The Writing Was/Is on the Wall

[ManDee 7,146]

9 hours ago, old dee said:

Who the hell is going to kick the goals that Hogan kicked in 2018?

Cameron  McCarthy?

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,754]

13 hours ago, Hogan2014 said:

3 of the 4 prelim teams lost 1st game, lot of our top players clearly  are not @ afl match fitness, reality is injuries & fitness have played a key role in our preparation. Certainly may derail our season but that’s footy & part of the jinx of the MfC .. will the footy gods ever [censored] shine on this club?

And the 4th one played Carlton and were not particularly impressive in defeating them. It may be that beating Carlton is not going to be as easy this year as the last few, but until we know more, all we can say is that Richmond didn't seem that impressive in victory and therefore all four preliminary finalists had uninspiring starts to the 2019 season.

[old dee 23,790]

3 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

And the 4th one played Carlton and were not particularly impressive in defeating them. It may be that beating Carlton is not going to be as easy this year as the last few, but until we know more, all we can say is that Richmond didn't seem that impressive in victory and therefore all four preliminary finalists had uninspiring starts to the 2019 season.

Richmond won we didn't.

[Smokey 4,389]

Wow wee the round 1 over reaction is even more crazy than I expected haha. 

Its 1 game. We had a short off season full of surgeries. The team looks under done across the park. 

I am compiling a list of some of the most outrageous comments after the round 1 loss and will crack them out at round 23 and we can vote on the best ones. 

[beelzebub 23,370]

@Smokey

Some might say the apologists are in overdrive

[old dee 23,790]

25 minutes ago, Smokey said:

Wow wee the round 1 over reaction is even more crazy than I expected haha. 

Its 1 game. We had a short off season full of surgeries. The team looks under done across the park. 

I am compiling a list of some of the most outrageous comments after the round 1 loss and will crack them out at round 23 and we can vote on the best ones. 

What if the weekends results continue smokey will we see you on here after round 23?

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,754]

5 minutes ago, old dee said:

What if the weekends results continue smokey will we see you on here after round 23?

It's over-reaction for one game; if the losses were to continue, the reaction would then be appropriate.

[Smokey 4,389]

9 minutes ago, old dee said:

What if the weekends results continue smokey will we see you on here after round 23?

Sure, I encourage it. 

I live by the sword. 

[old dee 23,790]

16 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

It's over-reaction for one game; if the losses were to continue, the reaction would then be appropriate.

Just asking a question LDC. 

[rjay 24,924]

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

It's over-reaction for one game; if the losses were to continue, the reaction would then be appropriate.

Interested to know what the overreaction is. The reaction is not just off one game...

Coming off the back of a very poor prelim final and no form in the preseason series we got what was probably the expected result on Saturday.

If Max did have a general during the week then that tells the tale about his lethargy. Also a bit of how Pruess is thought of by the FD at the moment.

I get some players may have been underdone but the one with probably the least time on legs in preseason was Melk and he was one of our best.

Oliver's first game at AFL level was a 2 vote Brownlow game, he came into that game as a pudgy kid with a shortened preseason. Based on Saturday's game  he needs needs an attitude readjustment following the AA and Gary Lyon pump up.

I'm a big fan but he's a kid and in danger of drinking his own bathwater. He was AA last year but personally I thought his previous season was better. His ball handling was not as crisp, I put last year down to the shoulders and maybe the start of this year to not much competitive work in the preseason. Interested to watch the next few weeks...hope he doesn't get the 2nd year blues in his 4th year.

May was a big loss, stupid act but on current AFL standards very unlucky to get a week...but they had key players out and blooded 4 kids.

I don't think it's an overreaction to ask questions.

The writing was on the wall as far as Saturday goes, even more than we originally thought.

Is it going forward?

Writing us off now would be an overreaction for sure, but unless we fix some area's of our game we're not going anywhere.

It could be the season we drop back a bit or we could re load and take all before us.

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,754]

45 minutes ago, rjay said:

Interested to know what the overreaction is. The reaction is not just off one game...

Coming off the back of a very poor prelim final and no form in the preseason series we got what was probably the expected result on Saturday.

...

The Age had 12 tipsters picking Melbourne and zero Port. I can't remember The Herald Sun exactly, but it was something like 23 to 4 in favour of Melbourne. The bookmakers all had Melbourne at very short odds. I can't see how you can now argue a Melbourne defeat was "probably the expected result". Expected by whom? 

Having said that, I still believe the reaction on here is an over-reaction. We received a reality check. How we respond will be insightful.

For what it's worth, I'm tipping us to beat Geelong. And while I tipped us last week, too, I feel more confident about this week than last, probably because any complacency (which apparently is a disease one can catch from drinking one's own bathwater) should now have been extinguished.

[rjay 24,924]

20 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The Age had 12 tipsters picking Melbourne and zero Port. I can't remember The Herald Sun exactly, but it was something like 23 to 4 in favour of Melbourne. The bookmakers all had Melbourne at very short odds. I can't see how you can now argue a Melbourne defeat was "probably the expected result". Expected by whom? 

Having said that, I still believe the reaction on here is an over-reaction. We received a reality check. How we respond will be insightful.

For what it's worth, I'm tipping us to beat Geelong. And while I tipped us last week, too, I feel more confident about this week than last, probably because any complacency (which apparently is a disease one can catch from drinking one's own bathwater) should now have been extinguished.

We received a reality check in last years prelim...

How many reality checks do we need?

I thought we would win too but looking at it dispassionately the writing was on the wall...we went in with no form.

We were kidding ourselves and so were the tipsters.

Then add Max's story to the mix then yeah the loss was there to be had.

[old dee 23,790]

22 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The Age had 12 tipsters picking Melbourne and zero Port. I can't remember The Herald Sun exactly, but it was something like 23 to 4 in favour of Melbourne. The bookmakers all had Melbourne at very short odds. I can't see how you can now argue a Melbourne defeat was "probably the expected result". Expected by whom? 

Having said that, I still believe the reaction on here is an over-reaction. We received a reality check. How we respond will be insightful.

For what it's worth, I'm tipping us to beat Geelong. And while I tipped us last week, too, I feel more confident about this week than last, probably because any complacency (which apparently is a disease one can catch from drinking one's own bathwater) should now have been extinguished.

You are confident going to Geelong with poor form in the last four games? Add that we have won there twice in 30 years and I struggle with where your confidence comes from. 

[old dee 23,790]

4 minutes ago, rjay said:

We received a reality check in last years prelim...

How many reality checks do we need?

I thought we would win too but looking at it dispassionately the writing was on the wall...we went in with no form.

We were kidding ourselves and so were the tipsters.

Then add Max's story to the mix then yeah the loss was there to be had.

Got it in one rjay.

Edited March 26, 2019 by old dee

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,754]

36 minutes ago, old dee said:

You are confident going to Geelong with poor form in the last four games? Add that we have won there twice in 30 years and I struggle with where your confidence comes from. 

It's probably partly blind optimism. But I also think the club had struggled to know how to deal with the Preliminary Final. I sense from comments made during the off-season that the club had decided to park it as just a "bad day". By doing so, it might have allowed the players to avoid reality and, frankly, keep drinking their own bathwater. Until last Saturday. I now expect the players and coaches have been reminded how much hard work is necessary, not just to win a Premiership, and not just to win a game, but to win every moment in every game.

 

[Smokey 4,389]

Getting pretty sick of people claiming that certain players are "drinking their own bathwater" after having an average game or two. Stop repeating the one liners you hear in the media and instead try to have an original thought without being influenced by the highly limited collective IQ of fox footy personnel. 

Unless you have a signed photo of the player in question which states "I am gods gift to footy and no longer need to try", then spare us the recycled fox footy one-liners you unimaginative parrots. The most ironic thing is that people that are dull enough to quote people like Robbo is that they have probably never invested themselves in anything anywhere near what these young men do week in week out. 

If you can't handle a round 1 loss in a 23 round season after a disruptive pre season without melting down online in a poorly constructed forum post, then I'm sorry but you are likely suited better to following competitive knitting or something. Again ironic - you would demand these young men have the fortitude to do what it takes week in week out to be a professional athlete in a top 4 AFL team, yet throw your toys out of the cot like an entitled 2 year old after a loss in round 1. 

Show at least a fraction of the mental toughness you demand from the team or sit the hell down. 

[old dee 23,790]

16 minutes ago, Smokey said:

Getting pretty sick of people claiming that certain players are "drinking their own bathwater" after having an average game or two. Stop repeating the one liners you hear in the media and instead try to have an original thought without being influenced by the highly limited collective IQ of fox footy personnel. 

Unless you have a signed photo of the player in question which states "I am gods gift to footy and no longer need to try", then spare us the recycled fox footy one-liners you unimaginative parrots. The most ironic thing is that people that are dull enough to quote people like Robbo is that they have probably never invested themselves in anything anywhere near what these young men do week in week out. 

If you can't handle a round 1 loss in a 23 round season after a disruptive pre season without melting down online in a poorly constructed forum post, then I'm sorry but you are likely suited better to following competitive knitting or something. Again ironic - you would demand these young men have the fortitude to do what it takes week in week out to be a professional athlete in a top 4 AFL team, yet throw your toys out of the cot like an entitled 2 year old after a loss in round 1. 

Show at least a fraction of the mental toughness you demand from the team or sit the hell down. 

Toughness by supporters achieves zero. The only ones who can win a game are the players. It could equally be said that supporters with blind optimism should stop complaining about realists and sit down. 

To a large extent it just depends on your view and opinion and as this is a fan site either accept a different view or stop reading them.

[rjay 24,924]

2 hours ago, Smokey said:

Getting pretty sick of people claiming that certain players are "drinking their own bathwater" after having an average game or two. Stop repeating the one liners you hear in the media and instead try to have an original thought without being influenced by the highly limited collective IQ of fox footy personnel. 

 

4 hours ago, rjay said:

I'm a big fan but he's a kid and in danger of drinking his own bathwater.

I hope you don't mean me 'Smokey'?

He like many young kids is in danger of it...that's why many get the 2nd year blues. I trust with McCartney around this won't happen.

[DubDee 25,860]

5 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

The Age had 12 tipsters picking Melbourne and zero Port. I can't remember The Herald Sun exactly, but it was something like 23 to 4 in favour of Melbourne. The bookmakers all had Melbourne at very short odds. I can't see how you can now argue a Melbourne defeat was "probably the expected result". Expected by whom? 

Having said that, I still believe the reaction on here is an over-reaction. We received a reality check. How we respond will be insightful.

For what it's worth, I'm tipping us to beat Geelong. And while I tipped us last week, too, I feel more confident about this week than last, probably because any complacency (which apparently is a disease one can catch from drinking one's own bathwater) should now have been extinguished.

The media pumped us up all preseason and most tippers fell for it, even though half our list are not in great match condition. I thought we would lose against Port and pointed it out but was accused of being a weak supporter on here - whatever that means. I did manage to collect a couple of hundred from the tab so at least that was a small consolation

I too agree we will come out and beat Geelong this week. They are an average team and we should be A LOT better for the run last week. 

[Adam The God 30,249]

10 hours ago, Smokey said:

Wow wee the round 1 over reaction is even more crazy than I expected haha. 

Its 1 game. We had a short off season full of surgeries. The team looks under done across the park. 

I am compiling a list of some of the most outrageous comments after the round 1 loss and will crack them out at round 23 and we can vote on the best ones. 

I'm not sure it's an overreaction. I said a couple of weeks ago that we'd go 0-2. Going by the fitness of our best 22 on Saturday, I'd say it's highly likely we'll struggle to run out games for at least the first 3 or 4 weeks and if that's the case, we can kiss the finals goodbye.

I'm usually pretty optimistic on my season outlook and have predicted (as many of us have), our incremental rise over the past 3-4 seasons. I hope we can make the 8, because with Rance going down, I reckon anyone can win it this season. The problem is we don't want to give our fellow competitors for those top 8 spots a month headstart. 

We were so far off the pace in JLT 2 and Round 1 that I'm not sure it's likely we'll turn it around within a week. It would be very Melbourne if we did, but I can't see it happening this time, simply due to the clear fitness issue. 

I'm still making the trip down to that hole this Saturday, but unlike last year, I'm not expecting a win. I'm very worried. I only hope the dimensions of the ground will help us and that Round 1 is the wake up call we needed.

[Adam The God 30,249]

8 hours ago, rjay said:

Interested to know what the overreaction is. The reaction is not just off one game...

Coming off the back of a very poor prelim final and no form in the preseason series we got what was probably the expected result on Saturday.

If Max did have a general during the week then that tells the tale about his lethargy. Also a bit of how Pruess is thought of by the FD at the moment.

I get some players may have been underdone but the one with probably the least time on legs in preseason was Melk and he was one of our best.

Oliver's first game at AFL level was a 2 vote Brownlow game, he came into that game as a pudgy kid with a shortened preseason. Based on Saturday's game  he needs needs an attitude readjustment following the AA and Gary Lyon pump up.

I'm a big fan but he's a kid and in danger of drinking his own bathwater. He was AA last year but personally I thought his previous season was better. His ball handling was not as crisp, I put last year down to the shoulders and maybe the start of this year to not much competitive work in the preseason. Interested to watch the next few weeks...hope he doesn't get the 2nd year blues in his 4th year.

May was a big loss, stupid act but on current AFL standards very unlucky to get a week...but they had key players out and blooded 4 kids.

I don't think it's an overreaction to ask questions.

The writing was on the wall as far as Saturday goes, even more than we originally thought.

Is it going forward?

Writing us off now would be an overreaction for sure, but unless we fix some area's of our game we're not going anywhere.

It could be the season we drop back a bit or we could re load and take all before us.

I reckon it's clear as day RE: Preuss. He couldn't get through more than a half in JLT1. He's a mile off, fitness-wise. I find it hard to believe given he's had more time than anyone to get his fitness up to scratch. To see that he couldn't even run out 3.5 quarters in a single match was deeply troubling and I suspect the FD feel the same way. I don't think he'll get a look in for a while and if he does, it'll say everything about Max.

Edited March 26, 2019 by A F

[DV8 2,271]

45 minutes ago, A F said:

I reckon it's clear as day RE: Preuss. He couldn't get through more than a half in JLT1. He's a mile off, fitness-wise. I find it hard to believe given he's had more time than anyone to get his fitness up to scratch. To see that he couldn't even run out 3.5 quarters in a single match was deeply troubling and I suspect the FD feel the same way. I don't think he'll get a look in for a while and if he does, it'll say everything about Max.

He's a big young man and it might take a couple more years to build up his tank.    Gawny has been working at it for years.

We work with what we've got,  but Preussy is a combo ruck/forward.  hence his size.

 

Another is Tracca,  and he has to work harder on his weight and conditioning,  as well.

Edited March 26, 2019 by DV8

[Watson11 2,240]

9 hours ago, A F said:

I reckon it's clear as day RE: Preuss. He couldn't get through more than a half in JLT1. He's a mile off, fitness-wise. I find it hard to believe given he's had more time than anyone to get his fitness up to scratch. To see that he couldn't even run out 3.5 quarters in a single match was deeply troubling and I suspect the FD feel the same way. I don't think he'll get a look in for a while and if he does, it'll say everything about Max.

A 108kg giant can’t run out a game in 39C heat and that is the reason he is out of favour.  I wouldn’t think so.  He was ok when it was 25C the week before.  If he is out of favour he would have specific things Goody wants him to work on.

Personally, I’d play Preuss just for his stoppage work.  From the limited body of evidence I have he is miles behind Max at centre bounces, but probably as good at stoppages.  And our forward 50 stoppages have been an embarrassment except for the Collingwood practice game.  

[Smokey 4,389]

 

16 hours ago, old dee said:

Toughness by supporters achieves zero. The only ones who can win a game are the players. It could equally be said that supporters with blind optimism should stop complaining about realists and sit down. 

To a large extent it just depends on your view and opinion and as this is a fan site either accept a different view or stop reading them.

Do I have to respect others rights to have differing views? Of course. Do I have to accept these views as fact? Absolutely not. You can't suggest one person has the right to say what they feel but tell another he cannot because it is at odds with someone else's view. 

For those playing at home, this is a good example of an oxymoron. 

Getting back on track, I wouldn't take issue with whats being said here is I felt it was "realistic". I consider myself a realist in saying that losing in round 1 is not the end of the world, there were a number of factors which clearly contributed to it, it's a long season and lets pump the brakes a bit until we have a decent data set to analyse. 

What is being said here can only be viewed as hysterical at this point, not the collected thoughts of a bunch of "realists" who appreciate the significant contributing factors to why we would have a slow start to the year. 

Don't like my opinions which are at odds with others? Take a leaf out of your own book and stop reading them then ... 

[beelzebub 23,370]

It's not THAT we lost.

It's that we effectively lost it before it started.