binman

Fair bit of goal post shifting there. Sure JVR is not an A grader yet, but he is definitely a quality forward. And in my opinion is the best 2i and under young forward in the AFL and will be as good, if not better than JUH - who many seem desperate to throw coin at. Failure to attain more senior KPF presence? What's that about? Its not as if we have been asleep at the wheel in terms of bringing in forwards. We drafted Hogan, he left. We drafted Jackson, he left. We traded in Brown who helped us win a flag. And he is back in the team this week. We had a throw a the stumps at trying to make Gawn and Grundy into a ruck forward combo (with Grundy costing us hardly anything in the scheme of things). And we used valuable draft picks on JVR and Jefferson to bring in young talent. Petty looked like an excellent option up forward, still does but has been injured. But is back next week. And Fritter is arguably the most underrated forward in the AFL having finished atop our goal kicking table three years in succession. What would you have the club have done? Throw stupid money at who exactly last trade period? To trade in a A grade forward they one, have to be available, and two affordable vis a vis our salary cap. Who fit both criteria last trading period? Seriously, sometime i think some people just whack the club for their own amusement.

It's just awful. Kid had just come back from rehabbing a serious long terms hamstring/tendon issue. So much of the AFL's decision making seems to be driven by two interrelated things - money and growing the 'market' (read be the number one sport in oz and put NRL in the shade). Sure both things are important, but their number one purpose should be protecting the players and number two being a steward of the game. IMO they have failed on both counts in terms of concussion. And its hard not to think the whole OR concept is yet another fail, particularly when you consider they have added a round (gather round) to the season when really they should be looking to reduce the number of games played given how demanding AFL football now is. The season is just too long. And it is beyond irresponsible to ask the tigers to play in the heat and humidity of South Eat Qld in mid March (on a notoriously spongy ground) and ask them to back up 5 days later! I think I'm right in saying that fatigue is a risk factor in some injuries, like soft tissue injury and i think also ACLs. In addition to Gibcus dong an ACL Prestia did a hammy. Why didn't they play that game on the weekend? The AFL might argue the reason is so the Tiger's and Blues can have their now traditional stand alone Thursday night round one game that creates revenue for the home team. But it's hard not to think its more about a Thursday night game against two of the four biggest vic teams that is a ratings bonanza for seven and Fox. And instead of opening the OR with us and Sydney on the Thursday night they could have opened with the tigers v Suns - but probably didn't think it would rate as high.

Agree - applies to both individual games and seasons. Def a calculated gamble by the lions to risk early season losses by tinkering with their fitness program, if that's what they've done (I haven't watched the clip yet). One they obviously think is worth taking.

Don't mention the L word. Seems to be extremely triggering for some on here. Can you post a link to voss' comments please. Thanks in advance.

Key position forward (KPF) is, as i understand it, is the centre half forward and full forward, positions that are usually filled by talls. But I agree on what I assume is your point- fritter, who is arguably our full forward and could be considered a KPF, is very much a quality forward. So, far from not having any quality KPFs, we have two.

I'd be filthy if I was a tigers fan. How could the AFL not find a way to ensure the tigers had at least a 6 day break. Ridiculous.

You're kidding right. You don't regard JVR as a quality KPF? Give me a spell.

In what sense? Injured or lost interest?

Yeah, right. Their best kick and one of their top 10 players, not to mention key to their transition game is being left out because he is plodding it up. Not fit enough yet.

Yes, I agree. Perplexing decision, made doubly so by not making him the sub and not having a wound up, fit billings in the starting 22.

Mcrae has had an interrupted preseason and not yet AFL ready.

Game 87. Will bring up his 100 games of AFL footy, an exclusive club, with only aprox 17.5% of all VFL/AFL players having achieved that milestone. Life membership of the AFL too. Good onya omac.

You hide it well KDF.

True. But i suspect moving forward, Schache wont be competing with JVR to give Maxy a chop out. He will be working on his ruck craft at Casey. Based on his performance in the Swans game he'll be working on it at Casey for the foreseeable future.

An interesting dynamic created by the Opening Round concept is that 4 of the 8 teams (dees, giants, suns and lions) will be playing their second games for the season against teams playing their first (the pies are playing the swans and the tigers are playing the blues). Every year commentators talk about teams having a bit of ring rust in the first round and struggle a bit to pick up the speed and intensity. That could well be a myth, but if not, the 4 teams that played in the OR tjhat play teams playing their first games for the season could have an advantage over their opponents.

If it's between Tmac and BBB, and assuming both are are at the same level fitness wise, i suspect they will go with Tmac becuase he can do some centre square ruck duties, whereas BBB can't, and is a better ruck inside 50 than BBB. If they play BBB, JVR will have to give Maxy a chop out and i'd prefer he is allowed to just play forward.

This is the best emoji they could find for a demon? Looks more like an angsty goat. Better than the ones they chose for the hawks and Giants i guess.

As a rule, I'm against gratuitously booing oppo players. But all rules need some contextual flexibility, and im willing to make an exception in Maynard's case.

Just got home from being away for the long weekend Reading this thread, thinking it might be safe from the des copping grief form their own fans. Alas, not to be. DZ's post above was written during the Giants v Pies game, one the Giants went on to smash the Pies (easily could have been more). I'll keep reading. I wonder if I'll see multiple posts writing the Pies' flag chances off. Because you know, poor loss first round and it curtains and all that. Even if it is against a finalist from last year on their home deck in tricky conditions. Reasons = excuses. Some equal opportunity hyperbole. Or maybe there might some balanced comments about where the Pies are at?

I have two question. Mutiple teams have now had a clear strategy to physically target Max the whole game. This includes opposition rucks and talls smashing him at every ruck and marking contest. And every player taking the opportunity to bump into him and block him when he is running contest to contest. First question. Is there a line there in terms of that strategy being OK, particularly the blocking. Is it in the spirit of the game (yes, I know it's a tough sport etc)? On the latter, yes we got one off tge ball free when naxy was knocked to the ground. But there were heaps of other times he didn't. Should we be agitating with the afl to protect Max. And the second question is, yes Fullarton will help as he can give Max a a chop out, but what strategies can employ to mitigate the effectiveness of the oppo targeting Max?

Except for his kicking.

I just did/was. But you make a fair point. There were plenty of others who played worse.

I'm not one to bag players, and was more than happy to be open to the idea schache might be OK. But as we saw with weed, if a player hasn't got instinctive grunt and fire they rarely can develop it. Slippery night, so the talls get a pass on marking, but his lack of second efforts and inability to hold his ground are woeful. Both were on display in a contest where Grundy marked on the wing, on his chest. Weak effort by schache. They got a goal as a result. And those attributes means it hard to see him making it as a second ruck.

Has been an issue for several years. As has been a pattern not to adjust our method. Ironic that on a night we should of been kicking long for territory, we were linking up with hands. Again, our poor kicking was a massive factor. Slippery conditions exacerbate our kicking iusues because it exposes poor technique. Which made the decision not to start billings even more perplexing. And slippery conditions expose how much we rely on maxy's marking. Did he take a mark last night? Such a frustrating game to watch. Infuriating

Good call.