Swooper1987

Dean Cox 2006

Grundy has been average this year. Currently rated the 9th best ruck in the league. Nic Nat and Gawn (presuming he returns this week) would be the two front runners. Keen to see how Naitanui goes away from Perth. Goldstein has had a reasonable year and Witts from GC as well. The two pronged St Kilda ruck team has been excellent as well.

Versatility has always been an underrated commodity. Tomlinson can play a number of roles reasonably well. That makes him a very useful AFL player. He's covering off the second or third tall forward in the opposition at the moment which is helping our defensive unit function much better overall. He can be a serviceable wingman who gives us that long, down the line option. He can pinch hit in the ruck and not be outbodied. I think as time goes on he'll prove his worth. Would I like to see him attack contests a bit harder - for sure, but overall he's going ok.

This

Grundy is struggling. I expect that they will give him a game off. If not, in his current form, any combination of Preuss, Jackson, Weid and TMac should be sufficient. I'd aim to have Gawn cherry ripe for our last 6 games.

Absolutely makes sense. He is spent. Can barely raise a trot. I reckon he's carrying an injury too.

Grundy is barely going at the moment. O'Brien comfortably beat him tonight. Unless Gawn is near to fully fit I'd give him another game off.

It was actually 2017. He suffered a bad hamstring injury and missed 9 games. We had some good clearance stats and won 5 and lost 4 while he was out. It was a 12-10 season which I'm sure you all remember. Of the 4 games we lost - Round 4 v Freo by 2 points; Round 5 v Richmond by 13 points; Round 7 v Hawthorn by 3 points and Round 9 v North Melbourne by 14 points. I'd argue had Gawn played we win at least two of those and comfortably make the 8. I guess stats tell you whatever you want them to.

Great to see Lever back to near his best. Over the length of his contract he'll prove a very astute piece of recruiting. Petracca was his now usual dominant self. Very impressed with Hannan's start. He led well and contested super hard aerially. He faded but started with great intensity.

6. Petracca 5. Lever 4. Oliver 3. Brayshaw 2. Langdon 1. Jackson

In all honesty, if they went back and forensically examined every game Gawn has played this year they'd find the same thing. Brisbane did it, Port Adelaide were even worse because they were actually physically restraining Max in marking contests (Westhoff in particular). Gawn is a bloody marvel and we are so lucky that he plays for us.

Walker copped a fine for his hit on Gawn last night. A step in the right direction. Be handy if the umps could pick it up as well.

And Cox played in the centre square with Judd, Kerr and Cousins. Hard to believe that side only won the single flag - by a point!

Goodwin has simply stated what most of us have observed for a number of years. No doubt there have been advances made to the relevant authorities over some time and I think the last couple of weeks it has reached new levels. Port continually held Gawn back in contests (Westhoff repeatedly held onto his arm), Brisbane were blocking his run frequently, Adelaide did sit him on his backside a couple of times and credit to the umpire who picked one of the blocks up and awarded a free, albeit actually behind play and not forward of it. Aside from that, he puts himself into positions where he does frequently get smashed into. There was a particularly crude effort last night where he was hit flush in the back of the head - no free, just play on! David King's old coach would regularly come out with the "just give Wayne a go" call, often around August in the lead up to finals. Pagan was a master of it. I'm actually pleased Goodwin has found his voice.

Mods feel free to merge this if you don't believe it's worth its own thread. Jennings on Whateley this morning spoke at length about Gawn and his influence. The first 3 or 4 minutes are really interesting. He believes Gawn is the best player in the competition and one of the top 3 alongside Carey and Ablett Senior in his time in the game.

Goldstein struggled last night against the Cats. I think Gawn can handle that one reasonably well. He is the fittest ruckman in the league, back not withstanding. Also North are coming off the 4 days as well and Goldy is 4 years older than Max. After that, Grundy has not been anywhere near his best all season and it may be an opportunity for Preuss, but it is also nearly a normal week after we play North. I reckon the big fella can manage it. He is an outstanding leader and was quite rightly lauded by Goody after the game.

Haven't got a link but the totals after the last round are: Neale 61 Gawn 46 Goldstein 45 Steele 42 Macrae 38 Parker 37 Gaff 37 Higgins 36 Pendlebury 36 Naitanui 35 That's the top 10. Petracca is on 30 with Boak and Tim Kelly.

The Adelaide ruck O'Brien isn't a bad player. He was very competitive against NicNat and Goldstein and moves around the ground pretty well. He'll take care of Jackson and any other second ruck we want to throw in there. If Gawn misses and Preuss is available he'd have to play.

You are right, but back then he handballed far more. It's his kicking that lets him down and he does far more of that now. His sloppy handballs (and there aren't too many of those) usually result in congestion and a ball up. His errant kicks (and there are more of those) result in turnovers and goals. It only takes two or three per game for the perception to become reality.

Mark Robinson’s mid-season All-Australian team Not surprisingly Gawn is ruck and Petracca in the midfield.

6. May 5. Lever 4. Hibberd 3. Gawn 2. Lockhart 1.Sparrow

Earlier in the week I spoke with someone in an incidental work conversation who had been working for an AFL club coaching panel pre covid. He has subsequently been stood down. I don't really know him at all but he noticed that I'm a Demon fan from a top I was wearing in our online meet. He was trying to sell me stuff so he was obviously looking for an "in". We had a bit of footy chit chat and he asked me about my thoughts on the Demons. Then I asked his. He said Gawn is the best ruckman in the comp, and quite possibly the best player, but he plays with "peanuts". He said if Gawn went to a side like Geelong they'd be unbeatable. In his view our midfield fall into one or more of the following categories: double grabbers (fumblers); poor skills; poor decision makers. He said every one of them had at least one of those issues and some had more. He said Gawn gives his midfield first look way more than any other ruck in the competition but the midfield either fumble it, butcher it or pass it on to somebody in a worse position almost all of the time. I asked him about Petracca and he pointed out a very small sample size to go on to quantify his improvement, but that he appeared to have made himself a better player by working harder on both fitness and decision making i.e clearing the immediate area with possession distance. He said the way to beat Melbourne is basically concede the tap, understand where Gawn is dropping it and wait for the midfield to either fumble or turn it over. Down the line, add numbers to any contest with Gawn to neutralize his aerial impact and know that when the ball hits the deck the opposition is much better than 50-50 to scoot away with it. He said neither Gold Coast or Hawthorn covered Gawn properly when he dropped back and that's why we looked so good. Brisbane did and while Gawn had solid numbers, his actual game influence was nullified. He reckons every team playing Melbourne spends at least half their prep time on Gawn. I watched last night with this conversation in mind and it played out pretty much as above. Even Hinkley and Wines post match saying how much time they put into Gawn. He didn't offer any solutions, just pointed out the issues, which unfortunately seem to compound.

I can't find one. It's usually in the paper every Monday.

Gawn was second favourite two years ago and Brayshaw outpolled him, albeit 21 to 20. I think Gawn's season has been underrated here. The Age player of the year is a pretty accurate guide as a rule and Gawn is polling very well in that. Second or third from memory. He's in the top few in the Herald Sun award as well. The coaches have Tracc in second place and Gawn around 10th. When we win Gawn is always a chance to poll 3's. I believe Tracc has barely ever polled a Brownlow vote. Be interesting to see whenever they count them.

An excellent post DeeSpencer. The other one is the constant hanging off Gawn at every opportunity, the cannoning into him at every contested marking opportunity and the non existent protection provided to him because he's 7 foot tall. It's almost as though different rules apply to him re chopping of the arms, in the back and holding the man.