Adam The God

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. ?

Well done, young man. Star in the making, but gee it's a ridiculous award.

I reckon we need to play Rivers, Lockhart and Salem in the back half with Hibbo, May, Lever and third tall (seems to be Tomlinson at the moment). I agree it'd be good to be able to play Salem up forward and wing, but I don't think either are his go. So Jones makes way for Rivers IMO. The forward mix should be Weideman, Jackson, Fritsch, Melksham with Kozzie, Viney, Harmes and back ups like Hannan and AVB. The main midfield mix is Oliver, Gus and Petracca with Langdon, Harmes, AVB and Tomlinson on the wings. Viney with bursts in the main midfield too. That's 21 with Gawn. I'd look at bringing in another pressure forward. But this last position could be pressure forward or an additional wingman. Ideally, I'd have Petty or Omac playing Tomlinson's defensive position and use Tomlinson as another winger. I don't think we're a mile away from being able to play this set up. Whether we do, that's another thing.

I'm talking about the wing. I wouldn't have Oliver, Petracca, Gus or Viney playing wing, but I'd have Harmes.

That is incredibly sad. He was an absolute jet playing midfield and forward. He needs to go forward as a pressure and marking forward alongside Viney. I'd give him some wing minutes in bursts too. I know he played some half back when he first started, but stop playing him behind the ball when we know what he can do from midfield and resting forward. Absolute waste.

It'll be interesting to see. It certainly applies to our ability to score, but that's because IMV he gets in the way if Weideman and Jackson. Who's North's Weideman and Jackson combo?

Fair enough. I thought he struggled to find the ball until he moved back behind it. But we'll see.