ArtificialWisdom

I think it was the game plan. But Only when under the pump slow, it down clog it up and make it hard for them to score when we don't have momentum. We only did it alot in the 2nd qtr when we were under siege. I know Townsend helped us by missing the unmissable but other than that we did well to stall their scoring in that qtr 3 goals to 1 is much better than the last qtr when we tried to attack without momentum and got ripped to shreds.

I have a friend on the inside . It's circulated at AFL house each week so the staff all know what's going on

If anyone is interested in any other games

I guess this means royal blue

That might be a bit rhetorical but I have a seemingly stupid yet obvious solution... Kick Goals!! These streaks continue to be a an issue for our back half, yes. But just as big issue right now is Infront of goal. ANB, Melksham, Oliver, pettracca, harmes, Bugg have all spent large minutes in any given game in the forward line for just 18 goals this season between all of them them. God help us that of them, only Bugg averaging more than 1 in a game. We can put on all the pressure in the world but without the rewards on the scoreboard the players don't get that adrenaline rush to help them keep going. You continue to waste chances like we did in the 1st and 3rd qtrs and it gets harder and harder to keep up the pressure you get more tired more flat from wasted energy until eventually there's a missed tackle and then the opposition is out the back and all momentum lost. Our forward half defensive structure is really good but without reward it is pointless. We can't continue to play so many 'forwards' who don't impact the scoreboard. This year Melksham and Harmes have both been goalless 4 times, Oliver and Pettracca 3 each Bugg, ANB and Fritsch all twice. Time in the middle impacts Oliver and Pettracca obviously, but they should be averaging 1 each a game surely, not 1 between them. Particularly if they are going to be the rotating threats we want.. Right now there's no threat to the opposition playing then forward Hannan might be a bit polarising but the reality is he hits the scoreboard every week. Even when he plays poorly he tends to be good for at least a goal and is just about our only forward that can score in heavy congestion. Exactly the type of forward we need with our undeniable ability to get repeat entries. He certainly is not going to solve all our problems but it's a pretty good start.

I'd love to be flat track bullies... problem is we are just as likely to lose to Carlton as we are to Richmond...

Our biggest asset is our biggest weakness.. We have so many B grade players we cant fit them all in the side where as other teams need to play C graders or worse. B graders are great, they can perform well on any day but they cant be relied on to win you games. We just don't have enough A graders that perform week in, week out. Gawn, Hogan and Oliver cant just do it all alone. And our other A grader, Viney is weeks away even if he doesn't have another setback. Hibbard and Lever both should be close to if no at A grade level but are so far off their best. Until we get more players that are reliable Goody is stuck with the impossible job of predicting which 18 B/C graders will perform on a particular week. If you assume Tyson returns from illness, you could mount a case for any of Hannan, Stretch, Pedo, Weid, Hunt, Maynard, Balic, Smith x2 coming in and playing well. But it's anyone's guess who.

I'm not sure what Christian as gotten wrong... He explains every decision, and it seems a bit hypocritical to suggest that the "low impact" that got Rance and Sandy off is crap yet nobody has mentioned the low impact that means Frosty got off with a fine just cos he is in our colours. He definitely isn't the "big name" that people say you need to be to get off. Wasn't it just last year that people were complaining about these soft decisions costing people weeks? Salem was also lucky not to be sighted for bumping an injured player and as mentioned above it looked like Jetta bumped Brown high but seems to have gotten away with that altogether... Any of them would have been soft suspensions but Christian seems to be working much better at keeping players on the park unless they actually deserve weeks. The umpiring however... well I'll just say that the holding the man payed on Kent for breathing near the Roos player that robbed Fritsch of a goal has to be the worst decision of the decade.

I hope so, because if it's a tight game against the cats, no doubt an experienced team like them will start pushing the buttons of the Vince's, Viney's and such who wont back down and then the remainder will want to fly the flag. Heads will need to be in the game from start to finish to give us any chance.

Is he capable of going head to head with Selwood? Just tell him to stand next to Joel and then win the ball. See how he goes. Those games were great for Viney's development. He thrives on responsibility so why not give it to him?

Im not so sure. We were massivly outnumbered around that stoppage and with watts in the ruck and it took that bit of brilliance and desire from Oliver to set up that goal. I would suspect that goodwin might look at that in the review and say great effort from Watts, Oliver and Jones but where was everyone else? We are meant to be controling clearances with numbers at the ball arnt we? Maybe they are happy to have more on the outside in a forward 50 stoppage scenario but if Hickey had won the hitout as he probably should have, they would have had an uncontested rebound 50. Im not trying to be negative because it was a great sequence but at the same time I would like them to just ask the question of each other, we cant hope to have that work against the best sides.

haha it's not as bad as that "3rd man up" with Vickery and Hartung. Such a stupid way to implement the rule.

Watch the lead up to ANB's goal in the last and tell me how Max lost that ruck contest to Ross. Happens to the best of them

We are also havent beaten them during a solar eclipse

Last year we were 9th after beating the giants and never got higher. The year before we were in the 8 after beating the Suns but fell straight out.

I still have my eyes on the Giants, even if they are a few steps ahead of us. They took all the best young players when we needed them most. I'd love to reach our peak and start to push their AFL gifted talent vs our hard earned talent. But right now it will have to be the saints, they are the comparison so the rivalry is kinda being forced upon us.

haha yeah i know nobody really tags anymore but i was just trying to point out that for everyone who gets the hypothetical tag we have a couple that can step up. As for the A graders I think we need about 3 more. We have a whole heap of B grade young mids who are still a long way off being A grade. Maybe Viney is close to being there now. The rest are probably a couple of years off being A grader midfielders (yes, even Oliver despite all the potential he is showing) and none of them are A+ superstars . Hopefully we can get 2 or 3 to grow near the top with Viney but I'm yet to be convinced any will actually be A+.

No rose for Oliver at all but there might be some here who look at parish through some pretty crappy coloured glasses. Theres every chance he will end up being a better player than Oliver. However I believe that Oliver will be so good that even if Parish is "better" we will be happy given those around him. I'd rather have 3 top 10 players than the number 1 player in the comp* *yes i know parish may never be the number 1 player in the comp but you get my point

2? please, we could have 4. Oliver, Viney, Salem and Tyson could all one day demand the tag. Even if the tagger doesnt really exist anymore.

Bomber Thompson: "We need to find out what actually happened not just believe whats in the report" Paul Little: "Theres no time for that" [censored] with a chairman with an attitude like that i have no idea why they had any issues.

Tyson is underrated by many around here. Kelly has some qualities we need and Bontempelli is a freak but Tyson is still among the best we have and still has improvement left in him. I expect if he gets himself right after this knee issue he will be way up near the top of the B&F again.

2 days ago I would have agreed with you but I think now the Hibbard and Lewis deals are in, unless we can get an overwhelimgly good deal we should secure all our picks next year leaving us in a strong position to draft or trade next year with a full list of 2017 and 18 draft picks

If we keep pick 29 I'd like to see us use it on a kid with a massive tank who can play on a wing (we still only have stretch). I'd suffer the ruck/fwd deficency for 2017 and then look to trade one in next year as we aim for the 2018 top 4. If we pick a kid fwd/ruck he might take 3-5 years to be AFL ready

Possibly, it might help but who? Tis is the order as it sits around us. 27. Richmond 28. Collingwood 29. Melbourne 30. Port Adelaide 31. GWS Richmond, Collingwood and Port all have no intention of drading away from this years draft if anything they want to trade up the draft and the new pick count rules messes with our chances to trade with the Giants for points

Oh its very clearly a fair deal as an isolated player for pick. But as a whole our trade period would look much better with Hibberd, Lewis, 29 and 57 than with Hibberd, Lewis and 57. But when push comes to shove an established player is better than a 29 lottery ticket. With over 24 hours left I would say we still have time to negotiate