Adam The God

Yep, good call.

Interesting take. You're definitely right in that we like to play 7 defenders, but I assumed Petty would go back this week given the three West Coast talls, but maybe Hibbo plays on Waterman?

The selection decision this week is a horses for courses decision. Goodwin spoke of a squad mentality in his most recent presser. JJ will get his chances this year. Bringing TMac back for Brown, and with Kozzy coming back, it was always going to be about team balance given the even performance last week. I think Goodwin pumping up JJ was the right move in the press, given by that stage they would have known we needed to replace Brown with another tall as Petty couldn't play forward when West Coast have three tall forwards to deal with. Therefore, they knew it wouldn't be a case of Kozzy just replacing Brown and leaving JVR and Petty forward. I like JJ and everything I've heard from the coaches that coached him at CGS is that he is a ripper, and that appears to be backed up by Yze's comments on his training habits. However, IMO he's a solid B grader with no elite skills. Doesn't mean he couldn't make A grade if given the opportunity, but if we lose him, we lose him. I think he'll nail Harmes' spot this year and JJ will get Harmes' contract moving forward. He doesn't make the same mistakes that Harmes does, but he's less explosive, which is part of the reason why he doesn't seem to be in direct competition with Sparrow. Anyway, people have to accept the squad mentality approach we're taking this year. It won Geelong a flag last year and in the EPL, it's the go to approach for player management. The Manchester sides have won countless titles operating in this fashion. It's the sensible approach, and with the talent we have across the squad, it keeps everyone on their toes. Making JJ the sub is an interesting one and may have something to do with the running needed on the wide expanses of Optus, but Melksham seems to me to be the perfect sub. I'd hazard a guess they wanted to reward JJ for his game and so the potential that Melksham could provide forward of centre late in the game was overlooked for the run JJ could provide.

Collingwood will end the game with more scoring shots. Brisbane forwards cheat. They don't track the runners off half back and have let Collingwood ping off their all night. Meanwhile, Joe Daniher's best game of all time.

Couple of vulnerable spots to attack Collingwood, who are the benchmark at the moment. 1) they bring +2 to contest, so if you can win with a -2, they're flakey behind the ball. Alternatively, if you go 1v1 or only allow them +1 at stoppage, how do they go against that? 2) they're very reliant on their half backs nailing targets, in particular the Daicos boys. I'd be getting one of our wingers to run with Josh Daicos and I'd give one of our half forwards a tagging role on Nick Daicos and see how Collingwood's ball movement goes then. Having Hunter alongside Langdon nowadays, really enables us to sacrifice a winger to a more defensive role, and not lose all your outside drive. The intriguing thing for me will be when you decide use these sort of tactics. Do you leave your powder dry earlier in the year / during the home and away season, and then in finals play this strategy? It's unlikely we'd ever tag a player, it's not really a philosophy Goody has, although we were prepared to send Harmes to Libba in 2021 when he was flying, and it had a huge impact. We've done it with Lachie Neale before as well. We denied that the Libba role was a strict tag and Harmes was given licence to go the other way, so I think it's more likely a match up like the above would take that form. The King's Birthday game for me has a bit of a Liverpool vs Man Utd feel to it (I'm Liverpool). I don't usually get really excited about one fixture in particular, but this year's fixture has a lot riding on it and should be fascinating. A bit like the Sydney game, we've become their bunnies and we need to arrest that momentum this time, so it'll be telling how we go and how far we're willing to go tactically that early in the season.

I think many dislike Freo circa Peter Bell because of Hogan and LJ. I reckon most still dislike West Coast more though.

Exactly what I was thinking about earlier mate! I'm not sure I love the mixed metaphor, but everything else about the delivery, the moment and Max's reaction is brilliant.

Agreed, although how good was that come from behind round 23 win to clinch top spot? Hawkins hands on his head like wtf just happened. 🤣 Golden.

Don't get me wrong. I hate Geelong, but we spanked them in a PF. That's much worse than 186.

Round 23 and PF in 2021 cleansed me.

We owe Hawthorn, West Coast and Essendon the most I reckon.

But hang on, we can't draft Western Australians can we? That's very risky.

I'm just glad he plays for our mob. I remember messaging him on Instagram during 2020 and pleading him not to leave haha. Love you, Clarry. 🤩 His mate Trac doesn't go too badly either.

Can't wait to read this suddenly juicy thread.

I would too, but they won't. Historically, it can take Jack a bit of time to hit his straps. I thought he was easily our worst today.

I thought Paddy was dreadful today. I don't think my two year old would be outmuscled by Fritta, but he did it easily. Paddy also turned the ball over a number of times. The McCartins were central to Sydney's rise up the ladder last year, their intercept game was elite, ala May and Lever the previous year. Sydney looked very suspect in D50 today. Just as we did last week. Will be interesting to see how they go against Port.

Also, the first time we've kicked 21 goals since the GF. What a ripper today was. JVRs debut was so exciting. I loved the Petty move and he'll be better for the forward game this week. All of a sudden, JVR and Petty could be the power forwards, with Jefferson developing and waiting in the wings. Grundy, Clarry and Trac all excellent. I reckon Trac has at least another few gears to go to as well. While Clarry was Clarry. Loved Grundy's work around the ground, once the ball hit the deck and I thought his ruck work for the most part was very good. The mobility of Grundy and JVR at ground level in ruck contests was really noticeable and Petty's mobility compared to Brown makes us a more dangerous prospect forward of centre too. Note, I do think there is still a place for Brown as well, but today showed we can afford to give a TMac or a Brown a rest and still kick big scores. Finally, two other special mentions. I'll start with Charlie Spargo. He's really stepped up his game. I've always been a fan and defender. His ball use is elite, but now he's starting to be really dangerous at ground level and he's getting involved more. The other is Chandler. I didn’t think he'd make it, but today he won me over. A top notch performance with great tackling, neat and efficient kicking. And like Fritsch, he knows how to generate scoring shots. A week's a long time in footy and can't wait for next week.

When the northern throne is vacant, there will be a flying bird to the south west of the lakes, and anchored at the bottom, will be a Peter Bell. 👌

Always been my favourite player too. Love him. Congrats Clarry.

This is the thing. Aside from last night, which was clearly a statistical anomaly, our midfield will keep winning stoppages and being able to defend and transition defensively. So we need to be ultra aggressive going the other way. We have enough good kickers down back now to attack the corridor and change the angles more readily. I hope we take the game on more, because even when we do, we don't leak goals. Let's hope this is the go from here on out.

One thing I will say is that I much prefer us using the corridor and the central kick going inside 50. And what's interesting is that we don't seem to give up goals on slingshot, despite allowing three potential exit lanes with the central kick. Gus' kicking always worries me off half back. He's such an inconsistent user of the footy that I want him keeping it simple if he's getting the ball so much. Ideally, he's giving to a passing Salem, Bowey, McVee, May or practically anyone else in our defence. But he did get that central kick right to Brown at one stage, who took a good mark and using the corridor, we scored quickly. Perhaps it was Max going off that rattled us, but even before Max went off we were fumbly and never really in the contest, despite the score at the time. It was a truly incomprehensible display by the midfield. It's all well and good to have rotations and a midfield of Brayshaw, Viney and Harmes, but if you're going with that set up, you need to defend the front of the stoppage and that combination was dreadful, not helped by our rucking either. Our inability to defend forward fifty stoppages, where Brisbane are usually ultra dangerous, cost is severely all night really, but particularly early on. How much did Max's injury play into this psychologically and personnel wise?

Well, it's tough now for JVR, because unless he's playing second ruck, it's likely TMac will keep his spot to play second ruck to Grundy.

We were actually -26 for clearance at the break in play and then weirdly lost clearance by 2 after the restart.

If we won some clearance, we'd overpower them. We lost clearance -28! Is that some kind of world record? A truly pathetic performance by our midfield unit tonight.

Totally, that was absolutely it. As for Carlton as a threat, they rely on their two key forwards and Cripps and Walsh. Even though we rely heavily on Max, Clarry, Trac, May and Lever, it's the sophistication of our defensive system and organisation in transition that puts us ahead of Carlton. As for Collingwood, l'd be interested to see what happens if someone hard tags Daicos. I think they'd struggle to move the ball. We wouldn't tag, we'd just send an ANB or a Harmes to Daicos and try and exploit him/make him accountable the other way.