Earl Hood

I Feel like someone should put up some defence for TMac. He has been serviceable this season in our wins. Yes he struggled on Saturday but from what I saw the backline was left exposed repeatedly by a midfield that all but went MIA when the heat was on in the last quarters and allowed the bombers mids to deliver repeated balls to their targets under zero pressure. On Saturday he played in front of his man but was penalised for holding his ground under the ball, while his opponent climbed all over his back, then later gave up a mark when given the classic shove in the back. The entire backline looked slow under intense pressure. Yes let’s drop TMac but who comes in?

Still on the payroll but good luck to him and to Bedford and Jessie, all now at the Giants. That’s footy.

Lefau has 4 for the Tigers. He played with Casey a few years ago. He always looked very athletic, agile and a good size at 195.

Must admit Petty looks a different player when he is released into the ruck/midfield. At 6.7 he is tall enough to compete at CBs and today he held his own at times against Witts. But he also followed up at ground level, tackling and pushing the ball forward. Then as a mobile tall he was able to take a few marks and set up attacks. When released from the restrictions of being a key back or as a key forward, having a KPB breathing down your neck, he looks much more athletic, with Luke Jackson like attributes. Just how we utilise those qualities, if King chooses too, will be interesting

6. Gawn 5. Steele 4 K Pickett 3 Sparrow 2 Melksham 1 Lever

Loman picks up a free after ducking/shrugging into the tackle. Goal! The umpires not umpiring to this season’s much publicised rule interpretation.

6 k Pickett 5 Gawn 4 Lever 3 Steele 2 Sparrow 1 Fritsch

I just happened to be looking at the AFL.com site and they have the top 5 leading players in 7 categories so far this season. Oliver is No 1 in 2 categories and top 5 in 2 others! He doesn’t register in the goals & marks. So the stats are telling us he is still very competitive at AFL level.

Under 15s blunders in the last line by the Giants there twice in 2 minutes! But it’s caused by a total lack of movement of players to provide targets upfield.

Yep our much vaunted young ones need more work. Windsor, Lindsay, Culley, Langford all struggled tonight. Tholstrup battled on. Work to do, but we should see improvement when we get back to the G.

Reality check. We have work to do. It could have been a lot worse, we kept at it so we are fit enough.

Oscar Baker good play and good luck to him.

Some really soft 50’s dished out there. Free kicks 27 to 16. Hawks well looked after by the Umps.

Swans have totally run out of puff.

Que?

When I arrived at training the drill happening in front of me was quite interesting. There were about 20 involved in 2 sides utilising less than half of the ground. Basically the sides had to move the ball in traffic by hand or foot to a coach at each end. If you were in space you looked for handball or occasionally a kicking target but the interesting aspect was the obvious instruction to when in congestion, not to take possession but to slap the ball forward or to an outside teammate. So I saw a lot of slapping the ball when it’s on the ground and a lot of palming the ball to a team mate if it was in the air in a contest. It worked a treat in a training drill. I will be watching Saturday to see if they use this technique to clear congestion to our advantage. These tactics I think work if the inside ball getters know there will always a runner on the outside to receive. Hopefully King is developing this system and the confidence for players to keep doing it.

Langdon leaving training early after running laps. He was in the drills earlier. Suspect he has felt something is not right.

Round 20 2023 vs Richmond. He kicked most of them at the city end and I was sitting in level 3 Ponsford to watch a masterclass in forward marking and set shot goal kicking. I really thought we finally had the key forward we needed but he was injured a few games later and then Melky went down in the final home and away. And that was about it for our premiership chances.

Yes.

I can remember saying we should have done exactly that against GWS game 1 last year and copping some blowback that you always back yourself for the shot etc. We were 3 points up and AJ had taken a contested 40m out on an angle with 2 minutes on the clock. AJ took the shot and missed and GWS ran the ball down the other end for a goal. I didnt blame AJ I blamed our system. So great to see that tactic today.

You are probably right. But I have turned over to the Women’s soccer, more of a midfield battle happening there.

Yawn this game style we are seeing now is starting to resemble basketball too much. The mid ground battles for yardage, a turnover or stoppage and ball up have all but disappeared, it’s just running the ball from end to end for shots at goal. Not particularly enjoying watching others play so it will be interesting to see us in action on Sunday.

Based on the little footy I have watched so far, the games anre all about rapid ball movement and players who can run and run and keep running! So early on at least the “speed/endurance athletes” are going to get a run, Sharp and Tholstrup come to mind.

Can anyone explain Melbourne Storm’s success, given they are also stuck in the dysfunctional AAMI facility. They train on the horrible surface that we used to use under Bailey.

Can someone explain the benefits of all under one roof mantra? I know it sounds good but what will be the tangible benefits, what were the burning problems? Macca has emphasised the better playing surface and the better viewing areas. Given our coaches have locked the gates during training at Casey for years I am not sure anyone will be necessarily getting a welcome at Waverley training.