The club have already moved past Dylan Shiel, moved on Stringer, Parish has barely played. So it’s what McGrath? Redman? Two players aren’t holding us back.
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I’ll be honest @BakerWasAStar and @Blummers32, I don’t know a whole lot when it comes to understanding game plans.
90% of what is said around here from a number of very vocal and repetitive posters is that ours is absolute garbage (though I don’t know how you properly judge that with such a young group and general low-level of skill.
What do you say to that view?
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Watching kids devlop only gets you so far before you want to see wins and improvement.
Another poor year in 2026 fans and members will be baying for blood
Thank god the AFL suspended Durham. He looked back to his best today and not hobbling around on one leg.
Pity the club couldn’t see this a month ago and gave him the time off he needed.
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if they were howler frees, the umps sure miss a lot of howlers to wright and caddy
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Season 2026 will be Scott’s defining season. No improvement in terms of wins and losses will see him gone. We can’t just continue to meander around no man’s land.
A finish in the finals will save him. Otherwise it will be difficult to see him retained.
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Our game plan - until today is poor because it relies on repeated, slow backwards-sidewards kicks before going forward slowly…resulting in minimal I50s like the Freo game when we had a paltry 34 I50s.
This gives the opposition ample time to clog our F50.
The poor skills, which exacerbate the weakness of the game plan, are from senior players like a a McGrath/Laverde/Redman. The younger players, like a Roberts/Johnson/Clarke are much better skilled and I would call Zac Johnson bordering on elite.
It was Zach Reid, who is an elite kick, that made it more productive but couldn’t hide its flaws.
Today we employed a quicker, more direct game plan with the same group of players as essentially the Freo game - and had 21 more i50s.
It’s much less about skills and more about how you want to move the ball. The skill level just moves the needle up and down the dial on how effective the game plan is.
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That is completely fine, but don’t have a go at those of us who actually went to the game to support our team
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The mids and wright have played lots of footy together. Even caddy has played a bit of footy with the mids.
There is zero synergy between mids and forwards. There is zero plan how to enter 50 and score, apart from bomb it in and hope for the best
I can’t see any discernible plan on how Scott wants us to move the footy to give us the best chance of scoring
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The saga will never wash off James. Just politics.
It still seems like Merrett is the only one with a decent connetion with forwards.
Or maybe its just because he’s that good that it doesnt matter who he’s kicking to. I dunno, but it continues to be a glaring weakness of our side.
When Mac Andrews got clean bowled on the goal line, none of our players went over to him.
I watched Duursma run all the way from the wing to get in his face. It looked like Andrews threw a punch from where I was sitting. Might have been more of a jumper pinch.
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What I believe a lot of people on this site don’t appreciate is that when you field a team in this competition that I has as many players in their first or second year, who dint have the benefit of at least three ot four preseasons to build their fitness and strength, they are bound to be overrun by teams that have that advantage. The game plan is fine, for gods sake we were in front 1 minute before the final break. We have been very good for long periods of many matches but in the end the bigger season hardened bodies will win out. I think we are on the right track.
.
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One small thing I noticed - Blakiston had a really nice moment in the backline where he won a contest (from a difficult position) and managed to clear the ball to the wing for a stoppage.
There were 4 defenders standing around him (within a few metres) including Lav, Rids, Johnson I think. Not one of them went up to him, high 5’d him, ruffled his hair whatever. They just stood there.
He is playing his third game. Collingwood would have celebrated that.
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Yeahp. There seems to be a lot of self-preservation across the team and fear of making mistakes.
We are a long way from Collingwood who are feeling great about their game and playing pretty fearless footy. They are dominating, confident and just sharing that energy within their group.
That mental approach/mindset and confidence is linked to winning a lot of football games- which I note is not a terribly popular strategy this season for some.
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I’d take him over McKay.
Couldn’t stand watching Ridley on the wing in the last quarter run opposite of where the ball landed from a contested mark situation. I called it out just before the contest occurred, could tell by his body language. Probably wasn’t confident in his body but it was so soft & weak. Didn’t want to do another sprint effort as the game was lost and didn’t want to pull a hamstring
Good
If we didn’t have a Dozen players injured and were available, we would be a lot better team.
FACT.
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The only think I know for sure was that dude they interviewed at half time for being a 35 year member was bloody awesome! 
Yeah, if only we could find someone like that Dambrosia guy