Adam The God

It's quite Bulldogs-2016-like with Petracca playing the Stringer role and Watts and Weideman playing the tall/mid sized options.

Melksham was an absolute turnover merchant at the druggies. I was surprised and bemused we picked him up, but so far at Melbourne, he's hardly put a foot wrong.

Clutching at straws, Steve. The post was referring to the Carlton game. The fact you had to bring up the St Kilda game shows you have no leg to stand on with Oscar this week. He struggled a bit the week before, but this week he was solid. And the Tyson bashing doesn't surprise me. Yes, he should have lowered the eyes once going inside 50 and his kicking early in the game was ordinary, but for the most part his hard running and midfield contribution got us over the line. He tidies a few of those things up and he'll be an A grader soon enough.

Once they knew he wanted to go, they used it as an opportunity to spread the age of their list. But make no mistake, he would have been a massive loss for most clubs and may still prove to be a massive loss for GWS. And yes, his kicking is his weakness, but it's also the weakness of a lot of A graders.

Given what the Cats did in the last quarter against the Roos, I don't think we can afford to play Spencer as well. We need to go fast and small up forward.

Little confused by this. I just saw this on FC now. I haven't watched the show for years, but is it on earlier as well (I don't watch commercial tv)?

Thought it was interesting seeing both Lynden Dunn and James McDonald separately at the game yesterday. Both still, I would guess, have a love for the club.

Yeah, you don't get headaches from being slapped on the cheek. Ridiculous.

Who was he behind out of interest? Just want to brag about him to my Carlton mate, unless it was Cripps that garnered more votes.

HTF does Scott Thompson (with his equally bad record in comparison with Lewis) get one week for his hit on Dangerfield and our blokes get 3 and 2 respectively? The MRP is garbage. But we knew that.

I think Goodwin will have plans to counter this. Also, if our mids show up and our half forwards bring the required pressure, we'll beat most midfields and be in the game most weeks, finals or not.

People said there was nothing in Vince's one either last week and look what happened. I think with Lewis' record he might be in trouble. Hogan should be okay, but who knows?

Bingo.

Gun. I think our midfield will be highly rated come the end of 2017. You're spot on, RM. The kids are hitting their AFL straps together as it were. I still remember the years where we barely had a player get 30 touches. Now we're having multiple players gather 30+ a week. They're not all cheapies in the vein of a Dal Santo or Gibbs either. Glad you got to see a win though, mate. Agreed. Stretch rarely makes a mistake. It's just that turning circle of his that worries me. We certainly missed Vince's long kicking. You realise how important it is when it's unavailable to you. On the contrary, I think Jets has really improved his rebound and offensive game. He could still do more offensively, but he wins almost every 1-on-1 every game. One of my absolute favourites. Seems like a great guy too. I remember reading something on Demonland years ago from Jetta's mother or was it grandmother? She'd apparently said something to the effect that our Jetta was nowhere near as good as Lewis. Well, I'd say he's surpassed his cousin and is currently twice the player. A terrific credit to Nev. Great post, mate. Wanted to like it but have run out of 'likes' for the day! It was when we didn't have the ball that Petracca was jogging around. I agree that we dominated large patches of the game, but we couldn't put it on the scoreboard because: 1) our mids didn't use the ball well going inside 50. 2) when the ball was inside 50, our forwards failed to lead to the right place and keep the ball in with their tackling - essentially, the Carlton transition was too easy. I'm not saying Petracca does this every week. I'm just saying he certainly did it today. You're probably right RE: Watts, DT. Good post. If Hannan stays in next week, I'd go Kent for ANB eventually. ANB isn't quick enough for our forward press, whereas this is Kent's strength.

It certainly wouldn't have been boring to watch us smash a team, but it does give us great perspective going into the Geelong match next week. Our bad is still really bad and will lose to anyone. We can't afford to take anyone lightly. Against Geelong, we know that we must bring high intensity pressure, don't overuse the ball and hit targets by lowering the eyes. In some ways, today's game is blessing. It'll be interesting to see how we counter the opposition playing multiple defenders in our forward fifty. We didn't deal with it well today. Having 9 off the back of our defensive 50 doesn't help if we're simply bombing it long to opposition defenders waiting in numbers. We need to be a lot cleverer with ball in hand. Our forwards need to be cleverer with where they lead and our coaching panel needs to have a plan B that still allows us to maintain an attacking edge in the centre square, but ensures we won't squander inside 50s by turning it over blasting long to no one.

I reckon Tommy's kicking has improved, because he has movement up the field, making the target easier and less contested. This always helps.

He's a beautiful kick when he's confident and free flowing. It's the dinky short kicks that bring him unstuck at times IMO.

I don't think half forward is his go. But it needs to be for team flexibility. He has struggled every time playing half forward though. Last week he got a pass mark, because he brought the required tackling pressure and got into the contest quickly. I'd look at getting him on a wing or half back next week and seeing if he can get a bit more of it.

Did you see Christian Petracca's game, mate? He was jogging for most of the first three quarters. Took some good marks, but his work rate was about 50% off where it needs to be. He wasn't the only forward lacking intensity and exhibiting laziness. Our half forwards were at fault for our inability to keep the ball in our forward half for the first three quarters. ANB laid a few tackles, but Hannan could hardly get near it. I reckon Hannan's spot in the team is under the most threat. Hogan being rubbed out might save him. Be interesting to see what the FD say about Watts' game. He was involved in a lot of our scoring, but he was incredibly soft in the contest and lost his footing far too easily. If they're serious about making him learn, I'd give him the week off next week, but with Hogan being rubbed out (most likely), Watts may get a reprieve, unless Kent takes his spot and we go small and fast. It seems we disagree, but I thought they smashed us on the spread in the third term in particular. Unfortunately, yes. Needs to lift big time. Hopefully he gets a chance next week to get involved. Otherwise, it might be back to the 2's to get some touch. What I find the most interesting/exciting is that even though we failed to bring the required work rate for close to half a match, we still managed to win. When was the last time we could say that? We have a greater margin for error now, which is great.

I'm gonna have another bite at this too, Steve. Not only is the Tyson call still a shocker, Omac was solid today and was part of a defence that only allowed 9 goals, despite multiple forward entries conceded by the midfield. And your third rubbish call is the #187. That 186 game was against a team of champions and our team putting up a protest against the admin at the time. 2017 Geelong are decidedly beatable if you rough up Dangerfield (welcome back, Bernie) and keep Selwood quiet. The 'Baby Demons'?

How was that spoil from Jetta on Casboult? Ridiculously good. Shows he'll stand up just fine in a zone when playing on a much larger opponent. Love that he's taking the game on more now too.

Oh, I missed Jetta. He's a star. Tommy Mac and Omac were good today too.

Or the Gold Coast one at the G.

As soon as our half forwards and mids started laying tackles inside our forward 50, we put scores on the board. It took until the 4th term to bring the required hunting in packs, chasing and tackling pressure. Oliver was superb and if he ever puts four quarters of footy together, he will walk to 40 touches. Such a good user and thinker. He just keeps bobbing up. Smashed Cripps in the first quarter. Carlton got back into it when they held him more during the 2nd and 3rd. Even though he set up a number of goals for us, Watts needs to be dropped I'm afraid. He didn't want it in the air and was soft at the contest. We can't have that anymore. Bring Kent in for him. Tyson's return was generally terrific, no doubt aided by Oliver's early dominance. However, it was really important that he stood up, when Clarry was a bit quieter in the middle portion of the game. Jones was terrific today. An A grade game from him. His only one blemish was a forward fifty entry in the third thay skied to the defenders advantage, but otherwise, he's taken his game to another level. What a credit to him. On the other side of the coin, Viney has been terrible two weeks in a row now and this week in particular. Brayshaw was equally terrible. I only recall one effective possession for the game (and he didn't have many). Back on the positives, Salem played his best game for the club and can only remember him turning it over once. Was great in defence, solid in the contest and gathered a heap of uncontested possessions and used it well. I thought Petracca's efforts today for probably a half to three quarters was simply pathetic. He jogged around and played like a millionaire. Needs to lift big time next week, otherwise he's wasting his immense potential. A good goal he kicked though. Jeffy kept us in it with his sharpness around goal and Harmes' gut running in the last (despite his horrible kicking in the first three quarters) was a key reason we managed to lay more tackles across half forward in the 4th. Another solid game for Gawny, although Kreuzer probably broke even with him at the stoppages. Our ball use this week was disappointing, particularly forward of centre, and we failed to move it quick enough. It was a pretty impressive coaching display by Bolton, but in the end, Goodwin had him at the end of the day. Melbourne and Geelong will want to play a lot better than that next week. Both pretty poor against poor opposition. And finally, what I said about Oliver before last game (him passing Cripps by the end of the year) looks to be close on the money, if Clarry can remain fit for the rest of the season and he keeps getting support from his other mids, he'll get there.

You have got to be kidding me, Steve. He was just about best on ground and kicked the sealer. He's slow, but he gut runs and gets to most contests and kicks goals.