Adam The God

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.

And play him where? At half forward or on a wing? I don't see it. He's not great above his head. I agree that his dinky kicks might be okay going inside 50, but I think getting it in his hands is the harder part across half forward.

Interesting no Brown for them, so it'll be intriguing to see whether they'll be able to kick a score.

The thing about bottle episodes is they're often divisive. People either love them or hate them. I have a bunch of friends that hate that ep of Seinfeld and hate the Breaking Bad episode of the 'Fly' (another bottle).

Yup, 'The Suitcase' is a bottle. Breaking Bad had some incredible bottle episodes and many of its early episodes verged on bottles, because of the lower AMC budgets, but as the show went on, it got more expansive. One of the best bottle episodes ever written IMO is an episode of Homicide: Life On The Street, titled 'Three Men and Adena'. Fontana is a bloody brilliant writer, who created and wrote Oz too. He won an Emmy for this episode that was also directed by New Zealand director Martin Campbell, better known for directing Edge of Darkness in the 80s, GoldenEye and Casino Royale. It's an episode where the detectives interrogate a suspect for the entire episode. If you get some time, it's totally worth it. Genius.

I've done a bunch of Googling and they still say he's unidentified.

The term is a bottle episode. Some of the best episodes ever written were bottles.

Who was he?

I really love how Lockhart's settled into this role, so maybe in time, Sparrow could play there too, along with the likes of Jordon too.

I'd prefer him playing forward and midfield with bursts in the ruck, but it really depends on how he develops. I'd say at 18 there's a chance he could still grow a little more, but even if he's done, he's got a great leap.

Haha, I think of the Woo Hoo Mystery man as the same guy as the Oh Ho Ho Mystery man.

I don't think he'll get one this week.

I'm not going to be able to interpret this without a best 22.

Absolutely. He could be an A+ grader, but that'll come. He's 23 years old, as you say.

I'll stick with my opinion that we have the cattle now in the midfield to tear teams apart on the inside and the outside. Langdon's running power is really important to our midfield, but Gus, Oliver and Petracca can call play inside/outside as well.

I reckon there are a few on here that need to acknowledge this as well. Yeah, great, he can improve areas of his game, like all players can, but the guy is still putting together a very, very good season.

Disagree with this mate. He hasn't been getting the ball. That's why he's been a big detractor. He needs to play in the guts, because his influence is as great as Oliver or Petracca when he's in there.

But ironically, I'd say our defence is playing together as a unit in a much more solid way (see the scores against for the year as an example - leave out Port) than our mids are. This is the problem with our set up. Our biggest weapon, in our midfield, is not playing as a cohesive enough unit, otherwise IMV we'd be near the top of the ladder, given so much of our attack goes through the midfield.

I think he needs to take the game on more with his kicking. Because he has the kicking ability, I'd much prefer him turning it over occasionally, if he was making us better with his kicking in an attacking way. Using angles and looking for the corridor wherever possible should be the go. Gus' kick into the middle of the ground to Jones last night was a perfect example of an attacking kick and we so often score when we attack the corridor as a team. He's not wasted in the backline, because I don't think he's a natural ballwinner and he's not a good enough tackler (at least at the moment) to play in the midfield, but we/he is wasting his kicking attributes by not seeking to be penetrative enough.

Completely agree. You could be right. On both counts.