Adam The God

Reckon that's a really dangerous move if we do it. Our forward system is finally working and despite doing some ordinary things, McDonald is at least bringing pressure at ground level and bringing the ball to ground inside 50. Unless we try playing Max at the forward and ruck 40% and Presuss the remainder. Still, I worry about teams rebounding against us if we're playing a ruckman who is not Luke Jackson as the second tall. I'm not sure I could say the Port game and yesterday's were carbon copies. We barely mustered a jog against Port, yet Collingwood were strong around stoppage. We got them on transition and stifled their ability to move the ball. I agree that they were undermanned and had less rest time, but even though their defence was untidy at times and certainly got lost in transition because it hadn't played regularly together, I don't believe even with Roughead and Howe in that those two would have been able to stop a lot of our ball movement forward, which was excellent.

Tomlinson is playing KPB and slowly settling into the zonal set ups back there. He's been solid with the exception of one kick into the corridor yesterday and being caught out of position in transition one other time that I noted. If Hunt's going to make it, he should be looking very closely at the gut-running of Langdon and model his game on Ed's. He wouldn't be coming in for Tomlinson though. It'd be for someone like Jones.

I agree, he's much better when he pushes up onto the wing and across half forward. When it goes deep into our forward 50 he's a liability at times IMO.

You do realise Fritsch has been going at 50% accuracy this year, right? You're basically describing his season when you say guys missing set shots and spraying snaps, which he's done consistently all season. To make matters worse, when the ball hits the ground he's afraid of body contact.

I noticed this stat on Gus too. Fascinating. I'd still have him in there more, but team balance is such a difficult thing to master. I always think more Gus, the better, but as you say, it depends on what the other mids went at for midfield time.

Fritsch is definitely one of, if not our biggest down hill skiers. Not hard enough at the contest for mine either. He'll keep getting games because he kicks goals, but his defensive work is dreadful. I'd go no change, unless Kozzie needs a rest, in which case I'd bring back Hannan. I reckon it won't be long until Rivers comes back for Jones and Harmes moves forward.

I think he was playing behind the stoppages for the majority of the night. I reckon Oliver has changed his game up a bit to be able to receive or leave the ball for a team mate in better position. But otherwise completely agree with this.

Btw, noticed Sparrow manning Sidebottom at the stoppages in the last quarter. Anyone know when Sparrow first went to Sidebottom?

Thought he mopped up the ball really nicely a couple of times repeatedly at the end of the third, otherwise his disposal was very ordinary again. I like that the coaches have finally looked at fixing the Brayshaw wing versus central square problem. They definitely need to look at the Harmes is struggling problem too. I think Harmes has the attributes to be a damaging half back flanker, using his marking and power to slingshot attacks, but I just don't think it's working at the moment. Despite his disposal being ordinary against Collingwood, his positioning within the zone and his work rate could not be questioned and I wonder if it's just a case of him growing into his new role?

He has a great knack of taking up offensive positions in the corridor. He seems to receive the ball a lot in that area and we launch attacks through the corridor through him. I love him. Needs to play majority midfield with Oliver (says broken record).

Really excited by his development. Well done, Jay and Matty Egan. He did slip a bit too much for my liking tonight, but he's got courage, he's got nice agility and is neat with his disposal. These are traits of Nev. Perfect replacement.

I'd certainly have Oliver before I'd have Treloar, but the latter is definitely a talent, and damaging if you let him run and carry. His speed definitely gives them some dynamism in stoppage situations. As does De Goey when they interject him.

Absolutely. Heard Trac say that. I said this in another thread, but I reckon the first time our team defence really clicked was against the Lions. We strangled them, but didn't take our chances at the other end. We've been able to grow in confidence the last two games playing that team defence that has strangled lower opposition. Okay, so Collingwood were missing a few players tonight, but I reckon we'll get a heap of confidence from the way we defended in transition tonight. We were all over them.

Two, I reckon. Roughead was a loss for them. It was like taking out May (with Roughead) and then Lever's intercept play (with Howe). But I don't want to take away from how beautifully and smartly we moved the ball for most of the match. I don't think they would stopped all of it.

If Smith comes back, forward is definitely his go. I know he's got a great leap, but I wonder if he's a fraction too small to play the second key tall.

I said a bit of this in another thread, but our team defence is the best it's been under Goodwin at any point. It's not the same team defence that we played in 2018 either. I thought Oliver, Langdon, May, Gus, Melksham and Petracca were our best. Honourable mentions to Lockhart, Spargo (particularly his first half), Preuss (for competing and running out the game), Weideman, Salem and Hibberd. We're really starting to move the ball beautifully and get that team connection happening. Knowing that we're going to get a contest from Weideman inside 50 is massive too and despite some very poor efforts early, McDonald turned his game around in the last three quarters and started to provide a good target inside 50. Harmes's ball use was atrocious, but if you watch the last 5 minutes of the third, he kept mopping up ground balls at half back, which was really important for ensuring we didn't get scored against and we could rebound via the likes of Hibbo. As I've said in other posts, I thought Viney's attack on the ball all night could not be questioned, but outside of that, I think they're still trying to find a way to get him into the game without sacrificing Brayshaw's game. Playing off the back of stoppage was an interesting move and one that could be worked on. I wouldn't mind trying him as a tagger, because he was still getting in the way of our cleaner, better ball users at times. The two biggest takeaways for me was our ball use entering forward 50 and our team defence on transition. So exciting. Langdon is an outstanding acquisition and I wouldn't be surprised to see the opposition start to put some time into him. He did what he liked tonight and not only does he help our defence and help us connect midfield to forward, he's so often the easy out handball for midfielders under pressure, because of his outstanding gut-running. Kozzie feels close, but I reckon he might be in trouble if Hannan is fit next week. I wonder how many corrals and pressure points he built up though?

Jeepers creepers, you reckon? I thought Viney's ball use was ordinary and he was constantly like a bee to honey at the stoppages, leaving massive gaps behind him. A better side would have made us pay. They seemed to play him off half back or off the back of stoppages when he wasn't playing midfield. He brings good pressure, but it's so often misguided. I think it's the right positional move potentially, but he just needs to be way smarter.

? How's this for grasp of the English language? "With all due respect to our opponents..." and then goes on to say we're a nothing side. Haha. Brilliant.

We have seriously fixed our defensive transition. Incredible in all phases of defensive transition. The best I've seen it. Combine that with taking our chances at the other end and using the ball cleverly when going inside, makes a huge difference. What was the stat regarding play ons? We played on less than 10% of the time and they played on more than 50%. Someone correct me on that, but a noticeable change in slowing our game down, looking across the ground for support or even backwards if the long kick inside 50 or up the ground is not on. We really worked hard at pulling the zone apart by spreading the ball by foot. Makes so much difference when our talls bring the ball to the ground and our smalls bring the ground pressure, and then convert their chances when they come. If this is sustainable, the system will beat most teams in the comp.

Hope you enjoyed that one @DemonOX and all our other QLD-based Demons who made it along tonight. ✊

hahaha Taylor, you stupid blockhead. ?

Fritsch is far far softer than Jack Watts was. He avoids body contact at all costs, but he's downhill skiing though.

This is possiblely one of the biggest quarters of the year. Not only can we increase our own percentage, but smash Collingwood's percentage. We need to finish the job. Come on, Melbourne.

[censored] hell, Lever. What a choke again. Show some leadership. First goal massive here.

Lever easily our worst. Should have killed thst contest too.