titan_uranus

He's always been like this. Last year, we weren't caught out as much with his problems on transition because we didn't turn it over as much (not when we were winning, at least) and we also applied far more defensive pressure up the ground which gave him time. He's always had a tendency to leave his man behind to link up in a chain up to the wing and even half forward. It's a good thing for us when we're on and when we're hitting targets. But, much like our game plan in general, when we're off and we're missing targets it opens us up out the back.

Hopefully that's a sign that he's under consideration for this week. I reckon this is, to borrow a term I can't stand but will use anyway, "fake news". Other than at the initial centre bounce, why is it now harder to zone off? Or do you just mean because of the initial centre bounce leaving us at 6-6-6? There were plenty of games last year where we ran a forward off the back of the square but otherwise had 6 vs 6 in our defensive 50.

I don't care who holds the title of being a "leader" because they're in the leadership group. I care about those who actually assist our younger players when they're out there on game day. Lewis, for all his weaknesses, does that, and right now I think we need his ability to guide the headless chooks we have out there.

This is a fair and reasonable counter-argument. Personally, I don't think we can afford to keep carrying ANB and I think sometimes we have to drop the players who appear to have extra favour with the coaches, if anything as a wake-up call to them or as a signal to the players out of the side that opportunities can arrive. But the reality is that we need improvement from about 19 of the 22 who played vs Essendon if we're going to start winning games.

And a good example of that was the St Kilda loss last year, which was very, very similar to this week's Essendon loss.

IMO Hibberd's biggest problem so far this year has been his kicking. He's missing targets repeatedly. Because of how he plays (which is to take the game on and run off half-back), if he turns it over then he's usually out of position on the rebound. The more he turns it over, the more his opponent will hang back off him and benefit on the rebound. I don't want him to stop running and providing drive, but if he doesn't improve his kicking and start hitting targets then we're going to have a tough time.

You've completely made up the bolded bits of your post.

Sure. The odds are against. But at the end of Round 3 last year Port Adelaide was on top (didn't make finals), Adelaide was 3rd (didn't make finals), Gold Coast was 6th (they won two more games for the rest of the year and finished 17th), Geelong was 12th (1-2, went on to finish 13-9 and make finals) and Collingwood was 14th (1-2, went on to finish 15-7 and was a minute away from winning the flag).

If this week isn't a win, it at least needs to be the Round 3 2006 sort of performance. I want to see a different approach to team defence, I don't want to see the same mistakes being made, I want to see more lowering of the eyes going inside 50, and I want to see us working on our forward press and not being caught too high up the ground (which, tbh, the SCG should help us with).

So Petty missed the second half whilst Preuss didn't play and Stretch only played three quarters. I suppose that puts those three in contention for Thursday? If Stretch pulls up from his game I'd like to see him come in for ANB. Will give us similar output in terms of gut-running, so the onus will be on him to give us more than ANB with the ball.

How can you say that when you haven't seen the 2019 model Lewis? We had about 3 good players during the prelim, not sure why Lewis has to become "a main offender" when pretty much everyone offended that day. He can't do too much worse than some of the current 22 and his on-field leadership is sorely lacking.

Key words there are St Kilda, Fremantle and Bulldogs.

Agreed. It's the same sort of thought process as the "I wish they wouldn't talk at press conferences" one we get whenever we're struggling.

Wonder if the Dogs' win last week was more a product of Hawthorn hitting a wall in the fourth quarter with only two on the bench. Props to GC for getting two wins on the board early, they certainly look a much better side than last year, but the only way they could have had an easier fixture so far than St Kilda, Fremantle and the Dogs would be if they'd had us in there somewhere. Yep, that's it. Everything else has stayed the same. Seriously BBP.

Unders for Kent? He hardly gets on the park and rarely achieved anything in his time here. Unders for Hogan? You couldn't stand him last year. Overs for May? How would you know? He's played one game! You really are something else.

Sorry, I love your passion for the club, but I can't stand it when people change their tune on drafting. This was you on draft day when we drafted Sparrow: And this was you after we took Hore: Please don't make it sound like you thought Sparrow and Hore were bad calls at the time. On the contrary, you liked the look of both.

This is not a pleasant thread to read. But it has to be remembered that we do have another 10 players who are injured and so didn't play at AFL or VFL level. I'd have each of May, Lewis, vandenBerg, Hannan and Lever in the side whilst Garlett, Spargo, J Smith and JKH would have to be thereabouts given the 22 we fielded on Friday night. So yes, we've obviously had a stinker of a day at Casey, but it's not like Casey is reflective of the entirety of our club's depth.

What do you expect "due diligence" or a medical would have picked up that we didn't pick up? He came back from his off-season unfit. We didn't sign him one day before the pre-season started, we signed him weeks prior. Plenty could have changed in that period. We could also have made the decision that he's a talented defender (which he is) and that, fitness issues or not, we backed ourselves and our system in to bring him to the level we and the competition required of him. There are reports which suggest that he trained well enough as to bring his fitness up to the rest of the team's by February.

I honestly think that 6-6-6 is being completely overplayed. It affects the initial centre bounce only. If I had to pick a rule change which has hurt us the most, I'd pick the kick ins. Our game focuses on CPs and clearances and keeping the ball locked in our forward half with a high forward press. The new kick in rule lets our opponents get out of their back 50 much easier than it previously did, and I don't think we've properly worked out how to set up on defensive kick ins. I also don't think we're making the most of our kick ins, we seem to always go long to the 50 on the boundary where Gawn is.

As has been mentioned, you would expect that with our next game on Thursday anyone in the Casey line up who is considered a chance to come into the side this week would have to sit out the second half or something like that. That aside, very interested to see how Garlett, Stretch and Preuss perform, as well as T Smith and Keilty (in case TMac is injured).

I think that's a better way of putting it. The same big weakness in our game (the high forward press leaving us exposed out the back) has reared its head repeatedly since Goodwin started. The St Kilda loss last year was I think a turning point of sorts, as from there until the Prelim our stoppage work and forward half pressure was so strong that only Sydney was able to get through us (until the Prelim). I think a combination of poor fitness, interrupted pre-seasons leading to a lack of continuity in the 22 during pre-season training, individual injuries and key players being down on form (this is as important as anything else) has meant that our stoppage work is down on 2018 and our forward half pressure is not good enough, which has put us back to being opened up out the back again. I noticed Stringer had Oscar and Frost at different stages during the first quarter but I didn't notice some of the other things you mentioned. It's not surprising though. I think we have a significant and destructive level of disorganisation and a lack of confidence in the six who are down there, and a complete lack of on-field leadership. It doesn't help that the two leaders we do have out there, Hibberd and Jetta, are down on their own form.

I think this is pessimistic/MFCSS revisionism. If we didn't "deserve" to make the finals (and we did, because we finished 5th), we won back-to-back finals, which surely puts that argument to bed. The fact we got beaten badly in the prelim doesn't mean we weren't deserving of being there, or that we overachieved by getting there. We were a strong team last year but for a variety of reasons it's not working this year. As to your observations, I'm sure the fitness issue is playing a bigger role than any of us want to admit. We're being beaten in the contest (0-3 in CPs), we're not running off half-back well, and we're not defending hard enough (which incorporates not running hard enough defensively). I'm sure these are all reflective of our poor pre-season.

Richmond, Adelaide, Collingwood, Essendon and Melbourne were in most people's top 8, and many people's top 4. Four wins between them.

If anything, Collingwood and Buckley are an example for us to follow. Buckley was, to the media/public, a dead man walking. Couldn't coach, wasn't getting the best out of his players, was wasting talent. Collingwood had massive talent on paper but had a slow, dated game plan. Then they turned it around. This is genuine carp, praha. Absolute, unrealistic, carp. Every club has players who leave for one reason or another.

I saw this too. Frost lacks innate football knowledge. He's an athlete but not a footballer. So he regularly sees a contest up ahead and starts moving towards it despite not having any chance of affecting it. He then leaves space behind him. He does this all the time. There will always be the occasional time when he picks it up on half back and does something nice with it, or he lays a tackle or something like that. And indeed, right now the ability for him to do something with the ball makes him a better option than OMac. But long-term, we have to find better options than him (and OMac).