I think a few players went into this game way too confidently.

Perhaps arrogant.

Kozzies first kick at goal an example maybe.

And why not. We had only two weeks earlier knocked off the reigning premiers and then demolished the Swans.

But we need to remember we lost our first five. And while our best beats the best, our worst has us beaten by North.

So we clearly didn't bring our best. Despite our poor play we still should of won which makes this loss even worse.

I expect a big response against the Pies but it may be too late.

That five zip factor may be too hard to overcome. Especially when you drop games you are supposed to win.

We will still be vying for the eight but I don't think we will make it. In fact it's probably set as it is. A glimmer of hope if we beat the pies I suppose.

3 hours ago, BDA said:

I'm still annoyed about yesterday but life goes on

I'll be focussing on the development of our youngsters for the rest of the year

give bill Laurie a block of games. see what he's made of.

I'd like to see Adams also

I'm one of the more optimistic on here I think, but I just don't see it with Laurie. He has enough experience to know coming off fresh is such an advantage to provide some drive for us and he gave us nothing. I'm convinced he wont make it. I'd rather try a Sestan, Henderson, Brown or Culley.

While the cats, pies, & lions attract quality experienced players as trade in vfl players

10 hours ago, Harvey Wallbanger said:

Didn't get above 20 degrees.

Ok.

As mentioned, sick at the moment and everything probably looks 40 degrees right now.

I'm still getting over the fact that I received a reminder from the MFC during that last quarter that my automatic debit would be taken out this week. Salt, wounds, friction?

Mondays are infinitely better after a win.

No bueno

1 hour ago, Previously known as LITD. said:

That's partly why it continues. Not acknowledging it enough.

Saints played better but we still should have won.

Strange game.

But stranger still, that our goal kicking has been an issue for years. Maybe Max doesn't bring it up because he is probably the main offender.

Credit to Tracca for kicking well but Max looks worried as soon as he lines up. And as mentioned doesn't look where he wants the ball to go.

That last goal by Tracc was a set shot dead in front from about 25metres out. It missed the right hand goal post by a foot or so and wobbled through.

As mentioned above, there seems to be no recognition of our faults and systematic attempt to improve our methods.

So sick of seeing the social media posts of players curling it in from the boundary when the whole team is shizen with set shots in front of goal.

They should be putting serious hours and effort into kicking skills.

How can players even talk about Gawn moving forward more often as he gets closer to retirement when he can't execute in front of goal with simple set shots.

Ever since we kicked ourselves out of those finals and nothing seems to have been done since. It's quite sickening.

After the Geelong game I made a promise to myself to stay relaxed during games, given I threw the toys out of the cot in that last quarter.

The bombers game I laughed every time we missed a kick or gave up an easy goal. Even during out capitulation in the last quarter v the hawks, I was relaxed and just accepted that we are not quite good enough yet.

Well I'm ashamed to say that I relapsed yesterday. After watching behind after behind after behind, I lost my sh** and went full angry supporter mode...

14 hours ago, Kev said:

What was that welcome to country about?

No English words about past, present and future elders, the welcome seemed to mention Melbourne and St.Kilda. I heard the words free and safe, reconciliation, rights and wrongs, trust justice, historical story.

Was it a political statement about policing, rights of first nations, and the onus on others to acknowledge the wars and atrocities?

Were the Dee's up there on holidays. From the pre-game story, they showed more joy and enthusiasm for the community interactions then the game.

To kick those apparently easy goals, you just need to be switched on. No discipline, will or concentration, heads must have been in other places.

Missing easy ones deflates those who worked hard to create the opportunities.

It's Reconciliation Week. Call me old fashioned, but I reckon an Indigenous elder from Alice Springs is allowed to make a statement in their language for the local community on the subject of reconciliation.

13 hours ago, Nasher said:

I know. He focused on the real issue, which was the fact that we had no control over the game whatsoever in the first quarter. I think that’s more what will be focused on during the review.

I was just poking fun at the couple of posters wanting to write letters to the club, seemingly thinking the club was unaware and required feedback that missing goals is bad.

I may be wrong but I feel we were under control the first 10 or so minutes. Then Milkshake and Kozzy proceeded to butcher two easy shots at goal.

I think if we put the score 20 - 0 or similar in that initial part of the match, things could have developed differently.

3 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

I may be wrong but I feel we were under control the first 10 or so minutes. Then Milkshake and Kozzy proceeded to butcher two easy shots at goal.

I think if we put the score 20 - 0 or similar in that initial part of the match, things could have developed differently.

Completely agree. Momentum is real and we went out of our way to destroy it, and rolled the red carpet for the Saints to enter the game.

We have seen enough from Johnson and Laurie to know they are not AFL level players. Johnson is a hopeless kick and Laurie is not athletic enough for his size. It is time to stamp their papers.

Windsor is not the distributor we need in the back half because he is not a good enough kick. Time to get him into the middle because other than his lack of size, he has the tools to be a good inside midfielder. I think Rivers should go back.

Lever looked to be struggling with agility and pulled up lame in the last quarter against the Swans. He needs to be tested more thoroughly (no trusted) because the gap in quality between TMac and Lever is negligible. (TMac should play anyway as a forward if necessary.)

Kynan Brown has the speed/endurance to be given more AFL exposure.

The biggest problem with our list is that May, Lever, Turner, Petty, TMac and JVR would all be better defenders than forwards at AFL level.

Wanganeen-Milera got a lot of his possessions because we missed our shots at goal.

27 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

We have seen enough from Johnson and Laurie to know they are not AFL level players. Johnson is a hopeless kick and Laurie is not athletic enough for his size. It is time to stamp their papers.

Windsor is not the distributor we need in the back half because he is not a good enough kick. Time to get him into the middle because other than his lack of size, he has the tools to be a good inside midfielder. I think Rivers should go back.

Lever looked to be struggling with agility and pulled up lame in the last quarter against the Swans. He needs to be tested more thoroughly (no trusted) because the gap in quality between TMac and Lever is negligible. (TMac should play anyway as a forward if necessary.)

Kynan Brown has the speed/endurance to be given more AFL exposure.

The biggest problem with our list is that May, Lever, Turner, Petty, TMac and JVR would all be better defenders than forwards at AFL level.

Wanganeen-Milera got a lot of his possessions because we missed our shots at goal.

I have great misgivings playing Petts fwd. He's not really strong enough. Id prefer Turner or even Tmac despite his objections.

1 hour ago, Previously known as LITD. said:

Perhaps arrogant.

Kozzies first kick at goal an example maybe.

Yep, the rot set in and the saints kicked 5 or 6 straight. Hardly anyone was switched on.

4 minutes ago, Previously known as LITD. said:

I have great misgivings playing Petts fwd. He's not really strong enough. Id prefer Turner or even Tmac despite his objections.

They all have weaknesses as forwards. Clearly recruiting AFL defenders is much easier than AFL forwards because the role is much easier.

Personally, I think Petty needs to be played forward because our backline is too slow with May and Petty back together. (But there is no clear solution.)

13 hours ago, bing181 said:

Not that I want to get into the loading debate here either, but you're also missing the key part which is the rest/unloading prior to the loading phase, without which you don't have the freshness to cope with the excess loads. You can't just add extra load onto footballers knocking themselves out every weekend and where the main focus is recovery, recovery and then more recovery.

We’ll agree to disagree.

The reason that loading causes fatigue is exactly the reason you have stated that it can’t be done.

You add extra load to create new adaptations for future benefit.

At the time of the announcement I really liked what Ross Lyon and St Kilda did with respect to the conclusion of selling home games, and I like it even more now.

St Kilda last year received $3 million more of AFL distribution than Melbourne did. Nathan Buckley, who knows a thing or two about the inner runnings of the AFL, suggested that the shortfall of NT sponsorship dollars that we would concede if we stopped the arrangement would be mostly or fully recouped in increased AFL distribution like St Kilda have received as a result of them not selling a game.

The venue, city and occasion clearly does not work for us. The proof is in the pudding that Goodwin can’t motivate the players for this annual fixture, the players lose focus after kicking the opening 1 or 2 goals of the game (same thing happened against Freo last year), the dimensions for some reason don’t suit our game plan and the opposition seem to always bring their best footy. We’re also incredibly inaccurate.

I hope our new CEO Guerra seriously considers a move out of Alice Springs and either forges a new home away from home where we can foster a genuine competitive advantage like Hawthorn do in Launceston, or we bring that 11th home game to Marvel (clearly it won’t be the MCG).

It’s wonderful that we receive $1 million for a fixture that has sunk our 2024 season and and has probably also sunk our 2025 season.

15 hours ago, Adam The God said:

No one was tagging Oliver.

To half time he had 6 disposals. 5 of them were uncontested and 1 contested. He had 3 goals assists and 4 score involvements to half time.

He couldn't break from stoppage, that was the problem.

Actually, Zak Jones had the tagging job on Clarry. Managed 20 disposals as well

3 minutes ago, Bring Back Barassi said:

Actually, Zak Jones had the tagging job on Clarry. Managed 20 disposals as well

It was very clear cut. Even two separate articles from the Age and Herald Sun noted this. It was also evident just from watching the game.

19 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

At the time of the announcement I really liked what Ross Lyon and St Kilda did with respect to the conclusion of selling home games, and I like it even more now.

St Kilda last year received $3 million more of AFL distribution than Melbourne did. Nathan Buckley, who knows a thing or two about the inner runnings of the AFL, suggested that the shortfall of NT sponsorship dollars that we would concede if we stopped the arrangement would be mostly or fully recouped in increased AFL distribution like St Kilda have received as a result of them not selling a game.

The venue, city and occasion clearly does not work for us. The proof is in the pudding that Goodwin can’t motivate the players for this annual fixture, the players lose focus after kicking the opening 1 or 2 goals of the game (same thing happened against Freo last year), the dimensions for some reason don’t suit our game plan and the opposition seem to always bring their best footy. We’re also incredibly inaccurate.

I hope our new CEO Guerra seriously considers a move out of Alice Springs and either forges a new home away from home where we can foster a genuine competitive advantage like Hawthorn do in Launceston, or we bring that 11th home game to Marvel (clearly it won’t be the MCG).

It’s wonderful that we receive $1 million for a fixture that has sunk our 2024 season and and has probably also sunk our 2025 season.

Totally agree, I’m all for supporting the community, have all star indigenous v the Dees preseason game lie Freo did

11 minutes ago, Abyssal said:

I think it is more a case of us regularly getting the ball into a very, very congested F50.

No only does it make it much more difficult to get quality possessions/ shots at goal, we get burnt on the counter attack when the opposition win the ball and transition it into an open forward line.

While we’re focused on just getting the ball into F50, the better clubs/coaches are happy to set us up for this eventuality.

Footballs version of “Rope-a-Dope”.

17 hours ago, Gawnhub said:

With the expected score being 82.7 v 81.8 barely in our favour, inside 50’s 57 to 40 and marks inside 50 14 to 10 in our favour, this tells me we are not getting the ball to the right places inside 50. Saints also had far more kicks and marks than us, which might look like they work harder for inside 50’s and goals, but I think it tells me that they are more careful and use shorter kicks to get it to the best places to score inside 50.

Is there any other way to read these stats?

Agreed @Abyssal Another simpler way to state my point is that our expected score was for an extra 3 goals, so still would have us kicking 10.18.

1 hour ago, Adina88 said:

It's Reconciliation Week. Call me old fashioned, but I reckon an Indigenous elder from Alice Springs is allowed to make a statement in their language for the local community on the subject of reconciliation.

But I thought a translation would be good, so that those with the entitlement associated with being a coloniser would be part of the dialogue.

If they cannot bring us along with them, then the divisions will remain. Is reconciliation one sided?

I have been to reconciliation marches and find that a culture that is allegedly one I am of is regularly attacked by the other side. I don't mind the attacks being part of invasion day, but reconciliation week!

At least I know now that it was about reconciliation. The Australian Parliament passed the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation Act 1991 and the first March was in 2000. Not so much as old fashion, but an important and critical stage that is present now. The first nations still have a large gap in how they are treated, outcomes and their potential. Sovereignty soon, I hope.

Can you give me a rough translation of the speech, to show me that reconciliation was the focus and not blaming and shaming?

The killing of the young Warlpiri man has been a divice of politics, justice and accussations, in Alice and in the media. I would like to think that this issue wasn't in a "Welcome to Country".

Edited Monday at 02:452 days by Kev

Can anyone tell me who was on Baker when he kicked 4 goals?

4 minutes ago, Fritta and Turner said:

Can anyone tell me who was on Baker when he kicked 4 goals?

Windsor. For at least some of them

Needs to continue to work on his defensive game and positioning

24 Hours later I like to comment;

7.21 sums it up combine with the lowest pressure rating in the last quarter for the year (Maybe longer)

Insipid basic skill of goal kicking hasn't been fixed since it costs us massively in the 2023 finals series (Yes also before then).

The stage was set with Kozzie's first super lay shot on goal that didn't even make it. Once we did take control, we couldn't find good targets inside 50 and when we finally did, couldn't kick straight (allowing for the wind). Mentally we weren't there.

Would a more sheltered MCG been better? Based upon history, only marginally.

The season is not done, but now they need to win the games we didn't expect them to be favourites in. The response next week will show where they are mentally to compete.