10 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

I think @Meggs does this (?)

It’s difficult to write up a report when you’re a cheer squad member; as with the men’s, I spend a lot of game time apologising to folks for almost taking their eye out with my flag or concussing them with my flagpole 😁

Thanks Ghostwriter I will check it out.

On 16/08/2025 at 18:55, Dave1711 said:

  On 16/08/2025 at 18:51, The heart beats true said:

Bruest swapping jumpers with Koz is class.

I hope Picket is going to pay for the jumper or he can bloody well go and get it back.

Onya Bluey! Funniest poster on this site without doubt.

On 16/08/2025 at 19:05, DoubleH said:

Never play May again ffs

Its the plan

19 minutes ago, Deez21 said:

Its the plan

Who’s plan?

7 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Who’s plan?

Melbourne's

1 minute ago, Deez21 said:

Melbourne's

So the club without a coach is planning to not play May, despite signing him to a one year deal earlier this season?

Who is making that call?

6 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This has mountain and molehill vibes all over it.

Trac and Clarry are 11th and 12th in the league for CPs. They have more than Libba, Neale, Newcombe, Brayshaw, Dunkley, Butters, Dawson, and of course about 600 others. The gap is such that, across the season, Clarry averages 1 CP fewer than Gawn per game, and Trac 2. Is this really an issue?

IMO, Gawn dominates this stat because he’s a legend of the game. Indeed, it’s arguable that for Trac and Clarry to have had as much as they have had despite Gawn’s dominance is a testament to how good they are in this area.

Also because he takes a heap of contested marks and gets his fair share of free kicks, both of which count towards this stat.

11 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

So the club without a coach is planning to not play May, despite signing him to a one year deal earlier this season?

Who is making that call?

1.Clubs often make decisions like this before coaches begin. It's part of the process.
2. May will ask to leave regardless of the coach
3. It's not a footballing decision with May, you will lose more players by keeping him. KB was the final straw

The only issue is finding a suitor, playing him against Hawthorn won't help that

28 minutes ago, Deez21 said:

1.Clubs often make decisions like this before coaches begin. It's part of the process.
2. May will ask to leave regardless of the coach
3. It's not a footballing decision with May, you will lose more players by keeping him. KB was the final straw

The only issue is finding a suitor, playing him against Hawthorn won't help that

May has been poor all year, he looks unfit and is clearly lacking confidence in both his body and his ability. It would be better for both player and club if they go their separate ways at year end.

I said early last year that we needed to have May's replacement ready to go by the end of 2025. Unfortunately Goodwin was too busy trying to save his job that he wouldn't move past May and Lever.

Now we enter 2026 with a massively inconsistent Turner as our number one defender, unless we are prepared to send Petty back.

On 17/08/2025 at 00:10, Dee Zephyr said:

The top 6 for contested possessions with a round to go.

1. Serong 299

2. Tom Greene 297

3. Gawn 284

4. Rowell 277

5. Cripps 277

6. Hewett 274

A Hawthorn fan near me kept yelling out about Gawn getting "cheap touches" and being "no good"

I was losing my mind.

We were beaten by a much better team who are real chance of winning the flag with a game plan and players that expose our key weaknesses, namely our propenity to turn the ball over, difficulty defending turnover, woeful centre square and around the ground stoppages syrictures and sub optimal aerobic fitness, leg speed and running power.

And in addition to that we were poor in the first quarter, particularly defensively (our all defence was horrible) and were down almost 5 goals at the quarter time break (poor first quarters has been such a trend this season that there must be something we're not getting right with our preparation)

Before the Roos-Goody era that game was the perfect recipie for a 10 plus goal blow out - butt end of a disappointing season, young players tired, key defender cooked (should have May played), the second game after the dead cat sacked coach bounce, a 6 to 9 day break and coming up against a team sharpening their talons for finals who came to play (their pressure in the first quarter was formidable).

Personally, watching the game i thought after quarter our effort and spirit was good (and our effort was reasonable in the first quarter- it was more that our skills were terrible and our defensivestructures were a mess) and kudos to the boys for playing the game right out and never dropping their head.

The stats most relevant to assessing effort and intent - contest, tackles and pressure support my sesnse watching the game that our effort was good (and that the Hawks didn't drop their effort all game)

• Plus one for contested possessions (143 to 142)

• Plus seven for Post Clearance Ground Ball Gets (71 to 64)

• Plus 13 for tackles (68 - 55, though of course we were chasing tail for much of the day)

• Pressure of 183 fir the match would be in our top 6 ot 7 for the season (by way of contrast it was 171 v the dogs and 183 v the Eagles)

Team pressure

Quarter	For	Agn	Diff
1	173	203	-30
2	182	165	+17
3	187	179	+8
4	190	191	-1
Match	183	184	-1

18 hours ago, binman said:

Not to mention completely cooked.

The curious thing was how long Chaplin took to change tge match up.

Though it has to be said Howes was no better. Couldn't believe the space he gave Gunston.

All that said neither May or Howes were helped out by the woeful pressure we applied to the kickers spotting up Gunston or the fact we couldn't get back on turnover and transtion and block his leading lanes.

Howes was defenitely tighter than May but was still too loose.

The other thing was the trial of Bowey in the forward line threw out the backline. I can see why they were experimenting but I am glad they reverted.

Fritta saves his best for Hawthorn:

Round 9 - 4 disposals/0 marks/0 goals

Round 23 - 8 disposals/1 mark/0 goals/0 score involvements.

How is it possible that a forward can literally have not one involvement in a score for the entire game?

Edited August 17Aug 17 by Bring-Back-Powell

1 hour ago, poita said:

May has been poor all year, he looks unfit and is clearly lacking confidence in both his body and his ability. It would be better for both player and club if they go their separate ways at year end.

I said early last year that we needed to have May's replacement ready to go by the end of 2025. Unfortunately Goodwin was too busy trying to save his job that he wouldn't move past May and Lever.

Now we enter 2026 with a massively inconsistent Turner as our number one defender, unless we are prepared to send Petty back.

Petty Lever McDonald Turner Adams Derksen

I'd say we should be rather prioritizing a Key forward or speedy midfielder

21 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

100% agreed.

It’s not unprecedented and we wouldn’t be the first bottom 4/5 side to lose a couple of close games to good teams.

I reckon we’re miles off being a top 8 team next year.

That doesn't stack up. We have had 5 losses under 10 points (coll, GWS, Dogs, StK, Carl). Should have beaten Ess and North (and St Kilda twice!). That makes us competitive with finals teams.

The players are clueless about game plan, particularly with ball in hand. Watch the game on the weekend. The number of times we had players take a mark and then go backwards despite having a player up the field in a decent position was infuriating. We consistently bomb the ball to contests in the pockets. There is so much wrong with our game plan.

Their brains are fried trying to implement Simon's game plan.

A new coach will change the dynamic and free them up significantly.

We still have 15 premiership players on the list. They're not total spuds. They are totally bereft of confidence and instinct.

A new voice is exactly what we need.

17 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This has mountain and molehill vibes all over it.

Trac and Clarry are 11th and 12th in the league for CPs. They have more than Libba, Neale, Newcombe, Brayshaw, Dunkley, Butters, Dawson, and of course about 600 others. The gap is such that, across the season, Clarry averages 1 CP fewer than Gawn per game, and Trac 2. Is this really an issue?

IMO, Gawn dominates this stat because he’s a legend of the game. Indeed, it’s arguable that for Trac and Clarry to have had as much as they have had despite Gawn’s dominance is a testament to how good they are in this area.

CPs aren't the stat they used to be. Post clearance possession is more important.

And i50s don't mean squat anymore. The Pies won the i50 count by 34 (!!!) against the Crows - although it helps when you are allowed the throw the ball to your teammate.

Have a look at how fast Hawthorn transitioned the ball against us. We were better in the last 3 qtrs but they cut us with their precise kicking and sticking their tackles. Something we don't seem to be able to do. I really do hate their smugness and will be happy to see them fall flat in finals.

12 minutes ago, nextskipclaz said:

You think it’s ‘new Age’ to consider that why something isn’t working in a team or individual is above all else psychological?

Good lord. Are you saying this whole thing isn't a bit?

1 hour ago, jnrmac said:

That doesn't stack up. We have had 5 losses under 10 points (coll, GWS, Dogs, StK, Carl). Should have beaten Ess and North (and St Kilda twice!). That makes us competitive with finals teams.

I tried to justify that we're not far off due to all those close losses.

But the fact is when the game is on the line, we are continually found wanting and the opposition's gun players always rise above ours without fail - whether it be against a Collingwood or Dogs or a Carlton or St Kilda. The only game we dug in this year was against Brisbane and that was a complete anomaly. (technically against Freo too but that was a real fall over the line operation)

You also look at the overall product that was dished up against Hawthorn, particulalry our abhorrent skill level, and you see a team that's nowhere near it. The eye test will tell you this.

I've no idea if a coach can fix all of this, but at the moment we appear to be a genuine bottom 4 side heading into next year.

Edited August 18Aug 18 by Bring-Back-Powell

15 hours ago, Deez21 said:

Its the plan

I don’t doubt your mail @Deez21 but why did we extend him to 2026 earlier this year then?

Our first quarter and tackling all day was pathetic. We need a week on the tackling bags. Do that against the pies and it will be a disgraceful end to the season, and its all attitude to at least turn up !!

4 hours ago, Deez21 said:

1.Clubs often make decisions like this before coaches begin. It's part of the process.
2. May will ask to leave regardless of the coach
3. It's not a footballing decision with May, you will lose more players by keeping him. KB was the final straw

The only issue is finding a suitor, playing him against Hawthorn won't help that

I am not doubting your info, but if the decision has been made to move May on, then why the [censored] is Petty still playing forward?

Petty is the very very obvious ready made replacement for May. If we wanted to keep playing May for 'currency', we could play Petty instead of Tmac.

This reeks of poor planning by our club. Not that that shocks me.

40 minutes ago, demoncat said:

I don’t doubt your mail @Deez21 but why did we extend him to 2026 earlier this year then?

Goodwin was all in and May was a key part of it

KB changed a lot, Gawn defended him in public because that what good captains do but behind the scenes he was filthy

46 minutes ago, demoncat said:

I don’t doubt your mail @Deez21 but why did we extend him to 2026 earlier this year then?

Seems a little odd - IF he is wanting to go, what contenders are after him on a short-term deal key back?
Not a contender, but North makes sense for 2 years - but doubt he'd want to go a struggling team.

Happy for May to go as long as we keep T Mac.

May's game on the weekend was one of the poorest MFC's performances I've seen from a senior player in recent years.

And his game before that he allowed a woefully out of form Charlie Curnow to kick 2 quick first quarter goals to set the tone for Carlton.