stevethemanjordan

Quick, who did he barrack for as kid?

Or Hibberd. Seriously, why does Hibberd not take every kick. He should be personally taking the ball off Vince to take the kick.

As has been asked before, what on earth do Hawthorn have to offer Adelaide?

Haha. Couldn't be bothered or worried what you might find? Regardless, you and your merrymen can continue to put words in my mouth. I've never used the word dud in regards to Oscar. I point out his glaringly obvious weaknesses because I want to see better for our club and I get frustrated that he is playing partly due to circumstance. Part of the frustration is directed at the FD for not recruiting anyone last year to give Oscar more time at VFL level. People choose to believe it's not an issue but I think it's plainly obvious we've struggled all year in that area. Unlike you and others I refuse to put blind faith into every decision the club makes, including weekly selections and list management decisions. I'm not so easily pleased like you with all of our young players and I'm happy to voice my opinion about it.

Would be ideal.

Sydney in Sydney it'll be. No greater test than playing the Swans away in a final. Will truly see which players will stand-up.

Interesting you say that yet you remain so confident Oscar will develop into a great key defender.... Oscar is the least mobile and slowest key defender we have. Hardly conducive to a zone defence.

Here's a highlights package from last year (his second year): In this video he makes spoils and marks against players including Brown (North), Bruce, Mason Wood (destroyed us), Lobbe and takes one between Dangerfield and Hawkins. Who the fark do we have that can do this apart from T-Mac at his best which isn't that often these days? This bloke was performing these acts in his second year! His second year! Look at the bloke's strengths. He has a highlights package like that in his second year. We have no key defender that even comes close to being able to perform in all the areas he does. He possesses midfielder attributes as well as sound key defensive ones. He is so unbelievably rare it's offensive some of our own supporters don't appreciate players like Lever enough. The 'who's going to mind player X' talk is generally a furphy. Yeh there are always preferable matchups, but there are so many other variables that come into play. If you look at all the best teams, their entire unit works in tandem to mitigate an opposition attack but obviously the better, more talented and more versatile your key defenders are, the better chance you're going to have at stopping a key forward. If we land him, it'll be a godsend. Bribanes two young defenders even showed how good they're going to be in few years time. They have similarly well-rounded games with only a few weaknesses. Melbourne supporters overate Oscar and Frost enormously.

Bring him home boys. 2020 leadership group of: Viney, Lever, Petracca, Brayshaw, Gawn and Hogan. Best in the business.

We should grab a beer sometime.

All fair points but your last paragraph is where I'd disagree. The overuse of the footy is something we're renown for and it comes from having one, two or sometimes several unnecessary handballs at a stoppage/reset in play. The fact we are number one for disposals in the league yet have a poor disposal efficiency validates this point. Hanballing is indeed necessary if there's nothing on down the line. But the idea is to work your way out of traffic with well executed handballs to players who are ideally in free space and are therefore able to spot up free targets. But to execute these types of plays cleanly more often than not requires players with a certain skill set/specific attributes. We struggle enough when there is a little bit of pressure, but when it's really hot in the contest like it was against GWS and Sydney, we simply fall to water. Jones, Lewis and Oliver are generally our most consistent players when it comes to being super clean, making great decisions and executing a handbal well in really hot situations. But that's not nearly enough. Our midfield group are really good at cracking in. But generally speaking, we don't possess the touch, decision making and skill to move the ball fluently through that part of the ground often enough. And in my eyes, we need to make a correction over the off-season to our midfield profile. Nuffies on this site think I knock Tyson because I get a kick out of it, when really I am dying for this club to be great again. Tyson is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. He came to our club when we were crying out for some mids that could compete at the coal face and it was absolutely the right move in bringing him to the club at the time. But quite obviously, our list has improved, our talent has improved and he has been overtaken by players who are better and offer more. So what's happened? He has now been given more of an outside role, (regularly plays wing and his uncontested numbers are well up) yet his weaknesses as a player are everything an outside player needs to be good at! Two-way running, footskills, handballing, versatility etc. Tyson is essentially an inside mid playing an outside role and this is really problematic imo. I understand Goodwin and co can't fix all areas over one season and I'm sure posters point out to me that he's been playing every week. But my concern still stands. Tyson would be a perfect backup for an injured first choice inside mid. But the position he now plays needs to be in the hands of a player who is suited to that position. Long-winded post. Basically we need more balance in our midfield to address the overuse problem. Tyson is an example of this.

I'll hold my breath for next week's performance but at the moment we're not playing with any real conviction. The way Brisbane moved the ball with such ease at times against us was pretty concerning imo. For a backline that plays zone defence, we get caught out of position way too easily. We may scrape through but it's looking like we're going to play Sydney up there. And that looks like a nightmare unless we come out next week playing finals type footy. We need some sort of momentum.

So for the first half one could say Gawn almost lost us the game?

Demonland is where I vent.. In between posts I'm dancing the salsa whilst wearing a poncho and a sombrero. A poncho/sombrero combo. It's a jamboree at my house. Up the dees. (Lift Oscar)

The perfect tonic before finals. Onya Jess.

What are you talking about? I was pointing out his disposal efficiency. That was what you were highlighting earlier today. I provided his uncontested count to back up my point about his ball use. Half of his possessions were uncontested and yet he still only went at 59% efficiency. That's hideous! There's no confirmation bias. Tyson's 27 possession game was of no significance, it was fluff. I simply highlighted why. You've listed the fact that he won 14 contested possessions as though it's some sort of feat? This is the AFL, not the little league.

Absolutely. I'd have Viney in for him too. Salem for Wagner. Watts for Stretch. We need better ball users in our side and Salem and Watts provide that.

@bing181 Tyson - 27 possessions @ 59% efficiency. 19 of his disposals were handballs and half his possessions uncontested. 3 tackles, 0 score involvements and 0 assists. Seriously. There's nowhere to hide man.

He'd only be a 50/50 chance of connecting properly though.

Contradiction.

Case in point: Oscar spoil goes over the back and straight to a Brisbane player. He rarely spoils with conviction and I hardly see him get a full fist on it at all.

I said the second contest you twit. The bump on Clay Beams. He elects to bump. He could have just kept his eye on the ball and impacted. He regularly takes his eye off it and chooses to hit the body.

Hibberd is a freak. I love him so much. I reckon vince will get offered a week for the second collision with Clay Beams. He elected to bump and was looking straight at Beams. Bernie has to be one of the dumber players I've seen at his age. He never directs his aggression at the ball. He goes the man nearly every time and it's becoming seriously tiresome.

Umpires are fine, the 50's have been there. We need to be smarter.

Jeez Tyson is good with ball in hand.