Adam The God

Well, I guess you could look at Chris Scott's Geelong, but I think game style is a big failure at our club in 2019 and that falls at the feet of the coach.

I agree that some of our crowding stems from panic and a loss of confidence, but I also wonder how much of that is game style-directed. To swarm each and every contest. I think it's a failure of the game style, unless you have cover out the back.

Another who could play wing too and add to outside pace. A little soft IMO, but wingers usually are. And the Basil clue would work for Toby Greene if he was an FA and not signed up for another 4 years.

I'm sure we do. We've been very good in this area and ahead of the pack in terms of the new AFL systems in place. Landing Oliver and Weideman in the same draft was a perfect example.

I think the landscape has so significantly changed with the advent of free agency and player movement, that premiership windows are a thing of the past. If we get everything right next year, we have a list that could challenge for the flag with a bit of luck. Just as easily, we could be anchored to the bottom of the table. I want a new senior coach though. If we pull the trigger on that front in the next 6 to 12 months, we'll have a greater chance, but I hope I'm wrong.

I reckon in time Petty playing next to Lever will be the intercept equivalent of McGovern and Barrass. By all means play him forward for the moment, but I'd have Petty back before Hore. Maybe Marty playing back next year allows another year of development in Petty before we send him back, but I loved Petty the year of his draft and saw a Lever clone in him. He'll get there if given time.

Absolutely agree. I've said this before about Collingwood being a good example of how a lot of their kickers seemed to go from turn over merchants in 2017 to a strong team of kickers, who can control games in a similar way to old Hawthorn under Clarkson. Collingwood clearly worked really hard on their fitness (arguably too hard, given all their injuries in 2018), but this meant their players regularly got to the outside and into space, so they could keep moving the ball with seeming accuracy. As has been said a couple of times now, you look a much better kick when you're not trying to thread the eye of the needle, and merely kicking into space or to a free player.

Bloody hell. I just read 26 pages on my Saturday to catch up on all of this as I'd stayed away since April, and the ending (non-closure on this) is as unsatisfying as the end of The Sopranos.

I remember watching that game as a 9 year old out at the Whitten Oval. Brilliant game. But those last two highlights in that top 5 are simply incredible. We've got no one that has that sort of forward genius in our side. Oliver is the midfield equivalent.

There's something a bit Bulldogs end of 2015 about where we're at currently. If we were to trade out our captain or Gus, you'd want it to pay off pretty quickly, otherwise there'd be blood on the dancefloor in 2020. IMO we absolutely have to add at least one natural crumber. As @Fifty-5 and I have been saying, Viney should play forward next year too. Yup, noticed that, so I'm sure we're looking at other options.

Well, I think that's part of it too. Pert did have a reputation coming in to the MFC of interfering too heavily in FD matters, so he was less likely to do it as soon as he walked in our door. It seems like (yes, speculation) that he must be complicit in driving a lot / some of the changes via Mahoney, but I guess we won't know for a while / ever. Certainly, the Board would be behind much of the change too, because for anyone to get sign off for the moves we've made so far, it would surely have to get Board sign off.

Agree with the aim of the first part of your post. King. Langdon, another runner (maybe that's Tomlinson?), Smith and 17. That's significantly more outside run. I'd also like to target two zippy smalls to compliment the rest of our forwardline. But we don't have enough genuine ball winners to be getting rid of any of our midfield core, so I wouldn't be trading Gus or Jack.

I do wonder about Salem's best position though. I know it was early in his career, but he struggled as a forward IMO and has never dominated a centre bounce stoppage that I can recall. In time, I hope he could be just as dangerous as a Whitfield (minus the running power), surrounded by Oliver, Brayshaw, Harmes and Petracca.

If we're having a look at him, I wonder if we're thinking about playing him at half back and releasing Salem further up the ground?

Is that you, Chris Simpson's artist?

If Geelong go out in straight sets, there'd have to be questions asked about Scott wouldn't there? Bloke has overseen a string of finals chokes already. His tenure has been masked by walking into a side that coached itself to a flag in 2011. I commend him for changing up their forwardline this year, but they rely on too few and many go missing when the blow torch is applied back the other way.

Lol, you're hilarious.

Could well be right that our commitment is questionable. Agree that this could just be about growing up (as much of our core have played under 100 games), but a healthy pre season and healthy list to choose from for much of 2020 and we will be in a much stronger position than 2019. Agree that it will be a lot harder than people think too.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I wonder if Pert hadn't been a fresh face last year and he was a year into his tenure already when we crashed out in the prelim, whether we'd have had all these changes in the FD at the end of last year. He could hardly come in and make wholesale changes immediately. I wonder what the internal thinking was at the end of last year. The prelim was unacceptable and we'll bounce back quickly, or did they know it was going to be a difficult year given all the injury interruptions? More rhetorical all this, but it's interesting to ponder.

Interesting post mate. I'm not sure I agree that chaos isn't dead, but it'll be very interesting to see how we go against quicker sides next year with a fit list. (And yep, we'll need to address our outside run deficiencies) Collingwood blew us off the park last year with outside run, but a good proponent of getting the ball on the outside is a team like GWS, who we managed to pressure in that final game of 2018 and never allowed them to really get going (all those missed shots from Green helped too). There's absolutely no doubt that chaos cannot be played without a fit list and that is something we certainly lacked this year. It's obvious we get exposed on the outside on the bigger MCG, but it could well be merely a fitness thing (rather than a pace thing) that allows a team to bring manic pressure to the ball carrier and never enable them to get it on the outside. It's debatable whether you actually need pace for this or just simply switched on, fit players.

Good post mate. BACKLINE: I agree that Hibberd is done, but Jetta is even further gone. I hope we trade in an experienced player for leadership and to play lock down next year. Don’t ask me who. I like the rest of your back set up. MIDS: Completely spot on RE: the starting mids. I’d play Langdon on the wing and ANB. Just gut run and defend both ways and link up going the other way. A simple role for ANB. Both not great users, but our best bets I reckon (yes, this involves getting the Langdon deal over the line - have no sources on this, but I reckon it’s a done deal). JKH has to go. Not good enough. Absolutely no tools to make it as an AFL player, unless we can turn him into a lock down defender (see Jetta’s spot above). Not sure he’s strong enough one on one, but anyway. He doesn’t work on a wing or at half forward. We have Gawn, Oliver, Bradshaw, Harmes, Petracca, Viney, Melksham and even Hannan that could and should play through the midfield. After the first 4 or 5, we lack real quality. How anyone can say we’re set for mids is beyond me. I hope we target an experienced FA (I wouldn’t snigger at Higgins here) to add quality and rotations through there too. FORWARDLINE: We’ve previously agreed on Viney playing the small forward role (I think he can serve our midfield a little as well). I think we should be targeting Ben King with our Pick #3, because unlike you I don’t have faith in the McDonald / Weideman duo. Not next year anyway. In time, perhaps. I like King’s height and I think he’s a more natural leading forward than Weideman, but maybe the latter just needs a good forward coach who works hard on his leading patterns. I like Petracca playing deep occasionally, but I also like the idea of Oliver playing there too. Frisch, a fit Melksham and Hannan, plus a zippy small from another AFL system and/or even a surprise packet from the state leagues and we might be in better shape. It’s funny how quickly a list can go from such an exciting potential 22 last year (particularly with the addition of May) to struggling to get even 22 solid players in without any holes in the starting 18.

You should know by now you can't say anything against Nathan. All well and good to stick up for our own, but there's also a short ride before you just become a happy clapper.

The innuendo is great everyone but I hope there's some actual news soon. Have you heard anything @Chook in Perth?

Try two years, since the Tigers. You like hyperbole, don't you mate?

Particularly, if they're not convinced they'll be able to keep him longer than next year.