Adam The God

I don't think Lewis gets up. He's "in serious doubt" according to the AFL ap. I'd therefore go JJ for Spargo and play Hibbo sub. And give Gawndy one last roll of the dice. Some Grundy rucking with Max behind the ball as interceptor, wouldn't go astray...

Good call, but ah well.

That definitely computes. He's been brilliant I'd say since (and including) the Geelong match.

I think his latest work isn't a true reflection of his capabilities up the ground. He doesn't trust Tomlinson or Smith, but he trusted Petty and Lever, so we need to find him someone he can trust. Then it frees him up to at wherever we need him in D50 (deep or higher).

That won't happen. He's on 1mill and unless Carlton want to dump him and pay 350-400k, and he's willing to take a further haircut (doubt it), I can't see a way we ever get into that conversation. As for other tall backs, the dream scenario is Sam Taylor @rjay .

We're fortunate @whatwhat say what that we have some great talent scouts on here who I trust like @Pennant St Dee @ChaserJ @IvanBartul13.

I hope so. I'm surprised they went with JJ and the extra mid again last week, but perhaps they wanted cover for Clarry first game back.

Couldn't find a thread on him, so thought I'd put it in here. I hope we're into Ben McKay, provided he's willing to come across a bit cheaper. He'd be an upgrade on Tomlinson, serve as May's ultimate replacement, allow May to play higher up the ground and enable Petty to go forward permanently in 2024. We might try and back Adams and Turner, but I don't think either of them can play on that gorilla type and this is what free agency is for. To enable the top clubs to poach good players from struggling clubs. 😉 It could be our Frawley to Hawthorn move.

I'd be staggered if he's still there after pick 3. Reid might be more explosive, but Curtin appears to have traits that will certainly convert to AFL level. Reid's ceiling might be higher...?

They weren't goals from D50 stoppages. They were centre clearance goals. It's very rare for us to give up goals out the front of centre stoppage, let alone multiple goals. The only other game we've done this is the Geelong game, as pointed out by @layzie. I don't remember the third goal coming from a stoppage. Pretty sure it came from a turnover, but I have no interest in watching the replay to confirm. I agree our D50 stoppage work has been really ordinary this year, and this to me, is mostly a result of Max's poor tap work in D50. He taps to really dangerous areas and rarely seems to be on the same wavelength as the mids. We tightened this up against Carlton though, possibly because they were down mids from their starting 22, but I don't recall us conceding a goal all night from D50 stoppage.

Very good call mate. IMO it was telling Clarry wasn't involved in any of them. You need to start quarters and end quarters with your best clearance players. I know they were managing his minutes, but manage his minutes by bookending the quarter with TOG. Anyway, I'm no expert, but that's what I'd be asking for if I were Goody. Or you put it on Trac to really step up...

I said Carlton were brilliant. They couldn't have played better and their personnel changes wouldn't have made much difference. They couldn't have won more inside 50s against us than they did in the first... whereas we can play a whole lot better. The thing that's disappointing about you Steve is you go as mute as a dead fish in our wins, not a bubble for 20 pages on a post game thread, but as soon as there's a loss, you're on here whinging away, flapping about on the pier. I'm fine with supporters venting and I do it myself, we all have different uses for Demonland, but you literally come on to whinge or froth over having draft picks. That's literally all you do anymore. You used to be an insightful poster. It's like you've been locked up by a terrorist for years and finally released, but you're not the same Steve. You're Jimmy... and Jimmy, frankly is a neggy nuffy. What happens if we win the flag?

They were at full strength when we beat them earlier in the year, sans Clarry. Can they bring the heat again like last night and expect us not to? And if Trac's goal had a soft call of goal, we win anyway. Highly unlikely they can play like that again and us not bring a much hetter game than last night. And hopefully that last minute stings us a bit, and drives a bit of momentum back our way now.

I think we'll find it was mostly a function of handball receives in D50 for Carlton. The chip to the pockets and then handball receive. The Daicos game. And staggeringly, we allowed it for an entire half. Didn't even adjust at quarter time. Kozzy then moved deeper in the third and started to track those runs from kick ins. It made Carlton kick to contests where we were set up.

RE their disposal efficiency over ours. 72% to 66% their way. IMV, that was a function of uncontested possessions, which went their way by +33. And I reckon their DE went down as the game wore on and we prevented the avalanche of uncontested possessions that we allowed in the first half.

Losing ground ball and intercept, not good. Unless you butcher it, you win if you win ground ball and intercept.

I agree with the bolded part, but the first half saw us lose territory because we allowed the release handball repeatedly inside our A50, due to Kozzy playing higher. Our forward balance was out. This IMV, was less about Petty being out for Grundy and more because we had one less small forward being able to lock the ball in our forward half, at least between the wing and our goal. From memory, you were saying earlier in the year that we were playing too many small forwards and we needed an extra mid. I could get more on side with that minus Oliver, but we need to trust that our mids can find synergy again and Oliver, Viney, Gus, Sparrow, Trac and Kozzy are enough mids in these matches. With mid support higher up the ground from ANB, Rivers and even Salem. I'd play ANB and Spargo as high half forwards that play as wingers (our speed forwards) and play Chandler, Kozzy and Trac deep at the feet of JVR and TMac. Playing those high half forwards also means we defend really deep, leaving heaps of room to slingshot back. The reason this didn't look as good during the middle part of the season, was we where clearly struggling with fatigue and an inability to transition quickly back offensively. I think the FD holds this same view, which is why they changed it up when it became obvious the set up didn't work as well with fatigue. But now that we're heading towards the finish line, this has been our preferred set up for 3 years and I think we should and will revert to it. Spargo's form at VFL level is irrelevant to me. He just needs to play his role at half forward and our game flows from there if we can match the opposition for CP.

Ins - Spargo, TMac, Hibbo Outs - JJ, Grundy, Smith to sub Hibberd May McVee Salem Lever Bowey Langdon Oliver Hunter Spargo TMac ANB Petracca JVR Kozzy Gawn Viney Gus Melksham Rivers Chandler Sparrow Sub: Smith I'd be tempted to keep Smith in the team at the expense of Melksham...

Spargo will replace a mid, ie JJ. We're playing too many mids now.

Smith is good 1v1, it's in the zone when there's space front, back and sides that he gets exposed and he's not a good reader of the play. But the mark and goal he kicked once moved forward was superb.

I'm hoping the Suns take care of Carlton next week and it becomes a non issue. We really should beat Hawthorn irrespective of all that and I expect us to. But then I expected us to beat Carlton too.

Agree, our centre work was poor all night, but aside from the first 7 mins of the last quarter where they scored their 3 goals, 2 practically directly from stoppage, certainly the second goal of the quarter was straight out the front of the stoppage. But these were actually the first goals from stoppage from either team all night, so I think you're hyperbolising.

Sure, we'd prefer it dry because it brings our interceptors into the game more, but I maintain the wet weather query on us is overblown and wrong. IMV, it was a combination of us being a little off and then Carlton's pressure causing fumbles and we didn't deal with it. Our mids coughed the ball up on the ground and our backs lost key ground balls higher up the field, or simply panicked - think the goal Bowser gave up from panic at ground level. The one strength the weather does impact is Gawn's ability in the air. That would be the major argument IMO of wet weather undermining our game.

No, nothing to do with loading or tapering IMV. I think @DeelightfulPlay nailed it. Even though we only had two ins, we've had three major changes to three zones of the ground and this happened all in the last fortnight, so cohesion is out of whack. 1) Smith going back has meant our defenders don't trust each other. It starts with May, who rightly, doesn't trust Smith's zonal positioning, which leaves May trying to play 1v1 and zone, and ending up occasionally doing neither. This lack of trust then spreads through the rest of the back 7. One questionable link in the chain undermines everything. 2) Clarry's return has thrown off the midfield balance and saw multiple players going for the same ball, instead of trusting each other to win it and take up aggressive outside positioning to receive. 3) Petty's aerial threat and forward craft being replaced by Grundy, who offers neither of those things and also seemingly throws off Max's game is a double whammy. It means we have little aerial threat offensively and lack defensive pressure when the ball hits the ground. Chandler played 66% TOG tonight, but I have no idea what his role was. He was essentially a non entity. So I think we need to drop JJ (which hopefully lessens the midfield problem by prividing clarity over roles) for Spargo and I'd bring in a speed forward (Spargo) who can do the gut running, high half forward role with ANB, so that Chandler and Kozzy can play closer to goal, and provide greater forward pressure. I'd also play Smith forward and only back as an absolute break glass option. He's frankly sub if we think Tmac will give us an offensive threat.

I can't recall such a differential ever under Goody. It was bizarre. We were hopeless early, but they were brilliant. And we never really got going, but our system saved us early.