Pates

Those two stupid acts deserve an absolute scolding and he is very lucky he’s survived the chop on the back of them. For an impact player he isn’t making enough of an impact.

I’m ok with Preuss coming in but I was equally keen for them to keep Tom as the main ruckman and bring in Brown as the second tall forward. My reason being that Grundy will likely win most taps regardless of who we have in there, with Tom at least we might have someone to run him off his feet. It’s entirely possibly they might choose to do that during certain stages of the game and use Preuss as a tall target (hopefully he’s learned how to clunk some marks). The Pies have brought some serious quality in, fingers crossed they may be a little underdone and won’t have the usual impact. I want Viney to go hard for Pendles and tackle/smash him with authority, legally of course ?.

Don’t understand Rivers getting dropped, looked good to me.

I could be wrong but I think the club probably sees “dumping him” or leaving him behind in Melbourne as a bad move for his mental health and at the end of the day he is a contracted player so no harm in helping him rehab with the unlikely chance of him getting fully rehabilitated being something in the background.

Bring in Austin Bradtke? He rucked vs North in the practice match earlier this year. You asked for a 4th option! It’s a tough call, for me I just worry about Sam and Tom in the same forward line. They just don’t seem to click. I’d be leaning towards Brown for LJ and continue playing Tom as our ruckman with Tomlinson chopping out. If Grundy plays then tell Tom his number one job is to run hard all day to tire him out. That said the obvious choice is probably LJ out, Preuss in.

I’ve taken the absence of his name when injury updates are given as a clear indication that he is being rehabilitated towards retirement. Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s been working with the coaches a lot for perhaps a career post-footy. Concussions are such a difficult one to work out because it appears everyone reacts differently. But right now a footy club would be a good environment for him. Whatever happens I hope he doesn’t suffer ill effects through his life.

I think officially it was “ankle soreness” sounds like management so fingers crossed he’s good to go.

I guess they are actually keeping some of the behind the scenes footage going so I won't be shocked if we see a full fledged doco by the end of the year, though perhaps not if we don't make the 8! As for this, maybe pumping up our own tyres a little. Might've liked to see this come out after the Pies game should we win.

Sounds a lot like Salem vs the Cats.

I would imagine it probable makes the scenario towards the end of the year more simplified. As Simon Black said on Triple M the two point draws can help and hinder you. I just really wish the Suns had got across the line, sounded like their two late opportunities were not dissimilar from our stuff ups against the cats and the Lions.

For me the biggest thing that stunted Weids development was using him as our second ruckman, that’s been the beauty of recruiting Jackson and him being able to make an impact (a lot earlier than expected to be honest). Sam being our key forward has simplified his role and given him confidence. I wanted him in earlier, particularly when TMac was doing sweet FA, but Goodwin was adamant that he wasn’t showing enough in the scratch matches. Impossible to know these things for sure in hindsight, but Sam’s in now and for the time being I can see him going anywhere. Just needs to work on his set shots.

Apparently this week was the first competitive footy Preuss has played since getting injured. You’d have to imagine that TMac with match fitness would give us more across the ground than an underdone Preuss (who isn’t particularly great even when fully fit). Grundy looked pretty knackered against Adelaide and off a short break either he’ll be very underdone or they might just choose to rest him. If there’s doubt on Max then it’s an easy decision for me, give him time. Don’t burn him out. I really wish we’d rested him vs Adelaide but I suspect the decision was left to him and he wanted to play to make sure the club got the win.

In a strange way I almost feel like the finals have started for us, we can’t really afford anymore than two losses. Really needed to get a win from one of the Cats or Lions to give us a little buffer. On our day we can beat every one of those teams, but we aren’t consistent or mature enough to go on that big a run (in my opinion at least). We need to get the W against the Pies though, we are in a good position to do so and we have to press the advantages that we have (healthier list, longer break, strong fitness to run games out).

I saw this today, interesting thought. I often considered it to be an idea when he didn't seem to be working hard enough, but he was just so damn talented as a forward that he was always just ready to break a game open. Could be a good move for reintroducing him to league footy as well. That said if it were us I could picture every other fan saying that we're tanking.

I think this sums it up quite nicely, I had hopes for Harley making an impact late in the season so for him have played multiple games already is fantastic. But he is clearly lagging behind in the pressure department, Spargo is....well Spargo but you can’t knock a player for coming in and playing his role and doing what was asked of him. Maybe I’m imagining this but I remembered his kicking being quite decent in 2018, even if it lacked the ability to go past 40-45m. I don’t know if it’s a case of him feeling the pressure to perform but almost seems to try to hard to bullet the ball to a player. I’m keen to know how Bedford is doing though, he had flashes in the pre-season and of course combined well with Kozzie for our best goal of the WC game.

We were lucky to be getting anything for Clark, he was finished at our club for many reasons. I always wonder how his time at the club would’ve gone if he hadn’t have got that awful injury, he was killing it for us in his early games. The Pies cleaned up on that one big time, I think the cats were backing themselves to rebuild a player. H had some decent games for us, but never seemed close to hitting his Collingwood highs.

I wouldn’t disagree at all that the game has become over structured and managed with percentages etc. Frost ball is an exciting but for winning games it just didn’t seem to come off enough for me, I always had my heart in my mouth when he had the ball. On tonight’s game, Dunn’s haircut is the worst seen in the AFL for years. Absolutely awful. Also welcome back Lynden!

What I’ve seen of this riveting match is that Adelaide have actually had equal amounts of opportunities but the pies have just been cleaner with taking their chances.

He was good against us, but his deficiency still exists and always will. There are games his “Frost Ball” will look amazing and create something, then 5min later it will cost goals. It’s why I wasn’t gutted about him leaving (though still a little disappointed).

Given the tough financial situation the clubs faced with COVID I wonder whether they tried to push for a second game in Alice. I was very strong on the idea that we play two matches back to back there and that one of the opponents be the bombers. Still I’m just really glad it will be happening (touch wood), with it entirely possibly neither Hawks or Roos could get to Tassie this is definitely as much of an advantage we could hope for. The next few matches will make or break our season.

We’re a much better team with Gawn but I do think our midfield started getting lazy expecting taps to come straight down their throats. Much like our lack of planning with kick outs (ie just kick it to Max) I think there needs to be some variation brought into ruck contest, particularly if they are sharking his taps too well. We have a genuine weapon in Gawn, let’s not waste him by behind one dimensional.

When he slows down he actually makes very good decisions, as for overhead he his actually a surprisingly good overhead mark. Against a player of similar size he rarely gets beaten and then like a cat tends to land on his feet. I think playing his in the HF area could definitely be something to consider, the only issue is does it upset the mix in the forward line? If we’re assuming right now that Weid, Jacko, Pickett, Melksham, and Fritta are walk up starts right now and we throw in Viney with AvB and Hannan who misses? The selection committee have already shown they really like AvB but I don’t know if you can have both him and Viney in the forward line. I am definitely of the thought that we should try Viney in a forward position though.

Hard to use the combo of Adelaide and North without pointing out the in Adelaides case they are a young side and younger teams are prone to fade outs (boy we are experienced in watching that!), while North were down almost one fit player on the bench in the last quarter. I also recall Adelaide went down a player early from Nibblers tackle. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be pleased with the fitness side of things we’ve seen, and we’ve finished with a flurry twice against top teams but just couldn’t get over the line. If we’re looking at a true fitness test/advantage than this week vs the Pies should be the time to press it. They have the shorter break and bigger injury list, even if Pendles gets up for it he will surely be underdone. While we should have a rested Viney and Gawn returning. A rev up from Burgess reminding them of everything they’ve done would be timely given the finish of the condensed rounds.

I was thinking that, I just worry that our forward doesn’t seem to click when Tom is in there. Still he could be running on empty young Jacko, though if he was I wasn’t seeing it against North.

My biggest knock on him right now is he isn’t kicking goals, he needs to start hitting the scoreboard. Especially now that he’s getting into that position more and more now. Aside from that I’m definitely a fan.