Adam The God

He was, but as soon as Curnow was out I knew he'd be in for a massive day. Basically played by himself and we set up beautifully down the line and Carlton weren't ambitious or courageous enough to switch the ball, so it meant he just played anchor all day. It'll be interesting to see how he goes against better opposition.

I'd much prefer we're careful with our cap and keep money in the coffers for the likes of Oliver, Brayshaw, Salem and Petracca (midfields win you flags). Naturally, I'm sure we've looked at our list and positioned our payments in a way to keep Tom, but we may not have envisaged his drastic improvement. A year ago I would have been happy to let him look elsewhere, but as a forward and wingman he is a star. I wonder if it's a typical MFC moment where a player dominates in a contract year and as soon as it's signed, they start playing lazy footy. We'll see. If it came down to putting one of our guys on the trade table to keep Tom, it'd be Tyson. I see him on the fringes in the coming 2-3 years, but he would offer a bottom 6 team great value (as he did us in 2014).

His disposal is just horrible. Those dinky switch kicks or loopy kicks into the corridor. He's done and has been for a year and a half (if not longer). As soon as Baker or Smith are ready, they'll be in. That's the only thing keeping Bernie in the team IMO.

I'm surprised to be honest. If Steve is an AFL scout, he put his neck on the line in a pretty overt way and it backfired. I generally like your posts, Steve and props for partially admitting you were wrong, but it has to be said that I wouldn't be employing you if you really view KPPs in the way you did with Oscar. Most switched on footy observers know that KPPs take longer. It was clear that Oscar had some tools and traits that would eventually prove damaging with a more developed frame. In the meantime, it was clear the FD saw game day development as the quickest way forward. And that has been vindicated. To be kind, we all have different views and if everyone thought the same way, we would have drafted Fyfe, Sloane etc.

I'm not even sure he should be playing this year. He's a liability against good opposition.

This was on the myheartbeatstrue Instagram account yesterday. Naturally,I sent it to my Carlton mate who keeps saying Cripps is the marginally better player, but thinks both are guns. His first response to that picture was I'd love to know who leads contested marking and goals. Sure enough, that's pretty even too. Clarry has kicked more goals and Cripps taken more contested marks. He defaulted to "they're both guns" haha. I also suspect because Cripps is a bit of a lone hand at Carlton and they're so ordinary, they kick it to him more than our guys need to on Oliver's head. Because Clarry is an equally impressive contested mark. I still remember that mark on the wing in his first game against Callan Ward. Brilliant. Anyway, I hope they play on each other.

If anyone's watched Goodwin's presser today he says that Jeffy is going to play VFL this week. It'd be Pedersen to try and play the same role Weideman has and Viney for Tyson IMO.

Kreuzer is usually a headache for Gawn and runs him off his feet. Hopefully, Max's new fitness levels will enable him to keep Kreuzer honest going the other way. Cripps also always kills us. I'd like to see he and Clarry go head to head. We should have too much midfield depth for them and provided we bring our pressure game, we'll account for them nicely.

Against Richmond and then Hawthorn, it was the key reason why we lost IMO. We couldn't put scoreboard pressure on the opposition. Against Richmond we didn't look like kicking straight in the first half when we were all over them. Again, against Hawthorn, when we dominated them in that first quarter, we couldn't put it on the scoreboard. I feel like our inaccuracy is incredibly poor going on previous years. Even under Neeld, we were a lot more accurate.

Tom missed a snap on his left foot against the Suns, otherwise he hasn't missed.

Some are showing themselves to completely lack any understanding of the modern game. Often the same tedious muppets who bemoaned Oscar in his first few years are back riding Weideman. I'm pleased to see a few of the Oscar detractors are now realising the developmental processes for a KPP and backing in Weideman. For mine, it's a genius coaching move to develop him in a role that compliments Hogan and Tom McDonald's strengths.

By the end of 2018, injury permitting, we'll have the best centre square group in the league - Oliver, Viney, Brayshaw and Gawn. You could argue we're already there, but Viney needs some continuity and we'll smash/match any opposition midfield in the league.

It'll be Tyson for Viney. Nothing surer. Weideman enables Tom to remain forward rather than tucking, enables Jesse to play midfield and enables Max to have a rest without us being pummeled in the ruck. Weideman keeps playing.

If we're both in the 8 come Queen's Birthday, we'll get 80,000+.

I have question marks over Gus' disposal (particularly by foot over short distances). I don't remember him hitting a target by foot in the first half. In the second he kept it simple and less fancy and was a lot more effective. He was brilliant in fact.

A real game of two halves. Was terrible in the first half, was excellent in the second half. He's another that likes playing St Kilda. Let's hope he can play most games like his second half. Viney, Oliver and Brayshaw could be deadly. Add Salem back into the team as well and we look very good.

It's also up to Jeffy to adapt to the game style. He was ordinary in those games because he didn't work hard enough to hunt the opposition.

I'd back most of our players in to win one on one's. That's why a guy like Jack Watts would not fit into our system. He rarely wins one on one's. Agree with your second paragraph though DJ, but it also goes to my point about team efficiency. We get back to scoring more efficiently and we become a top 6 team and we really trouble teams like Hawthorn and Richmond. Both of those games saw us with all the early momentum, but an inability to hit the scoreboard in any meaningful way by kicking straight. Tom McDonald's inclusion cannot be underestimated in this respect. He completely straightens us up. He provides structural balance and he rarely misses shots on goal.

It's all about game style though. Hawthorn still tries to control the game by kicking and maintaining posession that way, but we are more about winning the clearances and locking the ball inside our forward 50. Our game style takes a lot of the guess work out of our ball movement and pressure on the kicker isn't such a problem. Getting it out of defensive 50 is easier if we adjust our kicking game from the goal square. Use a combination of short kicks and then switching the ball (which we did a lot better in the dry conditions last week) to clear the defensive zone.

I was looking at some of the key league statistics on the AFL ap last night (yeah, I know a big Satty night) and I was surprised how well we were doing statistically. We struggle in rebound 50s but only because we're so on top for inside 50s. Our tackle stats are good and we average more inside 50 tackles than Richmond, which is surprising. But we're dead last for kicks, which could be a symptom of being excellent in contested possessions and tackles. The area for me that is telling is ironically a statistic that I usually completely disregard, however it is the only explanation here. Our team disposal efficiency is terrible. Use the ball better and we can convert our dominance into wins.

Shiel would be top of my list, even if it doesn't come out of contract until 2019. Would perfectly compliment our midfield and IMO os GWS' best and most important player.

Nah.

I just hope we're at the forefront of it...

I'd play Jeffy and Tyson in that team. I'd look at someone like Spargo or Baker instead of Vince. We will get exposed on the MCG playing Vince and Lewis every week.

Hmmm. I'm quite conservative when it comes to AFL. I wouldn't implement netball-like zones. I reckon the game will sort itself out and evolve to something else, without the AFL's interference.