This time last year the feeling was that there were no real weaknesses in this team with almost everyone in career best form and the bottom 6 players better than anyone else's bottom 6. This isn't the case now, there is always a feeling that we are 1 or 2 players short of something great. It happens, these things are hard to win and it takes everything you've got and a bit more to win them. This year we have been a great side that has simply not shown it enough and I don't know whether that is application,  coaching or fitness but it is a fact. 

It's one week at a time for me now, win this week and live to fight another day. Thinking beyond that is just too much. 

21 hours ago, 1964_2 said:

Agree with you that losing the first final is not the issue. Especially with the pre-finals bye.

The issue is the ease with which the best teams pick apart our system, knowing we won’t respond or change much. 

 

Our best midfielder broke his leg after 10 minutes… trac is a Pivotel cog in the machine… if trac didn’t break his leg dees would have won… 

1 minute ago, bandicoot said:

Our best midfielder broke his leg after 10 minutes… trac is a Pivotel cog in the machine… if trac didn’t break his leg dees would have won… 

You may well be correct. 

It is pretty frustrating watch us lose to the same teams (Swans and Pies), who play similar styles, multiple times in identical ways.

 

5 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Our best midfielder broke his leg after 10 minutes… trac is a Pivotel cog in the machine… if trac didn’t break his leg dees would have won… 

Tracc has looked off his best for most of the second half of the season. I think in general we are carrying too many niggles and injuries. Oliver, Gawn, Petracca, May and Lever are the pillars of our system, and I’d suggest since mid season 3 of those 5 have had injury issues in almost every game we’ve played.

Our system works when we execute, but it’s weaknesses can be exposed when we aren’t fully firing.

13 minutes ago, Action Jackson said:

It is pretty frustrating watch us lose to the same teams (Swans and Pies), who play similar styles, multiple times in identical ways.

 

100%. I think this needs to be taken into consideration when accounting for crowd noise. Collingwood twice, Sydney now twice, Bulldogs and Freo were all loses in Melbourne that our supporters have seen that looked exactly like Friday night.

4 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

Tracc has looked off his best for most of the second half of the season. I think in general we are carrying too many niggles and injuries. Oliver, Gawn, Petracca, May and Lever are the pillars of our system, and I’d suggest since mid season 3 of those 5 have had injury issues in almost every game we’ve played.

Our system works when we execute, but it’s weaknesses can be exposed when we aren’t fully firing.

Your expectations are unrealistic… you do realise trac is 5th favourite to win the Brownlow? 

3 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Your expectations are unrealistic… you do realise trac is 5th favourite to win the Brownlow? 

I specifically said he’s looked ‘off his best’ for most of the second half of the season. It’s not a criticism of him, it’s an acknowledgment that he’s a great player that has been playing with obvious injuries.  👍

 

Geelong, Sydney and Collingwood have gone to another level and we can’t go with em. 

First swans loss we concede 3-4 goals to soft frees. Ditto second loss to Collingwood. QF against swans concede 3 50 metre penalties. All made a big difference.

Perhaps not, but I at least want a crack at the Cats in the prelim. Ruined last season for them in Round 23, wouldn’t it be nice to bundle them out of two straight prelims.

1 hour ago, John Crow Batty said:

First swans loss we concede 3-4 goals to soft frees. Ditto second loss to Collingwood. QF against swans concede 3 50 metre penalties. All made a big difference.

Rd 12 Swan were gifted 2 goals in the last 3mins to win by 11 pts

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Perhaps not, but I at least want a crack at the Cats in the prelim. Ruined last season for them in Round 23, wouldn’t it be nice to bundle them out of two straight prelims.

If we were to get the job done this weekend, I'd rather play Geelong as a clear underdog in a prelim as opposed playing Collingwood as favourites despite failing twice to them. We'd also have at least a 50/50 crowd split against Geelong in a prelim as opposed to 30/70 against Collingwood.

That's the only solace I take from losing our qualifying final.

 

6 hours ago, John Crow Batty said:

First swans loss we concede 3-4 goals to soft frees. Ditto second loss to Collingwood. QF against swans concede 3 50 metre penalties. All made a big difference.

I think we are overlooking the Swans were able to stop out offense. Very concerning.

All of the top teams have been able to stop us coring. It sounds stupid and simplistic but if teams bring the pressure and can score more than 80 points we will lose.

On 9/4/2022 at 1:20 PM, Swooper1987 said:

Not certain how easy they are doing it. Our losses to Collingwood and Freo in the run of three were largely injury/personnel based.  Injuries in game had an enormous impact - May, Petty, Gawn, Petracca.  Then the second loss to Collingwood could genuinely have gone either way, similar to our first loss to Sydney, again without May. Lack of discipline cost us more than anything on Friday night.  I reckon those sides played at their best to beat us - that's not easy to do every game.

And yet those teams keep doing it 

22 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

But in four of those losses we led by at least 16 points, and in three of them we led by 20+.

This concerns me also 'titan'...we haven't been able to run out games this season.

Had them in control then they switch on/we switch off.

If we can arrest this then we are in with a shot but if we can't then season 2023 here we come.

I know it's going to be a light week on the track, but if they did any match simulation at training this week, I would like to see:

Team A:

- First choice midfield

- Second choice defence (eg Tomlinson, Smith, Disco, Bowey etc)

- Forward line with Kozzie, Fritsch, Petracca, ANB, Spargo and Chandler / Bedford (i.e. no talls).

Team B:

- 2nd choice midfield

- first choice defence

- rest of best 44 forwards.

I would like to see our midfield practice moving the ball without bombing it long (as Team A doesn't have anyone can compete v May  /Lever / Petty in the air).  If they know they can't do this, they'll start to come up with strategies and systems that favour the forwards.

 

Every other decent team can do this.  We might not have the skills of Sydney / Collingwood but we're not that far behind.  We just haven't practiced it.  We've practiced playing "boring".

I think back to some of our wins early last year - eg our breakout match v the Tigers.  We outworked them and moved the ball by handballing and running our way up the field.  While other teams now know not to have their defenders follow our forwards up the ground, this doesn't mean we can't try a bit more run and carry.  We have the players and the team to do it - we've just forgotten how.

Maybe it's too late in season to be working on this, but it should be the focus over summer.  

We need to win 

On 9/5/2022 at 6:31 AM, praha said:

If we beat Brisbane but lose to Geelong we'll actually go down as having statistically the worst record against the top 4 after actually finishing in the top 4: no top 4 team in history has finished with an 0-6 record against the other 3 top 4 teams.

And yet we'd be two wins off a flag and a big shot against Geelong on the MCG.

On 9/3/2022 at 6:56 PM, BLWNBA said:

And that’s the ‘cheerio, near enough is good enough’ attitude that’s seen the MFC float in a sea of mediocrity and ineptitude for the majority of the past six decades. It’s a cancerous culture which placates the supporter base unlike any other supporter base in the AFL. 

So because you want more flags anything less says the club is inept? Disregard all the other good clubs who also want flags and how difficult it is. How you need form, injuries etc to all go your way in periods when your list is in the right position.  Geelong only won every second year in their dynasty, Richmond lost one in amongst theirs. Great sides. This league is hard. We’ve had issues this year and we are still contending. Calm down and enjoy having a side filled with stars. It’s not all about flags it’s about the journey your club takes you on. This journey is a great one. And it’s for years to go.

On 9/4/2022 at 9:11 PM, dazzledavey36 said:

You really think lack of discipline costs us more then anything on Friday night?

Wow..

Your disrespect for how well Sydney played is disappointing. 

It was a 4 point game without the gifts. 

32 minutes ago, von said:

It was a 4 point game without the gifts. 

Was it though Von? They got us on clearances, worked harder on the outside, brought more forward pressure with 25 tackles inside 50 to our 13.

They were brutal decisions that went against us but on balance they were clearly the better side and I'm not convinced that they wouldn't have scored anyway without those frees and 50s. 

2 hours ago, layzie said:

Was it though Von? They got us on clearances, worked harder on the outside, brought more forward pressure with 25 tackles inside 50 to our 13.

They were brutal decisions that went against us but on balance they were clearly the better side and I'm not convinced that they wouldn't have scored anyway without those frees and 50s. 

They were, you’re right, and without the three 50s it was a four point game. Point is even though we look miles off and they smashed us, we’re really close. 

3 hours ago, von said:

They were, you’re right, and without the three 50s it was a four point game. Point is even though we look miles off and they smashed us, we’re really close. 

Yeah I'd agree with that. 

I'm comforted thinking that even in Geelong's dominant era 2007-11 they never won back to back flags. We have the side to contend for many seasons yet (still quite young) so even if we don't get to the top of the mountain again this year there's a lot left in this team.