JLT 2 vs Geelong, Colac, Sunday 11/3/18 1.05pm Fox

But then we have to find a contested marking kpf who can compete against the big kpd, which are even harder to get than defenders.

We saw what happened against Sydney when Hooker didn’t play. Grundy outbodied Smack continually and in the final Stewart / JD also got done over.

Also would be ideal to get Wines however.

Def two key areas of weakness for us.

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Hmmm well the club has a bit of a problem we use to have one of the best backlines in the buisness and now it’s an area we are deficent in again.

If that was your takeaway, then I think it is very wrong. Geelong had half their midfield absent and were significantly up on us until the last quarter. They were also missing several other best 22 players. We were missing Raz, and, um…

There is every chance we will struggle against Adelaide. There is a lot of hope here that what we saw involved rust. Because for three quarters, a lot of our players were bog ordinary.

We are going to struggle with everyone seaming to emulating Richmonds pressure

Well duh. Fletcher retired, Hibberd buggered off, Carlisle buggered off, Hurley still isn’t in his original AA form, Bags is slowing down, Kelly has retired and we’ve moved Hooker forward. Why oh why would the defence be worse???

But you know what, we’ve complained for over a decade about the forward line, we finally get it clicking last year, and people on here want to move one of the cornerstones out and back to defence. I’ll give you a little tip - its a lot damn harder to find someone who can play decently on tall forwards, than someone who can play decently as one.

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I reckon we might be too top heavy in the fwd line, but we played well today, and missed a few get able goals in the last qtr, could have won by more.

Alright no need to bite my head off jesus

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Richmond’s pressure is good but that won’t guarantee them another grand final, there are ways to expose a high pressure style of play and we are capable of doing that with our forward set up

Makes me wonder if we’ve entered the Jeremy McGovern sweepstakes. Would make sense if we are going to refuse to move Hooker back for any reason.

Hooker makes the other two better. He takes a key tall defender who needs to play close because if he gets away he will be dangerous.

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I think there will be times through the season he’ll be needed back

This is where the added value of Brown will come in, if all of Hurley, Ambrose and Brown are getting done over by an opposition kpf then Brown can be switched for Hooker.

But I doubt it’ll be something they want to happen too often. Hooker too important to fwd structure.

Um… is that what you meant to say?

I completely agree with all that. It’s always better to play well than to play badly. It’s always better to win than to lose. The preseason matches are practice matches, but it’s better to practise playing good football and winning matches than playing bad football and losing.

I was glad to see us not let the game get away from us in the third quarter despite Geelong having what was obviously a strong wind, and very glad to see us take advantage of that wind in the last (which we hadn’t done in the second quarter), then hit back to draw level, finally get ahead and then hold on to that slight lead to the end.

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I think good shape is a reasonable call. Hardly making it lid off, but neither is it lid nailed shut. But I think what we did today was encouraging. We scored over 100 points. Barring the 3rd qtr it was a tight contest score wise all game. It’s swings and roundabouts with their midfield outs versus our new midfield finding its chemistry. Training loads etc. It’s a preseason game and as I said you can spin preseason games which ever way you want from being definitive of form to just a training run. Seems both sides had a decent crack and we held our own. With two weeks before round one to tune up further. Will we beat Adelaide? I’m not that confident and we should not be the favourites as they were last year’s grand finalists. But as we know it’s a long journey to September and not a sprint. A pass will be an honest committed effort to do what we are meant to do. If that means a win – then fantastic. If not then, there’s the following week and that line about it being a “long journey to September and not a sprint.”

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Ambrose out, McKernan in and Hooker back please Mr Worsfold

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The team that kicked >100 today will be a hell of a lot better if all of last year’s forward line don’t have bad games (Hooker, Daniher, Stewart till the last quarter, TIPPA, Green… plus Fantasia injured).

And if they do, then the goals of Stringer and Smith are big bonuses on top of that, not just keeping us thereabouts.

There were some pretty nondescript individual games elsewhere too (e.g. Saad).

Plus Tommy got a great workout, Heppell got a crapload more touches than his record failure in the previous game, and we got reminded why Merrett got awarded Best Defensive Player.

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See this confuses me so much. Hurls plays one season where he is subpar one on one after a year off from footy and the coaches try to reinvent him?

Hartley and Ambrose aren’t a shadow of the one on one defender hurls was at his peak, and I’m a bit surprised the club has just shifted Hurley role so easily

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Finally getting around to watching the game for the 1st time

Myers is playing pretty damn well

I love smith. The guy is an animal

We still look pretty shaky down back

Zac never stops working.

This umpiring is insane. So many soft frees paid

Our mids seem to hold their own in stoppages around the ground but for some reason struggle at centre bounces

Needs to be emphasised.