There was this guy on a million bucks who went down last year for Collingwood and they then went on to be one kick from a grand final I believe.

But hey, he was a big part of their gameplan and they probably planned all summer with him in it so screw that. Looking forward to all the contrary comments about not being as good of a leader as Max or not being able to mark etc  

3 minutes ago, layzie said:

. Looking forward to all the contrary comments about not being as good of a leader as Max or not being able to mark etc  

Grundy is not Gawn. Nobody is. Collingwood also has a plethora of very good contested marking players.  We don’t. 

Can we win a flag without him? Yes
Can we stop comparing him to random players who’ve done a season ending injury that had no impact on their team’s performance? Also yes 

Gawn is such a special player. 6 times AA, and our captain. He isn’t just another player, just like he isn’t the only player that can win us a flag. 
 

I think the real worry is that he’s 31 and has two recos already under his belt. He’s not 20 with a whole career ahead of him and he’s a key part of our premiership window that we waited 57 years to reopen. 

the Lions are a very good team. most of the pregame comments on here were arrogant easy win comments. the Lions will be top 4 for sure and we played poorly

bizarrely, i am happy we won’t have the perfect starts of the last two years. happy to struggle early and get T Mac, viney etc in form for later in the year

7 minutes ago, DubDee said:

the Lions are a very good team. most of the pregame comments on here were arrogant easy win comments. the Lions will be top 4 for sure and we played poorly

bizarrely, i am happy we won’t have the perfect starts of the last two years. happy to struggle early and get T Mac, viney etc in form for later in the year

Tx for being so positive.  I'm just hoping Max is OK then we can move on. 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

He went and met with Scott and Mahoney and when Melbourne got wind of it then we put a complete stop to any potential trade.

scott stood him up

the trade was dead in the water after that

For 3 quarters they played dumb unaccountable football. Some of the kicking was lazy - they didn’t bother to drop their eyes and look to see who was in best position. Gus was particularly bad with his disposal. For there to be such a turnaround after the lights went out shows that it was mental and lack of effort earlier.

23 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Grundy is not Gawn. Nobody is. Collingwood also has a plethora of very good contested marking players.  We don’t. 

Can we win a flag without him? Yes
Can we stop comparing him to random players who’ve done a season ending injury that had no impact on their team’s performance? Also yes 

Gawn is such a special player. 6 times AA, and our captain. He isn’t just another player, just like he isn’t the only player that can win us a flag. 
 

I think the real worry is that he’s 31 and has two recos already under his belt. He’s not 20 with a whole career ahead of him and he’s a key part of our premiership window that we waited 57 years to reopen. 

He's a special player yes, a very special one. Maybe the most important weve ever had, but he's one player and the fact remains that teams have gone on to succeed without great players. There's not a footy coach in the country that would think planning a whole system around one player is a sustainable idea so the challenge is there now. Otherwise let's just bin the season now and go home.

I'm as gutted about this as anyone and yes it's going to hurt and be incredibly difficult to overcome but it is Round 2 and I am not throwing the months of March to September into the trash or finding something better to do like paint and sip classes or gardening. It's a long season, sh*t happens. 

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by layzie

30 minutes ago, NeveroddoreveN said:

Hard to get a grip on this one...Not much went right!

Reading through the pregame stuff here on Demonland gave me some concerns.   Overly confident, we are going to smash them because X,Y,Z and Brisbane are bad.  I just pictured our team lapping it all up on the plane ride there and getting a false sense of where we are actually at.  i don't think one person predicted Brisbane would win this one.

Goodwin has really not learnt from last years mistakes.   Rushing back stars who have not trained properly/full intensity for nearly a month is not good practice.  It will continue to backfire....pick FIT players.

Watched Harmes pretty closely last night and there were stages where he was just running around, just trying to touch the ball, no keeping structure, no hand on opponents, so little impact at any stage. He needs to be dropped off back of that. JJ/JVR/Scache, honestly anyone replaces him, he would not be missed on back of performance like that.

Melksham i said at end of last year that we are going nowhere while he is in the team.  Put in a talented kid like JVR instead, give him a chance.  Could not be worse.

Both Viney and Fritsch looked like they could have played for Casey this week....they needed the hitout.  Stop rushing in stars that are NQR! Seeing last month or so of training reports most of could see neither were prepared for this.

We missed so many opportunities to move the ball better...instead we chose to burn the easy 15-25m targets that were in the clear, to kick it straight to the extra defender.  It must have happened 20-30 times i saw, direct turnovers for no reason other than bad choices by so many players....Is this part of our gameplan?

We have a few good decision makers, but yikes we have a lot of guys that seem to opt for the worst choices possible, just need to be better. Use your eyes and skills, you train all week to be better not just dump kicks to outnumbers.

Devastating to lose Max.

We have options in Schache/JVR as possible replacements for him.  Have to include at least one of them next week.....Tmac will burnout fast if he has to play this role for long.

Harmes is a one way runner and has terrible football IQ if he gets a game next week it's a joke, time to move on from Tmac he has the turning circle of the titanic, now is the time to make changes, they still have trouble moving to ball at pace through out the game or chipping it around until they can move it on quickly.

43 minutes ago, layzie said:

There was this guy on a million bucks who went down last year for Collingwood and they then went on to be one kick from a grand final I believe.

But hey, he was a big part of their gameplan and they probably planned all summer with him in it so screw that. Looking forward to all the contrary comments about not being as good of a leader as Max or not being able to mark etc  

The real question imo is can the coach rejig the game plan because he couldn't adjust the forward line last season ;he's ordinary ( at best) as a game day coach   and doesnt have enough IQ from his players for them to step up as individuals.

It's going to be a long year 

But they still have an AA ruckman and a pretty good midfield.

Need a good final gasp from Pig and TMac I reckon

Edited March 24, 20232 yr by IRW

Grant Thomas rightly getting poleaxed on Twitter 

1 hour ago, Waltham33 said:

Been my highlight of the year to date

Also now Max is likely out he should be the only one allowed to do game day  interviews .

 

53 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Grundy is not Gawn. Nobody is. Collingwood also has a plethora of very good contested marking players.  We don’t. 

Can we win a flag without him? Yes
Can we stop comparing him to random players who’ve done a season ending injury that had no impact on their team’s performance? Also yes 

Gawn is such a special player. 6 times AA, and our captain. He isn’t just another player, just like he isn’t the only player that can win us a flag. 
 

I think the real worry is that he’s 31 and has two recos already under his belt. He’s not 20 with a whole career ahead of him and he’s a key part of our premiership window that we waited 57 years to reopen. 

That last paragraph...( sigh)

Can I just say everyone wrote this guy off before the season began & said he's not in our best team but kudos to Ben Brown for starting the season well 

13 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Grant Thomas rightly getting poleaxed on Twitter 

I like this reply:

Replying to

@Thomo_Grant

You’re pathetic Grant, Max has had multiple knee injuries & has every right to spend some time processing what has just happened. Your idea of leadership is protecting someone like Milne & adult men sleeping with school girls.

1 hour ago, DubDee said:

the Lions are a very good team. most of the pregame comments on here were arrogant easy win comments. the Lions will be top 4 for sure and we played poorly

bizarrely, i am happy we won’t have the perfect starts of the last two years. happy to struggle early and get T Mac, viney etc in form for later in the year

Am with you. Too much focus on a perfect season. 
 

We going to lose some early this year and ensure we are fighting fit in the 2nd half where it all matters

8 minutes ago, Return to Glory said:

I like this reply:

Replying to

@Thomo_Grant

You’re pathetic Grant, Max has had multiple knee injuries & has every right to spend some time processing what has just happened. Your idea of leadership is protecting someone like Milne & adult men sleeping with school girls.

Now that is a fair Whack! Well done whoever.

57 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Grundy is not Gawn. Nobody is. Collingwood also has a plethora of very good contested marking players.  We don’t. 

Can we win a flag without him? Yes
Can we stop comparing him to random players who’ve done a season ending injury that had no impact on their team’s performance? Also yes 

Gawn is such a special player. 6 times AA, and our captain. He isn’t just another player, just like he isn’t the only player that can win us a flag. 
 

I think the real worry is that he’s 31 and has two recos already under his belt. He’s not 20 with a whole career ahead of him and he’s a key part of our premiership window that we waited 57 years to reopen. 

Last paragraph is where my head is at. Not thinking about what our flag chances are without Max. More that if he has done his ACL we will probably never see Max at the peak of his powers again. Which would be such a massive loss. 
I can’t speak about previous AFL players who have done their ACL in their thirties but I know from Prem league soccer very few if any of them were ever the same player again. Keane, Vidic, VVD we’re never able to regain their athletic ability to the same standard again. 
 

Hats off to all of your who are remaining positive and I am sorry to be a Debbie downer, I’ll try to be more positive with future post. 

I am devestated by last night. We lost Max and the team went to water. We have to learn to play well without him and it starts now.

15 minutes ago, Return to Glory said:

I like this reply:

Replying to

@Thomo_Grant

You’re pathetic Grant, Max has had multiple knee injuries & has every right to spend some time processing what has just happened. Your idea of leadership is protecting someone like Milne & adult men sleeping with school girls.

I like the way he/she makes a distinction between Milne and adult men!

4 minutes ago, dl4e said:

I am devestated by last night. We lost Max and the team went to water. We have to learn to play well without him and it starts now.

True, but on the flip side, we played terribly, with 3 of our top 8 out (May, Gawn, Salem), away in warm, humid conditions against a near full strength top 4 team,  interrupted game... and we came close to beating them.

We have to learn to play better without Max, but there are definitely some positives to take out of last night

17 minutes ago, Colm said:

Last paragraph is where my head is at. Not thinking about what our flag chances are without Max. More that if he has done his ACL we will probably never see Max at the peak of his powers again. Which would be such a massive loss. 
I can’t speak about previous AFL players who have done their ACL in their thirties but I know from Prem league soccer very few if any of them were ever the same player again. Keane, Vidic, VVD we’re never able to regain their athletic ability to the same standard again. 
 

Hats off to all of your who are remaining positive and I am sorry to be a Debbie downer, I’ll try to be more positive with future post. 

Another reason why putting all your faith in a 31 y.o with history isn't wise.

I'm not having a go at people down in the dumps and I'm very down in the dumps myself. But it is still a team sport.

People talk about Max like he's the second coming of our lord, he's everything and a bag of chips but we also watch our club every week. I had friends in Adelaide who said the same about Primus, West Coast couldn't win one without Nic Nat. Hell I have Richmond friends that watch Jack Reiwoldt every week and feel the stuff he does makes him the most important forward in the comp.

I know people don't want to hear about comparisons because Max provides more than any of those but these case studies are all we have to draw on. There is literally no point at all bashing guys like Grundy round the head saying that he's not Gawn and that no-one is. We get it, he's almost irreplaceable.

It's become apparent to me that we've all got different ways of dealing with this and I'm gonna stay clear of here for a few hours. Chins up.

Edited March 25, 20232 yr by layzie

I have a problem comprehending why, when we have so many AA mids, that we struggle with clearances, and not just centre clearances. Because of our personnel, this is the one area of the game that we should, without fail, dominate. So what is the issue? Is it

- that our mids, unless our rucks put it down their throats, are incapable of winning the ball?

- that are mids are lazy?

- that opposition mids are better coached to nullify our personnel advantage?

- that our midfield coach needs to lift his game plan?

- or is it a combination of all these items? And possibly more?

Could someone please explain this to me as I’m dumbfounded by our relative failure in this area, particularly after last night’s performance which was abysmal.

Edited March 25, 20232 yr by Neil Crompton

Lets just get on with it.

We lost the second game. They were far more sure footed and slicker by hand than us. 

Ben Brown best game for us for a while.

We will learn to win without him if that's the way it has to be, just as 17 other teams win without him/

 

That's the most flattering scoreline I've ever seen.  Easily.

Some supporters love making excuses, but let's deal with reality.  They were a 10 goal better team.

Oliver, Petracca and particularly Viney were pathetic.  Harmes was worse than Viney.  Barely possible.

Brayshaw plays like he's wearing concrete boots.

Ashcroft made our two ''generational'' mids look like they lacked class.

Grundy is one of the smallest talls I've seen.

Tom McDonald needs to rediscover form at the lower level.

I particularly enjoyed the dropped marks and constant fumbling.

A grim reality check.