Go the Biff

If you wind it back a few seconds you'll also see that Viney should never have had the ball in his hands. Salem received a handball & chipped a kick to Viney (barely 15 metres). McDonald was already free & should have been hit up by Salem with what was a pretty easy kick of about 30 metres in no traffic. Poor vision or poor decision ? Or did he just feel pressure & dump it off to the nearest cheap option ?

Genuinely LoL'd. Reckon he'd have a decent arm too.

Don't agree with a lot of that Jaded. The back of the square thing was pretty much done 2/3's of the way through the season. We'd stopped doing it before finals, probably because opposition sides had adjusted to it. And it's my view that 666 did bugger all. It's impact is greatly overstated. It applies to centre bounces only which make up what ? Less than 5% game time ? Our gamestyle doesn't suit some of our players but with a few structural tweaks I believe we can improve significantly. First of which is getting rid of this "small forward" setup. It's been successful once - Richmond 2017 who fell into it by accident more than design. And they themselves knew it wasn't sustainable & moved heaven, earth & Collingwood to get Lynch from the Suns. If only we put the same effort, planning & thought into F50 zones & structures as we (& other teams) put into defensive zones

Love the Ox but this is just venting without a lot of substance or consideration. Wears his heart on his sleeve though & is a great Demon. Has anyone ever seen The Ox and Pickett Fence in the same room ?

Yeah ? I think he's aiming higher. Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw...and probably Trac

So much stupid in this. As well as over committing to his left side, Viney has brought the man on the mark into play by not getting back far enough. It reduces the angles & area he has to work with and means any kick over the MotM has to be a lob. One of my pet peeves this. Basic footy, basic error. Trac is one of our worst offenders at this but he has plenty of mates. In this case, 2 or 3 metres back & the kick to McDonald is easy, even for Jack More stupid. WTF is Hunt doing ? His lateral lead will bring him right in line with the MotM. How the hell is Viney supposed to get the ball to him ? If Hunt had worked a mere 10 metres further towards goal & dragged his defender with him he could have doubled back and led into the space they'd just vacated. This happens so often with our blokes - leading into a spot protected by the MotM - not just up forward either. Hunt is also about to block any space for those forwards on the goal line to lead into. Before I'm accused of being overly negative, a bit of credit to Langdon. He's pushed up where he can be used and can run on to be a scoring threat but not so far that he's in the way. We are world's best practice at flooding our own forward line so good to see him show some positional awareness. Max gets a tick as well as it appears he's focussed on blocking their ruckman to keep him out of our F50 and away from the path to McDonald. I can only assume TMac farted. Inexplicable elsewise as to how he found that much space in a dangerous F50 position. But Viney, by not getting the basics right, has made him inaccessible There's more (e.g. goal line blokes - WTF are they doing ?) but typing this out is just making me crankier because I see it every bloody week. It's one snapshot but it illustrates so much that we get wrong

We need to complete his transition into an inside mid who can't hit a target. Or an undersized KPF. Then his transformation will be complete

Agreed. I obviously have no idea what his instructions are but he needs to be on the move if playing FF. He is built like a coat hanger and will never be much bigger. Body on body against Blicavs he may as well have been running into a wall for all the impact he had. The "other" Kolo - who is a fair sized unit - absolutely rag-dolled Fritsch. So yeah, he needs separation. Even better, don't play him as a KPF.

That would appear logical but it seems they're wedded to this dumbarse forward structure for the short term at least.

I believe Fritsch could - and should be - a one for one replacement for Watts. His foot skills are comparable to Watts. He is clearly superior in the air to Watts. Neither of them are a key forward though and Fritsch is already developing bad habits (playing from behind) from being outsized. His two set shots today came from his opponent over committing which is not a great basis for creating scoring chances. We are gonna ruin the kid if we persist with him as a KPF. Kent & Hannan to me are much the same player. Both have good highlight reels but go missing for huge chunks in games. Kent wanted his three year deal & St Kilda gave it to him. Good on him but I think he'll finish his career having played many more games for us than them. Anyway, I doubt you'd want both of them in the same side so Kent going doesn't hurt us. I wonder how many games Weid & TMac have played together both as forwards. Don't think it's many so it's suprrising that the post-Hogan model hasn't been given a chance with any real continuity. Yeah we do miss Hoges. The one key forward is not gonna work. Soooo 2017. Even Richmond after winning a flag with it, realised it's not sustainable. Mind you, the way we set up, Lockett, Carey & Dunstall would struggle to get the pill. That's a rant for another day.

I think so. He did a lot for us structurally as well as being a scoring option.

Put her on the ground !

Why not ? He's done nearly every other job at the club

Harley Bennell reveals the moment he told his partner he thought his AFL career was over

He gave us a new word tonight. "Preparator". Outstanding contribution

It might be as simple as load management. X number of games & training sessions in Y number of days until he's back to somewhere near 100% Might be some opposition analysis as well. They perhaps figured they could get away with 50% game time from HB against Carlton but not against the Cats. I've no evidence for that - it's just me throwing a dart at the answer board

McKenna killed us. No-one went near him !!!!

He found some form before a season ending injury in 2019. I think people are jumping off a bit prematurely. Yes Round 1 was not great but we've been bemoaning our forward entries in that game for the last 3 months so to a degree he was a victim of our ineptitude. Thought he started ok last week but Weitering got on top of him as the game progressed. The same Weitering that gave Tiger Tom Lynch a bath back in Round 1. Young man is a gun defender. Hopefully he gets Hooker this week & runs him ragged. Starting deep & working the 50

Agreed. I think we're out of balance. Would rather Smith out for Lockhart to help combat the Essendon small forwards. Hannan out for Weid (or Jackson). We risk he aerial domination that the Eagles defence had against us without another tall target Hurley, Hooker & Francis will have a field day unless we either a) hit up targets lace out or b) roll the bloody pill along the ground Gutsy and correct move omitting Jones. Didn't think they'd do that

No they didn't. They won a tender against joint ventures from other SANFL clubs. The licence became available because Fitzroy merged with Brisbane Agree on the true football club bit

Personally couldn't give a toss about the jumper issue but from a contractual perspective, I can see McGuire's point. I also reckon that Kochie forgets it was Port Power admitted to the AFL, not Port Magpies. On the issue of the footballs though, I'm surprised to find myself in full agreement with Eddie

Essendon run with a very small forward line. I can't see a matchup for Smith unless you want play him on Stringer. We will need to shut down Tippa - he's very much their talisman. They've also got Devon Smith, Zaka & Townsend running around. Not sure if Fantasia is due back from injury. On that basis I'd recall Hibbo for Smith. If not Pig then Lockhart. Up the other end they are pretty tall. Hurley, Hooker, Ridley & Francis who plays above his height & has great hands overhead. I'd bring back Weid & retain Jackson (at this stage. I'm still mulling over this). Leave TMac in to start deep & run Hooker up & down the ground. He won't keep up. I can't find a spot for Jones. Pickett in - should be at Melksham's expense but ANB will likely make way. Which I'm ok with. Melksham has more runs on the board but the ice under him grows thinner. Gawn may well be the most influential player on the ground. Bellchambers does little outside the ruck contest so Max should easily account for him around the ground & cause some havoc with his marking. Clearances will be king. They might be fast on the outside but that doesn't help much if you haven't got the footy

In a way that's the case. There is a bit of transitioning going on which was reflected in the selections this week. I believe our backline is already copping a makeover & is likely to end the season or start next season with : Lever May Lockhart Salem Petty Rivers so a few old warriors & a some NQR's will be outside the 22. Hibbo has already been overtaken, sadly I suspect Nev will be as well, Smith just won't make the grade & OMac wil be surplus. Plus Lewis from 2019 gorrn as well. It's a fair turnover

Spot on. Really rate Weitering. I was hoping we could coax him out of Carlton when he had injury issues and was being played all over the park. Young fella was a Demon fan too. Will be one of the premier defenders in the comp for the next 8 - 10 years. Great hands, reads the ball in flight beautifully, smart use of his body & has a bloody big tank as well. I also think we need Weid in the team with TMac. One of them must start deep forward & lead from the square, not from 40 out. They can share that role between them in games, in quarters. Additionally Fritsch is not a KPF's backside & if we persist with that approach we'll ruin another promising career. He should be playing a role like Gunston when Gunston was at his peak. Jack, not Norman

I was initially against this. Thought it would be like the old slo-mo replay World of Sport crowd noises on loop. But from what I saw of the NRL coverage it was well done. Not invasive but enough to fill in a lot of the "dead air"