2 hours ago, Jaded said:

 

This will free Fritsch to play wing which I think is where he will excel with another AFL pre season under his belt. 

 I also don’t mind Vanders. I thought he was one of our best yesterday when he was on the wings. Could be another option. 

If we can’t get Gaff I would save our cash and go hard for Kelly next year. 

Agree but the jury on vdb is out for me unless he can consistently dispose of the ball. Unreliable kick and problematic handballs nit at afl standard.

Cant fsult his vigour and ontent but needs to be more effective 

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

"So there" .... Lol.
Couldn't care less about some mates rubbing ya back and telling you it's ok.

We choked again, and the whole football world knows it.
 

We lost a match in Perth against a team that doesn't get  been beaten when Darling and Kennedy play together.  It was ALWAYS going to be a very, very tough gig. Not even the E Coli Wobblers could beat them there.

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

"So there" .... Lol.
Couldn't care less about some mates rubbing ya back and telling you it's ok.

We choked again, and the whole football world knows it.
 

Please go and follow another club

16 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

We're far from hardened also. 

In time maybe

We aren’t bad. We won the contested ball stat this year. 

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

"So there" .... Lol.
Couldn't care less about some mates rubbing ya back and telling you it's ok.

We choked again, and the whole football world knows it.
 

The football world may know it but they will also know our response when they see it. 

If we continue to fold in this scenario then you’ll be proven right but if we learn from this and take the next step then they will have no choice but to applaud us.

2 questions : Why were our players slipping over so often?

                      Will McGovern(?) be reported on video review for the throat punch on Viney  - the one the umpire saw but missed seeing?

 

6 minutes ago, doug williams said:

2 questions : Why were our players slipping over so often?

                      Will McGovern(?) be reported on video review for the throat punch on Viney  - the one the umpire saw but missed seeing?

 

I wondered too about the slipping, I initially blamed the bootstudders but I now think it is a symptom of nerves, not unlike the fumbling and missed handballs. When you are nervous you tend to rush things, and slip over more. 

Its Grand Final week I think the MRP went on a sabbatical some time ago. 

31 minutes ago, Harbinger43 said:

Please go and follow another club

Yeah seriously, get out.

2 hours ago, Fork 'em said:

"So there" .... Lol.
Couldn't care less about some mates rubbing ya back and telling you it's ok.

We choked again, and the whole football world knows it.
 

Come on biff, it’s not that bad.

30 minutes ago, Precard said:

We aren’t bad. We won the contested ball stat this year. 

Stats can be deceiving

15 minutes ago, Earl Hood said:

I wondered too about the slipping, I initially blamed the bootstudders but I now think it is a symptom of nerves, not unlike the fumbling and missed handballs. When you are nervous you tend to rush things, and slip over more. 

......

Pies supporters asking the same question 2 weeks ago re their players slipping when Weagles weren't.

I suspect it's the surface (type and length of grass) and I suspect the home team wear boots with more pronounced studs or something similar.

1 hour ago, beelzebub said:

Stats can be deceiving

That’s a pretty clear one though. Good stat of a hardened team.

It's not like we've got a star-studded team that was supposed to win the flag.  We've got about a dozen top players of which 2 weren't playing.  Premiership teams more often than not have at least 16-18 top grade footballers on their list. 

So we're about 4-6 top players short yet still won 2 finals and played in a preliminary final ... playing 1 final only would have been par when equating the number of top players that we have.

So the list needs to be improved much as it always needs to be improved.  We will all know when we've got a star-studded list (if it happens)  As a pointer,  one only has to look at the teams that won multiple premierships over the last few decades.  That is how good you need to be just to win 1 premiership. 

1 hour ago, doug williams said:

2 questions : Why were our players slipping over so often?

                      Will McGovern(?) be reported on video review for the throat punch on Viney  - the one the umpire saw but missed seeing?

 

Yes. We slipped over 30 times at least. At least. To nil.  Why. Why the .... why????

There are 17 other clubs who get knocked off in the pursuit of the flag ... we are just the last team that it's happened to.  Our loss will be old news soon enough.  It might even be better to lose a prelim than a GF.  That grief stays with you.

You've always got to go back to what your realistic expectations were at the start of the season. Many here were saying that to play 1 final was a pass mark.  We won 2 finals.

Sure, the exit was inglorious but it nearly always is.  A close loss in a prelim might have hurt even more.  I reckon the Tigers exit is a way bigger story as they were supposed to win the flag weren't they? 

As I said in a previous post,  our list is not yet equipped to seriously challenge ... need another 4-6 top players ... do that and the expectations to win big will be realistic.

Firstly, I have to confess that I am in the enemy camp, but am a lover of good football and joined to comment on a few things.

1. Having read a few topics on here I am generally impressed with the level of knowledge and discussion here. All clubs, even mine, has some idiots as supporters. Some, such as Collingwood, Essendon, Fremantle, and Port seem to have nothing else, but it is what it is. Here it is good that most can construct a proper sentence with nouns and verbs in an English manner. Unlike the ferals at dockerland who struggle with anything resembling English.

2. Your list is not as bad as some have said. You have some good young guys who are only going to get better. Your list is in better shape than the Saints who have hovered around about the same draft positions as Melbourne. You are a few elites short of top level but are not far off. Your list age profile is better than that at Hawthorn and Geelong. I would call you as probable top 8 and possible top 4 in 2019 and will put in an early call of good chance top 4 in 2020.

3. You play a brand of football that is more enjoyable to watch than most. Entertaining, high scoring but with a decent defensive side. You'll win more than you lose with this style.

4. A couple of areas I will raise some level of exception to. 

a. Booing. All clubs do it and the new stadium is a sound trap. When Malthouse arrived at the WC one of his biggest problems was to turn around the supporters from being too nice and clapping opposition good play to being more like Victorian supporters. We learnt from you guys how to boo. Booing is also not always what it seems. There were complaints last week of WC booing an injured Collingwood player as he left the ground. Not true. They were booing the replay of the collision where Yeo was taken out below the knees but the free went to the Pies. A free kick to Yeo in 203 of the 204 games at that point of 2018. I lived in Melbourne in the late 80's/early 90's and the crowds at Vic Park and Windy Hill make the current WC crowd look like Chardonnay swilling picnickers.

b. Some have complained of the level of travel you have done. When compared to Stayathomewood that is a valid whinge. But against the most traveled team in the competition? 

5. I think 3 of the 4 prelim teams actually overachieved this year. Most pundits had the Pies as bottom 4, WC as bottom 4 (Robert Walls as spoon) and Melbourne as hanging around the 7-10 mark. So on reflection, a good season to build on. No need to make wholesale changes, but certainly a tweak here and there wouldn't hurt.

11 hours ago, Redleg said:

Disagree.

Only line breaker with pace on the list. 

We need more pace not less.

Yes, yes, pace...for five strides, sees a wall in front of him and destroys the disposal

3 hours ago, dieter said:

We lost a match in Perth against a team that doesn't get  been beaten when Darling and Kennedy play together.  It was ALWAYS going to be a very, very tough gig. Not even the E Coli Wobblers could beat them there.

It was nothing to do with darloon and JFK. It was our players turning the footy over. We beat this team recently. Our players lost the plot psychologically.

Edited September 23, 20186 yr by Stormy Dee

1 hour ago, Macca said:

As I said in a previous post,  our list is not yet equipped to seriously challenge ... need another 4-6 top players ... do that and the expectations to win big will be realistic.

Good post I just hope we are closer to 2 to 4 top players away than 4 to 6. Lever and Hogan to come in who are the other 4 gonna be?

3 hours ago, Earl Hood said:

I wondered too about the slipping, I initially blamed the bootstudders but I now think it is a symptom of nerves, not unlike the fumbling and missed handballs. When you are nervous you tend to rush things, and slip over more. 

Its Grand Final week I think the MRP went on a sabbatical some time ago. 

The people who maintain the ground at Perth are known to over-water the grass to make opposition players slip over.

Edited September 23, 20186 yr by Stormy Dee

Just now, WERRIDEE said:

Good post I just hope we are closer to 2 to 4 top players away than 4 to 6. Lever and Hogan to come in who are the other 4 gonna be?

Who knows?  It's hard enough trying to add 1 top player to a list but we'll do our best.  Taylor's track record to date has been very good so there's no reason to believe that he won't continue to produce the goods.

It could be that we add 2 top teenagers who show a fair bit in their first 2 years... so it's not necessarily about the next year with regards to building a top-of-the-range list.  Free agents,  trade for talent - we might have a few departures that gives us a good net return such as moving up in the draft order. 

We'll probably turn over 6-8 players with retirements,  delistings & trades so we could assume that we'll have about 6-8 new players. 

And I'd rather have an excess of top players to cover for those years where you have more than your fair share of injuries.  In fact,  you can never have enough good players if you're looking for sustained success. 

8 hours ago, jumbo returns said:

Yes, yes, pace...for five strides, sees a wall in front of him and destroys the disposal

I said we need more and if he is not up to it so be it, but we need more. We had no spread Saturday and were killed because we couldn’t move the ball with skill. 

 

Not entirely relevant but just consider _  I think the boys played 3x final games the weeks previous ( not inc our win game against depleted WCoast ). At Optus prelim they were 'cooked' ; almost literally as it got to 28 degrees on ground apparently. Add that to just an absolutely down on your luck day. The pill just was not on our side.

8 hours ago, Stormy Dee said:

The people who maintain the ground at Perth are known to over-water the grass to make opposition players slip over.

Ex Linton Ave staff perhaps ? ?

12 hours ago, dieter said:

We lost a match in Perth against a team that doesn't get  been beaten when Darling and Kennedy play together.  It was ALWAYS going to be a very, very tough gig. Not even the E Coli Wobblers could beat them there.

It's not an excuse to lose by 11 goals and break the record to have the worse first half score in a finals game!

Absolutely embarrassing.