Adam The God

At the MCG, I'd suggest they'd probably get a bigger gate than down there too.

I'd argue Salem is an elite kick, but it's a bit of an eye test sort of argument. It's not like saying someone like Clarry is a contested ball gun, because statistically, he just is. So it comes down to opinion. I disagree with DS on this point FWIW. You seem to think this is about mere errors from Gus. My point was we have better players who are specialists in their roles and when they're all fit, I wondered where Gus would fit. We now have two specialist wingmen in Langdon and Hunter, so ideally Gus isn't needed to plug a wing role there. We have Tomlinson, May and Lever as the defensive talls, with Hibberd, McVee, Salem and Rivers/Bowey playing medium and small, and providing (in Salem, McVee and Bowey) elite disposal and speed off half back/getting back in defensive transition. That's 7-8 players. There's no room back there without injury. Our midfield with Clarry back has Clarry, Petracca, Viney, Sparrow, with stints from Rivers, ideally Kozzy and we probably have room for one more mid if Bowey or Spargo don't play. Given Gus' versatility, strength, contest work and ability to read the play, as @old55 says, he'll be ahead of JJ and Harmes. So that's probably his spot. But at full strength, I think he's closer to the fringe than many people think. His cultural contribution will probably see him play whatever though.

Do we have to call differing views clueless?

McRae's post match loss against Geelong (?) or Sydney (?) in the finals last year was far from humble. He showed his hand. Goody is never a poor sport, McRae... well, he's had most of it his own way, and the one time it wasn't he cracked...

So maybe he's better to play a defensive role on a winger or a mid or even a half forward?

This is a good point mate. Be able to give JVR a rest heading into finals will be vital IMO. He plays such a physical role that having a week or two off wouldn't hurt him I reckon. I wonder if we plan to rest Max or Grundy in the lead up too...?

At the game, I felt our forwards weren't on, so Collingwood could transition the ball too easily, but on the replay, you're right mate, it was mostly skill errors. However, we let them have the corridor a bit too much and hadn't quite set our defensive shape to defend these moments on the wings. By the second half, we were set perfectly from these situations.

That's what a toxic environment does for you. Precisely why that young Collingwood supporter had a go at Goodes a few years back. She didn't make it up herself, she learned it.

I think it showed yesterday that we can absolutely 'carry' all those smalls, and they're integral to the way we press and ideally, they should be integral to ensuring ground ball or at the very least, stopping the chaining by hand off half back. I think Smith will ultimately make way for Petty, but we don't have to rush Harry now. I'd give him 2 more games off, and see how Smith and the forwardline functions. The thing about Smith that history tells us is that it's unlikely he'll be able to play the whole second half of the season without injury. And if that's the case, I'd prefer we bed down our defence, so keep Tomlinson there to ensure synergy with all the backs, and continue to tinker with our forward half. This will make us unpredictable offensively, but we want to be defensively predictable, so cohesion continues to grow. Against a Collingwood with Elliott and Ginnivan (if they can fit them in), a backline of Tomlinson, Lever and May, might be a little too slow at ground level? But I think you've got to back the rest of your system to win out. So Tomlinson stays for mine, and it's between Smith, Petty, BB and TMac for that other tall forward position. The latter two are better kicks and BB has the height, but I'd argue Petty is the best mark of the lot, but Smith is the most agile by far. We have some thinking to do, which is great, but I think injuries and fitness will also play into the decision making. I'd rather learn that lesson now though!

Sounds like the Demonland podcast. 🤣😜

Surely this needs to be updated for 2023? And the little Collingwood death says "Y-yes, Daddy".

I've got a great memory, don't I? :P Interesting on the third quarter pressure rating. That surprises me.

Just on scores from ball ups, how is that measured exactly? Because Crisp's goal in the 1st and Daicos' goal in the 4th were both from ball ups.

20 scoring shots from turnover. That is huge! Love it, Wheelo. 👌

But you tend to lean back on your kicks when you're fatigued, so it's interlinked. The other thing notable was that when reading the AFL ap at half time, it said our 3 goals had all come from 40-50m, while four of Collingwood's five goals had come from 15-30m out. That obviously makes a huge difference with accuracy. But this is a ball movement thing that I'd suggest is also linked to fatigue. We go wider and we're happier to go wider during the middle part of the year, and then I suspect we'll start to go more central at the back end of the year.

He really looks like some nuffy space character out of Star Trek or something. Just a really tall gronk. The picture is excellent, thank you.

In Round 20 this year, David King will wheel out his new phrase for our press: the Demon Press of Death. He won't credit @rpfc of course. And in Round 21, he'll say we're [censored]. But don't worry. By Round 22, he'll be saying we're his premiership favourites. A bigger muppet there isn't, in a sea of AFL press muppets.

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. Gus started the game horribly, including being responsible for Crisp at the stoppage in D50 when Crisp goalled. Gus then worked himself into the game and had a couple of important clearances. The final Collingwood goal from a D50 stoppage though, Gus is again responsible for Daicos. And like the Crisp D50 stoppage goal, Gus was left ball-watching or simply too slow. I worry about Gus, because I'm not sure there's a position for him when we have both wings covered, Salem back in the team and Oliver back in the team. He's a good reader of the play, but he's not quick and he's not a good user by foot either. He's wonderfully courageous, but I do wonder where he fits when/if we're at full strength. Is it just me?

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but Smith may get a week off for his tackle on Murphy (?).

Because to play wing and even half forward, you've got to have a really good understanding of the game, and I wouldn't say that's Smith's strength. Whereas, as a FF or second tall, he basically just has to create a contest and provide frontal pressure.

And watching our maligned small forwards bring great pressure on the replay, I wonder WTF people are talking about. Sure, we want them hitting the scoreboard more, but if Chandler and Kozzy kick straight, only Spargo of the smalls would've failed to kick a goal for the day - hence his subbing. It was a good move. It'll be interesting to see if Charlie loses his spot to Clarry.

Goody and the rest of the FD clearly spent the summer building a game plan that would play to our defensive and CP strengths, but would also beat Collingwood. It's why we look to score big from turnover, and we caught them out so many times today. We just needed to execute a little better. And I've just finished watching the repaly of the first quarter. Our ball movement is still not a team wide instinctive thing, although if you watch the build up to Viney's goal (or at least the kick to Gus), we slingshot really quickly. May is good at this, as is McVee, I think we really missed Bowey, who will come into his own with this new offensive flare to the game plan. But it's notable in the second half of the first quarter that we started to clog them up. Collingwood's forward handball is so good, but our ability to meet it head on with frontal pressure / press, but still maintain some integrity behind the ball is excellent team defensive synergy and beautifully coached.

I suggest we try and have a little bit of a mental break. If you chart our kicking inaccuracy from being the most accurate in the league to Carltonesque, it's very clearly a fatigue thing. So I know you're being flippant, but this is the last thing they should be doing in a shortened bye.

Don't you mean all ducks, no dinners?

Pretty sure it was Mitchell. How the feck was that not a free kick to McVee? He's good for May's game too, because if Tomlinson can take the bigger bloke, it frees May up to be able to outmuscle the 2nd KPF. I was wrong on his match up too, I thought May would go to Cox, but despite giving away a head and a half, Tomlinson did so well on Cox.