On 30/03/2025 at 22:19, titan_uranus said:

He was pick 68.

The fact he’s played at all means the pick wasn’t a “blunder”.

The fact that he HAS played at all says plenty about how far we have fallen!

  On 30/03/2025 at 23:05, picket fence said:

The fact that he HAS played at all says plenty about how far we have fallen!

That’s not his fault, nor does it make the pick a blunder.

He’s also been far from our worst.

Just a word of advice to those going along Friday night. I live 20km from alphabet stadium but no way will I attend.

Night games can be especially dangerous as many locals have been on the juice for 3 or 4 hours.

My tip is to remain low key. Taunting feral Cats is to be avoided, particularly if we manage to hit the front at any stage.

Port and Crow supporters at Moron Park like to bate opposition supporters, but they don't hold a candle to a drunk hooligan in blue and white hoops.

Edited March 30Mar 30 by M_9

Our team this week will be significantly stronger . If we have a similar result it will be a deesaster.

Can't believe anyone would be advocating for TMac to be dropped. He has had a Wheelo player rating of 13.1 this season, which is 3rd in the side. He should play on Cameron this week. Petty or May need to be reassigned or dropped.

Pickett, Windsor, Lever and Turner must all come into the side.

Lindsay obviously out. I would drop Johnson, Fritsch and Howes. Petty to be sub or play forward.

  On 29/03/2025 at 05:34, Dee-tonator said:

Five goals for Turner in VFL today.

Could replace any of our forward flops, especially Fritsch.

That would send a strong signal

Fritsch is next to useless at the moment so a shake up is no worse than what we are getting.

Friday night footy.

Get ready for a smashing and then an intense week or every media fool bagging us

It's just like the old days

I'd really like to see Campbell play. Scott has a history of targeting Max - and Max's for has been down - so some aggression from Tom might give our mids a lift

Pickett, Spargo, Lever, Turner, Laurie, Windsor in

and dropping our worst 6 already makes us a fair bit better

maybe we'll kick a few goals?

Edited March 31Mar 31 by DubDee

  On 31/03/2025 at 01:40, jnrmac said:

I'd really like to see Campbell play. Scott has a history of targeting Max - and Max's for has been down - so some aggression from Tom might give our mids a lift

TC injured in the vfl

  On 31/03/2025 at 01:41, DubDee said:

Pickett, Spargo, Lever, Turner, Laurie, Windsor in

and dropping our worst 6 already makes us a fair bit better

maybe we'll kick a few goals?

That’s 6 good ins. We just need our leaders to stand up and pull this team forward. It’s easy leading when you’re winning now we’ll see what they’re made of.

  On 30/03/2025 at 23:28, M_9 said:

Just a word of advice to those going along Friday night. I live 20km from alphabet stadium but no way will I attend.

Night games can be especially dangerous as many locals have been on the juice for 3 or 4 hours.

My tip is to remain low key. Taunting feral Cats is to be avoided, particularly if we manage to hit the front at any stage.

Port and Crow supporters at Moron Park like to bate opposition supporters, but they don't hold a candle to a drunk hooligan in blue and white hoops.

So are you saying I shouldn't wear my t-shirt with the 2021 prelim score on it? Was also going to bring some tissues in case the players still have the sniffles from that game

Melbourne 19.11 (125) to Geelong 6.6 (42)

  On 31/03/2025 at 01:31, Fat Tony said:

Can't believe anyone would be advocating for TMac to be dropped. He has had a Wheelo player rating of 13.1 this season, which is 3rd in the side. He should play on Cameron this week. Petty or May need to be reassigned or dropped.

Petty needs to be traded to Adelaide for those couple of top draft picks...oh wait :(

De ja vu feeling

The game we lost by nearly 200 pts and ended the tenure of Dean Bailey RIP

Could be on the cards once again with Goodwin

  On 30/03/2025 at 23:28, M_9 said:

Just a word of advice to those going along Friday night. I live 20km from alphabet stadium but no way will I attend.

Night games can be especially dangerous as many locals have been on the juice for 3 or 4 hours.

My tip is to remain low key. Taunting feral Cats is to be avoided, particularly if we manage to hit the front at any stage.

Port and Crow supporters at Moron Park like to bate opposition supporters, but they don't hold a candle to a drunk hooligan in blue and white hoops.

Also worth noting that the train has a replacement coach service coming back to Melbourne - be prepared to leave just after 9pm or wait until after 11pm to get back to Southern Cross by 2am. Thanks VLine.

I thought we'd win the last two (against the Roos because we are a better side, on paper anyway, and then against the Suns because I thought we'd respond - we had to), and I think we'll lose to the Cats because they're playing well, and at home.

Which means we might/should win. Who knows?

There is some advantage to playing so poorly, it may just cause the oppo to seriously underestimate us, or snooze a little, provided we come out and play some good footy, of course. To be fair though, the Cats have been so good for so long because (aside from some other reasons, salary cap, home grounds etc), they have standards they maintain, and never really take oppo for granted - which we do, and have done a lot - caught napping etc). There is a consistency in their output.

I dunno. Our ins are good. Somewhat nearly full strength. We have a point to prove, but we had one last week, too.

I'm going to give this the kiss of death and say we win by 6 goals.

  On 29/03/2025 at 05:09, Jjrogan said:

Out: this absurb game plan of fast movement, handball chains and corridor with cringe worthy skills. Humiliation. Delusion that we can play this way.

In: contest defence, playing to the strengths of the playing list. winning by boredom. 4 points. respect.

Not going to happen so look away now.

I totally get this perspective.

However, it really captures the horns of a dilemma we find ourselves in as a club and a fan group.

The method you describe (one based on the tigers uber successful method) won us a flag in 2021 and made us extremely hard to beat in 2022 and 2023. The cats basically copied our approach to win the 2022 flag.

The success of that method resulted in McRae developing a game plan that would beat the zone defence our game plan was built on.

Mitchell, correctly reading where the game was going implemented similar method from the get-go at the hawks (and copped heaps when it translated into lots of big losses)

I think it fair to say it's universally accepted now the transition game is now the template for success. Which is where the horns of dilemma comes in:

• We can't win a flag with our old model

• To win a flag we need to adapt

History shows that implementing a new method is rarely an easy thing and usually involves lots of losses, not to mention frustration for fans (the pies are an interesting outlier).

We only need to look at our 2019 and 2021 seasons, particularly the former, for evidence of how hard it is to implement a new method (ironically, we went from a fast ball movement from the back half goody used in his first two seasons, to his D first zone defence system that won us a flag).

Edited March 31Mar 31 by binman

  On 31/03/2025 at 01:37, DubDee said:

Friday night footy.

Likely to be our only one and only for the year aside from maybe Collingwood in the last round.

  On 31/03/2025 at 03:02, binman said:

I totally get this perspective.

However it totally captures the horns of a dilemma we find yourself in.

The method you describe (one based on the tigers uber successful method) won us a flag amd made us extremely hard to heat in 2022 and 2023. The cats basically copied our approach to win the 2023 flag.

The success of that method lead mcrae to develop a game plan that wouldbeat the zone defence our game plan was built on.

Mitchell, correctly readingwhere the game was going implementeda similar method from the get go at the hawks (and copped heaps when it translated onto heaps of smashings)

I think it fair to say it's universally accepted now that the transition game is now the template for success.

Which is where the horns of dilemma comes in:

We can't win a flag with our old model.

To win a flag we need to adapt.

History shows that implementing a new method is rarely an easy thing, and usually involves lots of losses (the pies are an interesting outlier).

We only need to look at our 2019 and 2021 seasons, particularly the former, for evidence of how hard it is to implement a new method (ironically we went from a fast ball movement from the back half goody used in his first two seasons, to his d first zone defence system that won us a flag(.

yea, you're right of course. Just watching the same mistakes and turnovers week after week is very frustrating. We need to get a different midfield mix which is probably on the cards anyhow once everyone is available.

  On 31/03/2025 at 01:31, Fat Tony said:

Can't believe anyone would be advocating for TMac to be dropped. He has had a Wheelo player rating of 13.1 this season, which is 3rd in the side. He should play on Cameron this week. Petty or May need to be reassigned or dropped.

Pickett, Windsor, Lever and Turner must all come into the side.

Lindsay obviously out. I would drop Johnson, Fritsch and Howes. Petty to be sub or play forward.

Agree. Given his exception fitness, he is a great matchup for Cameron

  On 29/03/2025 at 05:48, Ungarieboy said:

Ironically I think this game may be our best chance for a win. We can't cope with speed through the midfield or out of the opposition backs!!!!

We can win but we have to be prepared to work just as hard when we don’t have the footy as we do when we have it. But the Cats do have speed in Holmes and Smith, not to mention others who are prepared to do the basics

1) Reference opponents at all times

2) Locate opponent on turnovers at speed and forwards defend the overlapping defender

3) Two way run

4) Block and get body on opponent around stoppages

5) Don’t all be bees to the honeypot and get balance right inside and outside the stoppage to prevent what has happened the last two weeks

6) Get some speed on the ball with our movement, whilst I understand this is a confidence thing as well back yourself to hit the first option and kick with some penetration

7) Stick tackles

8) Don’t burn teammate in better position

These are all things we can control, may not get us the win but do those things well it won’t be a blowout

Dear Footy Gods we could use some divine intervention this week; or place a curse on the entire Geelong FC.

  On 31/03/2025 at 03:02, binman said:

I totally get this perspective.

However it totally captures the horns of a dilemma we find yourself in.

The method you describe (one based on the tigers uber successful method) won us a flag amd made us extremely hard to heat in 2022 and 2023. The cats basically copied our approach to win the 2023 flag.

The success of that method lead mcrae to develop a game plan that wouldbeat the zone defence our game plan was built on.

Mitchell, correctly readingwhere the game was going implementeda similar method from the get go at the hawks (and copped heaps when it translated onto heaps of smashings)

I think it fair to say it's universally accepted now that the transition game is now the template for success.

Which is where the horns of dilemma comes in:

We can't win a flag with our old model.

To win a flag we need to adapt.

History shows that implementing a new method is rarely an easy thing, and usually involves lots of losses (the pies are an interesting outlier).

We only need to look at our 2019 and 2021 seasons, particularly the former, for evidence of how hard it is to implement a new method (ironically we went from a fast ball movement from the back half goody used in his first two seasons, to his d first zone defence system that won us a flag(.

Well encapsulated of what the problem is.

Given that… can we have 3 terrible kicks playing in the midfield together given the skillset needed for the game plan ? I can’t see Tracc/Oliver/Viney staying together personally, but I could be wrong. I get that they’re out of form, but considering they are primed for first possessions and also placed to kick into our F50, and transition plays from the opposition back half is the current method of winning, it seems untenable to continue not having a skilled kick in the middle?

  On 31/03/2025 at 04:29, BoBo said:

Well encapsulated of what the problem is.

Given that… can we have 3 terrible kicks playing in the midfield together given the skillset needed for the game plan ? I can’t see Tracc/Oliver/Viney staying together personally, but I could be wrong. I get that they’re out of form, but considering they are primed for first possessions and also placed to kick into our F50, and transition plays from the opposition back half is the current method of winning, it seems untenable to continue not having a skilled kick in the middle?

The old gameplan had balls yeeted into the F50 and even if we didn't have the mark, we'd bring the ball down to ground for the small forwards.

But last few weeks we've just been kicking to 2 on 1s and giving them intercept marks. Will improve with Turner in the team knocking it down to Kozzie.

Pity we can't put AJs aggression into Fullarton.

  On 31/03/2025 at 03:02, binman said:

I totally get this perspective.

However, it really captures the horns of a dilemma we find ourselves in as a club and a fan group.

The method you describe (one based on the tigers uber successful method) won us a flag in 2021 and made us extremely hard to beat in 2022 and 2023. The cats basically copied our approach to win the 2022 flag.

The success of that method resulted in McRae developing a game plan that would beat the zone defence our game plan was built on.

Mitchell, correctly reading where the game was going implemented similar method from the get-go at the hawks (and copped heaps when it translated into lots of big losses)

I think it fair to say it's universally accepted now the transition game is now the template for success. Which is where the horns of dilemma comes in:

• We can't win a flag with our old model

• To win a flag we need to adapt

History shows that implementing a new method is rarely an easy thing and usually involves lots of losses, not to mention frustration for fans (the pies are an interesting outlier).

We only need to look at our 2019 and 2021 seasons, particularly the former, for evidence of how hard it is to implement a new method (ironically, we went from a fast ball movement from the back half goody used in his first two seasons, to his D first zone defence system that won us a flag).

I fully understand the need to change plans. However I don’t understand how our contest game has collapsed. We’re getting smashed at clearance. On top of that during the first quarter on Saturday we had multiple forward entries that fell down because of poor skills. We’re currently over thinking everything, the players look clunky, apprehensive and confused. I’m going to give them another 6-8 weeks to show something. After that I’d like to see some results. It also really irks me that we’re playing soccer at training. There’s not a player on our list who couldn’t work on their skills. Also please stop playing Billing’s.