Bay Riffin

Not sure why everyone is defending Hunt. He’s been good playing back this year but he simply had a very poor game. His awareness was awful. He’s been good but let’s call it correctly, it was a balls up when we had control in the last quarter.

Yep Petty was poor today, not clean too many mistakes. Reads it very well but caused dangerous turnovers too often. Hunt could not have played worse in the last quarter. Have no idea what he was thinking.

I'd like clarity on that. If you are coming from the same direction as the payer with the ball, how do you man the mark ? is he meant to just leave the area ? Im unsure what the rule is. If he can man the mark then I thought it was harsh.

disagree, forward running teams like Essendon play into our hands. They can play on at their own peril. Pies were extremely patient against us, which is not Essendons MO.

Hes developing nicely, but curious to write this after his worst game for the year. He was beaten badly against the pies.

so out of 2 teams we had half the bottom 15 players. thats hardly a damning stat.

Agree. We bring the pressure, and we can beat anyone. I think we prefer Marvel as you can close them down more easily. put Harmes or Brayshaw on Macrae but just go head to head otherwise. Our rucks are stronger and our defensive pressure can be elite, better than Richmonds who beat them a month ago. Its going to be a great contest. Hopefully our tall forwards can click together, which we cant seem to do yet.

Expecting perfection in our highest pressured game all year CHECK

Our best forward and highest goal kicker who had one quiet game last week ? I think he’d have to have quite a few crap games to be dropped.

we have to make these home games a couldron, and make it very difficult to beat us. If May can curtail McKay who is the in form forward of the comp then we should win comfortably. If he doesn't, well we will still probably win.

This. There was a play where they were closing in on us and Jackson handballed to max then came back to Jackson then out of danger. Remarkably good by two ruckmen.

We are in a stronger position than Carlton, who still have many holes in their list. I think a few high draft picks like Dow , petrovski seton and the GWS rejects arent going to improve them enough to be a contender. And if they miss finals Cripps is likely to leave.

In the last 3 weeks he’s played in a more defensive style then he used to. And now chooses when to run. He seem calmer and if you watch him, when teammates run off he isn’t in such a big rush to join them. But instead takes a defensive position for the turnover. he used to be all duck no dinner but now his closing speed is critical to stopping fast opponents. I didn’t think he had it in him to try as a backman again but so far so good.

Im not sure why people feared them at Marvel more than the 'G. I think it would have been a different proposition of playing keepings off at the 'G. Our style is suited to Marvel and we've played well there for years now.

grest point. I watched Petracca at the centre bounce and he often moved away from the contest into a dangerous position if he couldn't immediately impact the contest. good positioning but im surprised that wasn't coached our midfielders many years ago.

Exceptional performance tonight. I was more impressed in the first half as i knew they would tire later in the game from last week. This was where the heat was on and their fresh much heralded mosquito fleet would take hold. But I thought we beat them in the first quarter as they got two goals from dubious umpiring decisions. We should have been further in front. But the second quarter impressed me the most because of the degree of difficulty involved. We looked out on our legs, kicking to an unmanned forward line twice as the saints got a real sniff and went for the kill. This is where we almost always fall down and as supporters we too often bemoan our lack of leadership. But we quickly corrected this time, didn't commit too many to 'saving' the game and when we went forward we had experienced players in TMac, ANB and Jones in good position. This created 3 goals which got us back the lead. I don't think we can underestimate how much effect that has on the opposition, to lose all their momentum by half time. Where I can see improvement: Thomlinson. He was terrible one on one at GWS and is becoming very reliable down back both in marking contests and as a free man. A reliable kick and good decision maker. He has developed under goodwin. Pickett - First half was exceptional hitting the scoreboard and defensive pressure was elite. he's exactly what we need. Tmac - Not sure hes quite back but hes defintely improved and so vital for us as a team. With Jackson off his game he was critical to us holding our structure. Jordan and Sparrow - Ill have to watch again but they are doing sacrificial roles and probably a big reason we won the contest for all but half a quarter tonight. special note to Salem, he's been good in previous years but thats the best game I've seen him play, almost perfectly clean and thought he was BOG. Negative - yes we have negatives but these threads are 90% negative even after a win, so Im sure that will be discussed in depth.

Viney is short of a gallop. He was excellent early, in fact led the charge with two first quarter goals. You can see he was struggling in the second half, which is a positive for us. but excellent early and very sharp.

exactly. saw him line up for goal in the last and his stats were 3 disposals. I couldn't believe it. he was critical but often we paving the way for his teammates. excellent team game

last year the disposal stats were very even, but they won the inside 50s 46-30. and centre clearances 11-2. Goes to show how well May played (he killed King) and Petracca was our danger forward with 4 goals out of 8. I see two pretty even sides but they have the running small fleet of players. Where we may have an advantage is contested ball and greater pressure on the smaller marvel stadium. I expect the saints to win but in a close game. we will need our speedsters in Hunt and Pickett to play well I believe.

Nice summary. Agree with most of that. I watched the replay as well and Brayshaw. executed the nest passes of the day into the forward 50. Doing exactly what we hoped for. Our forward connection improved (Jordan helped as well, his kick to Petracca in the first for a goal was sublime), but our kicking for goal was particularly poor. not sure on hunt, yes his pace helped defensively but he was poor in his attacking positioning and fumbled a bit too much. I just don’t think he’s a backman. jones on the wing is one of the mysteries of the world. And I don’t rate Goodwin when he does that. I’d rather develop a baker there. Overall it was promising as I though we didn’t gel in the middle but that can quickly come and Viney is not far away. It’s just whether TMAC can keep producing. The opposition hold him and it could be hand over.

I swear people rate Oliver on his past not what he actually did on the day. They pushed us inside as Fyffe said so he needEd to handball a lot. But he executed very well releasing players. His kicking was also quite good with some great passes. He hit targets all day. Still people will see a mistake or two and say there you go like always !!

Yes and he did it on the run which is not easy. the Wiz and Yze could execute the banana quite well.

Oscar plays a quarter of good footy and we panic we’ve made a bad decision on him. Good luck to him but I’ve never been more sure he was not worth continuing with. let’s see how he goes over full games over a full season.

absolutely. Ruck taps can mean very little especially if you are winning most of them, as the opposition start reading Max's taps. Or they play defensively on our mids then it becomes a rugby stoppage type grind.

Let’s see how we go with kozzie back in with McDonald and Jackson playing deeper.