binman

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.

I wondered the same thing. Listened to it a couple of times but could not make it out. Goody sounded a bit annoyed with the question. The other annoying thing with the presets is how bloody long it takes the AFL to post them. I was keen to hear what goody had to say and 11:40 odd, when I went to bed it still wasn't up

14 goals to the cats from turnovers. 14 Must be some sort of record

G'day fellas. Way too late i know. I haven't been able to get on DL today. My best is once again Avilius. unbeaten in Sydney. Loves the heavy. The Oz cup was an aberation and will be too good. Short enough but still overs. Particularly on the tote as i suspect you will get close to easy money. I really liked Mosh Music too, which i see DZ picked. very impressive win

Something that is exacerbated by our lack of pace. And the wide spaces of the G And if we are not switched on and really prepared (and able it must be said - if not fit enough we will struggle. Port played us n break spreading and absolutely smashed us in uncontested ball, in large part because we ran out of gas) to gut run to limit the uncontested ball we are in trouble Against the Hawks we had clear plan to reduce the number of uncontested possessions and get across to hold up players up if they did get an uncontested mark (as i remarked on the DL podcast i could see the message board in the dug out with my binos from my seat and there was big emphasis on this). It worked and Hawks could not control the game. Conversely we simply could not achieve this against West Coast who were relentless at spreading and hitting up uncontested player (and then suddenly rushing it forward). A combination of the heat, payers running out gas, the occasion, the huge and very taxing preceding weeks, the size of the ground and how well West Coast executed their plan meant we were toast. I think kardina park suits us because the cats do not have the space to spread us and there is invariably more congestion.

I suspect he will play as a small forward