D Rev

Melksham is probably one of the best kicks in the team and a natural forward. I'd leave him in, he may not get many touches but he does create opportunities. Viney was absolutely woeful up forward on the weekend. I understand him not taking marks up there and they shouldn't kick it to him, but he shouldn't be there if that is the case. Similar goes for Trac, if we aren't winning it out of the middle, he shouldn't be up forward. It's a real indictment on the rest of the forwards that Trac needs to be in there at all. Having Disco back will help.

I actually thought TMac was pretty good on the weekend, apart from a couple of bad kicks. Petty was soundly beaten though. Im wondering if Nibbler has been telling him about the Barossa or Rundle Mall or any of the other SA highlights.... Fritsch really was terrible on the weekend. Particularly around the contest. He's a straight swap for Disco.

Thanks for the respectful and considered response! It's engagements like this that give you hope! Good point around the questioning of the use of talent. I feel like things haven't been the same since Trac got injured, which is when the 'rolling rebuild' started. The other thing I keep coming back to is how poor our 'elite' players have been the last 2 weeks when compared to R1. There is obviously something going on. I'm a bit believer in players being responsible to do their best, but it's the coaches role to enable that. Something is definitely not happening to get them going and it needs to change.

Look at the Cats, they never go into total rebuild mode, they just do a 'rolling rebuild' continuously. I reckon we actually started a 'rolling rebuild' after Tracs injury last year. Look at all the young players we brought in. We also drafted really well. Given that we contested well in R1, I suspect that our malaise with our core (elite) group is all above the shoulders. Get that right and we are competitive. It's an even competition and if your stars don't fire, you're done.

For mine, there are four major issues that need addressing: What happened after R1?: I cannot understand how we have gone from nearly beating the Giants to putting in absolute slop efforts. Last week we were run off our feet and this week our vaunted midfield was made to look a grade below. What has happened?! The performance of our top tier players: Following on from point 1, our top rated players were all well under standard yesterday. Gawn looked genuinely disinterested at times and some of his efforts were shockingly half hearted. Clarrie was poor, Viney was non existent, Trac tried when near it but wasnt a game winner, Fritsch shirked several contests, May was soundly beaten (and was lucky not to have 8 kicked on him). Forward Entries: Long time issue, but our decision making and skill execution going forward was atrocious. How many times did we kick to a 2-on-1, straight to the opposition or a shorter player in a marking contest? Really, really simple stuff and equally frustrating. Skills & Nous: I can't remember us fumbling the ball so badly in dry conditions, it was baffling. Similarly, players positioning themselves in the wrong spots at marking contests. So many times the ball came out of a contest and we had players nowhere near it. Our ground kicking was really poor again too; some kicks straight to the opposition and other short kicks and handballs not hitting targets. On a brighter note, I thought many of our second (Salem, Bowey, Langdon, Chandler, McDonald) and third tier players (Sharp, Henderson) were good. Also positive is that Windsor, Kozzie and Lever should all come back in - probably Turner too based on 14 marks and 5 goals. Wouldn't mind Laurie coming in for some skills, but we really need our guns firing.

We have a challenger for clickbait king!

Lies, damn lies and club doctors

1-2 weeks apparently

With all due respect, we are in Round 3 and I can't see any major strategic changes happening to game style at this point.

Oh wow. That's taking me back. Heady times.

To be fair, Maxy hasn't got beat that often over the last 10 years so you expect them to be in unknown territory. Still, being accountable for your man shouldn't be that foreign. Staying next to your man to create a stoppage shouldn't be that hard and should work in our favour

Really glad this thread exists with objective data rather than absolute hysterics. Those percentages really tell the story for me. We were on a par for effort, but couldn't hit targets. Being fit and able to pressure is no longer enough. Footballers needed.

I always say you can't trust the first 3 rounds. We've lost 2 from 2, the first was impressive, the second unimpressive. So where are we and where are we in relation to others? Too early to say but the signs aren't great. Need to start making some big improvements soon.

Agree, if Sparrow kicks that early goals and we are up by 2 goals in the first 2 minutes - different game

You cannot get excited enough about Lindsay. It's impossible.

Without getting shot at, I'd like to remind people that we just lost to a widely rated Top 4 team by 3 points while we fielded 6 debutants and didn't have Kozzy or May. We were able to stop GWS from getting the ball out quickly and scoring at will for (almost) the entire game. I don't think we are going to make too many changes. Building momentum and experience are key. There will be changes through the season, but I can't see too many for this game outside of covering suspensions.

We finished 13th last year so are going to have a fairly ordinary draw....which I actually quite like given kids sports and other commitments. But yeah, we are going to have some matches that will test attendees this season, that's just how it is going to go. If we keep playing like we did on the weekend, we will definitely finish in the top 8 and get a better draw (prime time games) next year. For those saying the Giants had sub 1k fans but we should have had double the number there - if it wasn't an expansion club, the numbers probably wouldve been double. In the corresponding match last year we played the Doggies and 44 thousand turned up, and it was bright sunshine, so there you go.

Petty and TMac were both great, we're so lucky to have them.

They weren't ideal conditions for big guys, but I don't think the kicking was as bad as it's been. Actually pretty good for us. That set up for Jeffo's second was awesome. JVR did run under the ball a lot IMO, or maybe was out positioned. He is still young but needs to improve on it to be the target we all dream of.

I think they only did this do plug a hole and set up attacks for brief periods.

100% this. Coniglio and Green kicked 3 each. Who is best placed to shut down these small forwards that get away from us so often? We seem to have no shortage of tall or mid-sized defenders, I would think that we should have someone who can't make it as a midfielder who has the desire to play AFL in any role?

Woey, Laurie and Billings must be spending a bit of time on SEEK at the moment

Im going for best 22 players IMO - positions can (obviously) change: Bowey, May, Petty Rivers, Lever, Salem Windsor, Viney, Langdon Langford, Turner, Sharp Fristsch, JVR, Chandler Gawn, Oliver, Trac Int: Howes, Sparrow, AJ, Tmac

Id really like to think that AJ will come in, but have we seen enough of him yet? One quarter (?) against North (!) and then a bit of a pick and mix against Freo. We definitely need someone to give Max a chop out and I really hope its him, but Im not sure if this is the game for it. I actually have Jeffo behind AJ at this point, unless a tall forward gets injured. Not like that WILL EVER happen. Definitely get Langford in, why the hell not? No downside.

Nibbla? Never heard of him.