JimmyGadson

My dream is Josh Kelly. If we could somehow manage to fit and land him, we'd be the complete setup. He is precisely what we're missing aside from perhaps another small dangerous mercurial high pressure forward. @Grand New Flag, heard anything? Would be willing to give up a decent player and hope any of our top players coming out of contract would accept pay cuts.

Feel for Sam on a human level, obviously. However, he wanted to be an AFL footballer and naturally there's a whole lot of pressure that comes with that. Selection, form, commentary, acocial media, etc etc. Maybe he's not as well equipped as others when it comes to dealing with that pressure, but unfortunately for him, he has to work through it or fall to the wayside. Sam was brought into our club as a prodigiously talented key forward. He was given time to build his fitness after having ankle surgery on both ankles in his first year. He's built his body, he has the required fitness, (even after his broken pre season). This is completely between the ears now for Sam and nothing to do with being a project player. Hopefully he can address his mental demons and learn to relax into playing and if not, I fear for his future at the club. Whilst our game plan seems to suit a quicker, more agile and smaller forward setup, that doesn't excuse some of Sam's games over the past few weeks. There's no way he plays against Essendon and I hope for his sake he can become mentally stronger and when he gets that next opportunity, he won't look back.

Not sure I was rude, just a tongue-in-cheek comment. There are multitude of reasons, most of them have been covered to death in the media. Which is why I asked where you'd been for the last 6-8 months. * The treatment of Treloar and Stepho * The 'do better' report and Eddie's comments immediately proceeding it. * The current environment of the football club. * The onfield performance. I'm not divulging names, but what I've been told is that there are a number of players who are unhappy. (Obviously that's subject to change from here on).

He is when fit and I think the fact they are without Treloar and Stephenson this year is important to note when comparing sides. It meant they were younger, more inexperienced and makes the loss more surprising and uncomfortable.

Greenwood, (Treloar and Stephenson from last year also meant that they played a bunch of kids who have barely played 10 games). I'd say that's a fairly different looking Collingwood side from last year. Maybe not decimated by injury, but a lot of talent and experience missing. Yesterday's loss was completely attitudinal from us. On paper, we should have comprehensively beaten them.

Agree with this. Sometimes there are clear and free leading options closer to centre 50 and we still seem to ignore them as a means of sticking to our game plan. Need to get that balance right. Should be kicking to pockets if there are no obvious and clear options elsewhere, not kicking to pockets and disregarding all else.

Great first half of the season, beyond all our wildest dreams I imagine but yesterday stank of arrogance imo. The amount of players who looked disinterested and were moving at what looked like half-pace was just really disappointing. Collingwood are bog ordinary atm and are missing a host of top players. It was eerily similar to the game back in Goodies first year where they knocked us off last round to kill our finals chances. Gawn again was just really disappointing and I'm of the view that he needs to be more of a physical presence for us on-field as a captain. I listen to those guys who do the 'deebrief' podcast every now and then and I remember the host having a dig at some posters on the forum for some of the feedback posters like myself have given Gawn over the past month or so. Goes to show how differently supporters of the same club watch a game. Obviously yesterday's loss was not about Gawn per se, but I'm using him as an example because he is our captain and I just thought from the get go he did nothing to assert himself on a game that was clearly going to be hot given the week Collingwood had. Max starts in the middle and it's where he needs to make his presence felt from the first bounce. He was up against a three gamer who is 8 cm shorter than him and Max was comprehensively beaten in the first half, was marginally better in the second half. That's disgraceful as far as I'm concerned. He was moving through mud after ruck contests and on top of all of that he was missing marks again and going up when he didn't have to in our D 50. I don't care what he's done in the past, as the host of the podcast keeps banging on about. We live in the now and Gawn needs to bring his absolute best effort and attitude weekly and that includes bringing a physicality to the team that we're now lacking due to Viney being out. He plays way too nice in my view and only gets angry if a player like Nankervis starts antagonising. The best players and captains play with an edge every week and Max is almost the biggest guy on the field every week. Gawn's game was emblematic of the way our team has functioned over the last month or so, (aside from the Dogs game). When our players decide it's game on, they seem to go from zero to hero at some point within a game. But too many of them are only just going for periods of a match which is something that we need to address for the second half of the year. Obviously this is a glass half-empty lense I'm looking through, but it's a long year and I just saw some worrying signs yesterday against a really ordinary Collingwood outfit missing some of their best. Huge second half to the year coming up, I really hope Max can get some consistency going and start playing really good games weekly rather than one great game/one poor game. And bring some [censored] attitude Max. You're the captain and you get the first contest of every game. Make the most of it. I'll be watching our response with great interest against a testy bombers outfit after the bye. Go dees.

Maynard's game yesterday was elite and he gave Fritsch an absolute bath. For Maynard to have that many touches also goes to show how poor Fritsch is off the ball and both he and Weideman yesterday were liabilities off the ball and helped Collingwood's easy ball movement from defence. Think he'd be a great get and we wouldn't need to move mountains to acquire him.

Where have you been the last 6-8 months?

Interesting timing with Buckley stepping down but last week I was thinking about a Hibberd/Jetta replacement going forward and was thinking of Maynard and whether or not we'd have a crack at him, especially now given the unrest at the pies and with Buckley stepping down. I've heard there a few unhappy mature-age players there and I know Maynard is friendly with some of our guys, Trac in particular from Metro days and obviously his brother Corey was on our list for a number of years. Contracted until next end of next year but thought I'd throw it out there as I think he'd be a great fit and replacement for those guys I mentioned. Tough, competitive and in the right system like ours I think he'd flourish. Thoughts?

Supporters need to relax. This will be massively draining on Collingwood players during the week. There will be many thinking about their future given the events that have transpired at Collingwood since last year's trade period. The club is a shambles atm with everything they've faced. If anything, this gives Goody and co another reason to G our guys up and prepare them for a hot first quarter. Clearly Collingwood will throw everything at as in the first quarter and if we can match their intensity (assuming it'll be there), then we will roll them after that. Collingwood have bullied us on many occasions, we're the oldest rivals in the game. It's time to give it to them.

Can't blame him for our first half. None of our forwards got a look in. But I've got to say that aside from creating a contest in the air, Sam has offered little else since he's been in the side. Ben Brown is a much better set shot which is extremely important going in against the top sides where looks at goal don't come as easily so nailing your chances is absolutely crucial. Imo Sam is playing with the weight of knowing he needs to perform to keep his spot. He's rigid, miss-timing marks and leads and is wobbly in front of goal. I'd offer Brown the spot next week against Collingwood, we're afforded the luxury of moving pieces around a bit, especially our key forward spot. Ben should be given another chance, I still think his leading patterns and straight lines will have us functioning better with time. Time to try BB again. So much time to get it right, Weed has been underwhelming in two games now.

All I can say is that you have no idea what you're talking about if you're not a fan of Cerra. Genuinely no idea. You obviously haven't watched enough of him.

Predictable to opposition, but more importantly, predictable to us. It's just part of a game plan that has seen us go 10-1 and whilst I agree that sometimes there are some really obvious targets free, quick play from a kick in doesn't allow our defenders the time they need to setup. And that setup a massive reason in how we're choking teams atm. Can't have everything unfortunately. We don't have the list to play the dogs' style of footy and I think I've come to accept that our game is not always pretty or pleasing to the eye. But if we can win a flag through our predictable but almost bulletproof game style, it's hard to complain! It's just a [censored] pleasure to go into a game feeling like we're going to be hard to beat! Wild.

Hahaha. What a ridiculously stupid comment.

Target a groin? Rightio. Cripps has been playing with a sore back which every club has known about since round 1. Haven't seen anyone target his back. Jack Viney's foot? Not sure your view adds up.

The club love keeping their supporters in the dark regarding injuries.

For a guy who is 208 cm, one of the tallest ruckmen in the league, his tap work and willingness to get involved at ground level has been extremely underwhelming. There's nothing hyperbolic about that comment. I can say this because we've seen the kind of influence he can have in that part of the game and at the moment it is unbelievably poor. Of course elements of his game have still been good. Not great, but good. But the elements I'm talking about have been very poor.

It's silver service if you're receiving favourable handballs with little pressure around and/or favourable bounces. Fritsch is normally a deadeye [censored] and has great class around goal. Obviously his strengths are dangerous, but everything else is not only average, it's below the required level. So if he's not kicking goals or if the kicks coming in are scrappy like they were last night, what does he provide us? His refusal to give that handball to Trac and kick himself was also unforgivable. So selfish. So he's not only not doing the small things off the ball, he's burning team mates. Can't have that

Win me back this month, yes. Yeh he's been immense. But he's in a form slump at the minute and if we are to challenge the best, (dogs and Brissy) we need him playing top tier footy. The best bring the same level most weeks. Gawn has been average for a month. If we're challenging this year, he needs to be playing consistently high level footy most weeks. And he's not presently.

Gawn's been less than impressive in a whole bunch of areas for four weeks in a row. As a captain, he needs to make less unforced errors, missed marks and spoiling his own team mates and become more physical at stoppage. Needs a massive game on Friday night to win me back. He's been extremely underwhelming imo for a few weeks. Some his tap work has been shocking. Get going Max.

I can see next week getting very ugly against the dogs if we allow them to follow the same blueprint as Adelaide and North have now. We were a mess last night. Adelaide are rebuilding so of course we were always going to be in the game. We're a strong and mature side. But the dogs have grunt and class all over the ground and if we allow them to chip and handball around our zone as freely as Adelaide did, we are toast. Gawn needs a massive wakeup call. Four weeks now he hasn't asserted himself when needed and he's making some. Fairly crucial mistakes over the course of a game. Dropping marks, trying to mark when he should spoil, shocking taps and sub-par energy levels at the contest. He's our captain, he needs to lead more in key moments and step up the intensity and physicality. May's worst game by far, needs to respond. Fritsch a genuine liability if the ball isn't on a silver platter. He genuinely has no desire to chase, tackle or get involved off the ball. The dogs backline is no better than the crows and we were preety inefficient going inside 50 last night. We will get a big smacking if we don't take away the dogs strength and if we get smacked, we're pretending at this stage. We should know exactly what they'll do against us. We better be up for the fight.

I think you're underselling their ball use and ability to hit up leads even when under pressure. The reality is that their scrappy entries will still be cleaner and more dangerous than ours due to the fact that their mids have superior kicking skills. The past few times we've played the dogs it's been a similar story. Whether that was in a praccie game this year or last year in the middle of the season. The way we've lost has been the same. I can onky see us beating them if we bring finals type pressure as you say, at the dome. Anything less and we will be rolled. They're the slickest team going around and have a history of making us look second rate around the ball and I'm transition if we're off.

Might be time to think of another topic to post about @WERRIDEE. These threads are getting seriously boring.

Would love to have a read if anyone wants to pm me the article.