Fat Tony

I actually think he best patch I have seen us play was in 2018 when we won 20 odd quarters in a row. Lever and Hogan getting injured might have cost us at top 4 finish and a real chance to win it that year. Our performance against the Cats in the finals was good enough to beat anyone and we needed the week off and home ground advantage to win the flag. This year we have been playing a much more defensive game plan which is focused on minimising our turnovers and playing the boundary so that if we do turn it over we are set with defensive cover. We have only kicked 5 goals in a quarter 5 times this season, so I actually think we have another gear to get to offensively. We also can do better in the centre bounces given we should be the best in the comp with Gawn, Oliver, Petracca and Viney.

Minimal changes for me. Langdon obviously comes in. Salem would benefit from 2 weeks rest. This might be a good opportunity to get his body right for the rest of the year. He is only just going at the moment. Melksham, Sparrow and Weideman would be closest to the fringe. Weideman was disappointing against the Lions but Harris-Andrews is an excellent defender. He needs to take his chances. I still want us to persevere.

Great post. This is certainly correct in the stoppages but we need to do much better in the centre clearances. When we get territory from centre bounce we either get a score and/or it gives us the chance to set up our defensive grid. I think our mids got first hands on the ball in the centre bounce a lot last night after the ruck contest but then our mids got hustled out of the clearance. I love the tactic of Max grabbing the ball because it is almost fail proof. Otherwise I think we would be better off generally with Max hitting forwards in the centre bounce and getting the surge game going. On another point, our defensive setups at D50 boundary throw ins was a bit wanting and they got goals from sharking our hits twice. Jackson also needs to think about how he attacks these contests, as his lack of strength leaves him open to his opposite number taking the ball.

Strangle the life out of them Demons!

Good fit for us on field. We could do with a stronger full forward.

It is ridiculous that they aren’t allowing AFL players who are tested regularly to play at Alice this week. And at the same time they are asking for a new team. All take, no give.

Looks like Jeremy Cameron. Hopefully he plays like him.

NT want their own AFL team but won’t let us play this Friday. What a joke!

I know binman is happy to see us lose the clearance numbers so long as we are more effective in terms of both stopping the opposition scores and scoring ourselves. I think this is generally the right approach for stoppage clearances. However, I would be more determined to take territory (and not allow the +1) early in the game when the heat is on. For centre clearances, I think we need to put a greater emphasis taking territory and be less worried about about maintaining possession for the perfect kick. We were really good at this on the weekend. I also like the tactic of Gawn trying to take the ball out of the ruck in the centre and doing a quick kick.

Switching the bye to next week makes the most sense on the chance that things settle down and it can be held in Melbourne.

Tassie have really done nothing to help during this period. I don't reckon it has really helped their case for a new team.

I would bring Jones into the side for Langdon this week given the Giants Stadium is small ground. He is flexible and can play midfield, wing or half forward. Otherwise no other changes. Replacing the Langdon wing will be a bit of a group effort. Brayshaw, Harmes, Jordon and Jones will each have roles to play on the wing. I would be reluctant to change the back 7 by shifting Hunt or Rivers. Weideman obviously needs to improve, but I am a believer.

I don't think the money will come into it if we think the player is worth going for.

I assume there is no compensation if the player is coming out of the U19 competition?

Did his father play for us?

I am a bit surprised that Bedford has not trialled playing wing at all given his speed and endurance mix and our needs.

This is definitely how Goodwin has tended to do things. But he did bring in Baker to play wing against the Kangaroos when the out was Viney. Also, I would argue that Langdon is our most difficult player to replace. Not in terms of ability, but we just don't have another player of his type, with running ability and skill. (If we did, they would be playing on the other wing.)

One too many spliffs indeed! ?

What incident?

I think Langdon is one of our most difficult players to replace. It also depends a bit on where the game is. Alice Springs and the Gabba have a lot of space. Giants Stadium is much tighter. If we play at Alice Springs I would think about pushing Harmes out to the wing and Sparrow into the 22. Jones would be an option at Giants Stadium. I’m not really a fan of Baker. Bowey could be an option also.

That was easy!

We didn't win because of our poor defence. The Crows scored 96 from 47 inside 50s. Prior to the Crows game, our highest score against was 73. And the Crows game was the second lowest Inside 50s against for the year. Weideman didn't play well. Nor did Fritsch, Spargo, Melksham or TMac. But part of the reason why the forwards had relatively low statistical impact was that we were efficient in generating scores (which is the aim). We had 7 more inside 50s but 37 less possession. Essentially we had a lot of quiet forwards but the structure actually worked pretty well.

I think our side looks to be as good as it could be with only Viney and Tomlinson out. We need Max to dominate.

I did not read from Richardson's interview that Weideman was a lock. Far from it. Just that we currently feel thata our best side includes three of Weideman, Jackson, Brown and McDonald. Personally, I think our best forward line is the one that has been selected tonight. While we had a number of players with little impact last weekend, as a whole our Forward Efficiency was 56%, which was 5% up on our season average. We were just pipped by a side that had everything go the Crow's way (they played well, kicked straight, we dropped marks in defence and, of course, the umpiring).

I reckon our side looks better than the WBD on paper* with Treloar, Dunkley and Martin out. [5] Taylor Duryea, [42] Alex Keath, [9] Hayden Crozier [34] Bailey Williams, [12] Zaine Cordy, [35] Caleb Daniel [31] Bailey Dale, [21] Tom Liberatore, [39] Jason Johannisen [7] Lachie Hunter, [17] Josh Bruce, [19] Cody Weightman [44] Tim English, [33] Aaron Naughton, [4] Marcus Bontempelli [41] Jordon Sweet, [11] Jack Macrae, [6] Bailey Smith [27] Patrick Lipinski, [30] Lachlan McNeil, [37] Roarke Smith, [38] Riley Garcia [2] Lewis Young,[14] Rhylee West, [18] Louis Butler, [43] Ryan Gardner [29] Jayden Hunt, [1] Steven May, [8] Jake Lever [3] Christian Salem, [35] Harrison Petty, [14] Michael Hibberd [10] Angus Brayshaw, [5] Christian Petracca, [15] Ed Langdon [23] James Jordon, [25] Tom McDonald, [18] Jake Melksham [31] Bayley Fritsch, [26] Sam Weideman, [9] Charlie Spargo [11] Max Gawn, [13] Clayton Oliver, [36] Kysaiah Pickett [4] James Harmes, [6] Luke Jackson, [24] Trent Rivers, [30] Alex Neal-Bullen [17] Jake Bowey, [32] Tom Sparrow, [37] Kade Chandler, [50] Ben Brown Note*: I may not feel this way at the end of the night.