RalphiusMaximus

That was a quality quarter in the end. Our defence is far more cohesive than last week, several players who were asleep are geting things done and Tyson is adding some much-needed class. Now we just need three more quarters of this.

Jeffy is taking contested marks. That's a change. Good on him for putting in after a fairly poor round one.

Also, I just saw Jetta beat Hipwood in a marking contest. He's only 20 or so cm shorter.

Very telling comment from the commentary team. Why did Hogan not flatten Beams when he had the chance? Because you just don't know what the MRP will do these days. If ever there was an indictment of the judicial system, it's that. Nobody can predict the outcomes.

Pretty sure I'll be sitting on the couch watching on my tablet.

I'm not sure that's a great choice of name anymore. Not after his performance on Tuesday night. Disgraceful work upholding a ban for a bump to the ribs.

Can't agree with this. It's the directionless kicks forward and poor planning in the forward line that cost us. Our conversion of i50s to scores is abysmal.

Actually, I think that's exactly the gameplan. We saw it all of last year and it was never addressed. The only time it was changed was when Hogan went down and they didn't have him there to crash packs. Some abysmal idiot on our coaching panel has determined that instead of working to create space and free up a target to be passed to they will just hit the hot Spot and hope something happens. His first half was horrible. I bagged the hell out of him when he put a 20m pass out on the full. Disgraceful skill error. We sacked Grimes for that sort of crap. I admit he improved drastically in the second half.

Jones also often plays on without thought and without looking at the options he has available. It's one of his biggest flaws, in particular since he's the captain.

To quote a well known figure, "You can not be serious!" The umpires were a disgrace today and we certainly got the worst of it. Of particular note was Ablett being held by one hand and tossing the ball with the other to a teammate in full view of the central umpire at the centre bounce. This led directly to a score, one of many Umpire Assisted Scores Geelong were awarded. On the other hand, I saw Hunt get clotheslined twice for no call, Pedersen was spear tackled in a marking contest for a no call and Oliver copped a few high shots. Maybe I'll keep track of it when I look at the replay. On to the main game, a few things stood out to me. One, we allowed them to have unlimited uncontested marks. At one point they had six before they got the ball out of our attacking 50 after a kick in. They ended with 90 uncontested marks to our 44. That's an absolute disgrace. Our mids still don't look before they kick. How many times do we have to see them take the ball facing away from goal and do a quick turn and kick without looking for a target? It kills us. Same with the bomb to the hot spot. We took two marks from that play all day and one of them was less a bomb and more a pass to Big Max (Who missed). I'm assuming that there's some team rule/instruction/tactic that says that they are to play the percentages and put the ball there. Sadly, whoever thinks that this is a viable tactic is a blithering idiot and needs to be sacked before they can do more damage. Every team we play knows where the ball is going and they set up for it, wait for ALL of our forwards to jump at the ball and spoil each other, then run it out. On that note, how can these guys who have played the game for years and in theory have access to the best tactical minds in the country still play like ten year olds? NOBODY EVER STAYS OUT! If the ball is on the ground, everybody rushes in and tries to win it. They crash into each other, they get in the way and prevent their teammates from getting the ball out. None of them think to create space for a teammate. And then when the ball does reach the outside of the maul, there are only opposition players waiting to take it away because all of ours are fighting each other for the inside ball. How about marking contests? the ball is kicked to two Demons. Do they talk? Does one stay down for the spillage? Hell No! They both go for the mark and spoil each other! EVERY TIME! Kick it to the so-called Hot Spot and watch as every forward in the vicinity tries to mark it. One or two defenders go up with them to make sure the ball spills, and the rest are positioned around the pack to pick up the spill and run it out. And now, for the grand finale. We can't kick. How many missed targets does it take? How many scoring opportunities ruined because half of our side can't be trusted to hit an open target thirty metres away? I don't know how many times I've said it, but if you can't kick, you can't play football. It's that simple. We need to get a specialist kicking coach and put some serious effort into fixing this.

Maynard, Lewis and Garlett all out. One not up to it yet and the other two for not putting in the required effort. Tyson, Brayshaw and someone to come in. It may be worth bringing Frost in so Lever can do his third tall routine rather than having to shut out a tall opponent. Otherwise it may be Dion Time.

Goodwin - No Game Plan. Lewis - No leadership here Maynard - Still VFL standard Tyson & Brayshaw - Should have played

Holding off until I watch the replay.

Garrett has been pretty horrible.

Lever is setting up that way. The problem is that a forward drops back and then slips behind him when they get the ball. They've scored repeatedly by taking a Mark over the back with Lever desperately trying to get back to make a contest. He's being out-positioned every time.

Oh yeah. Tablet and Selwood 19 disposals each to half time. Do you think it might be an idea to put someone on them?

This is like watching a bunch of ten year olds. They all run to where the ball is, get in each other's way, kick into each other and then when one of them randomly finds themselves free with the ball they kick it as hard as they can towards the goals. Meanwhile we gave up two first round picks for a guy who built his reputation by never having an opponent and promptly put him in a situation where he always has an opponent. We left out two quality users in favour of a spare inside ball-winner and the inexplicable Wagner, and the umpires are all wearing blue and white undies.

Of note so far. Umps letting Geelong get away with murder. Our mids continue to kick blind bombs into the forward line. Our forwards are working well together.

Absolute rubbish charge. The impact was under his raised arm. They hunted around until they found an angle that gives the impression of contact to the head. There are half a dozen others that show nothing. Adelaide should appeal for the good of the game.

So 20 disposals and 3 goals 3. Do you call that a good game or mark him down because it should have been 6 goals? He missed some pretty simple shots and dropped an uncontested chest mark right in front of goal, but I also saw some hard ball gets and defensive work.

I think we can cover Tommy pretty easily. Pedersen is a very capable replacement if not the runner that Tom is. Viney is a team-lifting player with his ferocity and damaging tackles. I think it's that more than his disposals that we'll miss.

Maynard is a like for like swap with Viney. Not as good, but very similar game. I guess they wanted the extractor.

A couple of quality young players on the park tonight. McGrath is all class and young Fogerty (sp?) for the Crows looks like he's got some talent.

Tanking...

Curnow and McKay look like a nice pair to have kicking goals in a couple of years. They just need to find more midfielders and they won't be a bad side.