Interesting that there have been no comments regarding our fitness - even though it's the same fitness team. Selwyn is still the main man.

Perhaps all those last quarter fade-outs of the last couple of years were never about fitness after all - not in the physical sense anyway.

20 minutes ago, bing181 said:

You're probably right, but with 7 votes it could have split 5 - 2.

Nah. Two players got 1 and two got2. So the splits had to be 5/4, 5/3, 4/3, 2/2 and 1/1.

Well worth the watch purely on the fact that Tholstrup was still staying involved and focused whilst doing one of the harder jobs in thr game.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by dazzledavey36

16 minutes ago, slimecat said:

Off the top of my head, didn’t Petty kick six against Richmond in 23?

He did (6.0).

Then 2.0 in the last round (v Roos).

And that was the start of the failed 2-year experiment.

9.15 in 20 games (2024) and 20.10 in 19 games (2025).

That's an average of 3 goals everyy 4 games.

There was the odd game where he moved to the backline during that 2 year stint.

Round 2 in 2024 he took 8 marks v the Hawks. Five weeks later he played half-forward, (v the Cats), took 9 marks, booted 1.1 and polled 3 Brownlow votes.

The bloke's a backman.

48 minutes ago, Nasher said:

In one of Roo’s earlier goals, he and Mihocek started leading at the same ball. Mihocek aborted mission and blocked his opponent out Roo took the grab virtually uncontested.

I honestly could have cried with joy. Forwards who don’t interfere with each other. What a concept.

I remember that goal and 3 mins earlier JVR didn’t engage his opponent and he went over and spoiled Mihocek. I hope the vision is showed to JVR. It’s the only thing holding him back now, he is injury free, fit, and in a game style that suits him. He now has to be a part of a forward structure that works for each other.

21 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Well worth the watch purely on the fact that Tholstrup was still staying involved and focused whilst doing one of the harder jobs in thr game.

That did come over if you watch carefully.

Most of you would have seen that 7.8 of our score emanated from our back half.

I'm sure that's been mentioned by others.

It reminded me of what Daniel Hoyne (Champion Data) reported some 18 months ago, saying how important it was to have attacking half-backs that could deliver the ball accurately.

The Pies had just signed Dan Houston, the best half-back at the time.

Salem, Disco, even Tholstrup started chains that led to goals.

Not sure what my point is, just sayin'.

I wouldn't add TMac. I'd bank on Petty, Disco and Howes doing the job, albeit undersized.

And another thing: I'm not sure I'd include the Moose.

I listened to the ABC commentary of the Freo-Cats game.

They basically said the game has gone past Darcy. He's not mobile enough for today's game.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by M_9

1 hour ago, slimecat said:

Off the top of my head, didn’t Petty kick six against Richmond in 23?

Although Petty more recent, Kozzie has a 6fa against Port in 2022

A glowing review from Jeff White on Max Gawn.

Why he's the best ruckman he's ever seen.

Really happy with the game, but was surprised by some of the comments

Langford looks great on the wing, started with some good touches then drifted out of the game but not a nightmare. I think he’s Kouta like on the wing.

Brody is a godsend for Roo, played the perfect foil role and looked really invested, his hard scrambling on he deck much appreciated, and I know his game was burning the Pie fans which is a double joy.

Sparrow looked like he was debuting, seemed very lost. Was thinking with him being trimmer he would be at more contests, maybe he was playing a role or a tag I didn’t understand?

Could not have been more surprised about Sharp, I really had marked his cards, am happily sorry.

Salem had a good game for his 200th, was on his bike a lot more too which was good last year I thought he picked and choose when he went, yesterday was full commitment.

Lever had a huge amount of rust but was cooking by the end of the 3rd, he’ll be ok, still very invested. (Just quietly I would have still liked to have May for that game, I am nervous about our defense, even considering changing my handle to DeeAttack.)

Disco was also a bit rusty but never dropped his head, and things came good.

Windsor could be in AA squad discussions by the end of the year, if he doesn’t get tagged people are really going to start noticing him, someone will tag him though and it will fall apart.

St Kilda roved Gawn’s taps, was so frustrated about this, would have spanked them way more but we are not where I hoped we would be with roving to Gawn, who as has been said, is one for the ages. It’s just merde about TDK having a virus, they are trying to preserve his confidence, Gawn just melted the bloke. I reckon every coach in the AFL who is not King would be having words with their rucks about increasing their endurance. Gawn trained this, he wasn’t born on the side of Mt Kenya.

JC, his loopy kicks are not fun, but he ran hard and halved contests and his ability to move through traffic is nice, overall a positive and a lovely bloke, I don’t know how he doesn’t break though, the guy is made of vapour.

Petty should be getting more praise for his ruck cameo, his taps were effective and his leap brilliant at the Centre throw (god I miss the bounce) has a great leap. He was on yesterday, looked happy too.

Fritsch had a slow game but I didn’t see it like the 1st half of last year where effort was a question mark, the aints played him well.

Chandler had small cameos as well but they were all worthwhile.

Kozzie didn’t kick many but it really seemed to me like he was trying to embrace the game plan, he wasn’t doing things for himself, he was playing a team game. Also that he wasn’t doing things on the park after the week he had, made me really bloody happy. He has a lot going on but there is definitely love for the club and that says mountains about this coach and the last, and a big thank you to Wheels and Aaron who are keeping a deadly vibe going at the club.

Lindsay nothing much to say, will get better.

Langdon, most of the comments seem that people are taking him for granted, I thought he played a fine game, what he did worked.

Hoses, not enough but he’s a defender and maybe I didn’t see how well he was working, is much harder to read defensive efforts off the ball watching on a TV.

Happy for Steele, it must really grind the aints he’s playing for us.

1 hour ago, bing181 said:

Interesting that there have been no comments regarding our fitness - even though it's the same fitness team. Selwyn is still the main man.

Perhaps all those last quarter fade-outs of the last couple of years were never about fitness after all - not in the physical sense anyway.

Perhaps. Though i think the evidence was clear we were not running out games last year - i'd suggest a happy group of players are more likley to do the work required to get in tip top shape than a bunch of unhappy players.

And i'd note that speaking to Lever and Kolt at a player's sponsor function, both, independantly, told me the amount of running they did in the preseason was off the charts and much more intense than in previous seasons.

But leaving that aside, Trac was nowhere near as fit last season as he obvioulsly is this seaosn, Claz was miles off optimal AFL level fitness, ditto Steve May. That's three of our starting 18 not at optimal fitness. Those three have been replaced in the starting 18 by much fitter players - that's a big boost to the overall fitness of the side right there.

It's so funny how a week ago the media were raving about Oliver & trac & now after we've finally played they're raving about king & his game style & max.

30 minutes ago, binman said:

i'd suggest a happy group of players are more likley to do the work required to get in tip top shape than a bunch of unhappy players.

Kind of what I was getting at. But I'd suggest that a happy, committed group of players are also more likely to push through when fatigue sets in at the end of games/quarters. i.e. fitness is as much between the ears.