Bring-Back-Powell

Good to see Brayshaw and Pickett amongst the early goals, and Hibberd out there.

Yeah I heard speculation that the crowds are going to be lower than expected. Perhaps a hangover from lockdown and people are gun shy from attending public events for the time being.

Fair enough but it annoys me when for example a Troy Chaplin gets interviewed on SEN with Dwayne Russell on Monday and declares Salem a near certain starter for round 1 and that he would've played Vs the Dogs had it been a home and away game.

Thanks PF. Hopefully Salem is taking it easy this week and will fully train next week. If he's done a genuine hammy then the club should be upfront and rule him our for round 1 rather than the misleading line of hamstring awareness/tightness. Perhaps May is not allowed to train under the new protocols until day 5 or 6?? Sounds like a lot of players are going to miss games this year through concussion.

Agree that we need Hunt's explosiveness across half back and it will pay off at times. However he is such a low possession gatherer and compare that to another half back flanker in Jayden Short from Richmond who got about 40 touches other night. Hunt doesn't get involved enough in the game. Not sure what happened since 2016/2017 as he was way more involved back then. So I'm thinking a 7 possession 2 goal game at half forward is of more value to the team than a 13 possession game at half back with only a couple of decent carries of the ball. I agree with your last point in that our forward line functioned as well as it could Vs Richmond considering we had Brown, Weid, Melksham and Kozzie missing.

That night was a little 186ish. We went from a prelim finalist to getting schooled by a woeful Freo on our home turf half a season later.

Any chance we can throw Hunt back into the forward line? Is a natural goal kicker coming off a 4 goal game versus Essendon and blind Freddy can see that our fwd line aside from Fritsch can’t kick a goal to save themselves.

And continued into the first month of 2020.

They sure looked angry in the third quarter.... I've stopped reading these articles. I used to get excited by them and thinking they actually meant something, but alas nothing changes.

There is a game this week V's Box Hill. You'd imagine Melksham will play this week as he did most of the training yesterday and if Brayshaw gets through ok, he'll certainly play round 1. Melksham maybe for round 2. Hibberd was in full training yesterday according to reports but has been in rehab the entire pre season so a round 3-4 return looks more likely you'd think.

Saints are 10,000 more than us.

The 20th is the 12th day after the match was played so he should fine to play, assuming he has no symptoms. Just snuck in by one day hopefully.

On the weekend they were saying he'll be touch and go for round 1. Their fill in ruck Meeks looked pretty good.

It doesn't make sense at all. We needed someone to urgently help out in the first 4 games. The T Mac and Jackson combo hasn't inspired as yet.

Ofcourse. So that's 5 very good small forwards that St Kilda have. We have Pickett who kicked about 7 goals last year. And ANB who at least knows where the sticks are. I'm annoyed at our recruiting and list management in regards to our small forwards and small defenders. ( I don't class Fritsch as a small forward as he's about 188cm. I do class him as a good forward though)

Not sure what the point of the report card when he's based the pre season on one game. However I would give our pre season rating a D- on the basis that we couldn't field half a side one week before the season starts.

I'm guessing Petracca had a 70/30 split between mid and forward and had a poor game by his standards. First game he's played as a mid without Oliver and it showed. Also set the tone for a miserable team performance by missing the opening set shot of the day which he should've nailed.

Because we basically have nobody else in the small forward department. Compare with St Kilda who have Lonie, Higgins, Gresham and Billings. All classy goal kickers. Our forward line simply does not stack up with the rest of the comp.

A shame that we didn't have the same opportunity for an all out assault. When you have 8 of your best 22 out for the final practice game and a couple of those scrambling for minutes at Casey, I don't see how this pre season can be labelled anything other than disappointing, and has a whiff of 2019 about it.

Or a Steven Tingay when he was up and going....

They certainly do and I'll be most surprised if they don't beat us twice this year.

Tomlinson to the wing which is why we threw a 4 year contract at him. He played an outstanding prelim final in 2017 on a wing and did have a 34 possession game last year against Hawthorn in the Marsh series. Petty to take Tomlinson's role in defence. Baker to play at Casey. Fritsch to have a tracking device on his ankle that goes off every time he leaves the forward 50 metre ark. He's our only legit forward option in the early rounds and must stay there.

I notice the holding the ball disparity too but the Dogs cracked in way harder than we did yesterday.

It reeks of round 1 2019. Bringing in a bunch of under cooked players that ran out of gas in the third quarter in a game we started as favorites. Not sure what's worse? Rushing back Brayshaw, Melksham, Kozzie and Hibberd who are league standard, or playing a fit and healthy VDB, Jetta, Jordon, Sparrow, Baker, Bedford etc who are not league standard. Chances are we'll have B Brown, Weid, Viney, Melksham and Hibberd all out for round 1 so unfortunately we're going to have our share of plodders in the side.

With regards to defensive pressure, we once again pick and choose which games to bring it. Last week our pressure was excellent against Richmond and we had a real appetite for the contest. Meanwhile yesterday it was deplorable and that 3rd quarter was about as bad a quarter I’ve seen in terms of pressure and basic skill execution. The Dogs won about a dozen holding the ball calls while we were lucky to have won one. I expect this trend to continue and it will cost us a place in the finals. If Goodwin’s instructions were to treat this game as a casual stroll in the park, then he’d be well advised to let the concerned members know.