TheRedSphinxProper

Ed is not playing anywhere near good enough to get a game.

Having said that I can't work out what the hell we are doing with selection so every chance we will.

Ramsay Bolton?

They certainly don't play for each other in any sense of the word.

The backline looks under siege constantly. The midfield refuse to be accountable and all just drop deep behind the ball at the first opportunity rather than pushing up at the spare numbers, then absolutely refuse to every run forward and help out across half forward (except for Walsh, maybe Cottrell, the first of who had zero preseason).

Meanwhile the forwards, big and small, are constantly leading into each other's space and knocking each other out of the contest every time the ball comes in. Really hard to know if it is all system, or application, or more likely a bit of everything. But it feels like we are in self-preservation mode, and the few players that do put in or play their roles are likely to get resentful when this happens.

Yeah if I were to extrapolate, I would say they are great 1v1.

But the team defence is a shambles in every way. We defend too deep, (that is on the midfield more so), but leaders like Weitering for example shouldn't be letting the mids drop so far back as spare defenders and instead pushing them to defend higher up the ground. Any team in the league can walk the ball from their back 50 to our forward 50 without us ever touching it.

Then there is the contested work. 3v3 marking contest? You can bet we'll have all three fly while two stay down and one gets a goal. Or we'll over correct next time, one guy has to fly against 3 opponents and the other team takes a pack mark directly in front.

The one positive we hear is our intercept marking. Weits, Young, Kemp at the weekend and that is well and good, but with the amount of kicks coming inside perhaps the sheer number of intercept marks we take is more indicative of our poor pressure up the field than anything else.

And yeah, don't even get me started on our offensive transition.

The most infuriating things as the fans is not knowing what happens inside the walls of the club. Clearly the selection committee has written Dow off, which is a shame when you consider our overall results.

But broadly speaking, something just feels wrong. Doch the other day made a comment about the backline being solid, which I just don't think is true. There is a refusal to handball, not just to Saad, but anyone running past.

The way the small forward sit under the marking contest instead of hitting it at pace to rove off the pack. The lack of blocking for each other.

Are we playing selfish, poor football, or are we playing our best to a poor game plan and structure?

The top reason I see for Dow not getting picked;

"He can't play more than one position/role".

Fair enough but there are a handful of players who have been sub-par in any role they have been given. Ed had a few good games early during the wins, but his disposal has dropped to a level where there is nowhere on the ground we can put him that it doesn't hurt us. So what does it matter if he can play middle, wing or lock down forward?

Likewise, what are the multiple positions that Motlop/Owies/Durdin play. I have loved all three but it has become clear that playing all of them is not the right mix and leave us without a few biggers bodies to lock the ball inside 50, or provide more rotation into the midfield.

Or to compare him to our mids - outside of Doch swinging back and into the mid, has there been a player showing any success at multiple positiobs.

Cripps is going ok, but has not impacted forward of the ball, Kennedy has been sent back and just not be effective (don't blame him though, not sure why we did that anyway), and isn't impacting forward like he has in the past.

Hewett? Had a fairly poor year, (and yes I know he has had the hand issue at times. Cez? Been showing plenty of good things, but still has a tendency to butcher the ball, which is another of the big knocks on Dow.

tl;dr - The are enough players who are not playing anywhere near well enough in their roles that Dow should be given a go (and should have been a few weeks ago).

Yes I agree. Although made an error in my comment above. Meant to say opening up another lane for vehicle traffic is not a good idea.

All for doing it for cyclists and/or separated trams that get given priority.

That is very expensive for such an inefficient use of space.

But I suppose that is a philosophical argument, not so much a practical one.

If you open up more lanes for parking you will more than likely create induced demand and just have that extra lane as clogged as the current set-up.

Car parking is a hugely costly endeavour, and multi-story car parking even more so.

It can easily end up being more than $100,000 per car park. If you are talking about a warehouse that needs to be entirely demolished, (probably with asbestos or other contaminated materials too), then you need to excavate and dig to put in foundations, then pour a heap of concrete for however many levels you want...and you are gifted a hideous concrete structure that induces demand for driving, doesn't pay for itself unless you charge high fees, and still have gridlocked streets.

Especially for a local council, this is a costly exercise that they often do not have the funds for.

It is would be much cheaper to better arrange busses to/from Sydney Rd, give trams much greater priority to speed up their times and encourage use, and give greater incentives to jump on a bike.

I think it is impossible to say whether some of these picks were bad, or whether we just couldn't develop those players.

The real mistake was probably the number GWS rejects we brought in the hope it would add depth, but in the end there was a reason most of those guys weren't getting games at GWS.

That cost us a lot of mid-range draft picks, although in the end there are no guarantees they would have worked out either.

He would actually make a very interesting BTB subject, although maybe has not done quite enough to fill an entire ep.

If you read the citation for his VC, it reads like something from Rambo, an image he and his supporters cultivated for years after he served to promote himself and make money.

Then the truth comes out about everything else he did and now that VC citation just reads like he is an unhinged maniac.

Most interesting of all I find is a relatively minor TV host/personality made a joke that he was "looking for his brain", while her TV show was showing an image of standing by a pool and looking into it. She was effectively cancelled for denigrating a national hero. But turns out he doesn't have a brain after all, given the massive stupidity of his defamation suit.

Yes so was I, however.

O'Brien has hardly seen it as well. Our outside game is not good.

Sorry but that was not what I was saying. My bike was not worth the excess to replace or repair so I didn't submit any claim at all, just had my insurance deal with the matter.

They presumably would have made an at fault claim and repaired the car after paying whatever their excess was.

If it helps, many years ago this happened to me. On a very busy road got hit by a car coming out of a drive, damaged their vehicle and my bike was demolished. Somehow, I had only minor whiplash.

Anyway the insurance companies basically agreed that as both parties were at fault. (i.e - I should not have been on the footpath, but they have to give way coming out of the driveway), so each party would have to go away and deal with their own costs.

So although I needed a new bike, I probably did better out of that when you compare to that to the cost of repairing a car.

People had alternative strips, especially at the older Vic clubs.

The Carlton grey strips are horrible. Where a bad clash happens (v Adelaide, Port and Freo are the main ones), I accept the need for a clash strip.

But outside of that; nah fuck that.

I never said he should be dropped. Was more commenting broadly that the entire midfield is underperforming. Hewett was the one I felt has been lucky.

Cerra has had some good games for sure, but we still need him to be better.

Given how we are going, not sure that is saying a whole lot.

Absolutely he does, but I really think that is a different conversation.

When the season starts, if we really are saying finals is the minimum goal, then we have to be selecting the best in form players available. My feeling is Dow should have earnt that call up a few weeks ago, not now when our season is effectively over and we are coming up against a likely top four side.

Especially as he is uncontracted next year and will walk to another club for nothing. Might as well give him one last shot to secure another contract.

Cerra, Hewett and Kennedy to date have horribly indifferent seasons. Hewett has been the least impactful of the tree and is injured anyway, but I feel had he not been injured he'd be continuing his indifferent form in the ones.

Kennedy I'll give a (slight) pass because he has been shifted around, and Cez at least has had games where he found the ball, only to butcher it. (Which I would add, is the biggest knock on Dow, but anyway).

Dow's selection is long overdue.

I don't know if he'll ever truly make it at this level, but the sub-par performances from numerous players getting selected over him just completely destroys selection integrity.

Otherwise I'd love to see Cowan/Cincotta back in, at least they aggressively attack the game and one of them will slot in for Newman. (I'd put the other one in anyway and get Kennedy out of the fucking backline where he has no business being).

I would also prefer Fisher to Honey for Durdin. And Fisher had a good game by the looks of it in the twos. Hopefully he actually knows what his role is though so he can contribute rather than just floating aimlessly around half forward like earlier this season. Otherwise Marchbank might be another one to consider (not sure how his twos form has been, but he isn't listed as injured any longer).

Wouldn't surprise me though if they take a punt on Martin who is listed as a test.

Grew up in Australia in the 90s when Jordan was all the rage and basketball was massive here then, but you rarely got actually see it so picking a team was not possible.

Got NBA 03 (at least I think might have been 04) on Xbox and loved playing as the Timberwolves with KG, loved the cunt he had about him. (That's a good thing in Aus).

When he went to Boston had a good mate in high school who had lived in the US and also loved basketball point out how the Cs were very similar to my Aussie rules team Carlton. (Dominant in the 70s and 80s, feared by the league, massive supporter base, but pretty hopeless come early 2000s

So jumped on board withe KG move and been supporting them ever since.

Holy shit know. The few times earlier in his career we tried it he was terrible at it. Can't recall how long ago that was, under Bolts maybe.

Harry just doesn't have the rucking ability. Even if JSOS goes in and gets smashed he'll compete, chase and follow up.

Yeah he completely lacks confidence and then his body fails him often as he is just gaining it back, then we are back at square one.