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How Far Harley? Appreciate we were woeful but when at the game I thought Harley had run about 25m: Watch this (are we allowed to post AFL.com footage?): https://www.afl.com.au/video/1134588/reids-ridiculous-double-fend-on-demons-stars?videoId=1134588&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1716113616001 Boy Wonder starts at the back of the centre circle and runs to within 7m of the wing of the centre square (that's 18m folks) let alone the 20m from the back of the centre circle to within 10m of the front of the square (need the help of a mathematician here as Harley does some left-right manoeuvres to add three more metres. Isn't it time players distance run was handled by the Fifth Umpire as they all wear GPS units and there is the "Metres Gained" tech?

yes Hibba one of the best! BTW in 2016 we finished 10-12 - Hibba could see the change-a-comin'!

I will never forget Heffernan saying he just could not put on weight as he ran too much! Wish I had that problem with my running!!!

May received just 26 AFs! 26! Maysie, we love you and need you.

What is the solution?

The AFL should give us the Irish Academy - we begin with talent pools in each Irish county. Just like the AFL academies in NSW and Qld. Call it The Jim Stynes Academy as I think Jim is well known back in Ireland.

2 Key Forwards of each side: Eagles 8.1 & 30 possies. Dees: 1.2 & 8 possies.

Langdon and JVR are top INs. I reckon we have tried with Petty's pre-season during the season and Petty is a goer/skilled but he needs a month of working hard on the track and maybe a half at Casey each week. Petty's only decent half was against Geelong - but before and since he's looked a fraction of the player from last year due to not having the right prep of a pre-season.

A tough loss to accept. Once again and has it has been for the last few years, our problem is the forward 50. You might tell me that we have to get the ball in there to know how good/bad the forwards are and that we are just not doing that. I would argue that we are robbing our defence and midfield to patch up the forwards troops. This is to the detriment to 2 out of the three areas of the field. Petty moved into the forward line and, so far in his games this season has done nothing of note. Turner from defence gets a run there and kicks three in his first game there and then nothing. Petracca gets a run up there from an already depleted midfield through the loss of Brayshaw and the depleted midfield is flat and slow and second to the ball. An old adage, but none the less true, it is won and lost in the midfield. We were proud of our ability to reset during games but we have lost our ability to do that. I would like to see a team reset driven by the coaches and selectors. Lever is out next week. Move Petty back there to partner with May. Howe, Rivers, Bowey and McVee to cover the rest. TMac forward with JVR, Frisch, McAdam, Chandler, Pickett. Rest a mid there when required. Midfield, now we get to the nub of the matter. Petracca, Oliver and Viney the main drivers. Two out of the three at each centre bounce. ANB, Sparrow, Salem to get runs there along with Pickett and Rivers as required tactically. I would give Woewodin a chance in there as well and Tholstrup needs to show what he can bring. back to basics....play players where they excell...... and use their positional flexibility as plans B, C and D. play to our strengths in defence and midfield and let the goals arrive from good team structures and play. The ‘tweaks’ we have made this season have not been effective. no rebuild... the building blocks are there..... use them wisely.

Out injured for weeks.

One kick difference in a few games over the past few weeks and Essendon or Collingwood are out of the eight and we're in the top three or whatever. No point calling the road to finals right now.

Because he has poor disposal and we have too much of that already.

A clear hole on our list since before 2021. What do you want us to do?

I don't care about your spelling. Fullerton cost what as a back-up? Grundy was a disaster but we should have persisted? Was the trade approach a disaster, or? Who are our forwards is a good question, but the club is not blind, spending our two top draft picks on key forwards following our premiership. Our mids, very good ones, are seriously out of form at present. How is this related to drafting, unless you think we should have pushed Oliver, Viney and Trac out earlier?

The road to top 4? I think we just missed the turn pyke .

6. Clayton Oliver 5. Alex Neal-Bullen 4. Kysaiah Pickett 3. Bayley Fritsch 2. Max Gawn 1. Christian Petracca

All you're going to say? A more constructive approach would be maybe suggesting which key forward we could have attracted for $600,000 or so ahead of other teams.

Apologies for my spelling, just stating the obvious, what was the point of Fullerton? Since Jackson left the Grundy trade was a disaster though should have perceived with it, who are our fwds, our mids have gone backwards & shown up by an 18yo today

All I am going to say is that I can't believe we couldn't get one decent KPF in the last two off seasons. It's been a clear hole in our list even after 2021. Isn't our team attractive enough? Surely we had some cap space to pay a decent 600k or so.

Watching the hurling again today confirms my belief that the skills of the sport are as closely matched to the AFL as Gaelic footy, if not more. Hard to exactly pin-point, but it's in the aerial movement and space I think. Kicking skills were brought up before, but I'm not convinced kicking a Gaelic round ball prepares anyone better for an AFL ball skill-set than any other random sport. If not already explored, I urge the MFC to take a look.

Okay. You're the recruiting and drafting team since 2021. Go!

Do you think they used the 10 day break to absolutely smash the players fitness wise? There's only 2 reasons I can think as to why we performed so poorly. 1st is the boys were flogged during the longer break to load up and were completely cooked. 2nd is we just aren't good enough this year. Yes we have beaten some good teams but the gap between our best and worst is large, very large. If it's the fatigue factor then the High Performance staff need to realise that we need to actually bank some wins during the season to make it to the finals. Perhaps they thought "it's only the Eagles, we'll be fine" which shows they weren't taking it seriously and got found out. If it's the 2nd reason then, well, there is always next year. Lever out messes with us obviously but good teams should be able to adapt to that and cover somewhat. Credit needs to be given to the Eagles as well. They played very well. Cleaner, faster, tougher. Harley Reid can become a Dee anytime. Waterman turning into Prime Wayne Carey at home games doesn't help us either. We were at the game and if you haven't made the long walk to the Optus stadium train station in opposition gear after being pumped by the Eagles then I suggest you try it at least once in your life. Very humble in defeat, similar to Collingwood or Carlton fans. (Andy please convey the appropriate amount of sarcasm when reading the last sentence) Thanks guys.

Ok looking forward for the rest of the season. It’s not a terrible draw, we only play 5 games with clubs ahead of us on the ladder. (Right now it’s Pies, Port, GWS, Essendon) We don’t play Geelong or Sydney again. So here’s the run from here: Saints Freo (home) Collingwood North Brisbane (Away) West coast (shivers… home) Essendon Freo (Away) GWS (home) Bulldogs Port (home) Gold Coast (away) Collingwood. 13 games left. currently on 6 wins. We HAVE TO beat: Saints, North, west coast. No excuses with these games. We shouldn’t drop any of these games if we want to finish Top 4. These are the easiest games So there’s 3 wins we should bank. Takes us to 9 wins. Less easy: Gold Coast/Bulldogs We should beat both these teams. Bulldogs finding some form and Gold Coast scored 164 points against Geelong. We play Gold Coast away and they almost beat us last time up there from memory… so let’s say we drop that game but beat bulldogs. Takes us to 10 wins. 50/50 games: Freo (twice)/Brisbane/Port That’s 4 games. Brisbane have the wood over us, Port will want revenge and can win during the season and Freo… not confident of winning both encounters. Can afford to drop 1 of these games. So let’s say 3 wins out of 4. Gives us 13 wins Hard games- Essendon GWS Collingwood (twice) Soooo, Pies are back and just as flukey as ever, can we beat them once? GWS are in a lull, but they did this last year about the same time and romped home. I expect them to do that again. They’re a bloody good team. Essendon are 2nd on the ladder after 10 rounds. The nightmare is real. Let’s say we win 2 (big if) of these games. 15 wins. last two seasons that places us: 4th in 2023 or 5th or 6th in 2022. We basically have to beat: North, West Coast, Saints, Bulldogs, Gold Coast, Port, Brisbane and both Freo games. And 1 win out of Pies (play them twice), Essendon and GWS Thats 16 wins in total for the season to guarantee Top 4. It’s an even spread this year so 15 wins might also get us in. Hopefully it’s a crazy season and 14 wins get us in but I wouldn’t hold my breath. essentially 4-5 losses and we don’t make Top 4. This loss to West Coast has really [censored] things up. A lot harder now to make Top 4.

Footy eh!

I went down to watch KFW against St Bedes with his family. It might be Premier B but he played on 6’11 Angus Milham and broke even in the ruck. I thought he impacted the match at times in ways that demonstrated his agility and would serve him well at any level in the future. It’s true that he is learning positioning and needs strength but ultimately he is a 20 year old cat B. It makes him a fairly unique proposition. He’s gone back to the VAFA and shown that as and underdeveloped prospect learning the game that he’s already influential. Featuring in the best twice and I think he should have got in the best last week too with 2 goals and 20 disposals. As for his fitness, he’s wrestling a 6’11 guy in the ruck with the league hit out record and I believe notching 15k. In the third quarter he had a big knee to quad and waved off the trainer and ran through it. Still collecting 10 marks and 20 odd disposals. The footage will show that he had an impact.