When Dow kicks straight he will be a serious weapon. Remember when Levi couldn't kick goals?
People are on his back because he isn't an accumulator but that was never his strength. He will get more possies when they go to him. His biggest issue is his kicking for goal (as with McKay).
He will get more possessions when the game plan allows it. The 'senior' players are still kicking it to each other. You can see it out there Cripps to Murphy to Simpson to Ed. Then they kick it long to McKay or McGovern hoping for a mark or a spoil and a ground ball contest, which has mostly resulted in the past in an opposition sweeper getting 13-16 uncontested marks inside the F50. (See Grimes Rd1). Stop him getting half of those and there are 6-8 more shots at goal. How many games do we lose by less than four or five goals?
Players like Jack Silvagni, Dow, O'Brien, Setterfield and Kennedy make position a lot but get ignored while the above wax it. The presence of Martin and Betts opens up more options for the way we enter the F50, implying that more mids need to get it more and look for that 30-40 metre option inside 50 by an unmarked player running free. (Opposition clubs do that and usually kill us see Richmond Rd1)
Yes, I know it's a confidence thing as well but until we let all 22 players share the game, we will be playing ten against 18.
Dow was selected for a reason and that reason still exists. He's a burst player, not an accumulator.
Same with O'Brien, who was touted as a wonderful, elite endurance player with a deadly left leg. Not his fault that we rarely play a running game and he has to watch us chipping down the line to McKay 130 metres from goal or Levi or McGovern too far out to score.
When we started to run against Richmond, we dominated possession. As soon as we went to a contested marking situation and lost possession, goodbye nurse.
I'd be happy to see Cripps, Murphy and Simmo get a few less possies each if it meant SPS, O'Brien, Setterfield and Dow could get it more. For a start, they don't get tagged in the midfield rotation and it opens up options that make the team harder to defend against.

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

Didn’t Bolton give the young guys more responsibility though, Blue Sombrero? It ended in tears back then - not sure what’s changed to give you confidence now.

_________________
"In better news for Blues fans, Jarrad Waite was not named on the club's injury list."

Yeah, not obsession, just the right type of kid at the right time scenario. His attributes give a different edge to what else takes the field.

Too much in the end. No balance. Strangely Teague did the opposite......

Hopefully we'll get a balance...

Agree. Bolts went too far in terms of giving the kids responsibility. Teague went too far the other way.
Whether Bolts' strategy in the long term helps us and the kids remains to be seen.
Teague had to win games so understand him going the way he did. Just hope he gets the balance right this year.

How are people feeling about this one? It's been so long I can't get a read on where we are at.

Melbourne are even tougher to get a read on

_________________
"I had to eat"

I expect us to be much better. Martin, Docherty and Weitering already showing their impact. SPS too.
The slow start and lack of intensity against the Tigers should have been the focus since then so I’ll be v disappointed if we don’t come out breathing fire.
But I’d also expect the Demons to come out v hard - that’s their strength w Viney, Brayshaw & Oliver feeding off Gawn.
If we can match their intensity, I think our skills and speed will lift us to victory. But without the intensity, we won’t be in the game.

Harley Bennell is playing. Time to bump the Moran thread.

There will probably be lots of jokes about social distancing and our tackling efforts.

From the AFL website. Personally I cant see Cunningham missing out, but its not easy to see who else - Dow, Gibbons, Newnes?


In: Harry McKay, Eddie Betts, Marc Pittonet
Out: Matthew Kreuzer (foot), Zac Fisher (ankle), David Cuningham (omitted)

B: Sam Docherty, Jacob Weitering, Lachie Plowman
HB: Sam Petrevski-Seton, Liam Jones, Kade Simpson
C: Sam Walsh, Patrick Cripps, Jack Newnes
HF: Jack Martin, Harry McKay, Michael Gibbons
F: Eddie Betts, Levi Casboult, Mitch McGovern
Foll: Marc Pittonet, Marc Murphy, Ed Curnow
I/C: Jack Silvagni, Paddy Dow, Nic Newman, Will Setterfield

Emerg: Sam Philp, Matthew Kennedy, Tom Williamson, David Cuningham
Unavailable: Matthew Kreuzer (foot), Tom De Koning (ankle), Brodie Kemp (knee), Caleb Marchbank (knee), Zac Fisher (ankle), Charlie Curnow (knee)

I think they will keep Cuningham in too.

In case anyone is wondering, this team is only a prediction from the AFL website journos, not the official R2 team.

Fox Sports team predictor had Cunningham instead of Dow which is more likely.
Based on his pre season and round 1 performance, Setterfiled will want to perform a hell of a lot better to retain his spot for round 3.

Dees are playing 2 debutants in addition to Bennell

_________________
"I had to eat"

Didn't Cuningham kick 3 goals against the Tigers?

He will be playing this weekend.

_________________
*(grow - fun - gah)

Yeah but whatabout your whataboutism.

Not the same thing. I'm not suggesting they take over the major roles in the team, just that the senior players honour their workrate instead of looking for one of their waxing partners.

If someone like O'Brien busts his arse five or six times running down from defence to attack, is in a good position to receive and gets consistently ignored while Simmo holds it up until Cripps gets into position or bombs it over his head to the opposition sweeper, , he will eventually lose the will to bust his arse and run from defence into attack and make position to receive.
Look how many new players get goals in Richmond's setup or Collingwood's. Kids we have never heard of who have played eleven games suddenly pop up with 4 goals. That doesn't happen with us.

Watch how often Jack or Kennedy gets into the open and they kick it to McKay two on one with their man providing the cutout. They have to take pack marks just to get a kick.

Bring the kids into the game if they are in the right position. If they consistently muck it up, it's the MC's job to drop them. It isn't always Newman's best option to ignore Setterfield or Dow every time he gets the footy because he is looking for Cripps.

There are 18 players on the park. It's up to them to get into a position to get the footy and it's up to those in possession of the footy to use the best option, which isn't always Cripps or Murphy or the long bomb to Harry or Levi.

EDIT: The names mentioned are examples and not meant to be actual plays.

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

Not confident. Just feel their midfield strength will be too much for us in the end.

Razor Ray and a first gamer umpiring.

_________________
Between our dreams and actions lies this world

At the risk of spelling out the bleeding obvious if we can mitigate the terrible starts that we have been having under Teague, then we should be in it up to our eye balls.

Even though they made the finals recently I certainly don't fear Melbourne.

And our forwardline suddenly looks quite impressive. As usual it'll come down to whether we have enough contributors in the middle. If we leave all the hard work to Cripps, the kid Walsh and he old stagers Curnow and Murphy, then it'll be another loss.