Vipercrunch

Zerk-Thatcher on Hawkins was a disaster.

Dwayne Russell said this week he won’t rule out Richmond until they need to win 10 of the remaining 9 games to make the finals. He can be quite nauseating at times.

Couldn’t agree more. Big step up from VFL to AFL these days and I actually liked quite a bit of his work. He was also on the wrong end of some eyebrow raising decisions against him in the last quarter. Definitely think he deserves another go to get up to speed. Where that leaves Petty I’m not sure.

They both fitted in the team fine before Spargo injury. Why can’t that continue?

Need a big last quarter by JVR and Schache

JVR 5, Schache and Kozzy 3 each. Not sure who kicks the other 15 goals. North were witches hats the last two weeks and whatever resistance they muster won’t last long. And as I’m a supporter, it doesn’t matter if I’m taking them lightly. MFC by 60+ 😁😁

I think you’re right. Good chance it would have already faded if not for the continued focus by the media and club. People hate being told what to do. The animosity towards him is because there are thousands and thousands of young people out there that would do anything to play AFL. They would play anywhere and for anyone, so to see this kid blessed with all this talent, walk out on the club that drafted him number 1 after just 12 months really angers them. JHF had everything all these young people have dreamt about all their lives and he still demanded more.

Yes the forward line hasn’t been settled and is a work in progress, BUT it has been effective. Second most points scored at an average of 105 points per game. So my suggestion is don’t panic and enjoy the journey as we continue to discover our best forward mix while still putting points on the board.

Yeah, just cramp. Was stretching it out for a while before he totally missed that kick and was subbed immediately after.

One of the reasons this combo can work so well is that both players are at the stages of their careers (and lives) that they are completely team orientated. They have nothing left to prove for themselves and are therefore prepared to do whatever is required to help the team win a premiership. If one is running hot out of he middle, the other is happy to leave them there and do another role.

Out of the three games Petty's played forward, only Richmond had any obvious defensive and intercept worries, and if you believe the footy media, that was because Richmond were deliberately kicking the ball to grass to mitigate our intercept marking strength. Petty's presence down bvack instead of one of the smalls would have likely made the situation worse.

I don't understand how posters have already totally written Schache off already either. Most consistent Casey VFL watches were convinced he was the most likely to get the call up ahead of JVR before Schache got his concussion. When he returned he was clearly Casey's best tall against Essendon VFL.

You don't see Petty as an option as one of the two tall forwards? Every time this year that we have had both May and Lever available, the coaches have played Petty forward. Given TMac, BBB and as far as we know Schache were all fit to play on Monday night, Petty is definitely in the coaches considerations for that spot right now.

@Demonland @binman @george_on_the_outer Thanks again for a great podcast. Interesting discussion about the forward mix. I crunched some numbers looking at team performance based on where Petty plays. The numbers at least show things clearly work better with him forward. Lots of other variables possibly influencing things of course. Another factor that I think comes into this is that because some opposition teams are deliberately getting the ball to the ground in our backline to take away our intercept marking strength, our coaches are only going with two talls (May and Lever if fit), which means Petty doesn't have a spot down back.

It's these sort of numbers as well as comments Goodwin has made that make me think Petty will be persisted with up forward. I am pretty sure the green ones are on the side of the ledger that we want them to be.

I just rewatched that passage of play. It was a desperate, full stretch dive by Gus to reach the ball and deny a Richmond player taking possession. That was his sole objective. There is no way he had any further designs on the direction or distance the ball travelled after that. All he wanted to do was deny easy possession for his opponent. The rule is not there for that sort of thing. 13:05 remaining on the clock in the second quarter if anyone wants to watch again.

I can confirm there were plenty of Richmond supporters there. The aisles were full of them heading to the exits very early into the final quarter when we were less than 2 goals up. Don’t let Tiger supporters claim they are thing more than one of the most fickle supporter groups in the league.

Channel 7 must be licking their lips at the potential viewing audience 😂🤦‍♂️

That's not correct. Looking at his heat maps for all 6 games, he played back for rounds 1 and 2 (WB and Lions), and returned back for round 5 (Ess) because Lever was out. He was forward against Sydney and West Coast, then again for Richmond. We've won every time his played as a forward, not that anyone should read much into that.

Nibbler is in the overall team leadership group so good chance he takes significant on-field leadership of the forwards. And as is any successful player who's isn't dripping with raw talent, but rather has to work extremely hard to make it, he definitely has a future in coaching if he wants it. He would very quickly get caught out if he wasn't following Goody's instructions.

While I don't necessarily agree with it, I get the sense from Goodwin's press conferences recently that the Petty/JVR/Fritta/resting ruckman combination is going to be persisted with a little while longer, so I can't see BBB or TMac returning this week, or Petty returning to the backline. The only possible change I see to that forward mix is Schache coming in if Grundy needs a freshen up. Schache looked destined to play seniors before his concussion and was clearly on the cusp this week if we needed a late change and got shafted by the VFL game being on Sunday and didn't play at all. The coaches may want to keep the Gawn/Grundy chemistry building though if they are both managing well. Harmes I think is next in line for a call up as he is far more dynamic than Dunstan, who clearly has his admirers, but I'm just not one of them. If one of Viney/Trac/Clarry can't play, I think we resuffle players like Sparrow, Gus and JJ to cover their middle time and bring in a player like Laurie. IMO, Dunstan would only come in if two of our inside midfielders were out. Dunstan played in the North game last year, and perhaps I was being harsh, but I left that game thinking he was absolutely last resort.

Good chance this would be true for 80% or more AFL fans. He really isn't that likeable, but choosing St Kilda over nearly every club except your own is quite easy.

Today is why I hate Monday night games. They take so to come around and right now it feels like I've been stewing on the insipid performance against Essendon for an eternity. All we want to know is will our hope pendulum swing back to "we're still a serious contender" or will it slip further into "we're making up the numbers and there's something seriously wrong". 7:25 can't come soon enough.

Very poor all round. I hope all the seniors play well with no injuries because so far no one is putting their hand up for promotion.

Bright start but the second part of that quarter was quite poor actually. Not super high pressure, but they just looked to be cruising and going through the motions.