rjay

They should make it easier for us to score...less congestion, one on one starting positions. ...but we are not using it to our advantage. The new rules, if we use them to our advantage should make it a lot harder for teams to defend. We are playing dumb football.

Here's an interesting alternative. Forget locking it inside 50, forget bombing it in to create a stoppage... How about a forward leads and we kick it to him. He then kicks a goal. Simple strategy but we struggle with it.

The trouble is we don't have runners to get the ball out too. Our current game is numbers at the contest, we are drawn in like bees to honey. We've been killed on the spread from the Prelim on... When you've got a player of Olivers (and Trac when he's there) ability to get and give surely you play a lot smarter than we have.

Sorry 'stinga', he may be a good player down the track but has shown nothing to date that indicates he will be. As much as I want him to be, wishing won't make it so.

That's the story 'Queanbeyan'... We have a few 'B' graders but they drop away to 'C' and 'D' graders very quickly Probably Harmes, Salem, Viney & Melk are the B's. Tommy Mac a 'B' if being kind but playing like a 'D' grader at the moment. Stars are Oliver, Max and probably Brayshaw on the cusp. We don't have one 'A' grade forward and our 2 'A' grade defenders are injured. Trac looks like being an ok player, maybe a 'B' but has this year to turn it on if he's going to be the star he promised to be otherwise it's not going to happen.

I suspect this is part of our problem... https://www.theroar.com.au/2009/10/29/the-reasons-behind-hawthorns-ruined-season/ ...and maybe a bit of this... https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/how-geelong-turned-the-corner-20160520-gp05om.html ...and then again maybe it's just my MFCSS....or whatever you call it. I do think the list needs work though and definitely don't see it anywhere near complete as others have said it was. We've worked to bolster the defence but have neglected the forward half and let a pretty decent player go without replacement.

Sign a 2 year deal at whatever average money is and get on with your development Sam...

At the moment I would say we only have one forward, Melk... ...and as you say Trac is probably more suitable playing mid but he's our next best forward. At least he's providing some forward pressure.

That's 5 in a row now. We've certainly dropped off but can we turn it around? At least Oliver is back on track... Just a thought on forward delivery & conversion. Is it the deliverer, the deliveree or both at fault.

That might be the theory but Stanley beat Grundy last game, he's more than a capable ruck. Then were do we leave Frost when he's not relieving Max, he can't just stay on the bench & unless he has one out of the box I couldn't see him being much use forward.

That's one thing I wouldn't credit Zac with...he's not a smart footballer.

Hey 'Chazz' if we really wanted to stop unnecessarily arguments we might as well close the site down.

I'm not sure why either are playing. Frost has been tried in the ruck before and failed so I hope we're not going down this road again.

It's not the obvious brain fades 'A F', but the times he loses contact with his opponent in transition. He finds himself in no mans land way too often. He had a few good games last year, last week was poor, let's hope he can turn it on this week.

Frost very, very lucky...

Agree 'dazzle', we've been flat as a tack... ...now that we know the new AFL rules I expect there will be plenty of gut punches & fines handed out this week.

I don't see it as arrogance but sometimes young players can get a bit too comfortable and forget to do the things that got them the praise. A bit of adulation can subconsciously or in some cases consciously go to their heads. Not a great sample size and he is coming off injury. ...but it's a real trap for young players. I'm definitely not saying he's an arrogant [censored] or anything of the sort.

I'm not sure about him becoming arrogant, that's your interpretation but he could sit back a bit and stop doing the things that make him the player he his. This is all part of armchair analysis and all of us hypothesise to a degree even those at the club on the front line.

I think any young player is in danger of drinking their own bathwater when they get pumped up by the fans and media. As I've said many players suffer a down year early in their careers often called the 2nd year blues (but not always in their 2nd year). I think he's a good kid and has been probably my favourite player since watching his first game with the club but he is only human... At the moment he's not doing the things that make him a good player and that could be for a number of reasons.

Better get your facts right then 'Smokey'... Big difference between what I said and what you quoted.

I hope you don't mean me 'Smokey'? He like many young kids is in danger of it...that's why many get the 2nd year blues. I trust with McCartney around this won't happen.

We received a reality check in last years prelim... How many reality checks do we need? I thought we would win too but looking at it dispassionately the writing was on the wall...we went in with no form. We were kidding ourselves and so were the tipsters. Then add Max's story to the mix then yeah the loss was there to be had.

Interested to know what the overreaction is. The reaction is not just off one game... Coming off the back of a very poor prelim final and no form in the preseason series we got what was probably the expected result on Saturday. If Max did have a general during the week then that tells the tale about his lethargy. Also a bit of how Pruess is thought of by the FD at the moment. I get some players may have been underdone but the one with probably the least time on legs in preseason was Melk and he was one of our best. Oliver's first game at AFL level was a 2 vote Brownlow game, he came into that game as a pudgy kid with a shortened preseason. Based on Saturday's game he needs needs an attitude readjustment following the AA and Gary Lyon pump up. I'm a big fan but he's a kid and in danger of drinking his own bathwater. He was AA last year but personally I thought his previous season was better. His ball handling was not as crisp, I put last year down to the shoulders and maybe the start of this year to not much competitive work in the preseason. Interested to watch the next few weeks...hope he doesn't get the 2nd year blues in his 4th year. May was a big loss, stupid act but on current AFL standards very unlucky to get a week...but they had key players out and blooded 4 kids. I don't think it's an overreaction to ask questions. The writing was on the wall as far as Saturday goes, even more than we originally thought. Is it going forward? Writing us off now would be an overreaction for sure, but unless we fix some area's of our game we're not going anywhere. It could be the season we drop back a bit or we could re load and take all before us.

No 'steve' we've moved that on to the Port game... According to Nathan Jones after last weeks loss "I think that'll burn a lot of players inside but hopefully inspires the reaction our fans will want to see and inspire us to play the way we want to play." Sometimes I really wish our players would just shut up and let their performances do the talking. As you say the intensity and aggression shown in round 1 didn't indicate any residual burn from the prelim, looks like they forget what they were burning about...

From first hand experience it most certainly would have...