drdrake

The way the club is seeming going about things is they are following an order of priorities. First approach Malthouse, not available, second throw a a five year deal at Clarkson happy at Hawks but we have just cost Hawthorn another $250K/year, third do the same for Lyon gets him thinking a two year extension with a list at the end of its run or a 5 year deal at a club at the start of its run. Its like Cam Bruce stay at Melb for 1 year our go to Hawthorn for 2 with a high chance of playing finals again. If this fails, we approach the three assistant coaches that have been involved in recent Premierships, don't waste time on Laidley, Williams or Eade. Instead of having an apply process have a go get who you want process.

Do GWS have another window after the season to sign players that come out of contract in 2012?

What do people consider a big fish? I wouldn't call any player mentioned so far a big fish and a big fish to me is a top 20 player in the AFL, good thing for us we don't have any big fish yet just small fish waiting to grow.

I find it interesting that our Head of Football Department is not involved. Seems strange you would think the coach would report to him. No issues with the panel, I can't see us employing anyone from left field, it will either be an experienced coach or an assistant from Geelong, Essendon or Collingwood we all know these three. The next interesting part is the assitsant coach structure, I really can't see any of our current assistant coaches retaining their jobs. Also our conditioning Staff, haven't most of these come from Essendon? I know the Essendon players are on record that this years pre-season was the hardest they have ever done and James Hird thought that Essendon was weill below AFL fitness standards.

Great news for the back of the jumper. If the BOM missed the back of the jumper deal why wouldn't we offer them the front of the jumper? To me I reckon the front of the jumper gets more exposure. In regards to an announcement you might find we can't until current contracts expire. like a couple of people I also heard Energy Watch will be a sponser in 2012.

Ross Lyon brings strategy and tactics to the club he coaches, if we go back over the last 4 years of game day posts on the many games we have lost and we are all looking for our team to play with some sort of game plan and structure. To me he is the type of coach we need someone that will give us defensive structure and don't worry about Saints footy he had to take them to the nth degree of defensive footy because their backline stinks, just compare the two fullbacks Dawson V Frawley. I'm liking the way the club is going about it, we are looking to poach first and advertise later, it seems we have a short list of desired coaches lets have a crack if we land on great, if we don't we will go through the interview process. This is the agressive approach that a good club needs to take, Collingwood did it with Mick when they grabbed him from WCE.

With such a poor season it makes you look at the way the team has been coached. One thing that has stood out to me is the way Bailey played our young guys and tried them in different positions. Morton for one is a pure outside midfielder, since we started playing him down back to work on his defensive side he has lost all confidence, so did this move turn a high quality outside midfielder into a player that would be lucky to be rookie listed at the moment. Same with Bennell, he was drafted as an attacking HBF to me he always looks better down back and only showed brief clmpses up forward. Once again has the Footy Dept's call to swing Bennell around on regular occasions slowed his development? He does need to stop being the one handed bandit but this will come. I have the same fear for Taspcott he is the big body midfielder that we need are we playing him somewhere that we aren't going to see his best value to the team. Lucky for us a new coach will come in, so every player gets to earn their position again.

Tom will be a very good footballer and hopefully it will be with us. He tried hard last night but like most of our team couldn't find the handle on the footy. Two weeks to go one more home game then a couple of weeks speculation.

Our forward line is very effective, we would be in the top five in the AFL for goals kicked per forward entry, our issue is we can't get in our forward 50m arc enough and at the moment can't stop teams scoring against us. We also have a lot of shallow forward 50m entries by that we only just get inside the forward 50m arc say 40-50m out a better stat would be forward 35m entries. Our midfield and structures are our main issues

If you get a change watch Viney's press conference, it explains why Green had the vest, the club was concerned he wouldn't get through a full game. Thank god because he also mentioned that if Green wasn't the Sub Sylvia would have been.

People with Short term memories should not post on this topic. Howe was bad yesterday but the week before was close to our best player we should not be dropped. Assuming both Davy and Sylvia are rubbed out, for Davey wouldn't matter he would be dropped anyway my team for next week should be Bennell Frawley Martin MacDonald Rivers Garland Blease Trengove Jones Howe Watts Petterd Jetta Jamar Jurrah Gawn Moloney McKenzie Bartram Scully Morton Green In Gawn, Jetta Out Davey, Sylvia

Unfortunately he doesn't have the tank at the moment to run both ways. Give him another preseason and he will be a gem, a least he kicks the footy low and hard some of his kicks yesterday were top class and does make good decisions.

I'm no Morton fan but I thought he played OK yesterday, he hit targets, he seems to have sorted out his short kicking, a couple of passes inside 50m were the best I've seen him kick the footy over 25m since coming to the club and this has been his big issue. Defensively still needs work and he needs to continue to work on his attack of the footy but we was good yesterday.

I think the big positive to come from this year is we rely on pure talent to play well and when we get on top our talent is very good. The next step is to add structure into our game and when you add talent and structure together we will have a very good team. Unfortunately talent alone doesn't win matches anymore.

Big game, we should line up as Bartram Frawley Martin MacDonald Rivers Garland Scully Moloney Blease Petterd Watts Sylvia Davey Howe Jamar Gawn Trengove McKenzie Jones Dunn Nicholson Tapscott Out Morton In Gawn I like the idea of the three talls, Martin gets Vickery, we have Jamar or Gawn start deep forward the other ruck.

No idea if staying and going, but for sake of the exercise I consider him gone until he signs to the MFC, which I still think he will. I would love to be Jurrah, Watts, Petterd, Howe being supplied by Tapscott or better still Tapscott kicking over their heads for goal.

You always forget 1, I have amended

We dont need a clean out we just need to continue on the path we started 4 years ago. See below of what we have best 18 going forward, we have enough to continue to get excited about, if Scully stays he gets the a wing. Sylvia is a good footballer and the better we get the more impact on a game he will have. Morton needs to find something or he will be joining his brothers back in the WAFL. Strauss Frawley Martin Grimes Garland Blease Sylvia Trengove Gysberts Taspcott Watts Petterd Jurrah Jamar Howe Gawn Moloney Mckenzie To me Warnock, Maric and Bate will want to be traded and I think the club might try to keep Maric but will try to find new homes for Warnock and Bate. No reason to put Strauss on the rookie list it leaves a spot for a rookie to be promoted next year when they earn their spot. We still have the makings of a very good team, our forward line looks dangerous our ruck stocks have been addressed, we need to find a better balanced back 6 I like the 6 I have mentioned 3 talls with 3 very good attacking smalls that can kick. The midfield needs to be addressed we need a big bodied strong clearance player to compliment what we already have, plus some speed. We retain three rookies Evans, Nicholson and Lawrance the other three are gone.

I agree, Jetta is very under rated by most and I think that is because he is not a forward pocket he is a midfielder although I would like to see him down back trialed as a small defender. Anyway my team for this week Bartram Martin Frawley MacDonald Rivers Garland Scully Moloney Trengove Sylvia Watts Howe Davey Gawn Jurrah Jamar McKenzie Gysberts Jones Tapscott Jetta Green Out Bate, Petterd, Strauss, Dunn In, Jetta, Sylvia, Jamar, Jurrah

Yes, he is a pure midfielder and we are all wanted him to be that swing man but we wont be. I understand what Bailey and Co wanted to acheive by playing Morton down back but he was never comfortable and lost all confidence playing in defense. He was an elite midfielder at under 18 level and showed enough in his first couple of years for us to get excited by his ability. The club wanted him to work on his defensive side of his game and ever since that decision was made Cale has been in and out of the team.

Isn't it funny how well a player can play when he is played in the position that he has played all his life. Morton was an elite midfielder at junior ranks, we have been trying to make him something he isn't a defensive utility.

I think some are being a little harsh on Scully, I thought as the game went on the better he got. He looked rusty in the first half but I thought we was one of our better players in the second half. Today was the case of one of the best AFL midfields playing against a very young midfield butone with a big upside. I hope we can keep Scully with him we will have one of the best midfields in 2-3 years. The issue is at the moment Moloney is in a real bad patch of form so the pressure goes onto our young midfielders we don't have good established midfielders as mentioned besides Moloney our other quality players are 21 or under. We are still heading in the right direction 2011 is just a speed bump on the way, we will refine things starting with our coach and coaching panel and hopefully put the right people in place to take us forward.

Can Jack Watts win our B&F? He might be in the lead after today. Good to see our leadership group voting strongly this week, not 1 vote so far for any of the 5 leaders that played today. Jones and Rivers played OK games but Green, Davey and Moloney were dissappointing

In business you need to do what is best for your business, if bringing James McDonald back will help our team move forward you bring him back. Also as other post James to me would bring back some very good qualities that would improve any AFL club.

It's going to make for an interesting spring. The next post will be Morton is gone