Nasher

Prior to the Port game, we were giving Oscar McDonald credit for Lever and May coming good. In hindsight, Lever and May have probably just come good because they're both good players, who have figured out how to work as a team now that they've spent a bit of time working together. Both of them were recruits that we paid handsomely for with good reason.

I couldn’t understand why he wanted in to begin with, surely he knew it would be an uphill battle to get game time.

Agree. When we kick it in his vicinity I’m confident he’ll either win it or kill it. He’s the only one in the forward line I could say that about. I reckon the boys kicking it at him are too. There is nothing worse than seeing key defenders pick our kicks off and that hadn’t been happening since Weid has been up and about. Melksham, Kozzie and the other ground players are benefiting from this as well.

He can most definitely do worse than TMac. He isn’t a forward’s bootlace. Preuss was really good last night and it sucks that he will be dropped when Gawn comes back, but make no mistake about it, he will be dropped. He knew what he was signing up for when he came to the club.

With all due respect, <statement that doesn’t show a shred of respect>. Oh well, suck it, losers.

I do wonder how the likes of Browne find out before the club releases anything though. Surely the club has control of the information that comes out of it.

I don’t think option 2 stinks. TMac and Weideman looked okay as a combination initially until TMac had his eyeball scraped out. With Weideman now having demonstrated capability as first forward, TMac can play the more mobile, pinch hit in the ruck role he played in 2018. It’s not ideal but I don’t think it’s terrible, or all that far off what we probably thought our forward line might look like at the start of the year.

Poor bugger. Must be a scary place to be, not to mention frustrating.

Yep - when I made that comment I wasn't fully convinced of it myself (hence possibly) - I think you're probably right on that aspect. It'll be interesting to see if Preuss gets a run this week.

I liked it. The address after the Port game showed a side of Goodwin you don’t see in his public persona. Pretty rough to criticise the club about this.

I could accept that Goodwin and co took a risk with Gawn, but there’s absolutely no way I can accept they took more risk than they otherwise would have purely so Goodwin could save his own bacon. Firstly that’s a low level of integrity I’m not prepared to accuse the coach of when he’s not here to defend himself, and secondly if he was really in that much trouble (which I also don’t accept), then a cheap Gawn-lead win against Adelaide wouldn’t make much difference in the long run. The more logical answer is they did it because they thought he’d be right - ie a calculated risk rather than a reckless one. It’s first grade nonsense to suggest it’s a Goodwin-lead conspiracy.

Insurance policy we didn’t up needing. Just because the house didn’t burn down doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have insured it. The time to bring him in was when TMac was first injured. They went with LJ instead. LJ coming on quicker than expected has made Brown and possibly Preuss redundant.

Burgess doesn’t know squat compared to the DBT (Demonland Brains Trust).

Yes.

Good article. The change in Oliver's style has been well documented on here, so it's great to see some outside recognition, backed up by some statistical evidence. It's not often you see a step-change in a player like this within a season, but it looks as if it has dawned on Oliver that there's more in the party bag than clean collect/handball in traffic. It will be interesting to see if it's still going to be as noticeable against stronger teams. It's really hard to get a good sense of where things are at when our last two results have been floggings of terrible teams.

I guess the counter-argument is that overplaying a key position when they’re not ready is also counterproductive and can also compromise their long term playing future. In the case of Weideman, this season is the only one where I think there is a legitimate argument where he wasn’t playing when he should have been. In 2018 he was rightfully behind TMac and Hogan, and came in to play a role in finals when Hogan was out. 2019 was a writeoff with poor form and multiple injuries. So maybe he should be on 40 games instead of 37. Big deal. He’s in now and I can’t see him going out again.

He has changed his identity. By ignoring that change and calling him by a name he has asked not to be called, something untoward is implied.

I think he played in defence as a junior too. Feels like a bit of a waste to me though. But I suppose less of a waste than never getting back to AFL footy.

I think they were both bottom age, but not under-age per se. The only under-age recruit I can recall us taking was Hogan.

I had a fair bit of trouble warming to Dunn as a player. The faux tough guy antics he put on in the front half of his career drove me nuts. He showed loyalty through a tough era at the MFC though, when plenty of his mates walked, and overall has gone on to have a solid career. Best of luck to him.

I wonder what Jason Taylor would think of this analysis? What you have said sounds right to me, but all these attributes and shortcomings would have been known as an 18 year old, but we took him anyway, and with a non-trivial pick (late 20s).

He’s been great since returning to the side after the break I reckon. Has looked like the player he was when he first came to the club.

I think the improvement in spread has come from Oliver participating in it more as much as Brayshaw’s return to form. That’s an aspect to Oliver’s game that has noticeably changed in the last few weeks. I think you’re underselling Viney’s capacity in that regard too, he’s definitely capable of breaking away from a contest when required. To me I think the Petracca-Oliver-Viney midfield is stronger than Petracca-Oliver-Brayshaw, but the conundrum is that Brayshaw can’t play anywhere else. Can Viney? If Viney could play as a half forward in the role Jones is currently playing, even though it takes our midfield down a peg, the team may still be better off.

For those who want Harmes as a tagger, which of Oliver, Petracca, Brayshaw (and then Viney) are you moving out to accomodate this? He’s too far down the pecking order to spend much time in the guts now. That’s why Goodwin is exploring alternative roles. I don’t mind the wing suggestion. But irrespective of position, he looks horribly out of form at present.

Occam’s Razor says they’re just crap umpires. There were a few where ridiculous calls went our way too, the non-free against Fritsch (I think) in the goal square from the Petracca goal is one example.