Roost it far

Tom Morris is someone I’d love to see in the street, I’ve got a solid, calm, fact filled rant ready for him

Anyone know why he only played a half, has he been injured?

I can’t make it this week but I’m expecting quite the statement from our leaders. A solid win and we’re away.

Anyone know if Windsor will get up for this weekend?

At the end of the day football is a pretty simple game. Our team needs to keep its one wood as contest and defence. It then needs to create some run from the back half and then find space for the forwards to lead into, all the while being ready to defend turnover. It appears we’re leaving 2 talls deep and getting the rest to move up the ground, well that’s what I saw against GWS. Against North our ball movement was sloppy and there appeared to be excessive congestion across our HF line. I guessed this was North mids flooding back to intercept our movement but we broke down there time and time again. Another problem I saw with the game was Xerri wasn’t just beating Max at the bounce he was destroying him in second efforts and was helping the North mids to first use time and time again. That was a massive advantage to them especially in the last. I’m not sure how you counter that other than reminding Max to go again after the bounce is lost or won. The other thing that stood out to me was our lack of line breaking run from continually playing on. Time and again we stopped and propped and then kicked down the line, the very thing we’re apparently trying not to do, it was incredibly frustrating to watch. Surely this is part and parcel of a successful transition game. You either get very good at hitting a target further down the field or you play on and at worst kick to your teammates advantage in a 50-50 contest. At some point this year we’re going to have to take the shackles off and get some run back in our game. A setttled 23 will help with that but that feels at least a month away even with no more injuries.

We did but to bash the club with it is offensive in the extreme.

So Turner and Petty are backs who shouldn’t play forward but May, who is far and away our best and most accomplished back, is a back who should play forward…..right got it!

This is a completely concocted story. The coach gave a tiny fraction of something away and now it’s being used to bash the club. Tom Morris is a scum bag.

I don’t think Goodwin and co are trying to completely change our style. It’s natural to evolve it just takes more than a preseason to bed down. The comp is also incredibly even so if you don’t bring your A game prepare to lose.

If any of you are the supporter who hung over the players race on Sunday and bagged the players out you’re a clown. I’d suggest you go follow Carlton. I hope someone who hangs over the race on match days gives you some sound and firm advice.

No I’m supplying reasons why we’re not contending in finals whilst you’re supplying the kind of hyperbole that is easy to fall into when you watch us put on a shocker like yesterday. I’d agree that Goodwin had a bad game but so did the players. It’s not all on Goodwin. My point is without our best 26 fit and playing we’re susceptible. One of the difficulties with our team is we have serious top end talent in Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, May who are getting paid a lot of money. That means there’s less for the rest. We’ve got a good list but it’s not super deep. We have carried too many injuries, that’s a fact.

Injuries are the number 1 reason clubs don’t reach or play at their potential. Nothing in the current landscape affects performance like injuries. They aren’t an excuse they are the reason and I don’t require your respect.

You’re not accounting for injuries as a reason. We can sit back and pick apart Goodwin but in 23 we lost Petty, a seriously in form Melksham and Gus in the last weeks and still only just lost. Add those 3 and I reckon we’re Premiers. You take DeGoey, Mihochek and Sidebottom out of Collingwood and they don’t win the flag. Last year we had 50% Oliver, Petracca gone in July, May hobbling and several others injured, including Max. We missed finals by a couple of close losses to PA, GWS and one other I can’t recall. Yesterday was horrible but our formline isn’t the train wreck many here believe it to be. We’ve so far lost 2 matches and were without May, Pickett, McVee, Melksham and Tholstrup. We lost both Jefferson and Lever in game and Max was given a complete dusting. Add all those players back in the side and I’ll bet my last dollar were a much improved side.

Ins: Langford, Johnson Outs: Woewodin, Jefferson I’d be doing the least amount of changes possible. The week after we’re likely to get May, Windsor and Pickett back and the week after that McVee and Melksham. If Lever doesn’t get up I’d give Adam’s a run.

One thing I did notice on the weekend is that we seemed very congested across the HF line and particularly at CHF. I’ve no idea why but that made the bomb it long appear even more necessary

maybe but I’m not sacking Goodwin

We often appear flat footed and I reckon that’s largely because the new gameplan is not embedded yet so there’s some second guessing going on. This gets worse when a team brings the heat. I’m hoping as we get the remaining best 22 players back and the game plan starts sinking in we’ll start improving. We do need to snatch a win this weekend to keep the confidence up. Lose 5 or 6 on the trot and cracks will appear.

I’m a believer in finding a player if they’re in space and if you can’t you back your teammate to win a 50-50 more often than not. The game plan has to take precedence over finding 4 loose players to transition the football. It also comes down to getting some help around these 50-50 contests so you end up winning more than you lose. You can chip it around HB all you want but I’d love to see us just take off once we get beyond the D50. I’m sick of watching us take the make and hesitate, pull the trigger and make the next contest happen.

It’s a bit of a furphy that you need a team of perfect kicks to play transition football. Richmond won 3 flags with disposal no better than ours. What they excelled at was manic levels of pressure and the ability to get to contest after contest. North weren’t clean yesterday, in fact it’s one of the worst games I’ve watched this year. What they were was determined to win and Xerri gave them first use time after time.

I’ve read and posted plenty of rubbish on this forum but this has to be near the top. The guy’s played a quarter and a game at Casey and you’ve ascertained that because he wasn’t gushing on draft night he’s not going to work out at Melbourne ?

I tend to agree but what forward set up are we actually trying to instil at the moment. If the idea is 2 talls deep and the rest further up the ground which led to the first Jefferson goal last week are we then replacing a deep tall with Fritsch? There is an argument that you play JVR, Fritsch, Pickett, Chandler, Spargo, Melksham and Petracca/Langford as our forward line. However if the ball kept getting bombed in guys like Combden would have an absolute field day. I still feel our problem remains we’re not sure how much we remain a contest and defence team playing a forward half territory game or a transition team. Thats the balance we’re still trying to find. Again if players fall back to bombing it long we’re in trouble. Against GWS I thought we looked much better at finding that balance for 3/4. Interestingly it was losing contest in the last quarter that ultimately cost us the game.

I tend to agree that playing Fritsch away from goal is counter productive. Problem is is he good enough one out from the goal square?

The Viney bit has definitely been circulating around here. I think it’s worth a shot. After watching on Sunday I’m no longer convinced you can have 3 inside mids in the middle unless Max is dominating hit outs. Witts is no slouch so we need a plan if Max is getting beat. We got Campbell for a reason?? Is AJ good enough to take on their second ruck? Our mids are used to Max dominating and that’s now changing.

The biggest problem the way I see it is we revert to type as soon as the pressure goes up. I’m a believer in getting Viney out of the middle and have him play forward as a small. I think he’s a smart reader of the pay. Rotate Pickett, Lindsay and Windsor in the middle with Petracca and Oliver to get some outside class in there. It didn’t help that Xerri absolutely monstered Max. I just don’t think Langdon should play anywhere except the wing or maybe HHF. Sharp isn’t an ANB replacement but could work towards that perhaps. I think we have to play Laurie or Billing’s, after watching VFL I’m leaning towards Laurie. Such a pity he isn’t a better player. Losing Jefferson and Lever didn’t help our ability to change things up. I think we’ve been recruiting well but I’m leaning towards trading Petracca out for draft picks. Yes he’s good but hard decisions need to be made if this is actually were we are at, which I don’t think we are. I think once we get May, Pickett, McVee back in the side we’ll look a lot better.

I thought Lever and Jefferson going off when we were already missing May really affected our ability to change things up. I’d loved to have seen Petty or TMac moved forward, Turner moved back and Viney played as a small forward in the second half. At the start of the last quarter I would have had Petracca, Oliver and Lindsay in the middle. Anyway injuries cruelled our ability to switch things up and I think we saw that Sharp and Woewodin are still VFL players.