rpfc

I didn’t ridicule, I implied he was not as good as Gawn and didn’t do as much. Gawn may have been smoking darts but what he does around the ground with his marking and instincts is superior to many ruckmen and most definitely Braydon Preuss.

My gut feel is that he is your Preuss type dumb ruckman with no other strings to the bow. So no, I don’t think he will replace Jackson. More likely long term replacement to Gawn but even then we like ruckmen to do more; Stynes, O’Dwyer, White, Jamar, Gawn - we have been spoilt.

I think people should relax because he ain’t left yet… We can hand wring about that package being disappointing when appropriate, @JimmyGadson

Sorry to burst bubbles but our answer to our search for a forward is either in house or in a trade. With our window open now, the next 4 years are crucial while Gawn is still playing and healthy. This may be a salve but not until 2026…

Not as good as the 72 Swans with Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe…

And it is a fine argument, diluted by the constant refrain for two months of the season. You know me, I love the grey; nothing is wholly right or wrong. It is in the debate that we achieve illumination. I just feel that this loading argument can be noted and argued amongst the other critiques of how we are playing and want to be playing. I will leave it there, at some point constructive criticism turns in on itself and I don’t mean to pick on Binman or anyone else. If I don’t like it, I don’t have to listen. rp

I used the word ‘pivot’ deliberately. It’s not that it is used as a significant factor - for a few weeks it is. My issue is that whatever critique is made on something else, the pivot to loading as the reason/answer to that critique is dismissing and quite frustrating. I will put it another way; loading is like sport in general. Sport doesn’t create character - it reveals it, in the same way that loading doesn’t create functional issues, they reveal them. Loading has impacted our fortunes, of course it has, but it has also revealed underlying issues that were there before around connection and pressure. And to have those concerns ameliorated with the mention of loading is getting harder to listen to.

Can’t take an overhead mark. Would take McDonald or Amartey tho

Trying to be constructive here for the guys on the pod; but a few thoughts. I simply have trouble listening to this curse/loading stuff for over a third of the year as the pivot of all our ills. And the way it is delivered is almost gaslighting which I think is what Andy is reacting to - it simply isn’t the solution to all our issues. Every team of note does it and it may play a part in form issues across the league amongst OTHER things that can be discussed without the constant retort being about loading being the reason for whatever issue is seen. I enjoy listening to the thoughts on the pod to challenge my own and I find the pod more enjoyable than the Deebrief where you can go 20 mins with only hyena-like laughter, in jokes, nicknames of players, and pure nonsense. So well done, but … pls…pls

I will leave you two to it…

Worn for the Sir Doug Nichols round, NAIDOC week, and our trip to the heart of the nation. Don’t see an issue. They are playing poorly, the jumper is seeing the ire as we search for easy excuses and even easier fixes.

Yeah, that’ll do it…

Hunt is such a spark off HB. Salem, May, Brayshaw and Bowey dominate touches and want to open up the game with their boot rather than their feet. Hunt runs lines and can make mistakes but he gets us going when we are inert. And we are inert. ANB, Harmes, Spargo, and Sparrow need to lift as the lower rung of players responsible for bringing the ball up the ground and into the forward line. Don’t know if any of those will get dropped however. So poor Bedford I guess but I can feel a debut coming in my bones…

Probably very little. And would rely on Jackson leaving of course and Larkey wanting out.

Would love Larkey.

Oh it would be death watching them play but they wouldn’t lose by 10 goals; there would barely be 10 goals in the match… And of course, they would go back to beating us all the time.

AFL won’t let them do that - it will be either a Ross Lyon type or a Alan Richardson type with a handover to a young coach after 3 years. Amarfio should be on thin ice if I know the AFL.

Let down by who he had around him. Leigh Matthews said it all a couple months back on Sportsday; aside from Noble, you couldn’t trust anyone at that club coz they were new to footy and you (or the players or the club itself) couldn’t say for certain ‘this person can do a great job’. He needed a Noble above him as footy boss and a CEO that was Jackson-like.

Yeah, we will never win a flag with these guys…

Can we seperate out ‘forward line problems’ with ‘offensive problems’? Our ‘forward line’ can kick a winning score against anyone - my eyes showed me that. Form fluctuates but they are good enough; great role players, workrate etc The bigger problem is our movement of the footy; our transition from where we turn it over that culminates in (hopefully) a kick into the 50. We have lacked dare and urgency all year (save from a quarter a game in the first 10 rounds) and when you slightly lose your belief or trust in yourself or your teammate - you don’t quite want to take that kick, you don’t get to the right spot, you don’t run because you don’t think it will get to you, etc. I see a lot of that the last 6 weeks and it can only be disconcerting. The may recapture it but ‘fits and starts’ won’t win us enough games to get to a prelim and then win the final two games - we have to get consistently back to where we were last year in the last two months. Our forwards need to turn it over in our half, and that will make this much easier. So, ironically, our offensive problems start with the forwards’ defence…

Yeah, as I have said, I think the loading and intensity of training is a red herring. It happens and I am sure it has an impact but our issues are not so simply solved by more energy on game day. We have connection and pressure issues with our younger and role players and that lack of urgency has been there in fits and starts al season. Flicking the switch is not easy and it looked like it is back to fits and starts with the evidence of the last three weeks. Play with no dare and urgency and Port will beat us.

IF (and that is a big IF) you reject the notion that our inability to move the footy against Geelong was more about the Cats and their pressure and less a continuation of our mid-season form; we should handle Port and the Bulldogs and set up a month of footy where top 2 is within our control as one of the best sides in the comp. That was a long sentence and I am sorry.