deelusions from afar

That happened too but there was something from Matthews or Voss on a different occasion. So many false and premature dawns!

I'm the opposite - I think for years he has been too unselfish / not prepared to back himself in. The true stars of the game have a touch of hollywood in their game - look at Dusty!

I think it was part way through the Bailey era that someone like Voss or Matthews labelled us as the next powerhouse of the AFL. we all know the trouble with getting wrapped up in players potential (Whiteboard Wednesdays anyone?)

I feel the same but it didn't seem that way 2.5 weeks ago. I feel there's a few players that if they went down, so too might our team. Obviously our stars in the midfield but as we have number of them they can hopefully be covered a bit more easily. The ones i think we'd struggle to cover currently are: Gawn is the obvious and at least we now have a few other options. Hibberd for mine is also critical - he provides so much drive from the backline and is prepared to take the longer high risk high reward kick that starts off many of our scoring chains. I assume Rivers was recruited to play this role long term but is just a kid. Langdan - his fitness and speed have got us out of trouble on so many occasions. With him out of the side I feel we would be greatly exposed. I wonder if Hunt could play this role? I suspect not. Pickett - haven't seen enough of Bedford to know if he could cover Kozzie

Makes sense. I'm sure they won't do it, but to me it might make sense to play our second string midfield eg Sparrow, Jordan, Jones, Tomlinson, Baker, Wagner, Dunkley etc as a complete substitution to our 1st because they would have spent more time together and training together. Potentially you could do this in the Adelaide game. But I think it is more likely that they will rest half the midfield against Adelaide and the other half against the Roos and hope that these teams will be good enough to get the job done in both cases. I guess it will also depend on how important the various sides see a win against us.

Also re Port - they have a 4 day break after our match v the Bulldogs (i think ours is 6? playing the Crows) so you would think they won't be playing a full strength side. Will be interesting how all teams cope with this

Tough for everyone. Annoyed to play North in Tassie - they're not in good form but tend to play that ground much better than others. Will be interesting in terms of selection - I think we'd really want to win one of Bris / Port but surely we don't play the same side in both with such a short break and travel between them. TMac, Jones, Tomlinson, Sparrow, Jordan, Spargo, Smith all a chance?

As an aside, how good is it not to have many injuries to senior players this season (touch wood). Obviously credit has to go to Burgo and rest of the fitness / conditioning team - and there's also a bit of luck involved. This could be critical as the season gets on - injuries are definitely starting to play a role in a few teams fortunes.

Probably fair enough - don't want to raise expectations on the kid but I was impressed with a number of the marks he took. How many key forwards show "forward craft" in their first handful of games?

It's a good side but all the bench players are playing half forward / wing. You shouldn't see Lockhart dropped but if he is, surely they will replace him with another defender e.g. Rivers / Smith

I think people forget how hard it is to play as a small defender in the modern game. Like us, every other team is trying their hardest to cause front half turnovers. Even in our worst games this year we still caused our opponent's defenders to turn it over a few times. Lockhart is quick (i.e. has great closing speed), tough, has good skills, is creative and doesn't release the ball until he can get it to someone in a better position. Every week he will be involved in passages of play where the ball is turned over... but show me a player that plays the same role in ANY TEAM that isn't involved in similar turnovers. We don't have a better option to play his role (Rivers plays a different role). Give the guy a break - he has shown he has all the tools required to be a very good player in this position. People forget he wasn't even on our list at the start of last year - and last year played predominantly forward. Crazy to drop him - he is doing his job.

I assume Farmer's son is heading to freo also. Such a shame - would love to have another Farmer running around at the dees

Do we still have any that are in our zone - what picks would we need to use to get them?

I agree. But is tomlinson able to take contested marks - he seems to have gone out of the side due to lacking the competitiveness we require

Not a huge fan of brown but with Tmac out I think he has to play otherwise Weid will cop too much heat. Weid plus Jackson/Tomlinson/Smith forward doesn't fill me with confidence. If I had to guess, I would say Smith because the football department seem to love him and there's no room for him down back. (Unless he comes in as a small defender for Jetta)

Reading between the lines I reckon we will definitely bring in another key forward to replace TMac. My gut feel is that they will bring in Brown. I suspect they won't want two young / inexperienced key forwards taking on hawthorn's experienced defence with Frawley, Sicily and dare I say it Frost.

Not sure what people with this type of view were expecting from Kozzie. He's in his first season! We knew when we drafted him that he's not a high possession player (although apparently he racked up the stats in a scratch this year when moved on ball). Goals are nice but if he's handing them off to other players in better positions then he's doing his job. He chases, tackles, shepherds, bumps, uses the ball well and has potential to be an aerial threat. Of the forwards, surely Melksham and Vanders are more likely to be dropped on form.

I'll take the bait. He was directly involved in a number of our goals and seems to have the opposition a bit jittery with his pressure. Sure he's not perfect - but it's his first season and he's playing one of the hardest positions to play. He's definitely exceeding my expectations for a first year player in that role. Who would you bring in for him that will do any better? Hunt? Spargo? ANB? None of them can do what he does

They don't have to be - but that's the way the FD tends to go (remember Goodwin talking about Harley only getting a game against Carlton as the others that play the same role not being fit / ready / available). Obviously it will come down to matchups but Hawthorn have the potential to have multiple dangerous small forwards (depending on where they play eg Wingard and Puopolo etc). If not Jetta who would you feel comfortable doing this? And I know May can do it, but if he doesn't take a key tall, then it means Lever does and we all know that's not ideal! And when you say Nev got annihilated by a first gamer... he won't be the first one to be by that player. And do you know who Lockhart played on? Being unsighted as a defender is not necessarily a bad thing if his dangerous opponent is equally unsighted.

Cant understand people saying to drop Nev and Lockhart - Rivers and Tomlinson play different roles. Although Nev is not at his best, I would back his experience to do better than any alternative. Lockhart has shown he has all the attributes to be a very good small defender going forward - let him play with the rest of the backline for a bit and see what he can do once he's settled. Yes he has got caught a few times for holding the ball but he is quick and seems to have reasonable awareness - I put this down to not wanting to release the ball unless he can get it to a player in a better position which is a good trait. I like the look of Rivers but he seems more to be battling Hibberd for that role - and Hibberd has shown in recent weeks why he is in front (for the moment).

I found it interesting but as others have said, as he was there last year and the problems are hardly new, then I'm sure Goody and co would be aware of the "solutions". Not saying they won't work... but it's easy to make left field suggestions and say that it will fix the problems. I get the sense that they believe (rightly or wrongly) that they have the right plan and team to play well and it's not quite clicking at the moment. (yes we were lucky v carlton but despite being well beaten were not far from snatching it against richmond or geelong). Once the cohesion and synergy is there, things will improve dramatically - which I suspect is why they're not wanting to drop players after one poor game and/or make lots of positional moves on game day. They want to back in the system they've worked at all summer - like it has eventually for other teams in recent years. I think the part that I found most interesting was the idea of not doing a full ground defensive press when the other team has the ball - I understand the attraction of causing front half turnovers but defending the whole ground is exhausting and difficult when you're not as quick as your opponent. Let them pick their way through our flood and then allow our medium size forwards loose on the counter attack.

I know some people won't like it but pragmatically I think we should trade one of Viney or Brayshaw at the end of the year if this helps us get a decent key forward (better than what we already have) and/or a skilled pacy midfielder. In terms of maximising value we probably should have done this at the end of last year. We have a surplus of inside mids - there's no room for Jones in there (though admittedly he's not the player he once was) and Harmes has been forced to play HBF because Viney and Brayshaw can't play anywhere else. Plus we have the likes of Jordan and Sparrow who have shown enough promise to warrant games. Although recruited as a potential HBF it looks like Jordan will be another inside mid from what he did in the VFL last year. Would be sad to see either Viney or Brayshaw go - but how do they realistically fit into the structure going forward. At trade time, you have to give something to get something.

While I am concerned about TMac's form (I think if he can recapture the 2018 form we suddenly become a contender). But aren't many of the designated key forwards struggling at the moment?

I think it's strong in terms of talent but heavily diluted due to the academy and FS picks. It's probably not a bad year to go for a few speculative picks as it will be even more of a lottery than other years.

This is not a thread about season 2020 being over therefore looking at who we might get in the next draft but more regarding what do people think is likely to happen. This year is going to be more compromised than ever before. We are told that the upcoming draft is one of the strongest ever (I know they regularly say that) - especially with many father-son and academy picks. - there is a chance that the draft hopefuls will not be playing this year and if they do play they will play far less than previous years - so much of the intelligence on the draft hopefuls will be based on how they were going last year. And we all know of players that dominated as a 17 year old but fall away in their draft year. - there's talk of the lists likely to be smaller as a result of covid 19 - which means there will be a surplus of free agents floating around - Melbourne has traded its first pick to North Melbourne - either thinking that we were going to perform far better this year and/or figured that the draft pick is less value this year due to all the father/sons and academy picks. How will this play out at the end of the season?