Christian Petracca

[rpfc 28,052]

7 hours ago, GM11 said:

Out of interest, who could we have got?

I can’t answer that counter factual only that it contributed to us not getting to prelims.

[layzie 32,929]

1 hour ago, In Harmes Way said:

I'd like to think I'm generally a glass half full man myself - but just looking at the results of "we lost by less than a kick" misses the point that we were 6 goals down to the blues before we even scored a point, we were 35 to 8 in front of GWS at qtr time before completely losing momentum - and we only kicked 7 goals in the game vs Port, in what was a good pressure but pretty ugly game of footy. My view is we weren't where we needed to be in all of those games, rather than not far off.

The Brisbane game is the only one I'd say we could look at as a genuine 50/50 that we lost by less than a kick. 

That Carlton game literally split this place down the middle. Some even suggesting that breaking even with them from midway through the 2nd to midway through the last was a positive instead of Carlton answering our challenges, steadying the ship and clearly being the better side on the night. 

[Roost it far 7,423]

8 hours ago, Macca said:

We had a much better chance of winning the flag in 2022 rather than 2023

In 2023 we went into the finals with a D Grade forward line (with so many outs) and to expect to win 3 finals without any real fire-power up forward was totally unrealistic

But in 2022 there was no such reasoning attached.  But such was the euphoria of finally breaking through in 2021, we let the club off the hook.  That was the year that got away from us

Whilst the Cats were smart enough to rotate their better players, we just went with the same team and ran out of legs.  But with better management, we would have at least made the PF

In fact, as early as round 8 in 2022, it was obvious that we looked like a tired outfit.  Class got us through to the top 4 but no legs

The above is how I reckon many will see things in 5 or 10 years time unless ... we win another flag or 2 in the next 5 or 6 years

If that happens, we won't be looking back 

This is what our forward line could have looked like in 2023 but for various reasons, Petty, JVR, Melksham & Brown didn't play.  And Fritsch was banged up.  T-Mac was a liability

And after losing Gus, we couldn't use Petracca forward in the way we wanted to

HF  Fritsch (if fit)           Petty              Kozzie/Petracca 

F    Melksham/Chandler         JVR         Brown/T-Mac (if fit)

2022 - No excuses

2023 - Reasons

2022 - Petracca played with a break in his leg and Max was hobbled........there's 2 very good excuses

2023 - Lost the QF even though on just about every metric we should of won regardless of who was playing. That would of put us into a Prelim.....that's the one that got away.

[Macca 16,632]

4 hours ago, Roost it far said:

2022 - Petracca played with a break in his leg and Max was hobbled........there's 2 very good excuses

2023 - Lost the QF even though on just about every metric we should of won regardless of who was playing. That would of put us into a Prelim.....that's the one that got away.

2022 we had a fit and healthy forward line ... not A grade but availability was fine

2023 our forward line was D Grade with so many forwards being unavailable (Melk, Petty, Brown, JVR, T-Mac (on one leg) Fritsch (banged up) Petracca (not available forward with Brayshaw taken out))

That's a lot of outs replaced with NQR's

So the 2022 Demons beats the 2023 Demons by 4 or 5 goals

So it's a B/B+ Grade forward line vs D Grade forward line (2022 vs 2023) with the make-up of the rest of the respective teams being quite similar

So we had no excuses in 2022 but in 2023, there were sound reasons on why we didn't advance in the finals

So on every metric, we didn't stand a chance to win 3 finals in 2023

But in my view, we completely blew our chances in 2022 ... that's the one that got away.  Won our first 10 games then lost 8 out of our next 14 games

In 5 of those 8 losses we were leading at half time and in the other 3 losses we were within a goal at half time

So teams kept coming over the top of us.  Energy levels an issue?  Yes

So, in 2022 we ran out of legs and that's on the coaching and the fitness staff. By contrast, the Cats were managed really well and went on to win the flag with ease

It should gave been our flag which would have made it back to back flags

2022 - The one that got away

As for 2024, we started the season off with an A grade midfield and finished with a C- Grade midfield (No Brayshaw, Petracca out for half a season, Gawn good but not great, Viney ok and Oliver well below his best)

You cannot win big with those sorts of talent levels. And that includes the close games

Edited 10 hours ago by Macca

[binman 41,991]

8 hours ago, jnrmac said:

You're a glass half full man. We lost by a kick to Port, GWS, Blues and Brisbane.

Win those and the conversation would have been different.

We had a terrible year in my view but I can see how Goodwin would look at the above and say we weren't far off.

 

Agree we weren't far off.

But with our woeful preseason,  injuries, so many senior players clearly carrying injuries, and a third of the team kids running out of puff  even I doubt we had the wherewithal to do win a flag this year.

Hard not think it was a blessing in disguise missing finals - particularly if we land a gun at pick 5.

On injuries, the Swans have been blessed this season - very much like we were in 2021.

And anyone who doubts the impact of losing say tracc only need to see the influence of heeney in the finals.

The swans almost certainly lose week one if not for heeney. They lose that game and they are no monties to even make the GF (ironically they would have played the lions).

[whatwhat say what 22,187]

18 minutes ago, binman said:

Hard not think it was a blessing in disguise missing finals - particularly if we land a gun at pick 5.

won't know that til we see the results in 2025, and beyond

win a premiership with this cohort some time during the may - gawn - viney dotage, and yes, it might well be the season we had to have

i want to see us 'bounce' next year at a minimum

Edited 13 hours ago by whatwhat say what

[Macca 16,632]

Wrong thread

 

Edited 12 hours ago by Macca

[KozzyCan 396]

7 hours ago, layzie said:

That Carlton game literally split this place down the middle. Some even suggesting that breaking even with them from midway through the 2nd to midway through the last was a positive instead of Carlton answering our challenges, steadying the ship and clearly being the better side on the night. 

Only reason we were in that Carlton game was because Trac went into god mode