Sydee

I thought May was pretty solid as well with the exception of a couple of shaky moments

My question is whether or not you think Jefferson is capable of playing AFL football successfully. I'm not wanting to knock the kid but he seems to me to be following the same path as a few that have failed before him namely Weideman and Josh Schache. These guys have skills, but they seem to lack the intensity to compete at the top level. I did take some heart from watching Cadman live last Saturday night - he looked a completely different player than the young kid that looked out of his depth somewhat last year. JUH was similar in his first block of games. Maybe Matt will follow their path - he is an important player and quite critical you'd think to our future prospects up forward so keen to get your collective take on him at this stage of his career

Good observation - McInerney ran into Max at one point when he was looking the other way - put him on the ground and clearly sore - no free kick no reaction from our playing group. McInerney also tried to ruff up McVee - again no real response. I think we have been coached not to overreact but there is a fine line between overreacting and supporting your teammates and showing the opposition that sort of stuff is not on

I don’t see the logic in rucking our single tall forward who can physically compete with big defenders We have two others who can do that - Petty and TMac neither is available or considered ready BBB can’t do it neither can Schache

I find it strange that a lot of people consider our list so strong - personally I don’t think it’s clearly better than any of GWS , Brisbane , Carlton , Collingwood as examples Is it good and better than half the comp? Probably, but it does have some clear weaknesses imo - I think these have been discussed often and include - Genuine A grade tall forwards - Goal kicking mids - Genuine leg speed - ex Pickett limited options in the true small forward options - Beyond Max no ruck depth - A back six that is very good at most things but a bit shaky when the ball comes in fast and hits the ground Considering some of this I’m not sure anyone should be overly critical of the coach when the last three years we have finished top 4

Crowded forward lines are mostly a function of how efficiently teams move the ball and transition from the back half of the ground Ours is crowded mostly because we generally move the ball too slowly allowing the opposition to get numbers back. That is why it sounds like we are trying to improve our ball movement efficiency as it’s directly linked to F50 efficiency We obviously also need a more than one strong contested mark down there (that would be Petty but he’s not available) - Fritta is a great forward but contested marking is not his game and Schache is Schache Watching GWS Sat night they had Brown (jet imo) Hogan, Ricardi and Cadman - pretty handy talls to add to Greene, Daniels and Bedford

First I said good kicks not elite - yes I agree it’s not that hard to kick to the fat side of the ground however there is a stark difference between hacking a kick in the general direction and kicking it flat , fast and to the advantage of your teammates. High , slow kicks sometimes short, long or behind your teammates just helps buy time for the opposition to defend easily. I think May and Lever in particular are very suspect when kicking unless they are just bombing long to packs. Agree that Landon and Nibbler work extremely hard to make space but there are 18 guys on the field and they all have to contribute - it is just as important for teammates to run in a pattern to create space as it is to run into the space available Not sure if you watched the Sydney game on TV or at the ground but if the latter I’m surprised you didn’t see the lack of movement up the field when we had possession, particularly in the second half

Having watched this game again in the calm of my living room I'm surprised there hasn't been much commentary about Jake Lever - imo one of the most mistake riddled games I've ever seen from him. He certainly needs to lift next week, and I expect he will.

Lots of criticism of Max here which personally I feel is unfair The conditions in the Sydney game certainly favoured Grundy and he played the conditions well. I still think Grundy is past his best and I think we will witness a drop off as the season progresses Max took 1 mark for the entire game which is unheard of and reflects not only the conditions but the tactics used to negate him which imo are or should be bordering on illegal. We now have a situation in AFL where it seems fine for some players to be physically targeted , held without possession, blocked etc without any consequences Its a difficult game to umpire but there seems to my eye at least a lot of stuff that is happening that should not be allowed to happen

“Schache can mark well when given clear air and is a good kick. Needs the others to kick well to him and for the halves to pushing be away from goal.” Maybe but that’s a scenario that’s relevant in training drills and sometimes at lower levels Against half decent opposition it rarely if ever happens I watched the GWS game and took particular interest in Cox and how GWS defended him inside F50. As much as I can’t stand the bloke he can mark if given clear air and can kick straight. However just like Schache he is rendered completely useless when teams apply any pressure to him in the air or impede his run and jump at the ball.

Jesse Hogan ? Jeremy Cameron ? Dan McStay ? Joe Daniher ? Luke Jackson ? Rory Lobb ? BBB ? Tom Lynch ? Not saying I’d want some of these but these trades do happen

I’m frustrated with the last two years too - I think we all are Finishing bottom 4 guarantees us nothing We should have cap space to burn next year as I can’t imagine BBB and T Mac being there and with Gus’s unfortunate retirement that creates more room I’d much prefer we put in a strong season and be very aggressive at the trade table and try and lure a proven tall forward and fast highly skilled mid

This ? After one game - I think we need to see more don’t you think ?

8.10 you say - did I miss something is he out kicking for goal coach? 😀

Well to switch play effectively you need a couple of things First is players who have good field kicking - we are terribly light on in this area Second is players who are prepared to work hard to run to space even if they aren’t used - I lost count in the game against the Swans the number of times we had possession in the D50 only for our guys to look upfield and see zero movement - it really was quite amazing I saw GWS last night and they work extremely hard to spread and create options and their skills in terms of kicking and handball to advantage seem way better than ours at least at this stage

Personally I’m a bit surprised we haven’t seen May forward at least in short bursts He does read the play well which is very important if you want to be a good forward

I believe Cadman signed a contract extension - having seen him last night he is definitely going to be a very good footballer - clearly not ready last season but he now looks like he belongs - may not kick bags this season but probably doesn’t need to with Hogan, Brown , Greene , Daniels He will be one of better forwards in the comp before too long IMO

I went to our game Thursday and again tonight I have to say that I do have a soft spot for GWS mainly because both Hogan and Bedford were favs - both played very very well tonight It was a joy sitting in amongst some of the most feral animals and clueless Collingwood fans imaginable - I walked away thinking we desperately need more jails. It was particularly sweet to hear them turn on Mason and but best of all was the giants fans booing Maynard. Made up for some of the disappointment of Thursday night. Anyway from a footy perspective GWS are a very very good footy side and have strength all over the field - hard to pick a weakness - yes it’s round zero but they will be at the pointy end again this year

Given he is one of our best field kicks this is terrible news Courageous act with undeserved consequences - speedy recovery Jake

Check the humidity it seems that is cryptonite for some living in the southern state that claims to be “different”

We played poorly - yes Sydney looked like they wanted the win more - that’s easy to fix in theory We had our 2 most potent forwards absent (again) Petty and Pickett (excluding Fritta) - we also had arguably the next two best forwards missing in McAdam (who knows) and Melksham We were in the game for all but 15 mins despite playing poorly I’m as disappointed as anyone but It’s not quite time to panic - yet Another 3 or 4 poor games and then we can all start to worry as that means we aren’t as good as we thought

True but if we aren’t concerned about Max getting an injury then we sure as hell should be because we have very little in reserve with any form as an AFL grade ruck

Well, I was there too and didn't think it was particularly warm albeit I do live in Sydney so perhaps I'm used to a warmer climate. What I will say is that after the game I walked across the park outside the ground and the grass felt dry to me so not sure how it gets so slippery inside the stadium and for the most part the swans players seemed very capable to handle the ball like it was dry. We can make all the excuses in the world, but the harsh reality is that last night we were out played by a team that looked much fitter, was prepared to run harder and make space and were far superior when it came to executing basic AFL skills (particularly field kicking) For the record I was convinced at half time we would get our act together and come home with a wet sail. When Bowey got injured, my confidence dropped, when May looked proppy at 3/4 time I thought the writing was on the wall - and it sure was. I'm not writing off this year based on one loss to a team who in my opinion will make the finals but there is plenty of work to do to get to where we hope to be. Some of that is missing critical personnel particularly in our F50 (Petty, Pickett, McAdam and possibly even Fullarton who couldn't offer less than Schache who is simply not an AFL footballer and never will be. Chandler, Laurie and Spargo were all bitterly disappointing but of those 3 at least Chandler offers some leg speed the other two were embarrassingly slow last night - and I have been a big supporter of Spargo before but on last night's effort he should not have been selected mainly due to lack of match fitness. Those criticizing JVR need to remember that our system and delivery into the F50 is shambolic - I would hate to be a forward in our side as the ball is constantly hacked in mostly to the defender's advantage. His output will improve if we can get either Petty or Fullerton there as another legitimate tall target and improve our system of entry/delivery even by a small margin.

I’ll stick to my cheeseboard - not such a fan of the fruitcake Besides there will be enough fruitcakes on my walk to the ground via Surry Hills for one day thx

Sounding like the after game celebration of a certain Matilda’s striker - and this game hasn’t even started 😜