Earl Hood

Strewth do Casey ever play away? Would have gladly travelled to Willy.

And historically Geelong loses the next week after they beat the Hawks. If we show to play this week we can win.

Anyone else having issues with ticketing? I am second priority with a level 1 reserved seat and was slow to log in this evening but have been in about 5 times and choose a seat area but can get no further, as in I get no actual seat and option buttons to move on. I doubt everything is sold in our reserved area yet?

Yes all those and then thinking about the recent Rod Owen story, we recruited him in 1991 but shopped him off to the Bears in 92. Why did we do that, oh yeah think 1991 and we discovered Jakovitch with 70 plus goals in 12 games, we already had Bennett and Lyon and then a young Schwartz appeared on the scene. Talk about forward talent.

Might be like Howe, a coffee with Bucks and there you go it’s a done deal.

6 Gawn 5 Kossie 4 Hunt 3 Langdon 2 Viney 1 Petracca

Basically [censored] poor efforts from the club this year in regard to us, their paying members. Hiding away at Casey all preseason, with ****all coverage of training by the club, all the while denying access to fans who did make the trip out there. Apparently 42,000 plus of us have paid up for membership this season but do we exist in the calculations of the club management? I am not sure. Denied access to training but [censored] all club coverage, a few photo collages occasionally and then there are the unpublicised VFL practice matches with no coverage and no club reports. Remind me why I am paying a premium club membership this year for our current Administration?

6 Oliver 5 Salem 4 Petracca 3 Tomlinson 2 Gawn 1 TMacc

Petracca needs to stand up in the second half.

I noticed late in the second you can hang off him in marking duels, no free but don’t try that on King. It must be an age, experience thing with the umpires. You know I always thought the rules applied equally to all players regardless of age.

Amazing the umps put the whistle away in the first 15 minutes. That’s okay if they stay consistent but no by second quarter they are picking frees out of their [censored], mostly to the Saints. Again we are own worst enemy with our goal kicking, should be 2 goals up at least. I am a great fan of Fritsch but if you can’t kick a goal from 30m on a 30 degree angle I think we have to look at alternatives once we have our big forwards available.

Well if every time you touch him he gets a free any backman is going to struggle. Which rule was that last free? Blocking apparently when you are bodying up on your man. Can’t chop the arms, can’t hold, now can’t body.

Marvin?

Interesting watching the Hawks match. Wonder how our backline would function if we still had Frost playing for us, say instead of Tomlinson. Working in with Lever and May would be interesting. Why is it the Hawks with a young side, saying they are rebuilding, look more organised than us and showcase better skills overall and of course they nailed nearly every set shot for goal. That accuracy kept them in the game. What was our set shot conversion rate today? Less than 50% for shots inside 40m I suspect.it is a problem we have had for the last 3 years but the usual suspects continue to struggle to nail set shots from 30m. And not helped by the fact that Jackson has the total yips.

6 May 5 TMac 4 Lever 3 Oliver 2 Langdon 1 Petracca

Yes but take Dusty out of that contest and they probably lose. But that is why teams win multiple flags there is always a great player driving the success. Barassi, Matthews, Hodge, Hird, Dusty.

Umpires loosing the plot here. And the over the shoulder decision was [censored].

I take your point but I also look at 2019 and 2020 we didn’t make finals but we never struggled to get the ball inside our 50m zone. We nearly always won the I50 count but our forward conversion ratio was appalling. The midfield is not our greatest problem. Our backline is pretty settled but I say again our forward line is dysfunctional, underperforming, you name it. We have 2 or 3 big forwards out for the first few matches, how do we make our forward line work early? I say get Tracc forward more often than not, to give us more scoring power. The midfield will improve thru Oliver, Brayshaw and then Viney in 2 weeks.

You didn’t watch the practice match last week I presume? The forward line is dysfunctional, the midfield will improve with Oliver and Brayshaw to come in.

And Tracc plays predominately forward, out of the square till we get more of our big forwards back. No mention of Mitch Brown tonight so I suspect he is an unlikely starter, round 1.

Trouble is we are desperate at least for the first 5 weeks of the season. We need a couple of tall forwards. I would be pushing for Mitch Brown if fit, to work in with a combo of TMac or LJ or Petty. At least 2 of those in the forward line. With Trac playing predominantly forward early in the season. Add these to Fritsch, and small defensive forwards, Spargo, Viney, ANB. Maybe we can construct a functional forward setup? If Kossie is fit I think he will be playing further upfield early on.

BAU, 10/12 on the player injury list. Same old same old. Will it ever change?

Interesting in these ideas to plug the problematic hole of the other wing is there is no discussion of trialling Joel Smith, if he was ever fit of course. We know he has good size, 190 cm and that he can run and cover ground. Then we were told by Richo last season that this guy is an elite endurance beast who can run all day. We know Smith is an elite athlete lacking in the footy smarts that limits his potential as a forward and has limited him so far as a lockdown defender when fit. Could he be released to the wing and just told to keep running into space to receive the ball when we have the pill and running down the opposition when we don’t? Apart from the Jackson option, the others just don’t look to have the attributes. Harmes and TMac are on the slow side. Does Melksham have the engine?

Basically agree with this but why is it so? You watch the Bulldogs and they just instinctively know where their team mates are, where they can handball out of trouble, often out of sight, behind the ball carrier. Some of Libber’s handballs over his head backwards push the boundaries of credibility for the Umpires surely. But yes in comparison we seem disorganised despite year after year of training drills but it all doesn’t seem to work at AFL level, we still depend on the individual supremacy of Max, Tracc, Oliver et al to be competitive. That is individual dominance rather than a playing system that can dominate. For the dogs there are always team mates ahead, sideways and behind. That builds confidence for the risk taking ball carrier trying to break defensive lines, that he will always have an emergency out. I don’t believe we create that confidence on game day. We provide it in our practice drills at training but come game day, under pressure the daring plays go missing. Is that because players don’t have support around them and players presenting forward of the ball? I don’t know.

I hope we get at least another 7 back for round 1. Oliver, Viney, Salem, Hibberd, Melksham, Kossie and Brayshaw. Hopefully we can also work Mitch Brown and Petty into the mix, up forward as well. These players will improve the side but I do worry that our forward problems remain unresolved. And I see no real changes to the game plan, if you can call it a plan! Slow ball movement out of the backline, kicking long down the line is not how we train, sorry to sound like a broken record.