NeveroddoreveN

Great post. I think you are perhaps bit harsh on King when our coach nearly in EVERY post game talk has banged on about lack of connection. It has literally come from our coach on multitudes of occasions. That is not King making it up or pulling it from a rabbits hat...Nor does he have the time to talk for 3-4 minutes straight on any given subject,. How much depth can be given on any area that basically gives you less than a minute to explain. I mean explain tanking to me in under a minute. It takes a lot of quantifying to be solid in your facts..You surely know this! Personally i don't believe any of the footy shows really have great analysis but King/Montagna are doing a better job at it than many others i am seeing. I mean i have never seen anything from Robbo or Gerard in this regard. I am sure you could do better analysis than some of the media clowns but i bet you would struggle also given 45 secs to show some vision and comprehensively explain...It aint gunna happen.

Pretty sure that is the old man beside her....Finger raised of course!

Kossie has looked most dangerous this year when he runs into forward 50 from either midfield or high HF His craft is actually pretty average within the arcs of actually being front and centre to crumb ( rarely there)...Is also flying for big marks when he is just spoiling our talls (Why are you flying?) He is a brilliant player and not for a second would i consider dropping him. BUT he does need a bit of clear direction on what his role is and how he could be so much better if he did the bread and butter things that would take him to the games regular elite. He needs a penny drop moment like Rankine had last year and continued on with again this year. For him it was the defensive side of his game. For Kozzie he already does the defensive stuff....He needs to start doing the percentages things hell of a lot better, get front and square, stop flying. Really believe he sees the game unfold easier running INTO forward 50, not so much so coming out of it. He does crazy things in small amounts of space, give him more space to let him play a more instinctive style that suits him.

Glass fully empty type....Wow that harsh criticism, and pure guesswork for his future. BBB And TMac have not even been getting bags of 3 goals lately. I would say you are going much too early on a kid who has a few years to develop properly. Not every tall forward is ready to go at 18 or 19. Another 6-8Kg next year and he will be much improved. Stop bashing our kids...it is UTTERLY pointless....Just shows you to be particularly impatient or petty. Glad i am not your kid!

Blisters are painful, imagine having an infected one then running on it the way they do! Give him the rest so he is cherry ripe for 2nd half of the year...

Another thread to lament Ben Brown not being in the team....Get over it people, he is out of form and not in the team or emergencies....Go Demons fwiw. *Don't need to read this BS 80 times every thread, we got bunch of parrots without brains on this forum!

Yu could probably tempt them even though he is on long term contract. Not sure he would be worth it on form though...has some pretty large flaws atm. Definitely not playing anything close to value for the 800K figure he is reportedly getting. Major headache for Carlton. They have been an interesting watch.

I think this is the part that is often overlooked. We tend to forget about pressuring the ball carrier and falling back into zones, often giving them more time to assess their options to dissect us. We always look better when we are actively pressuring the ball carrier. To rival the best teams we need to get much better in this area. When we play at our peak it is frenetic pressure on the carrier and it results in dirty balls and interceptions.

Absolutely! His technique is almost perfect....Much better than Rozee's, which certainly contributed to him getting hurt. If you step over the ball though then hit someone without actually going for the ball...You are rolling the dice. Must have watched it about 50 times now and i still don't think he actually goes for the ball at any stage...he knew where the ball and Rozee was, he stepped over the ball turns his hips for impact then the ball drops at his feet. Sure he did a lot right to try and win that contest, but he did enough wrong to earn a week. You gotta go for the ball.

Yes i have played football. Stepping over the footy and then choosing to bump you take that chance. This year the head is a no go zone.. Had he went for the ball at any stage i think he has a case, but that was not the case! It was an afterthought to grab the ball after he flushed him. Take the week and move on.

Having watched this multiple times he deserved a week. He stepped over the ball and made no effort to contest. If Lachie had actually tried to get his hands to the ball he might have had a case.

Next time this happens Max should run straight over PP/Butters/whoever is blocking his path creating an all in brawl. It is about time we stood up. i would prefer to see a lack of discipline for a few chaotic moments and actually stand up to this BS. The weak approach is to do nothing...it will simply keep happening. The whole team needs to be a little more on edge and much more unsociable/tough to play against. Standing up for teammates should be a given. To me this is a massive indictment on the club and insinuating we don't have great culture/unity/strength/spirit. We need to respond and make other teams realise we will NEVER allow ANY of our players to get treated like that. Massive response required by whole team. Expect them to all come out breathing fire this week vs Freo. If we don't play on the edge of unsociable i will be very suprised. Freo are in for a shock this week.

Good work Sammy! Most hamstring injuries don't require surgery and lifting weights with your arms is not going to damage those hammies! Out for up to 4 weeks but recovering well. Great Journalism!

I was not talking about weekly ins or outs....just a few possible positional changes. Fwiw none of your changes are overly inspiring. We are going to look a much less talented team on paper this week. *Clearly if players are injured or suspended they will need replacements...but that is pretty darn obvious!

Presume we will put JJ on a wing for Hunter. Curious to hear what Rivers does this session....In the backline or with the mids? We actually have few options in Harmes/Sparrow to possibly share the role. You know sorta what you are going to get with both....We could be much more dynamic with combination of Rivers/Kossi/Viney.

Have played and watched enough sport to know this is sometimes not enough. You HAVE to fly the flag at times. We were flat and they had all the initiative for 3 of 4 quarters...We needed a spark. Max has had this done to him mupltiple times now. Maybe a response actually is required, You can't allow one of your most influencial players to get bullied out of playing for the day. Going harder is great, but sometimes the team needs to take a stand for supposedly one of our most loved players. You never see them try to target Viney in this way, why is that???! Because he gets better under that type adversity....Max goes to water, he needs a chop out quite simply. We seem to play that much better when we play unsociable football, a bit of pushing and shoving can fire the whole team up. We should have been flying the flag for Max. We missed a trick imo.

Honestly Max need to harden up and retalliate sometime himself. He had Powell-Pepper and Butters doing most of the bumping and annoying. Both are half his size. If he does not react himself how are others in the team to even know it is happening? Max tends to be right off every time this happens. Here is a tip though Melbourne....You defend your own...Every player. Get in there and fly the flag for your captain. Watching the game it appeared we gave them the initiative for 3 quarters. The only time we really fired up was in the 3rd quarter when there was probably the most niggle in the game. Starting a brawl can change momentum and get players cracking in that much harder. I think we missed a trick by not reacting to all the niggle he received on the day...Maybe next time!

The levels of hysteria in this thread are actually laughable....Breathe people! Of course we are not going to find a like for like replacement for Clarry! We have been way too predictable to opposition teams with our midfield setups. Without Clarry we get a chance to evolve. Of all our young players this year i think Rivers has been the one that really upped his output/effort. Throw him in the midfield for the next month.... we might actually develop a balanced inside/outside player with skills and toughness to match. This team has been carried by Oliver for a long time. He gives 100% every week. You don't need to be as gifted or talented as him....BUT we are going to need the whole team to collectively lift and play closer to the 100% that each are capable of. (Many in the team are just cruising atm....Maybe we will just be better without him as the penny drops for some within the team?

If Garry was not commentating our game.... He would be on the matchday thread going mental like many Demonlanders i would imagine!

There has to be simple solutions to a rather silly problem. How about each journalist is invited and they write their best question on paper....If it is accepted the 3 or 4 journalists step forward closer to microphone to ask their questions when required. As it is... do they just randomly pick reporters to ask the question and place them in random corners of the room.....Has always been messy part of the game that seems to not be an issue within other sports.

I actually disagree with his inclusion He has been woeful playing for Casey last few matches. Watching Tmac and BB not bringing the ball to ground on repeat has been main issue why both are not playing. They are both liabilities when the ball hits the ground and repeatedly their opponents are rebounding directly off them. With JVR and Petty they are not letting the cheap intercepts happen all day long. Both are competitive when the ball hits the grounds through bumps/tackles. I don't think Tmac or BB offer much in these areas. Our forward line is functioning pretty well and a big part of that is the fact that Petty is rarely getting beaten in contests, same with JVR, they halve a lot of the contests that they don't win.

So.....he is past his best but should be included ASAP to play 1sts regardless of form?

Hmm interesting you think he is slipping. Thought he has been pretty solid player this year, more consistent than most anyway! Our rebound off the half back is an interesting one. It seems we prefer to use Rivers/Hibberd as running HB options, McVee has lost a bit of his dash last few weeks and i think Bowey is like our designated inside preferred kicker. Ideally would like to see him with more run and gun in his game as he is really creative i am not sure HB allows him to do that all that often. He was pretty highly rated as a junior as a HF and even wing at times....would like to see him tested in these roles. Flexible players are valuable ones, Goodwin should experiment with him a little. Would be a shame to see him pegged as HBF for life, much like Salem :P

You clearly have Salem bias....He has been average for few years now and his body is not holding up well to the rigors of AFL . He started taking lot of soft easy options for kicks and started losing a lot of one on ones + was also tagged out of games easily. Bowey is a much better version with much bigger upside. I think we have seen Salems best footy already...Hope i am wrong! I think there is room to actually play both Bowey/Salem in form, both are great in the backline but would also be very creative forwards, i would personally release one of them forward. *Always loved Salem as a player but have been frustrated mostly by his management and playing well below his best in recent times. It frustrated me even more to drop an in form Bowey for him when he was clearly not fit and had very little impact (happened few times). Bowey should play 200+ games for us at a really high level, he is tough at contest, takes a good mark for his size and is super creative and hits targets both by hand and foot.

Having watched both these teams in every game....Really actually think Hawks have a better system/mids in form and have been better in their games for longer. Fremantle "have" to win this one, not sure they can with their coach and players not on the same page...their plan is all over the shop and JL is not inspiring them, they seem flat at start of every game. Hawks by 5 goals.