bing181

Work ethic comes back 100% to the players. If the players can't behave like professional athletes, then they go.

One swallow doesn't make a spring, but Oscar was as handy a backup ruck as anyone we've tried this year. One of the reasons is that he has his brother's tank, and can run all day, a more than useful attribute for an on-baller. Or even a forward. There's a perception that Oscar is slow, and perhaps in starting speed he is - but once he gets that big diesel up to speed, he's no slouch. Watch the lead up to his goal: he starts on the wing, but by the time he gets to the forward pocket for the receive, his Collingwood opponent is 20 yards behind. If Hunt had managed a clean kick, it would have been a walk-in goal.

No we didn't. The total value of the trade was the equivalent of Pick 10. Which should please you. Close thread.

Sure, but Lever was never a one-on-one defender at Adelaide, let alone a KPD - he had Talia (amongst others) to do that job. His strength has always been his ability to read the ball and intercept mark/spoil, and that's what we need him doing - if ever we can get a full, settled team on the park.

Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. Even with the players we had out there, the game could have looked very very different if even half of those turnovers had reached their intended targets. Partly skill, partly confidence, but partly also knowing what your team mates are going to do, and for it all to become intuitive. Big pre-season awaits.

Similar to Stretch in that regard. I sometimes think (hope ...) that with these kinds of players it'll come with experience, but not the case so far with either of them.

You don't have to, because in the total trade, we didn't. But carry on.

Don't disagree - but for whatever reason, he's often a really poor decision maker once he gets it.

Regardless of anything else, bottom handful are under where they need to be. Melksham (OK, coming back from injury), but Dunkley, Baker, JKH not giving enough and/or turning the ball over.

For starters, he's not. They're different players, in very different roles, it's not either/or. The players being picked over Hore are Hunt (played back last week), Salem, Hibberd, and in particular, Lever who does Hore's sweeper/intercept mark role better. If Lever doesn't get up this week (or any week), that's Hore's spot. Under normal circumstances, it would be May for Oscar, but with Preuss out and so many other of our talls injured, it becomes May for Preuss, and Oscar keeps his spot, presumably on Mihocek, with Frost taking one of the more mobile forwards. May then covers for Petty up forward when Petty covers for Max, or May just take second ruck duties. Neither Frost nor O'Mac are good as backup to Max, and neither have any experience (ability?) as KPF's, and to go in with only one KPF (Petty) who also has to double as backup ruck, is asking for trouble. Finally, it's going to be wet, so not ideal conditions for an intercept marker like Hore, though ideal for the king of the 1%'ers and spoils, Oscar Mac.

Wouldn't he have a clause in his contract that would automatically trigger another year? ... though he's missed a bit this year with injury, which mightn't help.

Then stop interpreting. Simples.

May. Thus O'Mac.

Oh look, Jake Lever was put back on the ground when he injured his ankle ... and he's playing the following week. That's not the way it's supposed to work.

You can't build fitness during the season. In fact, it's the reverse: as the season goes on, the more fatigue builds up. Thus pre-seasons. That every club does. For a reason.

Probably closest to the pin.

You mean the fitness and conditioning department that Misson is still head of?

And welcome to Fantasyland.

If only that were true. We have no evidence. All we have on Demonland are elaborate stories based on nothing but speculation from people who have no expertise in the field.

Nothing.

He's not right. Misson is still Elite Performance Manager, there has been some restructuring under him and within the fitness and conditioning department. LN is another here who loves tilting at windmills.

"Perfect" and "injury management" don't belong in the same sentence. Injury management is not and will never be an exact science, but one of the few people here who do know what they're talking about re injuries is Webber, and by attacking his professional and informed opinion, posters are just showing how vacuous their "arguments" are. Still, they're not alone, we see the same boorish, ignorant, ill-informed comments from followers of other clubs e.g. Fremantle (re Hogan's foot amongst other injuries) and Essendon (re Daniher).

Throw in Frost to that.

Lewis and Jones have around 300 games each. Then big jump back to Garlett on 185 (and will be moved on?). With Lewis almost certainly gone, just not sure that having Tom Mac and Jake Melksham as our most experienced players, and on around 160 games, is ideal.

He was mainly talking about defense, but if you look at who we're putting out there and where they're coming from, not to mention the constant revolving door, I'm not sure what people are expecting. Until we get a solid back 6 playing more or less regularly together, hard to see how anything much can change.