Lord Nev

His TOG hasn't been that low though. It's roughly around his usual average since coming back. Rounds 1- 6: 75.8% Rounds 15 - 16: 75.5% The thing I would like to see is Viney spending more time forward like he did earlier in the year. We seemed to have the midfield mix better than and he was delivering the ball well inside 50. Against GWS he was very much in the middle and it just didn't seem to work.

Perhaps there should be more heat on our goal kicking coach too? Is it still Stafford?

Surely then we're bringing in Daw if that is the criteria?

Is there training today? There was training yesterday and there's usually the captain's run the day before the game, I wouldn't have thought they'd train 3 days in a row; especially on a 5 day break.

Had a quick look at the possibility of the whole training tapering thing some have mentioned. Not an exact science obviously, but if you look at Port's record under Burgess in the round 13-16 range it could potentially give us a clue: Port's record rounds 13-16 (adjusted for byes) 2013: 2-2 2014: 1-3 2015: 1-3 2016: 1-3 2017: 2-2 It's a VERY shallow analysis, but you never know. Burgess has written/spoken a fair bit about tapering training, so it's a good chance it's part of his strategy with us.

“They have got a 10/10 forward. His name’s (Christian) Petracca. Is he best served being a 10/10 or 9/10 forward?” Healy asked on Fox Footy. The move could solve two problems at once. Petracca leads the AFL with 110 inside 50s, but just 11 of his kicks inside 50 have been marked; he ranks 47th of the top 50 for efficiency. In contrast, Brisbane star Hugh McCluggage leads the AFL with a 36 per cent inside 50 mark rate. No forward better than a seven, gun-turned-butcher: Dees’ flaws that may cruel flag bid

Bizarre hey? You would just automatically think that's the match up.

Yep, you're right, just checked, he only kicked one of them with Maynard as his opponent.

Can't remember if Maynard played on him, would assume so, but Greene kicked 5 against Collingwood.

Reckon his sample size is a bit small to be saying he's the best set shot, and his lack of awareness against GWS when forward will mean he'll go back to where he's found his niche IMO. I'm not totally against the idea, just for mine it doesn't seem that likely. Definitely keen on Brown and Melksham coming in, but might not make a huge difference if we keep going slow around the boundary. That's the main tweak needed for me, centre clearances will help that potentially too. What 3 forwards do you have coming out to have all of Hunt, Brown and Melksham in there?

Wednesday would be the day to watch. IMO it would be a light week given the short turnaround, captain's run Wednesday will be the decider I reckon.

In that time, anecdotally, we've gone from direct footy to slow around the boundary, giving the opposition more time to set up. I wouldn't put all the blame for this stat on the forwards IMO.

Not sure the Hunt forward experiment was a winner on the weekend tbh. I would think he goes back again this week IMO.

For anyone still doubting the Ben Brown playing time stuff: Both the AFL and VFL-listed Demons face a five-day break before the trip to tackle the Power, with a handful of players including midfielder – and unused medical sub – Aaron vandenBerg also managed in the reserves. Brown finished goalless with three disposals after a directive to play less than 50 per cent game time ahead of the Power clash. Ben's back? The big indication key tall could return

The only part I find puzzling is why we wouldn't bring him back on the 50% or so game time rotation that Sparrow has been playing? Surely Sparrow could cope with the 75% that Viney has been doing? From the outside it would have made sense to switch them around. This is the Burgo way though, he's the complete opposite of Misson as far as this stuff goes, and probably a small part of the reason why our injury list often 'looks' smaller when it might not be by other fitness bosses standards.

Ah ok, at least you're admitting to trolling now and I can just put you on ignore. Have a good school holidays fella.

Is this your thing now? Trying to troll me by misrepresenting things I've said? Here's some facts for you slugger.

Bowey is a half back.

Played his best footy when we were moving the ball quickly, being more adventurous and attacking. No coincidence that since we started going slow around the Brayshaw boundary that Kozzy and Langdon have both suffered somewhat. Defensive mindset is great, but I think as the year has gone on we've got sucked into it a bit too much.

I don't think 'dropping a few games' would ever be part of a plan, but Ross Lyon was apparently saying he thought we were doing some training tapering that resulted in us looking a bit flat the last few games. It's common for players to miss with 'general soreness' these days, particularly in the lead up to finals, so I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility that a club under Burgess is doing something like an extra block of training, he's pretty famously not conservative in his approach. I'm in agreement with you that our form has been poor, I'm particularly bothered by how slow we've become offensively and how we seem to have cut Langdon out a fair bit by going slow along the opposite boundary so often, I'm just not discounting the possibility that we have been doing the extra training.

That's not really what he said though. He didn't say we haven't/wouldn't do that, he just said we wouldn't get too cute about managing players or about tinkering with the way we play. He didn't give a definitive answer about the training. It's not like he's going to say 'yeah. we're writing off a few games so we can get some extra training in'.

Yeah, AVB will really lift the kicking skills....

What I think it will be: IN: vandenBerg, Melksham, B.Brown OUT: Sparrow, Kozzy, Jordon What I would do: IN: B.Brown, Melksham/Jones, Bowey OUT: Sparrow, Harmes, Hunt Play TMac higher up, but on purpose this time, get Gus and Jake/Chunk to take on the Sparrow & Harmes roles.

Wut?

Seems like it.