Little Richard

I'm not entirely sure of the dates but is there a correlation between a number of our players' development stagnating and Brendan McCartney leaving the club?

The definition of stupidity is seemingly having a game plan in place where players bomb it long into the forward line whilst only playing one (rubbish) tall forward in Tom McDonald. A neanderthal could come up with a better avenue to goal. Drop McDonald and bring in Brown and Weideman FFS.

We're going backwards at a rate of knots.

Punt Road mate. Also didn't see Jonesy at all, not sure if he only played the first bit or not at all.

I watched some of the second half through the fence, was difficult to see what was going on at times but saw Weid kick at least two, one from a smart lead and nice hit up by ANB and the other from a well judged contested mark. Harley Bennell looked a level above and looked as though he was barely trying. Skills and running patterns were elite. The other stand out for me was Kyle Dunkley who looked really good in the middle and in the clinches around the ground. Can't offer much more than that unfortunately, except that I stood in dog [censored] as I was walking back to my car.

I can't stand Lyon and have never wanted him as coach in the past. But now it suddenly seems that he'd be the perfect fit for our list - that coach that can focus on getting the best out of players that are near their prime and instil a disciplined, proven game plan.

Surely he can't find a way to squirm his way out of this one...

Or we could look at it as an opportunity to hit Richmond while they're well off their mark. Obviously we're playing trash football too but I'd rather face this Richmond than Richmond of 2019.

Unfortunately I think the facts point to the contrary in that regard.

I'm with you on that. As long as they work hard on their leading patterns too, three talls might just be the change we need up forward, and something we haven't had for a while.

Great to hear mate, just gave him a follow on Twitter ?

Agreed, it was the biggest take away for me too but I felt like I harped on about it enough yesterday. Yesterdays game has eradicated a huge amount of the confidence I had in Goody. Coaches can certainly adapt and improve over time, but we just aren't seeing that with Simon.

Watched it again and regret it. However these are my major takeaways from the painful spectacle that was yesterdays match. Positives: Hibberd looked better than he has in a long, long time. Hard at it and used the ball far more intelligently. Joel Smith improved plenty on his performance from last week. The jury is still out on whether he’ll make it as a defender but improvement was more than welcome. Viney looks set to continue his strong form this year. May and Lever looked better together. Obviously there is a long, long way to go before Lever reaches the form he was in at Adelaide (if ever) but some improvement and more cohesion was good. Kozzie splitting a pack in the third quarter like a bloke 30cm taller and 30kg heavier. Everything he does is class. Negatives: I was a big fan of Lockhart after round one but yesterday his composure was non-existent. Pinged three times (?) holding the ball when trying to take an extra step or moment through traffic was simply not good enough. Needs to work on his awareness. VandenBerg looks a long way off the pace. Hoping he finds his feet quickly, along with some of that 2018 form. No second key forward… what the hell was the selection committee thinking? Goodwins failure to react to Geelong’s obvious game plan was criminal. Dangerfield and Selwood both with repeat efforts at playing and diving for frees. Expected but doesn’t make it any easier to watch, pathetic.

Agreed on that.

I think Viney deserves a bit more credit for his performance yesterday. Stood up late in the game to drive us forward a number of times and gave us as good a shot as any at winning that game.

Yeah at least there were 44 goals kicked when we lost by 186 points though! Jeez.

I thought it was a vast improvement on his round 2 performance tbh, looked far more composed and played a much smarter game down back. Still a long way to go though.

One of our best today.

Yes it was well and truly overpayment for what he's produced so far. However I think today he showed some solid improvement and was able to play to his strengths. The defenders looked liked they'd been working on it, with May and Smith both wrapping up their man at times, allowing Lever to fly and mark or spoil. There's not much else we can do with him right now - we're not delisting him and we're not trading him and can only hope he finds the elite form he showed at Adelaide.

Who knows what could happen today. In the interest of manifesting positive energy, I'm expecting Tommy Mac to find his feet and stand up as our focal point up forward. 7 goals and 3 or 4 contested marks. Dees by 44.

I hope so, I'll be spewing if he doesn't make it to 300 games... I suppose the chances of him being on the list next year aren't great though.

He's shown promising glimpses, but he's neither a 'star' nor a 'good average player'. He's a 20 year old kid who has played 11 games and is still finding his feet. I do think he'll have a role to play in the firsts going forward though, whether that be forward or back.

Goody has just confirmed that Kozzie is a lock for this week. Great news!

Hawks supporters usually give them a run for their money! Thankfully they've been a bit quieter the last few years... Bombers supporters just have that totally unfounded, smug arrogance. Anyway, this week is such an unknown. Got a feeling we'll beat them convincingly, but that is based on absolutely nothing.

Agreed, they're usually a pretty arrogant bunch at the best of times. Their midfield is certainly smaller but it's much quicker than ours. Hoping the additions of Langdon and Tomlinson will help balance this out.