18 minutes ago, Redleg said:

Now they are trying to get JVR suspended saying his eyes weren’t on the footy the whole time.

Not bad calling where his eyes are, looking from behind through the back of his head.

Some in the media should be ashamed of their performance in their job, of not reporting news, but rather trying to create it.

Certainly weren't as condemning of Chols swinging forearm into Bowey's jaw that's for sure.

The AFL Match report lists May in our best.  Any takers?

Geez there's some negative [censored] on this forum tonight.

We won a tough game - that's good enough for me !

21 minutes ago, Hopeful Demon said:

Mate you really need to stop taking unwarranted pot shots at our players.

'Hunter's cooked'- Yes, he was off today but he's been very good this year.

'Grundy's a headless chook'- This one's an absolute shocker. Grundy has been a massive upgrade on Jackson. At least he actually has the capacity to kick goals and hold onto his marks.

'Fritsch needs a wakeup call'- Why? He definitely had a bad day but he's still averaging more the two goals a game. Not to mention that he's easily been our best forward over the past two and a half years.

'I thought Oliver had left behind these shocker games in 2020 but he’s had a few this year now'- Aside from the Brisbane game, all of Oliver's performances have been excellent-solid. And I thought he was great in the last quarter, when the game was there to be won.

Hunter’s been progressively worse through the year, apart from the Sydney game and some nice moments late v Richmond he’s had little impact. He’s still best 22 because we have no alternatives but he’s not making us better.

Grundy does some great stuff but at any moment he’s capable of giving away a dumb free or butchering it. His early jumping in the ruck tonight could’ve given up 10 frees. 

My disdain with Fritsch has nothing to do with goals. It’s all about his contested and defensive efforts. He could be the same goal kicker and a far more valuable player if he just bought in to those sides of the game. 

Oliver was bad against Essendon when the game was there to win and he butchered it against Richmond too. I never expect perfect kicking from him, far from it, but he can’t be a hot potato backwards handballer. He’s the best player in the comp when he goes forward. He’s ineffective when he goes back or gives 30cm handballs 

Edited May 6, 20232 yr by DeeSpencer

8 minutes ago, kev martin said:

Thought we did alright. On the road again, weather conditions we are not used to, and a very fast track.

A few of our players stood up when they had a chance.

Gawn was marking well, Tracc having a huge impact with his possession, kept us in it.

Our nose was in front most of the evening, fighting well, giving an effort, and not letting them have momentum for long periods.

The Suns used the ball well after winning the contest. Loved their composure, steps, ability to find space and the right options when running the ball.

Thought more of our possessions had an impact.

The backline spent a fair bit of time off their feet. Don't like it when they go to ground, in the contest.

Was it slippery out there?

Good to get those 4 points. They came at us and we hung in there.

Went to the Sporting Globe in Richmond. No atmosphere, no commentary for the first 15 minutes (playing Adelaide v Geelong). Only one Melbourne supporter in the room I'm was in. Could anyone suggest a public place to watch when we aren't in Melbourne, that is in the Prahran, Richmond, inner city areas?

 

 

I've mentioned it a few times on various threads, although it's not in the area you mention Kev, but The Rose in Fitzroy is a good football pub. Usually a few Dees supporters there for our interstate games and never any nuffies. 

1 minute ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Geez there's some negative [censored] on this forum tonight.

We won a tough game - that's good enough for me !

It’s a result of having a better team and therefore heightened expectations.

But yes, a win when we aren’t playing our best is a good result.

2 minutes ago, sue said:

My eyesight is not great but the commentators kept acting like JVRs fist hit his head but I thought his fist :arm went over his right shoulder and Ballard felt the other side of his head probably because JVR’s shoulder hit it. ?

 

They pointed out he was looking at the ball. Some players have a feel for where it's going from a quick glance so one can't argue intent.

I think it was high contact but totally unintentionally and hopefully a neck sprain.

2 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

His contested marking in 21 was really good. Something he really worked on.

Only kicked 25 goals in 21, 30 in 22 when he was at north he 2016 he kicked 41, 2017 63, 2018 61, 2019 64...

 

Gotta take the wins folks, look at the Pies they are pumped after coming from behind.

Our boys were in front all night and held on getting us the win!
Absolutely room for improvement but I thought when we were on top we looked a class above.

JVR's kicking action is hurting his knee in my opinion, looks tender putting weight on it.

May dominated King for the first half so much so they gave him another job on Casboult, did alright I reckon.

Fristch won't stay down for long, obviously Lemons? is a good matchup on him.

Dumb move locking Kozzie in the front half all game, looked strong in the first.

2 minutes ago, demon3165 said:

Only kicked 25 goals in 21, 30 in 22 when he was at north he 2016 he kicked 41, 2017 63, 2018 61, 2019 64...

 

Yea but his contested marking was really good. He led up the ground more too. And a much better average than Petty. 

Edited May 6, 20232 yr by leave it to deever

JVR hit on Ballard was a glancing blow across the face at worst.  Old mate clasped the back of his head immediately despite no contact being to that region.  Good thing he did though because that prevented it from impacting the turf with force.  Massive beat up...stretcher job was worthy of a WWE PPV 

34 minutes ago, Gator said:

I must watch a different game of footy.

How many players have his influence and numbers under a heavy tag ?

He is a machine.

You'd have to have blinkers on not to see his impact. 

Finished with 28 disposals, despite having a hard tag (ie not a defensive mid like Dunkley's job on Cripps) on him all game – something that doesn’t happen much anymore because the oppo is basically giving up a player and coaches can drag a player doing the hard tag away from contests (which are the reasons I’ve heard goody give for not using a hard tag more often) 

And despite having less disposals than he normally would, Oliver had the third most metres gained (behind tracc and maxy) for us and on a night we got smashed in CP, the most contested possessions (he was two ahead of trac, four ahead of Viney – and equal second with Swallow for both teams, behind only Anderson).

And top all that off he had 9 score involvements – two more than any other player on the ground. 

Oliver doesn’t play, we don’t win. 

But sure, he didn't have much infleunce.

Sheesh.
 

Edited May 6, 20232 yr by binman

5 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

My disdain with Fritsch has nothing to do with goals. It’s all about his contested and defensive efforts. He could be the same goal kicker and a far more valuable player if he just bought in to those sides of the game.

Fritsch picked up his defense and contest work massively at the pointy end of 2021. I thought it was emblematic of the buy in from the whole group. We need him to get back there...his lack of defense and poor contest work is not going to cut it and he's not alone in the drop off in that area.

7 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Geez there's some negative [censored] on this forum tonight.

We won a tough game - that's good enough for me !

I’m not interested in wins. I’m interested in flags. 
I agree it’s good to bank wins, but on current season form we are going out in straight sets again. 

1 minute ago, leave it to deever said:

They pointed out he was looking at the ball. Some players have a feel for where it's going from a quick glance so one can't argue intent.

I think it was high contact but totally unintentionally and hopefully a neck sprain.

There was less than nothing in it.

A normal football act of spoiling a mark and Ballard fell and bumped his head, giving him a sore neck.

I thought Chol should have been reported on the spot for his dangerous act of belting a smaller player in the jaw, from behind, with a round arm. That is a suspension but I expect very little.

37 minutes ago, Garbo said:

Does anyone else feel this year has just continued on from the end of last, the gap between our best and worst hasn’t improved. We seem to have issues on every line. 

Doesn’t feel like it did in 2021 when it felt like we wouldn’t ever loose to anyone regardless of score. Maybe we hit our straps come end of year but feels more of a hope than a certainty

This is the problem with the majority of Demonland, IMO.

Too many want to see 2021 again.

We should all know by now that the H&A season is all about two things:

1. Winning enough games to put yourself in a position to win the flag (technically that means making top 8 but realistically means making top 4); and
2. Being in form at the right time of the year.

It's not about dominating from go to whoa.

2021 was a freakish year. We were brilliant. It was one of the best full seasons produced by any side in recent memory. I don't think we get enough credit for it, given how many people say stuff like "we hit a September purple patch". No, 2021 was out of this world. We cannot use that as the standard.

We're 6-2 and have the league's best percentage. In those 8 games we've played four 2022 finalists (3-1 record) and have played half our games interstate. We clearly have challenges to come with our fixture but right now we are ticking the boxes for the first point above - we're winning games to ensure we're in a position to win the flag.

We won't know if we're in form at the right time of the year until we get there but we have seen time and again that premiership sides aren't always in form in Round 8. 

Just got home from the ground and happy we ended up with the 4 points playing poorly which good sides do. Suns played very well and seemed to have more bigger bodies. Poor young Turner standing next to Casboult looked like jack and the giant. We had a few passengers today plus in the last a bit of dew come down which made it tough going.

One thing we must do sooner than later is get a contest and clearance work better. Suns smashed us in close. They have a couple of rippers in Rowell and Anderson.

So many negative comments on this thread after a gritty win against a Suns combination that is far from the easybeats of a few years ago. I''m inclined to agree that Petty's talents are better suited to a role in defence, and Fritsch had one of his fairly rare off days, but give the opposition some credit for the intensity of effort that kept us under pressure. I certainly wouldn't mind having Anderson, Rowell and Miller (absent today) in our midfield mix.

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

I’m not interested in wins. I’m interested in flags. 
I agree it’s good to bank wins, but on current season form we are going out in straight sets again. 

It's May Jaded ... not September.

We won a game against a strong opponent on their own turf.

I'll take that and build on it.

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I’m not interested in wins. I’m interested in flags. 
I agree it’s good to bank wins, but on current season form we are going out in straight sets again. 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

We won't be winning the flag if we don't win enough H&A games.

Stop thinking like our form in Round 8 is necessarily going to be our form in September. It clearly wasn't last year.

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I’m not interested in wins. I’m interested in flags. 
I agree it’s good to bank wins, but on current season form we are going out in straight sets again. 

Hang in there Jaded. It is only early days.

2 minutes ago, binman said:

He is a machine.

You'd have to have blinkers on not to see his impact. 

Finished with 28 disposals, despite having a hard tag (as opposed to a defensive mid like Dunkley on Cripps) on him all game – something that doesn’t happen much anymore because the oppo is basically giving up a player and coaches can drag a player doing hard tag away from contest (which are the reasons I’ve heard goody gibe for not using a hard tag more often) 

And despite having less disposals than his normally would, had the third most metres gained (behind tracc and maxy) for us and on a night we got smashed in CP, the most contested possessions (he was two ahead of trac, four ahead of Viney – and equal second with Swallow for both teams, behind only Anderson).

And top all that off he had 9 score involvements – two more than any other player on the ground. 

Oliver doesn’t play, we don’t win. 

But sure, he didn't have much infleunce.

Sheesh.
 

Oliver is one of the best players this club has ever had. He is probably the best contested possession player in the club’s history.

Anything less than BOG, is seen as an ordinary performance.

3 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I’m not interested in wins. I’m interested in flags. 
I agree it’s good to bank wins, but on current season form we are going out in straight sets again. 

You’re so negative. The Suns played really well, and we played at 40% of our capacity, and we still won.

You can’t win flags in May, but you can lose games that mean you won’t get there. That didn’t happen.

Great atmosphere at the ground lots of dees supporters, felt like we got flogged yet somehow came away with the points.

GC will do a bit of damage up here, played really well tonight 

As for the game itself, I haven't been able to watch it all so I can't comment as well as others, but my random thoughts are:

1. It's time to end the Petty forward experiment. It's not working. He's not as good as a forward as some people think. He's a much better defender and our overall team structure needs a third tall. 
2. We can't rely on super accurate goal-kicking every week, so we have to expect to regress to the mean a bit. In that respect, holding on despite going 2.6 in the fourth quarter is important I reckon.
3. We're missing Salem more than I thought we would.
4. We're missing Hibberd more than I thought we would.
5. The media beat-up over the JVR incident is pathetic. That's not a reportable offence. If he gets weeks for that, the game is cooked.