leave it to deever

On 16/04/2024 at 11:41, BLWNBA said:

Nice post, some good and interesting takes there and enough to mull over. 

I largely agree with your points and think we should head in with the two outs: Salem (a given) and Oliver (I suspect he'll play). 

I'd be inclined to have Laurie as an in. I agree that's it's incredibly important to have reward form via senior selection and we need integrity in the match committee in regards to this, we can't continue with the perceived status quo of playing favourites. Laurie can rotate through the midfield rotations and we can see how he goes against a (relatively) secondary midfield which will be missing Taranto, Hopper and Prestia. 

Naturally, Pickett comes back into the fold after serving his one week suspension and I'd be retaining Kolt as the sub. 

Whilst the two inclusions aren't a like-for-like, I'd be inclined to play Woewodin out of the back in the absence of Salem and lets see what he can do. Although we were very ordinary to say the least, I didn't think Taj was as poor as what many have made out (I've only watched the game once, potentially a second viewing in a non-live environment may allow more judgement on this, though). Personally, I'm not sure I'd be playing Langdon down back, I think he has more value as that link-up runner, though he hasn't exactly set the world on fire as of late. 

I wouldn't be rushing Hunter back. I'm not sure he's the type of player we need in the side at the moment but I wouldn't be adverse to Fullarton coming in, potentially to give BBB an extended break. 

 

 

I don't think we have really seen enough from Laurie at senior level as yet. I don't think Woey has done enough either. But I'm all at sea for alternatives. What about young Brown? 

1 hour ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Some media peeps reckon our match is way more poignant and captivating than the ANZAC Day match, given it’s a night match, and it’s the first match of this round. I was lucky enough to be out on the ground last year (only half our banner crew got to participate since it’s a shared banner therefore half the banner crew are Richmond), and it’s an experience rivalled only by being out there on KB. That said, I’ve a feeling the crowd will be smaller this year than it’s been of late. 

Agree with those peeps although Never been to an ANZAC day game.

And I'm sure I never will.

I've watched a lot of them. They get massive crowds( but so does our night game). They have more history I suppose.

But the thing is being in the dark with all the mobiles on and the chill in the air and the spotlights...our game seems to have an edge the day  game simply doesn't.

I expect it to be at least as big as the day game if it's not already and in a short amount of time. 

Must be nice to see it all from the middle. There will still be a big crowd. Enjoy.

17 hours ago, Demon17 said:

The good bloke rule - Cameron

Best legal defence in the land. 

We need to get more references for our players.

4 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Andrew Dillon -

“There were, from the Tribunal chair, there were a number of compelling circumstances and they were first of all that he pled guilty, second of all the number of games he's played without suspension, thirdly that the player didn't suffer an injury and the fourth one was that it was at the lower end of careless.”

We are now grading gradings. Comedy gold.

I don't understand why they bring up character references and service to the community. Silly me. I thought it was about protecting players heads and necks. What a fool I've been. 

Just now, Demon trucker said:

He averages 29% hit out to advantage, max averages 11% 

Thanks DT.

That's a fascinating stat and I'm quite surprised.

He has to work extra hard in having to leap to overcome the height disadvantage but he's clearly doing what's expected. That said all that leaping probably wears him out somewhat.

I think his ground skills he brings to a ruck duel are top notch.

I guess in an ideal world I'd prefer a bigger second ruck for a number of reasons and also let Jvr at a young age focus on being a forward.

18 hours ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Did he really said that? Unbelievable, we have enemies inside our own ranks! Or perhaps he is just another puppet of the system.🤔

Absolutely. Lever did nothing untoward in the slightest. There was no effort on his part to make it worse. If GL believes otherwise, he's a huge goose .

On 16/04/2024 at 22:00, Males said:

I can’t recall who it was now, maybe King, but he once stated that they should just rid of the “fairest” part of the Brownlow. He stated that if you get suspended for 2,3 or 4 matches etc and can still win the Brownlow, good on you, you have clearly been the best player. Stated that the Brownlow is already compromised anyway, as it’s basically just a midfielder medal.

It does have a built in bias towards mids.  But I kinda like the fairness aspect about being excluded if suspended.

Living interstate, I've only been able to get to one of these games.

If you are umming ( sorry Binners) about going to this game, let me assure you it was one of the best games I have attended.

We lost ( Injuries took a toll). Richmond were a dominant side then as well.

But it's the pre match stuff that makes it. The ceremony of mobile phones and the last post.

It's heart in mouth stuff . It's humbling and pride filling at the same time. It's hairs rising on the back of your neck as well.

I guarantee it will fill you with gratitude and patriotism .

And I'm pretty sure we will win this.

Although despite the tigers form I guess with the crowd and occasion there could be an upset.

Nah.

Enjoy.

31 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

Bluey I find this quaint, at 194cm he is identical height to Curnow All Australian Forward, 2cm taller than David Neitz and 1 cm shorter than Szwartta, 2cm shorter than Jeff White. 6’41/2”. He’s no Gorilla McKay 6’7” , Cameron & Lynch 6’6”. He is the same height at Tex Walker and Darcy Fogarty.😁 both very good forwards, why do we feel obliged to downsize ours.

I feel the same but he just doesn't seem as tall as this blokes. Maybe because they have filled out more. I still agree with Bluey that Jvr would be best a chf. Not because of height but more his athleticism.

22 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

He is 194 cm, isn't he? I bet he can still grow a couple more cm, be 196 or 197 in the end. Not too bad in my view.

Don't think he'll grow any taller. He's 21

What he lacks in height ..not that 194 is short...he makes up with his giant leap. One of the best.

I would prefer to see him play chf with his athleticism and tank.

And despite his leap maybe have someone taller giving Max a chop out. Although Jvrs skills at ground level are pretty good. Time will tell.

I get the feeling that at the moment he's trying too hard. His hands are hitting the ball too fast and so he's not holding as many. Needs to just drop his hands at the last second and cushion the impact a little. Once he starts holding them which is mostly technical then he will be a weapon.

I really think he's got a huge career ahead of him.

And your spot on about loyalty.

He's in a down patch lately. But let's remember he's only been playing for twelve months.

But he's certainly shown enough at a young age that he's definitely a keeper.

Well done to all.

Agree with Bluey that he's probably a chf than a deep fwd.

And while having a great leap and doing ok in the ruck, I don't think he's ideal as a second.

His competitiveness and energy is top shelf and I expect him to have a long a fruitful career in footy. Still needs to learn a few things but he has all the hallmarks of being a very good footballer.

Due to start clucking them all soon and then a nice bag of sausage rolls. 

1 hour ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

Bailey Laurie AFL statistics:

Disposals:

2023

4,4,14,9,5

 

2024

8

 

the bloke has been a sub a lot, I get that, but no matter how you look at it, he is an underwhelming AFL prospect. He consistently plays well at VFL level, but cannot make the step-up to AFL standard. 
 

In the Sydney game, his poor disposals cost us dearly. You cannot get away with mistakes at AFL level that might be covered at VFL level. Turnovers are crucified at the top level. 
 

He had 5 possessions in the QF against Collingwood. We basically played a man short, pardon the pun, in that match. 
 

He can continue to build his form at VFL level. He is not required in the seniors at this stage. Great that he is laying tackles…but I am yet to see the same against AFL bodies. His tackle stats at AFL level:

2023

1,0,1,2,2

 

2024

1

 

I’m sorry, it’s a hard no from me. Much prefer the experience of Hunter, or to blood young Pup Brown

After only five games at senior level, why young Laurie was chosen as a sub in such a huge game against the pies was mystifying. And it's not as if he tore those five games apart either. I was really baffled by Goody call to put him in that final. It would be good to see young Brown get a go but Hunter would be my pick.

Is K.Brown a chance against the Tigers?

17 hours ago, Stu said:

He also went off just before half time in the Round 9 game versus Hawthorn with a toe injury (he has bad luck with his feet!). He'd had six marks and 2 goals in the first half before getting injured. The commentators were lamenting that he just started to look like he understood where to lead and what to do before going down. He returned to the backline after he came back into the side (although he was subbed in 2-3 games with a range of injuries), and was then moved forward against Richmond in Round 20.

I'm confident that if he is given a clean run at 8-10 games as a forward without injury, within a few rounds he'll be performing more consistently. I think he can average 1.5 goals a game and 6-8 marks a game which would be great given our other forward talent.

I think he will give us more than one and half goals a game. I can see him contributing at least 2.

He's a solid mark and very athletic and as a forward provides a great target other than Max and Jvr. 6 to 8 marks would be excellent.

He had a shocker against the lions but there is some sordid history there. Plus the whole team was down on form and energy.

The guy hardly played last year and has not much of a pre season with injuries carrying into this year.

I think if he's injury free we will see why Crows have been offering so much. 

On 14/04/2024 at 09:36, The heart beats true said:

I’ve owned Pit Bulls, Bull Terriers, French Bulldogs, and Tibetan Terriers. All loving, all very well behaved - because I trained them.

The most lethal? The Frenchies. The farts. Unbelievable.

What about the dogs?

On 13/04/2024 at 12:26, Binmans PA said:

Petty is clearly trying to make up for an interrupted pre season, which isn't helping his form.

As he gets more match fitness across the year, providing he doesn't get injured again, I expect him to start owning the forward 50.

I think it's hard to fluke those six goal bags . One of which he had last year. He's got the skills....I think he's down on confidence.

Apart from being so knackered, did the club get ahead of itself by celebrating Port and Crows wins too early?

They seemed wrapped that they won those two games . It was a surprise to me.

But did we let the lid off? Especially before the bye.

Or was it just a case of two big games taking their toll.

Port was a tough game and Crows gave everything including the proverbial kitchen sink. Against a federal crowd and umpires.

Lions had a nice training game against the roos.

Food for thought.

The sad fact of AFL success is the element of just sheer bad luck/ good luck.

Yea sure one can have great depth to try and counter injury fall out, sometimes it is so significant that it's almost impossible to cover.

Last year was a case in point we had so many players especially high grade ones hit with injuries.

Especially our fwd line.

This year sadly isn't tracking too well either.

Starting with Gus out for good, every game we have lost someone due to injury.

We have lost Bowey, May, Petty, Oliver, Salo, Spargo and Kozzie from suspension.

That's a fair whack so early in the season.

4 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Did we seriously turn down 2 first round picks for Petty? Not sure who’s recruiter’s made the bigger mistake. 

I'm not sure. I think it's reasonable to say the jury is still out on Petty in terms of this offer, for sure 

Not because of his form but rather his body. He has struggled with injuries at a young football age so it's fair to say until he gets a full season on the park it's hard to gauge his true worth.

Also it's not unreasonable to suggest that he may not be as versatile as previously thought.

How many games has he played forward? And aside from his great bag of six,  how many goals has he kicked.

That six bag was an incredible effort but I'd bet after that it's inconclusive to say he's a good forward player as well as defender.

Of course it's true to say our fwd line hasn't been settled with the group playing a good deal of games together.

He had a stinker last round and while probably our worst player, certainly wasn't alone.

All in all, I'd be tempted to keep him. One thing for sure, he has certainly demonstrated at a young age that he is a great quality defender.

3 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

last night, we all walk away being somewhat "shocked

I wasn't shocked we lost.

I was shocked by how poorly we played.

I don't want to take away the Lions effort but we were nowhere near our best and the score flattered us.

The more marks, clearances and tackles was telling how bad we were.

The Double gather round has clearly taken a big toll.

With Salo and Oliver injured we were two men down as well.

But it was our fwds that were crushed. Between Fritta, Bbb, Petty and Jvr there was ONE tackle for the whole game. That's a telling stat. Ball came in....ball went out. Not via the umpire.

It's hard to explain that metric other than fatigue I think.

38 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

Not just fatigue related, the defence was quite leaky in the first, Rick says as much here 

I thought they performed pretty well all round.

5 hours ago, BLWNBA said:

Looking past the disposal count in games, he's been very average by his standards the whole year (I'm not suggesting he's past it though, by any stretch). But to say he was 'killing it' this year, even prior to injury, is viewing his season with a high amount of recency bias with regards to his previous seasons. 

Wasn't he bog v the dogs?

He was good against Hawks 

But since his hand in the last two has struggled.

Maybe killing it was too strong.

Footy momentum is wonderful.

24 hours ago we were one of the four contenders for the flag.

Now we are just another club out of eight.

It's not panic stations but it's certainly a big shift from where we were.

But we've had a tough draw with three interstate games 

I'm not sure if we can dismiss this loss on being tired.

It looked like many were. My reason is that the backline performed very well in restricting the lions to 80 points.

They dominated us everywhere and did kick a big score.

Was our backline fatigued. Maybe but it certainly did it's job  in some ways 

I guess we lacked attacking run from defence. But credit to stopping a huge percentage loss.

2 minutes ago, 640MD said:

A bit flat this morning, like my coffee.

why use 3 games in 13 days as an excuse

normally it’s 3 games 15 days 

started well enough, Kolt had 4 touches but no stat after 3 minutes or so. He needs more work but will fit right in. 
Oliver  just NQR like Petty for the first half,

we kicked the first goal, then got run over by a truck until Brisbane relaxed, so for almost 3 quarters we kicked 2 more they got 10.  They were “on”, we were flat and slow.  Too much effort in Adelaide?

thought AnB and TMac had good games. Windsor so quick then kicked to them. Tracca did the same to an open F50. 
BBB had not much to do in the first half but the ball never got there. ditto Fritta and Petty.  perhaps positional changes were needed before half time.  But they beat us across the centre and the midfield our backs always under pressure.

Brisbane played us well

My impression is sometimes teams get ahead of themselves.

We were very happy with our eight points in Adelaide.

And rightly so.

But perhaps a bit of complacency slipped in.

I do recognize we were tired. We looked it.