Fat Tony

We were stiff to finish 4th in 1990 given our record. Still, we couldn't get near WCE the next (next) week, so we weren't the best side in it.

Our coaching staff are poor at maintaining discipline. Melksham gave away a 50m again today in exactly the same way as he did against the Cats. We have given around a dozen frees away in the back at the end of a chase. Our kick in strategies are the worst in the AFL. We are also useless at roving to our own hit outs.

IMO the best trading strategy for us would be to pick over the lists of North Melbourne, Hawthorn and Adelaide for veterans who will be finished by the time these clubs are back in contention. We should be looking for top level talent and trying to plug holes in our side. Hawthorn did this and picked up a Norm Smith Medallist. This is the type of players I would be looking at: North: Higgins, Brown, Tarrant Hawthorn: Smith, Breust, Gunston Adelaide: Seedsman, Smith, Lynch, Talia

The decision to trade Preuss would be done largely to preserve cap space and also keep our goodwill with the player agents. I cannot see us getting a fair return given he has hardly played. In saying that, he has proven himself as a very good back up and I would ideally like to keep him. I doubt you will see a player swap trade as they are rare as hen's teeth these days.

Also it will be interesting if they follow through on the pledge to give Nietschke a new deal if the list sizes are cut.

Actually it was the first time he has kicked 3 goals in a game. Easily his best game of AFL.

Harmes made two errors in the second half. One dropped chest mark in the wet and a poor switch kick. Overall, it was his best game for the season easily.

Gawn if fit for Preuss the only likely change. Preuss was good but if Gawn is fit, it is a no brainer. I don’t really rate Tomlinson and Spargo is looking like a different player in the last two weeks. Rivers, Bennell and Hannan need to wait it out, next in line. Those calling for Harmes and Fritsch to be dropped saw a different game to me. Harmes, in particular, just played his best game of the year and finally looked comfortable at half back.

Watched the first half again this morning and thought Harmes and Jones were excellent in the contest and used the ball well.

WCE actually have played one less than us now.

Gawn and Jackson aside, we pretty much have our best side available. Hannan and Rivers were a bit stiff and Bennell has fallen out of favour. The fact that Rivers, Jetta, Hannan, Hunt, Bennell and Oscar are fit and not selected is a pretty good sign. Preuss will have a big task and should really try to hurt Grundy physically.

So we have a four day break vs Freo, who have an extra day. And a five day break vs GWS, who have a four day break. Hopefully Freo are out of contention for finals by the time we play them.

Most important statistic in football.

Egan is pretty glowing on the depth on our list. Hopefully he is right and it is not all propaganda.

Which club's second round pick do we own?

Williams is a very good player but not elite. We will have to pay overs to land him and salary cap space is important. So, in terms of big fish, I would prefer to go after Darcy Moore and Jordan De Goey, who both have potential to be top 20 players in the league. As for Papley or Williams, Williams is a free agent, whereas Papley would cost our top pick for the next two years. So I would go for WIlliams.

Marking key forwards, who are not that good on the ground, only deserve AFL games if they clunk marks and then kick straight. While Weideman has shown great promise and I was pushing for his selection early in the season, he has been given plenty of opportunities in previous years to cement his spot in the side. Perhaps rather than stunting Weideman's growth, the way he has been managed has spurred him on to get it right?

TMac looked like he was getting some form back against Richmond and then early on in the Gold Coast game. I feel he has been a bit unlucky this year in that he has played when our delivery has been woeful. He has also generally played with little support, as we started the restart with only one key forward. While he looked out of very sorts against Port, again the delivery was terrible and our pressure was non existent for that game. (Jackson and Weideman also struggled that night.) The truth is that TMac might be finished as a footballer, but if we are going to go anywhere this year, I think we need him to be a good/very good player for us. Without having GPS data and behind the goals vision, it is hard to know if he is covering the ground like he used to. The key thing i like to see from him is that his timing is right for his marks and that he is hitting the drop of the ball at the peak. He did this in the last quarter against North, which was encouraging.

My view is that they all need to rotate through the forward line and/or wing. I would also add James Harmes into the mix here, as I don't think he is really suited to half back and is better suited to forward, mid and wing. The mix could look something like this: Petracca 55% mid, 25% forward Brayshaw 60% mid, 15% wing Viney 60% mid, 15% forward Oliver 70% mid, 5% forward Harmes 55% mid, 15% forward, 10% wing Langdon 90% wing VDB (or other wing) 85% wing The advantages of this are 1) we get fresher legs in the midfield; and 2) our players can hopefully develop second roles. The other option is to play Petracca as a midfielder in the centre bounce but then swing him forward almost straight away. This is what the Tigers do with Dusty and seems to work for them.

That’s just stupid.

In: Gawn, Viney, Lockhart Out: Tomlinson, Spargo, AVB TMac to the wing. Harmes forward. Melksham to half back.

Harmes isn't really suited to half back IMO because he is not super quick, long limbed, skilled or that good a decision maker. I cannot see him getting back into the midfield given Petracca's improvement, but wing or forward would make more sense to me.

Not sure Sparrow is a good enough kick to play half back. He’s an inside mid IMO.

I understand the issue with concussion but IMO the whack Tom Lynch gave to the back of Alex Witherden’s head was much dirtier and more worthy of suspension than ANB’s tackle.

Bennell clearly still needs to be managed given his history. Another calf and its back to square one. My view is that picking the best 22 every week in this compressed stretch of games is short-sighted. We are better off having fresh players so that our pressure game holds up. If it doesn't we don't have the skill level to win. As I said in my original post, only Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Langdon and May are irreplaceable and I think our depth is decent.