Adam The God

Of course, it is possible for a team to right a ship mid season, and we've seen this with Collingwood and Carlton in successive seasons. But our particular circumstance, where we lose to a bottom 2 side by 6 goals (our biggest loss in 4+ years) and then to win a game and then lose by 92 the next week, I just don't think it's possible to right that ship if there were serious issues. Which means I have no idea what the heck was happening during those rounds 10-12.

If something was seriously wrong (again, I don't deny that there were issues because I heard some stuff too), I don't think we would have responded how we did. Because the response to the Eagles match was to come out and beat St Kilda, and then proceed to lose to Freo by almost 100 points. Perhaps the post KB bye allowed us to re-set some stuff, but if "something was seriously wrong", IMO, we don't then come out post bye how we have.

In JT I trust then. That's exciting.

Conversely, you take Cripps out of Carlton and they will not win games. Take Trac or Gawn, or Clarry out of our side and we've shown we can win. Maybe Lever is our Cripps? It'll be interesting to see how Brisbane go without Cameron. How would they go without Neale? Most teams couldn't cover, but it shows the strength of our system that we can.

I'm not denying that there was, but are you therefore suggesting that things are no longer broken? To right the ship in season is pretty crazy.

I'm okay if Max doesn't play.

Exactly, that's what I've been thinking.

Is he done for the year? Why not say "season", they say "indefinite"...

So if we beat Freo and GWS, I reckon we'll be 4th by the end of Round 20. I suspect Brisbane will lose to both Sydney and Gold Coast, while Essendon will lose to either or both of Adelaide and St Kilda at Marvel.

Agreed.

We'll be putting together a bigger contract for Petty. And then we have the emergence of our young stars like McVee, Windsor and JVR. It'll be interesting to see if we can get a few guys to accept unders so we can target a FA or two.

I'd prefer we start by allowing McVee to step into Salem's role at the back of stoppages. Rivers did a lot of that last year. Particularly, if we play a more aggressive press, because it'll enable him to have more disposals higher up the field and across the high half forward/50 metre arc. We were pretty aggressive against West Coast and he got some possessions in the front half and was devastating. The problem in our back half is that he has become an elite 1v1 player, which means we have to find someone (Woey? AMW?) that can play that lockdown defender role on the likes of Cameron, Greene, Bolton etc. to replace him. @Lucifers Hero comment on the Salem comparison is interesting, because he seems like a Salem clone in many ways now that you've said that.

I'm hoping it's season over for the GCS by the time we play them in Round 23.

I think Turner is a bigger presence, certainly in the air, but Joel had x factor in the air and at ground level. It's a pretty good call this.

Interestingly, we've had some debate on this thread about whether we simply went 1v1 at stoppages or +1 at stoppages (as opposed to -1). In almost all these examples, we have a +1 at contest. But you can also see, most of our numbers are defensive side of the contest. Whitey's Twitter is great. I'm really liking the analysis.

You don't think we have the cap space? I reckon we do, it's just whether we think it's better spent on another area of the ground or ultimately a better player.

I like the Bolton idea because he's two years younger and fills that void we have of players in that age bracket, but he's also more damaging and consistent. But I can see what you mean by Ryan, and fair enough.

Nah, I mean, when a tackler comes at him, he panics. No one else in our back 7 panics.

Goody mentioned in the post presser that we've looked to address our wet weather footy, so I'd say it was just this pre season.

And we nailed pick 3 too. Incredible draft by JT.

I'd get Bolton.

I disagree. I think he's always panicked. He's also often the one turning it over by hand and foot. But he's still a great reader of the play and excellent 1v1.

I reckon Turner forward is the future and the FD will now be hoping that Adams can fill in defence when TMac and May retire. I'd prefer we go JVR, Turner and a 2nd ruck/forward (Verrall?), with Petty Lever and May (eventually Adams?).

May really struggles with frontal pressure. Completely panics. And if the ball is on the ground, forget it. That said, he's always struggled with this.

Perhaps brutal was the wrong word for his game, let's substitute that for disciplined. He clearly plays his role otherwise you'd be calling for his head and he wouldn't be playing.