spirit of norm smith

I’d play Preuss if fit. That’s what he is on the list for. Otherwise trade him out for both his sake and our list.

Top 10 strategies for rest of 2020 1- put Pickett (or Bedford) inside the forward 50 and stay in the arc. Don’t go up to the wing or half forward. We want someone to actually crumb a pack inside forward 50. 2- a true wingman to partner Langdon. Rivers? Hunt? Jordan? Baker? We need pace and skill. If it’s not Baker or Hunt, then they are in the delist scrap. 3- Weideman. To bring his intensity every week. Not in patches. We need him desperately to stand up as our key forward. 4- kick ins. A plan B. Not just “May to kick it to Max about 45 metre out on the left hand flank “. So predictable. So boring. Teams expect it. What about setting up space. Run and Kick and run. Other teams create strategies to get the footy at least to mid-half forward. May could even kick it to 80 metres out. 5- kill off the OVERHANDBALLING pandemic. Dees have this need to handball handball handball until it leads to a turnover. Two effective handballs then kick it. 6- inside 50 attacks to a scoring position. NOT TO THE POCKETS. We wander “Why” we don’t score. FFS. You need to kick it to 15-25 out and get the forwards to play in front. Conversion rate 10-15% (Goals/inside 50s) is horribly low ... the worst 7- Salem to actually use the “elite “ ball skills through the corridor. He needs to be challenged. He’s safety first 15 metre kick sideways gets a 80-85% efficiency rating but does not achieve anything (a 125 metre gained rating is poor). Ineffective. 8- Harmes to play a run with tagging role. He’s like a Mitch Robinson type. Hard as nails but needs a focus of the job. On Sloane. On Simpkin. On Pendlebury/Sidebottom. On Shiel. These are the next assignments. 9- The Trac must become elite. There’s the challenge. He’s now in the zone. 24year old. Fit. Firing. Talented. He needs to be our star. He will get tagged. He needs to burst out and lift himself and the team. 10- Goodwin. Be a coach. Give some creativity. Show a strategy. Really needs to move BEYOND HIS CLICHE WORDS AND EXCUSES (“we are having trouble with our connections forward of centre”). Fix it !!!

Agree. But that’s why there is the term Coach. With the access to technology and psychological analysis and neuroscience and human biometrics modelling , surely the millions spent in the football department can get a bloke to kick the footy 45-50 metres in a straight line. Or are the millions spent on ego and cliche training. Oliver was a good kick in his under 18 year. He got worse as he has developed. It’s also decision making. He handballs to a teammate COMPLETELY SURROUNDED. He needs composure as the media highlights. BUT REMEMBER, He can get the footy 30 times in a match. That’s hard work. That’s talent. He has the ability. You need to work on fixing his weakness and then continue to work on it week after week.

It was a disgrace. 1 minute 18 seconds sums it up. The blooper video went for 2 minutes 48 seconds.

The Dees always seem to be the ones to lose the dead certainty games. In 1993 I remember the Swans hadn’t won for 26 games straight then played us in Sydney. They won by 7 goals and didn’t win another game all year. They were totally hopeless yet we played like lambs.

Dees didn’t tire or show fatigue. They could not kick or handball. Not a new problem ! It’s been years of this.

I believe this will be moved given the stage 3 restrictions in regional Vic. The Lions, Suns, Giants, Swans academy systems are playing 3 matches in a round robin. They will get good sightings on their prospects. Brodie Lake from Darwin is one of the best prospects as a tall 186cm running midfielder with good skills. But under the Gil Mc charity programs, the AFL GC Suns get Darwin access so he goes likely as a priority selection. If not, he’s one to think of around the 30-35 draft mark.

Exactly. Tomlinson was not the player to bring in. He never was any likelihood of being a wingman type. Endurance runner best suited to CHF /CHB role. Zak Jones was missed for a second time. He wanted out of Sydney and despite the potential to play with his brother, the Saints got him. Even Jack Newnes was available at half the price of Tomlinson.

Surely Dees v Dockers in Alice Springs. Round 16 or 17

Mahoney says our poor skills and execution were due to 1- conditions and 2- pressure. Firstly the conditions were perfect. No dew. No wind. It was perfect. Port didn’t have any trouble. Pressure. Sure Port applied A grade pressure but many of our MISTAKES were after a Mark or a Free Kick. It wasn’t pressure. It was LACK OF CONCENTRATION and LACK OF SKILL. Mahoney said it was a one off. Did he watch the Tigers game ? That was also poor. Our effort and attack on the footy is good. Our skills and transferring the footy is very poor. No excuses.

Here is 9 youngsters that showed they are excellent users of the footy across outside midfield roles or half back. Dees should look to add at least two of such youngsters based on efficiency skills.

Goodwin must simply win the next 2 games. Losses to Crows and Kangas could mean he’s gone by years end.

Blues are rubbish.

Jack Newnes. We screamed his name last year and no one listened. Exactly the type we need.

SURELY DEES V DOCKERS IN ALICE SPRINGS. UNDER THE SHADE OF THE ULURU SUNSET. GAME TIME 2/30 PERT. Earn your $$ and get into Gil the magnificents mind.

Mahoney got Tomlinson as a wing player on a 4 year deal.

It’s a joke right. Salem takes short steps and Gray goes hard. By the way, the video - Melbournes goals - is Only 1 minute 15 seconds. That’s how poor it was.

Win every game and finish 12-5. We’ve played all the top teams now (5 of the top 6) so we can win the rest. All the remaining games are winnable (spoken like Matt Burgan). But given last nights game, we could lose every game and be 3-14. It was that pathetic.

I’d drop Tom mcd again and bring in Brown or Tomlinson for CHF. Tom mcd is glacier slow and turns like the titanic. Sad to see him deteriorate.

I’ve backed Brayshaw for a long time. But over the last fortnight I’ve watched him now slide into “just average”. He’s not quick. He jogs. He’s not overly skilled. He tackles ok. He deserves more midfield time and respect but us behind so many. He’s loved by the club and by his mates. Trac and Gus are brothers. It would break our hearts to trade him but it’s looking the most likely option. Freo would bite. Sam Sturt and Freo 2nd round 2021 draft for Brayshaw and our 2021 3rd rounder.

Jaded you star. I thought this last night. He’s a great bloke. Brilliant loyal Demon. But he’s now not in our best 22 on a flank and not required for his key inside midfielder role. He’s heart carried him last night but only just. He did 4-5 shocking turnovers which were costly. I think he may be dropped. Now how do we handle the end for a Demon champion. A farewell match is appropriate and is not a gift. It’s respect. We have bulldozed out James McDonald and Brad Green. Don’t let our great man Jonesy down.

We have somehow got so many inside mids that we are completely deficient in outside skilled runners. Inside mids - Viney, Trac, Oliver, Harmes, Brayshaw, Jones, Sparrow. These blokes need to play on the ball and cannot move to a flank outside role (except Trac and he’s brilliant in the midfield). Outside mids - Langdon (a good runner but not skilled) then ... We lack skilled runners. Memo to Mahoney and Jason Taylor for three (minimum) in the 2020 draft or trade. Refer to my 2020 draft posts. We recruited Tomlinson for a “wing” - who was thinking that a slow 6”4’ endurance runner was being transformed to the wing. Mahoney was joking. He’s too slow and not agile for such a role. 4 year deal !! FFS. We need to salvage this. Move him to CHF for 6 weeks. He’d be better than Tmcd !! We have too many mid sized half forwards- Anb, Hunt, Bennell, Melksham, Vdberg, Hannan, Fritsch. Add Baker and Dunkley and our recruiting becomes unstructured and haphazard. Only 2-3 such players should be in the team any week so a need to cull here. For a wing role starting this week Option 1 I’d like to see Jayden Hunt back in as a midfielder. We don’t need him as a midsized forward. Put on the wing for 3-4 weeks and say “Go your hardest”. Run run run. He’d confuse the commentators with Hunt and Langdon. If it doesn’t work, Hunts put up as a trade option. Option 2 James Jordon. He’s only 19 but ready to play. I’d back the kid for a few games this year on the wing. He’s got skills and composure. Option 3 Trent Rivers. He showed us he can run and deliver. Get him in and see if the wingman role suits. Give him 3-4 weeks in this role.

Agreed. Salem has disappointed me again. He should be our quarterback. They even talk about him potentially rotating through the middle. He may have done kicking efficiency but it’s mainly 15metre kicks sideways. There is no precision in forward delivery or intensity.

I was at the game too. M34. Weid was like Hannan and Fritsch and Jackson and McDonald. They all played behind their man. Waved an arm. Led to the pocket. Went up one handed. Weid doesn’t demand the footy. He does not dart up and back. Weid was poor like many others. He saved himself with the mark and goal with 90 seconds to play. That was good but only brief. He should stay in and we need to persist. But I’ve love 5 minutes with these forwards. They need more intensity and to demand it.

AFL website report says Dees best were May, Salem, Gawn and Hibberd. Salem ??? They must have watched a different game. He put other teammates under pressure , missed tackles and went half stepped at the footy. Got caught too often. Metres gained 150.