deelusions from afar

I wonder whether they'd look to bring one in for the Anzac eve match

Agree with all of this other than you clearly mean Sparrow and not Swallow! Unless Melksham has trained as a winger over summer (don't remember hearing that in training reports) or played there in the practice matches at Casey, they won't bring him in for that role. I agree that he would most likely take Sparrow or Jones spot but both are doing their jobs at the moment.

I think there is a good chance that if Jackson is managing the ruck duties, then Gawn can go forward and stretch the cats defence. This will free TMac up a bit (he always plays better when he's not the no.1 forward target) and on the G his running ability should be an asset. We seem to look much more dangerous with Max forward too.

Hate Geelong with a passion - not sure why exactly (if I think about it there's too many reasons!). But would love to see them go down to the Hawks today!

I feel he's a little way off a "breakout" game but these games are critical as he's clearly growing in confidence and composure. It's also massive for the team in that it is allowing Gawn to go forward which takes the pressure off TMac. Having said that, we're yet to play against a team with an experienced recognised ruckman so will be interesting to see how he and Gawn go when that happens. Hopefully they can keep it up and Jackson can keep progressing.

If he keeps up this form he is going to start getting a lot of off the ball attention. As we've seen with the likes of Oliver and Gawn, the umpires will pay free kicks from time to time but most of the time players are good at doing this without being seen. Like Oliver, it will be important for Kozzie to change positions for the days when he's getting tagged out of the match.

I find it quite laughable some of the calls being made here regarding players that should be dropped - whether it be Jetta, Jones, Sparrow etc We all know there's a lot happening on the ground that is never caught on TV - and seemingly most people here weren't at the ground. I'd be surprised if Jetta and Jones are in the side at the end of the year but they are both doing their job at the moment. Yes Toby Greene kicked a bag of goals but not many of these can be directly attributed to Jetta. Our whole backline was rattled by him which is why we had the situation of having multiple players fly for the ball and he was the only one stay down. There was a goal he kicked in the last that Jetta had out positioned him and was in line to take the mark only for Lever to fly for the ball and not complete the mark. If anything it's probably a communication issue but people on here seem to forget that even the good teams make mistakes and it is important that players are encouraged to take risks to play at their best. I thought Jones had a number of important touches last night as did Sparrow. In theory, having someone like Melkshem come in for one of them sounds great - but I'm not convinced he will do the hard two way running, the tackling, chasing, the selfless acts that are critical for the team like you know you will get from Jones and Sparrow. I've got no doubt that he will be told that that is what he has to do to get back in the team - clearly his one on one marking, kicking and speed would be an asset to the team if he isn't a liability defensively. Given the VFL side didn't play this week, I'd be very surprised if they made any changes.

I agree I think the game started to turn further up the field. Which is why I found it interesting for the opposition coach to single out Kozzie as the one that changed it. Maybe it's an easier message to send to supporters than we got outworked in the midfield / by the melbourne defenders.

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Genuinely think it's because he's a ranga.

Good pickups - the first one was noticeably different from the Freo game where they opened us a couple of times when they won the clearance. Potentially this could also be to the fact that Freo's midfielders are better at the clearance than St Kildas.

I remember TItus O'Reilly talking about on his podcast how GWS were often the butt of his jokes (saying they only had two supporters) because he would constantly get heckled on twitter by GWS supporters who said it wasn't true. The only problem was that it was always the same two supporters... so in some ways it reinforced his point! This game though I'm a little nervous for - surely at some point in the year things will click for GWS (even if its only a game or two). We don't have a good record at Manuka and these are the games (after a week of the media singing our praises) that we have a history of dropping.

Sorry I mean that in interviews players had said they were on track to return from injury at the same time - it now looks like Weid is ahead of Brown in returning (from injury). I imagine they will both play a bit at VFL level before joining the senior team

Had heard Brown and Weid were looking like returning at a similar time. If Weid is ahead of Brown he might end up having a couple of matches to prove himself - will be very interesting to see how they manage the two of them, TMac, Fritsch and the resting ruckman.

For those in the know re VFL - how are the different rules impacting? My understanding is a certain number of players have to be in the 50 and goal square for each ball up? If so, when Weid / Brown come back in, will the rules make a big difference in terms of running / leading patterns. Also I know it's only a practice match but we've got a pretty strong team with a number of Dees listed players in there - so was surprised that the Roos VFL side came close. Do they have a strong VFL core or are their kids super talented?

I think Clayton is our best player and arguably our most important. I think at the rate he's going at he could end up Melbourne's best midfielder ever. However, I'd be concerned if we go for a contract of more than 4 years. Think of GWS that have long terms deals with what at the time were some of the best mids in the game - Coniglio, Kelly etc - doesn't look so great right now. I also think there's a chance that Clayton won't have a long career as he takes more hits than anyone every week - he's already had multiple shoulder surgeries. Look at Cripps now - they're different players but he is not the player he was a few years ago and he's similar to Oliver in terms of the number of hits he gets each week. Clayton deserves to be one of the top 3 highest paid players at the club but should understand that if we overcommit to him then it will reduce the quality of the team he has around him.

Amazing it will be the most experienced team in years when we have Kozzie, Jackson, Rivers, Sparrow and Jordon all in the team. Compare that to last year when we had only a few of those guys and the likes of Melk, Hibberd, Weid etc in. I know everyone is a year older but how does that work?

Watch them do 3 from 3 with McDonald this week!

Interesting that Ratten said on 360 that they felt they'd got the game back on their terms and then a 10-15 period from Pickett turned the game. Never comes down to one player but pretty high praise coming from the other side.

Agree on lots of things you write but not sure about these ones. If we're currently playing a forwardline of TMac, Fritsch, Jacko/Gawn, Spargo, Pickett, ANB and the resting mid (Jones, Viney, Sparrow, Jordon) then I'm not sure we can afford to go an extra tall without losing the manic pressure required for our game plan to work. We've seen in previous seasons what happens if we don't put enough pressure on the opposition defenders coming out of defence. How can this work? Also think TMac is past it in terms of playing CHB. People tend to forget that he was on the outer just before he got switched forward - not because of his aerial work but because he was a liability with ball in hand. He's not a bad kick but regular bit off more than he could chew eg kick into the corridor or trying to run around his man. From defence, the turnovers are particularly costly. Everyone in our defence (other than Hunt) are generally safe options with ball in hand. Given he has trained to play wing, it will be very interesting to see what happens to him when Brown and Weid are fit. So many permutations but right now I'd probably have Jacko and Weid fight out the ruck/forward role and assuming Brown is in then Tmac and Fritsch share the wing and 3rd tall position. Where does that leave Brayshaw? It's a very good question.

I think he's crucial to our forward structure while Weid and Brown are out. TMac doesn't tend to mark big bombs kicked on his head - Gawn can. So if we're not able to lower the eyes going forward (if our midfield is under the pump) then he will still make defenders panic. Not saying he should play all the game up there but it is a nice change to have while Jackson is able to compete in the ruck. It's interesting that essentially every kickin we take is kicked to Gawn or the side that Gawn is on. Makes sense but is very predictable - has anyone noticed if we've mixed this up at all?

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.