Adam The God

Jeepers. Settle down.

I know you know this, but they offer different things. Sparrow is more explosive from stoppage and arguably stronger in the contest, with a more penetrating kick than JJ. Spargo is the deliverer, even if he only gets it 10 times. I like them all, but we need more from our defensive winger now that Langdon is being shut out of games. I reckon that's the call on Gus to the wing. He can still roll through the middle at times, but if he can have an influence down the other wing it might bring Langdon into the game too.

I reckon Clarry is the only one you've got right, picket, and any nuffy could see he was going to be a star.

You reckon? JJ has really struggled since the Geelong game.

Given Carlton's proximity to the city, I find it hard to believe that Carlton was considered an outer suburb. It might have been a distance from the leafy south east, but would have been closer to the CBD and the G than much of the south east. This is speaking purely as someone who has lived in the south east his entire life.

Who does he replace in the forward half? I'm not against it, just wondering. Because I wouldn't call him a pressure forward. He's an opportunist with good forward craft. Another Fritsch if you like. So more fire power, but what does that do to our pressure at ground level? I think we need more pace in the forward half.

I'm glad Rivers is finding some form at the right time of the season. In time, I'd like to see him tried in the midfield, which will enable Bowey to take his spot in defence.

This is King's MO too.

Again, I'm with #PositiveBinners on this one. Fatigue is playing a factor in our ability to contest in the air and on the ground, so the question becomes do you change your system to combat fatigue? Or, do you try to do what Geelong always tries to do mid season and get as many wins as you can at sub optimal performance, to ensure you're in a strong position in the finals race? The difference between us and them is whether their brand stacks up come finals time. This is what Geelong haven't been able to grapple with thus far. Their brand gets them top 4 every year, but then gets them nowhere in finals. Richmond were similar to us in this respect. Its high intensity saw them flip flop a bit during the H&A season, but they blew away teams come the pointy end. Just as we did last year. Our brand is built for finals and is most effective when we're as fit as possible (see Rounds 1-10). So the plan would be to get as many early wins on the board as possible and then load up for optimal performance in the last 2-3 weeks of the year (finals). We've got ourselves in a good position that in some years would already have guaranteed us top 4, but due to the closeness of the top 6, we're on a knife's edge between top 4 and finishing outside. We beat Brisbane and all of a sudden these comments around predictability seem ridiculous. Equally, if we lose, people will hold it up as the reason for missing top 4. If we miss top 4, it will be due to the difficulty of the draw and our inability to run out games, which has cost us at least 3 or 4 wins.

The question then becomes when would you like this change? I'd prefer we don't show our hand until an elimination or qualifying final. Not saying we will change things up, but if we did, there's not a whole lot of use trying it in Round 23.

Might be more gettable if Clarkson doesn't go to North too, but it'd cost us. Larkey would be my number one target, outside of Ben King.

This was a terrific thread early on, but it seems to have descended into people complaining about our predictability. I don't really care whether you find it frustrating or too predictable. As @binman said on the podcast on Monday, these are percentage plays. As a result of this predictability, we're third. Our players need to win contests. That's what our game is based on. The predictability puts the onus on our players to get the job done.

Odd mate because Viney seems to connect with far less players than Max. I'd be surprised if it wasn't the same vis a vis Lever.

Nah, sorry, you can't put it out there (like Collingwood allegedly have) that they'd be willing to pay a significant chunk of Grundy's salary moving forward, up to $300k pa, and then expect to have a leverage position at all. That's out the window. It's a salary cap dump.

IMV we need another natural crumber to compliment Kozzy. Is Bruest that player though? He's certainly crafty.

And what about our Collingwood game? 😉

Our next captain. By quite a way IMO.

I think Gus needs to play to his limitations a little bit more to be more damaging. I thought his game was one of the most ineffectual 38 possession 10+ clearance games you'll see, because most of the time he won clearances, he would try a dinky little pass ahead of the ball. I'd much prefer him go long from clearance and get it deep quickly. He is a penetrating kick on either side of his body, but he's an ordinary kick between 15-35m IMO. This is where he usually turns it over. He's a smart player and courageous, so he needs to go long quickly from clearance and it'll give our forwards a better chance and he'll have far more impact on the game.

What a glowing reception this thread has received. And rightly so.

He had much better depth on his kicking (either foot) that year too. I think we need to continue to play him closer to goal, because he struggles when it's further out than 35m-40m these days, which is a shame, because he was a beautiful set shot in 2018.

To be fair to Benny Brown, his arms are chopped at almost every contest and it's never/very rarely paid.

IMO with two minutes to go our season was over and then we pulled it out of the fire. We went from 6th to 2nd in two minutes. I haven't watched Goody's presser yet, but it should fascinating.

I think May won a single contest for the night. We look vulnerable in the air and on the ground defensively. I wonder if the way we're asking the likes of Max and BB to play is finally taking its toll on their bodies. To sit under balls in big contests 5-10 times a quarter. Our mids gambled too often and were done out the back. Our forwards and mids didn't put enough pressure on to rush Carlton and bring interceptors into play. The first half was better, but then we weren't clean when we went forward. We got out of jail which is wonderful, but we look cooked to me.

Derps, wrong thread.

FFS mate. It's not 1973.