Adam The God

Not in my opinion. Not after 8 years in the system.

Well, adding Frost's impersonation of a headless chicken sprinting out of defence only worsens that unpredictability. As for performance of our team from week to week, we are definitely unpredictable.

Frost is unpredictable. You need predictability in zone defences in any sport really.

I basically said the same thing mate. I completely agree. I just dont think it'll hurt us against Adelaide. I think we'll back ourselves to win the contested footy and bring pressure forward of centre and play a tight zone.

I don't think we can tell what his management of football people is like, can we? And what do you mean by football functions?

I think he's a respected, smart operator when it comes to trade time. Posters that say we get bent over, I think are being harsh. He gets deals done and had we got the coaching and fitness side of things right (which is definitely his department mind you), we'd be in a good place. I think ultimately he's been a good, stable footy boss, but come the end of the year, it's probably time for both parties that he moves on. Given he did the internal review at the end of the last year, you'd have to say he's tied at the hip with Goodwin's future. They may well both go at once.

Whilst I think Oscar straightens us up at the back, he was almost as ordinary as his brother last week. He's definitely a yo-yo player at the club. The coaching group clearly don't have complete confidence in him. They rightly traded out Frost, IMV, but the element of our defence that really struggled when we played top opposition in 2018 was Oscar. He hasn't been able to put together a decent stretch of consistent games in recent times, but I don't think we can say the coaches haven't backed him in for large portions of 2017 and 2018. In fact, he played 20 and 25 games respectively in those years. I think ultimately our defence is best served with another tall, whether that be Oscar or someone else, but it certainly works best when we allow Lever to play third fiddle and May to play lockdown. I reckon Petty is the guy for it. I wonder if Oscar will be gone at the end of this year? This is his 6th year on the list, so we've invested quite a bit of time in him. He may even seek a new home himself, but I reckon his leg speed is an issue, particularly in our set up. He often got caught out on a lead in 2018 and when our midfield's pressure drops, it leaves him exposed, without sufficient leg speed to close the gap. I think we'll win this comfortably with or without Oscar. The Crows are bog ordinary. It's more our pressure around the stoppages and in our forward half that I'm concerned with.

Yep, this was mentioned in one of the other threads, but it was certainly welcome news (if true, of course). To finish where we finished last season and lose the membership that PJ and co had worked so hard to build over a number of years, to be in that group of 4 clubs in 2020 (if we raise the additional $400k) is pretty impressive. I'd assume the other clubs are Collingwood, West Coast and Richmond? So no Hawthorn? Is it just a case of banking the sale of Leighoak that just happened to occur at the right time, or have these new sponsors (Furphy and 78 Degrees gin) really put us in a good position? And have other clubs failed to land such sponsors in the recent past? It's interesting to speculate I think, because you have to wonder about a club like Essendon. Are they in debt up to their eyeballs with their facilities? Has Hawthorn's Dingly move coinciding with COVID meant that they've had to approach the AFL for assistance? I've gotta say if you can't stand on your own two feet having won 4 flags in 12 years, I reckon there's something majorly wrong with your administrative side of the business. I wonder if we'd been building the war chest to be put into our new facilities? Surely, we'd need to put up a few million for a co-funding venture with local, state and federal governments RE: new facilities, without having to dip into bank loans, but realistically, that'd probably be part of the finance mix too. Perhaps, those that go to AGMs and read the yearly financial reports (unlike myself) can shed some better light on this?

So why do you like him exactly? You haven't exactly put forward a case for why you would haha.

Reckon we'll get away with it this game. But I agree. They still haven't found the right mix in the midfield or the backline.

I wonder if it is (after all the talk) a management decision. Play Rivers against North, rather than back to back games. Jones should have no place in the team, but let's see where you lines up.

You're right. I'm getting caught up in what I'd do.

Yeah, they have talls, they just don't particularly take marks in their forwardline, outside of Walker, who May should take.

Playing Gus in the middle might actually help him too. Given Tomlinson's inclusion, I'd expect Gus to play more midfield minutes against Adelaide.

I actually like the changes. I'd have Oscar in against North, but happy to have him out against Adelaide. They don't pose a big enough threat in the air to warrant another tall. AVB and Bennell replace Hannan and Kozzie. Tomlinson to a wing. ANB brings more forward pressure and another option for the wing when Tomlinson provides Max a chop out. I'd keep Jackson forward, unless he struggles to get into the game and then I'd play him for spells in the ruck with Gawn and Tomlinson. Bring the pressure and we'll win.

Lloyd definitely deserves to have his name spelt incorrectly in this thread title. He's irrelevant.

I reckon we'll get there. I'm in fundraising mode myself and it just takes time. It was always going to be a race for the EOFY and we got half of what we wanted by then, which was a great effort by our supporters. Reckon at the very least we'll be $150-100k out.

It's funny. I don't think I'm going to have much anxiety for the rest of this year. We either make the finals or Goodwin's gone. Let's see how we play.

So the reduction in soft cap and any likely pay out could easily be covered with a restructuring of the FD and the number of line coaches...

So there was no need to point it out, I would have thought. Seemed a strange post, but each to their own.

They'd certainly be holding it off until tomorrow afternoon when the sides are named. Don't want to give Adelaide's MC too much a chair ride.

LH's gender has nothing to do with her posting.

I thought it was a deep dive in comparison to what we get from the HUN / Fox Footy.

I like Christian, but he's not tough enough to play midfield IMO. That's why we play him behind the ball and use his kicking.

I presume Mathews is as he was the stoppage coach. Plapp didn't mention the midfield. Given the photos on the Melbourne website correspond with different positions, I can only assume they've had another unofficial reshuffle after the Richmond game.