Gary L:yon said something very true on the couch on Monday.
They were talking about how Ken Hinkley had set his players free to run past the man on the mark and how successful it had been.
Rootsy said,
The player who takes a mark can't handball to someone if there's nobody running past. (True)
Gary said,
It's a chicken and egg thing. If the player runs past and gets ignored, he isn't going to keep running past.

That sums up our team in a nutshell. For the past couple of years, players running past or running to space have been ignored in favour of getting the footy towards the boundary and into the hands of Cripps, Murphy, Simmo, Doc, Thomas and maybe Kreuzer and Ed Curnow. They have ignored the kids running to space. They haven't trusted them. I've made that comment half a dozen times in the last six months. If we are to go anywhere, we HAVE to trust the kids with the football and they have to demand the ball and then do something with it. It's a chicken and egg thing.

Let's watch Port next week. if they do what they did last week and we do what we did, we will get slaughtered by their four first year players running through the middle with PP, Rockliff and Boak feeding it out to them.

We also have to play two rucks next week or Phillips will get the Gawn treatment. Hit outs to advantage are all of a sudden more important.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

We get too many players inside the contest and not enough outside the contest.

Despite what Blues media said, LOB was our most effective player last week, based on 3 quarters I watched. .

I sure hope they don't plan to play McKay in the ruck. He simply cannot play that position - leave him to cause havoc in the forward line where he belongs.

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Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. Fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores.

He did cover a lot of ground and took some telling grabs around the ground.
Unfortunately, our available ruck stocks are not that flash.

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Let slip the Blues of war (with apologies to William Shakespeare) (and Sir Francis Bacon, just in case)

Jones spent some time there a year or so ago - I guess no one rated him, or thought he was too important down back to continue with this.

He has to be better than H - sadly, I feel I may be better than him (at rucking - not the important things like picking up girls and playing FF )

For me it's simple...the player with the ball needs to make the best decision...does he honour the running player just because he presents or does he assess what dangers lurk around that player and choose differently. Nothing shits me more than players running past, blissfully unaware that unless the handball is cm perfect (and bullet like)*, they will get tackled

The desision maker is the player with the ball.

* our hand balling technique is Under 12s

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If I want your opinion, I'll give it to you!

Agree Harry should play as much possible in the forward line. He’s not a Ruckman.

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Go Blue Boys

I remember we played Josh Kennedy in the ruck a few times and I was furious. Why do we do this?

We drafted McKay as a forward, he’s never rucked before. Plain and simple....... don’t play him as a ruck!

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit"
- Aristotle

Agree - despite not having a huge number of possesions, everytime he got the ball he used it to our advantage.

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I´ve got less posts than a St Kilda troll.

According to Barass on BF Ritchie not playing this week ...

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"Truth, for the tyrants, is the most terrible and cruel of all bindings; it is like an incandescent iron falling across their chests. And it is even more agonizing than hot iron, for that only burns the flesh, while truth burns its way into the soul"     — Lauro Aguirre

That's a blow

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T E A M

He was huge in the second quarter. Set us alight. If he could play that way more consistently, he'd be an exceptional player.
As for Harry, the game currently doesn't provide opportunity for 2 rucks unless they can play adequately as forwards. Harry is our best option. It's up to him to get his act together and improve his ruck craft.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

I'd take Harry's inferior ruck play over Levi's overall poorness

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T E A M

Yeah this is a real bummer, been in really good form

port unchanged

Port Adelaide v Carlton at Adelaide Oval, 4.40pm ACDT

PORT ADELAIDE

No changes

CARLTON

In: C.Polson
Out: D.Cuningham (injured)

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Anyone heard what the problem is?

The 21-year-old was involved in a collision during a training on Tuesday afternoon, with scans confirming he has a bruised kidney.

Cuningham is expected to be available for selection again in approximately three weeks.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Seriously, he could play the Philip Seymour Hoffman role in The Cooler.

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The only way for some people to understand is for them to be on the receiving end

Left wing moralists
In self serving denial
They shit me no end