35 minutes ago, Brownie said:

We can't rely on Tracc trying to bend a dribbler in from the boundary when Grundy is standing front and square 15m out in the last quarter. 

A perfect example of the really poor decisions we were making. that was a very low percentage shot Trac took on. Squaring to grundy was the obvious option

5 minutes ago, Mazer Rackham said:

As far as I can make out, it's not in the official rules and never has been.

It's an "interpretation" layered on top of the actual rules. Just plonked into the game of the whim of someone, then just as easily removed.

"Interpretation" of any game's rules is a joke and an abomination.

Like the "interpretation" of not paying advantage out of a stoppage free kick. Was that an interpretation or a rule? And when did it change (if at all)? Because last night they seemed pretty happy to pay advantage after play had stopped to figure out where the free kick was going.

Sunday morning and we won a game last night against a quality team. My father used to tell me good teams find a way to win when they are not playing well. Forwards played poorly, we were beaten in the centre and backs made mistakes at important points in the game.

But we still won and the four points are in the bank. 
Enjoy today like I will with luck the pies will lose today to complete a good weekend. 

4 minutes ago, BDA said:

Spargo lowers his eyes. I reckon he should come back in. It's a tough call but I think chandler should make way.

Agree Spargo should come in. Disagree Chandler should go out. He's been great this year, had a bad one last night but still kicked a magnificent goal on quarter time.

Just now, Dr. Gonzo said:

Like the "interpretation" of not paying advantage out of a stoppage free kick. Was that an interpretation or a rule? And when did it change (if at all)? Because last night they seemed pretty happy to pay advantage after play had stopped to figure out where the free kick was going.

Maybe we're back to the "rule of the week" where the players had to watch the Friday night game to find out what was being cracked down on, or not, for the round.

4 minutes ago, BDA said:

A perfect example of the really poor decisions we were making. that was a very low percentage shot Trac took on. Squaring to grundy was the obvious option

Fritsch did similar a few minutes before that, could have centred the ball but took a shot from deep in the pocket instead. We really shot ourselves in the foot in the last quarter, should have put them away earlier.

2 minutes ago, old dee said:

Sunday morning and we won a game last night against a quality team. My father used to tell me good teams find a way to win when they are not playing well.

Like the saying goes, you only play as well as you're allowed to.  Suns did well but we're more experienced and have more belief.

2 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Agree Spargo should come in. Disagree Chandler should go out. He's been great this year, had a bad one last night but still kicked a magnificent goal on quarter time.

More than any other player in the team (excepting maybe Fritsch), Chandler knows where the goals are. A very useful attribute for a forward.

31 minutes ago, The heart beats true said:

Watching the press conference Goodwin seemed very confident that we could get them on turnover.

I feel like we are trying to win differently. For years we’ve needed to smash the contested possessions, where as I think now we are often having a look at breaking even there, which means we use our match winners more sparingly. Goodwin spoke about this in the presser. I think it’s about winning games, but not taxing our best players every week, so they are fresher when needed.

He also said that we needed to arrest some momentum in the contested possessions in order to win. Which we did. 

My only complaint over last night is that we haven’t sorted out the clearances issue, in particular centre clearances. This has to be sorted out or forget another flag. We have 4 A graders and a couple B+ rotating through the middle but don’t function as an effective unit. Where is the synergy and WTF is wrong with them?

After last year’s practice of playing the same 22 regardless of injury status, and then bowing out of finals in straight sets, I’m really pleased to see Goody playing with variations on team setup and players from Casey getting a go. Petty looked really good playing forward in that final last yr vs Brisbane. We’ve had a good look at him as a forward now and I think we’ve learned he’s better in defence, but it didn’t cost us games to find this out. 

I see the crowd last nightwqas 11000. Is that normal for GC games?  What percentage were Demon supporters?

20 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Dees are are scoring 50% of the tine going inside 50. It’s the highest in the league. Not sure the coaches are too concerned 

That's an interesting stat @bandicoot. Maybe it's skewed by our better wins when there's not the pressure on the ball carrier and therefore better delivery?

I still think our forward entries and then defensive efforts to lock it in need a lot of work this year.

I'd be interested what others think.

maybe I'm just making excuses for the likes of JVR and BBB

15 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

May kicks in to the left and close to the centre square with 15 seconds left.. [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] gotta go closer to the boundary!

Talk about an out if character brain fade from Mr.Reliable kicking out who always goes boundary and to the left.

Kicking down the guts with 15 seconds left might have been the right play if we were 5 points down, but 5 points up?  I was somewhat dumbfounded.  Unless he shanked it off the wrong side of the boot or something but he's too good a kick for that.

Don't want to crucify the MFC premiership full back and MFC full back of the century, meerly like to know "what the F were you thinking big fella" and I'm tipping he was asking himself the same question the moment it left his boot and would be very thankful when we got away with it and the 4 points.

I'm very surprised at the lack of criticism of the match day coaching which almost cost us the game. May was the obvious opponent for Casboult not a 1 game player giving away height & weight & Petty the obvious match for King.  Really dumb coaching.

May should be replaced by Bowie for the kick ins until Salem is back. Surely if there is an obvious short option to the right like Langer's was last night, you take it. Fifteen seconds of madness by May last night nearly cost us the game.

6 minutes ago, In Harmes Way said:

After last year’s practice of playing the same 22 regardless of injury status, and then bowing out of finals in straight sets, I’m really pleased to see Goody playing with variations on team setup and players from Casey getting a go. Petty looked really good playing forward in that final last yr vs Brisbane. We’ve had a good look at him as a forward now and I think we’ve learned he’s better in defence, but it didn’t cost us games to find this out. 

Also pleasing that we are resting our bulls like Clarry and Trac for periods during games where we can afford to and using our midfield depth to wear down oppositions that don't bat as deep in the guts.  I suspected we were doing this somewhat, but Goodwin more or less confirmed that again in his presser too.

Where maybe last season Clarry and Trac battle it out all game in the guts to win the game from their brute strenght and capasity, they end up with 30+ possessions and we say how great they are and they're the difference between us and GC.  But I think we've now arrived at a point where Clarry, Trac and co don't need that affirmation of their greatness every week and we have enough trust in others to go head to head with Rowel and Co, knowing that we may be conceding a little, but still doing enough to control the game, conserving our guns for when th heat is really on and developing the game of the next gen through the middle all at the same time.

I think we've learnt from 2022 and what we are watching now is the next step in our evolution to being a great side over a sustained period and hopefully great crack at another flag this year.

12 minutes ago, sue said:

I see the crowd last nightwqas 11000. Is that normal for GC games?  What percentage were Demon supporters?

I think it might have been about 30 percent.

We came alive in the last quarter.

What was really good to see is that there seemed to be a significant increase in the amount of Demons supporters there than I've ever seen at a GC game before.

Sustained success is the secret ingredient!

Just made the mistake of watching Goodwin's press conference. Not because of anything he said - he rarely says anything much.  But how can a mega-dollar organization as the AFL not manage to have the questions audible.  Do they fear the journos will steal a microphone if one is anywhere near them?

Very happy to get the win. We don't get beaten up like that at CPs (-27) and clearances (-6) if we're not off our 4th interstate match in 8. We looked absolutely exhausted after quarter time.

The Suns are good in the contest, but not that good. And defensively, they waltzed through our zone and waltzed through the corridor a number of times - we seemed to back off them at times too, but their talls provided good contests ahead of the ball, which worried us a bit.

It felt like we went really hard in the first quarter and tried to do what we did against North and ice the game by quarter time. But the first three quarters followed a similar trend where we dominated scoring, before the Suns would reel us back in.

I love our ball movement and unpredictable forwardline at the moment, but our contests behind the ball (in the air and on the ground) need to be much better and our defensive zone (the transition is generally fine), needs a tweak otherwise we don't beat Collingwood or likely Geelong at the pointy end. Let's see if the FD is holding a few aces back.

That Suns win though could well be huge in the scheme of things this year. Lucky or not, a win's a win!

Edited May 7, 20231 yr by A F

3 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

Sure. Bit without Fritsch's three shanks, Viney's shank etc we win comfortably.

Even if Macpherson kicks the goal we still come away with a draw not a loss.

You missed ANB running into open goal and was lucky to even score.

6 minutes ago, loges said:

You missed ANB running into open goal and was lucky to even score.

That ANB moment was a prime example of exhaustion and fatigue impacting on disposal.

ANB had 4 tackles to quarter time. Incredibly taxing. It also supports the clear drop off after quarter time.

Edited May 7, 20231 yr by A F

12 minutes ago, sue said:

Just made the mistake of watching Goodwin's press conference. Not because of anything he said - he rarely says anything much.  But how can a mega-dollar organization as the AFL not manage to have the questions audible.  Do they fear the journos will steal a microphone if one is anywhere near them?

Totally agree Sue.  This issue grates on my immensely.  I mean seriously.  What you get is a series of disconnected statements about the game from the coaches and spend half your time trying to figure out what their answer relates to.  You've got to feel for the coaches too as they've got to be aware of this, that one of their main chances to explain the story to the fans is massively compromised.

The AFL are so very dum in alot of respects.  This one also falls into the same basket of not having enough dedicated cameras and technology to do propper post goal review.  They'll spend nearly a billion dollars on a new stadium that Tasmania 'must have' to make it suitable for AFL standard, but then won't fork out a few thousand dollars to have dedicated cameras setup in the best locations for goal line review, so we'll get a game that gets controversially decided on some blurry vision with the goal umpires butt three quarters blocking the view of the ball as it crosses.

Edited May 7, 20231 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

Not sure if others have commented much on this already, but I was really pleased with Bowey's game last night.  His form has been a bit up and down this season and over the past 12 months we've found that he is actually human, but I get the impression that he's returning to his best 2021 premiership finals era type tenacious, unflappable, unbeatable and undropable form. 

Edited May 7, 20231 yr by Rodney (Balls) Grinter

2 minutes ago, Rodney (Balls) Grinter said:

Totally agree Sue.  This issue grates on my immensely.  I mean seriously.  What you get is a series of disconnected statements about the game from the coaches and spend half your time trying to figure out what their answer relates to.  You've got to feel for the coaches too as they've got to be aware of this, that one of their main chances to explain the story to the fans is massively compromised.

The AFL are so very dum in alot of respects.  This one also falls into the same basket of not having enough dedicated cameras and technology to do propper post goal review.  They'll spend nearly a billion dollars on a new stadium that Tasmania 'must have' to make it suitable for AFL standard, but then won't fork out a few thousand dollars to have dedicated cameras setup in the best locations for goal line review, so we'll get a game that gets controversially decided on some blurry vision with the goal umpires butt three quarters blocking the view of the ball as it crosses.

Agree about the cameras.  Trouble is the AFL also likes controversey.  However why not do away with cameras and have 2 goal umpires and just let them decide. They'll get it wrong from time to time, but mistakes by field umpires influence games much more than that.

Goal umpires are more likely to be plentiful than othr rumpires - could do several more games a week. (Though I don't know how many they do now. Anyone know?)

I have a simple explanation for so many of our players being flat:

• 3 interstate games in the first 5. 
• Followed with 3 games in 12 days including another flight. 
• An eye on another interstate game vs Port in 2 weeks. 

That workload takes a big toll on players with niggles and AFL level newbies like:  McVee, JvR, and Chandler.  And maybe our imported players (Hunter and Grundy) wouldn't be used to that workload nor yet conditioned to our standards.

The season is a marathon.  We only need to ride out this tough patch through to the Port game, take the 4 points as often as we can and get ready to consolidate our season with most games thereafter being in Melbourne.

After the workload so far we are in an outstanding position in the top 4 with an excellent %

No need for all the stress in this thread.