Earl Hood

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.

Is it your backhand?

Did Mitch Brown play in the twos today? If fit he needs to play forward round 1. He at least is a natural tall forward and we are desperate. With our best mids back playing we will be able to play Petracca deep forward. That May paper over our weaknesses.

We were always on a hiding to nothing today with 10 first pick players out against a top 4 side. But was seriously unimpressed with Traccs game. If he is to go to the next elite level he should have shown more dominance, he at best, had a few good cameos. But really the story was there was no evidence today of an improvement in our game plan or skill levels, no evidence that we have worked on the so called transition by the mids to our forwards. In short our old problems are still there. With 2 of our big forwards out for weeks not sure what we do to be competitive in the first 5 or 6 weeks.

Yes I have only seen 2 training sessions this year but watching the game I noticed that we were not switching play or moving the ball in any way that resembled the what I have witnessed. I know we were missing perhaps 10 first pick players but I thought in a preseason match you would keep trying to play to the system you train?

Ben Brown as well.

The umpire had good vision of that! That is a perfect example of why that rule was created, push the guy forward when he is in the air so you can take the mark. Unbelievable miss. Yet umpires will pay in the back if you fall onto someone who is already on the ground!

I thought this for the last two seasons. The midfield can be so much better if it works more as a coordinated unit rather than a number of talented individuals. I am hoping Yze can recreate a cohesive unit similar to the Hawks midfield at their peak. Not asking for much I know.

Rode past Gosch’s this morning. Oliver, Viney, Hibberd and Melksham doing ball movement drills and Salem later on doing some laps. All were moving freely and looked sharp. That’s 5 pretty handy players that would be normally be amongst the first picked. Hopefully all will be available for round one.

Have you taken up cooking classes Biff?

Need to work on our tackling to prevent the opposition getting the ball out cleanly so often.

Umpires obsessed with the push in the back rule! Any tackle that ends up with the tackler on top of the tackled, no matter how they got there is adjudged in the back! Ridiculous but it has been working to our favour this match. Glad I am not a defender these days.

DemonOX yes Vettes are great to drive, do you drive the Camaro shown in your avatar?

I think someone said he was given leave to go home for family issues? I was looking for him at training but didn’t notice him as I was looking to see if they would use him as a designated line breaker in the match sim today as we had heard from earlier track watchers. Didn’t see that.

Yes thankfully we kept Tom. We are now looking at Tommy, Petty, Mitch Brown and Luke Jackson as key forwards, aligned with Fritsch, Tracc, Melchum as mid sized forwards with Spargo, Kossie, Nibbler as crumbers.... it’s not the end of the world if our midfield dominance continues into 2021 and you know we get that connection between mids and forwards functioning.