Gawndy the Great

Spargo.

Every team has an injury prone player… We already have Salem and questionably McAdam. Let’s see if Petty joins the ranks.

Has speed. We need speed. Put him on the HB.

i just saw the other incident that had Crouch rubbed out for a week. I couldn't believe that the excuse was that one player had went with his hands (butters) down to collect the ball whilst the other (crouch) didn't until milliseconds after the impact was made. We talk about technique and the ability to cause significant injury and you have Butters going at speed launching himself into that contest. I think its another way that players will now 'disguise' intent to make contact. Similar to Maynards 'smother'. The AFL just need to make it black and white. If contact with head is made, you are in trouble. You cannot glean intent of a player, so we should stop expecting umpires and MRO to do such a thing. Assess the action and impact and give a penalty fitting the outcome.

Hunter does appear to have his eyes on Rozee but that attribute has always irked me, that eyes were on the footy not the player. Hunter was at the ball first and Rozee led with this head. Listening to Christensen on SEN right now. He has no freaking clue. He says "not clear" on whether Butters made high contact with Banfield.

So Butters gets off? Right call or not? I think it introduces more confusion. I swear someone got suspended for a similar action last year. Was it Rankine?

Just watch him get off though.

Butters has to go for that hit. Minimum 1 week like Kozzy. Let’s if the media carry on for a full week about it. This will be a test of whether the AFL has favourites or not.

Throw of the year.

Do we want Freo or Port to win? I think either case we go out of the top 4?

Do they miss our game if minimum 3 weeks?

Something to feel good about this week.

Umps putting whistle away in favour of Carlton. Watch em call a BS free now to them.

Im afraid you don’t win a flag with 23 players - it takes a squad of at least 30 serviceable AFL players throughout the season. I do agree you can get injuries at the wrong time of the header ie 2022 finals.

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Doggies need picks to rejuvenate their list. They need defenders and Naughton ain’t going. Darcy will play Forward and they’ll sign English.

Sign a blank check and give it to him and send Petty to the Crows for their first pick and hand it over to the Doggies with one of our 2nds. Develop Jeffo as a CHB / FB.

As hopeless as Bombers are they have some forward craft and kick to a leading player. Create space in their forward 50 and can mark. It ain’t that bloody hard.

Hunter for Billings Kozzy for Tholstrup Hore for Salem

So usually coming inside 50 after stagnant ball movement there is a defender sitting infront of the goal square ~15-20m out. Our forwards usually 2 or 3 of em in the goal square with the opponents. Why wouldn't you lead into both pockets and the 3rd forward come straight at the defender. Lead hard and make the defender sweat once you place the ball there. Doing so would draw more free kicks then not (from holding, blocks, chopping etc), your likely to create some panic in defenders. That's one thing, there are so many plays, patterns you could do. Why don't we do this? it is U12 forward craft. We take 1-2 contested marks every 3-4 games with the current method of long bomb and hope. It just doesn't work and yet 4 years we persist with this [censored]. Drives me insane. People wonder why some go after Goody and the coaching staff. its for these reasons. These are the cracks that get covered with wins. We don't need a generational forward to change this - it is just basic tactics.

So we know this was a hallmark of Richmond's game intended or not. They would often lose the clearances but still manage to force turnover. We know how effective they were from scoring from turnover. It is the best way to win. So how do they do it? It was outnumbering the stoppage. We condeded a fair bit of goal from stoppages last night, it would have been much higher than usual. From memory, Lions first 5 or 6 goals came from stoppage. We setup stoppages to win, whereas Richmond used to setup to neutralise and force turnover. What does my head in, is that we are often -1 or even -2 at stoppage in terms of matchups. I think we have to scrap this idea of having the +1 in defence to allow Lever to intercept. My 3 year old nephew even knows now that you need to put work into Level and not let him be unmanned. Neutralise stoppage at the source, if reduces our dependance on winning clearances, it may mean we become a bit easier to score against, but for crying out loud we are getting mauled this year in the middle and will continue to do so until our trio of Trac, Viney and Oliver are in better form.

Perceived pressure and lack of game awareness. Both aspects that are probably linked to confidence. We keep getting beaten the same way and Lions didn't do anything different last night to overcome this. Why? How does Goodwin escape scrutiny here? He cannot put it down to effort and the playing group and has to take some accountability. Given our midfield performance of late, one has to ask the question as to whether we did the right thing in hiring Mini as well - he has not started well. With a mere 12 hours of reflection, there are a few thoughts crossing my mind atm. 1. The 4-1 start was a bit of a statistical anomaly. We were lucky to beat Port and boy did we look ordinary against Adelaide. Hawks and Doggies were the only games were we looked like a good team. Perhaps this game was a bit of reality check and we really are 6-12 team. Carlton and Geelong games will give us enough data to put this to bed, but right now the win/loss is flattering and our numbers tell a different story that will not be sustainable. 2. Did the off-field drama and desire to prove a point mean we gave it our all in the first 5 rounds, leaving the team spent and helpless against Lions? 3. Have we really adjusted our game plan? Our corridor usage (which we didnt see a lot of last night) was poor and easily shut down by Lions, who gave us the wings that lead us to boring predictable Melbourne. 4. Where was our pressure? Lions are dismantled with intense pressure - cannot let them have their uncontested game. If me, a mere amateur at best in footy tactics can see this, how on earth does a professional outfit not see this and execute? Like most, i'm a bit lost on Melbourne. I didn't have much hope coming into the season, got sucked in by 4 straight wins and again after last nights game am confused as to what awaits us for the remainder of the season. You can lose and still have hope, but that game was confidence shattering - still makes me feel sick to the stomach.

He is offensive. We already have Trac in that space who is a bit more rounded. Trac when isolated is an absolute jet, rarely loses. I wonder how we can do this more often. Would need Oliver to be back to his best though. Perhaps this is something to consider for Trac in his twilight.

Its infuriating to watch as we appeared helpless, chasing tails. The lesson for Brisbane is clear, you need to keep the ball in motion, both with ball in hand and defensively. If you give them the uncontested game, they are unstoppable. Its how Pies beat them this year and in the GF. They are also really good with ball in motion, but it can be defeated by intense pressure on the ball. I dont know if anybody has access to the pressure index, but i'd be surprised if we were anything over 170. Whereas the Lions were probably 190-200+ for most of the game.

He won’t play more than 5 games.