8 hours ago, whatwhat say what said:

elliott yeo ooc at the end of this year too...

I posted in last years trade period that we should look at Yeo given WC were in rebuild mode.

Was back to his best last night & would have been more than handy for us...particularly with Gus retiring.

After watching those games yesterday, I think Melbourne is a step below Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood. And maybe below Brisbane, despite their performance in the wet. We have a lot of ground to make up if we’re going to be a premiership threat. 

11 minutes ago, rjay said:

I posted in last years trade period that we should look at Yeo given WC were in rebuild mode.

Was back to his best last night & would have been more than handy for us...particularly with Gus retiring.

Yeo despises the Dees. Would never happen. 

10 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

After watching those games yesterday, I think Melbourne is a step below Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood. And maybe below Brisbane, despite their performance in the wet. We have a lot of ground to make up if we’re going to be a premiership threat. 

Certainly feels like we're firmly in the 6-8 bracket doesn't it. 

13 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

After watching those games yesterday, I think Melbourne is a step below Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood. And maybe below Brisbane, despite their performance in the wet. We have a lot of ground to make up if we’re going to be a premiership threat. 

I’d wait until we play them all  before saying we are a step below. 
We might well be but a bit early to say.

8 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Are people on this forum still adamant Carlton aren’t the real deal and can’t win the flag?

Just beat the league leaders with a ton of injuries and are flying at 5-1.

Are the #1 seed thus far with players to return.

Does anyone actually think they’re not the real deal?

They should be the best side in it. They have the best list in the comp, IMO. Imagine taking our midfield, giving it a bit more depth, and then chucking Curnow and Mackay in front of it. 

4 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

After watching those games yesterday, I think Melbourne is a step below Geelong, Carlton and Collingwood. 

Really?

You can't take much from the cats lions game given the conditions, and def not that they are ahead of us.

Carlton played well, but defensively were average, giving up nearly a hundred points.

They were slight favourites to win that game, unsurprising given it was in Melbourne. And so the win was hardly a shock.

To be honest, despite losing, the giants worry me more.

The pies got rolling, and good on them. But they also looked shakey defensively and they benefited from ports absolutely woeful defence (im shocked port didn't make changing their defensive system a condition to agree to resign hinkley - they will never win a flag with their current defensive method).

6 hours ago, Gawndy the Great said:

The kids is blown up like he is super human. Has only played a half dozen. Have seen too many fizzle out or plateau . 
Granted he looks the goods but given him at least 2 seasons. WC still have some bottoming out to do. Kelly, Yeo, Darling, Cripps, Sheed, McGovern …. They are some big roles to fill. 

I think their expectation is that he'll only play three of those positions on any given day.

7 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Certainly feels like we're firmly in the 6-8 bracket doesn't it. 

No, not at all. 

7 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Certainly feels like we're firmly in the 6-8 bracket doesn't it. 

Not really, it’s the most even comp I can remember. We’ve won 4 with plenty of improvement left. 

1 minute ago, binman said:

Really?

You can't take much from the cats lions game given the conditions, and def not that they are ahead of us.

Carlton played well, but defensively were average, giving up nearly a hundred points.

They were slight favourites to win that game, unsurprising given it was in Melbourne. And so the win was hardly a shock.

To be honest, despite losing, the giants worry me more.

The pies got rolling, and good on them. But they also looked shakey defensively and they benefited from ports absolutely woeful defence (im shocked port didn't make changing their defensive system a condition to agree to resign hinkley - they will never win a flag with their current defensive method).

I was with some Port supporters last night @binman. They aren't too keen on Hinkley. I defended him on the basis that he hasn't ever been given the cattle to go into the last Saturday in September. Outside of Robbie Grey, I can't think of one superstar they have had in 10 years. Boak is an A Grader, but not a superstar. He's actually been handed horrendous lists. And I contend, that at a minimum, you need three SS to get you to a granny, let alone a premiership.

12 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Certainly feels like we're firmly in the 6-8 bracket doesn't it. 

This feels like recency bias. We lost our most recent game whilst sides like Carlton and Collingwood won, so it feels like we’re sliding. 

Go back two weeks to find Collingwood a kick off losing to Hawthorn, Carlton an umpires’ decision off losing to Fremantle (who just lost to West Coast), and Sydney losing to Richmond. We’re two games clear of Brisbane who are winless at home. We’re one game behind two sides who have looked amazing in Carlton and GWS. And we’ve done that despite having had 50% of our matches to date interstate (we’re not the only ones in that camp but it’s equally not like we’ve had some dream fixture run so far).

On the first six games’ evidence I don’t think the conclusion is that we can’t match the top 5 sides. I think it’s that we’re still very much in that group.

27 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Yeo despises the Dees. Would never happen. 

What did we ever do to him?

Is it just me or do some pundits have no idea?

Beveridge  and co on the round so far reckons Toby g will only get a a week .

Surely it's a minimum of two. Perhaps more.

I mean it's not like they will be able to find any good character references for him.

And Carlton are looking scary good given the amount of players they have with injuries.

Are we lacking depth this season?

34 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Yeo despises the Dees. Would never happen. 

why?

i'm sure no hatred a 4 year contract for a 30 year old couldn't assuage 

34 minutes ago, fr_ap said:

Certainly feels like we're firmly in the 6-8 bracket doesn't it. 

not really!

i feel like we're a 1-6 side personally

38 minutes ago, binman said:

Really?

You can't take much from the cats lions game given the conditions, and def not that they are ahead of us.

Carlton played well, but defensively were average, giving up nearly a hundred points.

They were slight favourites to win that game, unsurprising given it was in Melbourne. And so the win was hardly a shock.

To be honest, despite losing, the giants worry me more.

The pies got rolling, and good on them. But they also looked shakey defensively and they benefited from ports absolutely woeful defence (im shocked port didn't make changing their defensive system a condition to agree to resign hinkley - they will never win a flag with their current defensive method).

Well, I’m not holding myself up as a great predictor of results - I’ve picked all losers this round so far. But Carlton took care of the previously undefeated GWS, despite injuries. Collingwood looked back to their best. Brisbane lost to Geelong on their home ground in conditions they should be more used to. And Brisbane has beaten us in our last two clashes. It just worries me. I hope your optimism proves justified, @binman. 

 

 

14 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

It just worries me. I hope your optimism proves justified, @binman. 

Agree with your concerns FD. How anyone could be certain of our abilities after our last round performance, is just that - sheer optimism, nothing more. If I hear the excuse that we had 3 games in 13 days again I’ll scream. If we were tired, we would have faded as the game wore on. But we didn’t even have one quarter of solid football. We were comprehensively beaten all day. My previous optimism has taken a beating after that performance, so I have no idea how good(or not) we are and where we are likely to finish. And I guess maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be. The old “one game at a time”. So I’m looking forward to the Richmond game and not worrying about any further ahead than that. Four points first and if possible a percentage boost. Then on to the next. 

1 hour ago, binman said:

Carlton played well, but defensively were average, giving up nearly a hundred points.

This gets overlooked a lot. Carlton give up good scores to everyone. They statistically smack teams at the contest, yet still leak big scores.

Their next month will tell us a lot about them.

Edited April 21, 20241 yr by The heart beats true

43 minutes ago, Fanatique Demon said:

Well, I’m not holding myself up as a great predictor of results - I’ve picked all losers this round so far. But Carlton took care of the previously undefeated GWS, despite injuries. Collingwood looked back to their best. Brisbane lost to Geelong on their home ground in conditions they should be more used to. And Brisbane has beaten us in our last two clashes. It just worries me. I hope your optimism proves justified, @binman. 

I don't think I'm being optimistic FD. I think I'm being realistic and objective. 

Its a cliche that it's a long season because its true.

The media love to pretend that every game is of critical importance and every result is some sort of bellweather for team's chances of winning a flag (or making top 4, or finals, or wooden spoon etc etc).

They're not.

If they were, then last week the only conclusion that could be reached is that the blues have no chance of winning a flag given they were beaten by a winless, and decidedly average, crows outfit. Or does only this weeks result count?

And what of the giants? Everybody's darlings and flag pick. They were cruising, 20 points up halfway through the third and caved, conceding a 7 goal turn around in a quarter and a half. No longer a contender?

The swans were similarly lauded after starting the season with terrific wins over the dees, pies and bombers. Such stunning ball movement. Such brilliant kicks. Gulden is a kicking God. Heeney a midfield genius. Then they get beaten by the tigers. Not a contender any more?

They also love to pretend each game is played in isolation, a game in a bubble unmoored from other considerations (schedule, byes, high performance programs, how teams match up with specific opponents, injuries, trialling new roles or strategies, conditions etc etc).

They're not.

Each individual game, particularly in the first half of the season, is a piece of a larger puzzle. A step towards the final prize.

Its about winning the battle, not the wars.

Edited April 21, 20241 yr by binman

5 minutes ago, Neil Crompton said:

Agree with your concerns FD. How anyone could be certain of our abilities after our last round performance, is just that - sheer optimism, nothing more. If I hear the excuse that we had 3 games in 13 days again I’ll scream. If we were tired, we would have faded as the game wore on. But we didn’t even have one quarter of solid football. We were comprehensively beaten all day. My previous optimism has taken a beating after that performance, so I have no idea how good(or not) we are and where we are likely to finish. And I guess maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be. The old “one game at a time”. So I’m looking forward to the Richmond game and not worrying about any further ahead than that. Four points first and if possible a percentage boost. Then on to the next. 

I'm not feeling too comfortable after last week's debacle against the lions. And it was a debacle. Although only 20 points  I feel that we were comprehensively beaten. With Clarry clearly injured our midfield seems very suspect all of a sudden. Our fwd line was non existent. It was frustrating that they barely laid any tackles. 

I'm not sure what happened but how we handle the cats after the tigers will be fairly telling. I hope it was just the f word that you don't want to hear.

I do think that teams the comp is very competitive and being slightly off can result in a teams loss against a lot of sides. Eg Freo yesterday.

I feel that we actually don't have much depth anymore. We have a great deal of young potential but I'm not sure if that's enough at present. I do hope I'm wrong on this.

The tigers game too isn't a sure thing. It's a big day with a big crowd so anything can happen. 

7 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

My god, can they just put a webcam in a pub somewhere and let some drunks argue. Same quality of analysis.

Great to see an apology to Michael Christian for criticising the MRO. Why do they feel the need to apologise for having a crack at them.

Loved Cornes logic. He's taken his eyes off the ball to look at his opponent, so he has to go and then in the same breath says, the rules have changed, so players need to take care not to injure their opponent.

How do you do that if you can't take your eyes off the ball?

Sounds like they'll need to give him a week because they should have suspended Maynard and shouldn't have suspended Wright (or at least not for 4 weeks)

AFL ties itself in more knots than a knitting circle.

Media opinion will drive the outcome as usual.

Maybe players should be made to shout "look out" before entering a contest 😜

Oh boy, just watched the Harley Reid highlights from last night… not sure I can recall in my lifetime a 19 y.o., 6 game midfielder, in a very average side, that is taking marks over packs like a veteran forward 🥶🥶🥶🥶