poita

So Cordner and Newman are gone, basically for an early second round pick. https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/08/04/2020-aflw-trade-period-tracker-and-analysis/ Not sure what to make of that given that we paid more than that for Birch last year, although she is a fair bit younger than Cordner. Anything less than a top 5 pick for O'Dea would be a poor result. And we certainly need something decent back if Smith goes.

Rubbish changes from a coach who has completely lost the plot. One bad game doesn't detract from the fact that we finally had a decent structure in the past few weeks. Now we've replaced a tall defender and a tall forward with more midfield / utility players, even though we already have Harmes, Brayshaw and Jones playing out of position. We have Gawn hobbling around on one leg, but no key position players on the bench. Bad luck if he breaks down in the first quarter. Presumably we pull Jackson out of the forward line and revert to the one tall forward structure that worked so poorly earlier in the season. We're building our forward line around a bloke who averages 0.25 goals and 1.5 marks a game. Tom McDonald was poor last week, but he was no worse than Jackson's 2 kicks, 0 marks and 0 tackles. Meanwhile coach's pet Melksham continues to get a game each week despite simply refusing to contribute anything other than receive cheap uncontested possessions inside forward 50. We should beat Adelaide regardless of who we put on the field, but this is the not structure that will beat any half decent side.

Why the fork was Gawn still running around in the closing minutes of Thursday's game? With a short turnaround he should have been in his tracksuit by the 10 minute mark of the last quarter. More coaching masterstrokes from the master coach.

No issues at all with the club wanting to bring in some young talent - the top draftees are getting better each year and we haven't gone to the draft enough in the past two seasons. That said, losing that amount of experience in one hit has to be a massive concern. Losing any more than two of O'Dea, Smith, Cordner and Newman is a problem in an even competition unless there is a heap of compensation coming back the other way. I wonder to what degree Casey and / or the coach are an issue here. I can understand players not wanting to travel to Cranbourne for little remuneration after working a full week, and Stinear has hardly maximised the talent at his disposal in the past four years.

Gawn can't kick, so it is pointless him being in the forward line. More importantly it takes him away from playing a kick behind play. lso, Jackson is useless in the ruck, unless he is going to stay down and rove to the opposition ruckman. Not his fault, he just isn't tall enough to be a modern day ruckman.

We seem to have a team rule at the moment that nobody can take a shot from outside 40. That makes it pretty difficult for the midfielders to break the lines and have a shot on the run like most teams do. We also do such a poor job of opening up our forward line that there is no room for the midfielders to drop into a hole and take a mark.

We also have, if you believe these figures: 56. Viney $675 - $725K 59. McDonald $675K - $725K 66. Petracca $650K - $700K 86. Brayshaw $600K - $650K That would give a minimum of $5.6M between eight players. It is hard to imagine we have too much cap space available once you bring in Melksham, Hibberd, Langdon, Tomlinson and Harmes who would get another $2M - $2.5M between them.

This has been happening at this club since the days of Travis Johnstone. Extract the digit in a contract year, go through the motions for a few years, then go hard again when the dollars are back on the table. Its hard to believe after all this time that players are basically unaccountable for their performances whilst under contract. Sure they may drop back to the seconds for a couple of weeks, but they still get paid the same each week.

Absolutely destroyed by a incompetent and inept football department. We started the year by bulking him up so he could play the Hawkins role out of the goal square, which was never going to be his go. He has always been an endurance athlete. Then Goodwin belatedly works out we need Weideman in the side, so we send McDonald out to half forward only to find out he can't run with this extra weight. Plus he already has Melksham, Fritsch and Hannan operating in the same areas, none of whom can take a mark or apply a tackle. McDonald could still be a good second tall forward, as he was when Hogan was monstering defences in 2018 and taking all the opposition attention, but Weideman doesn't have the same presence.

What a gutless, skill-less, soulless performance by a group of supposedly professional sportspeople. This club continues its unparalleled streak of treating its supporters with contempt. This is 100% on the playing group, but Goodwin's decision to mess with both his forward line structure and his midfield combination off a four day break against the top side is number one on a very long list of bone-headed coaching decisions he has made in the past 18 months. Sparrow tried hard and was far from the worst, but had no impact at centre bounces, was flogged by Boak around the ground and kept Petracca out of the middle. Surely Harmes or Brayshaw should have been given the extra midfield time, not a third gamer. As for the forward line, what an absolute disaster. Three tall forwards and Port took uncontested marks all night in our 50. Surely one of Weideman or McDonald could have at least run through a defender at some point, rather than meekly submitting. 5 players combined for 25 tackles, the other 17 for 17 tackles between them. I'm so sick of players like Melksham prancing around like they are the sh*t when they get a cheap goal, but who refuse to go when it is their turn. Hannan and Fritsch are just as bad. Salem and Oliver had over twenty possessions each for less than 200 metres gained. Oliver's kicking is abysmal. Salem epitomises everything that is bad about this team - slow down the ball with cheap 20 metre kicks sideways, give off hospital handballs to avoid taking contact, act tough after the event. Viney is a dumb footballer. Harmes is in career worst form and Brayshaw can't get near it. Pickett is never in the right spots, has no goal sense and is undisciplined. Jackson is an athlete masquerading as a footballer - terrible draft pick. Meanwhile Port draft genuine footballers who understand the game, make good decisions and use the ball well. They won't have great highlight reels, but they'll have much better careers. You can pretty much guarantee we'll drop at least one of the Adelaide and North games now - that performance will have destroyed any confidence in the group. Another season wasted, with no prospect of adding decent talent at year end.

It's not netball, players are allowed to move out of their position once the ball has been bounced. Start one of them at half forward and they move straight into the centre. If you are getting flogged in clearances, it makes sense to have an extra player around the ball (ie Harmes).

Didn't see the game last night, but note that both coaches gave Lachie Neale 5 votes in the coaches award. What did Goodwin do to negate Neale's influence, or was it simply a matter of having Viney trying to have an impact the other way? I don't understand why we no longer use Harmes to run with the opposition's best midfielder, particularly when the opposition is on top as Brisbane were in the second quarter.

The terrible team selections in the first five rounds and the improved showings with a better balanced side in the past two rounds would suggest that the coaches don't know more than us.

Sure, if they'll trade him for Kolodjashnij.

Only needs to wipe out the occasional really catastrophic kicking error to become a very good player. He was a good acquisition for what we gave up for him, and he will be better for a season with this group.

By far the best team we have picked all year, but still a few issues. At least we are heading in the right direction. Tomlinson and Hunt both pay the price for some really weak efforts at the contest last week. I thought Tomlinson was okay against Geelong, but he was poor against Richmond. On that basis, Melksham should have been first one out, but he is clearly a protected species. McDonald never should have been dropped and our defensive structure works much better with him there. I would have given Smith a couple of weeks playing forward, but maybe that will come later in the season. Good to see Bennell back, although I'm not sure we can have both he and Vandenberg playing limited minutes without causing issues elsewhere. I've been calling for a second tall forward all year - finally Goodwin gets it (that's why he gets paid the big $$). I'm no fan of Weideman, but we need another big body in the forward line and there aren't many options. Jetta is the only inclusion I'm not thrilled with. Rivers struggled last week, but has much greater value long term than Jetta does.

Should senior AFL players be taking precautions to ensure that they aren't having babies in the middle of the AFL season? Or is that an infringement of their human rights? Would Richmond be so understanding of Edwards & Houli not travelling interstate if it was in the middle of the finals series? Would the players make the same decision if they were missing finals? I get that players want to be with their families, and I fully support that, but they get paid a hell of a lot of money partly because there are sacrifices involved with being professional athletes.

Maybe they could drop back to 4 star accommodation, or move a suburb back from the beach, to free up some money for the whole list to travel together. I get injured players not travelling, and possibly those who won't be on the list next year, but Baker (for example) has a contract for next year. What does it say to him that he is not worth being included?

I know we have mainly played Corey as a defensive forward, but I can't imagine he'd be any worse than Lockhart and Jetta have been as a small defender.

The North trade was a dumb trade at the time and it looks even dumber now that a bottom four finish is all but guaranteed. Pickett will be a good player if he can put on some weight so he is not pushed off the ball so easily, but he is icing on top of a non-existent cake. Jackson was a blatantly poor selection who fits none of our needs, present or future. Whether he is an undersized ruckman, an oversized midfielder, a speculative key forward prospect or all three, he was simply the wrong choice for a club with so many glaring holes in its list.

Why have we not had Schwarz, Neitz or Lyon down at the club working with Weideman from day dot? All of these guys were competitors, they attacked the football and they demanded the ball from their teammates. If not them, then find someone who will help him out, because it sure is not going to be coming from Rooke, Chaplin or any of the other lightweights we have running the forward line. Weideman is lacking in all of these respects and we should have been constantly working on these parts of his game. Instead we waste crucial development time playing him in the ruck or letting him chase kicks around the ground. It is alarming how badly we develop players over and over again.

The scariest thing about that performance is that we are not in any way a young side. We had two first year players, Rivers & Pickett, who are not close to being our worst players. Our next youngest player was Oliver, who is in his fifth season and has played 86 games. We're wasting time and effort putting games into Smith, Lockhart, Vandenberg and others who are deeply flawed players. We're carrying guys like Wagner x2, Kolodjashnij, Brown and Preuss who can't get near the senior side. None of these guys are going to improve at age 24 and above. Where are our promising youngsters? Who are the budding replacements for Jetta (30), Gawn (28), May (28) and McDonald (almost 28)?

Max is the least of our problems, but his shocking kick from defence in the first quarter set the standard that the rest of the team followed for the rest of the day, and he compounded it by dropping several fairly straight forward marks in the same quarter. I agree that he is trying to hard and hope that he doesn't burn himself out in what is already a stressful period for everyone.

Totally agree with this. And we have the same issue in the forward line as well. That is 100% on the coach and the selectors.

Remind me again who were the key defenders when we finished top 4 in 2018? I'll give you a clue, they weren't Smith or Lever.