Just get Jack to give him a clip again ... not that I'm advocating violence
Actually, Jack could put a bit of work into Blakey and keep him accountable. Sydney's defence is under-sized and will struggle against our three talls and Martin. If Blakey is busting a gut trying to defend Martin or one of our talls, as well as trying to help his teammates, he's not going to be taking off on too many runs down the ground.
Sometimes I think that supporters worry too much about opposition players and don't think about how difficult it will be for the opposition to stop our blokes running amok.
All of our defenders and our defensive structures stood up very well to intense pressure last week. Apart from Petracca, all of the Melbourne forwards were well beaten.
I would be inclined to go with the same seven this week unless there’s a compelling match up for Williams AND he’s completely fit.
That's the point isn't it. Same as it's always been.... It's never a case of one setup gives you a greater advantage every occasion. That comes down to individual circumstances, strengths and weaknesses and match-ups in individual games.
In these situations you will gain in one area but you will lose in another. That's the balance that the coaches have to determine.
It also depends on how the individuals themselves are playing and what the opposition does.
Pitto and De Koning weren't outstanding but they limited Gawn's influence and that gave us an edge around the ground. De Koning was also involved in the tactics to keep Lever out of the play. If either of them have a shocker, we're behind the 8 ball.
Another midfielder might have given us more run but at the cost of allowing both Gawn and Lever to run amok.
Ollie Hollands comprehensively outplayed Ed Langdon who, until recently, was the wingman every team wanted. Yes, Langdon got a few possessions in the second half but he did nothing with them.
Ollie is in his second season and he has a lot of development ahead of him. That doesn’t detract from the fact that his first quarter was outstanding, and was an important factor in our five goal lead, and his game was his best yet in navy blue.
Enjoy his success and look forward to continual improvement but don’t focus on the few errors he made, no more than Crippa, Walsh, Weiters and our other seasoned campaigners made.
I missed the game. I'd just like folks opinions.... Walsh racks up possessions and it's noticable. He's everywhere. He's influencing the game.
One of the things I've noticed watching VFL games when Binns is involved is... that I don't 'notice' him. It surprises me when I look up the stat sheet at the end of the game and see he's had it so many times.
I'm guessing part of that is the coverage of games with less camera angles and the commentators not always calling the player in possession on long shots.
Was Binns 'noticable' last night? Did he have a big influence on the game.
You couldn’t miss him Lods. Not only did he bring his own ball, he did some great things with it and at both ends of the ground.
Sometimes his work didn’t go to plan, like the run from halfback to half forward that ended with a shanked kick, but was eye catching just the same.