Adam The God

Be funny if they lost Darcy to us after all this. :P

That's a strong team mate. We might be a little iffy kicking for goal, but we should be able to contested possession the ball over the goal line.

The Josh Mahoney connection. Interesting. If Rutten falls, I wonder if Mahoney goes too? Maybe their fates are tied together. Can't imagine what they could offer Gus given their midfield is already pretty crammed.

What do you mean 3rd week in a row? Against Geelong we played Brown, Jackson, Fritsch, Bedford, Spargo, ANB and Harmes. Against Port we brought in Melksham. And this week we've dropped Bedford and kept Melksham. By forward set up you mean Brown and the resting ruck?

Yep, I'd be playing Petty forward this year too. Long term he'll be a star back, but we have Tomlinson and Turner as cover. TMac is still 6-8 weeks away, so I'd say he's just about done for the season. When that becomes known, I reckon we'll ultimately go with Petty. JVR comes in next year and Petty goes back again. It would also explain why Smith is training forward, as we'll be fully stocked with KPDs, but short in the forwardline.

I wasn't suggesting it was intentional. That's the problem really. The lack of self awareness. Anyway, I loved Jeff as a player and I don't know the intricacies of the situation, so I'll leave it there.

Gee, I hope I don't pressure my son like this...

RE the discussion around being gaslit and the pivot to loading - loading has an impact on everything, so of course it's the "pivot". If you don't like it, that's your prerogative, but doesn't make it any less fundamental. I'd argue to claim you're being gaslit and essentially to stop pivoting to the argument, you're suppressing debate. It's not like Binman and many others on Demonland never discuss the flaws in our game from week to week, but that the loading regime can explain many of the ebbs and flows in our game, and in any team's game. It's just every team does loading differently.

That's the remake, but both were made in the 40s.

We really need an eye roll emoji mods.

Jeepers you post some nonsense. Can we trade you out of East Bentleigh?

Given we're premiers and there are quite a few top Vic boys at Freo, pretty much all their A graders are Victorians, we'd be a decent destination if any guys were thinking of heading back to Victoria in the next few years.

What, you mean like Cerra to Melbourne last year? If they don't have the draft capital and they want to maintain the players we ask for, it won't get done. That said, I'm happy either way it plays out. I trust our FD to get a good deal for our club.

No doubt it was a continuation of the reloading phase. Couldn't get out of first gear for the whole match, but that's why I'm more suspect on our Bulldogs fixture. I think we'll beat Port. It depends if we go for the next heavy loading block during the 9 day break or off the back of the Port game. Given the conditions we'll likely face in the NT, it'll be interesting to see.

I don't have a problem with it at all. It puts the onus on the players. Talls need to take the contested mark or bring it to ground and the smalls need to win the ground ball or lock it in. We get it outside our D50 immediately. We go short occasionally too if teams give us that and then we still go slow. It's about maintaining structural integrity as well as predictability and as George says, playing the percentages. As these situations on defensive wing are congested it plays into our hands. Either our frontal pressure draws a quick hack kick forward that our defenders intercept with our 1+ behind the footy (which plays into our slingshot and has the opposition out of position) or we get a mark or we move the ball forward via chaining by hands, take territory with a quick kick or slap forward to centre wing and then re-set and break even or win at the contest. But few sides are going to win games when they lose clearance to quite the extent we did against Geelong, particularly on the narrower ground that makes finding space for an interceptor trickier. In short, I'm quite happy putting the onus on our players to break even in these situations or win it and get it forward. Clearing the ball 70m out of your D50 reduces pressure on our backs and allows us to set up. The other aspect to having a predictable game plan is exhaustion. Having predictable, simple set ups allow better decision-making under duress.

He's got his second or third chance at Adelaide.

Wouldn't be the first time a business has sprouted empty rhetoric about supporting women, LGBTI people or Indigenous Australians and then acted in complete contradiction to the supposed values it champions. I'd much prefer we chase a Larky, Ben King or a younger guy that won't have a corrosive impact on our culture, make a mockery of our off field values and be around for the next 8 or so years.

Our best irreplaceable players have re-signed.

Yep, King did extend after his recent injury. Pie in the sky stuff probably, but spitballing.

I can't see how we'd flip it, but if we could flip LJ for Ben King that'd be gold.

Agree with much of this mate, but I guess it comes down to philosophy and Goodwin has shown his hand in this regard. We'd much rather stick to our system and manufacture a spare behind the ball with -1 at stoppage and back our contested mids in. Given we've got two A+ers and a B+/A in Viney, it's up to them to hold up their end of the bargain. If we change the structure for them, then we don't get it looking like a Melbourne game and probably have to make sacrifices elsewhere on the ground as a flow on effect. We always play -1 at stoppage, weirdly we played -2 at stoppage at key points against Freo and Sydney. -1 is sustainable, but -2 isn't IMV. Also, our half forwards didn't get involved enough around stoppage to pressure the Geelong spare off the back. I generally think it's frustrating and looks terrible when we're not winning stoppage, but usually it doesn't get shown up as often because we don't lose clearance so convincingly as we did last night.

Our mids didn't push hard enough both ways, so when we had the ball at half back and were rebounding through the wings, we had 3 or 4 players forward of the ball too often and not enough mids in support. Compare that with the first quarter and we had that work rate, which enabled is to hit up forwards like Fritsch on a lead or kick goals like Trac's from 50. If you look at the replay of Trac's goal, which was elite team play and finishing from Trac, we swarmed and were able to turn the ball over closer to our goal and make the right decision. Late in the third when we started to arrest momentum, our mids started to get to more contests and apply frontal pressure to Geelong's half backs. The first half of the last quarter we were able to play more territory, but our half forwards across the night played very high, but weren't able to apply enough consistent pressure, I felt, to Geelong's mids and half backs.

Look, I agree. Clarry and Trac are the A+ers. Having them signed up for life means we can build the team around them with certainty. But... if LJ leaves for Freo that could win them a premiership. I think we're much better around stoppage without Gawn and LJs ability at ground level is freakish, even for a mid. I don't want to lose him and I'm sure the club will do everything in its power to ensure he stays and if not, I'm confident we will maximise the situation to our own benefit.

Agree with all of this, but I don't think you're giving enough thought to the loss TMac is from a structural point of view. It means Brown is double teamed every time and our forwards can't get separation because we have to kick it to Brown to bring it to ground. FWIW, I thought Brown was very good last night, particularly in the first half, but he almost always brought the ball to ground.

I was thinking about this last night. Not having a recognise second tall plays havoc with our structure and IMV it's why our predictable down the line game doesn't work as well. McDonald's ability to take marks up the ground and ping it back inside 50 is a bit like Jeremy Cameron when on, so take Hawkins or Cameron out of their side and they're a very different proposition. We should have Tom back for finals. I hope he can get a game or two before the heat of finals.