Earl Hood

Gee we are looking sharp NOT! 

Just now, monoccular said:

OMG

Fritra out so drop Smith and don’t recall JVR, our best kick and best contested mark   The other decent contested mark is Petty but he stays back    Melksham fresh off 7 possessions stays in the forward line  

Hope this works but I cannot see how  - I could very easily lose all interest in the remainder of the season.  

If we go in with the small forward line as listed and then start bombing it long and high and watch the Saints intercept mark repeatedly I will lose it big time. We have been here before in 2019/20. Let’s just hope the inside 50 delivery will suddenly improve replicating late season 2021. Fingers crossed in optimism. 

4 minutes ago, bing181 said:

Petty isn’t forward because we have arguably the best defense in the AFL and Petty is an integral part of that. 
 

You don’t break what’s working. 

Unless it is to fix something that is totally broken and is losing us games, perhaps. 

12 minutes ago, A F said:

Fascinating selections.

So Smith or Chandler the sub?

We seem to have gone away from the three tall forward set up, and will go with Brown and Gawn/Grundy. 

Melksham is near the end, if not done, and I don't like his chances of impacting this week. 

Aside from Kozzy and maybe Brown, there's not much to get excited about in the forward half. We're going to have to get a few goals out of Trac and our mids too.

With Fritsch out injured surely Smith should have kept his spot ahead of Melk. Smith played well in the Pies game, then had 2 games in the wet where he struggled with all the other forwards but kept tackling and competing in the air and on the ground. Pity he doesn’t get to play in dry conditions under the roof. Selections again puzzling. 

Are we trying to throw this test? Green bowling medium paced, half pitch tripe to Stokes and has played him into form. Cummins doing the same but quicker. 

2 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

How is our forward connection?

Our delivery into our forward 50 has been laser like in its precision, the only problem is it’s nearly always to a Giant standing on his own. It’s doing my head in. Our field kicking has been abysmal, even taking into account the wet conditions. Goal kicking worse. 

24 minutes ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Umpiring is embarrassing.

So Chandler gets taken high but continues to play on as no call.  Then as he's attempting to kick the goal the ump calls the free but then says he's taking advantage.

Geelong tossing it around like a rugby ball.... never called.  Viney attempts an overhead HB and according to the commentators he "may have got a fist to it" .... pinged straight away.

But to add insult to injury just prior to that the Geelong defender grabs the contested ball 20m out from our goal throws out a don’t argue but gets tackled to the ground holding the ball. Definite free kick but nup not from these Nuppties! 

25 minutes ago, —coach— said:

Reckon the around the ground umpiring has been reasonable so far, but they have no clue when it comes to ruck contests. Grundy getting scragged hard in every contest, gets donuts, so does similar back and the whistle goes!

Yes Grundy being manhandled in the ball ups, before the ball is even bounced and for once decides to put an arm out to keep some distance to contest the ball and gets pinged for a “straight arm”  by the umpire. What are you supposed to do when you get no protection from the umps? And add in Petracca who is being obviously held at stoppages by his tagger, often in front of the umpire but gets nothing. Tracc is getting frustrated for obvious reasons. 

How many clear centre bounce tap outs can we win but still not win the clearance? 

1 minute ago, Clayton spirit said:

Better suited to the forward line. Highlights his strengths and hides his deficincies. 

He did some smart work near me on the Members wing. I still wonder why we haven’t played him as a wing/half forward more. OK not that he has been fit for too many games. However when fit & available he can cover ground, has great hands and according to Alan Richardson, a few years ago, he has an elite endurance engine. He should be able to run quickly all day but guess we will never know. But I hope he gets a good, injury free run as an athletic, defensive forward who takes the odd spekie! 

15 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Not wanting to take the polish off but Kozzy is really going through arguably career worst from. He is lost at sea and Goody really needs to sort it out.  Not sure whether it’s droppable territory yet, but he is not performing to anywhere close to his best. Two very gettable set shots are telling he is down on confidence otherwise he is one of the more reliable set shots. 
 

Every player has em but he has been off since he got suspended and nothing to indicate he is shaking it off. 

Surely they are instructing him to stay down for the crumbs. And I would be giving him more midfield time. But then quite often the ball goes high into our forward 25m zone with Kozzie up against one or two bigger forwards so he feels he has to contest in the air. Get our forward set up right and he will click. 

6 Viney

5 Hunter

4 Tomlinson

3 Salem

2 May

1 Tracc

special mention to Fritsch and Smith up forward. 

What happened to Choco’s goal kicking academy? It’s a shambles! 

Just now, Jaded No More said:

48 free kicks. Forty eight. 
What a slop AFL is becoming 

Yes I am about ready to metaphorically of course, shove a whistle down an umpires throat! It’s ridiculous, they paying just about any contact as a free! 

6 Petracca

5 May

4 Gawn

3 Salem

2 Brayshaw

1 McVee 

6 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

Has Tomlinson played in the last 12 months with May and Lever? From memory he’s only come in to cover. Am I wrong?

From memory played round 1 down back and had a very serviceable game against the Dogs. Then was the fall guy for our shocker against Brisbane in Round 2 where the midfield went missing and the backline crumbled under pressure with May putting in a shocker along with many others. Tommo was then banished to Casey where he has played very well. 

11 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Serious? We were on the southern wing as always and bemoaned the fact they constantly play the members wing so we can't see anything.

Interesting. If you look at our heat map in the AFL map it clearly shows a concentration of play to one side for 3 quarters. Assuming the map is oriented so north is up then the majority of play is on the south side. But I could be reading the map wrong. 

Umpires have turned this game on its head! 

19 minutes ago, whatwhat say what said:

from where i sat on the wing, super ordinary game between two pretty ordinary sides

Which wing? If you were on the Southern wing, you would have seen a lot of footy close up. If you were on the members wing with me you spent most of the day looking at the f**king big screen to work out what was happening. 

26 minutes ago, A F said:

One test failed, three to go. If we can go 2-2 we're still in the hunt for top 2, let alone top 4.

We were pathetic today, but our lack of depth in the VFL (TMac, JVR, McVee and Chandler shouldn't have been playing today) doesn't help the situation.

We looked so fumbly and I've never seen so many dropped intercept marks. I'd say we dropped between 15-20 marks May, Lever and Gawn should have taken. They take them and the pressure value is released. Instead, they drop them, even when they were the +1 behind the ball, and then the pressure comes at ground level.

Even when we managed to cause a turnover, we fumbled and lacked the ability to slingshot. Freo's pressure was excellent and their system (copied from us) behind the ball was very organised. But, our inability to switch, or give to runners was nowhere.

We played down the one wing practically all day and never looked to switch. I can only assume this was an instruction based on either fitness or ensuring our numbers could block up any turnover going the other way. It meant that our ball movement reverted to 2022. Predictable, slow and lacking in ideas. If you're going to kick long to a contest, you have to have players at the foot of the ball for spillages.

We missed Oliver, but he wasn't the difference. They played without Darcy for over a half of football.

I'm gonna say it and people won't like it, but we looked like we'd been flogged on the training track and I wouldn't be surprised if we're in a heavy loading block, building up to the Collingwood match. But we need to get these results going our way, against middling teams like Freo. 

The waning accuracy, poor decision making, poor disposal and lack of attack are also signs of fatigue just FYI...

Yes agree with this. Watching Collingwood on the rampage, the thing that stands out is their quick lateral movement of the ball and use of the whole ground from half back to stretch opposition defenders. So what are we doing replicating our 2022 one dimensional, predictable ball movement, playing the southern wing all day? We had opportunities to switch but rarely did. Not sure about the training issue but we do look slow and so the midfield is incapable of running the ball into the forward 50 and spotting up a short lead, instead booting the ball long from outside 50m hoping for a pack mark. It’s the 2022 failed game plan revisited, very disappointing. And our fabulous set shot goal kicking accuracy has gone missing as well. We need Petty and Oliver back asap but this just highlights the lack of depth on our list. 

What is going on with Viney? We are playing a man down. 

2 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

They have not played like this since 2021 bar a handful of games. Not holding my breath that’ll change this week. 

And to me that’s a key question. Why can’t we reproduce that midfield pressure intensity that we displayed in the second half of 2021 that took us all the way? What has changed in terms of personnel, not a lot I think. And it’s not just the followers, it’s the wings, the half forwards and half backs. 
 

Watching the Pies do over Carlton today, their pressure on the ball carrier is what we were doing and this allowed Darcy Moore to sit back and intercept at will. Very reminiscent of our once impregnable defence with Lever & May picking off hurried disposals into the opposition’s forward line. That was us in 2021, harassing, chasing, intercepting and going back the other way so quickly, the lack of resistance allowed our midfield to pick out a forward at their leisure. And suddenly our poor forward connection problems evaporated and we dominated the finals series. That defensive, offensive running dominance has gone against better sides anyway. Without being fully competitive between the arcs our weaknesses up forward get exposed. The personnel are still there but the intensity seems to be missing. 

Who is doing the camera work on the coverage, it’s hard to focus? 

Great on paper but not performing but the good news is it should be easy to get it working in the second half of the season but the bad news might be I am not confident that will happen. No idea what the problems are when you have 2 dominant rucks tapping to the likes of Oliver, Tracc and Viney. 

3 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

You've got to be joking me

Technically it was there like about 80 others not paid this match in the rain. Rivers holding on didn’t actually impede the player who was going no where in that scrimmage but you know give the umps half a chance.