Pates

That's exactly how I've seen him, but it doesn't appear to be the way we're playing him. So they need to sort out the structure to allow him to do what he does best.

I'm not really concerned about Lever himself, but I am curious about how the club are playing him now and planning on playing him in the future. He was recruited on the back of an excellent year of intercept marking where he was given opponents he could run off to help out his fellow defenders. What is he for us? Is he an intercept marker, or is he a true defender expected to beat larger players one on one?

100% agree, it was the same issue we had against them last year, all in their heads. In recent years we have given up early big leads in the first quarter giving them the perfect start. 2015 Round 19 - North kicked 7.4 to our 2.0 2016 Round 3 - North kicked 8.2. to our 2.2 (albeit with a strong Hobart wind) 2017 Round 9 - North kicked 6.7 to our 2.5 2017 Round 19 - North Kicked 4.4 to our 2.0 (again a strong Hobart wind) Now I recognise the two games at Hobart provided them with the strong wind to start of with but we can't keep giving up those early leads to them. At the very least this week we have to make sure we've broken even, but if I was a part of the match committee I would be making this a strong focus for the players this week. To come out hard and fast against them to put them on the back foot.

I've never been a massive opponent to pokies being involved in the footy club revenue. If people wish to use them they do so on their own volition, as long as there was no active advertisement of it then play on I felt. It's more the sports gambling with sportsbet, TAB etc that I've had issues with, particularly the odds being discussed/shown during the telecast. There should be a blanket ban on that side of things and I'd support no sponsorship by those betting agencies being allowed. How much space do the pokies take up at those venues? I hope they're considering creative ways to utilise the space in order to drum up additional cliental.

I remember a fair few at the club were picking him to explode last year and he fell really flat. He's got great pace but doesn't see enough of the ball and hasn't been damaging (in the past). But this is a new year so new beginnings, if he's given a chance I hope he takes it. I still think Brayshaw should be finding a way into the 22 but he's in that bracket of players that are thereabouts.

How long do we give Hunt on his current form slump? Everyone (me included) are very quick to look at Wagner to be dropped but Hunt's first two games have been shocking and certainly worse than Wagner. I do wonder whether he's being played too defensively and not given license to see ball, get ball, and run.

A thought occurred to me about us this year just thinking about 2017. I remember just before we were due to play the tigers last year I was very unconvinced by them. They limped across the line a couple of times and got some serious luck early but things clicked for them. I’m not suggesting that we’re going to do the exact same thing but early form isn’t necessarily an indicator for the entire year. Look at the Swans. 0-6 but managed to storm home. I guess what I’m saying is we didn’t play well over the weekend but we got the 4 points. We played well for 3 quarters last week and were very unlucky (shooting ourselves in the foot) to not win. If we can ride this early form fluctuation and get more wins than losses than our hopes of finals and more will hopefully come to fruition. We just HAVE to beat North this weekend.

Seeing the first two games I’m wondering what the long term plan is with Lever. He is at his best when he is able to play as an interception marker not a one on one stance style defender. I’m confident he will come into his own as a player at Melbourne but we have got to play him to his strengths. I’m certainly less confident about us beating North Melbourne than I was before the season started. But we have to get this monkey off our backs.

So I’ve taken the breath away from the forum after the game and been able to process what we watched. Here are some thoughts: The lions are not as bad as what people think they are. While they might not win a hell of a lot of games Fagan has them believing in themselves and each other. They also do actually have some really good players so when things click they click well. That said we did the very Melbourne thing of letting them back in the match. At 42pts up we should be at least keeping them at arms length for the rest of the game. We can still not handle the opposition getting a run on, no matter who they are. We seem to lose our heads and any semblance of a structure, we give away stupid free kicks (Hunt, Lewis), and spoil each other or just not communicate. Lewis is meant to be our experienced rock and he failed in that role tonight. When we needed someone down there to be able to drag the players up he seemed to do the opposite. On the positive side our forward line worked into good positions and the midfield was able to deliver the ball to them on a platter. They took most of their opportunities early and that was the difference at the end. Clarry is a gun, we really have something special with him. Petracca did some very important things, while Jones was good though I felt he went missing when we needed him to step up in the third quarter. Gawn and Martin was a great ruck battle. I’d call it even at the end. Jetta will be annoyed he had his colours lowered a bit this game, he still went hard with guts but he was beaten on the night. Goodwin needs to address this very serious issue of conceding runs of goals. We will never get anywhere if it continues.

A win is a win. 3rd quarter lapse almost screwed us but we got there in the end. Take a bow Garlett, Hogan, and Oliver. Gawn battled hard all night and was well contested against Martin. We still look so shaky when the pressure is on our season is off the mark.

[censored] we needed that.

We dropped numbers back back but we didn't do it properly.

Drop Lewis. Drop him, drop him, drop him.

This is it, season on the line here. We can't lose this. STEP. THE. F---. UP!!!!!!

We needed Jesse to kick that. Lever needs to keep his feet. Game on. FFS

Jesse......

Lewis WTF.

I hope Goodwin gives the group a spray for that quarter, yet again the team taking the foot off the throat and letting them back in. Contested ball is what we're know for and it really felt like the Lions were killing us in that area. Wake up Dees!!!!!

We're losing the stoppages, they are going harder. We need a steadying goal. Someone step the F--- up!

Got to pick up our efforts here. Young sides can get a run on with confidence and that's exactly what happened last year. Our senior players need to step up and steady the ship.

Tyson hit someone (ANB I think) lace out off two steps from the boundary line which resulted in a goal. How much better do you want him to get?

Frustrating that in all his time off and over the pre-season, Bugg is still a shocking kick for goal. Good first half, we've been cleaner and it's shown. I actually feel like Brisbane got on top of us with winning the ball and didn't allow us as many clean possessions but they just don't have the finishing skills to make us pay. If we blitz them early in the 3rd quarter than it could be game over and we can cruise home. Hogan and Garlett have been very good today and Bugg should've made the most of Hogan's hard work.

Because while the saints have talked him up at times they haven’t trotted him out like some saviour and thrown him to the wolves. Still the level of scrutiny Watts had to endure during his career with us is unparalleled.

The plan is simple, we win the midfield battle and don’t give them the opportunity to get the ball in with and space. This will allow Lever to run off his man to intercept when needed. I didn’t watch this game (sounds like that’s a blessing I should be thankful for) but we should be beating both teams this year. Its on our players to take the next step in ability and mentality.