titan_uranus

Can't compete against the best when you are beaten in clearances 54-36. They turned that into forward half dominance, with 66 inside 50s to our 46. It's no wonder they had 31 scoring shots to our 18. They did to us what we did to Brisbane. For all our failures, we worked so hard to get it back to a goal difference at the start of the last, but Pickett's miss, Fritsch's miss, then Bedford fumbling when he had the entire forward half empty in front of him killed our momentum and they got their tails up. Gawn and Jackson didn't look match fit, Bowey played his first genuinely poor game of his career, Harmes didn't learn his lessons and kept getting caught trying to break tackles, and we were too short up forward and therefore couldn't take enough get out of jail marks when we needed them. We can't play one tall forward without having one of Gawn and Jackson playing forward as well, so either we do that or we bring Weideman back and drop one of the underperforming small forwards (Bedford was great against Brisbane but really no good since). We don't have much wriggle room with our fixture, so it hurts to drop this one to one of our major competitors, but the swing between the Brisbane game and this game shows that we have to be on for most of our run home or we're going to drop too many games and cede ladder position.

OK, sole tall forward not including the resting ruck. Last year our preferred line up was two tall forwards (Brown and TMac) alongside the two rucks (Gawn and Jackson). Agree with @Lucifers Hero, it's not Bowey. It's Brayshaw, isn't it? Salem went down, we sent Brayshaw back to cover his spot, it turned out Brayshaw was excellent across half-back whilst Jordon has been great on a wing, and Rivers' form wasn't stellar, so when Salem returned Brayshaw held him out.

IMO our forward half work can be better. When we click in the forward half we’re unstoppable - see, eg, the Brisbane game, or the finals last year. But too often we are out-marked, take the wrong option going inside, or miss a shot on goal we should kick. When those happen, we leave the door open for opponents. The stats look good this year compared to last year but we’ve had a comparatively easier fixture, with fewer games against good sides to this point than last year. We’re a much stronger side than some of the lazy pundits in the media suggest, but we can do better IMO.

Happy with those changes. Bedford is up against a continual challenge to hold his spot. I’m happy he’s getting another game but he needs to be much more like the Brisbane game than the Adelaide one to stay in the seniors. Brown is doing more for the side than @Lord Nev suggests but also has a lot more room for improvement than most other posters suggest. He’s getting the chance but if we persist with one tall forward, TMac looms large down the track. Would love to see him hold the marks he’s been dropping of late. That, as much as the relatively modest goal count, is as good a marker IMO of where he is struggling.

IIRC during the commentary they said Adelaide's second (I think?) quarter had season-high pressure for them? (Or did I imagine that...?)

The truth lies somewhere in between, doesn't it? Yes, he's got a role to play that isn't just him kicking bags, yes, as part of our gameplan we need him bringing the ball to ground and he's doing that and yes, he is regularly competing with multiple defenders hanging off him. Agree with all that. Also agree with his work-rate. At the gorund you can see how But also, he is dropping non-pack marks under less pressure, and he's being outworked in one-on-one contests too often. And he's missing set shots that he used to never miss. And he's burning team-mates by snapping shots when he could be passing. He's not "cooked" as some have suggested, but he's also not going as well as your post suggests IMO.

I didn't see anything from the game to suggest to me that M Brown is a better ruck option than Weideman. If both Gawn and Jackson are right to come in, M Brown is the first out. Then the question is whether we go back to having the additional tall, which is what we had prior to the bye (Bedford presumably misses, which is harsh, but would be done for structural reasons), or we continue to play with one fewer tall, in which case it's likely Weideman who makes way. I'll be interested to see which way we lean with Geelong - do we want height in our forward line to avoid them intercept marking against us too much, or do we want pace to see if we can pressure them and out-run them when it hits the deck.

Oh, and can we just have a moment to marvel at the latest AFL MRO/Tribunal disgrace. Tom Stewart runs past the ball and KOs Prestia. That's "careless". Kozzie Pickett poorly executed a tackle. That's "intentional". (FWIW, I have no problem with Pickett being cited for what he did, but it was careless in the truest sense of the word).

Yes, the umpiring was noticeable given we only received 3 free kicks in 3 quarters. But can we talk about how we ground down and overcame some high level pressure, possibly Adelaide's best all year, in hostile territory after conceding the lead late in the second quarter? All without Gawn, Jackson and TMac? It's easy to look at Adelaide's ladder position and think this should have been routine, and the way the first five minutes unfolded that's what I thought it was going to be. But they brought really clear heat and made us work for everything. The more games we get into the current back seven, with Hibberd and Salem still needing to find their feet a bit, the better we are going to get. 30 intercept marks is huge. As for the forward line, 24 scoring shots and nearly 100 points in a game where no forward was really all that dominant. Still too many errant inside 50 kicks and missed shots on goal, so there remains room for improvement.

They kicked 10 against North, who decided to play their best defender at FF for reasons which make no sense to anyone. If I were an Adelaide supporter I'd be very worried if anyone was getting this far ahead of themselves off the back of the easiest possible game a key forward could have played on the weekend.

If we play each game from here like we did on Thursday we're a more than reasonable chance of running the table. We were that good. But it's near-certain we won't reach that level for two consecutive months. We'll have drop offs. And because our fixture is so hard, we're going to drop games as a result. Prognosticating over the make-up of the top 8, top 4 and top 2 is fun, but so hard this year because the outcome will be determined by the sides we drop games to. If we go 6-2 but drop, for example, the Geelong and Brisbane games, that might see either of those sides sit above us on the ladder by the end of the season, but see us above Fremantle and Carlton. And vice versa if we go 6-2 but drop the Fremantle and Carlton games instead. With our fixture, at least we know our destiny is largely in our hands. Beat the sides around us and we go along way, if not the entire way, to finishing above them on the ladder.

I would call the three of you out for your inherent sexism here but I'm sure you'll just respond by telling me you're not sexist and you just don't like Caro. Of course, I'd rate the chances of you using these words to describe a male journalist at 0.5%.

I don’t agree at all with the OP, or his ongoing vendetta against Caro. But even if I did, mods do we need yet another thread on this? Far out.

Yep, and Fritsch did it again in the third when he tried to dribble a goal from the boundary instead of centring it. Fritsch, Brown and (not last night) Trac all have a selfish tendency around goals that they haven't seemed to be able to stamp out.

Excellent crowd last night. 17,000 more than Richmond drew to its Thursday night game vs Port despite having double the members and not having lost three prior games going in. A H&A record for the two clubs. Also was more than: Bulldogs v Geelong on a Friday night in Round 12 at Marvel Sydney v Richmond on a Friday night in Round 11 St Kilda v Essendon, last Friday night

I don't at all see the need to drop Bowey. We performed superbly last night, let's leave them and see if they can generate consistency into next week and then Geelong the week after. The only major consideration is to ensure we're OK for the 5-day break going into the Geelong game. For that reason alone, Gawn shouldn't play this week. Skip the Adelaide game, ensure he's fully fit, then return for Geelong. He was much better last night. Yes, Andrews took a number of intercept marks, but at the game Brown's leading and work-rate looked much better than in the month before the bye. He also got us into the game in the first half when the game was at its hottest. Tomlinson hasn't played forward since he joined us and won't be an improvement on Brown in anyway.

6 - Viney 5 - Lever 4 - Oliver 3 - Jordon 2 - Harmes 1 - Brayshaw

Exceptional football. Clearly the best we've played since the Grand Final. Should have won by 80+ points against the top side. Yes they were missing Bailey and Zorko, but it's not like Gawn and TMac are bit players either. The clear stand out IMO was the intensity. CP dominance, clearance dominance, forward half pressure, tackle pressure everywhere. We haven't played with that level of ferocity much in 2022 but when we bring it, we really [censored] bring it. Led superbly by Viney, who played one of his all time best career games. Forward half worked so much better as a unit tonight. Small things like Weideman blocking for Brown and crumbers in the right spots in front of the marking forwards. Don't know if it's a coincidence, it probably isn't, but Lever's game was phenomenal, against the highest-scoring side in the competition to boot. Petracca also lifted so our A-grade core was largely on song tonight (Langdon still has room to improve). Weidemand deserves credit. He wasn't dominant but he put his body on the line in the ruck and in marking contests and I thought really applied himself well. Let's see if this is a corner turned. Big games coming up on the road but when we play like this, we are scintillating.

Fair enough changes, it's not like M Brown was doing anything to hold his spot and there's no other tall forward we could play in his place, so we're going smaller. Major pressure on B Brown, Weid when forward, Jackson when forward and Fritsch to create genuine marking contests. When Weid's rucking, we'd better have a reasonable plan for what we're going to be doing with our inside 50s because we can't have Andrews and Adams intercept marking our attempts to kick to a double-teamed B Brown. Would like to see Hunt or Tomlinson the sub for some positional versatility. To be fair, both B Brown and Weid need to stand up, and both B Brown and Weid need to play their role. Third: Andrews and Adams are their two key defenders.

As is always the case with CD's ratings, whatever they use to measure "elite-ness" isn't worth worrying about given the results it produces. No Gawn or May, clearly issues from an MFC perspective. But also no Weitering, which means the two key defenders widely considered AA locks aren't there, but instead we have Sicily, McGovern and Isaac Cumming. For wings, no Langdon or McCluggage, but Marlion Pickett and Harry Perryman instead. For key forwards, no Curnow or McKay, but Taylor Walker who missed a month of footy is there. For mids, no Andrew Brayshaw or Callum Mills, but George Hewett gets in. Just odd.

It's becoming increasingly clear from Twitter, forums, radio talkback and the comments on news articles (yes, I know, not exactly scientific research) that there are a number of key reasons why attendances are down: It's expensive It is a significant time commitment and that's before you add in a long commute for many Night games are not as easy to attend for many as day games are, and there are more night games now than ever before Public transport can be difficult and slow People have COVID/the flu/the cold and aren't going anywhere because they're sick People don't want to get COVID/the flu/the cold and won't go anywhere as a result During 2020-2021 people bought Kayo to watch football, haven't gotten rid of it post-lockdown, and now that they have it they can watch every game live and without ads, whereas prior to 2020 they didn't have Foxtel and so could only stay home if their team was on FTA COVID disrupted our routines and for some, they have questioned why they went to the football each and every week religiously and/or simply cannot get back into that routine For some, the game isn't as enjoyable as it has been in the past Digital ticketing is annoying and not user-friendly in many instances It's a multi-faceted issue and the AFL won't fix it with just one or two changes: so, bringing back paper tickets might help a little, but probably not a lot. FWIW I think the cultural change brought about by the lockdowns, coupled with the ability for people to watch games via Kayo for a lot less money than it used to cost in the old Foxtel method prior to 2020, is the most significant reason crowds are down. I also think the AFL's view on what it takes to attract fans to stadiums is the polar opposite of what actually attracts fans to stadiums: no one is going to listen to loud music blare between goals, or for "fan activations" on the ground during breaks.

Two more Friday nights is good news for us, particularly with one being our home game against Collingwood. Fingers crossed both clubs are still going strong by then as that could be a great windfall for us, ratings-wise at least, if not also attendance. Would have been great to get the Carlton game on Friday night too, but wasn't possible with the three Marvel games. We're a good chance to be the Friday night game in Round 23 too. Carlton v Collingwood is another huge game but Collingwood is on the Sunday the previous week and has already had a 5-day break this year, so I don't think they can have another one and therefore that can't be the Friday night. Ditto Essendon v Richmond, as Richmond's already had a 5-day break and is on the Sunday in Round 22. If that happens we'll end the season with four Friday night games (two home) and three Thursday night games (one home), plus ANZAC Eve (away) and Queen's Birthday (away). Good exposure from a ratings perspective, even if many were away games. Attendance-wise, we end the year with only one single home game in Melbourne in the day: Round 8 vs St Kilda, which was a Sunday 1.10pm start. We had two Saturday twilight home games, and one home game in Alice Springs to come, but the other 7 home games were all night games (Dogs, Essendon, GWS, Sydney, Brisbane, Collingwood, Carlton).

The conservative, and likely, changes are May for Turner and Weideman for Gawn. The issue with those changes is that it means we go in with B Brown, M Brown and Weideman, who at times are all going to be in the same forward line, which inspires zero confidence. An option is to drop M Brown, who hasn't done much if anything in the seniors to warrant retaining his spot, and replacing him with a small (e.g. Bedford, Melksham), or perhaps using Petracca more as a forward with, for example, Jordon getting more midfield time, Brayshaw going back to the wing, and Hunt coming back into the backline. But if we drop M Brown, there will be periods of the game where Weid's rucking and Jackson's on the bench, and we'll be down to B Brown only. This all goes to show how valuable Gawn is beyond simple ruck craft.

For pure attendance reasons, I hope the Carlton and Collingwood games are Saturday 1.45pm or 2.10pm starts, or Sunday 3.20pm starts. For commercial reasons, I'd want at least one to be a Friday or Saturday night, and I'd want Round 23 vs Brisbane to be a Friday night as well. The last time we had a "normal" fixture, in 2019, the final rounds had the following games: Carlton v St Kilda in Round 22 at the G was a Saturday 1.45pm game and drew nearly 52,000 (neither side was in finals contention) Richmond v West Coast in Round 22 at the G was a Sunday 1.10pm game and drew 57,000+ (flag favourite vs reigning premier and 3rd on the ladder) Richmond v Brisbane in Round 23 at the G was a Sunday 3.20pm game and drew 76,000+ (flag favourite vs 1st on the ladder)

We already have one of those forwards, Ben Brown. We can't play two key forwards who disappear for long periods of the game. Ben Brown at least hit the scoreboard on the weekend. Mitch Brown, regrettably, has struggled in both his games so far.