Gawn's Beard

Win, lose or draw. It’s refreshing to see that we still have the 2018 football in us.

What did I just read???

Re Jetta - it happened when a saints player dived across his knee. Was a missed free kick and I thought the whole point of bringing in the rule to begin with.

Agreed, although I thought last week we were fine with the 1 ruck. The week before Port structured their ruckman really well. They were each playing 1 kick in front / behind the play at all times. Our ball use was poor and it played to their 2 ruckman setup

One plays predominantly forward, the other wing... We aren’t blessed with many half-forwards at the moment so we couldn’t really drop him for a wingman.

Our problem has been locking the ball inside 50 / forward pressure. Adding another tall isn’t going to help with that. Keilty may have been worth a look but perhaps a forward line with 3 talls isn’t the right balance?

Re ANB, he is generally the team leader in “pressure acts”. Week 1 he had 30 (Spargo 9, Wagner 13): For a team who’ve allowed the opposition to transition with little pressure in the first 2 rounds, I suspect the coaches will be sticking with him. Yes he’s disposal isn’t great but our ball movement in general hasn’t really helped him or the other forwards.

So... Did we work out how training went?

This should just be pinned to every pregame thread...

Before we all completely lose our minds, does anyone know what the injury actually is? If it’s a strain then I agree, it was silly. If it’s something else (ie load issue) then having him out there wouldn’t have made much of a difference to the underlying injury.

I read the forum before checking the score. I presumed we were down by 40+ points...

@Chook in Perth - Are you able to shed any light on this?

Is it entirely plausible that Hogan has told the club, but the club are brokering a deal prior to Hogan going public? If he comes out and say I want to go home to Fremantle, it weakens our hand somewhat

http://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-15/thanks-razor-dees-lowfive-of-gratitude#/ Anyone concerned that Brayshaw might leave should have those fears allayed by these comments: "How could you leave this team?" he said with a wide grin. "I keep talking about it, but the last two years I haven't played a lot of footy and the 10 minutes after a game is the golden 10 minutes I missed the most. "I love all my teammates and I love the place, so hopefully (my new contract) gets sorted sooner rather than later."

Oliver had an operation during the week on his finger - which was fractured apparently. Pretty impressive that he could get up for today’s game and still be as clean as ever!

Surely Mark Neeld has to be a leading candidate?

Just send him 4 videos: 1. His assist to Garlett against Richmond last year 2. His one handed trap and handball against Hawthorn in his first year 3. The handball against the saints to Jones to set up a goal 4. The 25m handpass from the middle of a pack to (I think) Petracca against Brisbane last year. If anyone wanted to put together a highlights package for him i’m sure Demonland would be eternally grateful!

I look forward to us winning this game - it will be nice to see some sanity return to this Forum. While I’m all for critical and constructive analysis of players and team performance, the slotting of players, coaches and the club (often irrespective of outcome or performance) generally is, quite frankly, pathetic at times. We are at the end of the day supporters of this great club. Imagine if one of our players jumped on here to have a read - whatever confidence they did have would be gone on page one of a post-game thread.

I think for me the issues almost boil down to a change in roles across some of the defensive lines, particularly: Hibberd & Hunt: gone from the alternating free half backs to tighter man markers. Hibberd has been required to play deeper than he was last year Lewis / Vince: now playing the free half backs It’s meant we’ve played with less pace, are quicker to close down up the ground, and then get exposed out the back. Perhaps Lewis going out will be a good thing for our defensive structures, particularly to be replaced by someone with pace who can implement the aggressive press more effectively. I understand wanting to get the ball into Llewis / Vince’s hands at HB, but it appears to be causing too many structural issues for our defence to deal with

It’s funny how we’re always the subject of these articles. Yes while we’re guilty of it, most teams across the weekend conceded a barrage of goals in quick time. Teams can’t and don’t play at 100% for 120 minutes, so it’s about minimizing the damage when you’re not at 100%. We were better at it this week

I didn’t say he was a lock for the season. I said that if he produces that kind of form all season then he’d be a lock... I agree all players are on notice and must perform week to week. Just happy that Kent produced the performance he did today when many of us questioned whether he still had it in him.

Great game by Kent today. Lifted us in the first quarter with his tackle and goal. He did a number of 80-100m gut busting runs to give an option today. Must have worked on his fitness because it really showed. If he produces this form for the season he’s a lock for our forward line. Would have felt like a bit of redemption for him too - it’s almost 12 months ago to the day against North where he shirked from a 50:50 contest running towards goal.

Interesting to see Max Gawn practice his ruckwork at the Centre bounce with the match day umpire bouncing

Daw could be a good strategic change for the Roos (obviously they would prefer Tarrant). He could be their second ruck, and should dominate whoever he’s up against. That said, Dees to win and win by 5 goals

A lot of the issues were down to two-way running (or lack thereof) from the midfield. While we were winning our fair share of the clearances, as soon as the ball was turned over and went the other way our mids were very slow to transition. I love Trac and think he’ll become a superstar but 2 way running isn’t his best attribute. It might have been part of the reason why he was moved forward after HT.