Cheesy D. Pun

100%

Yep. Harmes was at plenty of centre bounces in round one.

What I've noticed is that we seem to be changing it up constantly. I love that because it seems like a really offensive mindset. Keep them guessing and give them something different to deal with at every centre bounce. Predictability has been a weakness for us in there and having Clarry and Viney at every centre bounce only gives you so many ways to clear the ball and this is why I think we eventually get picked off. Every mid seems to be getting a look at a centre bounce and this is why I can't see us dropping LJ. He's not just giving Max a chop out, he's genuinely holding his own in there and has actually helped facilitate a lift in clearance numbers a couple of times. In summary, keep throwing different looks at them.

Haha... definitely. Well put.

They are not competing for the same spot. You can only have two of LJ, Weed, Brown or TMac. Rotations could see 3 of them in the same side but at least one has to play at Casey.

I loved the quote from Goodwin's presser that Langdon had no idea that Goody coached from the bench because he'd never been there.

Yep. He's not really playing as a key forward at all. We shouldn't underestimate what that kind of flexibility provides to the team. He's playing very large portions in the ruck and holding his own.

I don't think he's been brilliant Lord, but he played a good 4th qtr last week when we needed it. Being quiet doesn't necessarily equate to being poor. He is being asked to play an outside role that probably doesn't suit him and there may also be defensive KPIs that he's meeting. That said, I'm really not sure what to do with him but I don't want Melksham to play another game, if possible.

It will be really interesting to see what happens when everyone is available. I hope there's not too much experimentation with our balance. We know two talls works and other combinations have failed previously. We have to be ready for the possibility that at least one of LJ, Weed, Brown or TMac could play all or the majority of their footy at Casey. Trying to appease them all is recipe for disaster, IMO.

I've loved everything I've seen from this guy thus far - I don't understand the criticism on this page. He's a 19 year old ruckman/midfielder/forward that contributes something positive every week while providing the flexibility we need to be able to try something different if we need to. He is so much further along than I expected him to be when he was drafted.

Haha..well played. You could definitely just tack 'going forward' on the end of any of this list without too much drama.

Great response to my post and I think my, probably over zealous, excitement comes from the fact that both games felt like they were won in the coaches box, which hasn't really happened for a long while.

Yeah, amazing that our forward efficiency has been quite good given that our current forward line looks average on paper. I agree Brayshaw and Jones aren't the answer on a wing, but I'm also skeptical of other solutions that have been thrown up. Salem is a great 1v1 ball winner and distributor out of the back half, Hunt is one of the last guys you'd want putting the ball inside 50. Beyond that, Baker could come in but if the wing doesn't work for him, he doesn't have the tools to play anywhere else. ANB, maybe?

6. Salem 5. Oliver 4. Petracca 3. Tomlinson 2. Pickett 1. Jones Honourable mention to the entire small forward brigade - Spargo, ANB et al. - before this season, I thought that our success would hinge on our forward pressure. Round 1 showed we might be able to win in other ways but round two belonged to our small forwards whose pressure was off the charts.

This. It's a commonsense strategy for a specific situation. The coaching across the first couple of games has been phenomenal. We won playing a back half game while getting smashed at the stoppages in round 1 and then we completely nullified the Saints run and won plenty of stoppages while creating incredible forward pressure in round 2. The skills and determination of our list have not changed over the last few years but the cohesion of the team and ability of the coaches to implement dynamic game plans across the first two weeks of this season is really exciting. Long may it continue.

This whole winning thing must really irk you Goodwin haters.

I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings to the side but he actually causes a bit of a conundrum with what to do with Max when he's resting. Moving LJ into the ruck for a substantial period in the 2nd qtr proved to be pivotal and Maxy was good ahead of the ball without dominating. I might be wrong, but I'm not sure you can have Max and Brown sitting in the forward half without severely hindering our ability to apply pressure.

100% agree with this. When we had no forward structure ahead of the ball in the second qtr, I was cursing him, but he reacted quickly. This was a a really good performance from a coaching perspective.

Ridiculous thread. Shut it down.

Absolutely stoked with that performance. We shut down everything the Saints wanted. Massive tick for Goodwin.

Deadly serious. Ticketmaster aren't my first choice for managing a pandemic.

I probably didn't make it very clear but I mean a real mistake like losing the check-in data of 50,000 people making contact tracing near impossible.

This is fantastic!

That's a fair point but the QR code is capturing where you are not where you're meant to be. If they're adhering to a proper COVID-safe plan, there should be QR codes at a range of locations in the venue. I haven't been to a game post-COVID, so can't vouch for what is happening, but I work in events and have unfortunately had to pull together a bunch of these plans. Also, that information sits with the ticketing company and not the DHHS, where it needs to be to efficiently track the virus. You can't leave pandemic control measures to private companies. If they make a mistake, they would have no accountability.

If everyone was logged as being at the turnstiles and a subsequent COVID case is found that means quarantine/testing for the entire crowd. Individual QR codes for different areas allows for targeted tracing.