Adam The God

But surely we shouldn't be looking to draft for our Casey team. Whoever takes up an AFL list spot, should be expected to break into the AFL 23, rather than provide depth to our reserves side.

I remember Hawthorn getting 12,000 to a game at the G against GWS in one of their premiership years. It was a graveyard game. I'd say [censored] off you muppet.

I noted @titan_uranus brought up the fact we take too much low percentage shots at goal. I'm sure we'd rather take them from 30m directly in front, but we had quite a few from 45m directly in front and missed. Surely, these are very gettable shots.

This makes sense. It surprised me yesterday though given we played a higher line, so ground ball gets against had the potential to cut us open, but didn't. Yep, let's see how they're looking come September for personnel and game style.

Given Marshall killed Max last year and was arguably best afield in our win, it was strange how Max focused he was yesterday instead of playing his own game. He constantly held Max at every stoppage and there could have been even more paid Max's way. I thought we got the rub of the green on a few tiggy touch wood ones, but on the whole most of the frees against the Saints were there. I also (strangely) felt sorry for St Kilda too.

Look at that -21 for ground balls stat. Crazy how that stat has become so inconsequential to how we play.

I'd like their half backs in Wanganeen-Milera and Sinclair. Brad Hill wouldn't be bad either. Otherwise, I agree.

I reckon it depends on who the opposition put up in terms of aerial threats. St Kilda don't have much to offer outside of King at the moment and some other youngsters who may or may not be good enough. Freo aren't much better, neither are Collingwood in that department. It's definitely an interesting one. I worry about our ball movement and ground ball if we're playing Lever, May and Tomlinson. May's clear weakness is ground ball. He panics. I wouldn't say Lever is flawless is this area either. So it's a bit of a tough one. I suspect Howes may even come back in next week or after the bye. Maybe Tomlinson simply goes out then?

You can't move the ball quickly if you're playing a forward half game and not kick it straight to a contest or the opposition numbers. This is why we modified our game from 2021-2023 and started playing a defensive half transition game early this season.

I think they both have strengths and weaknesses that aren't the same.

Indeed. I thought ANB was terrific again this week. I felt he was near our best against West Coast and I think his agility is becoming a real asset at centre bounce. Salem got it a lot, but wasn't pressured much. St Kilda's half forwards were pretty ordinary. Salo hits targets no doubt, but I think he goes too slow and sideways too often. He's a beautiful kick and if he was more attacking with his kicks, I think he'd be more damaging. I don't have a great deal to say on Salem's midfield work, I felt he was a bigger contributor off the back of stoppage and as an outlet when we moved the ball forward from D50. I'd almost prefer Bowser playing that quarterback role that Salem played yesterday because IMO Bowser is the better kick. Both in terms of penetration, flatness and accuracy. I do love Salem's grit when the ball is on the ground though.

He's excellent at getting to the outside like Lingers is, to provide that extra overlap option. I actually think Billings has been pretty good for the most part, but his goal kicking has really let him down. Hunter and Billings also play slightly differently. Hunter is a natural winger and wily. Billings is more a half forward / forward pocket, so they probably have slightly different assets, which change the complexion of our forward half game depending who is in. Hunter is also a more aggressive tackler, which enables him to slot into our team more seamlessly than Billings. At his best, I think Billings could be a much greater scoring threat than Hunter. He just hasn't shown it at Melbourne yet. It's good. It means we have depth here. And given how we're utilising our wingers and half forwards, we need some depth in this position.

Except I'm not the coach in the presser. ;) Goody is classy. No doubt the Wegels were great last week, their tails up at home and we were terrible. But COVID would at least partly explain our worse loss since the middle of 2020.

Lingers to half forward is a genius move. His work rate smashes most half backs. Having Windsor and Hunter/Billings taking the wings enables this. Thought he and Max were our best. TMac and Tomlinson excellent too. Loving ANB in the midfield, and more CBAs for Koz exciting too. We reverted to a forward half territory game. Hard to know if St Kilda let us play that way or whether it was us dictating terms. We seemed to be fine with playing a higher defensive set up today. Be interesting to see which way we go next week. Rumours of COVID through the camp last week would make a lot of sense.

So forward half territory game it is again. Exacerbates scoring inefficiency, but it's pretty effective given our midfield.

Watching many of our games this year, it's pretty clear that we don't know the right time to launch attacks consistently. In fact, we often pick the wrong time and the wrong kick. I would hope it starts to become more instinctive the longer we practice it in game.

Wow, Collingwood 25 points up with 7.35 left. What a choke.

Of those games, we won the Port game and had a horrible first quarter against Carlton, otherwise the game style held up. And you can't blame the game style on the West Coast loss. Not sure if you were at the Brisbane game, but that also had nothing to do with game plan. We were as flat as a tack. As for stop Cripps and Walsh as some sort of master plan, easier said than done. I acknowledge that we've had 4 very ordinary, verging on pathetic results this year. Game style may have a small impact on this as we adjust to the new style, just as I said Collingwood and Carlton faced. Remember the Carlton nuffies wanted Voss sacked midway through last year and then they make a prelim. Again, I'm not prepared to write off the game style just yet. I think it's our inability to implement it for 4 quarters that is seeing our form fluctuate.

So much kneejerk to one result, albeit a dreadful result. You get all the kneejerkers like King and co questioning the game style. It was never going to click immediately. We saw how long it took for it to click at Collingwood in McRae's first season. They were all over the shop in the first 10 rounds of 2022. Similar can be said of Carlton under Voss last year. More patience is needed. I think we may revert to a forward half territory game in the absence of Lever and other incepting options for a few weeks, but I'd prefer we kept trying to play the way we want to play and then be strengthened by the inclusion of Lever.

What was your point? You tried to say we turned him into something he wasn't and I said he won us a flag... Game, set and match, Binmans PA.

And we won a flag with him...

@Lucifers Hero (love that you're back posting again), didnt we go for Ben Brown instead of Wright? IMV, BB was the better bet at the time.

I think this is fair, but there is some 20/20 hindsight here.

As he says in the presser, Shane gets his go because of injuries. ie we wouldn't have played him yet were it not for JVR and Turner being out.

Both our wingers play defensive sweeper/goalkeeper at most D50 stoppages if the opposition pushes their forwards out of the goalsquare.