One more stat, pressure acts:

Lamb 8.5 per game, Phillips 11.3, Kreuzer, 16

Take out the Sydney game and it becomes: 10, 13 and 19

This is obviously a small sample size, but this is empirical evidence that Kreuzer is doing more than Phillips, and that we need more impacting forward play than what Lamb has served up so far.


Three games; two pre-season hitouts. Last week was his first full game.

He had a pretty good impact in three-quarters worth against Port Melbourne in the final trial match, makes a lot of searching leads and links up extremely well: think a modern day equivalent of Lappin, though perhaps not as freakish around goals at present.

With Boekhorst down for the count he's a like-for-like replacement of the role we had him playing last week, and that will free up Boekhorst when he's fit to return.

Has anybody considered Rowe stayed in to have a go up forward?
Or that Jamo was dropped because he didn't have an opponent suitable to his style of play and that Rowe did?

Who knows how these decisions are made? Or why?

Will Sumner really play or is it a ruse?
Perhaps he'll be replaced by Jamo at the last minute.

I reckon the rebuild started with Barker.


Jed Lamb - 2 matches - averages:
12 disposals (8 kicks) @ 62.5% efficiency with 2 clangers, 2.5 marks, 0.5 goals 0.5 behinds, 0 assists, 0.5 tackles, 1 free for, 1.5 inside 50s from 77.5% ToG

Andrew Phillips - 3 matches - averages:
4.3 disposals (2 kicks) @ 76.9% efficiency with 1.7 clangers, 1.3 marks, 0.3 goals 0 behinds, 0 assists, 3 tackles, 0 frees for, 1 inside 50 and 16.7 hitouts from 69.3% ToG

I suppose black holes technically aren't observable directly, hence the trouble some are having. Statistics aren't everything, but eventually you need to touch the football to have a real impact. Bolton isn't punishing form, he's punishing a perception of the past and perhaps the odd critical mistake.

The problem with that is you indirectly reward people who do nothing.

Jimmae?

Not punishing form
Whiley, Jamison?
Bokey shirked a few last week and isnt in the team
Phillips is there because Kreuzer is half fit
The problem is depth

One more stat, pressure acts:

Lamb 8.5 per game, Phillips 11.3, Kreuzer, 16

Take out the Sydney game and it becomes: 10, 13 and 19

This is obviously a small sample size, but this is empirical evidence that Kreuzer is doing more than Phillips, and that we need more impacting forward play than what Lamb has served up so far.

Not punishing form
Whiley, Jamison?
Bokey shirked a few last week and isnt in the team
Phillips is there because Kreuzer is half fit
The problem is depth

Jamison the only emergency not playing VFL.

Have read a few suggestions that Kreuzer is struggling for fitness. Is there any confirmation of this? Maybe Phillips isn't playing because Kreuzer is unfit, but rather because Bolton likes to have 2 ruckmen.

Have read a few suggestions that Kreuzer is struggling for fitness. Is there any confirmation of this? Maybe Phillips isn't playing because Kreuzer is unfit, but rather because Bolton likes to have 2 ruckmen.

It coul get pretty ugly on the scoreboard tonight but getting games into Weitering, Plowman, Byrne, Curnow, Cripps, Graham, Sumner, Lamb, Buckley, Kerridge, Docherty etc is great for the future. And another game working on Bolton's game plan for the whole team as well, it'll click eventually.

His game time has been going up by about 5% each week, though in terms of actual minutes and intensity I'm not sure the difference is quite as significant.

In terms of structure, Bolton's been far less patient with other aspects of our shape and execution, so I'm not sure why Phillips is getting a free pass.

I think it's a fitness thing, but it's not like we've got a whole host of inviting forward options to turn to at present. If we did, I think they'd just have Levi pick up the slack and rotate through the bench a bit.

In what ways? It feels like our structure and game plan has been consistent throughout the first 3 rounds.