Demon Dude

so we'll probably play him off the half back flank then?

looks like the club played it safe taking Dunkley, he looks a solid sort of player. I sort of wish they took a risk though and chose someone with a bit of flair about them. but anyway, hopefully he can kick to a team mates advantage, if he can, I say put him straight in, as not many of our other guys can.

yes I know, I spelt it correctly in the sentence before. its been a long day. but is there any reason to point it out besides just being a bit of a pedant?

would like to see changes something like this out- Petty, C.Wagner, Garlett, Smith, Lockhart. in- Salem, Lewis, ANB, Weideman, JKH, We missed some decent ball use coming out of defence terribly today. Salem and Lewis should help with that. Garlett is done and wont be missed. Weideman needs to play if he's fit, over Smith. we've had some young blokes like Lockhart and Petty play a couple of games, and now they need to go back, work on their games and press for selection again. there's a few more lucky to be holding a spot atm but they're time will come soon.

thought Spargo played no worse than Jeffy, CWagner, and Lockhart did today. the difference was that was his first game in about a month, so what's the other guys excuses for playing so poorly?

there's a report on the AFL site, suggesting Carlton look set to grab ex Docker Josh Deluca with the first pick. pretty sure we wouldn't be after him so that's a win for us I suppose.

both us and the Giants don't play the MCG well, so no real advantage there. I think they have more class across the ground than us at the moment so im expecting about a 4 or 5 goal loss. but will be happy to be proven wrong of course.

This is what happens when you let guys off the hook just because they're a "champion of the game" and a "ball player". They think they can do whatever they want. He needs to be suspended, like he should have been the last 2 times he hit blokes in the head. Everyone should be be judged under the rules the same, no bending the rules just for the elite.

Misson said the concussed guys still have to get ticked off on Saturday. Haven't you ever heard of a late change?

Yeah I'd go Wagner on Greene too. Put Hore on one of their lesser forwards so he can drop off him when he's not in dangerous positions and intercept for us.

Late change is still possible if Smith's not 100% though. I wouldn't risk him.

From that bench I would make 4 changes. Weid in for Smith. Wagner for ANB. Spargo for Stretch. And Lewis for Fritsch.

I always thought Jeffy and ANB were our worst kicks in the side, and now I know its true?

out - Fritsch, Smith, ANB in- Lewis, Preuss, C.Wagner I think its too much of a risk taking in all 3 blokes who were concussed last week. Salem can stay but the other two are replaceable enough by other players without losing too much. and Fritsch needs a spell. send him back to Casey to play as a forward, then bring him back in to play as a forward when he regains some touch.

but you can certainly help your chances of having less injuries next year by managing player operations and rehab times towards the back end of this year. set them up for good pre seasons. we weren't ready for the season to start this year, that's been painfully obvious, as we looked unfit and injured from the get go. i reckon at some stage when the years done and dusted, the club will come out and admit that this years pre season was a bit of a disaster for us.

i'm looking forward to having less injuries and a proper pre season for our players next year. would also like to see a freshen up of our assistant coaches and some new ideas implemented into our forward/offensive systems. Maybe make a play for Jarrod Roughead to join us as a forward coach for next year. hell he teaches blokes for free when playing VFL. for the remainder of this year I would like to see- the continued playing of Hore, Petty, Baker and Lockhart when we can. -the return of a fit Lever, Hibberd, Jetta and May into the backline mix. and the return of Hannan, Melksham, Weideman, Spargo, JSmith, and AVB into the forward/midfield mix. but importantly, I only want to see those who come back in selected on the back of good form for a few weeks in the VFL. make them earn it. we need pressure for spots to go on in the backend of this year so we can work out what our best 22 looks like for 2020. -would also like to see Lewis pull the pin on his decorated AFL career, sooner rather than later. move him into more of a coaching/player role, but without the playing, to see out his contract. -I want to see Fritsch used exclusively as a forward, where he played his best footy at Casey. -want to see Hunt kept as a forward as well. -Salem used up around the ball more often to allow him to be more creative and dangerous for us by foot through the middle/fwd, like Melksham is, and help improve our forward entries. and I would like to see our mids stop continually bombing long up and under high balls into the f50.

I think a lot of our guys are showing the side effects that having a poor preseason will bring. if you are underdone then you're confidence is going to be down to begin with. plus you're missing shots on goal in games that you'd normally kick because you're tired, and all of a sudden it becomes a bit of a mental game as you're struggling to work out just why you aren't kicking goals. then the pressure comes on and you become even more tense, and on and on it goes. there's no easy fix. the boys just have to keep working hard and find some confidence from somewhere and it turns around for them. if Trac is serious he should be paying someone to fix his goal kicking out of his own pocket and practising in his own time on it. I would if I were him, as there could be a big payoff in it for him come contract time if he can start kicking another goal or two a game. could be money well spent. some of Garletts goal snap attempts and field kicking the last few weeks have been a bit bizarre. looks like he's holding the ball the wrong way, and kicking the wrong side of the ball at times to curl it towards goal through the air. i know he got 3 goals yesterday, (got a couple of easy ones over the back), but to me it seems like he doesn't have the time to adjust the ball in his hands anymore in traffic and just throws it on the boot anyway he can. or maybe he's been practicing the ground ball roller that much he's confused himself on how kick the ball properly. he needs to sort it out whatever it is, because besides this aspect of his game letting him down, he's been finding the ball well enough. TMac still doesn't look 100% to me and is lacking penetration on his kick. I haven't looked at it closely but he may be leaning back on it a bit too much compared to last year? but I think he's smart enough and a strong enough character to sort it out eventually, so i'm not too worried about him.

I thought he was ok. he should play more games now that finals look a distant dream for us. I want to see more of Baker too. give them a good run of games and see what they've got to offer us going forward.

Eagles only going with the one ruck. unless we have a late change, we look like we have 1 tall too many in defence so must be planning on using Petty and Omac on the key fwds and Frost again as the loose man to stop them getting out the back. their small forwards look like they could give us the run around.

yeah we need a pressure fwd but I think we need flanking defenders more, if we get one more injury back there we will be in even more strife than we are at the moment, so there's a good chance the new recruit would get a game, as we don't have a lot of other options. we can send Hunt back again but then you're robbing the forward line of another pressure option and he's not a good defender anyway. of our defensive players Lewis is on his last legs. Jetta isn't getting any younger either and is banged up regularly and you can write him off for most of this year. Hibberds form's been up and down, and he also gets banged up with injuries more often than he used to. Fritsch isn't a defenders A hole. Wagner is a limited footballer. and Salem would be better suited pinpointing passes into our fwd line, if we only had more backmen to replace him with. and all of those guys are about as fast as turtles, except Hibberd, who breaks the occasional line. we need to find some new defenders, even for depth this year as the kids aren't ready.

I would prefer we go for a running/skilful defender type, if there's some around, as we lack for smaller defenders with a bit of pace and skill in the back half. we have a couple of the older guys in the backline struggling with injuries and form of late, and only a couple of young kids coming through that probably wont be ready for a while yet, and are using makeshift defenders like Fritsch down back instead. I see that as our greater list need at the moment. but I guess anything would be better than another inside mid.

Dil and Shocking must be worried about what they've done. footys never been so boring imo. also while we are talking about it, I've come around to the way of thinking that they should just do away with prior opportunity altogether. if you don't want possession for fear of getting caught holding the ball, just tap it on until you do want to take possession. like they used to do before they brought in the prior rule. at the very least they should bring in team prior opportunity like Moonshadow says. it might help clear some of these scrums that end up repeat stoppages and would be more exciting to watch, keeping the ball in constant motion. ruckman will bring back the big smash to clear the ball out of the ruck as well. a feature of the game that has all but disappeared these days.

that would be ANB.

out- Keilty, Garlett, Lewis(inj), Melk(inj), Hibberd(inj) in- Preuss, Anb, Smith, Baker, C.Wagner we're going to have to do some player shuffling to cover the likely losses of Lewis and Hibberd in defence. Fritsch and Hunt to play as defenders instead of forwards would be my move, as we don't really have much defensive stock in reserve. I want Garlett gone, but he'll probably be lucky we've had a few injuries and we wont want too many changes in 1 week, but he looks cooked to me.

ban the idiot for good. blokes a disgrace to the jumper.