drdrake

Call me old fashioned but I can't understand when a team is smashing you why we just don't man up one on one. If they press we stand next to them make every contest a 50/50 to me this is basic it should slow the game down and if we get a fast break hopefully a Bennell, Jurrah or Watts(the fastest man on our list) can out run their opponent. Last night I saw our zone we had 5-6 players protecting space on the fat side(opposite side of the ground to where the ball is)why their man was at the contest winning easy footy. These players are basically, using an old term, seagulls waiting for a team mate to win the footy and kick it to them. The problem is Hawthorn had so many players around the contest we didn't win the footy and our Seagulls looking for easy kicks may have well been sitting it the stands. If you zone forget the fat side there should be no space on the side of the ground the footy is, if they switch you work hard to move your zone to the other side.

One thing that I can not understand is why our players are releasing the football as soon as they are tackled. Last night around the stopages as soon as we were tackled we released the football, Hawthorn on the other hand held on to it until they could see more an option. In that third quarter we seemed to get our hands on the footy get tackled drop it Hawthorn wins it and effects a clearance. The other concern is we never have players on the outside, it is like junior footy our midfielders all go the contest make it crowded and as soon as we turn it over we are flat footed standing where the ball was and not protecting around the outskirts. This is basic positioning that no matter what the experience in the midfield should happen. I agree the midfield needs to play more games together but something we need to start seeing is our big body midfielders using their size to create space at the moment the ball gets tapped to someone they get tackled, we have a very good tap ruckman pick a spot tap it there create space for someone to get an effective clearance.

I actually like our forward line we have enough options to kick goals, we need to enter inside the 50m arc a min of 55 times a match.

No point having tall forwards if we can't get the footy in there.

We need to add some speed into the midfield, besides Davey we are one paced. The next two weeks are ideal to bring in Gysberts, Aussie and Blease. Push Bennell into the midfield bring in Aussie for the small forward and Blease as someone that can break lines. So for next week In Gysberts, Aussie, Blease Out Jetta, Garland(injury),Jones

We just can not Zone, we stink at it. So if we are so bad at Zoning don't do it, evolve the game to Man on Man. Or at least if something is not workin change it. In the third quarter when our zone was stuffed the call should have gone out to man up one on one shut your man down. When we needed players to show leadership our leaders went missing. I can't understand why we kept kicking the footy to the MCC Members pocket, I remember 3 times Col Sylvia worked to a very good spot on th AFL Members wing but we chipped the ball around then eventually kicked to a contest in front of the MCC members. At some stage the football department needs to start to back up the great work the club has done off field. Everytime we put in a performance like tonight it sets the club back. A win tonight would of given us a chace to break 40,000 members now we have no chance. A good performance tonight would of seen 30,000+ at the game next week now we will be luck to get 20,000. Our Off field team can't keep positive momentum when we deliver garbage on field.

My biggest disappointment is Bailey like most supporters know the issues we have, we just don't get our ball inside our forward 50m arc enough and we can't stop teams getting the ball into their forward 50m. This is a huge concern that we need to address, to allow a team to enter their forward 50m arc 75 times is terrible, it means we have been smashed. This has been our main problem for the past 3 years and we can't seem to fix it.

I was speaking to a couple of people last week and it was mentioned that although AAMI park is fantastic, the training surface is great but the ground with out a fence around it isn't ideal. I also heard Jim Stynes mention this last week. You might find players lose their bearings, think they have more space and when it comes to the zoning it would be hard to work out the positioning near the boundary lines. With a fence you us that as a reference point as you know the boundary is about 2m of the fence. With that in mind maybe the club may use Casey more whilst they can.

The issue isn't with our medical staff, it is the fact we have had so many young players come onto our list. Most young players will have some sort of injury through the fist couple of years of AFL. Like any professional athlete you are going to get injured, young players are trown into the AFL system and the clubs try to manage work loads but it takes time get get young players developed enough to cope with AFL training. On top of this we also had a few years when the cue went into the rack early and any player that had a smallniggle was spelled. If we still have this issue when our players mature then we have issues but for now this is just growing pains.

I don't mind the option of using Martin on Hale, we did this last week with Martin in the Back line, both will go into the ruck as second ruckman. It means to workload of Hale and Martin will be the same.

This is a good team to play Hawthorn, we will have some bigger bodies aroung the football in Moloney, Sylvia, Bail, Jones with Jetta and Trengove strong enough as well. Good out side speed. I can't wait for Jurrah to play on Josh Gibson if we can get the footy to Jurrah he will carve Gibson up. Will Bruce go to Green if so striaght back to the goal line and kick 10 on him. Hawthorn have been the team that has crushed us over the past 3 years, if the new leadership group wants to make a statement this is the game. I hate three clubs and Hawthorn are on top of the list. It started with Jim running accross the mark, then they destroyed us in a Grand Final, then the Merge(take over), more recently the 2008 & 2010 round 1 smashings and to top it off the current loud mouth President how like when he was Premier sold everything off he continued with Hawthorn selling to Tasmania. We will win this game.

Lets put a dollar estimate on this, say the average Membership is $170, if we can maintain this gap it will add approx $815,000 extra membership revenue. If we can hit the 40,000 target revenue from Membership should grow by over 1 million dollars.

You can be quick but can you be quick when you are fatigued. Scully isn't quick but he can run at a good pace for a long period of time, Trengove is the same.

If you get a chance watch the game again, you will notice that most times Jack got near the footy he had 2-3 Sydney players around him. It is hard to be instinctive when you don't have any options. He may love to grab the footy and dish it of but if all you see is Red and White jumpers what do you want him to do. Next time we go to the footy can we look for positives instead of constantly looking at the mistakes. We all have players that no matter what they do we find something they do wrong and continue to high light it. You can't compare him to any player from the past as the game style has changed, gone are the one on one contests, a forward looks up and sees a wall of players taking up space, a CHF even worse you have space behind you but nothing in front and if you get the footy you need to wait for your team mates to get forward and if they aren't working hard all you will see is a wall of players in front of you. He needs to continue to improve and he will, but he will have good and bad games, he will do things that will show his full potential and he will make mistakes. We just hope the mistakes become less as the year goes on and we see more consistant good footy.

One real positive for me yesterday, and to me is what the club has worked towards for the past 4 drafts, we now have a number of good to elite kickers. Compared to the last few years our field kicking has been very bad, of the players that played Yesterday I rate the following as good to Elite in terms to field kicking, Green, Jurrah, Watts, Sylvia, Tapscott, Trengove, Davey, Bennell, Jetta, Grimes(bad day yesterday), Maric. In fact the only players I don't want to see kicking the footy is Bartram, Rivers, Macdonald and Jones(for goal he can, and limit the Ruckman Jamar and Martin but confident they can hit targets.

Jones will be fighting for his spot all year, the performance of Bail yesterday he was outstanding as our stopping midfielder and he will get the job on Mitchell this week. Scully will come back, Gysberts and McKenzie will get fit and push for selection, hopefully Blease can string some good games at Casey that will put pressure on Jones and other midfielders to perform or be dropped. On next week, Petterd will start and Maric will be a sub, I think Frawley will play and MacDonald will miss. Rivers on yesterdays performance deserves to miss but this won't happen but like Jones, Rivers will need to perform or you will have MacDonald, Warnock and even McDonald pushing for his spot.

You all realise we are risking upsetting Tom Scully. Tom wants to be the Demonland most talked about player, I have it from a cousin of a cousin if Jack Watts keeps getting all our posts Tom will leave. To add to Jack Watts, he still has areas of his game that needs work, what 20yo doesn't. What I liked about him yesterday, on a number of times he was out numbered and at least he brought the footy to ground, if he can do this it will give our crumbing forwards confidence to get to the contest. Two marks yesterday he showed how tall he can play, full stretch overhead marks that stuck, a defender will have to chop his arms to get anywhere near the footy. The mistakes are going to happen all year especially under pressue.

Sylvia is fairly handy as well and if any of you watched the Brisbane game Jetta was a clearance king. I hope I'm not getting to excited about Jetta but through the pre-season I saw things in his game that should he will be an above average AFL midfielder. We will also have speed on the outside with Davey and Bennell although Bennell might get the job on Lewis Jetta.

Don't be supprised if Martin starts in the back line goes into the ruck for 5-7mins per qtr. IMO we will line up as per below Bartram Martin Garland MacDonald Rivers Grimes Bail Sylvia Bennell Dunn Watts Davey Green Jurrah Maric Jamar Moloney Jones Jetta Petterd Tapscott Sub Strauss I din't think Trengove will play.

If Goodes goes into the Midfield expect Bail to run with him, if he pushes forward then a MacDonald or Garland will go to him. Bail doesn't have the height but he has the running capacity to match Goodes and can tackle, I'm not concerned about the Height mis-match whilst Goodes is in the middle.

That failed and the FD realised they couldn't go in with Jamar with Miller/Dunn or Sylvia as a back up. The times Jamar had to rest we got smashed you need that second ruckman. Secondly what is the point having a ruckman as a sub, with no injury's you want to inject fresh legs that can have an impact on the game, a second string ruckman isn't that. We hopefully have 23-24 games ahead of us, Jamar can't go it alone or we will burn him out fast.

Roost it he isn't a Brent Moloney, he can short pass the footy low and hard as well and from what I have seen including last week at Casey he has footy smarts, he knows when to kick long or us the short option. The best thing about his kicks like Dean Bailey mentioned he kicks three irons, no up and under kicks low and hard a bit like Daniel Rich. The ball carry's further then you think expect Liam Jurrah to be sitting on a few heads with this guys kicking deep into our forward line.

Let me get this right some want Jamar to be the sole ruckman until we sub Martin. Your second ruckman will not be your sub. If we play Spencer, Martin may be a sub not as a ruckman but a Key Defender. A lot will hinge on if Trengove is fit Final Bench Jetta, Trengove(if Fit), Martin Sub Petterd If Trengove is not fit Petterd comes onto the bench and Strauss moves into the sub position. Bail get first crack at Goodes.

Besides Maric, Jetta was one of the big improvers over pre season, nothing more certain them him getting a game this week. One other point no club will take a ruckman as a sub.

Tapscott In, certain starter Bailey just announced it