buck_nekkid

I have this one as an absolute 50/50. Can’t decide who will win. It all comes down to how we show up, and the smarts we use. Low effort and dumb football, and we will be caned. On the other hand, The handbaggers are very gettable. Dees by 13 points, in a very tough and exciting game.

Turn off the telly and worry the missus.

Interpretive dance would work. lighten up! He might hate it as much as you do. It is part of the job. If he chooses to use ‘words’ to say as little as possible, then I’m ok with that provided they win.

Danger Selwood and Bullethead only run one way. Get lots of possies. If we make every ball contested and make them defend us then they will be well out of their comfort zone. Interesting that with more than a day’s notice, they still went Hannan. Says a lot about where they see Tyson. JKH stays in, maybe Tyson for Hannan, or maybe as a left field idea, Weids to stretch their backline with height, and chop out in the ruck. Can see Harmes and maybe Vince doing run with roles. Can see Trac stepping up. Think they will tag Brayshaw and try to stop Clarrie running to the contest. Should be a good game. Can’t see their backs betting our forwards, and can see us holding our own in defence. Battle then of the midfields. If the Brady Bunch can get up and running, we are stuffed. If we can smash them into contest after contest, we will win. AVdB and Baker not ready yet, but not far away. Kielty not yet, but hopefully gets a run before the end of the H/A.

Maxxy dead set has a media career in front of him. Absolutely owns it!

We are at least 2 goals better a quarter. Boyd and Bont out. McRae rushed back. 48 points, Maxie to own the skies. JKH to surprise knockers. Improved (modified) forward 50 approach to be on display. I have other duties and wont be there today - but perhaps that is a good thing because I have only seen one win at the G this year (Roos), and felt the Geelong, Saints and Pies games were poor give-ups. Go Dees

Cellphone deraj: nah, doesn’t run both ways.

I thought Vanders was a cut above, bollocking through packs and getting amongst it. I really like what I saw from 3 quarters of footy. There is definitely a place in the big game for him if he keeps this up. interesting to see Pat Mac get a go in better conditions. Hoping he brings speed and smarts.

I a.ways thought Lyon was going to jam up our 50, and moreso the 20-40 metre zone that we target. Fill it with big blokes, and as Demons lead into this space, the incoming ball can be cut off. sometimes it was so bad they had no structure forward of the ball. We had our press super high, and we were still 50m behind them sometimes. Free had no chance playing like this. no wonder we dominated inside 50s. We didn’t handle the pill well, conditions or not. lets bank the 4 points, recover, and get set for next week. worried about Lewis. Undisciplined elbow gives up 50m. Doesn’t bend down for balls in dispute. Not behaviours to be rewarded.

Tyson gets it, and can’t hit a handball from 5m. Been stuffing it all day.

I can see Ross Lyon flooding the backline, jamming up the 20 m - 40m zone in front of goal. We will need to be much better at f50 entries, and not let the slingshot goals from their defense happen like last week. Brayshaw to play on Brayshaw? think they will rove to Max. 2-3 goals per quarter better. Dees 56 pt winners

May have cost us wins... we can’t know the alternative future. May have contributed to it.

Mt Doom.

Interesting that the phrase 'drinking your own bathwater' was used by Max in his presser - I so rarely hear or see this phrase except on DL. Seems like either the Journo or someone club-side may have been having a peek. Part of the on boarding would have to revolve around not reading below the line. As soon as you open the 'comments' or replies on any social media platform, you can be straying into some weird and wonderful places. Read the article, sure - but read the comments at your peril! As for Petracca - the rut is about 19 people wide at the moment. If it was only him, then maybe Casey calls. But we cant drop most of the team along with him. Got to play the squad back into form, Petracca with them.

Dunn was, well, done. The feeling at the time was that he was slow, one dimensional and didn’t fit with the emerging structures. Kicking down the line all the time or blasting toros and way too slow. Better to not rewrite history. Good on him for doing well at the palace-o-pus, and sorry to hear about his knee.

Kent was poor at Casey last weekend and there is no way he was even close to demanding a spot in the firsts. He is a long way back on that performance. Suggest he will need at least 3-4 a Casey, or show a miraculous turn around in form.

Im sure they thought they could bring him in and he would get an easy start. Instead, he was left all at sea by every player in front of him defending woefully, and made to look poor. His teammates helped make it a shocker of a first game. Add to that his terrible scrubber mis-kick, and the mark he took that was not a mark (would have been a free and 50 if it was a saints player that had the ball punched away after a mark), and it was crapola in all directions for the kid. Do we keep him in? If his team-mates make him a promise to make his life easier. Otherwise, if I was him, I would want to go back to Casey where hard work is the only way to play.

We have to play smarter and take the game out of the maggots hands. We simply allowed them into the match by the way we played. If we are first to the ball, if we hit open players and don't cough up stupid mistakes in the contest, then we can't get pinged. The umpiring was atrocious and certainly kept them in it in the first half. It delivered them at least 5 goals. However, we have to learn to adjust and outplay them when we are getting the wrong end of the stick - because whining about it is getting us no where. The worst thing for me is how blatant the bias is. It was an absolute disgrace, but we have to be better than simply giving in to it. We will never get the Collingwood free run, or the 'crowd affirmation' of Adelaide and Perth. We just have to be better than it.

If TMac is too important as a forward, why do we start him on the wing?

Questions that should have been asked at the presser: if there was a lack of defensive effort, why did you not change this up during the game? You know, the quarter and half time breaks might be good for that, right? what was your message to Petty after the match? Did you apologise for selecting him before he was ready? when did you decide to start your best forward on the wing, and push the other key forward so far from goal he needs a myki card? Did you learn anything when you put Hogan deep forward and he kicked 3 goals? if inside 50s are such a problem, why don’t you fix it?

Lets see if Goody’s presser was blah blah. If it was, no change. If he is serious, then I can see several changes. Any player that either can’t run two ways is out. Any player who is down on form is out (if there is a replacement at Casey). We have to structure up better. Out: Petty, Hannan, Tyson, ANB In: Frost, Baker, Spargo, Stretch Spargo into the forward line, Baker to hold a wing, Stretch on the other (rotating in to the middle) Hogan CHF, TMac FF. They dont go past the middle. We have to hold our shape in the back 6 much better. About 12 other players have to pull their fingers out

Well, that was shyte. My review under 4 points. Skills, Effort, Strategy, Umpiring. Skills. SImply poor in general skills across the day. Kicking to targets, overusing handballs, not taking marks. All well below par. One on one skills were a real low-light. Effort. We simply looked flat. the Saints spread faster, got to more contests and in more numbers more often. Only big Max seemed prepared to apply himself all day (he wins a gold star). What, couldn’t they be bothered? Thet corralled rather than tackles, were second to almost every contest, allowed to be turned inside out way to easily and wandered around with their hands on their hips. If you dont want to be out there, dont be. Giving away 119 points is unacceptable Strategy. Big issues here. Inside 50 was terrible. St K simply jammed up the 30 metre space directly out from goal and we couldn’t think of anything else but kicking it to them there repeatedly. Having everyone fly at the ball is amateur. Our start setup with TMac on the wing and JViney as a tagger. Forget it! Better off to have Jesse on the wing. We were smashed in clearances until Viney was allowed to be proactive. Our exits from the back half are poor. Our discipline with tiki touchwood umpires needs to improve. Harry Petty Was a bust. The last quarter 1:1 where he didn’t even put his arms up to contest shows he just isn’t ready. Umpires. 3 goals from 50’s and 2 more from soft as free kicks in the first half. The push in the backs that weren’t. How did Oliver get knocked to ground off the ball and not one umpire saw it? They were so substandard today, they appeared biased. The first 3 things we need to fix, the last is beyond our control. Until we are the glory team, we will keep being the umpire’s biatches. I think up to 3-4 changes this week.

One thing I noticed was Baker always held his width off the contest, to act as the loose side winger. This meant he spent a lot of time between these zones, as he was the widest player for both teams off the contest when it was on the opposite wing. He would then run to make space wider, or be a target on an angle. When was on his side, I didn’t see who held width the other way. He got involved, some of his disposal was less than polished, but he looks highly likely. A good game. I note the Bummers had a couple of very fleet footed runners, which absolutely suits their game style to break lines and rebound off half back. One or two of these might be valuable at Melbourne. F50 entries seem to be our Achilles heel.

Really liked the games of Baker, Stretch, Vince, Smith and Kielty. Lots at the next level, Frost good amongst them. DJ goes hard. Not much of JKH or Bugg today. Need more from Balic. Garlett not on form today - not sure if it was because it didn’t go right for him, or he just didn’t go enough? Kent was way off the pace, but probably better for the run.

How often did we pump it straight to Francis? Didn’t even make it hard for him. Lots of intent, just needs a fraction more polish. Need to stop the uncontested possession chains that the druggies get off half back.