buck_nekkid

Doggies did it through winning the contest, they seem to a hard defensive system and gave up a lot of points to the Blues. If we can win (even halve) the contested possessions and clearances, then we can build through intense pressure. Blues only look good when there is no pressure. If we bring our game, they don’t get a look in. I am looking for at least 2 quarters of no Blues goals. I am looking for us to break them open and break their hearts. CHF says 8 goals - I’ll take that but reckon we can go bigger.

Always reward performance, play your best available squad and respect your supporters, the opposition, and the players. Resting players for no reason is arrogant. Allowing niggling injuries to heal is different.

Suggest this has more to do with the Qb game than Viney. “Will you be right by then, jack”? “Yep, I start running Tuesday and will be cherry ripe by QB”. Suggest this does not preclude him being available earlier....

Hats off to Nasher and AF. Well done for breaking it down. i imagine each midfield poses a different challenge, depending on the ruckman and types of mids (speed, power, nous)? What the strength of one midfield is has to be either countered or discounted - we either have to be defensive or offensive at the clearance. You reckon we should have the midfield to back ourselves - we probably start this way (see result when it doesn’t work in the first, third and last quarters) and then modify for more defense from there. We should back ourselves - however we need a reboot in here because it is centre clearance that we cannot clog up with extra bodies and have to win 4v4 each time. interesting to know what we were doing differently in previous years when we were winning the centre clearance but not much else...

I note that pox Kane Cornes suggested that a later tackle on Lycett should have been violent in retribution ‘enforced’, but how stupid? You want to give a brain injury to a guy because he gave someone else a brain injury?

I wonder if that puts them in breach of their contract? Part of the deal for coming into the AFL was that they would leave the ‘iconic’ black and white stripes of their SANFL days behind them. Collingwood had the AFL rights to this, and Port signed off on it to gain entry. The Pies have every right to enforce their contract, and this ‘show’ really is poor form on their part. What did it prove? The Crows were manufactured so there is no traditional SA rivalry before the AFL entry of either team, so the prison bars are meaningless in this context. Imagine if The Lions wanted to be called the gorillas when they played us because they were called that in 1939? Some things make no sense.

Some observations: 1/4 of their goals were scored at the start, without us even touching the pill. That is two weeks running teams have strolled out of the middle for a training drill goal. 1/4 of their goals! Second quarter we held them goal-less. That is our brand. We had a few lads that the oppo obviously put extra time into (Lever and Kosi) and several who were down on form (Fritta). The good news is there were others who stepped up in moments that mattered (Jordon, Spargo...). Our connection inside 50 was terrible. We still are not used to BBB leading out, and would suggest we need to get him leading hard from deeper to be a demanding target. His 3 came from one lead out, one contested grab at the top of the square, and one short pass inside 50. Better support at the drop would have also helped. Max is just not quite max Max at the moment. Centre work and some around the ground stuff a little off his best. TMac is flying. What a solid contribution. Petty will continue to improve, and was certainly not Tommo, but not bad either. Centre clearances were terrible. Stats would have been worse without Dogga. I know there are threads devoted to this, but we seem to have no plan to halve/defend the contest, and no capability in our setup to positively exit ourselves. 8-0. My god. First time in my lifetime. From seasons where winning 4 games was the best we could do, it is great to feel what it is like on the other side of the ledger. Go Dees.

Geez, purple can’t let this go. Has two cracks at it in his ‘sliding doors’ fluff piece this week. Get over it you purple headed custard pumper.

With wet weather possible, would think weids stays out for this one. Don’t think we want to go too tall unless conditions are ideal. sparrow in for Baker. petty in for Tomo jones medical sub

An additional week off for head case McCartin?

They would have expected to be mid table or better, so trading out their first pick to get Daicos made sense. At 17th, this now looks silly as the points loss they take- moving from giving up pick 12, say, to giving up pick 2 on top of having to use up all their (diminished) points plus extras for one player- may cause them draft grief for an extra year. i would have run screaming, too.

If Sam wants to play for himself then he stays out. This year it is all about playing for the team. If he keeps kicking on the door and that best serves the team then he will find his place. I’m sure he has the right attitude and team focus to make it. He would have been in the team but slipped out through injury, now he just has to wait his turn. He plays a different role to BBB, so we easily can have both in the squad. His time is approaching rapidly - a forward line with three differently skilled talls works at WC, and can absolutely work for us. Throw in Fritter, Kossie, Spargo and it is an insane forward set up. As a #9 draft pick that has now been developed, would think the picks coming back would have to be significant to let him go.

A full defensive effort and not letting them get a hot start is important. The challenge for us is matching the midfield. IF we can win or halve the midfield and apply our pressure, we are better forward than they are back, and better back than they are forward. Papley kept quiet, Hickey and Kennedy nullified and BBB to kick a BBBag. They lost nearly every stat but still won last week against the slowing Cats. They wont get that luxury this week. Expect we will take the game by 50-70 points.

Like YZE?

That would be ace!

I’m so glad we had that game against North. Any other team would have ripped us apart. Worst game by Gawn for such a long time. Thrashed in the middle, dropped marks, fumbled and was way down in terms of impact. Hopefully that’s his off week for the year. Many others simply down and didnt go hard enough early. ANB, Hunt to name a few invisibles. Baker kicks hospital balls rather than passes - they always go high and hang. Not a useful skill or style. Jackson, Pickett, Jordon, Rivers were all highly valuable. A future is built from these guys. Fritsch 6 - awesome effort, benefited from a sideshow sidekick taking more heat in the 50, plus he kicked straight! Think he gets at worst a fine for the errant elbow. Brown will only get better, I thought he applied pressure and drew defenders, so did his job. His bag will come. A good example of getting out of trouble, and of a team that wins ugly when it has nothing else. Not a great standard, but having them only kick 2 in the second half (as opposed to 9 in the first) was a demonstration that we got back to our ‘knitting’. Bag the 4 points, enjoy being a game clear on top, and reset for the ducks of Saturday night.

Hopefully a blip on the radar. Seemed 1/2 the squad were 5% off yesterday, saved by the young guns. Good to see Brown applying pressure in the 50 and not just leading for marks.

Petty for Tommo. Isn’t it nice we have a swing man like Tom who can roll back and cover if needed? Tom is better applying pressure and linking up for us a HFF.

We dont lack depth. If the midfield go missing, it looks bad. The midfield got well beaten in the first half today and we looked terrible. we offered them first use from the first bounce and it cost us big time. we have Oliver Trac Brayshaw, Harmes, Sparrow, Jones, Jordan, Kozzie, Melksham. If Gawn gets back some form we will be OK. If not, we will be smashed by the swans with Hickey having a good run of games.

Damn!

Petty in for Tommo is a must Conditions will determine team structure. If the weather is ok, Weids in for Melksham. Viney to return for baker.

Just too laconic atm. Really poor

18 months ago this would have been us. What we paid for lever and May? Mitch Clarke? Lumumba? TMac a multi year deal? Etc. it is all a gamble. Each time you hope to improve your list. No guarantees. Dockers May have improved their list moving hogan on, if he didn’t fit the culture. Look at how important system and culture are to us now. Hard to judge. ps- Collingwood would also be serious contenders by your metrics

Stay close to the cats and run past them at the end. Gonna happen repeatedly this year.

A strange year, with erratic performances (up and down) happening week to week. Sides down 5% get cut up, and few teams have a system that works. Teams have looked champagne or boiled lollies with little apparent change. Stands us in good stead with a solid system. We have seen off several solid efforts (including the two grand finalists) and it seems more than the sugar rush offered up randomly by others. Defence wins flags. Not impressed by many others 7 weeks in. Dees are looking well set up in comparison.