titan_uranus

Whilst we do need to address the forward line, McCluggage would improve us enough to warrant allocating salary cap space to him IMO. If he were genuinely available, I'd be throwing whatever we have at getting him. I'm not sure a McCluggage-salary-worthy forward will be available, either.

I'm definitely open to pushing Windsor behind the ball more, particularly now that we're down both Bowey and Salem (good kicks x 2). I'm also very much in favour of pushing Rivers into the middle more but without Bowey and Salem, that robs us of so much run. Hence the Windsor move, which as you say then opens up a spot for Hunter. Goodwin alluded to this as an option in his mid-week presser, when asked about how Hunter gets back into the side, so I reckon it's a reasonable chance of happening. Brown and Petty were both bad last night, albeit at least Petty has the excuse of having Harris Andrews as his opponent. On last night's evidence one should be dropped, but the principal problem last night was the belting we got in the middle. When we have been strong in the middle, Brown's presence forward has been very important for us. I think we need to cut him and Petty some slack for last night.

How often have sides actually got runs on against us over the last few years, though? And a option missing from your list above is "backing our system in", which has worked far more often than not. We have multiple examples of turning in-form slumps around under Goodwin, including one not even a year ago against Brisbane on the G. When it works, we praise the players (and sometimes the FD) for digging deep. When it doesn't work, we inevitably get the "stubborn Goodwin" stuff.

Goodwin spoke about our problem with territory after the last two wins. We know we aren’t playing as well as we want. I don’t think the FD are under any illusions about that.

Brisbane only had two further days compared to us (they played the Thursday night in Round 3, we played the Saturday night). They also had one fewer day's break into this week compared to us, and they have been on the road back-to-back. Having said that, they had a bye before they commenced these three games. Did the fixture really cruel us that much more than Brisbane?

[censored] no. TMac was one of our best down back tonight. He's playing good football, finally. We can't mess that up now. Unfortunately for Petty he has to produce as a forward or go play VFL.

You know you're a [censored] when Dayne Zorko, who is your teammate, calls you out on your behaviour. I hope we quietly remember Noah Answerth's behaviour tonight and on the return game in Round 16, we play well enough that we can give something back to that [censored]. Pathetic.

This is a [censored] post IMO. Even if you're thinking if, even if it's true, he's an 18-year old debutant playing in a side where his A-grade teammates were getting belted. More importantly, he clearly isn't ready for AFL level football. That's on the FD, not him. He simply should not have been picked. I want us supporting our kids, not throwing them under the bus.

6 - Gawn 5 - TMac 4 - Lever 3 - Rivers 2 - Langdon 1 - May TMac should be in everyone's votes. I thought he was really, really good tonight. The backs (TMac, Lever, Rivers, May) deserve credit and I hope internally the club is applauding their efforts. With the amount of time the ball spent in our defensive half, most other sides would have conceded far more than 22 scoring shots.

It's too early to make definitive calls, but I'll try anyway. Pickett straight back in for Tholstrup. Was nice seeing his debut but he's not ready and shouldn't have played (not the first time we've got that wrong this year, we have to get better). Presumably Salem misses. I actually liked Woey's efforts at half-back and wouldn't be against him getting a full game down there. But would be amazing if Hore was fit as he'd be the perfect replacement IMO (push Rivers up more and have Hore cover down back more). Oliver can't play again with this level of impairment in his hand. If he hasn't improved sufficiently he has to be left out to heal and someone else has to play that role. But if that happens, our depth is going to be really tested as we just don't have the list depth in the middle. Could see Hunter getting Billings' spot too. Not sure what else we can do, other than dropping one of Brown or Petty and trying a different look. That might be easier when McAdam's fit but he will need time in the VFL first.

Collingwood had a terrible loss to Hawthorn last year, dominated in most key stats. Richmond lost six times prior to their bye in 2019, each loss was by at least 33 points, and included a 67 point loss to Geelong and losses to North and Adelaide who didn't play finals.

We looked off physically from the get go. Given we had an extra day's break compared to Brisbane, and they are on back-to-back road trips, that's not really a good sign. Sure, they've had a bye and we haven't, but it's Round 5. We can't be this physically exhausted after six games, can we? I guess it's possible that we were so psyched up for the Adelaide week that we just fell flat this week. And as I posted earlier, we appear to be carrying too many who are obviously not fully fit (Oliver, Chandler, May, Brown) and some who I suspect aren't fully fit (Trac, Viney, maybe Windsor). Being -66 disposals at 3QT but also -23 tackles is damning. As well as being -20 CPs.

That was the worst midfield game we’ve played in probably 4 years. To hold them to 22 scoring shots and 82 points is actually a good performance all told given how utterly awful we were at contest and clearance to three quarter time. I doubt we’ll ever see Oliver, Trac and Viney collectively play that poorly again. I sure hope we don’t. Oliver clearly isn’t fit and we conceded that by shifting him to half back; we had to get him out of the stoppages. Viney reverted to old Viney, no awareness and too many ill advised attempts to break tackles. And I would not be surprised if Trac is injured. Couple that with our opponent having an elite midfield and then all of them firing and you end up with us being wholly unable to play the game on our terms. Windsor looked to hit a bit of a wall, Howes was poor, Billings was poor and Kolt’s clearly not ready for this level, so that middle third of the ground was just so bad. I’m inclined to write it off as a mulligan, but we have a major midfield/stoppage problem that wasn’t just an issue tonight but has been evident all year. Rivers looked good there late so I’d like to see that continue.

I agree that this will be a close game. I actually think our form is precisely as strong as it looks - we've looked amazing at times over the four wins but also have had patches of struggling with clearances and territory, and as much as we want to embrace learning to score from our defensive half, Goodwin's said multiple times now that we're not happy with how much we're having to play from our defensive half and it's clearly something we can't keep up for too much longer. Having said that, Brisbane has won the territory battle in all of its three losses (+13 inside 50s to Carlton but lost, +8 to Fremantle but lost, +13 to Collingwood but lost).

This was always going to be the result. It’s not unreasonable. It‘s not a conspiracy theory. It’s not because he’s not a Carlton or Collingwood player. It’s what the MRO guidelines require and it’s part of the AFL’s increasing focus on concussion. We just need to move on, as a club (ie preparing for Thursday) and a supporter base.

We’ve played an extra game…

The loading sure has worked. @binman

Fogarty got the same grading as Kozzie.

No Cam Guthrie or Rohan either.

Adelaide in Adelaide, St Kilda and the Dogs off a 5-day break mightn’t be the hardest fixture so far but sure isn’t the easiest. They, sadly, appear to be right back in contention.

Not a great day with Carlton and Geelong both winning and getting to 4-0 (both as to my personal views on those clubs but also for our season). I dare say they are both going to be there in September.

The thing is, Carlton is 0-7. They’ve only played there 7 times. Ever. We’ve played there 19 times. Almost three times as much. How the [censored] does that happen?

We now don't travel again for 6 weeks (next game away from the G is Round 10 vs West Coast), and only have two games away from the G between now and Round 16 vs Brisbane in the last week of June. That's a relatively kind run given we've been on the road 3 of our first 5 weeks. It does, though, include difficult sides - Brisbane, Geelong, Carlton, Fremantle and Collingwood.

It's a reminder that they're a very good side when they're on, and that JHF makes them even better in the middle (although obviously a fit May makes us better too). We should be incredibly proud of winning both these Adelaide games.

@WheeloRatings do you have quarter-by-quarter figures for CPs, clearances and ground ball gets? If so, did we get beaten in each of those in the last quarter? It felt like when we hit the fitness wall late we started to struggle in those areas and I wonder whether the numbers looked better for all three stats until late?