Akum

John Meeson??? Wow ...

If Gawn stays fit and builds his tank, it's an easy decision. And that's the problem.

Yep, agree. The arm-chopping rule went missing too.

Only when no-one's making position for him to give it to, and no-one's shepherding to clear a path. Footy is a team game.

Oh please! This is both lazy AND stupid.

They don't want to do this because in theory an extra two men in our forward line crowds our forward line and leaves their forward line open. Us putting a loose man in defence has sure as hell never worked. So surely this is worth a try. So what if it crowds our forward line? How much worse could it get? Do we just stand back and watch this guy cut us up the whole game?

Nailed it SJ. The critical factor was Hinkley putting Ebert behind the ball. Him picking up so many uncontested possessions started them running forward of the ball, and closed up the space we were running into, so we stopped running, just as they started running. They also clamped down on Jones & started to win clearances. What bothers me is that's not the first time this has happened. Seems that every time the other team stops Jones, or puts a man loose in defence, we're helpless. ur coaches, whether it's Roos or Goodwin or whoever, needs to work out what to do about those two blindingly obvious moves by opposition coaches. Or we're stuffed.

Yes, you're right, but it's in the midfield, not around the flanks.

Our problem is our "engine room", not our receivers and flankers. If we're not winning the ball in midfield, it effectively puts all these guys out of the game. And in ANY team (yes, even Hawthorn) if your midfield's getting smashed as badly as ours was, your flankers are not capable of making up for it. Unfortunately our midfield doesn't just get beaten; it gets smashed. That's where it all begins and ends. And there's something seriously wrong there that we haven't got to the bottom of yet.

It's interesting listening to the radio. The commentators can tell 3 moves ahead what Port are aiming to do. We seem to have no idea.

If Ebert is BOG playing loose in defence, WHY DON'T WE DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT? And we are far too Jones-conscious. If he's getting tagged, we keep trying to rely on him instead of changing it up. Port's mids take it in turn winning clearances.

Boak, Grey, Hartlett, Wines have killed us.

And how many goals have Port got in the last 5 minutes of quarters? And it has to be said - Jones 11 possessions in 1st quarter, 4 for the next 2 quarters. It may not be his fault if he's getting a hard tag, but if he is & we're trying to rely on him out of the stoppages, we're going nowhere.

When's the last time we won a clearance???

Are Wonna or Jurrah likely to be around for this game?

Are you The Queen??

Weren't there rumours at the time that Pick 12 (or whichever pick that Tiges were offering for JT) would have helped us land a big fish from elsewhere?

Good to see you're getting more "O" & less "B"!

We have (or had - hope it's past tense!) the habit of losing the rare games that we go in as favourites. Lid firmly shut for now.

Or trying to get an ill-considered bite back that favourite son can use for motivation. Again - Fat chance!!! (as long as Chris Dawes stays away from any microphones)

You're spot on abut i50s. It all starts with clearances. We've been going over stopping their run from defence and the right configuration for our defence (to Fitz or not to Fitz). But it all starts and ends in the midfield.

Good Lord

If by "provocative" you mean "unrelentingly negative and utterly predictable".

If Plick Face is certain that JT's got no chance of ever playing again that's the best news JT has had for years!

I'm picking up some very subtle undertones in there somewhere ...