Liam Jones is a powerful beastly animal.

Imagine if he could play football. And run.

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O say does that star spangled banner yet wave.

Thought there were some positives. Not as many as we'd hope for, but still some nonetheless.
- Graham is a smart player and has shown he is best 22. He'll benefit from having some better (smarter) players around him too.
- Kerridge showed great hunger and desire. He was a little scrappy, but that's the way it goes in February. He at least adds some midfield depth and versatility.
- Casboult gives us a legitimate target and looked a little more mobile than he has in the past. Needs help down there though.
- Boekhorst showed some really good signs again. Athletic, quick and has some flair. He'll benefit from a more free flowing game when the real stuff gets going.
- Jed Lamb didn't do enough to convince me he'll play round one, but he showed enough to suggest he's around the mark. Neat and tidy and gives us some crumbling talent in the front half.
- Thomas looked good. Not the player he once was, but good.

Still question marks on quite a few. Didn't see enough from Galucci, Bryne or Curnow to make a call on them. I'm sure we all hoped Curnow would blow us away, but it's just not that easy.
Phillips probably didn't show as much as I hoped and Gorringe didn't really show anything. I'm not convinced on Whiley yet, despite him getting a bit of the pill early and a couple of the experienced guys were poor.

Tutt is one that still cops a bit. I think his pace and hunger for the footy will be appealing to Bolton and fits in with the game plan. He's not good with ball in hand, but for those hoping to never see him pull on the guernsey again, I think you're out of luck.

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@cecil_anderson

You keep saying this, but the biggest thing I could fault Everitt on in terms of his defensive pressure is that he can be quite flat footed, but he doesn't strike me as particularly agile despite his pace.

Resultantly he has to make a lot of diving arm tackles, which rightly get brushed off. Maybe his anticipation of how to close for the tackle can be tidied up in some sim drills, but what he brings beats the bejesus out of a couple of straight-line run downs from Jones, who then has to sit out of the play for a full minute to recover.

I can see Liam's trying, but at this point either he's doing something horribly wrong in his preparation that's leaving him with a poor fitness base, or there's a medical issue that's putting a massive cap on his performance. His second/repeat efforts are the worst at the club by far, and he should not be anywhere near the senior team as a result.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

Spot on.

Charlie Curnow took some hits cos he was too slow. Needs to attack the ball more.
Did Gorringe play?
Galluci needs repeat efforts.
Jones and Tutt are costly. No improvement seen in either. If jones wants to tackle and that's it switch codes and play rugby. Tutt's kicking is weak, kicks under it and holds up play.
Kerridge loved the contested ball and Thomas played defence. Let's hope Walks can own the HF spot cos there's no fwd structure at all same as passed 3yrs. All we do is run randomly and create chaos in a small area resulting in kicking and hoping.
Boekhorst I thought was good. Ran all day and took game on. Geez he drills it, little room for error but that one too jones in the third was a 50m kick waste height like a bullet, pity jones couldn't keep up his end of bargain.

Early days. Happy overall and can't read into game plan just yet. As for Tutt & Jones they know better

Everitt and Jones should not play for us again. How many times can we watch Everitt pretend........hopefully BB won't be watching him for very long.

It's not about preparation or fitness.

The sad fact of the matter is that he's not a footballer's arsehole.

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“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace turns into a circus.”
Turkish Proverb

Geez you come up with some unsubstantiated shit Jim.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

It's hilarious watching Jones tackle.
He generally runs in front on, wide open.
Leads with his chin.

He'll knock himself out eventually......which should please plenty on here

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I see you watching me watching you.

On my way home from dinner.

Worth watching when I get home?

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"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent." Qui-Gon Jinn 15-05-2005

"there’s more chance of me becoming the full forward for the [Western Bulldogs] than there is of any change in the Labor Party." Julia Gillard 18-05-2010

I see our first-choice forward structure as something along the lines of:

HF: Wright Everitt Armfield
FF: Walker Casboult McKay/C.Curnow

with Cripps, Boekhorst, Thomas, Murphy, Gibbs, Kerridge, Graham, Buckley and Cuningham all taking minutes through there, while Lamb and Smith can come into the team if one of the young talls or Armfield shows no form.

Everitt and Walker the lead-up targets, Casboult the deep target, Wright, Armfield, Walker and the mids looking to crumb as the opportunities arise. McKay and Charlie can be eased into some minor roles to keep the 3rd tall/medium defenders honest instead of peeling off.

Tonight it seems we gave a lot of minutes to the bottom third of our list that was fit to play in Jones, Dick, Tutt and White and a couple of draftees.

There's probably 10 blokes outside of tonight's team that could slot straight in and hold their own at AFL level, so I'm comfortable enough with what was shown tonight. Yeah the forward structures need to improve, but the half of the intelligence and mobility that's going to make that work wasn't even on the park.

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29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

No idea how we will kick a winning score...

Are you suggesting he pretends to be slow to shift his weight, then limply attempts to tackle?

The bloke has his strengths, and he has his weaknesses. He's one of the fittest players at the club, but I reckon his agility - that explosive step to change direction - is poor, so he's got to improve that, or improve his anticipation of the oncoming player.

It's self-evident, I'm not sure what goodbody nonsense you think I'm spruiking. You should be getting stuck into Jamison, Tuohy and Casboult as well if you want to aerial/leading/close-checking players to increase their pressure acts and tackles.

EDIT: fixed quotes

_________________
29 different attributes,
And only 7 that you like;
20 ways to see the world,
Or 20 ways to start a fight.

not really , maybe only the first qtr

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*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

There were signs that we'll press up and pressure the ball carrier better than we have before and also signs that we'll defend after turnovers better than we've done in previous years. It's the ability to do those two things that will enable us to score some easier goals and to hold the opposition score down. We're not going to be a high scoring team, but if we're better defensively it won't be as much of an issue.

_________________
@cecil_anderson

My thoughts:
Rowe and white: try hard but don't have natural talent and footy smarts and at there age are just depth players eg Rowe getting out mark by a bloke who he has heaps of size on.
Philips: just another Hampson, athletic with no footy smarts.
Tutt and Jones: enough said. There shit.
Whiley and graham: have come on a bit. Whiley looks fitter and will benefit from having murph and cripps back. Neither are first rotations mids.
Curnow: his awareness seems good and was leading to the right spots. We very scrappy in the second half which doesn't help. When we get murph and cripps back it will help our forwards

You missed Gibbs - he was good

Credit to Jones for some big tackles/hits - like tutt, not good enough - both put in the effort

I'm no Jones apologist, but he made the best tackle of the night (I reckon about 4-5 minutes from the end).

Everitt, who I generally like, made an attempt to tackle Gibson which was positively embarrassing. He also cost us a goal when he packed himself (I'm pretty old) when Hodge ran in to contest. Lamb was also guilty of a similar effort.

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"You can't polish a James Hird"

We'll never be free of Mick until Jones and Tutt are gone.

PROS-
Kerridge
Thomas
Docherty
Graham
Boekhorst
Defensive transition after a turnover.
Ball movement at times in 1st half.
No injuries (?)


Jones tackled hard and at least looked like he was having a crack. His marking hasn't improved unfortunately.

Everitt's lack of defensive pressure stood out. I better not go too hard too early, but I thought he was a clear weak link and looked like the only player who hadn't bought in to the new approach. I said towards the end of last season we should trade him while he had some currency....what was GC offering again?

Gibbs and a few other senior players obviously still blowing out the cobwebs.

Good education for Charlie.

Hard to see us kicking a winning score too often in 2016. Still, I was content with what I saw tonight. It was about what I expected. Murphy, Cripps, Walker, Buckley & Armfield will make us better in the short term - and Weitering, Cunningham, Plowman, McKay in the longer term.

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It's never as good as it looks and it's never as bad as it seems.

Walker
Murphy
Cripps
Buckley
Weitering
Jaksch?

I'm starting to struggle now