deelusions from afar

Love the kid but I don't think it was the move of him in the ruck that was the change - he competed hard but they still won their fair share of clearances. I think it was more that with Gawn forward, the St Kilda defenders were nervous and allowed our smaller players to get into it it - Kozzie, Spargo, Sparrow and ANB.

I agree - although I just heard Steven May on the radio say that he was joking with Goody after the game that he should keep Gawn out of the backline as it messes with the backline's system. There is some truth to that in terms of a couple of times where we had 2+ up. But at the same time, having Gawn stand in the hole as the St Kilda mids attempted to move the ball forward - clearly it made them think twice about where to kick to. I think this is something that we'll need to experiment with and maybe tweak each game depending on the strengths of the opposition.

From the two games this year - the form of Jordon and Sparrow show that having to do an apprenticeship in the VFL isn't a terrible thing.

This put me off from attending this week - but when I checked yesterday this had changed and was able to get seats on the Wing 3rd level half way up which I was pretty happy with for GA - $27 per ticket.

Think I read somewhere he lead the league for F50 pressure acts or tackles. Is that right?

Clearly match committee think so too. I find it odd they don't give him a run in the centre square ever - not once! Is there some agreement due to his concussion that he's not allowed to play in there? Will be interesting if Baker / Rosman / Bowey start tearing it up on the wing at VFL level and Angus doesn't have the impact we know he can. When Brown and Weid are back, TMac may be another candidate vying for the role. Where does Angus go if one of those players is considered more suitable to the wing than him?

I agree - although I think part of the reason TMac played so well was that his contested marks were from kicks not directed at him - they were to Max and Jackson and he was able to take a running jump at them. If we are expecting him to be the sole get out kick up option in the forwardline then I don't think he is capable. Having said that other than Gawn and Weiderman at his best, I'm not sure if anyone on our list can do this. It will be very interesting to see what happens when Brown and Weiderman are fit. Given he trained as a winger over summer and we don't have the other wing position filled, will he go back there? Re Would love to see Daw make it but agree he's a long way down the pecking order at the moment. Kicking big bags of goals in one sided matches are probably not a great indication of how he's tracking - but if he keeps up that level against good opposition then he still might be given a go.

No but I think he's pointing out that just because we got beaten in the clearance is no cause for alarm (as many reacted after the game). We beat a team who are tipped to finish around us or just below and many were saying the clearance numbers were cause for concern. With max in there I would expect us to do better. But if we are setting up so that when we win a clearance it is a clean effective win and when we lose it is less likely to be damaging to us then that is a great change - even if it means we're winning less of them. Quality over quantity. I remember watching a number of games against Richmond in recent years where I noticed how hard Oliver and co fought to win the clearance only to have Vlaustin / Houli and co rebound off half back - they might not be defined by it but it is a big strategic win for them. Playing against Hawthorn when they were a finals team was much the same. I think over time we will see the likes of Kozzie and maybe even Melkshem spend more time in the centre square as we look to find some quicker skilful agile types to enable break away clearances - Richmond with Shai Bolton are again setting the standard with this.

Given its our first round 1 win in four years, wondering if we have received a membership bounce since Saturday? Any updates?

Spot on. Some people don't get it.

Will be interesting to see if they make a change with our smaller defenders (Jetta / Hunt). But I wouldn't. Hunt offers the speed and Jetta was back to his best when he was caught in one on one situations. I think you will find that our defence often works more as a unit doing a zone defence - which is why Jetta or Salem can get caught out against a much bigger opponent from time to time. I think the two way running in the midfield will be critical this week as many of their mids can be dangerous forward of centre.

Fair enough. But I'' bite - it is round 1. I remember we didn't play particularly well against Geelong round 1 in 2018 and ended up losing with Max's kick at the siren. That loss hurt us later in the year. It's great to start with a win and with a solid defence we are now well placed to fix up the other areas of the ground. 1. JJ was great. He could be the missing cog in the midfield (one that does the two way running, 1%ers etc) but he may also have just had a good game. Let's see how he goes after a few more. And I think it's a bit simplistic to say they're lazy. By that definition Dusty would probably be the laziest footballer in the comp - its about finding the way for each players strengths to be maximised and weaknesses covered - maybe (hopefully) JJ allows us to do this. 2. It was a windy day. Fremantle were probably even worse and they have enough decent ball users to be much better as well. I think you should wait until next week to judge our footskills. Maybe the handball misses is less forgivable but again, it's round one - we will improve. 3. I agree this is a problem but I think sometimes looking at the stats on their own is misleading. Freo killed us at the clearance for parts of the game but I don't think they had many more than us that were clear effective clearances. Serong in particular got away a few times - but we had a few ourselves that people seem to forget about. The position of the players on the defensive side was exposed a couple of times (but I think that went both ways). The major changes (from what i can see) is that we don't want to bomb it out of the centre if it leads to a turnover. That's a positive step - we all watched better sides essentially concede the centre square to us in 2017-2018 only to have us turn it over with our first kick out of the centre. Hopefully we still have a few more gears to go up.

I think comments like this show how Oliver gets marked harder than almost anyone else. Yes he does some dinky handballs but he also does many that get chains of possessions going and us moving forward. On the weekend he did a number of kicks thatset us up that if they were done by Jordon or Sparrow people would be raving. Where he (and the rest of the centre square players) need to improve is getting the balance right of knowing when to kick, when to handball and when to break the tackle. I think they are committed to not winning the clearance if it just results in a kick that is intercepted which is a positive change - but if we turn it over in the middle then we've lost that territory that could have been gained - even if it was a kick along the ground which means the opposition are unable to mark it.

Kicking for goal - it was a bit swirly on the weekend. Was that a factor? No excuses under the roof this week! Hunt - he's probably not a backman but given the rule changes, we need someone with pace back there and he's the best option we have at the moment. I think it's worth persisting with. Wing - I think they're just getting Jones across the line. I don't rate Baker - he's done nothing to suggest (to me) that he has what it takes. In reality though, Brayshaw played wing for 70-80% of the game and Jones was there for the rest. So if Baker comes in to play wing, does Brayshaw play half forward or half back? TMac - spot on. Probably the most promising thing on the weekend. Can he keep that up? What I found interesting was that most of his marks were not balls that were kicked to him - they were to Jackson / Gawn and he could get a run and jump at it (or go round the back for the one deep in the forwardline). I think this is how he plays best rather than being the stay at home forward who has the ball kicked on top of him.

Have just had a watch of the replay and it's amazing how many of the views expressed here seem way off the mark (in my opinion). Some people forget that we were playing an opponent so are not going to have everything go our way. Take a look at the Freo forums (or any team that is lost this week) and it looks very similar to us after a loss - just switch a few players names around and we wouldn't know the difference! Not a perfect performance by any stretch but all teams develop over the season and I would have definitely taken this performance prior to the game if given the option. Freo had injuries but we did as well - No Brown or Weiderman makes us look very fragile on paper. We will have a better indication after the next few weeks. So aside from Lever / May dominance, Jordon's game, some of my takeaways were: - Spargo and Kossie possies forward of centre lead to goals. They are the best at lowering their eyes and finding people in dangerous spots inside 50. - Hunt played much better than I remembered. His job is high risk high reward and sometimes it doesn't come off. But when it does, it is dynamic and in this game his closing speed was critical in a number of instances. When people like Hunt (it happened to a number of players) get caught holding the ball it is usually more a symptom of what is (not) happening up the field. - I have loved Jones because he carried the team for so long. But beyond him getting 300 games I don't think he should be in the team. If not for his years of service and proximity to 300 he would be the one I would drop first. - We missed A LOT of easy goals - Petracca, TMac hitting the post, Fritsch, Lever after a 50 and Jackson in the last quarter. Tighten a few of these up and it looks pretty different. - Centre clearances are a problem. We were unlucky a number of times. But there were others where they just got us on the outside. This happened around the ground a fair bit as well. When the player standing on the defensive side of the contest gets sucked in, we look very vulnerable when we lose it. Having said that, this happens to every team and we did it to Freo a couple of times too. As Fyfe mentioned before the game, a key part of the strategy is to force their opponents into the contest in the centre square so that they have space on the outside. What I like is we are trying lots of players in there and no doubt will be doing lots of homework and analysis on this - there is certainly a lot of scope for improvement here! - Rivers started very strongly in the first quarter. Seemed to rush his disposals after that - given our defence was largely on top, not sure if he was given a different role after quarter time as he was much quieter. - I thought one of my absolute favourites in Nev might be on borrowed time. But I thought he was solid - won a number of crucial one on ones. I did notice however, that the dockers looked to exploit him and Salem's lack of height in the second half when they tried to narrow their eyes more going forward. Will be interesting to see if Goodwin looks to bring in Hibberd or even Petty / Smith so we are not exposed in this way in future with teams that have multiple dangerous key forwards. - Brayshaw did not attend one centre bounce. Given Gus has played his best games in the centre square, Viney is out and some of the other players that attended centre bounces included Kozzie, Sparrow, Jordon, Harmes, ANB, Jones, I can't work out what is going on. He kicked a couple of nice passes and got a few good tackles in but if he's not getting a run onball when Viney is not in the team, then why wasn't he traded? Maybe then we could have traded for a specialist winger? I like him as a player but it seems like he's losing in being played out of position and we're losing in him (and Jones) playing as wingers - what am I missing?

Agree - this is a bit of a surprise for me. Surely with Oliver, Petracca, Harmes, Jordan, Brayshaw we have enough centre square players? Sparrow is meant to be quick but he hasn't shown anything to suggest he's providing us a point of difference from what we already have (hope to be proven wrong). To me this suggests that Petracca will be spending more time forward.

Does anyone know of a way to sync up radio coverage to tv? Like others here I'm generally not a big fan of the callers on the tv coverage

Went for a run past Goschs paddock this morning. Noticed Brown and Weiderman doing some run throughs. When I came back from the Tan I saw that there were a few other players there too - Smith and someone else. To me it looked like Baker but I didn't know he was injured / in rehab. It may have been someone else but I couldn't think of who. Watched Brown and Weid taking shots at goal after that. Both looked to me moving freely but at the same time weren't streching themselves (kicking from around 30-40m out - although for Brown he still starts a long way back from that). They both kicked some nice goals - Brown in particular seemed on target. Can't wait to have them back in the side - they are both very big units! I wonder whether the fact that they are injured and recovering at the same time might help build a bit of chemistry that translates on field.

Don't think we'd want Tomlinson and Petty in the same defence. Both have a lot to offer but both have a little bit of a weakness in leg speed. This is largely made up for by their other attributes and team mates around them ... but this week against Freo I fear they could cut us up if we go too tall and slow. May, Lever, Tomlinson, Rivers, Salem, Hunt, Jetta - that's our back 7 for mine. Will be interesting howe use Gawn - often against inexperienced rucks he has a field day with D50 marks - given their forward line I think Freo would be better placed kicking it in along the ground!

I feel like he could be a great find for us - he runs both ways, can play inside and outside, is a good kick and showed against the Dogs that he can spread from the contest. We don't need him to be a star - just to be able to complement the players we have in there already. Could he be the "moneyball player" that enables those around him to reach their potential? I hope so!

Great analysis. I agree re Bowey and Petty - would love to have them in but they will probably make them earn it in the VFL first and come in if the ones in the team fail to fire. I agree with your reasoning but at the same time it seems a big stretch to leave Brayshaw out (esp when Viney will probably be looking to come in in round 2). The question for mine will be whether we'd play all four of Kozzie, Chandler, ANB and Spargo. It would definitely be a different look. I don't mind it but i suspect it may mean that Kozzie / Spargo might get more time up the ground eg on the wing. That means that Vanders spot will be under threat. Will be really interesting to see what they go with.

That's even less subtle!

A player that is a lock for debut for mine is James Jordan. Every interview with anyone at the club signals him out as a standout in the preseason - not sure what else he can do to get a gig. Especially with Viney out of the team. Would be surprised if he's the winger but he might be part of the rotations?

Yeah I think with all the research happening into concussion, the AFL definitely don't want to be on the wrong side of history. But I don't see how a sub has anything to do with that? Interestingly coaches eg Goody was saying how with the change in the number of rotations it's important that the rule apply to all injuries (not just concussion). But I would have thought with less rotations the disadvantage of having a player out for the game would actually impact the game less - would still be a factor but less than a few years back when teams would exploit this by upping the rotations.

This is the part I don't understand. We have tried this and everyone hated it. What's changed?