CHF

Been away from home a long time now with just a few visits back home every now and then. Have grown to appreciate the old world wines with some favorite reds in Bordeaux and the Rhone Valley as well as the reds from Tuscany. Some very good drops around Europe. Love the whites from Sancerre.

Hmmmm... sitting here in my abode in Europe with a raging hangover from last night. I thought it might be amusing to drink large quantities of grape juice from my latest vineyard find. a small place in the Rhône valley to the north of Avignon called Domaine Rouge Bleu. They produce a Grenache called Lunatique. Seriously, how could I not consume vast amounts?

There is justification to drop a hell of a lot of that team after that performance. Put all the names in a hat and draw out 6 to drop. Start with a clean sheet of paper and a list of available players and start all over. Defence: May, Lever, Rivers and Hibberd (if fit) are the only 4 I would pencil in as certainties. Ruck: Max Mid Field: Pettracca, Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney, Langdon, Tomilinson and Harmes (Had his best game of the year) Forwards: Can think of no one I would have as certainties. FB: Lever - May - Jetta HBF: Rivers - Hibberd - Salem ? Langdon - Petracca - Tomlinson HFF: Brayshaw - Brown - Harmes F: Pickett - Weideman - Bedford Fol: Gawn - Oliver - Viney IC: ANB - Baker - Lockhart - Preuss 5 fresh sets of legs in that team, Jetta, Bedford, Baker, Lockhart and Preuss. Out - Melksham, Jones, OMac, Wagner and some other noddy. Preuss can back up Max and both can spend time forward when required. I still do not understand how we can have one of the best 2 ruckmen in the comp and lose the clearances week after week. After that game it all smacks of re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

What a dog's breakfast that was. We were all over the place and played with no structure, confidence or intelligence. Incredibly poor effort. I am sure that there will be the usual mutterings about taking 'learnings' from the game and the disappointment that we did not play our 'Brand' of footy but that is all just so much babble and BS. There needs to be clarity of thought and message from the coaching panel and there was no evidence of that at all this evening.

Wooohooo!!! September football with the Demons

Insightful.

Fair enough. I have a different opinion on Omac's worth. So much of what I see in the criticism of him on this site just looks like a knee jerk reaction that is not based on evidence. he generally positions himself well and has excellent disposal efficiency. Yep, I understand he will get beaten at times either on a one on one or a lead but so will lever and May at times.

Possibly Rivers gets first crack at Papley and Smith to try and fill Hibberd's position with run out of the back half.

So do I. The other reason that they might have retained him is because of the short tun around to the next game. they may be looking to ensure we keep the key defenders as fresh as possible by rotating them and resting them as much as possible during the game.

Why? He was part of a defensive unit that put on the best display for the season. May may not have been able to perform the way he did if OMac was not there.

No problem from me with any of the outs. Giving Smith another run might work but it is not the way I would have gone. Would have brought in Lockhart instead. Harmes I will be watching closely a I think he has been playing well blow his best form and with a lack of confidence. I hope he turns it around in this game. Good to see Omac and Wagner retain their spots.

ANB, Harmes, Fritsch and Smith in. AvB, Hibberd, Pickett And Hannan out

Looked at the topics and could not, find a home for this so I created this topic. I would love to attend a buffet lunch with Ratten and Dew to video the action so I could watch it in slo-mo to see which one ate all the party pies and which one ate all the cream buns.

Ok, as a coaching panel you look at a player and see that he is very limited in what he excels at. In Harmes' case he was a very good tagger in the midfield but could do very little else. The coaching panel look at that and try to get some flexibility into his game by looking at playing him in defence. Unfortunately, this has not worked and his form and confidence have both suffered to the point where he needs to be dropped so he can step back and regain some confidence and form. If this is the case, and this is only my way of reading the situation, then it is a good call. Drop him back and give him run with/tagging roles in the scratch games and then, if his forms turns around, slot him into the 22 on an as required basis. Personally, I would have dropped him a few rounds ago as I do not see him ahead of Petracca, Viney, Brayshaw or Oliver in the middle and if he was to be tagging someone who was at the center bounce then we are one down on our best three in the middle.

If the reason for Harmes' lack of form is not being played as a tagger then it does not say much for his mental fortitude. From my observation, he has not employed his talent to the defensive requirements of his role which, to my mind are not too different to a tagging role. Does Goodwin need to tell him to tag an opposition attacking player rather than tell him he is playing in defence? With regard to Josh Wagner, I will be interested to see how they use him. I could see him rotating to a wing or playing forward of the center and using his defensive abilities to lock the ball in. In 2018 he had solid form.

Cannot agree with this. His form has been woeful. Badly directed disposals and fumbles game after game . if that is your form, it does not matter where you play.

I like this team. A couple of changes forced with Sparrow hurt and Fritsch not showing up on time. Gawn and Jones bother fit now are back into the side and I have no problem with that. TMac and Harmes out, again, I have no problem with that either as both have been in bad form and not playing to the standards that they are capable of. Lockhart was a surprise to me a, but that may be management of the player. I look at this selection through the prism of the fixture over the following two rounds with a 5 day break and then a 4 day break. With the selections that have been made I will be looking forward to what structure we play too. There might be a few surprises with different players moving into attacking positions. Look forward to it and I will back a narrow win just to see the posters on here that might have to remove some egg. Dees by 13 pts.

In my opinion and based on his form, fumbles and disposals in recent games I would give him a rest from the team completely. give him time to re-set in mind and body. Once he is back to form playing in scratch matches and training give him a role as a run with player. Not justifying his place in the team at the moment.

First change I would make is to bring back Max if he is good to go for Preuss. I like the fact that we have Preuss as back up in the ruck but Max gives us so much more. Second change I would make is to drop Harmes for Rivers. I understand the call for Harmes to be given a role as a tagger and I do not agree, but his form is so far below his best at the moment I do not think he rates a place in the 22, give him a break to get his head right and confidence back. his disposal has been very bad so far this season. Third and last change for the Saints would be Jordan for Sparrow. I think it is time to see what he has and what he might bring to the team. He has been on the list for a bit and I would like to see how we have developed him. A couple of players from lat week need to step up or they may find themselves 'managed' in the next few weeks. Looking at AvB, Hannan, Melksham and a couple of others. Besides the three changes above I can see an argument for a couple more, Bedford or Bennell for either of Spargo or Pickett. Brown for TMac. However, I think that we will change a maximum of 3.

Don’t mind the three ins but I would drop Harmes as he looks to be well down on confidence and I don’t think that will be back with a change of role. He needs a break to get his head right. Rivers in for Harmes and Jordan in for Sparrow along with the other tow changes you suggest.

Tough (edit) to watch that second half but there were signs of the problems in the first half. nNo midfield pressure, no concentration on effective disposals, seemingly no reactions from the coaches box to the moves that the opposition made. defence was good. If they were not as effective as hey were you could add another 4 goals to that defeat. Our attack was limited with us not getting much from Spargo or Pickett. Bad kicking from Fritsch and Melksham did not help. Forget about proactive coaching, we did not look to make any reactive moves either. What to do? 1. drop Melksham for his lack of discipline and bad kicking. 2. Drop Harmes as he is lacking confidence and his delivery by both hand and foot are as bad as I have seen. I don’t think giving him a tagging role will make any difference to his game. He needs a break and to come back when his mind is reset. we cannot go on week to week and not make sure that the mistakes the players make have consequences not on and off the field. I am sure that the coaches and players put in a lot of work into the opposition but it seems to be to little effect. We did not have any responses to what they were doing and we did not have any moves that troubled them.

Still Friday where I am and the game starts at 5.45am for me so it will all be over by breakfast. Looking forward to the alarm going off so I can watch the game. Should be a cracking game and it will be close up to three quarter time with our fitness making the difference in the last quarter. Dees by 3 goals. Petracca BOG

Good selection. Looking at the emergencies, it shows me that we have a very fit list at the moment with a lot of depth. Any of those four could have been slotted in and there would be little argument.

With Pickett and Spargo already in the team I prefer to have a similar type of player to replace Sparrow (If he is to be rested)

One other PLEASING aspect to the broadcast of the game was the vision of the rest of the list's reaction to the win and the smiles and cheering from the race. they look like a happy mob.