OK .. though I would add my 2 bobs worth (some people might reckon thats all its worth).

... and I am gunna be positive Cazzesman.

I thought Warnock showed something.

Grigg had a bit of dash ... Judd was Judd.

The ground looked good ... grass was green.

Yarran did a few tricks.

We only lost by a small margin.



GRRRRRRR .. I can't take it anymore .... WHAT THE^%#*&#%$#$#%&&##%&# was going on out there.

Short passes and handballs around the boudary line ..... GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Hate to say it ... but starting to agree with Synbad.

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I am as mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!!!

QED

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

Im gonna go out on a limb here and say im glad we lost!!

Sure it may have been better to get the feel good victory over the swines and maybe even got us a few more memberships, but I reckon we are better off out of the NAB cup and having some hitouts against sides out of the limelight.

The purpose of our preseason is to find new and alternate avenues to goal and to work on some structures with our available squad. Now we can do that in relative obscurity and with a full squad. Betts, Hoops and Walker are all walk up starts and need some time in the match conditions but also now maybe Ratts will be focussed on trialling a rookie here and there that may not have had a run had we been results driven as we may have been further into the NAB cup.

All this conjecture about game plans and structures is fine but we actually need to find the players who are going to play in their positions and rotate through the positions first before we can implement structures. I mean, none of us can even agree on who should play where for the most part, so no wonder the structure is taking some time to come together.

I thought Bower and Russell were terrific down back.
I thought Robbo and Yarran were terrific up forward.
I thought Warnock and Jacobs were good in the ruck, and Jamo and Thornton in defence.
Carrazzo worked hard.
Scotland looked dangerous when he went forward. And very, very loose when defending.
Grigg looks to have recovered a bit of his ball-winning, hard-tackling mojo (which is great). His kicking was poor though.
Henderson showed a bit despite some horrible delivery to him.
And Davies and Lucas looked comfortable in their first hit out.

I thought Kreuzer and McLean had shockers. And the midfield was pretty poor. And the ball movement was poor. Slow out of defence, then bombing into the forward line. When what we need is quick and precise out of defence, and then slow it down, control the ball, and pick off leading targets in the forward line, if there's no one free.

I like that Browne and Anderson are obviously being given a decent go in the preseason, because we need to develop some more small/medium defenders. But they looked a long way off it. Anderson needs to use his pace to absolutely blanket his forward, and then run off. He has poor skills, and he hardly gets near it when playing at AFL level. At least Browne gets the ball, but his skills were way off, and with his lack of pace he struggles to play tight enough. If only we could clone Jordan Russell ... (by contrast, Sydney had Malceski, Kennelly and Mattner all rebounding out of defence - 3 Russells).

3 Russells in one team?

Many on this site would neck themselves!

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

Finally watched the game and read the thread...very funny...the thread not the game

I think the pros and cons have been discussed pretty extensively. Some of it I agree with, but some of it is way over the top IMO.

Yarran was the positive for me. Should have kicked at least three. Continually did the hard stuff and then just lacked that little bit of composure to finish off the previous good work. The final product will come when he realises just how much time and space he can create for himself

You have intrigued me, so I'll bite Gibbs played in the guts and on the wing. What exactly do you think his role should have been. Although it more correctly should be roles

re: Gibbs...dissapointing, lacked impact and both his disposal and instensity were lacking.
Enough of the quarterback role, he needs playing on the ball and down forward where he can influence games.

Warnock showed good skils for a big man but is a ruck novice, Jacobs was more effective IMHO, you would be struggling to find a spot for Warnock in the best 22.

Lucas is very much in the Camporeale mould......runs well, knows how to get the footy and will be a good player in this modern game not quick but smooth and mobile.
Didnt mind Davies either, solid old fashioned half back and looked the part.

Pace: looked slow at times especially through the midfield, when Jetta had his burst it was like the ghost of Andrew Lovett coming to haunt us from Essendon*. He ran away from our players who couldnt make ground on him bouncing the ball which is a worry when we play the pacy teams who switch play to their quick runners which has been a weakness of ours for a while.

Forward line had no stucture which has been well discussed, lack of specialist forwards and too many manufactured ones in the making will lead to Casboult getting a game down the track IMHO. Henderson at CHF, Casboult at FF and Waite as the third tall forward is how I see it working out.

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"When you have the attitude of a champion, you see adversity as your
training partner."
- Conor Gillen