binman

Could not agree more. Remarkably ironic that the sort of personal attacks on this and on other threads come after a round where the club was supporting reach's campaign to stop on line bullying because of the enormous harm it does to young people in our community. You know like Frost and Omac. There has been any number of rubbish and potentially hurtful comments posted in the last few days on DL (and sure players probably don't read DL). And this is a moderated site. Imagine the bile posted on non moderated social media. Beggars belief. As for the article i agree with King. Frost and OMac are not going to be the key defenders in our premiership side. I have said as much myself. Frost will come out of the team when May and Lever are back (and possibly May will replace Frost once back). Frost may come out earlier for Petty, but i doubt it. Omac will stay in the team, even when Lever is back. Much to the distress of some. If you really feel so strongly about Omac's ongoing selection speak to Goodwin. Frosty is average one on one, makes poor decisions (eg when to come off his man) and his disposal is wonky. But to be frank i put Hunt and now Hibberd in that category. I could see Hibberd getting dropped and Frost playing his role if he doesn't get it together. he has been really poor this year. On Omac as RBG notes above he was in good form for much of last year. Which was important because Lever was no better than average up until the last 2-3 games he played before his injury. He hasn't had a great start to 2019 but the most obvious thing to note is that he far from alone in that. He is one of the 12 players who had post season surgeries, so that might be a factor but he seems down on confidence (perhaps related the impact of surgeries). Who knows that lack of confidence might be related to the rubbish he cops on social media. Just a thought. On Friday Frost and Omac were not the problem. Far from it. Omac was on Clarke for most of the night and nullified him (though to be fair Clarke is a limited footballer). Just as was the case against the cats it was their small and medium forwards that did the damage. But again this is the symptom not the cause. Any back line would struggle with the opposition able to move the ball so quickly from their defence into our forward line and deliver it under no real or referred pressure to their forwards. Back to the article, the issue for us is not OMac and Frost. True premiership kryptonite is a side that continually butchers the ball, turns the ball over again and again (making ridiculously hard for defenders because our team has pushed forward to provide attacking options) and makes poor decision after poor decision. I watched a bit of the GWS, tigers game and to see some of the kicking skills from GWS was to fully understand how far off we are in this department. And a team that does not gut run to stop easy uncontested possessions (and chains of such possessions), cannot apply full team defense and pressure won't make finals let alone win a premiership. Brayshaw highlighted this lack of all team pressure with his comment that players are not buying in and running back to get extras into our defence. I am shocked that Brayshaw actually said that but more shocked that in round 3 it can actually be the case. Any team whose 'one wood' is contested ball who can't bring that is shot. And any team with supposedly one of the best mid field and rucks in the league (who are playing pretty well) who can't win center clearance and take advantage of a rule change thatshould advantage them is going nowhere. Sure Lever and May will help our defence. Well perhaps not sure, as i noted Lever was average in his first 6-7 games with us and keep in mind he is average one on one, so the 666 rule change won't help his cause. And May has hardly set the world on fire, what with poor conditioning and lack of discipline (on May i thought it was instructive that against the cats he was the loose man and not given one of their bigs). But lets say they both star for us. As i expect they will. All that will do is put a finger in the dyke. We are nowhere near wining a flag if we don't sort out the issues i highlighted above.

On a treacherous day my best bet is at Morphetville fellas - race 6 no 6, Equal love. Will keep on his winning ways (couldn't find one a caulfield but i do like Flying Krupt and Helloev Street. Not one at Randwick, where i have gone for some very long shots)

Personally i'd consider playing Trac out of the square and make him a leading forward. Tell him his job is to kick goals and give him the license to go for it.

About the same as our match day efficiency

We will win.

Agree. I thought Corey was pretty unlucky to be dropped. A tough nugget who is not one of those who had an interrupted preseason. I really liked the look of Josh when he first debuted. He fell away- in particular with his kicking - but o still think he has something to offer. As does goody it would seem.

Which is that we were the fittest team in the AFL come finals last year

Cmon Saty, you know i am not one to bag you, but this is utter rubbish. If you honestly believe we are not underdone and a our lack of fitness is not the key issue then i'm sorry i struggle to take your views on where the clubs is at seriously. Your desire to tow some imaginary MFC line is like a footy version of the Stocckholm Syndrome.

Who have they been training with?

The key issue for us is fitness and under done. Too manty players with interrupted pre seasons. I saw a stat that showed we are getting smashed in the second half of quarters. That's a fitness issue. Leaving the fitness issue sside I find it really curious - and not a little concerning - that tom talks about us not looking for open players, blindly kicking it long to a comtest and not bringing team mates into the game. I mean that's not a fitness thing. That's a psychology thing. I mean we finished top 4 last year. Do we get we programmed over summer?

Tonight?

Has to get on the park first. And when he does put a couple of top seasons together. A good player no doubt but let's remember he was pretty average for us for his first 7 or 8 games. Leaders have to perform. Which is why I would love to see Oliver as a captain one day. Our best player by a smallish margin to maxy and then a big margin to the next best (gus?). Maybe not the most articulate bloke but a leader by action.

I think though that the impact he has, such that it is, is that he gets across to limit uncontested possessions and when he can't stop the kick stop them running off or slow them down. Failing to do so is killing us atm. That said I agree with your criticisms. I just think he will stay in the side until those ks can get covered. he and Lockhart might end up fighting for spot and Lockhart might well win that battle.

Different roles dazzler. ANB stay in the side because of GPS numbers, pure and simple. Covers a lot of territory. At the moment we do not have the players to cover his spread and ability to cover/hold up the uncontested mark. So like or not i can't see him being dropped at the moment, his frustrating turnovers and errors notwithstanding. That running is a big factor is his disposal and fumbling i reckon. He is often spent went he gets the ball. That first goal he missed against Port was good example. I was sitting above him in the Posnford and he was completely stuffed and sucking in huge breathes when he tried to settle for that kick.

Agree on all counts. He lost his spot last year because he completely stopped putting pressure on and trapping the ball inside 50. My feeling is something was not right for Jeff last year, perhaps some off field personal stuff (and to be clear i'm not speaking in code and implying drug use). The previous year his pressure was fantastic and IIRC correctly he snagged 40 goals as well. The signs were pretty god in the JLT game before he did his shoulder (ironically by tackling hard). And we are desperately in need of both his goals kicking instincts and zip. Even if a touch underdone i'd love to see him in. Of any position on the ground the crumbing small forward is the one that won't expose a lack of condition too much. Time for Jeffy to spark us into action.

On Joel Smith: “Joel’s still settling down. He’s been progressing pretty well, but he hasn’t started running yet. We’ll probably give him another week or so before he does that, then he’ll need probably two to three weeks at least to reload, but again, his rehab plans and return to play plans are still a bit up in the air.” So assuming no further set backs that looks like a minimum of four weeks before he is even ready to resume full training. So say another 2-3 weeks of training and then you'd think he's come back via the VFL. Best case scenario is he's available for the seniors in rounds 10-11. That's with everything going well. Any hiccups and we may not see him until rounds 12-13 or later. Great. Just great.

You really don't have clue about modern football do you. Also as i have pointed out before, you have a serious comprehension problem. You made the point we have always leaked like a sieve. Which, as i pointed out is factually incorrect. Why were we 9th last year in defence? Well one because for the first half of the year our all team defence was terrible. A point Goody made on a number of occasions. And we were likely 14 or 15th worst defence at round 13. Ironically that coincided with Lever being in the side. We then significantly improved our all team pressure and for the rest of the season were the first or second best defensive team in the AFL. So for 10 rounds and two finals only Sydney got to 100 points and all other teams struggled to score against us. Ergo we did not leak like a sieve in that period. Ironically that coincided with the period of Lever being out of the team. If i applied your superficial lens to that statistical reality i would say Lever was the reason our defence was so poor. I mean we were defensively poor when he was in the side and much better when he wasn't. So he must be the problem right? By the by the Cats' ridiculous goals to inside 50 ratio was down to our appalling ability to trap the ball in the front half and our inability to stop them moving the ball quickly down field. But sure blame the defenders. But if you do don't blame OMac and Frost. Frost had a good game and OMac did his job - unlike may, hibberd, hunt and Jetta. Why did they get Lever and May? Well i would have thought that was obvious. On paper they improve our defence. Both gun defenders who if they ever get on the park should in theory make our defence better.

Good work DHW. What i found interesting from your data was the percentage of teams that make top 4 after losing their first two games. As far i saw the media Skuit refereed to focused on the chances of finishing top 8

Simply not true. Last season. from about round 13, right to the second last game we played we were close to the best defensive team in the AFL and teams struggled to get close to 100 points. But don't let facts get in the way of your axe grinding But to be clear our defensive unit was only one part of the reason we were so hard to score against in that period. Our all team pressure was off the charts. Which it wasn't in the first half of the season, and certainly hasn't been this season (no doubt as function of our fitness to a large degree), which is why we have been easy to score against.

Doesn't matter this year. Under done players are fine

100% agree on both points. Our lack of pace has been really exposed by the game style favoured by west Coast and this year Collingwood. Our lack of fitness hasn't helped either. Add poor skills across the board to a lcak of pace and unfit players and you get the results we have got. As you say poor skills has been an issue for a long time. And under Roos and Goody we have not looked to address it with our trading and drafting. I understand why in so far as their emphasis of competitive ball winners but that decision has a real opportunity cost.

We need a fit and firing jeffy back in the side.

Agree, i though Frost was good, for all the reasons you note. Omac was solid enough as well, though Frost was much better. Their bigs didn't cause us issues. It was their medium and small forwards that caused us grief, in part because Hibberd and Jetts were poor. Though the real issue for our defence was initially the woeful contested possessions, and once that was resolved our inability to stop the Cats clear it with ease from our forward half then transition it up the ground quickly. The fact we couldn't get any meaningful centre clearance, despite having the the best mid, didn't help either. I also agree May was underwhelming. His first kick for the club was a shocking turnover that gifted their first goal (IIRC). He didn't get much better from there. Instructive he didn't get one of their two bigs. On on the couch last night it was noted that he came back after his break over weight and was by far our worst runner in pre season. I wonder if that has anything to do with his injury? if you consider his stupidity to cop a eek and miss out firts game then you have to say it has been a pretty [censored] poor start to his time at anew club. Particularly one that is supposedly a leader.

Indeed. The numbers are what the numbers are. Not sure why posters are using the word analysis.

Absolutely. I said as much last year. Weed is a traditional stay at home forward and will never get the possession numbers Jessie did for us. Or for that matter cover the sort of territory Hogan covers. Something that pulled defenders away from the back half and exposed them aerobically. He also was an important link between defence and offence, something we have really missed. The way Jessie plays he can still be hugely influential without scoring. Stop weed scoring and he has next to no impact. Something he needs to address. It is one reason I like him in the ruck. Gets him in the game. Make no mistake Hogan is a huge loss for us and the goals are just one element.