JimmyGadson

JVR is a good young player but he wasn't dominant yesterday. The team was and his goals came on the back of that. I actually prefer him as a defender, I think he's not a natural forward. We'll see though.

Harmes is no auto selection back into a side that just had it's best four quarter effort for the year. Posters overate Harmes also. Our mix looked great and I agree with others in that he should be competing with Sparrow for that mid rotation, or Jordan on that wing role if it comes to it. Hunt in form playing on a flank is a big boost and point of diff for us. Likewise with Gus playing more mid allowing Petracca to float more forward. And Melksham is nailing his role atm and I think could be a great tag on Daicos. Rough him up and get dangerous going forward. We need to start intimidating some of these players that we've allowed to get off the chain in previous games. Ben Brown for Weed the only change.

Great win, need to roll on now. Midfield looks so much better with Brayshaw in and I can't help but enjoy Harmes not playing. For me Harmes is just so inconsistent in his play. Brayshaw is clean, sticks tackles, is far better in his defensive play and can contest in the air. I think Sparrow and Jordan are great second string mids, Harmes is one too many unless he plays a pure shut down role. Other than that he just doesn't do enough good because it's always undone by his bad. Still would love to see Chandler get a gig but Melksham has hit some form again. Defensive efforts are a lot better and he's got his kicking back. When he plays like that, he's super important.

Christ almighty it's a comedy in here.

Sounds like you're getting caught up in the weather cobba. It's been wet all week. It'll be wet on friday. And it'll be a wet game, even if there is no rain during it.

Yeh, well I didn't put much thought into it and clearly we wouldn't be happy with that and would be asking for more. I was just coming up with a conservative example of how it could work but the possibilities are obviously many. See above ^

You're taking a narrow-minded view. For example, if we were to chat with a club and agreed on a trade up before acquiring those picks, then we'd take those picks obviously. I'm not for a second saying we'd take those picks to the draft. No doubt we'll want more. I'm spit balling. If we could turn 14, 16 and a late first rounder into 5 and 8 for example, you'd do it.

It's going to be super wet, lack of talls won't be an issue. I imagine we'll go smaller anyway. Ben Brown being unavailable is fine.

When up and about.. How often has that happened this year? His lack of form has clearly contributed to our woes forward of the ball. Brown, Weed and Fritsch are all in the top 10 for least pressure applied within the AFL. And Brown has absolutely been out bodied and out marked throughout many games this year. Far more often than he's taken a contested mark.

Let's think about this. Let's say if Gus left as well, we'd get a late first rounder/early second rounder as compensation. Jackson leaves, Freo have pick 14 atm. Brisbane have pick 16 as it stands and are likely going to want Ashcroft as a father/son so will require points so there's possibilities there for Freo to get Brisbanes first round pick for a swap of later picks. Imagine what could be done with three first round picks for us. Whether that's trading up the draft, targeting an established player or hitting the draft as is. There are so many possibilities. And you've got to back our recruiters in given their history. I'd be looking at this as a chance to hit the first round hard again, be super aggressive and consolidate our list with another crop of young talent. What an opportunity. We know we'll demand overs for Jackson. Can you imagine if we landed another Oliver? A McKay or Curnow type and a De Koning? Trust in Jase Taylor.

The further this has gone on, the less I'm worried about him leaving. From a playing perspective, losing him never really bothered me. But from a leadership and culture perspective, I wanted him to stay. But hearing him speak yesterday, I don't think he's fabric at all. Fabric players never speak like that. If him leaving meant we got another late first rounder, it would only help in our quest for sustained success. We need another crop of elite talent coming through so that once our current core hit the 27-28 age bracket, we'll have some young players also hitting some consistency. Really, it's the only way a team can stay up the top. A little pain for one year and a lot of gain for future years. We've got to keep looking forward.

If Chandler doesn't come in this week, I'll be disappointed with the club. They constantly state that strong VFL form is how you force your way into the side. And we had a number of underperforming players against the dogs. The team needs a shake up and an injection of new life imo. It's also going to be wet so a smaller forwardline is going to be a lot more difficult to deal with. He must be given a crack. What else does he need to do?

Cadman looks great. We need a young and talented key forward and in that Cameron mould would be perfect. Point of difference. Him and another mid inside the top 15 would be ideal. If we could do that through the Jackson trade, you'd be happy.

Like him or dislike him, he's not wrong.

We'll be fine. And will be better in the long run. I want to stay up the top for a while, not be a flash in the pan side. More high end young talent and some ammo for aggressive targeting of players. Trac and Oliver are only scratching the surface.

Great post. Thanks. Let's hope to see an energy bump. Although it'll still be hard to tell what the motivation behind a response will be given our backs are against the wall!

And how much benefit can come from this type of loading with a fixture that gives you breaks all over the place, plus travel and then the need for recovery. Or was it pre-bye and then into the bye only that we were loading for? In which case, where's our spike? I'll say it again. If you have a longer break between games, obviously you can put more 'load' into the legs and have some longer and more intense training. That is obvious. Surely that is not the type of loading/periodisation that people are talking about is it?

I can't help but laugh at this. Because if we lose to Freo, I can't imagine you're going to come out of the woodwork and suggest that it weakens the argument for loading..

Christ. Anyone who thinks we're likely to go 0-4 are delusional. We should be winning two. And I'm hopeful we can win three. We're a bloody good side, just need to get going. No more injuries please.

Perhaps. If you look at champ data and our numbers game, we are not in the same type of form. Even though we lost. Defensively we were much better. Forget the 10 point loss last night versus the 20 point loss at the G. We conceded 110 points which we haven't done for two years. The coaches would take that as a bigger loss.

Also. I did the ladder predictor. Two wins from the last four against Collingwood and Carlton still had us finishing second which was interesting. However that was dependant on a couple of losses from Brissy against sides that could beat them and maybe one or two other losses that are more like 50/50 games. No upsets.

I didn't catch that in my highly emotional state, apologies.

What was I wrong about? Fritsch responded, passed when he should have and took opportunities that he should have. Doesn't change the fact that he made some shockingly selfish decisions in consecutive games. Demonland wouldn't be the same without my criticism. It would be too fluffy and joyous all the time.

Who wrote that? Or are you exaggerating for a change? We are not in the same type of form as those around us. And history shows that the teams who are in form in the last month of footy are the ones that win it. No team in the history of the game have one the flag without being in form before september. So based on that, time is running out.

Yeh. That is obvious. But it's not obvious that it's due to loading.