binman

I A grader. Salem might get there, but no other on that list will. A couple closer to c grader than A grade. And one who is C grade. And only one can reliably hit a target. And he plays on the hb so does not kick it inside 50. For a negative nellie you are remarkably unrealisticly positive in your assessment of those players.3 A graders and the potential of 2 more? Sheesh.

I'm not one for bagging players but Lewis was terrible against the tigers. Leaving aside his fumbles, lack of pace and inability to pick the ball of the ground he is supposed to offer leadership. He offered zero leadership in this game. I stamped his card late in the last quarter when he took a half step at a contest and didn't put his body on the line. Game was over but you can tell a lot about where a player is at attitude wise by the way they play late in games where their team is going to lose. The thing i most admired about Robbie Flower was not his abundant skill but his ticker and approach to the game. It didn't matter if we were winning, it was close or we were getting pumped he never dropped his head and always played to the final siren. Respect. I lost some respect for Lewis on Wednesday night.

Fun thread.

Agree on all three PD. The interrupted pre season to so many players and injuries explain to a large degree why we are going so badly. But it doesn't explain why our contested ball numbers have fallen off a cliff. That is real concern. Halfway through the first quarter against the Saints we were done by something like 8 contested ball. To me that is raises flags in terms of attitude and intent.

Totally agree fitness levels, pre-season and availability of key players are the key reason we are travelling so poorly this year. It is a given those things are fundamental to a teams chances in any given season. But i'm talking in a more general sense about what we need to be flag contending side, not why we are rubbish this season. That said having some of our best players out means we have even poorer kicks come into the side.

It's number one on my list. Well one, two and three. Skilled kicks two, players with pace three and players with both number 1. I was surprised we drafted Sparrow. Does not seem that quick and skills seem just ok. A player like Jack Martin is what we need and who we should be focused on trading in. One reason why i was disappointed to lose Watts is that he was our best kick. Yes we got fritta but there is no reason we could not have had both (to be clear I understand the cultural stuff and as i have said previoulsy i understand and respect the decision)

I reckon the biggest part of the problem. A situation exacerbated by the facts that: Many opposition teams have adopted WC's spread strategy that requires speed to cover free players (and those that haven't look to do so against us to expose our lack of pace) Our woeful turnovers from missed kicks expose and exacerbate our lack of pace as everyone is out of position when we turn it over You can't kick goals if you continually butcher the ball going inside 50 and when you do actually get a shot hit the behind post from 30 direct in front or fail to make the distance from 35 When we do butcher the ball going inside 50 we don't have single player who pick the ball off the ground and turn a crap kick into an opportunity (by the by if i hear the stupid expression ground ball one more time my head will explode)

I'll tell you why. As i have said on any number of occasions across multiple threads - and at the real risk of repeating myself and boring posters to death - our communication at the club is appalling. There are any number of examples from big to small. PJ made it clear that our focus in terms of our resourcing had to be the football department as you are going nowhere if not winning. And hard to argue against that. Implicit though in that focus was that once winning began other aspects of the club would get attention. I can only assume that has not occurred because our communication and membership engagement is not up to scratch and is a black eye on the club. And on Gary Pert i reckon. Maybe the last point is bit tough on Pert, but he has had enough time at the club to sort things and communication and membership engagement must be among his KPIs. Our messaging (or more accurately mixed messaging), our website, our social media, how we respond to membership queries (not blaming the staff by the way on this - it is clearly a system issue and reflects a lack of investment) and our members engagement strategies are all poor.

And people knock misso. Anyone who can bring a fella back from the dead is ok by me. That is high performance. I heard he helped get that star j. Christ back on his feet as well.

Was away over Easter. Just watched the game not knowing the score. Ha4d work avoiding all media and comments. Should not have bothered. We were woeful. Haven't looked at this thread or any other. But I can imagine the vitriol. All of it deserved. I could make any number of crtisisms. I'll keep it to two. Our foot skills are appalling. And were all game. They were way better than us and easily could have won by more. But iwe totally gave up the momentum with our turovers and failure to hit a target inside 50 in the first 10 minutes of the second. We are slow.

Omac dropped. I didn't see that coming. I got it wrong on him not being dropped this year. He'll be back soon enough. Probably come in as an emergency this week.

Lewis is slow as a wet week. Won't help our issue with spread and speed.

Yep. A big part of that improvement is related to increased fitness. The 9 day break could not have come at a better time. A combination of being able to recover from the last game, having a block of time to build some fitness post recovery, and lewis and jets back a bit fresh means we will be in our best shape fitness wise this year. They are coming of a six day break from what was a taxing, physical game. Huge disadvantage. I'd be jacked off if I was a saints fan. Poor scheduling by the AFL but for once it helps us.

How do i know that? Because that is how book makers operate. And I have been punter all my adult life (and a chunk of my non adult life). They set a market. The punter with your million responds to that market. If the bet is on the mfc they become even shorter than the bookies opened them. If on the saints their odds shorten. How else could it operate? As an example barely a cent will have been bet on the tigers dees game. No serious punters would punt on tbat game. Way too many variables at this stage, not least injury, weather and how both teams perform this round. The bookies have Tigers as favorite at this stage. We are unlikely to start favorites but if we play well this round and the tigers don't punters will back us and our price will shorten.

True. Sort off. The bookies set the initial price. this is tru of all betting markets. The punters then impact that price up or down depending on the money they punt. The bookies had as favorites asin thier considered assesmsnt (based on not wanting to lose money) they think we will win.

100% agree. I enjoy watching him but as you say he is a poor kick. In our match against them just gone I was happy when he had the ball because there was a very good chance he would turn it over. As he did at a crucial time in the last (and a couple of other times). Commentators loved him but his direct opponent kicked. 2.1. More goals than buddy and Reid combined.

I have an idea. My insane over confidence. Believe me the start of this year has cured me of that!

This is complete rubbish. All of it Capped off with an ironic insult that stands in direct contradiction to your first line. Perhaps I'm missing something and it is one of your attempts at 'ironic' satire? Either way rubbish.

Good post, with some well argued points. On the 1% average his ranking this year certainly reflects the fact we both agree on that he has been down on last years's form Bearing that out is that league wide he ranked 7th in Total One Percenters in 2018 and 8th in Total One Percenters in 2017. On the point of goody not having other options I reckon that's a bit of a furphy. If he really didn't think he was up to it he would find an option, eg tmac back and keilty forward or petty in

I didn't say he played well. I said: 'Omac has not had a great start to the season but was ok on Friday. Not great, ok. His opponent for much of the game had one mark inside 50 for the game and a solitary point. And had the equal high number of one per-centers with Hore (who played one more quarter than Omac). He did his job'. As for one per centers i would respectfully suggest that given your 'token one per-centres' (sic) comment that perhaps you are unaware what they actually measure. As per Champion data they measure tackles, spoils and shepherds. All fundamental defensive skills - in particular spoils . And the best defenders score high in one per centers - Rance being the king. And Omac is by far and away our highest one percenter scorer. So again with all due respect i think you don't really get why a coach (that most on this site seem to respect) picks him week in and week out - and in that you are well and truly not alone on this site. The reason Goody picks him is he does his job. Simple. Take Thursday night - Reid was his opponent for much of the time and he was ineffectual. As for being more courageous in the air again you are not alone in your seeming blind spot to his courage. Omac cannot be questioned for his courage. Exhibit A is how is how he he ended up getting concussed in the Swans game. Go to the replay and watch the contest at the end if the third quarter (4.36 to go). And then tell me he isn't 'courageous in the air' or doesn't 'throw himself at some contests'. Omac is pretty slow. He also sometimes gets out bodied (but given he is only 23 that is no shock). But the fact is that Goodwin, a coach most on this site seem to rate and one the club has seen fit to extend his contract - picks Omac each and every week. For two full seasons. And continues to do so in his third season as coach. Leaving aside the frankly asinine suggestion that a professional AFL coach has favorites and would risk success for some weird reason such as stubbornness what does that tell you? I'm not sure about you but it tells me that Omac is doing the job the coach is asking him to do. So he continues to select him. Which is way good enough for me. You are right - Omac isn't looking particularly confident at the moment. He is one of the many players who post season surgery and i expect that has impacted his preparation. . As Goody and other people from the club have pointed out, our all team defensive pressure in the first 3 rounds was woeful so that also makes it hard for defenders. And the entire back six has struggled (not helped by Mays lack of discipline and poor physical preparation i might add). But I expect Omac will soon get back to the his best and have little doubt he will continue to be selected. And again i'm happy to back the judgement of a coach who I rate as perhaps the best we have had in the many years i have followed the dees. Others can please themselves and no doubt will.

Bobbing!

Hadn't checked the other best bets before posting, but was going to pick dubhe too Macca. Unusually for me I've done my selection At randwick based on a swoopers track. I just think randwick struggles to come up week to week, particularly after rain, and the track will be hard to lead on. Two races in and seems to be the right play with horses getting home from tbe rear. Makes for a tough tough day with value winners

Last getting day of the Autumn for me fellas. My best is Tonsor at eagle farm. Race 9 no 7. Shooting for 4 in a row and will get the chockies

No it didn't. A classic a case of confirmation bias at work That incident occurred half way though the second. Oscar was concussed late in the 3rd quarter (4.36 to go) in a huge spoil that repelled a Sydney inside 50. In the intervening period betwen the buddy incident and when he got concussed we played our best footy of the match, kicking of 8 of 10 goals. And in that period Oscar worked super hard and his gut running was big factor in creating that web zone Sydney struggled so badly to penetrate. Omac has not had a great start to the season but was ok on Friday. Not great, ok. His opponent for much of the game had one mark inside 50 for the game and a solitary point. And had the equal high number of one per-centers with Hore (who played one more quarter than Omac). He did his job.

Strange comment for a fella who has worked in tv. He us clueless about who most people are. He has a producer piping directions and instructions direct into his ear