ArtificialWisdom

After that game? I thought he was pretty good. I would have said BenKen was more vaulnerable of the small forwards and even he was servicable. Bugg had a down day but his efforts over the year are probably enough to have kept him in. Vanders was ok i think his stats flater him a bit but he will probably go again. We only had 1 'bad' player and we all want him out but roosy and dawesy seem to be best buds so as much as I want him out I dont see it happening

when?? the time he was tackled before even gathering it and pinned for holding it (cheers Razor). Or all the 4 or 5 times he held it for a few extra seconds using his speed and agility to avoid tacklers and then shot out either a handball or a kick. He was one of the best and has huge upside. He and hunt are the only 2 with genuine run and carry. Unless they wish to rest them i dont want to see them out of the side ay time soon.

Maybe it can work at times, Vanders is the best mark of those 3 but he cant find form, Petracca is a gun but his height makes it difficult against a tall defender and if they bring in Brayshaw i will not be happy he should get more time in the 2s. We have a decent mosquito fleet, no doubt, but they are also pretty inconsistant. Dawes is our most consistant player right now... pitty we cant get some inconsistancy and fit in good performances among the bad.

Spencer changes our structure though. I think we can all agree Hogan is better as CHF. But when Dawes is in the team, Mr 1 dimentional can only play at CHF which means we have to put hogan deeper where he just gets double teamed and is left with little hope. Play spencer as FF where his height is enough to panic defenders and if he dosent win a free he is big enough to take a mark or bring it to ground and hopefully the support will come. He is more threat than dawes is right now. No I dont think long term he can fit in the side, but right now he changes us up a bit to put our better players in their best positions. If dawes was playing well then sure run with hogan as FF but since dawes cant get it happening then play Hogan up the ground and put Spence in there to be the big bloke who makes a contest

People on here cant continue to live in the delusion that we are going to just magicaly get another KPD in the trade period. We might have a slight chance but we have no way of knowing this, we are not a destination club yet. Hurley is just about a pipe dream he has far better options than Melbourne right now assuming he wants to leave at all. Suggestions Trading Tom robs us of all we have... I would rather have Tom give up a couple of goals a game and stop countless others than throw him to Sydney were he can help them win another flag and we can give up another 4/5 goals a game just to satisfy your bloodlust. I know people say that an intercept mark is not worth much but I cant understand why. Its a turnover. Meaning if he takes 4 intercept marks thats forcing 4 turnovers! Add his spoils and effort at ground level that result in turnovers and I can guarantee you that he causes us to gain the ball far more frequently than he gives it up. No, that doesnt excuse his poor disposal, but it does make it worth putting up with when we have no other option. If we are lucky enough to get a KPD then having that magical person and Tom will be fantastic. He has no support he makes a mistake we are done for, give him a backup and suddenly his mistakes wont be so bad.

Can you please explain why?

IN: Grimes (Oliver has a case and I wouldn't be surprised but Grimes deserves it, enough said) Spencer (Spencer can provide a contest, free Watts of the ruck, move Hogan to CHF and give infinitely more effort than dawes) OUT: Vanders (Something just not quite right, put him on ice for the week then bring back through casey make him find form) Dawes (Saw more effort from the seagulls) Wagner was only out due to injury so would expect him to return with no Casey game for him to play in. Not sure who he would replace though, Oscar struggled but we did play against the best forwardline in the AFL, a struggle was to be expected. Roos said they flinched when it came to making changes for Alice I would be very disapointed if they did it again. The 2 changes above I think are right but anything up to 4 changes shouldn't be out of the question.

We need 3 talls because Watts plays in the ruck. Whenever watts goes in the middle that leaves hogan alone and he cant do it alone. Dawes only use is that Adelaide had to stand someone next to him. I know people thing its batshit crazy to play Spencer and Gawn together but I look at our forwardline and think to myself "Is putting a 2m Spencer in at FF really going to hurt us that much?" Cant be any worse than Dawes. Nobody has ever faulted Spencer's effort and he'll provide us a reliable contest when forward so why not? Get Hogan to CHF where he becomes a real threat rather than sitting him in the square. Free watts up to stay out of the ruck (despite him being servicable there recently). Watts and Hogan are gaining chemistry every week and I would look capatalise on that.

Loved what matty jones brought early in the year, hope for him to become the next Nev Jetta, going from the cusp of delisting to being a first 22 player. He is currently doing everything to be that, good form early then injury then smashing it in the 2s to get back in quick. Garlett has to play, he is dangerous, Kent and Kennedy show glimpses but dont threaten the scoreboard in the same way. Its less likely to be bucketing down so that sould help him too.

Yes and no, you can download the chromecast app (it might be installed on androd devices at purchase i cant remember) and do a cast of the whole screen noting that any popup notifications or whatever will also be displayed on the cast, that may or may not matter to you but I usually put the phone in do not disturb mode for the game. The afl app does not support casting directly which is unfortunate. But if they made it easy nobody would pay for foxtel

Mixing it up a bit but which commentator/journo is the smallest [censored] on tv (or radio)? assuming they are all a little bit 'flogish'

You know you're improving when we are less worried about the fact of the signing and now more worried about narrowing down to the exact date and time someone signed a contract by over analysing the announcement video.

Grimes has had good VFL form but so did ANB and Newton... Assuming he plays, I hope he takes his chance because he is a ripper bloke but temper your expectations, he has been out of the side for a reason. Wagner is a gem we have found late. Good reader, good decision maker and a good kick, I wouldnt want him out of the side long.

" FOLL: Spencer Brayshaw Oliver " Thats a pretty decent midfield line up for a VFL game

I'd be frustrated too playing in that brisbane team they should be better than they play, especially with that young midfield. He likely wouldnt walk into our leadership group anyway. Either way I dont think his cost is going to be worth what he brings, yes he is very good and better than some of what we have, but he fills a role we already have an excess of. Keep tabs on him for the time being and dont give up on getting him just yet, but we should have other priorities.

Melbourne area Cloudy. Slight (30%) chance of a shower later in the day. Winds north to northwesterly 20 to 30 km/h. Could be dry but we cannot match Adelaide in a shootout. They are too good. I like our chances but not in a shootout against the most efficient scoring team in the comp. In close contested game will give us a better chance, we are nr 2 clearance team going around, we should be playing to our strengths.

Their young forward line looks the goods at the moment. We hope weid and hulett will come through but McCartin, Bruce, Membrey all starting look pretty good prospects right now. They still move the ball much better than we do, and they have alot more outside run. If you lock them inside they are easy to thrash because they are young but if they can get out they are hard to beat. We wont know turely about the saints untill their old fellas retire because they only seem to win when Riewoldt and Montagna play well (or maybe they only play well when the kids win idk) but either way i think they have more to offer than just a false dawn.

Keeping in mind a couple we played on a saturday meaning when he wasnt played he then played for casey anyway. The club cant have the same player as game day emergency too many times because it hampers their match fitness. I know he traveled to tassie for that week. I'm not sure if he has traveled any others. But I would be surprised if Jack didnt get a chance, his good form has been mentioned by Roos a couple of times. We will have a couple of loses in this tough run home so expect him to play when people inevitably get dropped.

When you have Maxy Gawn and the contested midfield we are building why would not want a stoppage? Our plan is just to win as many clearances as possible. Do that and we win more games than we lose. Nothing complicated about Roos-ball.

Jack would know when he is being named that he is unlikely to play. They pick their 22 then have that extended bench/emergencies. Every player in that 25 knows what is happening before it is officially announced. I would think jack has not once been told he would be playing. Aside from the other week he may possibly have been told 'you will play if viney doesnt get his hand right'. Currently Jack is playing better than all other VFL players going for his role so he is an emergency every week. If someone gets ill he might get his chance, and i think if he does he will his best to take it. No point removing him from the 25 only to have someone else come in for the ill player.

What about Mcgovern? he took more marks than both Lynch and Jenkins on the Thursday. Liked the look of him actually, havent seen much other than that game. He isnt quite on the level of the others week in, week out but he is playing a very good role stretching the defence making them difficult to deal with.

I'm not convinced they are happy about the change but it is more of a necessity. This will work better when executed correctly but it requires constant structual changes from zone to 1on1 which if 1 person does that too slow we are even more vaulnerable than if everyone is in the zone. Your last line on about pressure is true of any team, we have alot of slow players so we will struggle to chace anyone on the outside. Oh no doubt they are fantastic but i think Frost and Tmac are strong enough to make marking difficult. No they arnt as good players but you dont have to be a star to make a contest. If we can limit their marking and Jetta can keep Eddie in check then we have a good shot at limiting their scoring... somewhat. Its on the rebound that they will tear us appart. Turnovers will happen but they need to be contested turnovers not uncontested because they are just too good in space over the back. I dont think we will win, but we should be able to put up a very decent fight. Unfortunatly we all know what we are capable of dishing up on any given week, good and bad. Just gotta hope we are fired up after the bye, Adelaide will be.

I have been watching the diamond closely and the zone has become almost 1 on 1 for stoppages behind centre. More often than not they will have a particular man they are on when the ball is back and they have space when the ball is forward. Yes, we get caught out of position and be forced to rotate when there is quick coast to coast movement but there is more accountability for each individual defender than there was earlier in the season.

I did say we need to find another KPD, that gives us the flexability to have one of our current players never make it. Tmac has made it whether people agree or not, he is an AFL standard defender who could still get better even if he doesnt he does the job, preferably as number 2 defender but he can compete for number 1. One of Omac or Frost should be good enough to cement a role as a 3rd defender. I would be astounded if all 3 were still our keys in 3 years time but I was saying that it is possible, they all have the potential, no use trading that potential to someone else. Personally I agree that Frost is limited by skill, but his flexability without ball in hand is enough to make him worth investing in. Omac on the other hand i disagree i think he had shown far more good than bad. He is a fantastic user and just needs to bulk. He has the most upside of the 3 imo.

That outlet handball is incredible i love how he can do that in traffic incredible skill. Love everything he brings but that skill is invaluable. I think your last point is where im coming from. He can be 6-7m in open space and still looking for a handball, in that space the kick should be on. Thats were i say it almost looks like he has decided "im going to hand this off" and then waits to find the handball rather than going "I'm in space who can i kick it to further up the ground".