Adam The God

... start to believe.

That's the side I'd go with too, @MadAsHell. I reckon we set Weideman and Brown for this game some weeks ago. Both are back much earlier than we thought and I suspect to temper expectations around this. In that team, Viney has to play 70% forward, 30% midfield.

Wouldn't be surprised if he wears a facial shield. Or at least strapping.

Sure, I just think he should probably play the role he's currently playing. With Brown and Weideman in the team, maybe he plays higher up the ground.

Those that are saying he's not a forward (including the poster who is most definitely not a doctor), watch the Hawthorn game again. If he's not a KPF, he does a pretty bloody good job of lead up marking across half forward and the wing, and almost always brings the ball to ground in the forwardline. That is what we want from an emerging KPF. In the meantime, his agility around the ground will eventually enable us to play Brown and Weideman as the key talls. It's clear the club has set McDonald for a similar role to Jackson once Brown and Weideman are fit. It could even be as early as this week. This is what a modern footy side looks like. Agile 195-200cm talls running defenders off their feet and outmarking them in the air or bringing it to ground for smalls to go to work.

That said, watching the 4th quarter now and ANB is having a cracking quarter.

Deep into the third quarter now and ANB has really struggled. I heard that on 360 and ANB might drive standards off the field, but his skill errors and poor tackling in the Hawthorn game should put him in the gun, particularly with the likes of Bedford banging the door down. I think ANB has done enough this year to earn another week, but we'll be in big trouble if he serves that up next week. Can't have any weak links against a side that has three flags in four years.

Brown was very ordinary for most of the match. Won't be unlucky to be dropped. We need more.

The only error McDonald made all day was an easy kick out of defence to Gus. He missed him and kicked it on the full. For whatever reasons he's a dreadful kick in the back half. Playing Tom back would be a nightmare waiting to happen. Richmond would take him to the cleaners. I'd bring in Fritsch and look at dropping Brown or ANB. I felt ANB was one of our weakest. I'm watching the replay right now and he's was terrible in the first quarter.

That's fine. Goodwin is no longer under pressure. There's no conflict in his current story. Buckley on the other hand... the press always goes the negative narrative.

Totally. That incredible stat from last week that said he'd only lost one 1v1 since Round 10 last year is amazing. Salem improved as the game wore on, but missed so many easy targets early on in the game. Perhaps I was a little harsh on Salem though...

I thought Rivers' first quarter was dreadful. Really improved after that though. IMO, Max nailing the goal from outside 50.

Where are all those muppets that kept saying we'd made a mistake in that trade? Some people just have no idea. A bit like a few of those Hawks muppets sitting around us today. And yes, Lever was brilliant down back. Tomlinson is playing such an important role there to allow Lever the second or third best tall/enables him to play his intercept game.

Nope. We were comfortably outnumbered. Gus is proving a pretty good wing partner the last few weeks too.

Oh, and I should say, there isn't a team I enjoy beating more than Hawthorn. You should have heard the arrogance of their supporters prior to the game, and you probably did. Meanwhile, the wife was at home with the 5-zip boy waiting for an opportunity to turn him to her Hawks and we gave her nothing. You beauty.

I thought Hawthorn's outnumber at the stoppage and our extra behind the ball hurt us early in the game. I'm looking forward to watching the replay to see if we changed things up after half time, but I'm pretty sure we kept the status quo there. Really impressed that we put them away like that in the last. Max's goal kicking gives me the [censored], but that was a beautiful kick from outside 50, but around the ground he was simply superb. His contested marking was absolutely elite and McEvoy just couldn't go with him. I've been saying all year that our poor kicking for goal is going to cost us. We should have been 4 or 5 goals up by half time and certainly by three quarter time. We kick like that next week and we're no chance against Richmond. We must nail those regulation shots from straight in front. The pleasing thing is that we're generating so many of these shots and our poor kicking for goal has only cost us percentage so far. Felt our forward half pressure was absent in at least the first quarter, but we slowly lifted our work rate after that. Petty took a while to gel with Tommo, Lever and Hibbo back there, but after a really good spoil and then an excellent contested mark, he mostly held his own. Needs to be stronger in the 1v1s, but didn't look too vulnerable up the ground against a lead. I worry about Riewoldt or Lynch's smarts on him next week though. I don't think it's fair to say we only played a quarter. We failed to capitalise on our dominance in the second and third quarters, but did just enough. I did wonder at quarter time where our goals were going to come from, but we seem to be able to generate big scores simply on slingshot, with run and carry. Max and Jackson are important for this as when we have nothing short, those two at least halve the contest inside 50 and give us a look at a score or a stoppage. Langdon, Hunt, Hibbo, Gus and even Jordon really give us good spread from the contest and dynamism with their willingness to take on the game. Another solid performance from Hunt, which is noticeable. Jordon got a bit more of it this week and Hibbo gave us really good run early when we were struggling to work hard enough to provide options for the switch - he'd simply break the lines. Salem's disposal by hand and foot was dreadful for most of the day. He's got to do better given these are uncontested possessions he's getting. ANB struggled too. His position might be in trouble from Bedford. That said, he did have 7 inside 50s (equal second most on the ground), so maybe not. Brown and Melksham mostly did their jobs, but Weideman or BB will make way for Mitch. I would give Tom McDonald the three votes today, just narrowly edging out Max. He may not be hitting the scoreboard as much as he did in 2018, but his work rate, willingness to get to contests, impact them and often take the mark is vital for the way we're playing. He really deserves huge kudos for the professional way he's approaching 2021. Well done, Tom. I thought you were gone. Keep playing like this and you're a keeper. Selection next week will be fascinating. And brilliant to be going in 5-0 to ANZAC Day Eve on the big stage. Cannot wait. Don't hold much hope for victory, but if Petty can play with more assurance and we nail all our gettable shots on goal I give us a chance. Edit. Also, the AFL app says Petty is injured. Any news there?

Yep. And the better we are this year, the more likely we are to lure these sort of players on lesser dollars. Go deep and some of our current stars will take less too. Hawthorn and Geelong have shown this.

And they barely played...

Hawthorn have had some dreadful recruiting in the last 4 or 5 years.

The Libs are hated at the moment in WA. The boos he got when on-screen were noticeable.

This is incredibly surprising. I've never felt it's a particularly strong area of Tom's game the tackles, but that's brilliant. He'll keep his spot if he creates a contest in the area and tackles on the ground to prevent easy exits.

If we thought Fritsch's inaccuracy was going to cost us, we can't be relying on one of the worst kicks in the league to kick us a winning score, it's unsustainable. We might get lucky one week, but Max is just a terribly inaccurate kick.

Yep, think they'll smash us. We might have them in the midfield. That'd be it.

I'd love to know the win loss record in royal blue since its return. I'd suggest it's very very high.

Is Lewy still at the club in the part time role or has that position been cut now due to austerity measures? Let's be very clear here. None of us have any idea whether Goodwin has been stubborn at all. If you think back to some of his assistants (Jennings, McCartney etc), it's clear he let them have quite a lot of input to game style and ideas. It may well be a bit of a Demonland urban legend that Goodwin doesn't listen. The coaches who were jettisoned may well have been jettisoned against Goodwin's wishes. We won't likely ever know.