Adam The God

As per much of last week, Harmes was an utter disgrace that quarter. On the whole, really poor tackling efforts. Fritsch and Melksham numerous poor efforts and our kicking for goal is VFA standard. Petracca back to not being able to take set shots. We're totally still in the game, but a better side would have blown us off the park in that quarter. Our defence was setting up really nicely, but poor ball use going inside and an inability to convert simple, simple shots (Fritsch, Petracca and Kozzie) really hurt us. And despite what Healy said, McDonald's refusal to use Langdon on the outside and instead kick it to the advantage of the North defender, was a terrible decision and cost us a scoring opportunity from a clean clearance. Already a shocking decision to play McDonald. As slow as my old man.

Yeah, Tom absolutely seems like a replacement for Max, but who are Tomlinson, Lever and May going to play on? I don't think we need the extra tall. We've done this with selection before and sides smash us on the outside.

Pretty much agree with this, particularly your last point, but I think we need less guys competing for half back too. It means someone like Jones will probably play wing time and I don't know how many times that's proved to be a terrible idea. That's on top of the fact I think we have too many big guys.

The more I think about it, the more I reckon we're too top heavy here by bringing in McDonald.

It all comes down to fitness of Tmac and whether we try and swing him forward. I'm worried about his selection, but I don't think we should have played Preuss. The rest seems logical to me.

Do you believe in systems in sport, mate? All teams need role players. Spargo needs to improve on getting more of the ball and penetration in his kicking. Spargo is a kid too. I understand you don't like Spargo, but he showed a lot in his first year and had a dip, like many of our guys, last year - his second year. We have a dearth of pressure half forwards and have too many guys we're trying to run through half back at the moment. Adding Jordon at this stage seems a strange move to me.

It's not increasing his skillset. He played a lot of footy at half back to begin his career. He's played there before and he's much more damaging through the middle of the ground and forward of centre. His fumbling and poor kicking hasn't helped his cause across half back recently though. As for point 'c', that's Hibbo's job.

Yeah, cleverly done, mate. Viney and Langdon were the only two to show up that game. How about look at when our forwardline and forward half has functioned properly. Spargo was a big part of that.

Spargo is not an accumulator at this stage, but pretty much all his touches result in scores. I think he'll make it if the club backs him and gives him a specific role as it did in 2018. But, each to their own. His size has nothing to do with it though.

It's been pretty well documented why multiple teams can beat us. This takes our reliance on one strength that has been a weakness this season and makes us more unpredictable. If you think back to 2017 when Gawn tore his hamstring off the bone, we went on a run after he was injured. IMV it made our reliance on him less of a weakness and made planning against our team harder to do. And just on this. That year we used a mobile ruck in McDonald. I think we should use Tomlinson in a similar role tomorrow.

Let me ask you this, OD. Do you think our forwardline functions better with two or three key forwards?

Jackson has taken plenty of centre bounces this year. Even if Gawn had been fit, he would have taken some more tomorrow.

He might have a career elsewhere, but he's done with us, barring injury to Weideman or Jackson. Maybe he gets a run for Jackson if he tires as the season progresses But as a rule, he clogs up our forward system on a good day, not to mention he could barely bend down a week or so ago.

What are you ralking about? He's played in the ruck most weeks. I think you'll find @3183 Dee meant Tomlinson as the #1 ruck and Jackson to pinch hit like he did last week and the week before and the week before...

I hope not. Tom is finished. Tomlinson needs to play ruck here. We don't need three defensive talls against North.

I bloody hope not. Gus needs to play the majority of the game in the midfield, not on a wing. I'd play Sparrow at half forward and use him sparingly in the midfield rotation where needed. If the FD see Sparrow as ahead of Gus, we may as well pack it in.

I'm not sure we necessarily have to change it up too much. For the first quarter, I'd be going long to Jackson and/or Tomlinson, unless a free option presents itself up the ground. If Goldstein and their team take too many intercept marks and stifle our play, we change our strategy, otherwise I don't necessarily think no Gawn = game plan change.

I think sometimes a lack of options or a necessity to change, frees up players. Could be the go here

Any time, anywhere. That should be our mantra. The Bulldogs won a flag with system based play. We follow a similar model. If we have injuries, another soldier steps up and plays their role. We have significant A grade midfield depth IMV and that's where we can get on top here.

Tomlinson is a decent contested mark and good outlet from defence too, as we saw at times last week. I reckon it makes us more unpredictable. It might also mean we have to either use May's long kicking to get it as close to centre wing as possible and let Jackson and co bring it ground, or we look for shorter passes and then if we get a look at the corridor, use it swiftly to our mid sized players.

FMD, you're a sook.

Great post mate. Reckon we can sacrifice the third defensive tall (particularly with no Brown) and play Tomlinson in the ruck all day and use his aerobic power. See if he can rebound off Goldstein too. I'm excited to see how we plan this.

Come off it mate. You mean like North declaring Brown wouldn't play yesterday? The teams are announced in less than an hour.

Reckon it will be, unless Jones captains...

I'm excited by what our midfield group can achieve without Max and Viney. I think we'll be pleasantly surprised. Oliver, Gus and Petracca/Harmes. ?