Adam The God

Essendon would have to be the worst top 5 side or even top 8 side I've ever seen.

Gee, the St Kilda ball use is ordinary. We reckoned ours was bad but under no pressure they fail to hit targets.

Loving the Lockhart commentary in this thread everyone. Very enlightening. His development isn't that dissimilar from Nev's. Started up forward, but then moved back. Didn't get a heap of it, but was solid. Thought he struggled with the tempo against Richmond (or was it Geelong?), but since then he hasn't seemed to have coughed the ball up. Seems like a good coaching move to me.

Fair enough.

I'm happy to back Weideman, Jackson, TMac and Petty for the moment, but Richmond just won a flag by spend big $$$ on Lynch.

Nah, I meant more that people always give at the end of the tax year, so it's clever to give them a tax deduction. That's where I try to raise much of my private money as people / corporates in my case, are much more likely to give. But they'll be able to claim across both tax years.

Noticed today that Proud to Belong, Proud to Give is being auspiced by the Australian Sports Foundation, which provides this fundraising effort with DGR status and would have enabled the club to raise much of the money before the EOFY just gone. Clever. It's little things like this that makes me think we're pretty well run off field. I guess that's the business acumen at our club.

Jones for Vanders makes sense. Good move. Glad they're backing in Jackson again.

Yep, it's why many of the top EPL sides try not to rotate the squad, but when they do, it often leads to slip ups. Liverpool kept the same back 4 for the majority of the season and usually played the same front 3, enabling rotations through the midfield positions that require arguably greater fitness anyway (even though the attackers need great fitness too as Liverpool defends from the front 3). I'd be going with no changes at all if we can help it, because as you say, don't mess with the chemistry. Only if it's clear your mids are tiring would I make any changes to the midfield (outside of an injury of course). I think the most important area of the ground not to mess with is our defensive set up and I think we need to play these guys together as much as possible. So for mine, the forwardline personnel can be tinkered with depending on the opponent, but I think it's pretty clear that we need to play two talls, with Weideman being one of them, playing deep and across half forward. Then Jackson playing second fiddle, with TMac as back up KPF. I find it interesting that we're thinking about playing Tom on a wing. This would suggest strongly that we see Weideman and Jackson as ultimately working and that Tom needs to carve another niche for himself. If he can kick goals from the wing and gut run hard both ways, that is going to give us an additional weapon that is very hard to match up on. I wouldn't mind seeing Fritsch and McDonald rotate between wing and half forward as well. We constantly need guys willing to lead and run again to create space for others. That's a key to the shorter kicking game we implemented in particular last week. It'll be fascinating to see what we do if we can get through this congested period without losing and without injury. Will we look to mess with team chemistry on the other side of it to freshen things up, or will we want to keep the chemistry going? I think ultimately where we want to get to is to play a system where as players can be plug and plays as possible. The Bulldogs premiership side of 2016 was brilliant at this and big on system. Our 2017 side wasn't too bad at that either, when he were missing Gawn for large chunks. So Goodwin has shown himself to be big on systems, but it's whether our team can get to that level of consistency and understanding of team roles, that is another matter.

Hasn't he already been playing a mixture of wing, half back and midfield this season? I'm pretty sure I've seen him play off half back already.

Agree with much of this post mate. The thing I will continue to debate is Oliver not being a damaging handballer. You cite Bennell's handball as being damaging, which I agree, was damaging, but contextually completely different to many of Clarry's handballs. The majority of which are contested possessions in stoppage situations, not in space by himself in the forwardline as Harley's was. Nothing against Harley's brilliant handball, but I still disagree with the notion that Oliver's handballs don't hurt the opposition. Yes, sometimes he'll handball to a Gawn standing still (see the Hawthorn game), but the majority of the time, his handballs release team mates into space and help us win clearance. I think this part of his game is being hyperbolised. As you say, the area of his game that can get better is his kicking game. And I completely agree with you on his kicking. I think he's a very good and creative kick. His draft kicking test results speak for themselves. I also like the comparison to Judd's pace, in that it's explosive from clearances, but not as quick in other situations though IMO, unlike Judd, who was always lightening. I think many of us are acknowledging Clarry's elite traits, I'm just not convinced what he actually does brilliantly is being recognised. Not that this matters really, as we're just supporters over-dissecting a player's game. I agree though that I think Clarry's development across 2019 and 2020 will put him and us in very good stead moving forward.

Yep, I'd go for Fisher. There's a bit of a knock on his defensive game, but could be another good wingman back up and play forward if need. Looking forward to seeing what Jordon can offer. One of my mates coached him at Caulfield Grammar and has big wraps on him.

I'm genuinely intrigued to see how Trac goes in the remaining games this year. With the insane hype around him, opposition sides will pay more attention to him, as they have done with Oliver for many years. Can Trac keep his game going, whilst being targeted? As for match ups this week, I agree with @Lucifer's Hero. I'd have Harmes or Viney tag Zorko and go Petracca and Oliver, head to head with Neale. I'd also be giving Neale a bit of physical attention around all the stoppages. What a [censored] I am.

We're usually on the same page mate, but I just cannot agree with this bit, if I've understood it correctly. Andrew Gaff is in the same company as Oliver? One is a legitimate contested bull, the other is a hard running accumulating outside mid. They're completely different players. Oliver is an A grader, no question for me, but he could be an A++ grader if he can become more damaging with his disposal by foot. That bit I agree with, but his handballing more often than not is incredibly damaging IMO. If Clarry had managed to get to where he is now at the age of 28 or 29, I think we'd say he was an A grade star. The fact that he's only 23 and has been doing what he does now (and winning AA rep and two BnFs) for a few years, shows how big his potential is. What's scary for opposition's is he's still a few years off his best. So our coaches work on getting him to balance his handball game with his kicking game in 2019 and now in 2020, it's about being more damaging with his disposals by foot. The fact you don't rate him as an AFL star at this point, I think, could be as a result of the level he has set for himself pretty much from his first game against GWS off limited minutes, where he didn't look at all out of place against an A grade midfield.

Great post. This was the same with Sam Mitchell.

The Petracca / Oliver comparison reminds me a bit of how Sam Mitchell would constantly fly under the radar in his early career, because Buddy Franklin would take the spotlight. Franklin is the flashier player, but Mitchell was a genius. Oliver's kicking isn't as solid at this stage, but Mitchell often kicked short, which meant his DE appeared to be much better. Absolutely, Clarry has some things to work on, but I'd argue Clarry and Trac both need to work on their defensive games. You'll always remember Trac in a game because the way he plays is with flair. He also cost us two goals in a row against Hawthorn because his defensive work didn't cut it, so there's definitely improvement left in both of their games and neither are even mid 20s yet, so there is plenty of time to work on their game. It's wonderful we have them both in the same team at once with one of the most dominant rucks in recent memory.

Comparing leaders is a difficult one for me, because leadership can vary so much, even on and off a football field. I think both are terrific captains. Neita led the way with his physicality but his inconsistent goal kicking (you knew if Neita was on or off by his first kick at goal) meant that it compromised some of his leadership ability. But loved him as a player. Whereas, Gary, I loved him too and the thing that would let him down was his body, particularly later on, but the way he got around players and impacted passages of play and kicked straight, put him just ahead of Neita for mine. I always remember how he would almost father the Wiz and to my mind, when Gaz retired, Wiz was always going to go home. Gary had a way with those around him that seemed to foster belief and family. I can see why you would say Neita was a better leader, but I don't think it's as clear cut as "if you can't see that I cannot help you". But that's just me.

It's very different nowadays to what it was. Most kids coming through TAC find themselves at APS private schools.

I'd take the consistent extractor before I'd take the explosive burst, x-factor player, but that's just me. I think great midfields need both and it's great having both on our side.

6 it is then. Struggling to keep up with things in such a strange year.

I reckon some supporters massively underrate Clarry. IMO, they don't realise what he's done for a guy his age is extraordinary.

Disagree with this mate. Trac had a solid season last year, but was still behind Oliver's output and then has played, what, 7 H&A games this year? I agree that Trac has probably had a marginally better season (off a very small sample size) than Clarry, but this seems way too early to call. I think the fairer statement, IMO, would be that Petracca has had a better 7 games than Oliver. But what holds Oliver so far above anyone else except Gawn is his consistency.

Voss definitely said it too. Not sure about Roosy, but Voss did. Not the greatest of sources but... https://www.bigfooty.com/forum/threads/next-powerhouse.736782/

I think it's on the players now and a combination of coaching and sporting luck.

Yep, utterly dominant. What's so incredibly rare is that almost everything Petracca touched was sublime as well. The strongest two hander from Melbourne players I can recall for a long time. And half my family is Geelong and I don't know how many times we've been down to Geelong and watched us [censored] on. That day was very, very sweet and I was hoarse by the end of it.