stevethemanjordan

I suggested that the scaredy-cat view taken by many supporters on here was a weak and pathetic one, there's no need to take it as a personal attack. And strangely enough, I don't feel anything close to a goose. Our loss in my eyes had nothing to do with our JLT 'form'. Our loss had nothing to do with you or me. Our loss came from a number of problem areas, the selection table and a bunch of individuals not playing to a consistently high level for long enough.

How about that Oscar and Frost though. Wowwwwzeee. (can't be bothered going into actual analysis of the game).

Yeh for all the good work they've done, that sure was a howler of a mistake Vs Brisbane at Casey. A) Going in with a smaller squad. (Risk) B) Keeping an injured player out there when there was absolutely no need. (Mind boggling).

When teams match us at "our" game, (winning ball at the coalface) then we generally struggle. See Brissy in JLT, West Coast Prelim, Collingwood Queen's bday last year etc. We were able to come back against Hawthorn after half time of the semi because of our talent. They were also missing Jaeger. I just want to see us evolve so that if teams do match it with us in the middle of the ground, we have some other ways of winning. The game requires that. And I'm not sure you can put Jones in the same category as those others you've mentioned. Last year was the first year I saw him drop off a little with his ball use. Years gone by he has been a really smart kick which was almost always kicked to the advantage of a leading forward.

Yep. Demonland is a place of extremism. If you give criticism, you must be a hater. Kicking to the advantage of a forward is obviously very different to a lace out pass, which is different to kicking to a contest, which is again different to kicking to a contest to the advantage of an opposition player. And there are in between kicks in all of that too. With or without pressure, our players need to be smarter with ball in hand. Jones made the change after a couple of years in the system and Brayshaw needs to follow suit along with a few others.

The same can be said for many of our players who drop off significantly in any area of their games. ANB is another perfect example. I'm completely aware of the role he plays within our team. He is a high pressure and gut running half forward who creates an outnumber at contests. But when his skills are as down as they were for both JLT games, he is rendered useless imo because he is giving the ball back to opposition. Too many were down in certain aspects of their games against Brissy which is why they got us in the end. Whether it's Oscar not being able to halve enough contests, ANB being way down with his skills, Gus and Petracca not being damaging enough with their ball use, it all adds up. During this flag window (next 3-5 years) we need to find individual consistency in game day performance so that if players like Oliver, Viney, Gawn, T-Mac or Jetta have down days, we have others playing high level footy that ultimately get us over the line in games. All the great teams of previous years have had this. We're still young and there's still a lot of growth left.

It's a bit of both sometimes but generally I'd say it's more to do with the quality of ball coming in to our key forwards. It's a concern I have for this season and have always had. Game-style wise, we're fairly one dimensional. We rely on grunt and contested ball winning and have recruited players who fit that mould. Unfortunately it has resulted in players who are not so strong with their ball-use. Brayshaw is the perfect example, if you go back and watch the Brisbane game you'll see that most of his forward entries were actually more advantageous to the opposition backmen and the same went for the Richmond game. A prolific ball winner, but generally he kicks to bad spots or misjudges his kick when going long which made it very difficult for Tom and Sam to play to their strengths in the JLT. I'll have no concerns with the amount of ball we'll win in the midfield against Port on the weekend, but it's going to get quite annoying if we see no improvement in connection from mid to forward from players like Petracca, Brayshaw, ANB etc. As great as it is that Gus is back playing his natural position and winning ball, he is not hurting opposition with his ball movement on most occasions and I'd like to see that change.

❤️

ozbargains, greatest website in the world.

Agree. The result of wanting to get a specific amount of game time into a smaller number of players. A risk that shouldn't have been taken and we're lucky one of our more important players wasn't injured.

Extremely unlucky and unfortunate incident but he won't get off. Already having nightmares of Frost and O-Mac lining up for us round 1.

Hogan may never reach his potential, you're right. But that'll have nothing to do with a 'laziness' or 'arrogance' as you suggested in your sentence below. "While I wish Hogan all the best and still think he will be an okay footballer, he screams of Watts and Sylvia 2.0. All young players oozing with talent (and taken at high picks) who drank their own cool aid before putting in the hard yards to become the champions they all had the potential to become. " No, it doesn't go without saying. It's at the very centre of this debate. Ones perspective on life changes dramatically after experiencing the death of a parent at the age of 22. I can't begin to explain how much you're underestimating that.

I agree with the premise of your post. May will be huge for us and is much more of a need going into next year in comparison to Jesse. However, I question a few points you've made. To compare Hogan to Watts and Sylvia is completely ridiculous given what Jesse achieved in his first year at AFL level and the fact that he came back to pre-season at our club in unbelievable condition on multiple occasions and was one of our strongest runners. Even this year, his start to the year was unbelievable and he was considered by many as being in AA form. Sylvia and Watts never came close to impacting games the way Jesse has. This is without mentioning the fact that Hogan missed a year with a back injury, lost his father at the age of 22 and was diagnosed with Cancer in the same year. Is it really a surprise that some of his behaviour has been a little erratic during the off-season? Should we make mention of the fact that Gawn used to smoke on the way to training, vomited on Tom Scully due to intoxication and [censored] about for a number of years before the penny dropped? Or that Harmes has publicly admitted that up until the 2018 pre-season, he was never in the condition he needed to be in? Or maybe that Jetta needed a wake-up call by being delisted and given a rookie lifeline to seize his opportunity and put the required work in? Hogan has experienced events that some of us don't experience until we're well into adulthood. He is 23 years old, think about that for minute.

None of that has any relevance to what you were pulled up on. That being; what it is that determines an 'interrupted pre-season'. I don't need to go and ask coaches at training to know that.

Still trying to make up for believing Salem was an ectomorph early days...

@Satyriconhome As someone who has grown up playing and watching this game from a young age, it is a plain ol' fact that if you miss any component of a pre-season training, it is deemed an interrupted one. The word 'fitness' is a broad one and you're referring strictly to a single component known as cardiovascular endurance. Off-seasons (aka pre-pre-seasons) and pre-seasons are the only times of the year in which a player can improve and make gains in every component of fitness required to play the game. These components consist not only of aerobic and anaerobic fitness but also components such as muscular strength and power, coordination, flexibility, agility and more. We have players who have had surgery on shoulders, knees, feet and more. All of which means they'll be restricted in what they can do. Harmes and Oliver as an example will be well behind in upper body strength and power and will not be able to make the same gains and improvements had they not had surgery. Thus, an interruption in their programs. Viney and Petracca with foot and and knee surgery have similarly not had the same head start in their running as those who have not had surgery. Thus, an interruption. It remains to be seen whether or not the number of players we have in rehab/missing parts of the program will have an impact come the start of the season. Whilst I agree that the majority are at least able to do most of the running part of pre-season, you've cast a blind eye over pretty much every other component of fitness which at this level, are all extremely important given how competitive the game is.

The only positive out of our lengthy rehab group is that 90% are able to run unhindered, which is clearly the most important part of pre-season. I think that's what the bearded man means when he says their pre-seasons are 'not interrupted'. Even if by definition of the word, they are.

Amazing. You've just defined the term 'interrupted pre-season'.

*facepalms*

Our backline has gone from a shambles three to four years ago to now being a strength. We've added Hibberd, Lewis, Lever and now May. It's unbelievable. Not in my time once as a supporter have felt confident in our back six as an entire unit. And now I will be. To my ears, it sounds as if many posters who have questioned the May trade haven't actually watched him play, or nearly enough of him. Let me elaborate. In May, we're getting pretty much exactly what Frost offered us in terms of speed and offensive play from our back-half. However, unlike Frost, May is an exceptional one-on-one defender and intercept player, he has elite foot-skills for a key defender, he is super smart and composed with ball in hand and he plays with a similar intensity to Viney both at the ball and man. He is similar to Rance in that he has the closing speed and awareness to leave his opponent and halve contests that otherwise would be pencilled in as a win for opposition sides. That trait is extremely special. He is a leader and former captain. His aggression and presence are going to change the entire look and feel of our defence. During the year, I am certain that opposition key forwards would have been strolling into our backline, seeing Oscar and Frost as our key defenders and thinking they'd have a day-out. Franklin, Riewoldt, Kennedy, Hawkins. All of them would have licked their lips. May's addition in that sense is enormous. Opposition sides know that May is aggressive and plays to hurt, and that advantage is significant. Opposition forwards second guessing at contests is exactly what you want as a defender. I can't remember ever having that in our backline save maybe for Jetta on smaller forwards, but never key forwards. They've always had something laugh at. Posters really do underestimate what he's going to provide and the onflow effect he'll have. His arrival is as big as any imo.

The 'mighty' dees eh eh eh?!

Don't ever post here again. Kind regards, Steve.

There's no doubt May would have taken notice of the way we play footy and part of the attraction in coming to us would be to play alongside some the other tough and uncompromising types we have on our list. Anyone watching us against Geelong and the way our youngsters made Selwood, Ablett and Dangerfield earn every touch would have been impressed. None of our young guys back away from heat. May and Pruess will not only make us walk even taller, but they'll walk taller themselves. We now have the toughest side in the comp. Of that I'm sure and oppo sides won't like it.

I love Simon Goodwin.

Well I beg your pardon Binman, you're in the minority. Part of me feels sad about losing Jess. But I'm super excited about landing May, KK and grabbing a pick in the 20's. May will be absolutely enormous for us. His value goes beyond game-day ability. Opposition sides would never have once felt 'scared' about walking into a back six that contained Oscar and Frost. That will change now.