DeeSpencer

Ahhh no. We need that type of player but he sleeps with the lights on.

If Langdon and Hunter could string together consistent weeks I wouldn’t focus on them. But at the moment they are purely outside accumulators with no damage - fed the ball by a very strong ball winning mids and half backs. If you want to nullify games and take the pace out of attack and take away scoring they’re fine. If you want to win games against good sides they’re so meh. Hunter was good tonight and is in decent form but he flat out refuses to take any risk with his kicking and ends up going super slow and butchering it. And whilst he’s started driving though some contests it’s hard to see him improving his speed or making kicks that he just isn’t taking. If Langdon can’t hold up in the contest and his ball use is a liability then what’s he bringing? He’s purely a structural player now in a team that needs more than that given our ball movement issues. We need at least one winger who actually has some ability to break in to space and take the game on with line breaking and kicking. Or some overhead ability.

Honestly the forward line worked for 3/4’s. JJ subbed off his job on Stewart was a disaster. It put Smith on to Stewart which didn’t work and simultaneously took Smith away from finding some space and the ball Midfield then gave up a few clearances to start the last, and forward line blew big chances in the worst possible way.

Welcome to the club!!! Wasn’t a hard challenge when he was a free agent last year. Don’t forget he has value, he can butcher the ball in 3 different positions! Lamb’s real challenge: - a key forward - 2 wings - a midfielder with pace - a mid/forward who can kick

Carbon copy of the Port game. Should be miles behind early. Get a lead. Butcher it with nonsense in the last quarter

Poor Grundy has a habit of refusing to kick only to give it to a worse kick. Grundy isn’t a bad kick! The instruction for him to handball has to be changed

JVR burns easy handballs, I know it’s a team wide issue but they need to fix that

He was injured THEN he went to full forward and dominated! I’m not entirely convinced just yet but he’s having a go

Probably having a break like every other side that has lost coming off the bye. Only ours was shorter!

Watch the replay and tell me how he out marks 198cm Mark Blicavs at full stretch on a ball that was well over his head. Best he could’ve done was halve it with more contact, net result the same.

Rivers called for it mostly stationary and Gus hit it out in front for Blicavs to intercept. Rivers never had a chance. Had Rivers gone harder he’s still not 200cm, the ball still would’ve been out of reach, Blicavs spoils anyway. Theres a fundamental game plan issue that players don’t move in and out of space in a coordinated effort to get the ball on the move. But if you are going to kick in to the corridor it has to be low and flat and Gus simply doesn’t have that kick.

Ahh yes Brayshaw the Butcher, it’s definitely your role in the team to hit stationary targets in the middle of the ground

Fundamentally broken game plan still broken. Glad you all enjoyed Kings Birthday, this team is a mess

I'm doubtful of his long term viability but they just can't drop Joel Smith this week after his performance last game. We're crying out for someone in the forward line who can lead up at the ball, hit the contest and provide some tackle pressure. We've tried a stack of options. And Smith has been on the list for years waiting for a sustained go in the side too. That might be unfair on Tomlinson, or it might mean Petty has a week in the 2's, but they are the options to me. I certainly prefer Petty and it's up to the footy department to make sure he's 100% ready to go.

If Joel Smith can prove semi reliable and back up his performance on KB'day (ideally with some better goal kicking) then we might settle it down. If Smith isn't the right guy for the job and Petty has to go forward then we'll try to settle that and probably give Tommo a longer run in the side down back. But it's just hard to be fully settled until we've had a look at various imperfect options. It's a lot of responsibility to put on a kid but JVR hopefully with some help from Gawn, Fritsch and the smalls probably has to keep growing as a player and be the consistent presence forward.

So who's the match up if not Hawkins? Cameron would run rings around him. Rohan could jog away from him on a lead. Maybe Ollie Henry but Lever has to play on someone and we aren't going to play 4 talls. Tomlinson's 2 good games this year have been on Lobb and Cox. That's the right match up for him. I don't necessarily love the gamble of bringing in an underdone Petty, but if the coaches think he's right then he's far more mobile than Tomlinson

I think we need to get our heads around the possibility that Petty won’t have a set role for the year, the backline personnel and structure will change, Hibbo won’t play every week and that Tomlinson and Smith might be in and out of the side even if they’ve played well. In 2021 our defensive pressure and backline set up was amazing and we could roll with the same backline all year. Now teams are moving it quicker and targeting the gaps, we have to pick the right match ups. Same for up forward where Jackson’s mobility pretty much gave us another pressure forward and Brown and McDonald could play their positions. That’s gone and we’re scrambling to create the best forward mix.

Endurance is a factor with Cameron but he’s at his most dangerous with his agility at ground level and on the lead. Tomlinson’s big weakness is agility, and his strength is using his size and positioning on big talls. If May goes to Hawkins there really isn’t a match up for Tommo.

McVee and Rivers both fold on to different match ups and Bowey takes a flank, it wouldn't be a direct swap. By all reports Hibbo wasn't doing much training and we've got the options this week. All indications are the only way we get Hibbo through to the end of the year is with a lot of management.

I suspect we give Oliver and Petty more time. Bowey for Hibbo. JJ or Spargo a genuine 50:50. I suspect we’ll go away from the 4 smalls on a narrow ground and look for more size against the big cats.

For a regular person, maybe, for an athlete who has to be using his feet it really could’ve been nothing more than a tiny bit of cellulitis. With the IV and hospital treatment because they’ve got private health insurance and may as well use it. The issue is the time it takes to recondition him after 5 days completely off his feet. It’s likely 5 days+ just to get back to where he was. When you add in the hamstring and the need to prove he’s fully recovered from that you get some doubt.

The premise of the article is talking about the Brad Scott role! I think it’s fair to say the head of footy ops should have high level club experience. Be that coaching, playing or another footy department role. But in theory Laura Kane could keep the job and be assisted by someone with more footy experience as deputy footy ops. The article names a heap of former players but none of them seem to be in a high level footy ops role. The AFL should be flexible enough to have rolled someone across when Scott left and/or when Dillon was promoted up.

I wouldn’t describe the AFL executive as ‘the heart of the game’. Nor can I understand how you can praise Laura Kane but then declare the job is effectively vacant. Would they say the same about a man in that role? Then they list a bunch of names that goes about 30 deep. Not like the AFL is hard up for staff. Heck, they even have 2 CEO’s currently. If there’s a problem with the AFL it’s probably that there’s way too much focus on the AFL. Whoever they choose to make 500k, fiddle with some rules and gift Geelong a dream fixture every year will do the job

I see it as a physical advantage, mentally should be about even, you’d rather the 2 weeks off but everyone only gets 4 days for a true holiday. Up to the coaches to get the right balance in the other long weeks And then a slight disadvantage for the Cats game due to the short lead in.

https://websites.mygameday.app/round_info.cgi?a=MATCH&fixture=126486303&c=0-3232-0-619555-0&pool=1 Not in the goals or in the bests (unlike his previous 2 games)