bing181

Not a withdrawal, wasn’t named in the team. Casey article said he and Turner were out injured, no details.

He’s injured

With injuries + suspension was always going to be hard. No Turner or Tomlinson down back, no Smith, BBB or Tom Mac up forward. Even Harnes generally goes well at this level. We missed the AFL players.

Why?

Without a big, dominant KPF we're going to continue to struggle. Also behind a lot of the poor I50 entries IMV, no-one quite sure who to kick to. If you have your one big bloke you kick it to him if he's one on one, if he's not you kick to the secondary forwards who will have made space. Can't see this year being the one, you really need not just the cattle but for everything to go right, and we're losing out on both of those (injuries to Gawn, Oliver, Petty, Salem etc).

Can't get Petty back quick enough. Down back.

Smith isn't that small ... still 191.

At least Smith has been kicking goals, especially over the last couple of weeks. But Smith is much more athletic than BBB, so presumably FD are looking for a more mobile forward line - was quite stagnant last week.

Presumably Tom Mac and Harmes (or JJ) out for Smith + Hunter. If Tomlinson, then who from the backs? Perhaps resting Hibberd, otherwise ...? Will find out soon enough, but not bad changes if true.

Players aren't picked on logic but on performance - and this year, Tomlinson has been fairly ordinary (I'm being kind) at AFL level. But we shall see.

Sure. But it goes both ways. Those of us who don't vent or perhaps have a more measured response to losses don't deserve to be dismissed as somehow being less invested - or as is often the case "weak", or "accepting mediocrity" etc. etc.

Perhaps, but that's not to say that it's the best list in the comp. (Hint: it's not.)

Whatever the issues are, the idea that the solutions are running round in the VFL is delusional. For mine though, really missing: - key forward. Has been Tom Mac and BB, but both are pretty horribly out of form/past it, which leaves JVR (tries hard but pushed aside too easily), Schache (there's a reason he's onto his 3rd club) or I don't know who (Smith?). - second KPD. Our fearless backline was built around May, Petty and Lever ... in that order. Taking Petty out means that Lever is forced to play to his weaknesses (1 on 1) while at the same time we get no benefit from his strengths (intercepts) which is a double whammy.

Yes, but he’s playing out of position. He’s an interceptor, not a second kpd or 1 on 1.

The players themselves bear no responsibility?

We're just not. Having to put Petty forward to shore up our KPF stocks has only unbalanced our backline - neither Lever nor May will be AA this year. Now with Petty out we're losing at both ends - undermanned backline and forward line without a reliable KPF target.

We already have a very good third tall defender - Lever. What we've lost is the second tall defender, ex. Petty, and Turner has shown that for the moment at least, he's not big enough for that role. Rather Tomlinson for 2nd tall, and yes I know.

Amongst everything else, missed Petty tonight - at either end.

Would have thought that there's enough in the other sections here under 18.5.2. to give the AFL what it wants in protecting players re. unreasonable contact in marking/spoiling.

Just needs another pre-season and some time in the gym. Still young.

I think that's the point here. As I said in my earlier post, perhaps there's other vision which would help clear him. If the club appeals, we could perhaps presume that that's the case.

It's one of the factors that the tribunal takes into account when considering whether a hit was deliberate or not. i.e., playing the man or the ball. Not complicated.

As has been mentioned in a few places, in (large?) part because we're resting/rotating our big 3 clearance specialists: Oliver, Viney, Petracca, the latter 2 in particular. If you look at the stats for this year, Petracca and Viney are only attending just over 60% of centre bounces. Of course, there are other stoppages ...

Will turn on whether or not he took his eyes off the ball. From the footage that they're showing (from behind) it looks like he did, and that's why there's the penalty. If the club can show otherwise I'd imagine that they'd appeal.

Petty down back. Apart from anything else, May seems to play better when he’s down there, and frees up Lever to be an interceptor. Turner will get his chance.