8 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

True or a pisstake?

I was told this by one of our players today too

I watched the first quarter again and credit to Freo, they made the ground look tiny. Compared to the saints game where there looked to be paddocks of space. They shut us down well and we looked panicky.

On 21/03/2026 at 21:47, dees189227 said:

We are not the first team that will get thrashed by freo.

They really need to review that 1st quarter & all the fumbles & mistakes we made

Actually, I think we are the first team this year, but we probably won’t be alone.

But you are right about that first quarter. It should get taken apart and put back together under the microscope. Much better second quarter though.

The only positive was that after being 42 points down at quarter time, we only lost by 48 points.

1 hour ago, GS_1905 said:

When do you generally see a-grade talent start to come through? Put aside Ablett Jnr, Naicos etc. Is it generally in 3rd, 4th or 5th year?

not even gaj was a superstar from day dot - it was his 6th year in 2007 when he absolutely exploded into the rare air that he then had for another 13 or so seasons after that

oliver is probably our closest 'immediate star' player under the jason taylor era - in his second season he was a best and fairest winner in a side that missed finals by the smallest % ever

the likes of naicos who are stars from debut on are so, so rare

by year 4 i would expect first round picks to really be showing their wares

Edited yesterday at 06:201 day by whatwhat say what

4 hours ago, Deez21 said:

Also worth nothing the flu tore through the club last week and still impacted us on the weekend.

One of the disadvantages of training behind closed doors out at Casey. Though the club probably doesn't see it that way, keeps intel on who's training and who's not in-house.

Though I suspect events like this are more common than clubs let on. No-one is going to get through an AFL season without picking up a lurgy or two.

A disappointing game but a not unexpected result.

In the first quarter when the damage was done it looked like the team were not prepared for the pressure that Freo brought to the match. In that quarter we lacked the presence of mind to execute anything like our game plan and after that we were always going to be behind the ball playing catchup.

I hope it will a lesson learned and the players, the less experienced ones, will now understand what pressure can be applied and the results of that pressure. If we can take this out of a game like that it will be a good thing to carry forward.

It is difficult to be too critical of the players in these circumstances given the quality of the midfield we were playing against. I am one that believes the midfield is critical to winning games and the fact is that we have an inexperienced midfield that are still working on their own games as well as learning how to play as a unit.

If you are not winning around the ball it will place huge pressure on your defence and will not allow your forwards the space to work in or the ball supply to give the small forwards a chance to crumb.

I can understand the King wants to have a look at players in different roles so that he gets a clear picture of what he has to work with. That is fair enough but there will come a time when we will need to get \ couple of wins on the board to help with team confidence. Then it will be critical that we play to our strengths.

A few observations:

• I have not been sold on Tholstrup but have to say that he has done a good job tagging over the last couple of weeks. Every team needs a good tagger they can use as required and he looks the goods.

• While I stated above that King is looking at players in different roles, I think Lindsay would be better, at this stage of his development to be swung up to a wing in place of Langford who, I think, needs to get an extended run on the ball or, at least, more than one or two guest appearances.

• I think Tmac comes in for Turner and that may well benefit Lever's game.

• Gawn did not fully fit. He was still effective but, to my eye did not look 100%. Heath as a cutout? Needs to be tried at some stage. Better early in the season?

No unduly concerned at this stage. I predicted before the season started that I would like to see 2 wins from our first 6 games and we are on track to do just that. More than 2 wins in that period would be a great result.

Carlton up next at the 'G'. One of the games I never missed when I attended the footy. Hate Carlton.

Go Dees!

Im sure this has been covered as i havnt read through the thread but imo our players needed to make a stand against that dog voss, stick up for your mate and show that dog you dont do that to a melbourne player, target him, line him up, get in his face, do not forget , everytime he plays us get after him

On 21/03/2026 at 22:44, Harrison Petty GOAT said:

Is it just me or does CJ seem like Sam Frost reincarnated.

I'd posit that Frosty is a far better player than CJ...

On the Couch had Riewoldt tearing strips off Salem for his (lack of) defending. Showed the infamous kicks off the ground.

Wonder if it's something they've been instructed to do, a bit like the long forward handballs? Keep the ball moving forward at all costs ... or something.

On 22/03/2026 at 15:14, Rab D Nesbitt said:

. Had he not agreed to 'retire' we could have nominated Maysie to knock ten bells out of the cocky [censored].

A friend messaged Maysie on Saturday night saying “Any chance you could come out of retirement?” Joking, of course. Maysie replied, “That was hard to watch. We got away with it last week with no key forwards for the Saints.”

He used the word “We” 🥹

15 minutes ago, Ghostwriter said:

A friend messaged Maysie on Saturday night saying “Any chance you could come out of retirement?” Joking, of course. Maysie replied, “That was hard to watch. We got away with it last week with no key forwards for the Saints.”

He used the word “We” 🥹

Well, May should hve been there to help. He's let us down.

And in any case as May well knows, defenders don't stand much chance when the ball enters as often and as quickly as it dis in the first quarter - they had 25 inside 50s in the first quarter, that's bananas.

If anyone should be criticised is the mids, wing and half forwards who didn't gut run to cover free Dockers players, which with the fumbles and turnovers were the key reason the back seven were so under the pump in the first quarter.

16 hours ago, Roost it far said:

True or a pisstake?

They might have caught it off TDK because he didn't have his anti-biotics according to Hinkley.

2 hours ago, bing181 said:

On the Couch had Riewoldt tearing strips off Salem for his (lack of) defending. Showed the infamous kicks off the ground.

Wonder if it's something they've been instructed to do, a bit like the long forward handballs? Keep the ball moving forward at all costs ... or something.

I thought Salem was pretty awful and showed poor leadership. Some of his possessions were not a part of our planned ball movement. I didn’t like him kicking off the ground either.

Not a fan of Riewoldt, I was at a footy function where he and Dimma openly professed their undying hatred for us, but I agree with him here. Sometimes you’ve got to be prepared to take the hit. Put you head over the ball.

Spot on @JJJ

Can't be a team direction as he was the only one refusing to pick up the footy on the weekend and it was infuriating and soft by Salem.

A player that has just ticked over 200 games and we have our young players watching a senior play display bad habits is not a good sign.

Sooner AMW can consolidate his spot in our back half and Bowey back means less of Salem as I dont see him in our best 23 anymore.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by dazzledavey36

17 hours ago, Roost it far said:

True or a pisstake?

Genuinely true - around 7 were bad on matchday and 5 were over it but hadn't trained well

23 hours ago, Deez21 said:

Rivers is our best option in there

Criminal Goodwin ignored him and now King doing the same

It's because the defensive side of his game in the middle is completely substandard.

Last year he had comfortably the worst missed tackle % of any player in the competition - with a big gap to the second worst.

The coaches are desperately trying to drum some defensive intent into him.

Reiwoldt was harsh but fair on Salem by saying we only play with 5 defenders when he's on the ground. He had video clips to back up some of Salem's very half hearted efforts.

And I reckon Rivers needs to be challenged a little after his performance. Missed a regulation set shot that demoralises the team and I hated the handball he fumbled/dropped from Steele that resulted in a turnover the other way.

We had the flu?!

I AM SO RELIEVED!

I thought we were bad!!

But now I know we just had the sniffle-woowoos.

I can go back to having overbearing and unearned expectations so I may disappoint and confuse myself as I watch only Melbourne play each week.

13 minutes ago, rpfc said:

sniffle-woowoos

Actually laughed out loud.

Totally unrelated to this thread but I come here for the insights and stay for the abuse.

No....what I wanted to say was that there are some very witty contributors to this site and an award post each year would be good.

Categories are endless but one of the cleverest I recall, was Benny Brown taking his usual long run up. It was at Adelaide during Covid restrictions and someone made the call that one step further would see him quarantined again.

But there are obviously many clangers too, so there's a class for them as well.

Anyway in lieu of this possibly not happening here's a shout out to all those who have made me smile. There are some very dry sense of humours amongst posters and it's quite entertaining. They often help ease tge pain of a bad loss.

Perhaps the supporter base is big enough for "Demonland, The book."

Yikes.

On 22/03/2026 at 18:10, DubDee said:

Sure he was great but if he was still on the list he would not help us imo.

Of course we miss the ‘22 version

We are in agreement re where he would likely be at had he continued this season Dub

7 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Reiwoldt was harsh but fair on Salem by saying we only play with 5 defenders when he's on the ground. He had video clips to back up some of Salem's very half hearted efforts.

And I reckon Rivers needs to be challenged a little after his performance. Missed a regulation set shot that demoralises the team and I hated the handball he fumbled/dropped from Steele that resulted in a turnover the other way.

What program was this on?

4 minutes ago, SPC said:

What program was this on?

On The Couch. Fox Footy.

7 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

On The Couch. Fox Footy.

Without seeing the program, Salem and Lever are very keen to kick off the ground, knock a ball into space and handball over their head to avoid contact and accountability. All the things defenders are told not to do. Been happening for a while and costs us goals. Seeing Howes do it more now too. Such is the leadership shadow.

Defence needs to tighten up, or it’s time to move personal. Salem also looks a bit slow in the position he is playing. Half back flankers are now wingers, so will be interesting to see what they do with him.

11 hours ago, JJJ said:

I thought Salem was pretty awful and showed poor leadership. Some of his possessions were not a part of our planned ball movement. I didn’t like him kicking off the ground either.

Not a fan of Riewoldt, I was at a footy function where he and Dimma openly professed their undying hatred for us, but I agree with him here. Sometimes you’ve got to be prepared to take the hit. Put you head over the ball.

Did they explain why they hated us?