Roost it far

I think the word culture should be banned on this site.

All good, just reporting what I'd seen which is likely what you've mentioned above. He's still an awesome talent and it'd be a real shame if he wasn't helped back to his best. I'd roll the dice but I'm a dice roller......it doesn't always work but when it does.

I don't totally agree with this. They're already friends who hang out outside of football. If, and it's a big IF , Ugle Hagen can get himself back on track I wouldn't be opposed to bringing him over. He's a special talent and if you can surround him with the right help and people and importantly the playing group want him then I say go for it. In some ways it's easier to keep an eye on him and Clayton if they're at the club together. Also just imagine the potential he and JVR would have in the same forward line. For mine he's Jeremy Cameron MK2, he's exactly what we need.......What could possibly go wrong?

I feel by mid season the league might be standing back in awe of this guy. It's no mean feet coming back from where he's been. I hope he gets the accolades he deserves. Hats off. Let's hope JUH can find some inspiration and make his way back. It's a long road.

I've been thinking about the tackling issue since last season. I think the issue lies not with teams being poor at tackling but more the pace on the game and the strength of players core and hips, add in a bit of fatigue and it's no wonder players are breaking tackles. If you watch Salem at the moment, he's not the biggest guy but the strength through his hips is clearly very good and he breaks tackles with relative ease, often more than one. Every team is doing tackling practice but every team is also practicing using the hips to break them. It's tough out there.

His field kicking is actually pretty good. He's a deer in headlights in front of goal.

Billing’s was ok but jeez his goal kicking is embarrassing. Imagine if we storm home in a GF against the pies after being 42 points down and the siren goes and he’s holding the ball 35m out.

Watching the 3rd quarter again v Freo Salem looks fantastic and AJ is exactly the player we need. He’s tough, contests hard, hits packs and gives 100%, he can only get better.

Or possibly our men’s. She appears to have done wonders at WC.

I still think our forward line is good enough. It’s that our best mids, who are superstars of the game aren’t great kicks, imagine if Petracca and Oliver could hit leading forwards lace out 7/10 times rather than just pump it in.

I got that 👍

I feel for Melksham. His knee may have been the difference in 23.

We need more than 1 small forward.

If Tim Membrey is the answer it's a ridiculous question. He'll be broken down before the middle of the year.

Exactly

I think potting a 21 year 6’7’ forward for being poor at ground level is typical media dribble. The guys still growing into his body, has performed the same or better than just about every key forward before him. I mean is his role to rove his own ball or create for the small forwards? His CV is solid and Lloyd is a tool, you can’t argue that.

From the small sample size I’d have AJ ahead of Turner at this point. Van Royen is adequate below his knees for a big man, Lloyd’s a tool. We desperately need Pickett and Spargo and I’m still keen to see Bowey forward. We don’t have elite kickers in the midfield but if Lindsay can pair up with Windsor on one side of the ground they could well become a weapon. I don’t mind the idea of playing AJ, JVR and Turner along with Pickett, Fritsch and Spargo. That feels good to me and AK can back up Max and warm the pine for Langford/Petracca to rotate through there. One other thing, please O please don’t play Max every week. Use Campbell, give Max 18 games and rest him. It’s going to hugely [censored] me off watching him limp into finals right when we need him most. Oh and a midfield of Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Rivers/Viney/Langford is as good as anyone’s. If we can always have 2 of Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Rivers in there we should be able to push deep into September. I’d swap Pickett for Jackson if that ever came up.

Have the mascot play at CHF.

Add in some more games into the new guys, a return of McVee, Pickett, Petty, and Spargo, hopefully Melksham and there’s a lot to like atm.

Where's Melksham at?

At training play a forward line of Fritsch, JVR, Turner, Brown, Mentha and Bowey and see what happens. I'm not sure the current set up is working but it's a small sample size.

I don't see why we wouldn't play AJ alongside Turner and JVR and then if we look to top heavy your plan would work a treat.

Agreed. I think McVee will help. I also think it needs mids to work hard to create separation. This stuff becomes instinctive the more you do it, well that’s the hope.

The bearing it has on us is that we're looking to move the ball faster ala hawthorn. They started last year chipping the ball around their HB line as we were doing yesterday. We're looking to move the ball faster, we're not just grabbing it and kicking it long down the line. As people like Windsor and Langdon get settled in their new roles I'm sure we won't get stuck as we did yesterday. We also need McVee back asap. I actually think we did ok yesterday. Looks like our senior players are going to drag the youngsters along.