Adam The God

It's certainly got the spoilt brat, entitled football club about it. When Gawn was banging on during pre season about only being happy going into an off-season after winning the flag, I was thinking STFU and just concentrate on training and preparing for Round 1.

Haha, what a stupid little gronk. Don't contradict yourself in the same few sentences. Was it legal or was Jonas fined? If it were within the rules, there would be no fine. That said, what a whack. I hope that sparks us, because we were pitiful last week.

Our frenetic game style is perfectly suited to a quick deck. That's exactly what we want. It's the big grounds (like the MCG and Optus Stadium) that don't suit us if we don't work hard enough on the defensive spread. The dimensions of Geelong suit us nicely, like Adelaide Oval's dimensions.

We're terrible in the wet. Our game style breaks down really badly.

I reckon it's clear as day RE: Preuss. He couldn't get through more than a half in JLT1. He's a mile off, fitness-wise. I find it hard to believe given he's had more time than anyone to get his fitness up to scratch. To see that he couldn't even run out 3.5 quarters in a single match was deeply troubling and I suspect the FD feel the same way. I don't think he'll get a look in for a while and if he does, it'll say everything about Max.

I'm not sure it's an overreaction. I said a couple of weeks ago that we'd go 0-2. Going by the fitness of our best 22 on Saturday, I'd say it's highly likely we'll struggle to run out games for at least the first 3 or 4 weeks and if that's the case, we can kiss the finals goodbye. I'm usually pretty optimistic on my season outlook and have predicted (as many of us have), our incremental rise over the past 3-4 seasons. I hope we can make the 8, because with Rance going down, I reckon anyone can win it this season. The problem is we don't want to give our fellow competitors for those top 8 spots a month headstart. We were so far off the pace in JLT 2 and Round 1 that I'm not sure it's likely we'll turn it around within a week. It would be very Melbourne if we did, but I can't see it happening this time, simply due to the clear fitness issue. I'm still making the trip down to that hole this Saturday, but unlike last year, I'm not expecting a win. I'm very worried. I only hope the dimensions of the ground will help us and that Round 1 is the wake up call we needed.

Bizzell was okay, but geez, we overrate our own. And this thread is yet another excuse for Werridee to do another best 22. It's Round 2. Do we really need to be doing future best 22s? It's far too early to tell on 3 or 4 of those guys.

I completely agree. I can never hear our cheer squad and our members in the pockets were very quiet. The MCC were up and about at times, but not enough. It was certainly a horrible way to start the year after all the talk over the off season of making the MCG a cauldron (NO) and winning the flag (with that sort of performance - NO).

I know as of July last year we were ranked #15th In the competition for scores from chains beginning in the forward half. Perhaps, this is a telling stat, but I think it might be skewed by the bombing, frenetic inside 50 play that saw us accumulate constant forward thrusts, off the back of our clearance dominance. https://m.afl.com.au/news/2018-07-25/stats-incredible-your-clubs-quirky-numbers

Thanks for that. @WERRIDEE has a bit of history with misinterpreting media and presenting his analysis as fact. Meanwhile, I'd go Oscar out for May. Oscar was terrible on Hawkins because he's not quick enough to go with him. Frost is quick enough. Having Frost and May able to swing onto Hawkins will be handy, and then we'll need another defender with pace to counter Ratugolea. Whilst I didn't think he was horrible, I'd also bring in Jeffy for Spargo. ANB won't be dropped, but if KK was fit, I'd pull the trigger. ANB is still a very, very average footballer.

I know you've never rated him, but just as now, you've never known the ins and outs of our medical team, in order to back up those opinions.

My point was your post implied Misson was doing an ordinary job ("shouldn't be hard to find an upgrade"), so that link doesn't help you or me.

How would you know, HH? Targeting Misson when you've no idea what goes on behind the scenes is a little foolhardy.

Yep, I remember Gary looking a bit hampered, but nowhere near what Jack looked like on Saturday. It's also far more noticeable in the midfield.

I've never seen a player play under such duress. He could barely move. As I mentioned in the post game thread, he could barely move in the warm up that I watched on Instagram. It was bloody evident on Instagram pre-game! I don't know the ins and outs but WTF is going on?

Wondering what your thoughts were @ProDee?

No, it's not the only measure. Corralling would be another (do Champion Data record this?). McDonald doesn't lay many tackles, I agree, but I think generally when we're playing well, our mids, half forward and small/tall forwards are laying tackles, as evidenced by being the best in the comp for inside 50 tackles.

The way Tom grabbed some of those contested marks in the finals last year against good opposition, shows that IMO the 666 shouldn't limit his ability to take those contested marks. I just don't think he's hit his straps this year.

Yeah, which is not quite true, given we ranked #1 in the competition for tackles inside 50 in 2018. That's a furphy. Our work rate was down. Particularly, in the midfield, after the first quarter.

I generally agree with you on this point, mate, but we were playing in heat. Richmond, Collingwood and Geelong weren't. That has to have had an impact. Because Preuss struggled to play even a half in JLT1, hence Keilty rucking for most of the second half. I hope Preuss is fitter now, because we really do need him next week.

Don't agree with this entirely. I think it's a mixture of a lack of work rate and losing the contested possessions. I agree with this though. There was and always is a distinctly and stark difference between the average inside 50 against us versus our own forward 50 thrusts. Ours are rarely to the advantage of our forwards and most opposition (certainly teams that we expect to compete with us for the top 8 ) are almost always kicking to the advantage of opposition forwards. Melksham, Fritsch and usually Oliver are our best exploiters of the kick to advantage, but the majority of our list need to get better at this. Spargo pierced a nice ball into Fritsch(?) yesterday. The fact that I can recall one single instance so clearly, shows how often it actually happens. I know the system has evolved since 2017, but we coped that year without Gawn. I wonder if our mids gamble too hard on Gawn's dominance from stoppage, so that when he loses it, we're completely out of position and on the back foot to defend. There was certainly a few moments yesterday where Port managed completely clean clearances out of the centre square, which is just not good enough. We rarely had the cleanness of clearance they enjoyed. Having said all this, I do think that with our system's reliance on CP and clearance, we do rely too heavily on Gawn's influence. I also think Gawn struggles on more mobile types. Grundy beat him last year and we were spanked. I hope our coaching team have some answers to help Max, because Stanley will jump into him the entire game next week and we need to counter it in order to have any chance whatsoever. Great post, mate. I'd say the only time we actually sorted this out was starting with the Sydney game at the 'G late in the year. I don't think we ever dealt with defensive spread in transition on the 'G until then.

It's about system and players who can implement that system. Outside of a clearly underdone Viney and a near-past-it Jones, our midfield and defence was close to the same one that saw us get embarrassed in JLT2. That form was a clear indicator of our inability to implement system with basically the same team. It's laughable to suggest that this game was lost at the selection table. Absolute drivel. It does, however, have everything to do with a bunch of individuals not playing to a consistently high level for long enough, which was clearly evident in JLT2. And as if I'm suggesting yesterday's loss has anything to do with you or I. Laughable again. Nor is it a scaredy-cat view. You were proven wrong and either didn't watch the JLT; or you simply don't understand system; or you were arrogant enough to suggest JLT form meant nothing in the context of an AFL season. You're a very insightful poster usually, so I'd suggest it was the latter. JLT form can mean little when it comes to a premiership game, but when modern footy is so heavily impacted by system and work rate, if you're not bringing work rate in the pre season and implementing your system, what makes you think they'd bring it in the season proper? It's not as if we won the flag last year and we're biding our time for the home and away stuff. No it wasn't. Come on, Steve. You're being lazy again. We lost to Port because there was not enough work rate, which is down to three factors: 1) the pre season, 2) laziness and 3) the heat. You look slow when you don't work hard enough to spread on the outside or shut down space and tackle the opposition coming out of their defence. Of course, our skill level and decision making could be better and smarter, particularly going inside 50, but if no one is presenting at the ball and there's not a decision to move the ball quickly and/or spread into space to present an option, then the back up plan is to kick it long down the line and reset at the stoppage. One of our major problems yesterday was that when the ball was brought down by Port to a stoppage or 50-50 in our forward 50 (due our lack of contested marking), there was not enough pressure on the Port mids and half backs, making their slingshot far too easy. And on Frost and Oscar, I thought they were both terrible at times, each running under the flight path of the ball multiple times, but so often Port moved the ball quickly and there was such little resistance from our midfield and half forwards, that our defenders' jobs were made so much more difficult.

Wowzee, indeed. Pretty weak effort from you this week, Steve. First everyone else is weak for suggesting our JLT and pre season could actually mean something for the season proper, and when you're made to look like a goose, you can't even bothered to analyse the game.

How about our prelim performance? FWIW, I thought Oliver, Brayshaw and Jetta were okay. Gawn and Viney certainly had stinkers though.

Interesting. I stand corrected, mate. I could have sworn he laid 2 or 3. Well, then I'll say that he didn't do enough as this is one of the reasons he's in the team. Jeffy Garlett's work rate and hardness is sometimes questioned, but you'd have to think he'd be a big chance to come in next week.