Changes for Round 5 - GWS

[MattW]

The left field solution I can possibly see to the lack of a third tall defender is to put Sinclair back on Lobb. He is the only spare tall we have and could probably spoil Lobb. He can easily spoil himself by dropping marks. No way Smith, Marsh or Jones can match Lobb unless they take a step ladder or chain saw out with them. We also have match up problems preventing Shaw, Williams and Wilson running the ball out of defence and we need speedy midfielders to combat the likes of Scully, Kelly, Shiel and Ward. Quietly confident of my tip for tomorrow, GWS. It is going to be an interesting radio call of the game with three Kennedy's, two Sam Reid's and two Smiths.

Whenever Sinclair has been dragged back he's looked pretty clueless.

I agree with Wolftone: Grundy-Lobb, Melican-Patton, Marsh-Cameron. Cameron's goals mostly come on the lead or from ground balls, and I think Marsh will be more effective nullifying those leads than Aliir, who has been beaten on the lead a lot the last few weeks.

I see us winning 45% of clearances at best, so our forwards will need to be more efficient than theirs and kick straight. Our forward line is the best it's looked all year with Franklin, Reid, Papley, Rohan, Hayward and Tippett. The problem is containing their gun forwards. Jones will need to have a stormer; spoiling contests and, with Lloyd, running hard out of defence.

Our defeat of GWS last year was one of the season's more satisfying wins. That day the clearances were perfectly split, they had more ball (mostly uncontested) and we had 20 more inside 50s and were more efficient in our forward 50. Hanners, Kennedy and Parker averaged 30 posessions and each had 16 contested possessions. Joey made 13 tackles. They'll need to do that again.

[Sandrevan]

I'm a bit surprised by AA and Newman being dropped. Newman has been pretty good and deserved to hold his spot. Also, a bit surprised by Heeny and Rohan coming in - I thought they'd get some time in the NEAFL to build some match fitness. Anyway, I'm guessing the match committee know stuff that I don't.

Rohan (if he switches on) and Papley will need to provide forward pressure to Nullify Shaw and Williams so maybe that's part of the logic.

I don't know what to expect from Heeny. When fully fit he's awesome but recovering from glandular fever he may not be able to run out the game. I guess we'll see.
Good luck to the lucky Swan who matches up on Toby Greene. Yes, he's a tirde but a very dangerous player. Maybe Zac Jones can get under his skin.

KJ - certainly not at his best right now. Perhaps he'll get a rest when McVeigh comes back in - but what do I know.

Can't see how we'll win this one - but you never know.

It seems that body slams are the new bump. Can somebody break Steve Johnsons ribs before he takes another shot at JPK.

[Ludwig]

Personally I don't think we can win this. Our set ups are old and worn out. the opposition simply set up to combat every move we make. Horse has not introduced anything new this season so far. In the preseason games we played a few new moves, the short game, fast game, patient game, we experimented. It seems to me all the experiments were for nothing as all those strategies have been abandoned for the tried, trusted and obvious old game plan. GWS have our measure on the way we play. We don't change our plan to suit the new players, we are still working on the old plan to suit old players. It worked last year because of the sensational form of the players we had. But have a look what happens to it when a few players are down on form. Bullies have not been playing well either but they manage to win because they have a better plan and they have tweaked it over the summer. Bevo also has the ability to think fast in the game situation when things are not going right and make the right moves. Horse at the moment cannot. I think mainly because there are no moves that are obvious. but sometimes you have to come out of left field. In the 2012 Finals Horse pulled one out of the bag, Mummy off Parker on, Mummy was injured and needed to rest. This left us with one ruck but it worked. The extra run and in and under won the game. I am baffled he can't come up with left field moves. He has in selection, baffling moves really more so than innovative. I don't understand where the inventiveness has gone.

Do you think maybe it's not the game plan, but we are simply not playing well and no game plan will work if you're turning the ball over?

We want to move the ball quickly through the corridor with crisp passing and overlap run, but it's just not coming together because we can't execute the skills. We have also been fumbling around with the ball in the back half and allowing the opposition to set up for our attempts to rebound out of defence.

I've seen men open for a quick kick out of defence only to be ignored (maybe out of fear of inability to execute), then to kick to a contest, turn the ball over and back it come the other way. That's one reason I was surprised by dropping Newman, because he was on player who could drive the ball accurately downfield.

[royboy42]

I think Heeney will play. Rohan and McHack are less likely, but Horse has brought both in before without games in the NEAFL, so I really have no idea what will happen tonight. Who goes out is intriguing. I still vote for Fox Foot Florentine

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

[Meg]

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

+1.

[liz]

Do you think maybe it's not the game plan, but we are simply not playing well and no game plan will work if you're turning the ball over?

Don't be silly.

[Steve]

Do you think maybe it's not the game plan, but we are simply not playing well and no game plan will work if you're turning the ball over?

We want to move the ball quickly through the corridor with crisp passing and overlap run, but it's just not coming together because we can't execute the skills. We have also been fumbling around with the ball in the back half and allowing the opposition to set up for our attempts to rebound out of defence.

It's certainly personnel, and if you put Rampe and McVeigh into the back 6 it immediately changes the way we move the ball out of that area.

For that reason I would have persevered with Allir - there is a predictable, uninspiring sameness about the way Grundy, Smith, Marsh and Melican all just bomb it long by default and aren't creative players. At least Marsh will run but generally it is a 15m burst and then just a long kick down the line to a contest.

I also think Allir is the type of player that won't get much out of going back to the reserves at this point. I think the easy option from a coaching perspective is to just banish the player to the reserves and say "improve on this/that, then we'll pick you again" - rather than working with a talented player to address issues along the way. I'd be concerned that as a confidence player, you potentially do more damage than good dropping guys like Allir, particularly when he provides something that you don't have nearly enough of (ie. attacking rebound from defence, can hit targets etc).

[RogueSwan]

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

You forgot Crunch Grand Final Free Kick Goal Kicker??

[Doctor]

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

Couldn't agree more.

[ugg]

This issue aren't new for Allir, it's popped up regularly for him during his NEAFL career. It wasn't such a noticeable issue when he played his first AFL games last year, I suspect this was due to the fact he was regularly marking the 3rd best forward and/or the resting ruckman on the opposition team. Without Rampe in this year, he's been asked to take the next best forward and I think this deficiency in his game has been more glaring as a result.

[Markwebbos]

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

Sorry. That's my bad. I withdraw the name...

However I would like to express my concern at how much the game appears to have gone past our former co-captains and for how much longer they'll deserve a place in the team on merit?

[Xie Shan]

Not too surprised by Aliir's omission, he impressed a lot of people last year but he still has a few deficiencies in his game to iron out.

[Mug Punter]

I thought we'd put the Hack name to bed forever? Captain of the club, premiership player and all round champ. Deserves more respect

I agree

[Ludwig]

Jack Hacker played 111 games for South Melbourne.

Was only 173 cm tall, but played in the ruck.



Nickname: McJack

[Aprilbr]

Several commentators in the Melbourne footy media have been shocked by the dropping of Alir. Perhaps he is more highly rated outside the club than inside it? The current backline is a worry for me going into this game. If the GWS give reasonable service to their forwards then we are in trouble.


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