JimmyGadson

Yes. But he is a repeat offender as others have made mention. Our medium and small forwards have been wildly inconsistent in their strike rate. And generally it's from open play. (Aside from the obvious couple). We are the scrap kick at goal and bomb it in kings which has kept opposition sides in games for longer than desired all year long.

I can see Godwin's thinking with Gawn spending more time forward in the years to come. But we'd have to reshuffle our forwardline around to make it work. Lets say we got Grundy for a second round pick, grabbed a small forward with genuine finishing skills who has an appetite to pressure and chase like Sheezel. He also has unbelievable x factor which we need forward of the ball. Pickett is not enough. Then we could grab a developing tall leading forward with a later first round pick and have Tom McDonald or Ben Brown in the meantime for that second key tall role with JVR in the wings. I can see so much scope for improvement with Jackson leaving. It's almost like Christmas. He helped us win a flag and now we can bring in a ruckman who is without question a better player when fully fit plus you add even more top end talent to team who is competing at the top. Really exciting.

It was directly in front on the run without pressure. A fairly elementary kick at that level, not sure it needs a lot of love!

Have you heard this somewhere other than Demonland Dazzler?

I can see the appeal. Gawn over 30 and I'm sure we'd like to start transitioning him forward more over the coming years to prolong his career. He can be a head ache for opposition backmen, regardless of his questionable goal kicking. If it were to happen, we'd have to change our method going forward, especially if Ben Brown is still playing. And perhaps there's another forward we're eyeing off. Interesting to hear nevertheless.

Can't believe I'm not apart of this.

Fantastic post. I'm going to start a thread on it, hopefully this post can be stamped there.

I feel uncomfortable that you're agreeing with me. Are you unwell?

The Naughton talk is interesting. I hate this time of year because I'm always let down when we're linked with a player we inevitably don't get. It's hard to believe Naughton would leave the dogs and come to us. But if he did, good God. We'd be laughing.

Convert those shots at goal, bring in a genuine contested marking goal kicker and clean up our entries going forward and we win that game against Collingwood. REGARDLESS OF WHAT PHASE OF LOADING WE'RE IN.

Their crowd has been an enormous factor in the close games they've won all across the country this year. In the Gold Coast, it would have felt like their home game given the number of supporters they have. And at the G, they would feel unstoppable with that force of support behind them. They're a young, up and coming team. I don't care about years previous. It can be the difference in the last quarters of a game. And it has been.

Binman. My god. Have you considered the role a roaring Collingwood crowd plays on a team they're willing on in the final 10-15 minutes of a game? I would say that has far more of an impact on a team's adrenaline levels than you give credit for and is perhaps the reason they rolled us as opposed to our perceived "fatigue due to loading". A home crowd in a football game can be an extra player. There's a reason they have been able to win so many close ones and I'd say this is almost the biggest factor for them. And I'd say if you asked the players about it, they'd agree.

I watched plenty of Mclean in his draft year, he's not the answer for us. Would be fine as a developing backup, but there's a reason he went in the rookie draft and not the national. A fair bit behind the other key forwards of his year due to weaknesses as a player and not missed footy/injury.

Whilst this year is clearly still in play for a flag, I'm already excited for the off-season to see what moves we'll make. Nothing much has changed this year from last as far as game-style and personnel go (bar the last couple of weeks with Melksham's inclusion and Gus going through the middle), which has given every other club a chance to go to town on us from last year to this year. Next year is a chance to tinker with personnel and game-plan (slightly) given the hand we'll have from Jackson leaving. We should be excited, it's come at the best possible time for us. A few others made mention of Richmond targeting Lynch post 2018 and what his inclusion helped bring. Two flags. We're in the same boat. We are so strong in so many facets but I think we're a couple of players short of being unstoppable. Contest and defence won't stop. That's our foundation. But I really dislike it when posters talk down our obvious forwardline/half struggles. The notion that it doesn't matter how many goals we kick if we're keeping teams under 60 points a game is a silly one and our losses to Collingwood last week and the Dogs a few weeks ago is the evidence. Our defensive system is not always humming so we need to make the most of our opportunities going forward and this off-season is the time to address that. Our biggest weakness is most obviously our inefficiency going forward as well as converting shots at goal in general play, regardless of the area we are sometimes instructed to kick due to our game-plan. Upgrade on personnel is vital. You can't tell me if we had McKay and Curnow instead of Brown and a resting ruckman we wouldn't be more lethal. Similarly some of our second string rotational players. Goody has a difficult task of looking at players like ANB, Harmes, Jordan and Sparrow and deciding whether we could replace one of them with someone with different strengths. ANB brings so much off the ball. But we could have a player with slightly less gut-running ability and more potency with ball in hand. I look at what Geelong have done and they look like a completely different team with only minimal tweaks. The inclusion of a fit and firing Cameron and Stengle from this year alone. They look impenetrable. So many times our inability to convert and connect going inside 50 has undone all our hard defensive and contest work. It burns us the other way because we've worked so hard going forward. We've had so many opportunities to bury teams once being up and simply haven't been able to mainly due to skill errors and poor execution. Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw. They're never losing a hard ball. Langdon's running ability is amazing for an outside player. Jordan solid in his role. Sparrow, Harmes, ANB all handy with ANB being exceptional for his off the ball running ability. But one thing they all have in common is their inconsistent ball use and composure. We simply need to even up the ledger and add some players into the mix who use the ball really well so that at times we can pull the trigger and not always have to play default safe down the line as our game-plan wants. This is especially important given how predictable we are now in the way we play and what opposition teams are expecting. If you have a player with better ball use and composure. They're going to hit some kicks at angles and through the middle on occasions that could really give us great looks. A genuine contested marking/goal kicking threat and a couple of dynamic X-factor players with class who can still play a half-forward role/mid rotation is what we're screaming out for. Address this and we're golden.

Thanks for posting. Hopefully this sheds some light to those who keep banging on about Freo not being able to come to the party. Trading picks has been around for how long now? I can only assume many supporters on here aren't aware of that given the angst. The possibilities are many, people need to relax.

We can all comprehend it. It's just the sheer face-palmery of dissecting games looking for fatigue in every corner. It's so silly. There are so many factors. And there are so many factors to fatigue, loading being one of them. @binmanseems to have turned into the Oracle around these parts and predicted a comfortable win. Maybe his loading timetable is out of whack? We lost because we didn't make the most of our chances both at goal and going inside 50. That can be attributed to about 5 things before loading would even enter the conversation. Nevertheless, keen to hear how next week should be another bounce, or sorry is it a dip? Someone will tell me no doubt! (sarcasm)

Posters rate Harmes too highly. If he were as good as many believe, he would have found his way into the side. Glad it's a settled side and can't wait to see Gus in the guts again. Really think this will ignite something going into finals.

Haha. Gotta love how people hear things so differently. One word is all it took. Expected Vs hoping. Changes everything.

I don't believe your mates. Show that the MCG have said that and I'm converted. The MCC certainly aren't predicting that.

Well I wouldn't believe them. 80,000 would be a huge result. 90,000 with Covid still kicking, limited parking and the fact that it's our home game is a pipe dream.

Harmes' best is good. But his worst sucks. Too up and down for my liking. Play to play he is just super inconsistent and we can't carry that going into finals. And like others have said, we needed a rejig and winning aside from Friday, the side on paper looks a lot better imo.

I don't think a comment from an ex-coach or player such as, "they look like they've been in a heavy loading phase which is contributing to their poor performance" is giving anything away. Especially if it's universally known that clubs do it as so many keep saying. Why wouldn't it be a talking point more often if it's so relevant? My thoughts are that maybe it has an effect and maybe it doesn't. Every week the media dissect a game to the nth degree, you'd think they would talk about this topic more if it was such an influencing factor? They don't hold back on taboo topics, if this is that. It simply doesn't make sense.

Man. The legs this tosh has been given is too much to bare. I listened to crunch time on Saturday where Leon Cameron was part of the panel. Not once was there mention of bouncing after going through a heavy loading period from him. And he spoke to why we were able to respond. What I can't understand is why not one ex-player or ex-coach ever talks about it. And the conclusion I've come to is because IT'S SIMPLY OVERBLOWN Perhaps there are minimal gains. But the way posters are going on about it in this thread is face-palm worthy.

I just believe his attributes are better suited to that of a key defender. He was drafted as a swingman who played both forward and back but I don't see any standout forward craft qualities. He's competitive and can take a contested grab. But his goal kicking and forward craft isn't the same as someone like Cadman's. I just think going forward we're better off drafting a natural key forward. That's why Cadman is someone I'd love from this years draft. JVR may well play end up staying as a forward but I think he'll end up being more of a Brody Mihocek type. A solid second/third tall who competes hard.

Can't see JVR coming in either. He played in a side that won by nearly 100 points and some of his goals were tap ins. His performance has been a bit blown outta proportion.