Adam The God

I'm not exactly sure why the criticism of Lockhart exists in this instance either. He's solid and has very quickly grown into the role.

I prefer the Richmond surge. Not only do they increase the intensity around stoppages and contests, they throw in these different looking set ups around stoppages. Geelong can't win finals and when games are more contested, I don't think their keepings off works anymore in big finals. It might get you to the big finals, but wining the contest and then surging still looks pretty good to me. But each to their own, mate. : )

I'm liking some of the analysis around Geelong's centre stoppage set ups (from @george_on_the_outer), as well as what I witnessed in the Richmond v Suns game last night. I think these sorts of tactics are what's required to make us more unpredictable and utilise Max's strengths to the fullest. It actually makes very little sense to keep our set up as compact has it has been when we have Oliver and Petracca's explosiveness in there. Even Viney can be explosive occasionally. I'd be looking at these set ups carefully if I was Benny Mathews, which I'm sure he's doing.

This is the guy I'd go with. But make him earn it. Let's see how Jones plays against the Dogs, if he stands up, maybe we look at one of our other guys coming out for Bedford. Maybe Kozzie for a rest. We want pressure and work rate in the role. Jones is bringing that, but he's not bringing goals and as I've said previously, can get lost in transition.

The AFL will be able to pack 18,000 more people into Optus Stadium than the Gabba, so that's the financial move they'll make. Eagles are a massive shot at winning it this year. Plus, they'll get the double chance.

I reckon we're playing funny buggers with Max at the moment. You don't say PCL if you don't mean it. He won't play this week IMO.

Max has had some outstanding games this year, but he's also had 2 or 3 ordinary ones, and then been injured. I wouldn't have him in my AA team at this point.

Yep, it was definitely his best game for a while. Probably two or three years. He stays in for the moment.

Lol any chance to do a best 22.

You've got no track record except for whinging in every thread.

@Dr.D covering himself in glory in another thread, I see.

Pretty disingenuous using these stats as any sort of evidence given through the first 10 rounds he barely attended centre bounces.

Richmond just won a centre clearance with a similar set up, but with only mid 1v1 out wide. Resulted in a goal. The way Richmond up the tempo is so reminiscent of Liverpool upping the tempo. They've done it for 4 years. They get a little bit of a sniff of momentum and then just crank the intensity around every contest. It draws errors from the opposition and they have this interesting team sensibility to make their move at the right time. I would be surprised if anyone beats them to the flag this year. They have gears and they've demonstrated it over almost half a decade now. We've gotta be looking at this and using it to dominate the opposition when Gawn returns. Oliver and Petracva have bursts of speed so we won't get caught with pace.

Great pick up @george_on_the_outer and @Engorged Onion. I'm surprised more teams don't try this. I suspect it could be easy to combat too. If the ruckman taps to his feet, it takes two players out and if the opposition mids step up, it's not worth the Geelong mids staying wide without a dominant ruckman.

The word 'deserve' was what I was referencing in relation to a few posters now who have said he 'deserves' to play 300.

I've got a large enough history over 11 years of posting that would seem pretty hypocritical if I didn't mention it, hence my reference to it. And no one deserves to make it to 300. I think you might be missing my point. Oliver is my favourite player by a long way, but he doesn't deserve to make it to 300 unless he warrants selection in 300 games. Surely, I shouldn't have to point that out.

Hang on, so when you say 'goal to goal line' what do you mean? Do you mean they come from CHF and CHB? This sounds like it's akin to players off the back of the stoppage if I'm understanding this correctly. I've only got Foxtel IQ 2, the one where you can't watch it whenever you want anyway. If someone rewatches the replay in the next few days, could you let me know where Viney was playing? I could have sworn he played off the back of many of the stoppages. So he'd enter the contest at pace and either attempt to tackle or hopefully look for a handball receive. Most of what I saw were attempted tackles and pressure at the back of the stoppage. I also think it's a risky move, because it leaves the Collingwood opponent by himself on the outside, so if Viney doesn't impact the stoppage, it's akin to the aggressive press failing around a stoppage, and could grant an easy takeaway. This is why I kept saying he was like a bee to honey and got sucked in too often.

It's not really worth going into anymore. The past is the past and I think we should focus on the present and the future.

I reckon the forward coaching has been really top notch the last 5-6 weeks. Incidentally, I think this occurred after moving Plapp into the forward coaching role. FWIW...

No one deserves to get to 300 IMO. I've been a long time critic of Jones, but he's actually starting to work into his role now and it'll be interesting to see if he can sustain it. I'd keep him in for the moment, but he definitely can get lost in transition and I don't think this is an intelligence thing, I think it's a leg-speed thing.

Yep, I think it's a dangerous move to play with the forward mix. McDonald, for the most part, is doing his job. He just needs to bring the ball to ground and take his chances if he gets them.

We could finish in the top 4 if we win our remaining games, but I don't think we will. I'm hoping we get 10 or 11 wins. That seems par from here.

Great post mate. Me too. That's why I've always rated Spargo even though he doesn't rack up big numbers or crumb too much in a traditional sense. I'm happy to allow those sort of players a bit more leeway too in their disposal. Petracca is a bit this way for me and Dustin Martin can turn it over a fair bit, but he's so often involved in Richmond scoring chains. In a season with shorter quarters and less time to score, players who are regularly involved in scoring chains are worth their weight in gold.

Sorry, poorly written. I meant playing Petty back would release Tomlinson onto a wing.

Thank goodness he's gone. ?