spirit of norm smith

Caught the plane with the Cats yesterday. Selwood ducked all the way down the aisle !!

Train at Manly Warringah Wolves AFL Club

Q Station Sydney National Park. Manly. North Head. 4 stars. Well located for quarantine. Good walking and team dining facilities. Not quite the Gold Coast resorts but manageable. If that’s it.

Spot on. He’s not damaging. In fact he either turned over the footy or put his teammates under pressure. One kick to the forward line went at 45 degree angle out of bounds. His handball to Smith cost us a goal. His final clanger killed off any momentum we had. He needs a mentor or special coaching. He has the ability. It’s the execution of delivery that is missing.

I agree. He appears restricted. Definitely not as energetic or at the contest as I would like to see. Not capable of a creative midfield role right now imo

Yes. I think we will see HB this week v Suns. We need his skill. It will be interesting versus his former team. At least some theatre.

Thanks Demonland for posting. This is what we have been screaming out for years. We win the contested footy against virtually every time. Only the Lions beat us last year in contested footy. But our football skills - kicking and handball are shocking. And the overhandballing is as bad. Often to a teammate under more pressure.

Gawn was our best by a mile. Hit outs. Marks. Contested marks. Disposals. Efficiency. Tackles. Blocks. He did his very best.

Btw Riley Beveridge in AFL Website gave Clayton Oliver as our second best player behind Gawn. Was he even watching the game !!!?!?!?!

I can’t see how Salem gets votes. He was getting handball receives but not often in the contest. He has also been a culprit of a slow slow style. His delivery is often short 15 metre kicks. I held high hopes for him as a Houli type running half back but he’s not quite there. He was not the worst yesterday but not deserving of votes.

I agree that on TV it’s hard to know where our players went sometimes. I miss watching the game live at the ground. You get more perspective on why and how

Surely we need capitals JUST GIVE WEID OR BROWN A GO IN THE FORWARD LINE for a few weeks. Not just 1-2. We brought in Brown. We need to give either of them 5-6 weeks. Here you go. Yes. It’s not just a fling.

May was a forward as a junior and first two years at Suns. Can mark. Great kick. I’d try the Weid first but if all is lost by round 10, I’d experiment with May going forward.

Demonland. Can we start a post on this. It’s been obvious for years and years. Not just the past bad 18 months. It does “kill us” and the players. There is no skills development coach clearly. I just posted about forgetting about trades etc. Fix the skills of the 22 that play right now. Skills and decision making are CRITICAL

SNAP. BINGO. EUREKA!!! Yes even this is so simple. We don’t get back or quickly enough to take our mark or free kick. We play dumb and this is one of the 5-6 most basic easy to fix things. Trac, Viney, Oliver, Harmes. Plenty of examples. I’d fix it in 3 minutes to the list with a short video. Surely Goody!!!

Couldn’t agree more. Intensity is not just physical. We need mental intensity. Concentration. To kick it properly. To make the right decision. To use handball creatively. That’s seriously lacking. It’s not lack of confidence. It’s the foundation skills and decision to then execute it.

My option is the one where you take the many years of underachieving and ask why and how. There is plenty of talent on board. Not any greater than other clubs but the equal of others. But as I watch the Dees and compare us to other teams, there are glaring issues. 1- the main one. Our foot skills are horrible. The worst in the league. We are the TURNOVER KINGS. IT KILLS US. I would have sessions of constant skill development. Delivery of the footy is critical. The Hawks and Tigers teams of the past decade that won premierships were manic on how accurate they deliver the footy. And it’s not just slow. You have to make quick decisions and have the skill to deliver. 2- OVERHANDBALLING. There are too many handballs that put pressure on teammates. Some handballs are looping. It’s another part of the game that is so critical. Handballs are to create. Our stats show we have more handballs than kicks. It’s not running line breaking. It’s often to a bloke standing still who is 60cms away. Ridiculous. I think it’s sometimes the lack of confidence to kick the footy so we handball it instead. 3- Converting our inside 50s. We win contested footy. Two issues. First - The DELIVERY INTO FWD50 IS DUMB AND HORRIBLE. To the pocket or in high. Easy to defend. There is no bullets or setup kicks or even chaos delivery. We are often too slow and teams flood back into zone. Second - We need a true marking forward. Desparately. Hogan and Weideman were our hope. Weideman can still be. We must play him for the next 6 weeks. Yes 6 weeks at least. I don’t care if he doesn’t get a kick. It will say that’s your chance. We will back you. If it doesn’t work, I will still reckon there will be 3-4 clubs still seeing Weideman as a trade target. Key forwards are gold. Tommy mcd is ok, a bandaid forward that has played above and beyond. Jackson is not ready yet. So my point it’s back to basics but critical need for skill development. Yes that’s the coaching responsibility. You can’t keep saying “we have trouble connecting forward of centre” without fixing it. I am not a believer in trading out a Viney, Brayshaw, Oliver etc. They have shown they are A grade in some period of games. We need to bring that back consistently. You trade out your surplus. I see ANB as the player who has value as a mid-forward who at 24yo with 6 years 70-80 games has some appeal to others. He will probably want chances elsewhere. Overall I will stick with our blokes but with fanatic desire to see them work on transition of the footy by hand and foot. Creative and positive. Intensity is not just about pressure and tackling. Intensity is a mindset of 100% commitment 100% of the time. We need that in our skills. We are too soft and dumb with our footskills and handball. That’s the hard work that is critically needed.

Jetta?? May. Smith Hibberd. Lever. Salem. Langdon. Harmes. Brayshaw. Bennell??. Tmcd. Hannan Pickett. Weid??. Fritsch. Gawn Petracca Oliver Rivers Vandenburg Tomlinson Jones?? outs. Lockhart Hunt Viney Melksham emerg. Sparrow Brown Anb

Many many on here were against Butler and rubbished anyone who thought we should grab him as a cheap draft pick. Not laughing now.

6 Gawn Tried his guts out , won hit outs, took marks got to the back 50, good disposal 5 Petracca. Earned 4 votes for his first qtr alone . Died out as fumbled but two good kicks created goals in last qtr Needs to kick it more 4 Hibberd worked hard , good defence , despite some skill errors he kept trying to create then daylight 3 May strong defence today and looks to bring others in from his rebounds 2 Hannan. For 3 goals. Took limited opportunities 1 Fritsch. For presenting as a forward. Kicking needs work still. apart from Harmes , the rest were mainly passengers. Oliver and Viney hurt us from their ineffective turnovers. Killed us in fact.

Good defender. Not great. Not above average. Just good. Not worth $600,000+ per year Not worth two first round trade picks. But he’s in red and blue now

Yes that’s definite.

Clayton oliver. What the

3rd qtr ✅ Melksham goal ✅ some pressure on the footy - chances missed inside 50 ... need marking forward - letting tiger smalls run ? umps crucifying us with inconsistency ? tigers just bully us and no response

Agree. Viney needs a confidence shot