Jaded No More

I just can’t believe this involves us... but then again... of course I can!

It’s very possible that it’s a false positive. If he’s tested negative first. The chances of a false positive when you’re doing so many tests are quite high.

A lot of underdone players going in. Bennell, Vanders and Hannan do not leave me with great confidence of getting thru a full game. Massive call on Jones. Melksham was worse and he isn’t our ex captain and does not have nearly as many credits in the bank. He is on thin ice. Neal Bullen did a lot more than him and yet he is dropped. Seems unfair, although I’m not fan of ANB.

Demonland ? Edit - that was earlier in the week. I just read today's training thread and it appears he did train. So I have clue.

He didn't train this week. Could he just be not fit?

Gawn dominated the ruck last week too and it didn't help us much once Carlton learnt to read his taps.

The lack of respect for a player who has given his all for a decade and stuck fat when he should have gone elsewhere, is truly pathetic. Players are allowed to slow down towards the end of their career. The malice being shown towards him is completely unnecessary. He has done everything right by our club, and deserves the same back. That includes hero supporters sticking the boot in.

Agreed, and I also think that comes from playing with a crap backline for years where he was basically the only experienced player and tried filling in the holes as third man up. He needs to let that go and trust that Lever, who to be fair he has barely played with, can do that now. But it must be a hard habit to break. Smith on the other hand needs to calm his farm and just do the basics well first, rather than trying to outmark his dad at every contest. For me Smith is the perfect case of looks like a perfect footballer, plays like a mess. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

I also question just how fit he was, given he hasn't trained much last week or participated in the game simulation training. Can't be 100%, no matter what the coaches are saying in the media.

Yep. When your opponent is a foot taller than you, how else are you expected to defend? That match up was beyond stupid.

I love how he also made sure Carlton hit the post twice in the last quarter, thereby ensuring we won with a last minute miss by Fritsch. Genius!

They should put Hunt on Saad in a 'defensive' forward role. He has the speed and aggressiveness to go with him. Jones should play off half back, allowing Harmes to go back into the centre where he belongs.

I'm all for bringing him in, I've said so throughout this entire thread. Also he kicked 5 in a scratch match. So did Brown. I'm not exactly engraving their names on the Coleman medal as we speak.

That's nice to hear. I'm certainly going to struggle to pay my renewal for next season (given my membership is around $700). This might make it easier without needing to 'downgrade'... not that I'm worried about missing out on a grand final anytime soon

Play both, then there is no risk that you won't be at least a little disappointed

I'll judge him when they put him back in an inside mid role where he belongs. He isn't an outside player, and to force him to be one is just setting him up to fail. It's like asking Steven May to win centre clearances and wondering why he's not playing as well as he did at FB.

It isn't the end of the world that some people are making it to be. It is however a perfect reflection of our club as a whole. Just a bit of a hot mess. How you forget to look for the captain during the team song, the captain who is 8 foot tall with a bushy beard, is really very much in the same mysterious vein of how we can give up a 45 point lead.

I don't think we can play all 3 of Weideman, Jackson and Tmac, because Fritsch plays as a tall. He is not a ground ball player. It will leave us far too lumbering. As it is, when the ball hits the deck we are stuffed. But there is no rush for me with Jackson, whereas Weideman is at an age now where we need to find out if he can really play and be that CHF we are looking for. If he isn't, we need to reinvent him or cut our losses. But he has never played with enough continuity for us to find out. I refuse to believe that someone who played so well under the pressure of finals, does not have the talent to be a good solid player at the very least. And honestly, how many years does TMac have left with his feet? He can barely move as it is. Imagine in 2 seasons! We invested a lot into Weideman, and yet we won't invest game time into him.

Completely agree regarding Harmes. We've moved him out of necessity to fill a role that he is not suited for, thereby robbing us of a quality midfield player and not actually filling a role down back. This is Fritsch to the backline and Brayshaw to the wing 2.0. Fancy having a player come 3rd in the Brownlow playing as an inside mid, and then going "sorry, you might be slow and not a great kick, but go to the wing now and struggle to get a touch".

Hibberd kills us with turnovers. I rather Salem and Rivers be the playmakers at half back, and we either give Smith a few more games to find his feet, or we bring in Omac to free up Lever to play third man up. I know everyone likes to bash Omac, but defensively he is pretty good. With May taking the best tall, it takes pressure off him. He did a great job on Darling in Round 1 and I think they dropped him purely for balance this round. Although nobody can tell me that him playing on McKay would not have made more sense than Jetta on him! The biggest issue right now is we have no VFL, so how do you develop Jackson? We need to make a call whether winning games is the priority or developing these kids is. Weideman should play if we are all about winning. He isn't a world beater, but he has the body to at least half contests. Jackson has a lot of raw talent, but he isn't ready physically. They won't drop Jones. He was no worse yesterday than Melksham or Tmac, neither of which will be dropped. I'm afraid young Pickett is going to be have to suffer his punishment for another week, as ANB and Hunt both played OK, and it would send the wrong message to drop them in favour of Pickett, even tho you can tell he is already a better player. For me our forwardline is the biggest concern. We just have no contested marking targets down there. If we can't hit a player on the lead, we've lost the contest. I would honestly play Tmac deep, as he clearly is just lumbering around at CHF and moving at a glacial pace. Fritsch could give us more run playing half forward with Weideman. Ultimately tho, if one of Weideman or Tmac don't hit some red hot form, we are going to struggle to get out of the bottom 8. We just don't have enough avenues to goal, and even when we dominate through the middle, we very rarely translate that to scoreboard dominance, which means that when the going gets tough, the scoring disappears altogether.

Unfortunately we don’t have another year. He has this year to make the best of the [censored] situation every club finds themselves in. We aren’t unique in this Covid situation. 17 other clubs are dealing with it too. Financially we can’t afford another awful season. We need memberships now more than ever given how badly this year has hit our bottom line. I am certainly not suggesting we sack him right now. But another bottom 4 finish this season and you need to start to put some pressure on his position. We have a talented list that is just not living up to their promise. Whether that’s game plan, coaching, leadership or simply rawness and inexperience, only time will tell.

Apparently Goodwin is not to blame when we lose, when team selection or match ups don’t work, when the opposition beat us tactically, when there is no change in position or tactics to combat the other team, or when 3 defenders fly up for a mark, or when we can’t use the footy going inside 50, or basically for anything that is not right with the team. I give up knowing what he is actually responsible for. Seems a sweet gig, when you get paid to win games of footy but nobody actually blames you when you struggle to do that. Or when you give up a 45 point lead to fall over the line because the opposition hit the post twice in the last quarter.

How do you miss Gawn not being present? He’s kinda tall ?‍♀️?‍♀️

We looked exhausted after quarter time. What happened to our fitness being great again? Once again when the opposition put pressure on our ball carriers we fell apart. This is an issue that has plagued us for a long time and yet nothing has improved. Same goes for our ball use off half back and going inside 50. The sharp drop off in our clearance work was also very worrying. I expected it to balance up, but they smashed us in the 3 quarters that followed our fast start. Even without a ruckman. Our leadership vacuum continues. We still have no leaders. Gawn is wonderful. But where was the passion? We were losing grip of the game and Gawn, Viney, Jones, Jetta, Tmac... all the guys I expect to stand up did nothing. Trac was the only player who actually stood up. If we played any other team yesterday, we would have lost by 6 goals.

Goodwin McDonald Melksham Lever. Pick who does less on game day.