Adam The God

You do realise that Sydney not only have had the COLA salary cap bonuses, they've got academy accesses that has enabled them to grab pretty much all their elite players (captain Mills, Heeney, Gulden and Blakey are all academy). Like imagine if we'd just needed a bunch of junk picks to pick up those 4. Comparing the QLD and NSW list management builds to any other club is ridiculous and not comparing apples with apples. As for Geelong and Collingwood, they've had at least 2 champions each in the 21st century that were father sons. That's luck. Not real list management. Compare that with us. We've had one in Viney.

All fair points, but I think with the poor midfield performance (which is putting it lightly), our defenders are constantly under fire. What I would say about the defence is that despite it often being too aggressive and getting done at the back (see last night multiple times), I think it bodes well that we're still trusting the process. Our defence needs the midfield to defend with it, and the high half forwards to provide team defence. It's no coincidence that TMac has been exposed the last two weeks like he used to be as a defender, where earlier in the year he was rock solid. Our midfield has been destroyed two weeks in a row at stoppage. This is where we are losing games.

What? This has been covered continuously. Defensive diamond, inside sliders and defensive zone that won a flag. He's been a constant innovator. The thing about Goody is he plays the percentages after the innovation.

Who do you partner with JVR? Jefferson...and? I reckon one has to play forward. Then up the other end if you have TMac, you'll have May and Lever. Where do Petty and Turner fit in defensively? I admit, I'd love to be able to manage May a little more, even Lever, so that come the pointy end, they're fit and firing. But it may not be possible.

On Kalani's kicking, does he kick it like his old man? He was a beautiful kick, particularly for goal. I think nowadays, Jeff White would be a perfect key forward/second ruck. I'd love Kalani to fill a KPD post, but I wouldn't be expecting that for a few years.

All my favourite posters in the one thread. Amazing!

Is there a point in that? I don't really get the strategy.

As if anyone is going to trust Salo's body though. We'd be trading him because essentially we don't either.

It's hard to make an informed assessment from the outside, but let's do it anyway. But do we need a new head of fitness, allowing Selwyn to deal with his expertise?

Very true.

But we're missing Trac as well. He only played in that Carlton loss. Had he played against Brisbane and GWS, who knows. I agree defence wins premierships, but defence is based on system and personnel to an extent. So the system could cover for a defender in that system, but the team cannot cover the loss of contest from midfield. The midfield was deplorable for most of last night, and has been horrible for a while now. If we'd had an ability to throw Trac in there the last few weeks, we'd have been able to stem the flow.

I hope this means we won't get a new best 22 four hundred thirty times before 2025.

I agree to an extent, but midfielders win flags. Take Martin out and they don't win that flag. Likewise, take May or Lever out, but keep Trac, and I reckon we'd be better off. But anyway, we'll never know.

I was all for him going around again two weeks ago, even after last week I thought he could go around one more time, but he's in his head already. I think he'll hang them up.

Thought Bowser and Howes were pretty good too. And I love Judd.

I'm disappointed that he's such a confidence player after all these years. You could tell from very early on tonight he was thinking about last week. I think it might be time I'm afraid...

Oofa doofa. This is gonna be ugly. The crowd will be back to 2008-2013 levels and the performance could match it.

It's funny because I've just looked at the stats and seen Rivers had 25 touches and 6 clearances of 70%+ TOG, plus a goal. You look at those numbers and you go, he is definitely on the way. But whenever he's in traffic under heat, he makes poor decisions IMO. When he has the play in front of him, it's a different story. He's explosive and confident, and tries to play make. Anyway, I hope I'm wrong.

I thought we were pathetic. Fritta played his best game for ages, which was welcome. We seemed far more fatigued than them. A stack load of regulation tackles missed that led to scores against. Our midfield murdered for most of the night. I was very envious of how well their tall forwards marked the ball, in comparison to our forwards. But the thing that the Bulldogs do regularly and I think we managed once for an entire half, is kick the ball to the advantage of our forwards. Again, our ball movement has basically gone back into its shell. Did we waste half a year trying to work on our transition game? Our lack of dare was really disappointing. And I wanted to see Turner play forward, because he's a great mark. We have a lot of work to do over the summer and it'll be a fascinating watch on McQualter.

I'll go with this again after tonight. "It's the midfield, stupid". Rivers is not a midfielder, he doesn't have the awareness. He's hugely damaging as a half back, he should stay there. I'd be looking to get McVee into the midfield, but we need more. We need two gun kids that can plug and play in the midfield IMO.

I can see that too. Good call.

From the little I've seen of Sid Draper, he seems like a Merrett clone with perhaps not the same level of foot skills. I'm quite excited about his potential. If he could make the step up to AFL level he'd certainly provide a point of difference for our midfield. Very explosive around stoppage.

My step mum is from Geraldton, so my old man seems to think that every WA footballer comes from Geraldton. Lesson here, don't trust your old man, BPA.

But surely he knew that at the time. I did.

I've always liked the saying "it's the midfield, stupid". Whilst a hardened KPF would be great, I've come to the view that we need to add more elite talent to the midfield and even behind the ball. We have a number of needs. Midfield, half backs, a KPF and a genuine back up or transition plan for Max. I'd argue that the lowest of these priorities is a KPF. Would be nice, but we only have so much TPP and trade capital.