Adam The God

I don't trust Preuss (fitness wise), but if the club does, I'll back them until I have evidence to the contrary. In the case of Preuss coming in, I'd keep Tomlinson back.

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't, I'd say. If Jackson did his hamstring during the game, I reckon the club has kept that under wraps pretty well for quite a few days.

Yeah, but the club doesn't need to rush out and report what the situation is, just so you can settle your anxiety.

If Oscar comes in, Tomlinson should go into the ruck IMV. That way we keep our forward structure with Weid and McDonald.

Ah true. Let's hope. ?

You should have been highlighting the part of TU's post that said "He doesn't get sucked into the contest and helps stretch our opponents' defence". It's definitely the same thing and a pretty common sporting term. EPL uses it all the time.

Well done, Kozzie. I wonder if Sparrow and someone like Jordon might get a go too. It's a rubbish award, but shows we're still adding young talent to the pool of developed.

Agreed, though I'm sure they're going to have to tell them in the next 3 months or so. So I reckon they'll have to be conservative in who they keep on.

Interesting that Egan mentioned Brown as a defensive option in Talking Points. I wonder if he could play back and shift Tomlinson into the ruck? He also mentioned that Jordon and Sparrow were training 1v1 with the midfield group over the pre season and I forget sometimes, given how strong our first group is, that must be really good the development of these guys. Particularly, if they can get a look in early, like Sparrow has. Jordon is a great kid by all reports, so looking forward to seeing him play. Sounds like he's going to play inside mid too, which surprises me as one of his former coaches told me they used him as a half back. I should say also that I didn't realise Egan had been "Head of Development" since 2016. I thought that was McCartney's role, at least for a time. Anyway, Egan is super impressive. He has a certain aura about him. I'd play for him, so seems like we're lucky to have him.

Disaster. There goes the forwardline structure and the ability to pinch hit in the ruck. The flow on effects are massive. Now if Tom rucks, we'll be down to 1 KPF, which we know doesn't work. Is Preuss ready/fit enough? He has to come in now and unfortunately Tom will have to take KPF spot. Already a far weaker team. Hoping Tom Browne is wrong. Also hoping it's a short term hammy.

I'd be getting Melky. Trac's ball drop is too high. It's not that dissimilar from Langdon's, but Trac kicks it much flatter. Langdon kicks them up and under. Melksham's ball drop is low and less can go wrong.

Convincingly beaten is probably unfair. He was convincingly beaten in the first half and levelled things up in the second.

It's because I have no faith that we'll be able to become less predictable from stoppage and since stoppage is our game, we're stuffed unless we get that right.

Yeah, he's got a waaaay bigger tank that Hunt and has gears that Hunt doesn't seem to have. I still think that's Hunt's go on the other wing to be honest...

Quickly becoming one of my favourites. He's not the most skilled or hardest player, but his gut-running always helps out our mids and defenders. Loving his work and I reckon he's only going to get better. If I'm the opposition, I'm planning on ensuring someone runs with him. Moreso, if he can start putting some scoreboard pressure on like he did at Freo last year.

There's an irony in there somewhere that Max thought he needed to play in the Adelaide game, where he was convincingly beaten by an emerging ruckman. I reckon we would have been better without him in that game, but I get why he played. For me, it was poor leadership, because I think you should realise when you are going to be an impediment on the team if you do play, and sit the game out if that's the case. Viney used to do it all the time and I didn't like it. Anyway, I certainly don't wish injury upon Max and I love him as a player, but I'm far more confident we'll make finals if he's out for 6-8 weeks.

Good on you, Griffo. Thanks for dropping in.

I agree to an extent, except Voss and Black were both beautiful users of the footy and great winners of it too. Clarry has always reminded me of a Voss / Sam Mitchell clone. Akermanis had the x-factor Trac has and could burst through stoppage and impact the scoreboard. Lappin was more the outside, running polish that Gus gives. Viney's not really like any of those players and what it comes down to is balance. Akermanis played an awful lot of footy forward, I reckon that's Jack's go with bursts. That's how Brisbane balanced things.

I do like football systems, but as you well know, I'd have had Viney playing forward, Harmes playing on the wing or in the midfield, and I'd have not played Angus Brayshaw on a wing for most of the year. Nor would I have played 3 tall forwards against Port.

Have you watched Richmond Football Club play before?

I'm excited by the challenge this presents if Max is indeed out for 4-6 weeks. The players should be excited for that challenge too. We responded in 2017 under similar circumstances. I'll back us in again.

I hope you're right mate. Wouldn't that be wonderful?

I like this a lot, but I think much of the kicking and delivery to Sam has gone through the roof since he's come back into the side. That means he's leading to the right places as well, but Geelong also have great delivery inside their forward 50. This is a fascinating stat nonetheless. Keep going, Sammy. Justin Plapp.

Except that a lot of guns have taken time to break out because they couldn't run games out in the midfield. The great and apt comparison between Petracca is Dustin Martin. Martin didn't break out until... his 7th season. Prior to that he was solid like Petracca was the last two years (particularly last year) and then became a gun in 2016. By 2017 he was probably the best player in the game. Not sure what you're a doctor in, but it's not a particularly clever analysis there, Doc.

I think they've set him different KPIs and enabled him to 'achieve', which has built his confidence. The extra pre season in the legs and in the weights room would also solidify this confidence.