Fat Tony

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.

Better to pick fresh players off a four day break IMO. This was my view before the Port match and that only confirmed it. Rivers, Pickett (if fit) and Hannan should all come in. TMac or Preuss as well if Gawn doesn't come up. Oscar should be considered as an option as well (moving Tomlinson into the midfield if he comes up). Hunt and Jetta are options. ANB will get suspended unfortunately. And Bennell should be rested for the Collingwood game. Our only irreplaceable are Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Langdon and May.

Unforgivable

Witherden would be a good get but I would leave Salem at half back. I am not sure he has the running power for the wing.

Isaac Smith is someone we should be going for. I know he will be 32 next year but he is still one of the best runners at Hawthorn and has been the best outside player over the last decade IMO. He has the type of body that could play a very long career and has been durable. He would fit our team perfectly and is a free agent.

It must have been a combination of legs and mental. But my point stands, we needed to make more changes given the short turnaround and the road ahead. We also went into the game too top heavy.

After a bad nights sleep reflecting on last night's loss, it is pretty clear the players were extremely flat and tired going into the game. They only had a four day break and have been on the road for a month, so it is a bit understandable to have a let down. (That's not to say it wasn't very disappointing.) We have played pretty well over the last three weeks and so the game needs to be put into perspective. In saying this, I am a bit perplexed by Goodwin saying last week that he wasn't going to rest any players over this period of compressed games. This is clearly a mistake. We should be making significant changes to bring in some fresh legs, otherwise we will just get the same result as last night. Our game style is about pressure at the contest and we cannot win if we don't get this right. And we need fresh players to achieve this. Plus, our depth is reasonably good. I would prefer to see a fresh Tomlinson play instead of a cooked Jackson.

Pickett needs to stop giving away free kicks at the end of his chase. The fact that this has happened about half a dozen times this season is an indictment on our coaching.

The lack of fresh players injected into the side off a 4 day break was a moronic decision.

I agree. Apart from Petracca, Gawn, Oliver, Langdon, Viney and May, our players are fairly replaceable. We would be better off swapping our depth players around than playing our tired B graders. We should back Jones, Brown, Rivers, Smith, ANB, Hunt, Tomlinson et al can all be serviceable AFL players.

I think we really need to adopt a squad mentality to selection for the rest of the season. The 22 that played against Hawthorn plus ANB, Hunt, TMac, Brown, Jones, Tomlinson, Rivers and Smith will be the core players coming into the side. Preuss may even get a run if Gawn needs to be rested. Players like Dunkley, Sparrow, Baker and Jordon might even get a chance. The question is how we manage our key players like Petracca and Oliver. May and Langdon are also important given they are not easily replaceable. Like with Gawn, I would try to play these four in every game, but it will be a game to game proposition depending on how they recover. Bennell probably plays every second game and freshman Jackson and Pickett will play less games than they otherwise might. Still, looking at our depth, and the fact that our key players are largely in the perfect age bracket to recover, we are pretty well placed to do well in this crammed fixture.

We have a reasonably healthy list and decent depth. This could be an advantage for us. The Port game will be the toughest to get up for. We should ask the AFL to shift our game vs Brisbane to Saturday night.