Adam The God

There's no reason why the plan to play Salo through the midfield won't resume with his return. That was the plan had he not been injured. Unless we go Rivers into the middle. But given the pre season, I think it'll be Salem into the midfield rotation.

That's precisely why I reckon you're off about Fritta. It's a bit feast or famine given modern ball movement, and the fact we like to play a deeper defensive set up with less emphasis on inside 50s and more on rebound 50s.

I'm usually with you on Fritta's defensive game in tackling terms, but you're way off here IMO.

Good call. Me too. If we can use his contest and ground ball game to release our slingshot from ground ball/contest situations in D50 that's utilising his skill set. But then I'd prefer we then play ultra defensive from centre clearance, at least when things go against us. Our mids should stand up to stem the tide against and shift momentum back in our favour.

Were our centre stoppage set ups too aggressive in the first quarter? Even when they started putting scores on us, we never really reverted to a defensive set up, and continued to go for the clean break away clearance.

I'm hoping come Rounds 15-16ish our more expansive, attacking method has become more instinctive as it did Collingwood in 2022. I do think the most fascinating watch is our midfield. What did you think of our centre stoppage set ups last night? I felt they were far too aggressive for too long.

I disagree mate. I think we deliberately reverted to a forward half territory, long ball game because of the rain, and yes, partly because they started so strongly. But in essence I agree with the premise that progress in not linear. I think we can still greatly improve our entries with a longer kicking and forward half half if that is what the conditions call for. That said, one of the admirable things about Collingwood last year is that whatever the conditions, their method remained the same.

This 100%. We did it far too often.

So who comes out for Salo? And does McAdam not fit in? I think Woey is a good sub because he's shown he can play half back or half back. It provides great flexibility for us. I don't think he's best 22 though.

Yep, this was my view too. Hugely aggressive set ups. I kept thinking we'll have to go ultra defensive at this next centre bounce, and then we'd leave the entire defensive side of the stoppage open. Really poor work IMV. Sometimes you have to stem the bleeding. And if we're defence first, let's stop the momentum by not allowing them to win centre clearance.

I think this is an overreaction to last night. Our forward craft and entries has been improving all year. And just the previous week, we had arguably our best forward game of the year, against arguably the second best defensive set up and personnel in the league. Last night however, for the first 2.5 quarters our forward entries were horrible. But we changed our game style to play for territory in the rain, versus the keepings off tempo game we played in drier conditions last week.

I actually think we played the first 15 minutes of the first quarter with our usual method. We tried to slingshot from the back, and then when they started piling on the scores and some rain arrived, we changed our method and played long and tried to take territory.

Sorry, but I'm going to pull you up on this. No one is saying clearances can't be important, but we're urging caution in how we read those stats. Just taking stats in isolation doesn't necessarily tell us anything.

But again, you're missing the point I was making after the Richmond game. We didn't allow goals out the front of stoppage, we didn't allow them out the front of stoppage at all, so you're not comparing apples with apples. The clearance numbers themselves don't necessarily tell you anything. If the team isn't winning clearance out the front of stoppage with little post clearance pressure, then we're in good shape behind the ball. But if our mids play like they did from centre clearances last night, we undermine our defence and open ourselves up. Richmond game, Carlton game, completely different games. How many goals from stoppage did Richmond score? And how many goals from stoppage did Carlton score? That is your answer. You seem to be going for a gotcha moment, but it isn't there.

What? Like his brilliant pass to Max under pressure? Sure, he makes some errors, I've been critical of him in the past, but he becoming a super damaging player with his run and carry, and his willingness to take on the corridor kick. He's become one of our most important players for our new method IMO.

You're talking about tonight, which I agree with. Richmond game, I did not.

We will see on that score. I have a sneaky suspicion he is.

He was very good against Brisbane when we pushed him in there in the final quarter. He won 4 or 5 clearances in one quarter. That's what I'm hoping. Maybe he competes with Billings for the half forward spot when Salo comes back. Woey needs to be able to fill holes wherever we need them though to get a place in the side. So far, so good.

It's a very odd game we're playing with Clarry. He's super low on clearance numbers and I don't know if I'm reading into it or not, but he seems to be playing an unnatural game to him. Which is probably what you're alluding to. He's a see ball, get ball genius, and I think we're trying to add layers to his game, which I only hope will improve his game going forward. Jack Viney? Steven May?

Upon reflection, we could do worse than Trac and Lever as our next co-captains. Trac got us back into it with that amazing mark and goal, and then constantly troubled the scorers from then on. He also had 6 inside 50s, 4 clearances and game high 10 score involvements to go with his 5.1. He's a freak.

The rest periods are pre planned by Selwyn...

Yep, I was wrong about Woey. He's going to make it. Really showing great improvement.

My sister and I were really hoping we'd push Rivers in there in the last, and bring Woey on at half back, and Billings to sub, but Bowser seemed to struggle on his return, which meant we needed Rivers' drive at half back and probably stopped that move. At quarter time, I don't recall seeing Goody as animated as he was in the huddle. They clearly bloody needed it.

I did want to crawl inside a hole and not reappear for a while there. It's been a while since we've played that badly. Mind you, Carlton were very good early, and it was easily the best defensively they've played all year.

Trac was in there early as well. We just couldn't win centre clearance. I actually thought we were far too aggressive from centre clearance.