titan_uranus

My point about Smith and Hunt is that both can be loose and aggressive and when they're both doing that at the same time it presents difficulties with our zone and coverage. It's been a weakness for us all year when both have been in the side. Ideally we'd only have one player like them in the back six, and I suspect we'll see that again when Petty comes back to presumably place the injured Smith.

Having had the chance now to watch the replay, I walk away impressed by that performance despite the indicators that it wasn't near our best. Hawthorn approached us tactically in a way that I expect other capable sides to do this year. Faster ball movement and leaving forwards deeper. But to do both of those things requires you to be able to play near-perfect football for four quarters and Hawthorn can't - as a result, their turnovers gave us goals in the first half and then our stoppage game got going in the second half, which I'm sure was in part because they kept deep forwards rather than rolling players up to stoppages. Better sides will do it for longer and that will present big tests for us. But last night we managed to stem the tide, absorb the punches against us, and then counter, a hallmark of ours, despite missing 6 best 22 players and Lever seemingly not fully fit. Gawn and Trac were great, Oliver worked through his tag pretty well I thought. Langdon copped a tag and whilst he didn't get any of the ball I rated his defensive work. May had a lot on his plate with Lever seemingly not fully fit, Smith poor before injury and TMac again having to plug a hole. Really liked Bedford's approach, showing his wares with a full game. The half volley collect for Brown's snap goal was amazing but by and large he is still not clean enough at ground ball and that's a big area in which he needs to improve. Forward line work still not fully right. Brown did well to kick 4 (don't be fooled by three coming from frees, two of those frees were blatant and a result of Brown taking front position and the third was probably there, if a little lucky) with the way the ball was coming in and with usually both Frost and Sicily covering him. Had chances for 2-3 more goals but some of the kicks inside 50 were just no good, again. Fritsch and Weideman didn't ever appear to be able to get separation inside 50 and even though Bedford worked hard, he didn't have the sort of spark when the ball hit the deck that we might usually get from Pickett. Still, as I said earlier, with the disruption mid-week, the number of changes, and the aggression Hawthorn showed, that's the sort of game we'd be forgiven for dropping. Pocketing another win in those circumstances is huge IMO.

ANB won't be ready to go, will he? Only entered the protocols on Friday so won't be able to train mid-week.

I've only seen highlights but some early thoughts: These are the sorts of games we're "supposed" to be losing. We had five changes from last week, we have seven premiership players out (six of whom are clear best 22 players), we had three key forwards playing in the same side, none of whom are ruckmen (yet we asked one to ruck), we had Smith and Hunt in the same backline, we're playing Melksham who for long parts of the last 12 months has not been at AFL level form. But we're not just banking wins, we're doing so at a percentage of 146% We conceded 11.15. That's 26 scoring shots. That is the most any side has had against us since Round 20, 2019. Obviously 2020 was shortened quarters but that's a worse result than all of our premiership year. The 81 points against was the worst since we lost to the Dogs in our last loss, but inaccuracy stopped Hawthorn scoring more. That indicates we were not at our peak defensively, and arguably quite a fair way from it

Funnily, I feel the same way about our second halves, but we're also 6-0 in first quarters this year (the only team to have won all six first quarters, too). Grainger-Barras is technically "managed", although he's an emergency. I think maybe they're giving him a break.

So we'll be going in without Salem, Petty, Jackson, Pickett and Sparrow (and Hibberd, depending on your views on him). Hawthorn, meanwhile, will be missing Jiath, Lewis, Grainger-Barras and two ruckmen (McEvoy and Reeves).

Just to be clear, the emergencies are our second row of depth, not our first. Our first row of depth includes TMac, Dunstan, Smith, Bedford and (arguably) Hunt. They're all playing. When Salem, Petty, Jackson, Pickett and Sparrow return, that first row of depth returns to the emergencies and you'll be less concerned. Having four players forced out due to COVID and having the ability to bring in three premiership players in Lever, Viney and TMac, into a side that is 6-0, is a remarkable position to be in.

The fixturing decisions here aren't that surprising ultimately. Ideally Round 12 vs Sydney would be the Friday night, but Sydney already had the past two Friday nights. Mind you, Essendon's been given three Fridays in a row, but it doesn't surprise me that we missed out on the Friday night there. As for Round 15 vs Brisbane, again ideally it'd be the opening game on a Friday night but Channel 7 is obsessed with Thursday night games and given we are both coming off the bye that, again, is a no-brainer of a decision for the AFL. I would agree with @Lucifers Hero that there are too many Dogs games in prime time. Their first five games were FTA night games. They're Friday night in Rounds 8 and 9 and Saturday night Round 11, then have Friday night, Saturday night and Friday night games through Rounds 13-15. It looks like pretty much all of these games will be on Channel 7. Which really means any weekend you want to watch football, you're getting no choice but to watch the Dogs. Let's be honest: Fremantle vs Brisbane would be a far better Friday night game, on current form, than Bulldogs v Geelong in Round 12. But we're not getting Fremantle vs Brisbane in a prime time game. Because byes allow clubs to be scheduled on Thursday nights without short breaks. Without byes, clubs can only get into Thursday night off a five-day break (given they can't both be on a six-day break or you'd be repeating the previous round's Friday night game).

This article says Lever and Viney will play: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1112980/melbourne-trio-ruled-out-of-hawks-clash

Jack Higgins 5th in the coaches votes. Like everyone predicted pre-season.

Is it confirmed that they have COVID? As opposed to being required to isolate?

We don’t really exhibit a horses for courses style of selection policy, particularly in our back half, so I don’t think anyone can be best 22 “most” of the time. I also think he’s actually overly popular. He has far more fans on here than I reckon his career to date would suggest.

In 2020 we lost to Brisbane, Geelong, Port, Richmond, Sydney and West Coast, for each it was at least a second loss in a row (was 5 in a row for Richmond, 4 for West Coast and 3 for Port).

Everyone else in the top 8 has played at least one game against someone else in the top 8. All bar Carlton have a win against a top 8 side, too. Geelong have two.

I’m pretty confident the answer to my hypothetical question isn’t Jordon. He’s nailing his wing role. You know that Smith was fit to play last week but didn’t get recalled, right? He might have been in the QF team but we are one week removed from him not being considered best 22.

Serious question. If Salem were fit this week, would he take Hunt's spot, or Rivers'?

Both of them did hamstrings mid-week, Jiath's was on Friday. Would have to be minor for either to be available for our game this coming Saturday.

Hawks hitting the wall in the fourth quarter. They have a five day break into our game against them on Saturday...

6 - Oliver 5 - May 4 - Gawn 3 - Langdon 2 - Brayshaw 1- Petty

Well all the club's told us is that they were out for COVID reasons. Lever rolled his ankle last week but there's been no suggestion that would have kept him out of last night's game. And there's no reason to believe Viney's injured.

We're going to lose games this year. Yes, plural. It's silly to suggest otherwise. Not only does history tell us it is going to happen, but we're simply not as far in front of the competition as some in the media are sensationally suggesting. We haven't played a side sitting higher than 11th on the ladder. Of the 16 games to come, 12 of them are against the current top 10. The fixture difficulty ramps up from here.

If no injuries, it's really simple: Lever and Viney come in, Smith and Dunstan go out. Harmes finished the game on the bench with a jacket on. If he's injured, and if Dunstan isn't concussed, he might make way for Viney. If both Harmes and Dunstan are unavailable, then we have to get a bit more creative and it might be Bedford who gets a game. But some of the other changes suggested in this thread just aren't going to happen. ANB's not going to be dropped (IMO he wasn't anywhere near as bad as some have said). Jordon's not going to be dropped (those who query Jordon's role in the side are maybe not going to the games because his role is vital). Weideman's not going to be dropped (did enough right to get another game over TMac).

Brayshaw will stay where he is. When Salem returns it will either be for Hunt or for Rivers, and right now it's arguable it'd be for Rivers. But he's not replacing Brayshaw, who would have to replace Jordon, who is best 22 right now.

I can't stand reading the number of posts in here along the lines of "it was ugly" or "we need to play four quarters" or similar. If you were at the game last night you'd have seen that Richmond dropped extra numbers behind the ball. As did GWS. As did Port. This is the approach of teams who don't think they can beat us. Last night Richmond added pretty ferocious pressure early, backed by the loudest crowd against us we've faced in a year, if not more. Despite that, we are still wrestling games onto our terms. We absorbed their hits, limited damage from their momentum, and ended up with the ball camped in our forward half. The game would have looked very different had we nailed the easy shots in the 2nd quarter that we missed, the two main ones being ANB's set shot and Pickett's snap. We kept the door open and with the crowd, they got a look late in the 2nd and capitalised. But the game was played almost entirely otherwise the way we wanted and we know that when we play the way we want, we almost always win. It's April. Salem's played one quarter, Lever's missed four games, Petty's missed three, Rivers looks like he's not fully fit, Brown's missed three games, Petracca's not 100% fit and being tagged relentlessly. And we're 6-0.

Agree re: Fremantle. I can totally understand why the jury would still be out for you (and anyone else) on St Kilda. For me it's line ball. But on your last line, St Kilda played Fremantle in Perth and beat them. That has to be accepted as a strong win now that we see what Fremantle is capable of.