because rarely gets in attacking situations to use his delivery or take a mark up forward, and he gets run off in defence.

For flower sake people, we don't need another midfielder! Next people will be wanting us to tank and move from Optus Oval again ... but lets not go there right now.

As for what we need;
1. We need one more forward to stand up and support Henderson and we need to keep playing the kid week in week out. He is our future and needs games/confidence.
2. We need to play like a team and not be selfish. We need to support and more importantly learn to block, tackle and shepherd!
When was the last time someone saw Juddy's teamates stand up for him onfield while he is getting scragged by 2 opponents!
3. We need to get out of the sandpit before we loose too many other players or refuse to play there! Probably too late now but ..

I agree - re: non sociable football.

As bad as the Fremantle game was the Norf one was worse. They just copied the Hawthorn model of putting physical pressure on Carlton and watching them wilt under the pressure.

Who is good at applying physical pressure? Sentanta? Betts?
Get the players in who can apply it in the first quarter. I reckon Henderson should have a role here. He has the physique to cause a bit of carnage.


In terms of tackles - our best are Simpson, Judd, Carazzo, Betts etc...


Our best semi permanent/permanent defender iN terms of tackles is Russell (44) Thornton is on 18 tackles.Jamison 25 tackles.

Hopefully our next Father-Son pick adds the pace, skill, hardness and attitude that our midfield needs.

We've recruited well for a club that hasn't had a second round pick in the last three drafts.

Don't get the criticism or anger over Robinson because he isn't a great kick.

Some expect a pot of gold with every draft pick.

giibs seems to be given a role every week atm which I dont mind too much. Would be nice to see him let loose more often though.

I think I read somewhere that he played on pavlich? How did people rate his game last night once that is taken into account? (for those who like stats, last night was pavliche's lowest DT score and second lowest SC score for the season - which would suggest that gibbs was doing something right...)

Totally agree with the sentiments on decision-making JK. For all the talk about hardness and contested footy on these pages, the facts are that we've had enough of the ball the past two weeks to kick a winning score - we've failed to execute when we've had the ball in our hands and the ball use (by hand as well as by foot) has been deplorable. Walker in particular was just abysmal in his ball use vs the Dockers - and for a guy that we look to when we need run and carry that's a real team problem. Armfield has similar difficulties in being able to hit up a player after breaking the lines - the tendency is just to kick long rather than lowering the eyes. What stood out for me in our better games vs Geelong and St Kilda was the change in our ball movement into the forward half - that has dropped away markedly. I would say that some of it is simply poor skills, some of it is decision-making. I tend to get more annoyed about picking the wrong option because that's something that is more conscious and controllable - getting results in skill work can take seasons.

Final point, slightly controversial - anyone disappointed with Judd's ball use this year - accept that his kicking penetration will never return to what it was in his first few years - but to me he is making a lot more errors by foot than he used to. There was one absolute clanger in the 1st quarter that springs to mind and it falls into a bit of a pattern over the season as a whole. Be interested in others' thoughts.

4 - sore groin the last two weeks, not getting better
5 - lower back issue. Rest will do him well

Lucas will be elite
McLean should be elite

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Ecclesiastes 1:4, "One generation passes away, and another generation comes: but The Blues abide forever."

I think we just need a little more aggression at the ball.

Waite has been cut down by TCers for being undisiplined. But I think he has taken it upon himself to show some. He has just carried it out poorly.

Fev used to bring some to our forward line ( Not always well ).

We are percieved as soft across the competition in my opinion. We need to be the hunter no matter who we play.

On the elite player thing. Everyone want one more elite. Perhap Ablett would like to come across to us instead.....

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I support the Navy Blues whatever happens!

I never said we needed to recruit another 'elite player'... i just think our midfield is one elite player shy of taking us to a flag. We have options... we have improvement within the squad... we just need it to come soon.

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R A D I C A L B R O T H E R S

Inspired by the One-Minute Sculptures of Erwin Wurm

"All in all is all we are..."

Another elite player is always great but we have a good, strong team. When we are on, we go quite nicely. Improving all the time.
There are several things we need to work on ahead of another elite player.

1. Relentless, consistent, intensity
2. Strategy bringing the ball into forward line
3. Smart football (eg. not all flying to the same opp player when they have the ball, anticipating where the ball is going rather than where it is.... we do this but only some of the time)
4. Decision making (which ties in points 2 & 3 above)

This year, we have improved our strategies a lot. I am more inclined to blame the players than the coach this year when I see us play wide - I've heard Ratten speak about going up the middle and when we do that we play well. Think it's a function of our mental state more than a strategy problem, although we have more work to do to, hence point 2 above.
We are much better at knocking the ball free from opp players where last year our tackles tended to allow them to raise their hands and give off cleanly.
Our backline has tightened up and our running game has improved (although I feel there is a strong correlation b/w Thornton playing and a more stagnant backline)

In terms of players, there are a few who clearly have to work harder on the points above as well as skills and awareness than others.
Joseph, Armfield, Carrots, for eg, sometimes look like they are a half level down but I think all of these can learn to improve.
I don't think Browne, Anderson can cut it at senior level.

Judd, Murphy, Gibbs, Kreuzer are all A graders either there or undoubtedly on their way. (For those bagging Gibbs, he is ahead of both Cooney & Goddard at same age...)
Walker, Russell, Lucas, Bower, Waite*, Yarran, McLean, Hampson, Warnock, Henderson and Grigg all have the potential with the right training, development AND APPLICATION. Could go either way.
* Waite was elite but is now hovering. I prefer him back and occasionally floating forward to kick a goal or two....
Simpson, Betts, Houlihan, Jamo, Johnson, Garlett amongst others can make the difference b/w us being an A Grade TEAM or not.
And I think we play better with Setanta in the team, when fit. I see him as a first year top 10 draft pick - he does some really good things in most games but goes missing for large periods and still needs to learn a few things. But big upside.

I can't believe there are some out there asking for more mid-fielders surely its our foward & backline that require some assistance from what you would call A-Graders. Lets look at the backline first FB Jammo gets a tick but seriously Walker at CHB his size would surely have him as an attacking flanker. Thornton has been against oversize players for way too long and I think the bagging he is copping at the moment is pretty harsh considering as an undersized KP player he held the backline together as best he could for many of our dark years all the while watching as the MC recruited mid-fielders and ruckmen. A role in the forward line now should be what they look at with t bird. Having Bower back will help but he needs a couple of games under his belt. And I would like to see one of our mid-fielders possibly gibbs take on the role of kicking out see if we can get that monkey off our back. The forward line needs time to settle I think we all saw some great signs from Hendo and if they bring in Hammer to cover Kruzer against Brisbane if they put him forward to rest it gives us a great target and might allow Hendo & setanta some freedom and also bring the ball to the ground for the mosquito fleet. It is true however our mid-field needs to toughen up maybe Ratts should show them some footage of how The Dominator played and see if that inspieres them to stand up a bit for Juddy & Murph. And its well past the time Gibbs was given the chance to show us why he was recruited he has done his time in the backline put him in the middle.

We need one more elite player (probably a key forward) and more quality depth. There's a problem with thinking that everyone simply has to "pull their finger out" and suddenly the team will click and click permanently.

There is only so much you can do to a player's approach to football. You can't always claim that erratic football can be stamped out of every player or that a players best against certain opposition is the truest representation of that player's ability. Neither can you try and think of an ideal game plan and look at it superficially in the believe that you can alter your list to fit the game plan instead of the other way around. If we have a problem it's the fact that we place too much emphasis on these problems instead of trying to develop organically. It's aways "let's get so and so" only for us to become all bewildered when Draft Pick number 1800,000 doesn't come on as 'expected'.

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Just because I'm offended, doesn't mean I'm wrong.

Elite players are always great to have. But we've already got enough to win the majority of our games.

I like the earlier comments about aggression and team footy.

I also think we need to get our set ups worked out so that our better ball users are on the end of the possession chains and being released more often to deliver forward to advantage. We probably don't want to have rely on Carrots or Joseph or Armfield or Walker to be our delivery guys all that often.

I also think we need our midfielders to run hard defensively more often. In most of our losses there's a fairly common thread. We've got most of the opposition team camped in our forward line, and then kicking easy goals on the fast break. We need to get better at 'stifling' and then rebounding into space.

Betts.....

He has become a liability up forward for many reasons...goal kicking, dependence on midfield treating him like fevola.......stop honouring his leads ffs, kick it to hendo waite or setanta you lazy buggers. Betts is a natural ball winner, get him into the midfield for the first 10 min of each qtr. Besides betts only kicks goals in junk time, move him at the end of qtrs

Agree re: Betts
Playing very very lazy football lately.. setting a poor example

Too many nice guys....probably too intelligent too.

We need some extroverted sods......some hard nuts.

Either that or we just wait patiently for our boys to mature into confident and capable men.

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The problem will be made. for the solution to be sold, to your face before your eyes, tolerance is now the new danger