3 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Of course it’s on the Coaches, it’s been the same return for 3 seasons

Do you mean we should have recruited better goal kickers?

Fritsch missed 2 gimmes. thats on him, not the coaches.

Edited Saturday at 08:041 day by BDA

1 hour ago, dees189227 said:

Game was lost at selection.

Why did melksham need to be rested?

Surely would have offered more than fritsch, van rooyen or Jefferson

At a pre match function Brad said he was rested due to hammy soreness.

The didn’t want to risk him seriously injuring his hammy and being out for 6 weeks

4 minutes ago, old dee said:

Binman! Do you now see where my negative attitude s stems from? Your two CPF's had blinders again. Sorry but I could not help myself. To all those who think we have a good team need to open their eyes. We need at minimum a 2 year rebuild of our forward line. Jefferson, JVR and Fullerton will not take us into finals ever.

Clearly I’m typing with eyes closed. We were the better team.

JVR looks everything he should be, just can’t break out. I see it as just a matter of time and when he does, it will stick.

Oliver has a journey back but I believe in him 1000%, just hope it’s with us. Trac, Gawn. Gods. The youth are incredible, Lindsay was excellent, Langford sublime. Windsor set himself a high standard. Kolt should’ve started. There’s a lot of improvement from McVee. Fritch was playing on Sicily which is no small task, thought he did ok.

Honestly, it seems like a team that should be contending. That’s my frustration, the chemistry isn’t chemisting.

51 minutes ago, DeeMee said:

Well I was going to try and be clever and relate it to “The Journey” but decided the most flagrantly bad umpiring decision I’ve seen in 50 years said it all. Not why we lost obviously but I truly can’t understand the umpiring.

Kossie legged in the goal square and no free??

I know he's probably missing lever, but what an earth has happened to may?

Crucial maggot free kicks to them and to us, when we were no where near goal, or when they were.

And they know.

Pickett had to do something extraordinary to obtain a token free kick. Convinced me that they are all biased, not just cheats, but vengeful and getting instruction.

1 minute ago, dees189227 said:

I know he's probably missing lever, but what an earth has happened to may?

Aging plus a multitude of injuries

I reckon he’s still comfortably one of the better key defenders in the game, but he’s not at his peak anymore.

Very few players can be as good as Gawn at this age.

21 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Today was still a fair bit of long down the line but it came with some switching and prodding and creativity at times too.

We were also playing the best outside running side, why would you try to take Hawthorn on at their own game?

Adapting back to a more contest and skinnier style was logical. And we created enough scoring chances that we could’ve been up 75-50 at 3/4.

The plan was good. The ball movement around the back and middle fine. The ball movement inside 50 was ugiy. The finishing diabolical.

It was a good balance of long down the line to Max and switching with a willingness for uncontested possession (to the chargin of some Hawthorn supporting nuffies), and cutting back into the corridor.

38 minutes ago, pitmaster said:

I should have mentioned that as invisible as JvR was in the forward line, he was terrific in the ruck and won most of his contests. It's a shame because I want him marking in front of goal. He had two chances at FF and blew them both then marked strongly in defence, 120 metres from goal.

We had nothing from Jeffo who I have not seen much of but I can understand the doubters on that showing.

Until those big forwards start holding two or three marks a game and convert we are going to struggle. When Lever returns Turner should go forward. Strong mark and beautiful kick. But until then it's grim times.

At a club function today Lever David he might play half a game at Casey next week.

Windsor is wasted off HB. I’d look to play him as a High Half forward running up and back will give us some speed on shotgun.

25 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

We are playing a completely different game style than 2021-2023 and most of 2024.

Goalkicking accuracy is a completely different problem to game style.

No it isn’t. They all have to be in synch

Multiple entries for no reward

It all adds up

1 minute ago, GS_1905 said:

Windsor is wasted off HB. I’d look to play him as a High Half forward running up and back will give us some speed on shotgun.

Half back flankers are some of the most important players in the modern game now.

Windsor has elite speed and skills, and is exactly the sort of player you want starting your attack from half back.

It makes perfect sense to play him in that role, especially with Lindsay and Langford now both playing the wing role so well.

6 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

It was a good balance of long down the line to Max and switching with a willingness for uncontested possession (to the chargin of some Hawthorn supporting nuffies), and cutting back into the corridor.

Although we didn’t cut much in the corridor and when we did it was stop and start. Defensive half turnovers have to move quickly and that requires the whole team to be on the same page and spreading to the right locations. If you have that the final piece is having skills to weave it lol together.

1 hour ago, RedLegs23 said:

You could’ve wrote the script for how that was going to end. Nice 3Qtrs but you knew the missed opportunities were going to come back to bite us in the [censored]. Everyone knew that & it played to script just perfectly.

List of liabilities are as follows:

JVR - there’s nothing that he can do at the moment that is right. Nothing!

Clarry - mentally it’s all over im afraid. No longer elite in close, nor damaging by hand like he once was. Always behind his direct opponent & is clearly unfit.

Fritsch - struts around in 1st gear without a care in the world. Work off the ball & team first approach is putrid.

Kozz was half invested today. That Freo game was a little while back now brother. Lacking consistency.

Langford & Lindsay - future is in good hands. Love em.

Honestly you two, what is it that you see in Jeffo @adonski @picket fence ??? Like seriously & respectfully.

This is what happens when you pick a player out of form. Jeffo had NO FORM at all in the lead in so why pick him?? Its not his fault but the selectors have BIG questions to answer on this front!!

Hawthorn’s last quarter dominance rendered our countless blown opportunities and the Kozzie umpiring debacle irrelevant.

Today 100% confirms that we simply don’t have the requisite AFL fitness to play out a game, specifically against quality oppo.

And hawthorn were gettable today. 7 absolute best 22 out today and they played like they were gettable throughout a lot of the game.

Edited Saturday at 08:091 day by Bring-Back-Powell

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Half back flankers are some of the most important players in the modern game now.

Windsor has elite speed and skills, and is exactly the sort of player you want starting your attack from half back.

It makes perfect sense to play him in that role, especially with Lindsay and Langford now both playing the wing role so well.

Yep, I hope we add another 2 first rounders this year to go with Lindsay, Langford and Windsor.

23 minutes ago, BDA said:

Do you mean we should have recruited better goal kickers?

Fritsch missed 2 gimmes. thats on him, not the coaches.

Betcha he still gets picked next week on his 4 possession game! Disgrace!

Just now, picket fence said:

Betcha he still gets picked next week on his 4 possession game! Disgrace!

Views on Jeffo's game too, please, Picket?

1 minute ago, Adam The God said:

Views on Jeffo's game too, please, Picket?

Should NEVER have played today, he had NO form at all so why did they play him??? How to ruin a player was evident today!

2 hours ago, layzie said:

Came to play, executed the plan quite well I thought. Matched them in most areas.

But 7.14 doesn't win you games

But what was with all the fumbles, dropped balls,slipping over etc? It looked like we were playing on an ice rink with a bar of wet soap at times. Can't fault the endeavour or even the structure but the execution killed us.

3 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Should NEVER have played today, he had NO form at all so why did they play him??? How to ruin a player was evident today!

When did Jeffo come off? Late in the 3rd? I reckon Jeffo helped our structure a little.

FWIW, I moved to Brissy in 2017 and watched Hipwood play week after week… He went from an amusement to a grand final player and could have another medal around his neck by years end. He’s no superstar but plays a role. Persistence has helped him.

I don’t know about you lot but that hurt. We had them on toast and played some great footy. This year becomes all about next year.

2 hours ago, William said:

JVR should never be selected again and delisted/traded although I doubt we would get much from the trade. Some have said that he should be tried as a defender. The problem is that he is too lumbering and cannot change direction at the pace required.

And as I have indicated before, the narrative that he is just 'out of form' or 'lacking confidence' is avoiding the issue. His running patterns are terrible, he cannot take marks and often is jogging on his own with back to play and trying to work out what is what. That is more than 'out of form'.

It's almost as though we need a proper forwards coach to teach him how to play key forward.

One thing, McVee needs to learn to take body at times. It cost us 3 goals today

Just back at The Manor.

We squandered our chances today and that cost us ....... but ...... [censored] ..... that was some of the worst umpiring I have ever seen.

On a positive, our crop of recent draftees are fantastic!