DeeSpencer

King picked a team designed to play a certain style of football, who then win playing that style of football and every second post on here is bringing in an extra key defender or even worse an extra ruck! If Lever plays another stinker he should be replaced by Tom McDonald, but not both. If Gawn needs more help it will be a stronger rationing of Petty, Mihocek, JVR and Culley. We're going to struggle to contain Treacy forward and Jackson in the ruck/midfield no matter how we line up. As well as Freo's plethora of skilled running players. The most important thing is we hit back with our own running game.

I think he thought it was not 15, which isn’t totally crazy

Affluenza?

His ball use does seem to be getting better. I do wonder how much the decision to put him on Wilkie was about nullifying Wilkie and how much was about getting more pace in to the midfield mix. And whether Culley picks up his pace now he’s had a hit out after missing the preseason games.

Both I believe came from miscommunications/reads with Langford. One had Langford peel his lead for the kick over the top when Salem was under pressure and would’ve taken a lot of leg to get it to where Harvey wanted it. The other was the kick back into the corridor after the wide option was shut down. Harvey led flat across the ground. The saints player from the fat side came forward and intercepted. I’m not sure the coaches would put either on Salem as much as you’d expect.

Totally different tactic up 13 compared with up 3, I can see the argument either way but though AJ was right to have the shot, especially as he would’ve had to have gone backwards with the ball. One errant kick and the giants would’ve had the footy at half way. We mucked up plenty late yesterday especially in the period after the Sharp goal with about 7 minutes left. Refused to take short kicks across half back when they were available. Lever had a horrendous turnover. Gawn and JVR bombed nothing entries awful spots. But the last few minutes after the Fritsch goal we found some short wide kicks, put Mihocek back, forced repeat stoppages and iced clock at the end. We nailed the end of game procedure, just need to work on tempo footy for the periods where it’s required

individually most were fine and certainly 1.5 practice games against bad sides doesn’t compare with St Kilda having a proper first game. It’s just going to be a big balancing act for King and Co to find the right mids and flankers with so many imperfect options. Culley forward gave us another target, added pace to a midfield mix that needs it with Steele and Langford, but took away a ball winner.

Kolt’s athleticism is in the combination of a big tank, above average speed, and the agility to jump on a couple of loose balls and fire handballs out. He hasn’t always looked quick or agile because he’s been adapting to AFL footy. But the tank has generally been evident and it was on display running off Nas before half time to get involved in several scores.

We’ll stick with Jake. But geez he has to stop making so many disposal mistakes and he had probably 5 more chances to mark and 5 more chances to punch in contests where he did neither. I suspect we stick with CJ too. It’s a new zone that will take even our smarter defenders time to sort out. I actually think our problems were more with midfield transition, midfield defensive pressure and despite the improvements still a heap of room with forward cohesion/ball movement. Kolt tagging took CBA’s from Sparrow who’s been our best defensive mid. Culley played the second half as the 3rd tall forward tagging Wilkie. Culley, Langford, Sparrow, Rivers all looked a step off the pace. As did Sharp before his crazy last quarter. There’s a reasonable argument to just play Melk as the 3rd tall forward given that’s what he does best then trimming a spare mid. Although I’m not sure we do that off a win.

Turns out Max likes high game time, who knew? But also he didn’t have to bail out the backline on every inside D50 and more importantly didn’t have to be the long down the line for every forward attack

Sounds like Culley is a lock, but that is injury related. I’m not sure the likes of Sharp, Laurie and Kolt got enough out of 6 quarters of fairly low quality practice games to cement them in. Especially if others are doing more in match sim drills that have been held routinely for weeks now.

I’d personally wait a few weeks to see if he’s got any interest in handballing, tackling and putting his head over the pill before I’d offer a lucrative deal. We can’t have senior players with conditional effort during a rebuild.

For the sake of the exercise I'll assume Kolt and Sharp get the last two bench spots and Melk and Laurie miss out, of those who miss one will possibly be held out or play a half and then be the carry over emergency. FB: AMW Adams Berry HB: X. Taylor T McD C: Onley HF: Mentha Henderson FF: Cross Melksham Matthews Foll: Heath Laurie Injured: Campbell, Jefferson, Kentfield, AJ, White, McAdam, Bowey, Viney Backline has some quality especially when you add the Casey half backs. Even without any genuine talls the forward line can do some damage if it comes in quick. Midfield is super thin though. We'll be reliant on Casey uncovering a couple of hidden gems to have any kind of success this year.

I can see him playing a fold back wing role. I suspect they'll ask Culley, Langford and even Howes (as he did in the practice games) to take on that kind of role at times. XT would be another option. Rivers and Steele will also both play like that from the midfield at times. If we have more than a few half forward injuries I'd just throw him forward and tell him to use his competitive spirt and athleticism to do his best. Richmond did that last year with Luke Trainor. I don't think it would hurt him as a short term thing, and the way he reads the play and attacks the ball at half back would make him a bit of fun across half forward, at least in getting the footy.

From watching some of the better sides in Opening Round I suspect transition defending is basically impossible against good sides (or even mediocre ones). There's a very limited window to get pressure and force a turnover. After that window closes all you can is your best to force teams wider and slower. So then getting an out-number to win the ball back inside your backline and take it the other way is vital. It does make me wonder if we pick a more dynamic small forward in Matthews or Cross purely because of the need to score and create chaos inside 50 in those brief windows you've got to score or force a turnover. That might depend on just what they expect from Latrelle and Kozzie and how far up the ground they play.

They were both GC picks. All our loses did was make Essendon's first rounder better. C'est la vie. I don't think he's far off, but his disposal does run hot and cold and unsurprisingly for a kid he's got to build his tank and strength. I suspect King's adopting the Cats model of making the first year kids wait a while and learn the right habits and behaviours before their heads get too big.

So after all that we’ve ended up with 2 clear cut best 23 out, and as much as Viney would be handy only one in Bowser who could be vital for the way we want to play. And most of the 23 we do pick on the weekend will have done a very solid block of the preseason. Bummer about Luker and Jeffo but it seems they’ve both escaped longer injury and can be back running sooner than later.

If we even use Culley in the ruck (which is just a theory so far) it will almost certainly be with JVR/Mihocek taking the centre bounce before swapping forward. And the key forward rucking inside 50 and a key back rucking inside d50. Unless we are totally disorganised on field I doubt we’d have Culley as the actual centre bounce ruck.

Gosch's Paddock📆 Tuesday, March 10 ⏰ 12:15pm - 1:00pm ⏰ 2:45pm - 3:30pm 📍 Gosch's Paddock 🏃‍♂️ Session type: Light recovery sessions (player choice of session) 📆 Saturday, March 14 ⏰ 11:00am - 11:30am 📍 Gosch's Paddock 🏃‍♂️ Session type: Pre-match captain's run

The success teams have had with a designated 23rd man has me thinking we really might consider Melksham for that role. Doesn't play the first 20 minutes of q1 and sits for a chunk to start the 2nd and 3rd too. Assuming Culley gets the nod the last spot might be down to Kolt, Sharp or Laurie.

There is one thing I’d like to see from Gawn this year which is a couple of extra rests on interstate trips, particularly Perth. We need to look after him and he needs to accept that. But I’m not concerned at all about Heath’s development, let’s see him dominate at VFL level the way Reeves and Moyle do.

No. There’s an argument that Max didn’t sacrifice enough in 2023 with Grundy but that erases just how poor of an effort Grundy made up forward and how sloppy he was in the ruck. (And that we didn’t have the right forwards to carry a second ruck). Very few teams are playing two rucks. Collingwood don’t even have a mature option on the list to back up Cameron. Not the Dogs. If their main guy goes down they take key backs and chuck them in the ruck. No one is crying for the lack of opportunity for Ladhams, Reeves and Ned Moyle. All 3 are older and better than Heath. If they were healthy and demanding a game I’d hope we’d restructure things to give Kentfield or AJ a go in the forward/ruck role. But that’s forward with some ruck, not a second ruck.

I’m not sure that tall trio is scaring anyone. Windhager has the best record of anyone against Koz and Latrelle had 2 touches in the last game he played. At the other end the Pies undersize backline actually helped them take care of Sharman, Higgins and Ryan. Those guys will give us trouble with the right supply. As with most games tho the midfield will be the most crucial factor and the Saints having a hit out helps them a lot. They need a lot more from Nas, Phillipou and Flanders. If they fail to fire it does leave room for the Pickett, Windsor, River, Langford show, I really hope we see it. But Ross Lyon teams don’t let that happen very often.

Playing opening round is a 3-5 goal head start and our most proven midfielder is a guy they just paid to leave (purely for on field reasons). So whilst I think they’ve spent millions of dollars to finish 9th they should be too good for us.

5 of the first 6 teams that might contend this year that are coached by real coaches have gone for extra runners, often on ball. Only Brisbane went with something different and that’s probably because their best side includes Draper so why not give ZZ some minutes in his role. But McCluggage gets injured and they run out of legs. Not sure who our equivalent player is, likely one of Laurie, Sharp or Kolt.