Fat Tony

The pressure gauge can be a bit misleading IMO as the style of ball movement of the team in possession influences the rating. When opposed to a kicking team, the defending team will tend to have lower pressure rating than we they are facing a handballing team. I am sure our pressure rating against St Kilda was very low, although we defended really well by covering space. Conversely, it would have been high against the Bulldogs, who are a handballing team, although we defended poorly.

I stand corrected on the Sydney game. However, I would strongly argue that the work rate issues to do with Port and Sydney games were largely due to the short turnarounds. As you know, I have been strong that the coaches haven't made enough changes in the compressed fixtures. I still maintain this is nothing to do with culture and DNA, noting that lot of other sides have had some shockers after short turnarounds.

I’m glad the coaches have finally realised we needed a large number of changes with the short breaks. Our game plan is so heavily dependent on pressure and intensity. Interesting that Lockhart was left out again. I would love to know if there is some undisclosed reason. I would have picked TMac this week instead of Preuss but that’s not going to be the deciding factor. Oliver will tag Fyfe if he plays in the midfield. Otherwise Smith will get him.

This is just spin by media commentators. Our success of failure as a club will not be determined by our 'DNA'. It will be determined by making good decisions in terms of selecting coaches, recruiting players and allocating contracts. And then we will need a healthy dose of luck to win premierships. Our losses, apart from the Port game, have been almost solely due to a lack of skill. Not softness. If we continue to confuse the reasons why we are where we are and think it is 'culture', we could end up with Mark Neeld 2.0.

Martin had a quiet night with only 11 possessions, but he went at 72% efficiency. Yesterday Petracca and Oliver were prolific but both went at just over 50%. My point is that it’s the turnovers that kill us, because when they happen all our players are running hard forward. Martin’s bad games are about not winning the ball, not poor skill. In their bad games, our players still win the ball but they then give it up, which is worse.

As much as our selection and tactics were diabolical and some of our fringe players were terrible, we really lost this game for 2 reasons. 1. Oliver and Petracca had horrible disposal. 2. Unacceptable goal kicking. Unless our best midfielders start using the ball better and our forwards kick straight, we can never expect to win.

Jones should have never been picked off a 5 day turnaround. He's 32 years old and barely in our best side.

It is baffling that Oscar was picked again today. May, Lever, Oscar, Smith and Tomlinson in the same side makes no sense whatsoever.

I am convinced we have a fundamentally flawed bunch of ‘stars’ in the midfield who lack the skill level required to take us all the way. Unless they collectively improve their skill level, it doesn’t matter who we recruit on the outside. And we are coached by a C grader who lacks the tactical brains of his peers. We need Jackson and Weideman (who was pathetic today) to become superstar key forwards to have any chance with this list.

Too few changes off a short break again. Goodwin is not very bright. Groundhog Day.

Here is an interesting article about Dustin Martin. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/how-richmond-tigers-afl-player-dustin-martin-destroys-compeition/12335750 It basically says that he really just starts in the centre bounces before drifting forward. The Tigers do this to maximise the impact of his contested ball winning ability and to conserve his energy (as he has a small tank for an AFL midfielder). I would use this as the blue print for Petracca, particularly given we are stocked full of good midfielders. Particularly now that he has sorted out his goal kicking.

I know Petracca is our best midfielder, but perhaps the best solution to our glut of inside mids is to play him 60-70% forward (except for centre bounces).

Cats have a bye this week, so they don’t have to deal with the short breaks. And the Cats made 6 changes for the freo game which was the middle of their condensed fixture.

We just made 6 changes and won. Continuity would be good in a normal season but this ain’t.

I don’t really think this is a viable solution in the heat of the game. The onus on the tackler is already very high. Another possible solution is to allow throwing. I am in favour of reducing the number of players to ease congestion and the number of tackles.

Yes Salem as well. Obviously it also depends on recovery.

We have 5 days, 4 days and 6 days between games, so we need to plan the next block in advance. And we will be playing in hot and humid weather. Apart from Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Langdon, Viney, May, Lever and Weideman all our players are interchangeable IMO. All the other players should be given at least one game off. We tried the continuity approach the first time and it was a disaster against Port. I want to see 8 changes.

Need to see a lot of changes IMO. I would prefer fresh depth players to be picked than our tired fringe players. We have to back up again 4 days later. Harmes, ANB, Tmac, Lockhart, Fritsch, Jetta, Bennell and Hunt should all be strongly considered for the Sydney match.

There is nothing in the AFL like Daniher at his best IMO. There is obviously a good chance he gets injured. And he is inconsistent. But I like the idea of him playing for us because he doesn’t need great delivery. If he finishes the year fit, it’s worth the risk.

Not sure about the selections, but any side that includes Gawn, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Langdon, May and Weideman leaves no excuses against a middle of the road side.

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.