Wiseblood

I agree with the top part Stuie. That 'team of the week' doesn't hold much weight really. With the bottom part - right now O Mac just needs to play his role and play 'just a game' so to speak. If he's winning or breaking even in most one on one contests and only making an error or two each game then we'll take it. He will continue to improve. And on the weekend it WAS his career best game - he has only played a handful of games and Saturday was the best one in that small bunch. It doesn't mean that he was awesome or sensational, it's just the best game of his career to date.

That may well be the case as well, Steve. We have to work with what we have and, at the moment, it seems this is the best we have to offer. I don't know that we lack quality as such, but depth is a bit of an issue at present.

What you could argue though is that, with Hunt, Wagner, the McDonald boys, Jetta etc, they see this as our defence for the next 10 years at least (Jetta won't play for that long but you get my drift) and they are playing them together to develop that synergy and understanding of how to play in defence as a unit. Yes, it's coming along slowly and we do leak goals and look fumbly at times, but imagine how well they will work together defensively once they've got 20-30 games under their belt together in the same backline. I get the opposite argument too Stuie, so I'm not necessarily arguing for this, more that I believe it is why we are playing these kids together.

I disagree totally. I feel like we're watching two different teams at the moment, mate. That's life I guess. It also needs to be said that for the second half of last year and for most of this season, he has been injured and hasn't had the opportunity to fully build his tank. We know what a damaging player he can be around the packs but, outside of the first half of last season, he hasn't had the chance to show it.

Ben Ken for Harmes would work better IMO. To me, Vanders is classier and has more footy IQ than Harmes at the minute. He might have been quiet on the weekend, but I always feel as though Vanders can have an impact at any given moment. Deserves at least another week.

In all seriousness stuie, what did Oscar do wrong on the weekend? Apart from his big clanger when he got pinged for holding the ball, I don't think I saw him get beaten one on one or make a glaring error. I'm a bit perplexed as to why someone would think he had a bad game on the weekend. That's not directed at yourself but to supporters in general.

And rightly so. Softest report of the decade.

He's not playing poorly, though. He's had a few rough patches but he was much better on the weekend.

You may well be right Django. I've never seen Dawes as a second ruckman, and I don't think he's ever been comfortable with it either. It's why they persisted early in the year with Frost up forward, gave Pedersen a crack and then threw Watts in there. I guess we'll see how it pans out over the coming weeks.

They're so creative, aren't they? Originality abounds. No idea why he doesn't ruck. Clearly they feel they want Watts doing it, so that's what they are going with. If they want Dawes to pinch hit then I'm sure he would do it too. Not much of a mystery really.

It's not going to stop people from making the suggestion that they will, though. This thread should be renamed the 'Changes I want to happen vs. Pies' as opposed to what it is now as you don't often get changes that make a whole lot of sense.

Had 18 touches to half time.

So saying we would've won had he taken more marks (which is exactly what you said) is not suggesting he cost us the game? Righto.

Happy to agree to disagree, however, you can't argue that he was out of position all day if we aren't able to ascertain if it was under instruction or he was out of position. No one would be perfect of course and I'm sure he might have been in the wrong place a few times, I just don't think it was as often as it's been alluded to. But, as you say, let's agree to disagree.

While I can't argue his marking abilities, which can sometimes leave much to be desired, I would argue against what I've bolded. I don't think I've ever seen him run to the wrong place or hamper a contest, in fact I think he is quite good in this area, and he certainly isn't the last KP player to be burnt off on the rebound. I find he works hard defensively and has laid some big tackles and put on plenty of pressure in his time at the club. He certainly put on more pressure than both Kent and Harmes yesterday. Plus I think he does straighten us up. He takes some pressure off Hogan, gets to the right spots and he has the ability to rotate through the FF and CHF positions. As I said, I can't argue that his marking leaves something to be desired, and he doesn't hit the scoreboard enough, but at this point in time he is more valuable to our side in it than out of it. And stop with the flawed 'group-think' stuff. It's silly. A few posters taking a different view doesn't make it 'group-think' and you shouldn't classify it as such.

Yeah, he totally cost us the game. Jesus and FMD indeed.

Just as Weideman would need weekly exposure to AFL standard backmen, if we're going by your logic.

The ironic thing is that I was doing the same, yet for someone who wants to inject a bit of 'humour', it went right over your head. Well done.

Here he comes, Sheriff Saty, riding in on his horse to have a crack at fellow posters!

You're a perplexing poster yourself, Adam. I do agree with the above, yet I find it interesting that you're happy to get behind O Mac, yet Dawes comes in for one game and you take the time to smash him, even though he worked his backside off all day and straightened us up a bit. Would have thought you could give the fella some time seeing as it was his first game back for the year.

I think what it does show is that we need those guys up and about, pressuring and tackling, for us to win games. I agree that we were able to lock it in our forward half much better than we did last week, but our half forwards need to give us more. When we rolled the Pies and Richmond our half forwards were sensational, kicking goals and tackling anything in the area. I don't agree with the OP in saying that it's not for us. That's clearly not true. It just shows how important it is to our structure.

I dropped in here to say the same. Kudos to you, ProDee, for jumping in her and admitting defeat. Well done. And well done to Jack as well. Has really turned his career around this year and become an important part of our side.

One good thing was crossed off the list today - we won't be the team to give Fremantle their first win of the season.

Don't start that sort of stuff - nothing will come of it. Softest report of the century.

Finding positives in a loss like today is vastly different from being happy with a loss. I'm never happy with it, but I choose to see both sides of it as well. It's not a pat on the backside to the boys, but there are always positives to be found, and if we didn't find them it would make supporting this club unbelievably difficult.