Adam The God

Exactly, @Nascent. I hope we can land a key forward in the right age bracket 22-25 age range.

It's about synergy and giving the forwards at least one game to understand whether they'll work together and how. There's every chance we play JVR, Melksham and Fritta in the same forwardline, with either Smith or TMac. Either alternative, they've never played together as a group before. Sydney in a tough game away from home, where they've got their backs up, is a very good dress rehearsal for the finals series.

Okay, thanks mate. Not sure why you're replying to what I said. The way they moved the ball is not Jai Newcombe or even Lewis dependent.

What are our list needs / holes right now?

I reckon the draft pool could be moot for us and we'll try and trade for experienced needs in the right age bracket.

I love a solid thread title.

As am I. She's not really a footy fan though, thank goodness. I hate them a lot.

436.

Comprehension isn't your strong suit is it? If you write rubbish, you'll be pulled up on it.

I agree. That's why I thinknits a conundrum and a tough decision. As I say, I'd be leaning towards Smith back and Fritta with Melksham, but thst could change depending on our opponent and how we go next week. Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to direct my Schache comment at you mate. And I agree, when I heard Schache was the sub, I was staggered. My first thought was Grundy is absolutely done as a Dee, pending Max's fitness. They won CP and UP, and clearances as you say. And yet we still managed to smash them in inside 50s (+22). We only shaded them for intercepts by +6, so this would suggest we used the ball better on intercept. We went at 75% DE, which is quite high for us. We also scored 25 points form defensive half chains, our fourth-most for the season. Interestingly, between Rounds 18-22, Hawthorn scored 58.4 points from intercepts, the number one ranked side in the competition. I'm sure @WheeloRatings will be able to tell us how many points came from that source today in the Stats thread. I'm going to say that got nowhere near that for points today. I like the Fritta idea a lot. Although he often tries for too much by foot when higher up the ground and is intercepted. I like Disco, but I don't think he's big enough, nor strong enough to play lockdown, which ideally the Tomlinson role is, so it frees up Lever and even May.

He seems to have lifted Clarkson's tricks IMO. The way they moved the ball today from half back intercept was very Hawthorn 2012, which makes sense. Mitchell would know it well.

Best percentage in the league. ❤️

The amount of touches Kozzy got today we're irrelevant IMO. He was constantly tracking runners, so that Hawthorn couldn't chip and give like Carlton did to us the entire first half last week, until Kozzy went deep last week and had a big say in the way Carlton were able to move the ball. I reckon people need to watch games more closely, not you DF, just generally. It's such a systems based competition now, and the game since 2022, has been so much about chipping and getting handball receives to slice through zones. The speed of pressure Kozzy is able to apply in our forward half is not necessarily measured in mere tackles (2). He had 22 pressure acts for the game. He was very serviceable despite the 5 possessions. For context, Viney had our most with 28 (in front of Chandler 24, Sparrow 23 and Kozzy 22).

Agree with this, but I don't want to see our best ball movement in Round 23 against Hawthorn at the MCG. I want to see it in September. I also think losing Petty has robbed us of going quickly to a long contest. We're more likely to try and work by hand and short quick kicks, but we pieced together 4 or 5 good chains today. We still haven't quite found the balance of attack v defence. Let's see how we go now that we're guaranteed a double chance. Ps. I think if a side goes to work on Rivers, we might struggle to move the ball from back to front quickly. He's become our Daicos over the last few weeks. He chips and handball receives and kicks with such penetration, we get great territory. As evidenced by his 496 metres gained. (our most today)

He's doing well, but he's playing as a +1 behind the ball. It's very unlikely teams will let him get away with that in the finals series. This is why we want more offence out of Salo and Bowser, so it's not just Riv. He's so explosive though, he's very exciting off half back and his kicking has such great depth, so if he gets handball receives through the corridor and anywhere within 75m, he's able to hit up dangerous areas by foot from distance. Unlike the Daicos boys, he's a really solid contested player too, so he has some strings to his bow does our bloke.

I thought Tomlinson was a liability on many occasions. Took a couple of good marks, but was constantly trailing his opponent because he's not an elite reader of the game, and he's certainly not quick. I think today gives our MC a tough conundrum. Do you play Smith back now and play Melksham forward, alongside Fritta? If it were me, this is potentially the way I'd be leaning. And this is from someone who believes Smith is a worry in defence. But at least he's got pace to get across and impact. Tomlinson was a constant concern out the back. Schache was considered insurance for Max, I'm sure. It would have allowed JVR to go into the ruck and for Schache to take JVRs place and potentially give him a chop out in the ruck too.

Lever, Rivers, Smith, Melksham, JVR, Viney early, Sparrow, Gus and McVee were our best. It was good to win comfortably in the end, without our midfield playing particularly well. Really interesting and evident at the ground early was our forward structure. On slow plays, we held a 25m high line and kicked it on top of Hawthorn defenders heads, which gave Melksham, JVR and Smith a spot to hit up, and either take the mark or bring the ball to ground. It was very effective as it nullified Siciliy, who I thought was a non entity today, after all the mid week build up to how well he'd been playing. He was so ineffective, that he was moved into the middle. Melksham didn't always go to him and interestingly Laurie started on him at the first centre bounce of the match, but I felt he had his colours lowered today. Good coaching and good play by Melksham and our other forwards. On faster plays we held a deep forward, usually JVR, and had the rest of the forwards push high up at CHF. I noticed another set play off a free kick to us at CHB. It was like a good old fashioned cluster in the middle of the ground. Tomlinson had the kick and simply kicked long and wide to the wing and hit up one of our guys. Be interesting to see if we try something like this again in finals. Perfect day to test stuff like this, I thought, and a fair bit of experimentation went on today. I'm hoping that win and locking in top 4 releases the shackles a bit and we can play with more dare and attack next week. Playing in a hostile territory in Round 24 could he a very good dress rehearsal if we end up finishing higher than 4th. And that's 3 top 4 finishes, in 3 years. I wonder when Goody will start to get a bit of credit? I hope when he's holding up his second premiership cup in a few weeks time.

You can't really have an opinion on whether someone's possessions lead to goals or not. They either do or they don't. You said you thought every possession lead to a turnover or goal against. Nonsense. Bowser was run down from behind as a result of a Rivers handball, both players lacked awareness there. And the other goal Bowser gave up was a coughed up handball from a midfield press via a centre stoppage win out the front of the stoppage, with little midfield pressure (read no midfield pressure) applied to Hawthorn's players. I'd like our defenders to be tighter and not give up any goals, but mistakes are going to happen, particularly when Rivers, Bowey and Salem are being given plenty of licence to try and create play from back there. The issue we're going to have with our back 7 is Tomlinson is too slow to play in the zone. Smith may have to go back and Melksham stays in alongside Fritta...

He had some shakey moments, as did Salem and Rivers, and many others. But all three played good enough games. Your first point is nonsense btw.

And they beat Brisbane too...

We'll see, but Gawndy worked well on KB.

So you think we'd go with just Max against Cox and Cameron...?

"Mac Andrew takes his fourth intercept mark for the match - two more than any other player on the ground. He has now taken four intercept marks in four of his last five games." - AFL ap. He would be nice cover for Petty up one end in a few years time.

Not sure which JJ you're talking about. He certainly doesn't have pace.

If this was the case, that'd mean we're gonna play Grundy in finals, but not in R23 or R24. Surely not?