Adam The God

I'd have Jetta for Maric at this stage, as the former applies more pressure on the ball carrier and has an equal creativity to Maric. I'm not saying I wouldn't play Maric next year, just I'd let him earn his spot. So far this season, especially over the last few weeks, Jet has earnt his spot. My forwardline would probably look something like this: Petterd Bate Jetta Wonna Watts Jurrah I understand it's inexperienced, but working together over an entire season, with hopefully elite ball disposal from the middle, would be the perfect learning curve for me, next year. Add a Newton in there to balance up the structure, as a second tall (Bate playing the third tall role). Hopefully, we'd also have someone like a Carsile from Vic Metro to develop over the year, so I'd give him some game time, after a few rounds. Maybe even Morton or Green thrown in there. While Sylvia could rest in there as well.

Fair enough, but Gazza was a far more self-less player than Robbo. Garry probably gave off about 200 goals. I don't think I can remember Robbo even giving off a handful in his entire career.

The thing about this situation is Robbo's presence could also negatively impact the younger players, as they won't get a chance to experience a forwardline without Robbo for an entire season. The Bate's, Jurrah's and Watts'- they are the future, so they need to work it out together. Not on the back of a guy who won't be there after the following season. I understand the thinking, but personally, it'd be better to leave Robbo out of it and let the younger blokes work through it. And I might think differently, if Robbo could stand up in a contest, but everytime a ball goes near him, he falls over.

What a thoughtless, unintelligent and irrelevant post. His ability to speak English at a press conference has absolutely no bearing on whether he'll be a champion player or not. You clearly didn't watch any of the three play when they first started. He's still shown more than those three at a similar age. Your entitled to your opinion, but I believe he is still a menace. The opposition wouldn't bother tagging him, if they didn't think he was a threat...

Mmm, especially for the fact that Peter German gives Newton consistently glowing match reports.

He's a front runner. We don't need anymore of them. That was the Daniher school. We need to build a different culture now.

Good post, Rhino. I agree, completely.

I disgaree. If we've 'tanked' at all so far, it would have been playing the kids from the start of last year. We wouldn't have allowed someone like TJ to run around and gather 40-odd touches and win by 40-odd points.

Mind-boggling. Absolutely, mind-boggling.

We might just see Newton in for Robbo this week, Nasher.

Haha, thanks mate.

Well put, I agree.

Frawley's in the same category though, isn't he? I agree, Sylvia has shown he is capable of elite output, he just now needs to do it consistently. I can't wait to see our backline next season...Frawley playing next to Garland, with Rivers and Warnock in support...it's a dream team at the back. Hyperbole? Maybe.

What do we think of Morton's season, as we don't seem to be mentioning him much?

Agreed. The pressure is lacking mostly because we lack pace and the ability to read the play. Yeah, I suppose Ling is not the fastest man in the Geelong team, so it proves we don't need the fastest bloke to be our tagger. Jones could still yet fill that position. It was an interesting move from Bailey last week. I hope Jones gets a tagging role again this week. I wouldn't mind giving PJ a tagging role on Goodes this week, as well and leave Stef to do the rucking. Agreed, once again. Gives these blokes a try, just like Newton. I wouldn't play Juice until the Freo match though. No one's really mentioned Miller in a while either, so I suppose that is good?

Haha, it might have just come out a little long winded.

Wow, I forgot about Frawley! I agree. He's had a great year. And Colin had a fantastic month and a bit of footy.

Yep, I agree. The start to his year, from about Round 1 to 5 or 6 wasn't great, but since then, he's been regularly kicking goals. He seems to have developed a little bit of footy smarts too. I thought his thought process was slow last year and his decision making therefore poor, but this year, he seems to be making less mistakes and hopefully that continues. He's also improved his set shot, out of sight this year. IMO, he was a bet shot on the run last year, but now I believe he's better from a set shot. But to be honest, I'd back him from almost anywhere on the 'G. I've been very impressed with Grimes' development and improvement. While, Morton has come on leaps and bounds. With another 30 or 40 games under both their belts, they'll be great players. Meesen also showed something, but more impressively, Jamar has easily been our best ruckman. He's even been taking pack marks!

It was a goal umpiring mistake and therefore her gender had nothing to do with. Quite obvious, I would have thought.

Well, well, well. Interesting. I wonder if Jurrah will play this week.

It seems to be a hot topic at the moment...how do we get the draft picks, but at the same time develop something for the future. I would say experimentation. If the experiments work, then well and good. Use them for short bursts, so we know there's something to implement next season. Some posters have also been saying that we should drop those that won't be with us next season (ie Macca, maybe Wheatley, Robbo etc). But I don't think it's as simple as that. As captain, Macca should be allowed to play out the season. What I'd do with him is play him off the bench and rotate him through the middle. That's basically what we're doing now, but he deserves to play each game, because he's still doing the team things, just not as effectively as he once did. Now to Robbo, with his lack of discipline this week, it gives our coaching staff the perfect chance to give him another rest. Just for one week and say to him, 'look Robbo, if you want another contract next year, start doing the team things'. Meanwhile, I'd restructure the forwardline and begin to shape it into our future forwardline. But more on that in a moment. Other senior players such as Wheatley and Wheels, should be given a chance to play out the season (and possibly even another yearly contract), but if they don't do the team things (which Whealen could never be faulted for), send them back to the 2s as well. Furthermore, this has been discussed by a few posters too, but I'd begin to rest Brock and keep a watchful eye on some of the youngsters (ie Jetta, Bennell and Jurrah) and make sure they don't over-exert themselves in their first seasons and pick up little injuries, which may keep them out for next year (ala Aussie last season). Now to discuss the forwardline. If Robbo isn't going to do the team things, I'd rather play youngsters, even if it means they have to play on the best defender(s). There's no point in playing a guy who goes to ground after/during almost every contest. It's getting to the stage that Neita was at early last year...he looks knackered. But the thing with Robbo is he doesn't do the team things either, so unless he improves his attitude over the next few weeks (which he won't), I'd continue to drop him. So without Robbo, this is what I'd do... I'd play Bate and Jurrah in the forward 50 by themselves, I'd push everyone out, except those two. I'd play everyone else up across half forward and push them up to the wings. I'd throw Jetta in there at certain stages and rotate him with Jurrah, as Jet's tackling pressure and footy smarts (he has great vision) will be inavaluable both up the ground and in the forward 50. Bate, I'd keep as a stay-at-home full forward, just as Bailey did vs Hawthorn in the NAB cup. Petterd could play across half forward, as a leading player up the ground. While, Sylvia, Morton and Green can sneak inside 50 and rotate through the middle. This is how I'd play Sydney this week. In the following weeks, I'd really like to see them bring Watts back and allow him to develop an understanding with Jurrah and Bate. We need these boys playing together. Watts may not be big enough yet, but he like Jurrah has a very smart footy brain. With Watts playing, I'd restructure the forwardline again. Bate would push out to centre half forward, leaving Watts, Jurrah and Jetta isolated in the forward 50. Bate can kick a long goal, so playing him as a CHF suits him perfectly. Watts, Jurrah and Jetta are all capable of crumbing, but we'd need someone to bring the ball to the ground, so it might not work to start with, but still, we have to start developing it. Watts will be that player to bring the ball to the ground, eventually. There's another guy who I haven't even mentioned yet, who I'd play in place of either Jetta or a smaller backmen and that'd be Aussie. As last year showed, he's quite capable of kicking a couple, so hopefully he can get back this season for a few games. Now, I haven't even discussed the backs yet. I'd keep playing Rivers, because it'd be good for his confidence to make it through an entire season without an injury (which isn't entirely true, with his ankle vs WC, but he's had a sustained period this season). BUT, if he does have any niggles, I'd give him a few weeks off. Then, there's Frawley. I'd continue to give him the big jobs each week, but not just the big guys, continue to give him a variety of different players to play on (from your Brad Johnson types to your bigger bodied power forwards in Fevola). Challenge him every week. As someone else mentioned in a thread 'round here somewhere, the backs improved last year, because they were thrown the challenge. I think there's a lot of truth to that, but I think they're also a talented bunch. Personally, I think this was one of the main factors in Jared Rivers' development being fast tracked, as a youngster. Keep giving them the big tasks to see if they're up to it. While with Warnock, I'd continue to do a similar thing. He seems to play better on the bigger bodied opponents and is less versitile than Frawley, so perhaps it would be interesting to play him on different types too, to see if he has any other strings to his bow. As for Grimes, Bailey's doing the right thing with him at the moment. I'd continue to play him across half back, as he develops. He gives us that poise and assuredness that we often lack, under extreme pressure. If he's getting sore at all, I'd be giving him a rest too. Just a week or two off. We want everyone fit and firing next season. Finally, the midfield is the area of the ground that we're certainly vulnerable in. It seems that we've started by developing our backline (last year) and during the latter stages of this year, our forwardline. Unlike our backline, which seems more settled in the long term, our forward half still has a bit of experimentation to come. But the midfield is our final port of call. Fix that up, get games into the youngsters and all of a sudden you begin to win games. There are 3 attributes that we desperately lack in our midfield: 1) pace and ball carrying ability, 2) elite/even decent, consistent disposal by hand and foot and 3) great decision makers. Decision making often comes with experience, but some have a natural ability to 'know' exactly what to do, without having to play 50 games beforehand. They are rare in their numbers, the Judds, the Rich's, these types, who have come straight into the game and with little AFL experience make the correct decisions. We don't have that in our midfield. We have it in our forwardline, but not midfield. During the second half of 2009, there seems to have been a concerted effort to inject pace into our midfield, with the likes of Davey, Jetta and even Jurrah at times (as of late), being released into the midfield. These players have ticked the three boxes that we lack, but they cannot be everywhere. It's slowly become obvious that the team cannot carry Jones, McLean and Moloney in the one midfield. They each offer none of the three categories and so, when we play the good teams (ie Geelong), we struggle. It wasn't in the forwardline that we lost the Geelong game and it probably wasn't even in the backline. It was lost in the midfield. When a team's midfield does not apply enough pressure, on the ball carrier, to either turn the ball over, or keep the ball in their half of the ground, everyone else is put under pressure (especially the backs). So when our midfield or engine room if you like, is beaten, it's natural that we loose games. That's how it works. So why do I spiel? We need to begin to work towards finding a combination in the middle that works for us. We need a back up plan, should Scully and Trengove not be ours, come next season. So, I'd persevere with Flash in there, as I would Morton, because both offer some of the 3 categories we lack. What they don't offer is ball winning ability, so at least one or two (of Moloney, Jones or McLean, but not all three), must win that ball. It's up to the coaching staff, to come up with a couple of different centreline combinations, to work through games this year. The aim of this is to develop for the future, not win soft victories, in a season that equals only development and pain for us, the supporters. That should be the focus for the next six weeks, in all departments. What does everyone else think?

That's a very good point. I hadn't even thought of that...bit slow I am, apparently. It'd be a perfect outcome. The Eagles don't really need the PP, so it would put them on 5 wins and without a priority and hopefully allow us to get our PP.

It's funny that her bogan accent annoys people, because most footy players I know are bogan's and all the footy players in school were bogan's. Bogan is almost synonomous with footy. Beer, pie, footy, footy, footy. She should have a place with that voice...

Yeah, it was superb. It was Aaron, not JB though.

I've just watched that video ten times in a row! :D