Earl Hood

Is Seston a forward or a half back?

It’s in Tassie though.

Agree. What’s frustrating is the first training run at Gosch’s I attended this preseason I was watching a 20 minutes match sim, eagerly looking for signs of our new game plan. Instead it was 20 minutes of negative congested play confined mainly to one side of the ground. I was very unimpressed until I later found out Goody was simulating the last minutes of a close match and how to kill the play etc. So we train for yesterday’s scenario, 3 points up, 2 minutes to go, we have possession and a shot at goal, what to do? DO NOT take the low percentage shot and cough up possession. The rookie AJ is not to blame, where were our on-field leaders?

6 Gawn 5 Salem 4 Lever 3 Sparrow 2 Petracca 1 Windsor

Yes my thoughts exactly as the game ended. AJ should not have taken that low percentage kick at goal with minutes to go. I don’t blame him I blame our senior players and particularly our coaches. He was shooting from near the interchange bench so no issue with instructions. Players needed to set up behind AJ and chip it around soaking up precious time, looking for a better angle and importantly forcing giants to advance forward to force a disposal and hopefully opening up a few holes in a crowded F50. And if that doesn’t occur put the ball into the forward pocket and out of bounds for a throw in. In short DO NOT GIVE THE OPPOSITION A POINT KICK OUT with a 2 minutes to go! End of frustrated rant!

Yep Umpire fell for the 3 card trick. He had no way of knowing whether Greene had one hand holding Petty back or was Petty holding Greene by the arm.

Spare a thought for me I got dragged up to Sydney by my Hawk supporting wife and had to sit through the whole show, pretending to support the Hawks and then getting drenched in the last quarter. Then it took 2 hours to get back to our hotel! Even with the tram and only 40,000 crowd, it’s a schmozzle getting out of that ground and home.

It’s worrying we don’t have big, pack crashing marking options and we are light on for opportunist small forwards with class. Kossi is suspended and earmarked for midfield role when he is back, McAdam injured, Spargo still recovering, Chandler struggling, Mentha, Henderson? Of course with rapid ball movement and good delivery into a F50 with forwards getting separation we might cover the lack of specialists and rack up big scores. But looking at our ball movement against Freo, it frustratingly looks very familiar, shallow entries often to forwards that are covered. The usual so called lack of connection between the mids and forwards! It’s only been an issue for 3 or 4 seasons though.

A whole hour! I hope they don’t overdo things.

Money: Whence it came, where it went! Actually the title of a book by JK Galbraith!

Yes we do but in a meaningful way, maybe that’s debatable .

The old firm were back and firing, Clarrie, Viney, Tracc, Gawn were great. We won all the stats that supposedly count, clearances, contested & uncontested possessions, inside 50’s. But still lost by 3 goals. It’s only a practice game but I ask what value has the coaching squad added to our game plan/style over the off season?

Good contested footy in the third quarter. Oliver in everything, Gawn dominating, Tracc adding some class, Viney in and under. It’s the old crew back and humming with some cameo help from the newbies. Now if I am a “well paid” Head of Football I might be asking myself at this, admittedly, it’s very early in the season, but where is the value add of the “very highly paid” Coaching Department? Me I don’t see any added value at this early stage! Hopefully we are holding our cards.

Vamos Diablos!

And what’s the recovery road for an MCL?

Gee I thought we had a few possibles not playing today, Gawn, Viney, Tracc, May, Windsor, Salem, Langdon might be chance to sneak in come round 1!

Barring a bad run with injuries I think we have the cattle for top 8 and even top 4 but we need to see the game plan and how we execute to really know where we sit.

Update just landed in my notifications has the MFC been reading this thread, perhaps?

McAdam suspected Achilles injury according to Ch7 report. Shute!

I am not sold on Goody’s new game plan at all!

We have the cattle to be top 4 but so much depends on the game plan. If we don’t adapt to the way the game is now being played we will have the likes of Fremantle, Collingwood and Brisbane running rings around us yet again.

Got very teary during his speech. A great man and a great Australian.

We have the cattle to finish top 4 but much depends on: - a good run with injuries - a competitive game plan. if we don’t change the way we play, with a fully fit and with key players in top form, we could still finish top 8 playing predictable, defensive footy but we won’t cut it come finals against the sides playing the hard running, unpredictable, offence first footy we saw last season especially from Premiers, Brisbane. The early signs I will be looking out for are: - Max taking marks around the ground and going back to take a long high kick down the line VS immediately dishing off a handball to a mid running past. - the coach lamenting the lack of connection between the midfield and forwards after we have won the hit outs, the clearances, the contested possessions and inside 50’s but still managing a close win/loss VS the coach lauding our forward efficiency that got us over the line.

Interesting comments re Ricky Mentha, I noticed him last week at Gosch’s during the confined space keeping’s off routine. Some of his footwork in heavy traffic was so impressive I had to get the phone out to double check who he was. Very Pickett like, I thought. Still might need a full season in the VFL to be ready to go.

I was thinking Kerry O’Keefe whose nickname is Skull.