buck_nekkid

I don’t know what to expect, from either team. I know we are working on our style and connection, but I really want to see effort converted into something valuable - maybe scoreboard action! This feels make or break, although it is so early in a disrupted season. Go Dees! A few tins in front of the telly this arvo to see us home - my guess by 22 points

Those umpiring decisions were a disgrace. Trying to keep pies in it. Worth 2 additional goals (brown +1, Treloar -1 to bombers).

How long has it been since we have gone unchanged? I’m not sure I can remember when we last did.

The two players who also played the role were not ready, so Bennell got a run. They have now gone past him in fitness, and he needs to enhance his defensive efforts. Not shocking, role based.

Listened to Plapp on the zoom call. He spelled it out. All good with Weid.

Wow. All the whiners queue up. There has been HEAPS of commentary from inside the club that, if the complainers were to listen, might give a few hints about selection. Goodwin - looking for consistency and small changes on a role by role basis. Bennell now third in the line and has to work. Plapp - Weids working on his game and Will be ready when needed. Brayshaw - the team know what goodie wants and are all aligned around delivering it. Omac best on last weekend. Spargo great in his role. Jones body nearly back to full fitness. Jetta - playing more like old Nev, but still a bit to do. Brown - kicked goals on the WE. Anyone remember Spargo at his best? Without track watchers to help us, we are further away from seeing who is in our out based upon training. If your cognitive frame is the MFCSS, then you are not gonna like it. But honestly? There are really few surprises here if you tune in to what the club have said across the week.

I think the club wants to settle on a lineup and give it a chance to deliver. I think there will be few changes, perhaps one or two like for like so the coaches can get their preferred group on the park and playing a few games together. The posts that want ‘revolution’ (like May or Oscar forward) might have to settle, petal. They have not trained there, the season is only 3 matches old for us, so there is a long way to go before those sort of tricks could be expected.

OMAC clearly best on. Perhaps a signal that they want two tall defenders for Lynch and Riewoldt? Jones and Jetta could easily slot back in - it just depends how much the club wants the playing group to consistently play together. Vanders was rusty and Bennell looked like a smooth mover in the scratch match, so an easy exchange if they want to...

Plapp said in the zoom call that he is still refining his game, is in a good head space, and is ready to go when called on. They are taking a longer term view and know that big players can take longer to develop, but there does not seem to be the angst in the club that people are expressing here. I think there is a place for him in the team, especially standard length games. Shorter games might be the straw holding him out.

The club obviously have a strategy for how the forward line should function, very different to previous years. This is a significant tweak to our style, and has to be learned. Frittata will be an asset up front, but also being the kick into the 50. Suggest we give it a little time to see if it can work before ditching it all - the interruptions have been massive to getting a change like this to work. We also need the forwards to be accountable and apply massive defensive pressure. I think this has been missing, and allowed Geelong to waltz out with kick to kick. Forwards being accountable for their opposition numbers and applying pressure and they would have had to go long up the line. Also, the pressure has to work to retain forward 50 entries, not just let it bounce straight back out with no shot on goal. Fritta needs to apply that pressure and lead to better places. It will come, I believe.

I chipped in - did the jumper plus happy ending experience. Hope I’m not going to be disappointed... I support the club. I know we are playing crap, but I still support the club.

We had no chance of getting him, so let it go...

Perhaps we are too wedded to the midfield group. If Viney and Oliver were half forwards, and Brayshaw, Harmes, Salem, Bennell, Sparrow were the guts players, maybe our midfield’s ‘hidden’ woes would start solving themselves?

The problem with the one big and some mediums is that we are putting the wrong mediums up there. Look at the Pies group - all are dangerous around the goals, can kick from 50 and put on heaps of pressure. Suggest our group should be Petracca, Kozzie, Oliver, Hunt and Bennell With TMAC and maybe a second tall. In fact, Mason Cox is just a big lump rather than a TMAC type who has mobility. Fritter and Melk delivering in. Our midfield could be Brayshaw, Viney, Salem, Harmes (not a bad unit, really) with the others rotating through. These guys are where the defensive problem starts - lack of two way running. They gun forward but one mistake (the usual dees outcome) and turnover means they are out of position. The fact that the cats just chipped and possessed rather than kicking to a contest (over 100 times!) suggests the midfield did not close down the open players at all - just cruised back to cover grass. Our zone hooked reasonably well from 50 out, but it needs to work from 80 out. Changes: Not many, more positional and attitudinal. Guys need to bust a gut to break opposition chains and need to bust a brain cell delivering inside 50.

Wow, Rusty. That is a terrible indictment on the club. The inability to close off the kick to kick keepings off was poor. The scores above are appalling, and the follow on stats Paint the real picture.

We played poorly. Geelong just sweated on our mistakes, which we continuously made for them. Even still, we had a kick to win it! Some things to like, but our system especially forward was terrible.

Cats being patient and waiting for us to stuff up. Not letting them down.

A few things to ponder: We have to select off the intraclub thanks to the scenario we were put in. Not ideal, but 40 players got the chance to show where they were at. Bennell would be managed by Burgo. I imagine they have load goals that he would have hit regardless of the ‘glorified circle work’, and then he was due for de-loading. If there was not intraclub, he would have done it doing run throughs. There are bigger goals than one game in mind for this bloke.

Suggest he plays a role locking down the midfielder resting forward, which he is ideally suited to. He can also push off and deliver forward. He also can rotate into the midfield. I think people are overstating the loss of playing him back. I can see real value in this concept.

It will be a game of structures. We need to win the clearance (or at least slow it down for Cats) to allow the defensive setup to work. The idea of winning the contest and fast delivery to disrupt their Defensive structure makes sense. The. Defense must be resolute the kick before it gets to the key forwards for this to work. We dont need to change the squad, just need the squad to deliver....

Except Covid is now the biggest global killer this year. Please feel free to lick people’s faces or whatever freedom looks like to you.

A contrary view: We put on a brave face (knowing that we will get ZERO from the AFL). We use it to show what we are made of, that we can handle what comes our way, and show the team that we are not sooks like the WEAGLES. The season is screwed like a pig in an Arkansas barn, so why damage our internal build for the sake of this? The AFL will always prioritise the big clubs, so we get scraps. If we had a great hit out on Sunday, and the guys are all ‘in it together’ we can do more good for our culture for the long term than getting a hollow benefit from GIll and the braincell-allergic dunderheads at AFL house. Pick your battles. Choose the sexiest pig.

Wow, popped over to bomber blitz. Biggest crucifixion complex since Jesus. They want to be let off everything, delist a McKenna, and move games so they play with a full squad. They are still sore from being drug cheats, too. (I had to use hand sanitizer on my eyeballs after that....)

The umpires gave everything against the Demons. We cant take a trick!

Real umpires, too!