Lord Nev

I'm mean, sure, most of your comments on Demonland are 3 times as long, but thought the stats it raised were interesting... ;)

Interesting to note our goals per inside 50 rating has massively dropped compared to our set shot accuracy. Many on Demonland seem to think if we 'kicked straight' we would have won more, but perhaps it's not as simple as that hey?

For reference, average disposals this year: Kozzy - 12.4 Spargo - 11.3

They're not always a big hitout team, but against us they had 18 hitouts to our 67. In their previous games they had 46, 31, 25, 25 and 35. In our last match the hitouts were Dees 38, Dogs 26. Definitely seems like a big enough change to justify thinking it's a deliberate strategy. They average 10 tackles inside 50 this year, against us they had 15. Also, they average over 13 marks inside 50 per game this year. Against us they had 6. Yep, but playing him in a different role took away that advantage we had last time. The quality of their clearances was WAY up this time as opposed to round 11. They kicked 6 of their 13 goals from stoppages. My view is they did both. They maximized what they're good at while also having a plan to take away some of our strengths and challenge our weaknesses.

Maybe, but it's also coincided with Viney coming back and Gus playing more midfield.

100%. Kozzy in the middle gives us that little bit of unpredictability too, which we desperately need. Not sure why we stopped doing that.

You wouldn't know this without being in the inner sanctum of course, but gut feel is they decided to let Gawn win the hitouts without even really trying so that they could predict the stoppages better. They then dominated stoppage clearances and kicked 6 goals from them. Seemingly they were also more than happy to have some 'chaos ball' in their forward 50 knowing it takes May and Lever out of the equation and puts pressure on out of form players like Hibberd, Rivers and Salem. Seemed Goody tried to combat that with Spargo in the back half but that didn't really work. Also, he played Libba more on the outside this time instead of just in the guts like round 11. On top of that, it looked like they tried to disrupt the tag by putting other players to Harmes and/or Viney. In the end, it seemed like either we gave up on that tag or the taggers did a poor job.

I don't mind him keeping ANB if he's bringing the consistent pressure etc tbh, but I think where we're falling down a bit is we haven't evened up the balance of quality ball use. It would probably be not so bad if Spargo was getting the ball more, but as it stands we have Spargo, ANB, Harmes and Viney all providing 'pressure' without enough quality delivery or scoreboard impact, so when Oliver, Petracca, Langdon and Gus don't deliver to their absolute peak (as we're seeing currently) we fall down a bit in the forward half. Get Melksham in, get Viney back to forward/mid, get Harmes out, get Spargo more involved with the ball and I think that could lead to more goals, and maybe even some super easy set shots that will help to build confidence in our goal kicking. Then all we have to worry about is the midfield disconnect and the problems in the back half when the ball is on the deck...

Yet you have Daw coming in...

Ok then...

FWIW I'm not putting it all on Gawn. Equal parts blame between Gawn, the centre mids and the coaches. It's just all out of sync and not working.

Bit of a tale of two halves for him tonight IMO.

As evidenced more and more as the year goes on, we also need another ruck because we don't get as much value out of Gawn's hitouts as we should.

Yep should have been. My point is more that not one of his team mates cared.

You can certainly 'fly the flag' without giving away a free. I mean, it's exactly what the Dogs were doing at the time...

We didn't win the match tonight. The performances of Gawn, Petracca and more of our 'matchwinners' was just us much to blame as the performance of ANB.

'Unified team' Harmes goes into bat for Gus after the Hannan goal (no one else does), then gets ragdolled to the ground and no one comes into bat for him... Not a big deal, and just the huff and puff, but just little things like that are noticeable sometimes. Also noticed no one really got around Viney when he kicked that goal. Real weird vibes.

Thanks mate! Where'd you find them btw?

I agree mate, he was fumbly and didn't use it well, particularly in the first half, but I don't think Goody will consider dropping him given the other things he did the coaches seem to value highly. Also, all of Oliver, Petracca and Gus all had 7 clangers. Gus from just the 19 touches too. Skills are a BIG problem for us everywhere.

Hasn't been great, but is still in our top 3 for goal assists.

Disposal efficiency is a flawed stat, but for reference: ANB 48% Gawn 38.9% Petracca 35.5%

Sure, and I'm not implying he was great, but those tackles and clearances in particular will likely see Goody keep him in as he has done in the past in similar circumstances with ANB.

25 disposals, 7 tackles (3 inside 50), 7 clearances. Don't reckon he's coming out mate.

Be prepared to potentially take that back one the hit out to advantage stats are out.

Hitouts Dees 68 Dogs 18 Clearances Dees 41 Dogs 49 Feels like smothers might have been a telling stat too as weird as that sounds. We were just so slow to react with the ball in hand, made bad decisions and it's the 2nd week in a row we were disgraceful when the ball was below our knees (even allowing for conditions).