The Chazz

Howe was a player that was costly for us up forward (or many of the reasons that DubDee listed), then sulked when moved back (which is where he played/s his best football). Roos moved him on because his attitude wasn't in line with what he was trying to build at Melbourne. Howe was exciting in his first year or two with us when playing forward. But as soon as the opposition took away his greatest strength (flying in packs), the rest of his game dropped off, hence the move back. It's this reason that I'm going to watch with interest the career of Fritsch. One of his key strengths is his ability to take pack marks. If the opposition take this away from him, I hope he can develop other areas of his game. He may, and that will be great. If he doesn't, he may not make it.

What were the reasons Howe became ineffective as a forward?

He's not big enough to play KPF, he's taller than a small forward. He's an inbetweener that is getting on the end of a few, very early in to his career. He's a newbie that opposition sides don't have as a priority when looking at our match-ups. If continues his current form, they will absolutely put more time in to him. How will he cope with extra attention? How will his ability to fly for marks go when opposition players are blocking him more off the ball? Will he be able to kick more goals from crumbing as opposed to set shots? These are the questions that I will have answered in his next 45 games, and I'm sure all start to get answered maybe later this year, but definitely moving in to 2019 and beyond. I'm enjoying what he is bringing to the team currently, but I'm also mindful that his role is one that good quality backlines can deal with quite easily.

Franky, I know you won't lose sleep over this, but the bolded part has seen you dead to me as a poster.

Apologies for having my own opinion. Actually, I'm not sorry at all. As I said, I'll come back to this thread after he plays 50 games, if he manages to.

Tom plays well forward, because he knows what it takes to defeat defender. He's had over 100 games of learning first hand how to play as a quality forward - he's played on some of the best in that time.

I'm not going "all in" on this one yet. Has shown positive signs to date, but he's 5 games in to his career, and I'm not sure if the role he plays is something that will have a long term future in the game. Clearly I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but I'll come back to this thread after his 50th (if that happens), and will reassess my views.

I'm a big ANB fan, but he has been ordinary this year. That said, he's clearly playing the role asked of him, as he has continued to get a run. What I would love to see added to his game is the ability to go to an opposition midfielder and shut them down. He has the tank to run with any player in the league, and playing on someone that will get him around the ball more could be a good thing for him. With that in mind, I'd be looking at him running with the likes of Jack Stevens this week. We will need someone to run with Steven, and I'd much prefer that Jones wasn't that man, as he is more value to us playing his own natural game.

It's called playing your role Saty. The players all talk about how they just want to play their role in the team. For many of them it's all talk, as when they are required to step up and play a role, they dont. I don't watch pressers of players or coaches. They roll out the typical B.S. that tells us nothing at all. All due respect to your training reports, I take them with a grain of salt too (the ones where you are passing on "news" from "the horses mouth").

A trained monkey would have the same w/l record as Chris if they too were given the Geelong job. You only need to ask what their supporters think of his ability as a coach. I personally hope he stays in charge for many years to come. A lot like Buckley at Collingwood actually.

It will be magnified even more when the new AFLW teams come in next year. The quality of that league will significantly drop because the better players are getting spread further and further. It will eventually work - the AFL are too proud for it not to work, but it's going to take a lot longer than what it should. With regards to the Geelong VFL team - I'm continually amazed, but at the same time delighted and amused, at Scott's refusal to play Zac Smith in the senior team, and continues to play Stanley.

How the [censored] can the VFL still have a bye in their fixture? This just robs players the opportunity to work other game, especially those that have been dropped, or those really trying to push in to the senior team. The sooner they scrap the competition and/or introduce a true AFL reserves the better.

In 2016, the Anzac Eve game was played on a Sunday. We played St Kilda the following week. Hardly "stuck with" playing Essendon because of it. Which you kindly agreed with. Thanks.

I clearly made that point by saying "when it's our turn". In terms of the other points, if Geelong play Carlton/Essendon/Collingwood at "home" at Etihad or the MCG, Geelong get the dollars. Why is it an issue with you if they haven't played those games at Geelong? Also, we only play Gold Coast and Freo once this year. The Freo one is our "home" game (in the NT). I you give that game up, that becomes Freo's home game, meaning they have an extra home game than what they should. There are definitely elements of the fixture that I don't like, but what your complaining about isn't one of them. It's also one we have probably made for ourselves given our inept performance for such a long time, both in terms of playing ability and crowd pulling ability.

Add to that, that Brayshaw isn't a player that I would want to lose. He has already shown that he is capable, and, providing he can continue to get continuity in games played, he will be a very valuable piece of our midfield in the next 6-18 months.

Why the need to use Brayshaw for Free Agents? Is it to "encourage" West Coast not to match our bid? Foolish if so.

This is such a typical negative attitude. When Anzac Day is on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, there's absolutely no reason we have to be "stuck" playing Essendon the following week. Seriously, a lot of our supporters are as mentally soft, if not softer, as many of the blokes that get to pull on our jumper.

You do realise that we have to have a balance of home vs away games for a year, don't you? To get your wish of a home game against Essendon, it would mean we have to give up a home game against someone else. Want to give up Queen's Birthday? Anzac Eve when it's our turn? I'm sure we'd all prefer to give up the Northern Territory games, but it provides an income that we currently rely on. The only "fair" way to do a fixture (in terms of playing teams both home and away), is to have a rotational fixture over a set number of years (possibly 2 or 3). I just hope you realise that if we do this, there will be years where we miss out on hosting our marquee games.

In the lead up to the start of the season, I; Rounds 1-3 - hoped we'd be 3-0, but was willing to take 2-1 Rounds 4-9 - hoped we would go through this period 6-0 or 5-1. Again, I was willing to be 4-2 With that said, my bottom pass mark would be to sit 6 wins 3 losses after Round 9, which I still think is more likely than not.

What channel was that on?

Or the talent that he could do it with. We need to remember that our key players, the so called "top end talent", are still inexperienced. It's not far away that we will have the luxury of say, shifting Trac to full forward mid game and expecting him to kick 3 or 4, while Hogan and co clear out the forward 50.

Damn, I wish I could justify paying the fees to subscribe to 7mate. Oh, wait a second, it's free.

That's not how it works on here. He could increase those things tenfold, win 3 Bluey's, a Brownlow and Norm Smith, but as soon as he has 1 miss-kick, there'll be a community coming down from the trees to berate him.

I don't know why, but I'm amazed at how many people have mentioned about our short break leading in to the Bombers game. They make it sound like the team we're playing against will be coming off a 10 day break. Look at the fixture FFS.

What I found interesting about that footage was just how important Jake Lever will be to us. When you see vision like this, it just confirms why I hate reading/contributing to the changes threads each week. We don't have any idea what the instructions are, or what the role is for a certain player, we don't have the behind-the-scences vision, we don't have the GPS data. You can clearly see how Lever's performance (and the rest of the backline's for that matter), will hinge on the rest of the team adhering to structures.