Dee Zephyr

Becoming very hard to control the excitement with all these reports. So many supporters excited by the prospect of Harley running out with us as early as next week, can’t even imagine how he is feeling.

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You can just feel this scenario playing out next week.

150 cardboard cutouts of the great man in our cheer squad end of the ground.

Good problem to have but I’m guessing most teams are in a similar boat after the layoff. Chaplin talked a bit about Lever having great endurance which enables him to play 100% of game time especially with shorter quarters. That helps us to better utilise rotations elsewhere on the field, same can be said about O Mac. 100% game time again in R1, don’t think he’s missing out anytime soon unless someone proves they can play his role better. Like others, I’m most excited by the prospect of Rivers running out very soon. There was a lot to like from the North game in preseason.

Around 40m or closer i’d go T Mac. Over 40 I’ll choose Hunt, he holds the clutch award from 2019.

Has anything else been reported on this apart from the news vision last night Damo? Hopefully it’s nothing but a bit of a back rub.

Shellacking @Sir Why You Little, they could’ve brought the cardboard cutouts on as replacements, the wind might have blown some over on the Roosters players and actually laid a tackle.

According to Salem on SEN we had some match play last Saturday and Bennell completed the majority of it and pulled up fine. We did see some vision of him in match sim last week but from memory that was a midweek session. We have another match play scenario this Saturday and if all goes well we might at least see Harley putting his hand up for Carlton.

The aim of the game back then was just to get the ball forward and score. You hardly saw any of your best players on the bench unless injured. Players weren’t afraid to use both feet and used to great effect, players these days run arcs to get on their dominant side. Skills were so much better, clean pick ups, one grab marks etc etc.

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Thought Lockhart got better as the game went on. He was guilty of leaving his man a couple of times in the first quarter and getting sucked into the contest allowing easy goals. Hopefully with more experience he learns when to go or not but this thing about getting numbers to the contest in every part of the ground becomes really frustrating at times. Going back to the preseason doco i remember Goody praising the boys that played against North in the scratch match for having about 90 less possessions and still winning the game. Said something along the lines of you don’t have to possess the ball as much as the opposition if you defend well. The amount of times we see 3-4 defenders running to spoil makes you think it’s a directive. Why hasn’t that stopped?

I’d be keen to see a poll amongst ‘landers. Would a bigger bench work with shorter quarters?

That music from the match sim vision, anyone else feel like going clubbing after watching it? Good bit of content today, watching them in game mode certainly regenerates interest.

Vanders with ball in hand? Nice!!

It would be nice to swing by Goschs at some stage this year to have a look at the boys but according to Goody in the ‘Ask The Coach’ clip Casey without doubt will remain as the base for the remainder of the season. He says we are too restricted this season with the other clubs such as Storm and Victory at AAMI.

Still hold some hope for Hunt to get back in the team at some stage. He performed ok playing forward last year. Not in many people’s best 22 here.

? Nice reply in the comments by a J Magner.

There is an Ask The Coach video on the club’s website and the first question to Goody was why can’t we replicate the high scoring of 2018? Goody’s answer was clubs are defending differently to 2018 and the system used by teams is a lot harder to break down. They are working hard to find an offence to break those systems down. Hopefully we see that over the next 4 weeks. Was also asked about Bennell. Still a lot of hurdles to overcome but has done everything asked of him. We will see him at some stage as an inside mid or forward of centre.

Essendon and Geelong back to back at the G. Nice.

Slight detour. Anyone seen the new training jumper from today’s session? Looks good on Jonesy from the pics on the club’s social pages. No front view though.

If you go by R1 performances O Mac definitely warrants selection. The problem was up the other end of the field. The only way O Mac misses selection depends on the match ups. Looking at Carlton’s injuries on another thread I can’t tell you which other tall forwards they have available apart from Casboult.

Interesting, not that it matters a lot but did they say where it will be played TJ6?

If the latest reports are correct you’re on the money Steve. Details emerging it could well be Hawks v Cats in R2.

Does full contact training commence on Monday? Hopefully we get a few match sims next week provided they’re allowed more than 7 in a group. A chance to see the progress of Bennell, Petty and a few others that were rehabbing prior to all of this. Guessing Vanders is still a while away.