Adam The God

See, I reckon we have to try harder at ensuring that both Trac and Gus are playing in the midfield at the same time, instead of one for the other. And I don't necessarily agree with Sparrow being used to ensure the players are fresh. If that were the case, the other guy that is so much better as a mid and is being wasted at half back is Harmes. I'd much prefer it was him giving others the chop out and rest from the hard stuff.

Viney's and Sparrow's at the moment.

Loved seeing him give it to Crocker, who was trying to give it to Lockhart. It's something that unfortunately is pretty rare at our club. We don't even really stick up for our captain when he's being smacked.

I think the Adelaide Oval really suits us, but Adelaide allowed us to play that way. It'll be interesting to see how we go against North. We should beat them easily, but on the majority of tonight's showing we won't.

Yeah, that seems like a fair enough observation. He doesn't look quite settled. Let's hope so, I just wouldn't be playing him unless it's at half forward, because I'd prefer we play Oliver, Petracca, Gus, Harmes and Viney before him in the middle. Me too. I did wonder about this. He kicked that goal from the forward stoppage in the last, but then was unsighted. We may have been resting him, but you're absolutely spot on. When Viney was out of there, Gus thrived.

I agree. I should have been clearer, he doesn't tackle. Opposition players get out of his grasp easily. Disagree on Tomlinson and reckon he'll be okay. And we still have money in the cap to go around again next year. Agree with all this. I've said it many times before. Jones should have been retired at the end of 2018. The Wagners are good triers, but not good enough unfortunately IMO. Brown may prove to be okay back up, but not after this year. And Dunkley was a strange one for me. Surprised we kept him on after last year, but I guess it makes sense to give him a second year and see if he can crack it in a stronger team.

Agree with all of this, mate, but after quarter time I thought Harmes was terrible. Maybe that's just me.

I don't understand the praise for Sparrow tonight. He's a young kid trying to make his way. He took a really important contested mark at one point, but other than that he did very little. Why are we crowding our midfield set up when it's clear as day that Brayshaw is damaging (and has proved to be A grade) when he plays in the midfield and is completely lost when he's outside of it. Playing Sparrow also meant that someone like Petracca played less midfield minutes tonight in order to give Viney and Gus their minutes as well. It doesn't make sense unless they're trying to keep the mids fresh.

I reckon we have too many square pegs, round holes going on, but I don't think Goodwin particularly rates wingers or half backs. Noticed Jones playing on the wing again tonight. Sorry, he's finished and he shouldn't be playing on a wing. Salem is the one that worries me. His kicking is so safe and he's become softer and softer at the contest over the years, playing at half back. He's not aspirational enough for his position. But I don't personally have a problem with our list management. You can only bring in so many guys a season and we've consistently identified clear defensive holes (Lever and May) and then offensive holes (Langdon, Tomlinson and even Bennell). Our backline and defensive system has been by far the best thing about this season. Even when we've played ordinarily (with the exception of the Port game), our defence has held up. I've been impressed with the way Lockhart's developed in that back half. He seems to have Nev's position sewn up. May is growing and he and Lever need to keep playing games together. Have enjoyed Hibbo's season too. I think we've seen over the last month or so that Weideman and Jackson are the future and Tom McDonald is finished. So time to build the forwardline around them. Kozzie is important for his pressure. AVB is important for his pressure. Maybe Bennell, in time, will be important for x factor. And the rest of the positions are a bit of a raffle with Melksham leading the way (he connects so much of what we do from midfield to forward), followed by either Fritsch, Hannan or ANB. But we need another Kozzie. Another clever, x factor, quick, aggressive, goal sneak. So our forward balance is out IMV at the moment. Then it's the midfield/forward connection issues that we've talked about for so long, which to me, is not a list management issue, but a coaching one, IMO. I think we can certainly delist 8-10 easily at the end of this year. I'm excited by what Taylor can bring in the next 2 to 3 years, with very limited (at this stage) options.

Oliver is man-handled without the ball every week. I'm glad he finally got one or two of those frees tonight. Melksham ended up missing that soda after the pass from Jackson didn't he? He's usually a certainty from there.

Thanks mate. Any idea of around the ground stoppages? I presume they're the centre clearances?

Completely agree. If we play finals this year it'll be because Gus is given more midfield time. We look a completely different team when he's going. Unless there's a significant drop in form or injury from Weideman and Jackson, I wouldn't play Tom again.

The only bit of the in-game commentary I liked was Dermie banging on about their understanding together. He seemed big wraps for them. Could yet be two guys to build a forwardline around. Hats off to Jason Taylor again, hey?

He can't really do it if he's not given enough midfield minutes. I think he still needs to be stronger in the air, but he's getting much stronger in the contest, which is a good step forward. The thing is really does well is he straightens up our forward set up and he's just now, starting to draw the ball, which good KPFs do. Encouraging signs. Could someone with the AFL Pro ap please post how many first half stoppages Gus attended? I don't think it was many. I didn't think he'd started in the middle at all in the first half, but if others remember it, I stand corrected.

That's big. His pressure is what makes our forwardline work. I hope he makes it up for the North game, but it doesn't sound likely.

Thought it was a very good analysis actually from David King, who flip flops from one week to the next in terms of how he rates Clarry. At least he recognises he's had a very good season and that he's capable of beautiful kicking, which is absolutely true. I liked the comparison between Oliver and Dangerfield, and where Clarry can take his game to the next level and add scoring to his armoury. For the benefit of those who didn't see the piece of footage, it showed Oliver winning the clearance in the middle and bursting goal-ward, but instead of either sprinting towards 50 and kicking for goal like Dangerfield would or drawing the nearest man and handballing to his opponent, Clarry kicked inside 50 (and not very well). If he'd nailed the pass it would have been alright, but I think King is right in this instance. Clarry needs to trust his kicking more and shoot at goal. Adding goals from the midfield to his game will make him a frightening prospect and put him up there with the likes of Dangerfield and Judd.

With all their changes and with one man down early, we were always going to be safe going into the last quarter, but there's one thing we got right in the last quarter in particular. We got the midfield set up right. Instead of having Viney run into Petracca every second stoppage, we had the right mix of Oliver, Gus and Petracca in the middle for most of the last quarter. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Gus played a single minute in the midfield in the first half. As soon as Viney went into stoppages in the final quarter, our set up was decidedly less effectively than having Oliver as the first ball stoppage winner. Jack had a good first half, but his goal in the final quarter is what he'll need to do IMO. He needs to spend significant time forward, with occasional midfield bursts. That was not Oliver's best game, but he was best afield by quite some stretch. It was against very ordinary opposition, but he can do that against the best too. Posters calling for him to play forward are totally misguided IMV. The most talented player we've had at the club in my 33 years. People expect the world from him, when he's already won 2 BnFs and AA rep at the age of 23. The guy is a star and elite most weeks. The other guy I wanted to talk about is Jackson. Really excited by his nous. I liked the idea of throwing him into the ruck in the second quarter and it worked to throw out O'Brien's dominance of Gawn. He's also a smart player around stoppages, when the ball is on the deck and positionally in the forward half. I really liked the interplay between Weideman and Jackson tonight and our forwardline looks immediately less congested without McDonald. I thought AVB and ANB's pressure was good tonight, because Bennell looks like he's trying to get through games and avoid contact, and Fritsch looks to avoid contact where possible too. Against good sides we would have struggled tonight, but hopefully that last quarter restores a bit of the confidence we seemed to have built going into the Brisbane game.

He didn't play a minute in the midfield in the first half. Was very good as soon as he went into the middle. It's no coincidence that we wiped the floor with them when we played Oliver, Gus and Petracca from stoppages in the last quarter.

Seriously, if you can't hit targets Salem, you offer us nothing.

Gee, we're pathetically sloppy.

Jesus, Petracca's kicking has been ordinary the last few weeks.

Soft as butter too. Dumb free kick to give up.

Adelaide are utterly pathetic. We should win this by 10 goals now.

This group wanted to prove themselves. That was bloody ordinary. Max shouldn't have played either. Poor leadership. He's getting pantsed and should have sat this one out. It's like when Viney and Jones played as captains when they weren't fit. Leadership is recognising when you're not fit to play. Let's hope he can turn it around, because if our blueprint is contested footy, we can't win contested footy if Gawn doesn't touch it and O'Brien gives them first use the whole time and then smashes Max once it hits the ground. I'd be tempted to try Jackson for a spurt.

And one of the only teams who almost won on the tank. ?