Wiseblood

Hogan out hurts, but this game will be won or lost in the midfield. If we can move the ball like we did in the third term against the Hawks then we, at the very least, give ourselves a chance. I'm one who hopes we bring in ANB for the extra run, stick Petracca at full forward with Jeffy at his feet and let Kent, ANB and others do some damage with their pressure. If we start kicking it long to a contest all night then we are no chance as they'll pick it off every time.

Weideman just needs to give us an option in attack and hopefully jag a couple of goals. Let the mosquito fleet kick the majority of the goals and put on the pressure.

I'm surprised you gave his post air time, Doc.

Stats or no stats, you can't deny McEvoy played a good game. He wasn't a match winner, but through no fault of Pedo/Watts/T Mac, he had enough hit outs that some went to advantage and gave them first use. At the moment we are lucky to win a hit out, let alone get one to advantage. Pedo has been excellent for us so far, but he can't stop guys 10cm taller than him. The thought of Jacobs dominating in the ruck is a scary one, and no matter how hard we try, they'll not be able to stop him from doing it.

He 'Bugg's' the opposition. I'll see myself out...

For 3 quarters of a game we are rolling a 5 or a 6. It's the 1 we're rolling in that other quarter that's killing us. We've won 16 of 28 quarters played, which is 4th best in the comp, so our consistency isn't that bad. We just need to eliminate that one poor quarter and we'll be right.

True, but I guess my point was that a Dean Kent zero tackle game is far and away better than a JKH no tackle game. Having said that, Kent averaged less than 3 tackles a game last year and he needs to do better than that for us going forward.

That's true, HH. But then Kent should be held to a higher standard these days. JKH got 3 weeks, coming off some serious injuries, to prove himself and he fell well short. We may not see him again. We know Kent can do it though and he deserves a second chance.

Not really. Looking at Kent's game against Geelong, where admittedly he had one tackle, he still had 22 touches and kicked 2.3. He had to work on the defensive part of his game for sure, but JKH gave us no better on that end and he didn't kick a goal in all 3 games. It puts Kent ahead by quite a way for me. And you're right on your earlier comment. We are certainly having to adjust to the fact that teams are setting up to counteract our gameplan, rather than it being the other way around. For the first time in a very long time, we are finding ourselves being hunted and we don't quite know how to handle it just yet.

How often has he actually played a tagging role for the club? I wouldn't have thought it was that often. In fact, these days we rarely tag a player at all.

We just have to play smarter, for longer. Look at last week; when we allowed the Hawks to slow it down and kick it long to a contest, they had one of their talls float across and mark unopposed. They knew we didn't have strength in the air and they used it to their advantage. When we moved the ball quickly in the third term, we took away that advantage and we were able to dominate. We just didn't do it for long enough. The Crows are strong in the air, but if we can take them on and try and run them off their legs then we give ourselves a chance.

You've developed quite the acid tongue towards my posts of late big fella. I'm not sure why. I never said he didn't tackle, nor did I necessarily compare him to JKH. He was dropped for his defensive efforts this year and, if we're being honest, he's been hot and cold in that area for years. He can do it, and when he does he's terrific (like the night against the Tigers when he was on fire before doing his hammy), but it's almost as if it's a roll of the dice each week. As I said, we are a much better side with Kent in it, and I'm hoping he learned his lesson from earlier in the year.

I was kind of hoping that Goodwin would troll him and keep JKH in the side...

Totally different situations. They knew about this prior to the start of the year and planned accordingly. It's why they got Petrie and still have Giles on the list. Both men didn't go down at the beginning of the season. And yes, I know we didn't have a third tall ruckman ready to go, but who knew this was going to happen? Some years you get the luck, others you don't. We are still being super competitive regardless of what has happened, but if we don't make finals then we have a fair indication of why.

Weideman is probably an emergency in case something goes wrong with one of our talls. Lord knows that we don't have many in reserve. He hasn't done anything to warrant it, but we don't have much choice at this stage. The defensively bit remains to be seen, but to me we are instantly a better side with Kent as opposed to JKH.

I can't see Trengove being selected this week. I don't think he will flourish against the Crows. He'll get his chance, but I'm just not sold on it being this week. Having said the above, just watch me end up being wrong. I reckon Kent and Stretch are the other two who will come in to provide a little more of that run, carry and spread. JKH and Buggy are the ones to make way IMO.

I think the year was destined to be a waste the moment we lost our two ruckmen. We can manage generally but when arguably your best player, and reigning AA ruckman, goes down for a large part of the season and your back up quickly follows suit then you are always going to be in trouble. And I agree that we've had some serious lapses in concentration that we need to quickly get rid of out of our game. I don't think any sane person would argue that. But you could also argue most sides have done the same things we have due to how even the competition is. Sides will make you pay for it now. We have the cattle, we just need to add the composure under pressure and the ability to put sides away. We haven't had a list capable of doing this in a decade so we still need to learn how to do it, which is hopefully not far away.

Yes, you're right. Should have put 'they were' 0-6, which is what I was trying to say. I'll edit it now.

You could argue that everyone has lost to some bog ordinary teams this year. The Swans were 0-6 before last weekend. It begs the question - are there really any bog ordinary sides this year? Brisbane are the only one who spring to mind. The Hawks and the Swans started very slowly but they are both still choc full of premiership talent, something most sides can't fall back on. I'm not using this as an excuse for our losses, more that we certainly aren't the only ones doing it. You could argue pretty much every side has at some stage this year.

In before the 'maybe we can recruit some of the women to play down back' posts.

You'd already carried on enough. There was no digging yourself out of the hole you made so you disappeared. And I'm not changing the subject as you're the one who jumped in from the side to join a conversation, yet you added nothing to it. Some things never change.

Any credibility you had left the building with your constant bagging of Hogan at the end of last year, and once he re-signed you disappeared without a trace. Funny that. This actually made me laugh out loud. Well done to you, good sir, for identifying the major problem. So what do you plan to do about it? Go to training and tell them? Or just sit at home and bleat about it all the time? Seriously, most supporters get it. We've got areas to work on, no doubt about it, but you take it to new levels my friend. You 'identify' the problems as if you're some visionary.... and then just waffle on about it again and again and again. What does that solve? Not much I'd imagine.

35 years, mate. What does that have to do with it though? You going to pull the 'I've supported longer and through the 70s so I can wallow in more misery than you' card or something?

You are so.... boring..... SWYL. Either do something about it like the bloke who cut up his membership or try and discuss something different.