1 hour ago, Bates Mate said:

I enjoyed the game apart from the result. The dare and dash that got us ahead in the 3rd disappeared in the last when things got tight.

Unfortunately our so called best players lack the skill and composure that is needed to be successful in today's game and when the pressure builds we revert to type while teams like Collingwood have players that don't panic and execute when needed to win. Harvey Langford showed he is the future tonight and has both skill and composure our senior players lack

We have so few players that seem to have an instinct for the goals, it's actually the opposite our players seem to freeze up and want to hand it off instead of taking the opportunity to score. So many instances in the last quarter alone, it's truly baffling.

2 hours ago, Doug Reemer said:

It’s like it’s like constantly being friend zoned by that chick you really want to sleep with.

I'm sure we've all been there at some point in our lives 😅😅😅

I do not want to hear anything about Steven may until r1 2026. Unless he's retiring or he new coach doesn't want him then I just want him to put his head down & get better because he's been horrible.

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

What was wrong with the "body slam"?

Pickett had a free against him for a similar tackle on Quaynor

I thought we played pretty well tonight. Bring on 2026

1 hour ago, The Cult of Disco Turner said:

Well, all here are welcome to get behind my Green Bay Packers (a similarly historic club owned by the fans playing at a similarly historic stadium) as the NFL season starts.

**disclaimer, they will also repeatedly rip your soul out and disappoint you year after year

You reckon the Packers let you down try following the Jets

1 hour ago, RyanD said:

Been saying this for 2 years! Ed Langdon sums up what our team has been for the last 3 years. Effort but no end product. The amount of times that guy kicks it out on the full is beyond words. Last week he had10 direct clangers, the next closest of anyone in both sides was 6.

When it mattered most, Langdon kicked it out on the full, rivers point, trac point, Gawn on the full. The only thing missing is Oliver kicking a point lol.

Oliver missed his sitter at halftime

2 hours ago, praha said:

Let's look at this game in isolation.

It showed how both Petracca and Oliver are built for high pressure, finals like matches. I am back and forth on whether we keep both. But boy do they love games like this.

Salem, Bowey and May all had good games. May bounced back after a shocking start.

I am super impressed by this performance tonight. We bloody took it to them. Pies had more to play for.

Langford is a gun.

I am bullish on what this squad can do. I hope it doesn't break up too much.

We should be playing finals. We're not.

Reboot. Get a new coach in.

And then do to Collingwood in finals what we did to Geelong in 2021.

Like you praha, I was upbeat after this game. Our future coach must have been able to see what our boys can do and will be confident of a great 2026. Sadly, we have a lot of sad sacks on this forum who can only see the bad and not the good. A bit of positivity would be great. Go Demons 2026.

Playing the same dumb bombing style which has haunted us for 3 seasons , cost us finals even possibly a flag! It’s as if it’s programmed in their heads, pies should say thanks to our dumb players!

Hope the new coach can somehow reprogram their brains In particular our leaders who lead in the bombing

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Demonsone

8 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie 2 said:

Like you praha, I was upbeat after this game. Our future coach must have been able to see what our boys can do and will be confident of a great 2026. Sadly, we have a lot of sad sacks on this forum who can only see the bad and not the good. A bit of positivity would be great. Go Demons 2026.

It was practically a carbon copy of the GWS game in Round 1.

We have to learn how to win close games and know when and when not to flick the switch.

1 hour ago, RyanD said:

Been saying this for 2 years! Ed Langdon sums up what our team has been for the last 3 years. Effort but no end product. The amount of times that guy kicks it out on the full is beyond words. Last week he had10 direct clangers, the next closest of anyone in both sides was 6.

When it mattered most, Langdon kicked it out on the full, rivers point, trac point, Gawn on the full. The only thing missing is Oliver kicking a point lol.

What all duck no dinner?

Wowwwww. What is wrong with some people?! We lost by 6 points, not 60. This was the team that was gonna thrash us, remember? The team that would put us to the sword, REMEMBER?!!

I’m so, so proud of our boys tonight. Ok so we didn’t win but we stayed with them the entire time. We made them bloody earn that win. 4th vs 14th but you wouldn’t know it.

A six-point loss in front of (probs) 50,000 feral loudmouths with Nathan Williamson officiating… I call that a more than satisfactory result.

PS I cbf finding the post in order to quote it but to the poster who said This team just looooves letting us down. They always find a way… are you [censored] serious? What an asinine thing to say. Do you genuinely believe they go out there and strive to lose because they enjoy letting supporters down?!! Coz if you do, YOU’RE the one with serious issues, not our players.

It was a 6pt loss. SIX POINTS!

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Ghostwriter

2 hours ago, bing181 said:

Not just this year, but goes back to the 2023 finals. Lack of on-field leadership, maturity and cool heads, coupled with too many on the list who are not all that smart with ball in hand and/or understand what they should do but don't have the skills to execute.

People can say all they want about a new coach, but unless we can fix this we're not going very far. Some improvement can come from within through the younger players, but in itself that's not going to be enough.

I hate to be negative but I could argue this even goes back to 2022. So many times that year we'd get 4 or 5 goals up and if we didn't then get 6 up AND the opposition was in the best 10-12 teams they'd reel us in! In 2021 we'd tie a knot round teams they couldn't get out of. But almost ever since we couldn't 'beat' teams - they'd always know that if they kept fighting they're a chance to make us fall apart.

7 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

It was practically a carbon copy of the GWS game in Round 1.

We have to learn how to win close games and know when and when not to flick the switch.

The team cannot cope with an open gamestyle. its unfamiliar territory and they panic rather than embrace the chaos.

We lost the game tonight because:
a) we coughed up the ball way too much and in silly paces -> this boils down to skill.
b) when the Pies coughed it up, we didnt punish them enough
c) because of a, our defence couldnt cope with the rebound as there was too much space.

24 minutes ago, Bobby McKenzie 2 said:

Like you praha, I was upbeat after this game. Our future coach must have been able to see what our boys can do and will be confident of a great 2026. Sadly, we have a lot of sad sacks on this forum who can only see the bad and not the good. A bit of positivity would be great. Go Demons 2026.

More of this please, folks ⬆️

TIA

4 minutes ago, Go Ds said:

I hate to be negative but I could argue this even goes back to 2022. So many times that year we'd get 4 or 5 goals up and if we didn't then get 6 up AND the opposition was in the best 10-12 teams they'd reel us in! In 2021 we'd tie a knot round teams they couldn't get out of. But almost ever since we couldn't 'beat' teams - they'd always know that if they kept fighting they're a chance to make us fall apart.

Then DON’T be! It’s your choice. You can find the positives instead.

1 hour ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Comes from not being managed and playing for another AA jacket

Not allowing himself to be managed

11 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Then DON’T be! It’s your choice. You can find the positives instead.

GW,

I am grateful for your contributions here. But I really do feel the new coaches will need to look at this. Honestly I hope EVERY team looks at all sorts of things EVERY year. Usually I am positive on here too. Getting back to that if my concern is somehow corrected we'll become a much better team. I can see all sorts of reasons why we can improve next year. I'm quietly confident next year will be better. (And thank you for your positivity and training reports this year. I really mean that.)

1 minute ago, Go Ds said:

GW,

I am grateful for your contributions here. But I really do feel the new coaches will need to look at this. Honestly I hope EVERY team looks at all sorts of things EVERY year. Usually I am positive on here too. Getting back to that if my concern is somehow corrected we'll become a much better team. I can see all sorts of reasons why we can improve next year. I'm quietly confident next year will be better. (And thank you for your positivity and training reports this year. I really mean that.)

I apologise, sincerely. I knee-jerked and I shouldn’t have. You are a positive poster and I appreciate your optimism and confidence for next year.

Hey at least Koz will be playing round one next year.

Sorry end to the season. 95% is just not good enough.

Did we break the record for 10pts or less losses for the year? need to learn to win...

2 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

I apologise, sincerely. I knee-jerked and I shouldn’t have. You are a positive poster and I appreciate your optimism and confidence for next year.

Thank you, no problems. I do contend that we do need change. But certainly a team finishing with a percentage of 93.3 and lots of close losses isn't a basket case .... just a work in progress. And who knows? Next time at training you might get to meet our new coach!

6 minutes ago, Go Ds said:

Thank you, no problems. I do contend that we do need change. But certainly a team finishing with a percentage of 93.3 and lots of close losses isn't a basket case .... just a work in progress. And who knows? Next time at training you might get to meet our new coach!

Oh, make no mistake, I’ll meet our new coach! 😅 I’ll tell him to read the fine print in his contract where it says “you must hug Ghosty at every training session whether you like it or not.” 🙃

11 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

Oh, make no mistake, I’ll meet our new coach! 😅 I’ll tell him to read the fine print in his contract where it says “you must hug Ghosty at every training session whether you like it or not.” 🙃

You make that sound like a bad thing! 😂

Thought that was a pretty entertaining match considering it was one team who is currently rudderless vs another who were firm flag favourites a few weeks ago.

Our skills were way down though. So many errors made at the most basic level that resulted in scores to the opposition. Lever’s intercept marking would’ve been vey handy tonight. Our defence felt monstered all night.

Hopefully next year brings success, but I’m ok if it doesn’t. Supporting a footy club is a zen exercise, and there’s no logic in thinking the club you support should be the best club. It’s all about - as people seem more and more inclined to say these days - the [censored] journey.