binman

Sure, but that logic didn't apply for fritter who came back into the seniors on the back of one, at best, average game at Casey - a game in which he didn't sem to address his issues with defensive intensity. And that decision has a cascading effect - he comes in, kicks two goals and who knows perhaps gets somewhere close to the defensive kpis they no doubt gave him. So they don't want to drop him after one game back in (hopefully fritter repays the faith, has a blinder, gets back to his best and is once again a best 22 lock). As fans we don't have all the information that feeds into selection. For that reason I don't get too worked up about them. But that doesn't preclude me being perplexed about some decisions. I don't mind melk's selection - most teams run with a defensive forward who have a focus on negating the opppo's best intercepting tall defender, and he'll likely go to McGovern who is a critical player for them. He is arguably the best kick in the team and provides important leadership in our forward half. Bur the non selection of JVR, particularly given they dropped fullarton and didn't select a back up ruck, is flat our strange imo. JVR has had two games now at Casey, the second of which was a cracking five goal game where he was hard at it and was back to leading up to ball carrier. And now Casey have a bye. As a fan I'd love it goody is asked about the logic behind his non selection. By the by, I'm tipping JVR will end up coming into the team - perhaps as someone has suggested in place of May.

PSD - what's the talk on Reid over in the west? If I was an Eagles fan I'd be very unimpressed. Doesn't look fit, unsurprising given he cake back from his break in [censored] condition. And his head seems all over the shop. I have a feeling JVR will end up playing

Um, i think Goody really wants to..................... Nup, i got nothing

Yep, they decided rest smest- maxy can play 100% TOG and take every ruck contest.

Fascinating. No JVR - who gives Maxy a chop out?

I will never understand the psychology of trolls.

You'd get better odds on the Eagles into a Liberal PM: 2.93 x 10.25 = 30.03

Fair bit of chat on this thread that the Eagle's match is danger game. I reckon the only sense in which it's a danger game is the fallout of a loss. With the exception of the roos game, this is the first time all season I've been confident of a win. They can have as many crisis meetings as they like but that won't change the fact they are clearly not fit enough and are coming off a six-day break (after having to fly from Melbourne, after a late Sunday arvo game, and arriving back in Perth midnight Sunday) I think we will: look to attack and be aggressive with our ball movement from the get-go really look to spread them and use the width of Optus oval do so by using short kicks to switch and hit up players leading at the ball carrier control the tempo with short kicks until we can 'press go' and then go forward quickly use the corridor more than we have been use lots of long forward handballs kick our highest score thus far win by 64 points

I don't really know NS, however i doubt the change in training times is related to their loading schedule. It would have some sort of impact no doubt but i reckon the change is more about responding to feedback from players and perhaps changing things up just to freshen up the routine, one they had in place probably as far back as when Burgess started in 2020

G'day @Webber - funny you should post the above. I was thinking yesterday that it was unfair (and a bit meta) of me to call you out on the pod for a post you made on DL, not to mention not give you right of reply. To be honest i hardly ever go into post match threads anymore, or indeed a whole bunch of threads where negativity is predictable. I've done my time pushing back on over the top negativity - life's too short. But i happened to see your post, and whilst not over top in terms of negativity, to be honest i was surprised how trenchant you were about the standard of the game. Seemed a little out of character. I can see your argument about how poor both teams were, and how frustrating the turnovers and skill errors were, but personally i reckon the standard was better than in our loss to the Bombers. Now that was a horror show. One reason your post surprised me is, unusually for you, you didn't factor in the impact of both teams coming off a five day break (and also 3 games in less than 2 weeks - 12 days for us, 11 for the tigers). We had a 7 day break into the Freo game and looked fresh and running on top of the ground - and made far fewer basic skill errors. The tigers had 6 day break into their win over the Suns, looked fresh for the first three quarters before running out of gas in the last. Unless a team has really planned to maximise freshness, like we did into the 5 day break against Port last season, all teams will struggle to play anywhere near their best on a five, or even six, day break, partic teams with so many first and second year players (they had 6 players who had played 15 game or less, we had 3 such players and 4 first or second year players). And fatigue of course exacerbates skill deficiencies, like our average kicking skills. Look at the Cats Blues game. No doubt the media is pumping up the blues, but the reality is the Cats were coming off a 6 day break, a bruising match against the hawks on Easter Monday. The Cats looked fatigued and miles off it against the Blues - and made howler after howler. As an example of their woeful play, in the second quarter they did not score a single point from their defensive half - nuts for team that is one of the best transition teams in the AFL. And at half time they had 14 fewer clearances, their second-worst differential in the last five years. Yes, fatigue is only part of the story (for example, the Cats have been struggling all season with clearances), but it is a part nonetheless - as was the case in our game. As for our last quarter performance, i would argue when a team has a match winning lead at 3 quarter time (eg 6 goals plus) often the last quarter devolves into a training run with the losing team kicking goals that tend to 'flatter the scoreboard' (though i actually think we played ok up until taking Maxy AND May off - we did have the same number of scoring shots) One such example this round was Dockers leading by 42 points against the Crows at 3QT, not kicking a goal in the last and only winning by 18 points.

If the forecast holds it won't be raining and as you say optus drains well (too well?) and its going to be 22 so hopefully conditions will be pretty good come game time. Are you going PSD?

As you note a long way out, but the weather looks ok atm on the BOM. Rain will clear by game time:

Spot on W11 Your comments mirror a point i've made a few times about Fritter, namely everyone talks about his importance in 2021 and the fact he has been leading our leading goal scorer for 5 seasons - which are valid points. But it not as if he's never applied pressure and just swanned about the forward line just being the finisher. Far from it - leaving aside his first season (2018 - career high 57 tackles but only 17 goals) and 2019 (he played a big chunk of the year at HBF that season) there is a correlation between his tackle numbers and goals scored: The most goals he has scored in a season is 59 in 2021 - he laid 47 tackles The second most goals he has scored in a season is 55 in 2021 - he laid 37 tackles Leaving aside 2018 (his debut year) and 2019 (played in defence for multiple games) the least goals he has scored in season is 22 in 2020 when e also laid the least tackles of his career (17) The second least number of tackles is 27 in 2023 and 2024 when he kicked 39 and 41 goals respectively Short version - the more tackles Fritter lays the more goals he scores.

We're in furious agreement jnr. I'd add that fritter is a senior player now and should be showing eadership and role modelling defensive effort.

I think we posted at the same time

Snap

It's an issue for two key reasons. One he is being asked to play a different role to the one he played in 2021-2024. That role was basically a lead out from the goal square traditional full forward, with lots of one on ones. Still important to apply some level of defensive pressure but goals were his number one KPI. And there were plenty of players around him doing f the defensive grunt work Now he's being asked to play a different role - half forward flank, a role that demands a much greater level of defensive intensity, not to mention preparedness to set up goals instead of kicking them. His number one KPI now us more likely to be score involvements than goals. And his KPIs would 100% now include pressure acts, 1%, tackles defensive gut running etc. Given his height, he's probably also expected to impact aerial contests to ensure key defenders don't intercept mark. (on that front there was an aerial contest at the punt road end below where o was sitting- fritter chose to sit out the back rather than impact the contest, looking for the spill and easy collect. That might fly, pardon the pun, when goals were his key metric, bit now. And in this instance a tiger's defender took an intercept mark - poor defensive effort from fritter that won't have gone unnoticed by goody). The second point is as muchthe game has morphed nto a transition game, pressure is still king. In 2021 no team applied as much pressure and intensity as we did. Now, on any given day, every team does. We could carry a few players who were in the team for their silk - we can't now, every single player has to bring the defensive heat. There's an argument that goody should play Fritter in that lead up forward role again given its arguably his best position But even if he did, applying pressure will remain a non negotiable. And besides, he should embrace whatever role he's being asked to play. I'm a huge fritter fan, but I don't think he should have been called up after one average game at Casey. And I'd drop him this week as his two goals don't balance our his lack of defensive efforts imo.

Six two? Didn't realise he was that tall. Pretty big lad. He's not far away - if he can get super fit he has the tools to make it. And he has a bit of x factor about him I reckon, particularly with his kicking - hits really nice darts on the angle. He's looking ok down back, but I reckon long term he'll be a forward, which I'm pretty sure is where he's played most of his footy.

Very accurate as they use a GPS tracker. But I reckon average speed and repeat sprints are better measures of a player's pace (and fitness to a lesserdegree). Quickest can be misleading if, for example if the player only does one such sprint for the game. But if he can do it once it's more about development and building an AFL tank After 2 more preseasons I don’t reckon people will be talking about his pace - he's going to be a beast.

Spot on They played completely differently the previous week against the suns - fast attacking, transition footy for the rhe first 3 quarters. For whatever reason (i sespect because they were gassed), they set up to minimise a loss not in - hence the uncontested mark.and disposal differentials, not to mention how hopeless they were offensively. In regard to the latter point, It's worth noting that of the 9 goals they scored 2 were in the last minute of the first and four in the last 5 minutes of the game

It took all of two games for there to be an example of this occurring. Much like us, Freo put the Crows to the sword in the 3rd (5 goals to zip) and were 42 points up at three quarter time, a team they will be competing with for finals position (meaning percentage is partic relevant). But with game in the bag, Freo's pressure (the key reason for their 42 point lead) drops off, the Crows score 5 unanswered goals in the last quarter and the winning margin is only 18.

Huh? He's an excellent kick - which is the key reason we why we drafted him