Yung Blood

I'm talking about in game fatigue. We're not coping at times with increased physicality. Big bodies of Port and Hawthorn were really hurting us around the contest. Needless to say we're on the same page. Be the aggressor, hunt from the start.

I think fatigue might play a factor as well here. The last two weeks have been really physical games. I think the boys have taken a fair beating and it shows when making decisions in game. Not making excuses but I think teams are making a consertive effort to really hunt us with tackling and physicality around the ball and its showing. Need to weather the storm and make sure we're the aggressor. I thought we set the tone early in that Port game.

I get what you're saying re Brown. Give him a few more weeks to find some continuity with the team. Hopefully some consistency can be found in how we deliver the ball to him. But not sure if I would go as far as to say he's more critical to our structure then ANB, Kossie and Fritta will ever be. Apart from kicking 72 goals between them they are crucial to our forward line structure especially defensively which is how we have generated most of our scoring this season. Definitely need to see more from Brown to warrant a spot come finals. Some signs starting to show the last few weeks that might come to fruition. Fingers crossed!

Not concerned if Bailey is doing some slightly cheap stuff off the ball. Most smaller sized forwards do this to gain an edge. Eddy and Toby do it brilliantly.

God I hope its Saturday not Friday. We need all the rest we can get after the physicality of the last two games. Hawthorn especially I thought were ferocious with their tackling and body work around the ball. Sore boys.

Unfortunately the game has changed too much for the deep stay home forward out of the goal square to come back any time soon. It's mostly due to defensive structures. Most teams play a zone defense these days meaning they defend space as well as their man. Having a forward stay deep is problematic as most of the time opposition either play an extra defender or have a defender zone off their man to fill the hole between the key forward and the play up field. You would see many more two on one's if the strategy was to play someone predominantly deep. It's too predictable. The only time you see genuine one on ones in the forward half is usually off a turnover causing a transition where the deepest forward (about 50m mark on average) pushes hard enough back before the opposition get back to set up the zone (or you catch defenders ball watching/napping) May and Lever are so successful because they play predominantly inside forward 50 and zone off their men so well. Hence why opposition are now trying to pull them out and make them more accountable away from their forward 50 where they eat up intercepts.

Yeah nope. Most of the time forward 50 was vacant when in oppositions forward half.

When you say hold position you mean a forward stay back deeper? These days that's probably the 50m mark. Very rare you ever get a deep position forward position on any team in 2021.

How has Melksham been going for Casey? Hows his pressure been? We rely so much on forwardline pressure to produce turnovers resulting in scoring opportunities. Kozzy gives you so much added pressure when he doesn't have the ball. Sure, he hasn't been good offensively the last few weeks but I was at the game on the weekend and his repeat defensive efforts to close in on the oppositions backs was still evident. I would worry about losing our fastest high energy small forward whom for the majority of the season has been a catalyst for our forward half success. Melksham has been slow underwhelming at best.

This has been my preference for a while now to leave out the other tall. Neither Brown or Weid are playing good enough footy right now to deserve a spot. Jackson has been building nicely this season. He's spent less time in the ruck of late and looks more and more imposing up forward. He's been taking strong contested grabs on the wings and I think the coaches believe this could translate to better marking contests deeper inside forward 50. Max/Jackson to spend more time on ground switching between forward/ruck. This is my favourite mix so far this season. We should see Bailey and Trac more involved as targets as well.

Tmac is expecting second kid mid next week. On standby to return if it comes early. Might miss Mondays game if thats the case. https://www.afl.com.au/news/628885/key-dee-could-miss-pies-clash-due-to-a-different-birthday

He will be in the extended 40 man squad you would think if he maintains this form. But not the best 22. Unfortunately the 'wing' role isn't of significance to the AA team as its just 'midfield' hence why no pure wingers ever really get in. Its all centre square midfielders.

IN: Lockhart, Langdon Out: Melksham, Hunt or Salem Easy

So Tmac is equal 17th with a few other players kicking 20 goals 10 behinds for the season so far. I think there's a strong argument for him being in the conversation for AA, at least the way he's tracking. If you look at it this way, out of the top 20 forwards (goal kicking wise) whom he would be best compared to this season, Tom ranks: Marks - 3rd Disposals - 1st Tackles - 4th Inside 50s - 2nd Contested Possession 3rd Uncontested - 1st Goal assists 3rd 1%'s - 2nd He's also had a decent amount of hitouts as a forward with two rucks in the team. The main things against him as an upper potential All Australian is his contested marks and marks inside 50 are on the lower end of that group. If we see more of that and obviously pushing the top 10 for goals who knows!

Yeah. Hunt's speed would suggest he'd be in the picture to play on him but I've watched Cameron a fair bit this season and he really dislikes contact and physicality. I think we'll see players rotated including Hibberd, Rivers, Hunt and maybe even Salem to make him accountable on a dangerous player.