Adam The God

Yeah, good post, IDIG. I agree RE: Toumpas. I'm still backing him in, but he is certainly low confidence, which has impacted on the quality of his disposal. Bail has to tackle like a man possessed. If he can do that he's worth his spot. Grimes is the obvious replacement for Jetta, but I'm not so confident he'll play within his limits. He hasn't shown he's capable of that IMO. Hopefully, as you say, the disposal efficiency improves with a bit of confidence.

The Doggies look good, but Adelaide aren't playing. There's no intensity.

Can you blame some of us though? So starved of success.

It's a very simple skill. Particularly, in comparison to kicking. It's probably more about presence of mind.

Neither can Kent, so it's just a matter of whether he's as quick as Kent. I don't think he is. But he's the best replacement unfortunately.

Ah okay. Well, fair enough.

Agreed. If everything goes right we could well win 10. Given we could have won 6-8 last year. It's all about confidence. If we can string a two or three together who knows.

Some of his disposals were a little sloppy on Friday night. What was so impressive is that he didn't drop his head as a result. He simply kept tackling and attacking each contest. Has a good head on his shoulders I think.

All of a sudden that team has potential turn over merchants all over the ground. Grimes, Bail and Toumpas. When your team mates start turning it over with poor disposal, it puts other players under pressure and they begin to turn it over too. Very concerned if Dom doesn't pull up. Worried about Ballantyne too, without Jetta.

I think he'll go around another season and he is still easily best 18.

Very happy with Viv's game. Wouldn't have said it was 60% game time, I'd say more like 75-80%, but certainly very impressive. Newton and Michie may well become part of a very strong midfield. We just need a bit more speed through there.

Yep. There's still a lot of room for improvement in our midfield. Jones, Vince and Tyson could all play a lot better. Newton is a new favourite of mine. He's so well balanced. He's a quicker Tyson and he hits the scoreboard. We're building a goalkicking midfield, which is what we obviously must do.

I'm sick of hearing anyone that is beaten by Melbourne as being insipid. We're playing solid team football these days. Not always consistent, but when we're on top, we can break away. The media continually patronises us, but I guess that'll happen when you've been insipid for close to a decade.

I felt watching the game live that Jones made a lot of mistakes and he did, but having watched the replay twice now, gee he was good. Col Garland is also very underrated. Thought his performance was very solid. Didn't feel we played that well to be honest. Our tackling in the second half was excellent, but our decision making at times was deplorable. That's the positive for me. Still lots of room for improvement. Was very happy with the win.

Bailey was trying to emulate Geelong... except with no defensive structures or two way running.

Players that can win repeated contests will always be essentials ingredients in AFL footy. I'm excited by our current crop of midfielders more than I ever have been before. It's what we still lack that is killing us though. We're missing at least one, probably two mids with genuine leg speed. But, in the modern game it's about having a balance of these types, otherwise you invariably get shown up.

He seems to be a beautifully balance footballer, particularly when he's kicking.

And how many times did he jog about looking disinterested. It was so blatant, it reminded me of the Neeld days.

Well, hang on. How many of the psychologically bruised players are left? There's a couple, but McDonald didn't seem to be effected by it. Blokes like Jones and Garland needed to stand up. Garland had his hands full, Jones couldn't get near it, Dawes failed to impact, the same with Cross. Are we saying Jones is mentally weak? Because he hasn't shown that in the past 24 months.

And Jamar was also palming the ball to space, often defensive goal side, which wasn't helping. Some of his ruck work today was baffling. As usual. Mumford doesn't play and GWS don't win. As simple as that. He turned the game when he lifted his work rate.

Agree that there is overreacting going on in this thread. However, I'm still unconvinced by Kent. He continues to make simple errors, struggles to keep his feet in the contest, his kicking is very hit and miss, and his set shot kicking isn't up to standard. Where the hell is this apparent elite kicking? Elite kicking is consistent. His kicking never is.

I don't think we'll make any changes, but if we do, I hope it's Howe. He didn't look interested, unless of course I'm missing something. Dawes' lack of mobility once the ball hits the ground was quite telling today too. That's three times in a row that we've been caught out playing GWS with too many big men and not enough pace. They've got the wood over us now and it's not going to stop until we get some pace into our line up.

We lack serious footspeed in the midfield. Sort that out and those guys start to look a whole lot better.

Was there something wrong with Howe today? It was like he didn't wanna be there. Jones was hopeless too. We looked so slow in the midfield. Newton's the only one with a passmark through the midfield. Poor old Tommy Mac. He was brilliant. Salem was decent too. Viney was good in the first half. Then we looked out on our feet at the start of the third.

I agree. I'd have Shiel and Treloar higher on my shopping list than Aish. I'd give up my first pick in a flash to get either of the former. Aish... I'd be looking at an end of first rounder or early second rounder. He hasn't exactly set the world alight. I don't mind the idea, as long as you don't leave a dearth of talent on your list in a certain age bracket. We did this during the Daniher era, albeit without recruiting anyone of the class of Shiel or Treloar.