poita

Amazing how often you get injured when you don't give 100%. If the other bloke is going harder than you, of course you will come off second best.

Wagner's been good, without being super. It is certainly noticeable that when his intensity drops off, even by a few percent, he looks very average, very quickly (1st half Geelong). When he is really attacking the ball and his opponent at full bore, he looks so much better (2nd half Geelong). That said, I think his decision making and disposal is questionable under real pressure, and I don't think we have seen the team under much pressure in the last two weeks. The next two weeks will be a much better test of whether he will make it.

Jesse's work rate was extraordinary on Saturday. There are times he needs to play from the goal square, and times he needs to play up the ground. We are very lucky that he is so capable at both, however we definitely need another big body up forward when Jesse is not there.

In: Pedersen, Brayshaw Out: Pick from Melksham, Neal-Bullen, Fritsch, Vince, Jetta (looks injured to me) Lever and Frost both lucky, but I think we need three talls against Hawthorn. One will go for Richmond.

Quality teams with good intercept marks will destroy us if we persist with this strategy. With Hogan roaming far and wide, and Pedersen and McDonald out of the team, who exactly are the big bodies that are crashing packs and creating opportunities for the crumbers? So far we have been lucky that Taylor & Henderson at Geelong, and then Tarrant at North have been missing. Arguably Majak Daw was our best forward on the weekend. Hawthorn and Richmond will be licking their lips if we try it against them. Rance might just set a new record for marks in a couple of weeks.

Good on Christian for turning things around, but it is a little disappointing that he had to be told these things at year end. It should have been apparent to him throughout the year that he wasn't fit enough and, if not, the coaches should have been all over him about it. Obviously injury and illness were a factor initially, but he has basically wasted the first four years of his career by just cruising along. He was very good on Saturday, particularly in the third quarter, so hopefully that level of effort becomes his new normal.

Clayton is a star. Yes, he was relatively quiet by his very high standards on Saturday, but 2 goals and 20 possessions against a hard tag is pretty handy for quiet day. We've had plenty of good players in the past 30 years, but most of them have had an enormous gap between their best and worst football. If Clayton can still contribute on his lesser days, as he did on Saturday, he will be the best of the bunch.

Lever has been a major disappointment to date. I never expected to get a quality lock down defender, because he was never that at Adelaide. But his poor positioning, his lack of workrate / intensity and his inability to help out Oscar at any stage have been a damning indictment. As I've said before, I suspect the club significantly understated the impact of Daniel Talia as a reliable, intelligent footballer on the game of Lever. Perhaps Jake needs Jordan Lewis to be telling what to do and where to be at all times, just as Luke Hodge is doing at Brisbane. Either way, Lever is underperforming himself, and he has thrown the entire defensive group out of sync. Something needs to change pronto, or we will be flogged this week.

God forbid Gawn or Hogan cops an injury at some point. We'll end up with Frost in the ruck and Kent at full forward.

Exclusive picture of Simon Goodwin picking this weeks team.

Our membership costs are already at the higher end of the spectrum, relative to the other Victorian clubs, all of which have won a premiership and played finals since we last did. The club better not jack up membership prices again next year to replace its gambling revenue. As for a decent social facility, that is so far overdue its beyond a joke. It should have happened in the early 2000s.

The more I think about this decision, the more I hate it. My 7 year old son has probably never seen a poker machine in his life, and certainly wouldn't know what to do with one. For most people they are out of sight and out of mind. I certainly can't see anybody forcing people to use them. On the other hand, sports betting is absolutely everywhere - at the football, on the TV, in the newspapers. My son certainly knows all about the odds, even though nobody in the family gambles. It is a far, far bigger problem, not least of all because it can be done any time, any where without anybody knowing. For the AFL community to decide that pokies are the work of the devil on one hand, but support the betting agencies on the other, is incredibly hypocritical. However this is fairly typical of an industry that chooses to go all in on certain causes and turn a blind eye to others, depending on the views of its financial backers.

Surely the club wouldn't be so stupid as to give this guy another contract without seeing him play at least six VFL games this season. Coming up to 4 years on AFL lists, and hasn't come close to playing AFL football in that time. McKenna is number 1 on the chopping block for me, just ahead of Vandenberg & Kennedy-Harris. Patience and loyalty are one thing, but you can't just keep blokes around forever if they aren't playing.

It's all about the midfield. If the ball is brought in with zero pressure as per the 2nd quarter against Geelong, Brown will kick 10. If we put pressure on the ball carrier and force them to kick under duress, we can make life very difficult for him. We also need to give Oscar some assistance by ensuring that our loose man, if we have one, is third man up in any contest Brown goes to.

Yet another example of a small minority of people not wanting to take responsibility for their actions and hence the majority who do the right thing and have some self control suffer.

Here's a tip for the simple minded who don't like this thread: don't read it, don't post in it, just ignore it. Carry on with your lives as though it never existed. Let those who want to talk about Jack Watts do so.

There are far too many Goodwin apologists on this thread. Allowing the opposition to have 1 or even 2 more extra players around the contest all day is just dumb, particularly given the lack of leg speed in the side. All it does is allow the opposition to win easy clearances, stream forward in number and pepper our defensive 50. Playing loose men in defence can be okay if those players are getting to contests and helping out their teammates. I assumed we paid a fortune for Lever for this purpose, not so he could be outmuscled by a first gamer. Having guys like Lewis and Wagner bludge around by themselves at the top of the 50 getting cheap kicks is pointless. When you are getting smashed in the clearances you need to put more players around the ball, not less. And you need to get players spreading to provide short options to maintain possession for a time, rather than just kicking down the line to a 1 on 3 contest forever.

1. I didn't watch, so didn't know we gave up a 7 goal lead (yet again) until after the game was finished. 2. We won. 3. From all reports we won't have to put up with Bugg and his appalling goal kicking for too much longer.

Lever was really disappointing on the weekend, and I suspect the club has overrated his ability to be a one-on-one defender. That's not to say he can't be a really good player for us, but it is going to require a change of plans from the coaching staff. I was surprised at how easily Jake was nudged out of the way by Ratagoulea - perhaps he needs to do some serious work in the gym. If opponents take away his room to jump, he is going to need to be stronger in the contest. It has perhaps also underrated the value of Talia in Lever's game, as a player who can beat his own opponent and organise the defence at the same time. McDonald was good on the weekend, but he is a long way from being a general. Lever wasn't alone though, as Jetta, Hibberd and Hunt were all disappointing Jetta and Hibberd are allowed the odd poor game, but you certainly notice when they are below their best. Hunt is a problem. His end to 2017 was ordinary, and he was close to our worst on Sunday. Teams have clearly worked out how to stop his run, and he needs to work harder to find space. (As an aside, if Troy Chaplin can't sort out the defence this year, he will need to find a new job, because his work with the forwards was pretty ordinary last year).

I'd be interested to know how many goals Max would kick from 30 metres out at training, because he has always been a poor kick for goal from that distance. He seems better from longer ranges when he kicks through the ball properly, rather than just trying to poke it through. This feels like the sort of thing that the assistant coaches should be able to get improvement in without too much work.

The free kick was borderline at best, but Lewis was unnecessarily clumsy and forceful given that he had Jetta in close support. The spray to the umpire was completely over the top and unacceptable by a senior player, and the 50m penalty was the right decision. For a leader, Lewis allows his temper to get the better of him far too often.

No, but we're not a great kicking team.

I think it is inevitable that both sides will get right on top for periods of games in the current era. What matters is how you deal with it. We were carved up across our half forward line in the second quarter because Geelong had an extra number around the ball and because the likes of Melksham, Garlett and Hannan didn't work hard enough to lock the ball in. With Fritsch also in the side, we have too many players who are not capable of playing four decent quarters, and who don't work hard enough for long enough. Meanwhile our extra player was often Wagner or Lewis across half back, and neither was positioned well enough or worked hard enough to make a contest when Geelong went forward. If Goodwin wants to play seven defenders, he has to ensure that the spare is someone who can read the play well and provide cover for the other defenders. Lever was recruited to be that player, so I'm not sure why he was wasted in a traditional defensive role. As an aside, Jetta and Hibberd both had poor games, and they are generally players who can be relied upon to be third man up. As others have said, we seem to want to play a certain way and are reluctant to change things, even for a few minutes, when momentum is against us. We probably should have taken out the loose player and moved them onto the ball to stop Geelong from taking easy clearances. I don't think Goodwin had a great game overall, even though we could have won the match in the end.

We have way too many players in our forward line who go missing for half a game. It's not as though they are having minimal impact in those times, they just go completely missing. I prefer Fritsch over Hannan at this point, and would much rather see us play another midfielder in his place.

1. We had ten players who did absolutely nothing, and still gave Geelong a real contest. Some of those, including Lever, Salem & Jetta, could not have played worse if they had tried. 2. We didn't throw in the towel in the second half, and put ourselves in a position to win the game. 3. Simon Goodwin gets another reminder that he is not as smart as he thinks he is, and can not afford to play games at selection.