait it out and see how he'd recover. But after seeing him in the flesh on Saturday, he is clearly favouring one side and had a notable limp and it can't just be a lack of fitness. I'm interested to know if anyone has heard similar.

@JV7 Nail on head. We shoot ourselves in the foot by aimlessly kicking forward too often only to find ourselves wasting energy on chasing tail back the other way. It is completely a ball movement, clean possession and disposal thing. Nothing else.

Overreaction with a lot of it. It is Round 1 after all. But I agree there are some warning signs and problems that still haven't been addressed.

Classic Demonland.

Gawn was blocked by a body check off the ball which was given a free kick and so it should have. May elected to body check and his shoulder hit a player in the head. How do you not see the difference?

I'm talking about forward 50 entries and our general 'chaos-ball' approach. I've been wanting to see much more care and thought in regards to forward 50 entries. It hasn't improved and it must if we're any chance of being a genuine threat this year. Full bore and chaotic forward thrusts can't be all we rely on. It's not sustainable. The difference between some of Port's kicks to their forwards advantage vs ours was alarming yesterday.

Yes, we know. Richmond still managed to win. Geelong beat Collingwood. Comparisons are silly at this point. The reason we lost to Port was simply down to skill level and decision making when moving the ball forward. They punished us time and time again on the counter which resulted in us doing so much unnecessary two-way running, it ultimately took its toll. It's a problem area. So are Oscar and Frost when they're the only two key defenders playing for us.

Call me the Oracle.

Would love to hear from a certain someone regarding interrupted pre-seasons. Viney and Jones clearly looked like they were prepared....