38 minutes ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Apologies if already mentioned, if the Bombers lose this weekend it’s a club record of 18 consecutive losses. What better team than us to hopefully deliver this to them.

I just watched the 2nd half of the Bombers v Bulldogs - so you don't have to - and it was a snooze fest.Very little pressure, the Dogs were in cruise mode and the Bombers have few players that can win their own ball. Merret still plays well but gee they have a lot of average players.

We cannot lose to this mob. It would be a national shame.

4 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Yes, but when we’ve Mihocek’s experience and Fritsch’s nous there’s a crunch on spots.

We have to find a balance that gets Jeffo 10 or so games and Luker at least 5 if they’re both healthy.

Plenty of games to go around but some of them might require a rest or trip to Casey for Jake.

We don’t ’have to’ gift 10 games to Jefferson. If we are doing that we are nowhere as a club. If he is not good enough to force out JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch et al - he can play out his career at Casey.

Is it possible to have Heath to support Gawn and aid his longevity & Kentefield along with Fritsch

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

We don’t ’have to’ gift 10 games to Jefferson. If we are doing that we are nowhere as a club. If he is not good enough to force out JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch et al - he can play out his career at Casey.

He's absolutely good enough to get a game on merit, but assuming he does and isn't a mile off the pace he needs to be kept in or even brought back in to the side through some ups and downs as most young players are - especially key forwards. That's not gifting games, it's just not overreacting to week to week output.

2 hours ago, rpfc said:

We don’t ’have to’ gift 10 games to Jefferson. If we are doing that we are nowhere as a club. If he is not good enough to force out JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch et al - he can play out his career at Casey.

Except for game 1 JVR has been almost unsighted! Um Jeffo won't play his career out at Casey, will play in the ones and do well, sooner than later!

13 hours ago, Ghostwriter said:

I too will spew up, but I’ll spew up with an extra $350 in my pocket. I’ve put a hard-earned hunge on the revolting no-hopers and I’ve never wanted to lose $ so bad in my life. Well since we last played them anyways.

Living on nothing but fresh air and 2-minute noodles for the foreseeable future is a sacrifice worthy of a win over them.

Sorry to hear that Ghosty

a hunge on us over 40 would be a sound bet. But whatever keeps the superstitions at bay!

I don’t understand people that watch our games and think Petty is a chance to be dropped

He is such a competitor. Strong mark. Frustrates his opponents. Good tank.

I love T Mac, but he is nowhere near as good as Petty right now

Get the feeling if fritsch is fit it will be Culley that makes way, Laurie would stay in as he plays a different role. Fwd line looks a little unbalanced if it’s JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch and Culley all playing as marking fwds. The only ground level fwds left would be Latrelle and Chandler. Not that Laurie spent much time down there but it still doesn’t make sense.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by Garbo

7 hours ago, DubDee said:

Sorry to hear that Ghosty

a hunge on us over 40 would be a sound bet. But whatever keeps the superstitions at bay!

I don’t understand betting beyond picking a team to win. I put a bet on our opposition every week regardless of who they are or what the odds are and have been doing so for years. It’s not a matter of superstition; it’s to cushion the blow of a loss.

This is how I see it: if we win, perfect! I don’t care about losing the $. But if we lose, I’m sad but I’m sad with more $ than I had before the loss. Simples 😊

The amount I bet varies and depends on how much I hate the opposition. Usually it’s $10 or $20. When it’s Collingwood it’s $50 and when it’s Essendon it’s $100.

When we lost to Essendon in the inaugural Gather Round I cleaned up. That went some way towards easing the pain of sitting in nonstop sideways rain watching us lose to them, getting straight back into the car and driving back to Melbourne.

7 hours ago, DubDee said:

I don’t understand people that watch our games and think Petty is a chance to be dropped

He is such a competitor. Strong mark. Frustrates his opponents. Good tank.

I love T Mac, but he is nowhere near as good as Petty right now

He was directly responsible for 4 goals against Carlton

7 hours ago, Garbo said:

Get the feeling if fritsch is fit it will be Culley that makes way, Laurie would stay in as he plays a different role. Fwd line looks a little unbalanced if it’s JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch and Culley all playing as marking fwds. The only ground level fwds left would be Latrelle and Chandler. Not that Laurie spent much time down there but it still doesn’t make sense.

Culley’s not playing forward, he’s playing wing. Whilst I’d like him to get more of the ball, his two-way running is on display and he ends up floating forward when he can to stretch opposition defences.

7 hours ago, Garbo said:

Get the feeling if fritsch is fit it will be Culley that makes way, Laurie would stay in as he plays a different role. Fwd line looks a little unbalanced if it’s JVR, Mihocek, Melksham, Fritsch and Culley all playing as marking fwds. The only ground level fwds left would be Latrelle and Chandler. Not that Laurie spent much time down there but it still doesn’t make sense.

I've learned my lesson making definitive statements about selections when i posted ahead of the Suns game that there was zero chance Melksham would get selected for that game

That said, there is zero chance Culley gets dropped.

He's a very important part of King's game plan:

• super fit, he can do the defensive and offensive running the game plan demands

• the game play requires players who can play multiple roles and positions - Culley can play, and has this season, wing, tall marking option up forward, mid and even pinch hit in the ruck

• Culley has shown this season he has the discipline to play a specific role or task, an important attribute all game plans demand

• King wants every player to be involved in creating scoring opportunities - whilst Culley has only kicked one goal this season he is averaging five score involvements a game

And leaving aside that stuff he's playing terrific footy this season, as evidenced by his Champion Data player rating this season of 9.55.

By way of contrast, Windsor, who has been terrific has a player rating this season thus far of 7.36.

And Langford, who is playing almost an identical role to Culley has a player rating this season thus far of 8.88

I like Culley but gee he fell over & fumbled a fair bit on Sunday & missed a very gettable goal.

20 minutes ago, Cranky Franky said:

I like Culley but gee he fell over & fumbled a fair bit on Sunday & missed a very gettable goal.

Harsh on a young player with all of 20 games under his belt. If we play him every week we’ll have a very good player on our hands in a season or two.

Has unicorn potential.

9 hours ago, DubDee said:

I don’t understand people that watch our games and think Petty is a chance to be dropped

He is such a competitor. Strong mark. Frustrates his opponents. Good tank.

I love T Mac, but he is nowhere near as good as Petty right now

Petty did a brilliant job as the 2nd ruck / utility - rated his grunt work

One way to judge a season is to measure the team's success against its immediate peers. In that mode our wins against the Saints and Carlton are great indicators.

Two more teams that fit into our section are Essendon and North. I'm not sure where Port rank.

Our two underlings are Eagles and Tigers.

Win all and that's around ten wins (a big ask) but add in a few upsets like the Suns and you never know.

It's great to see Melksham back on the team firing again.

This may sound harsh but like Fritta he runs either hot or cold.

I hope he's more consistent this year but at 34 has an excuse.

I think he and Fritts together with Brody and Roo is our best fwd combo.

The latter played better despite only one goal but hopefully keeps improving.

Tmac was fairly solid in defence and Petty played better but I feel sorry for the bloke. Goody played him out of position for almost three years and it's probably impacted his craft. He used to be a great backman and hopefully in a few months gets back to his dominant old form. Also like Jbv, having to carry ruck duties does distract some players from their main roles.

Viney back on the middle would be a very welcome addition but I'm not sure where he is injury wise.

The young Pickett is showing some freakish ability and will probably be another star like Kozzie.

If we beat Essendon than it's really going to make things interesting. And it's very likely to happen.

But I don't like the media giving us too much attention and building us up.

Milkshake and Fritta together would be hard to cover. They both take speckies and are good at ground level and both can kick goals via instant snaps the boundaries or set shots.

Our fwd line looks so much better as is our delivery into it.

Inaccuracy came back to haunt us but maybe that's also partly a by-product of the speed we move the ball at times.

By all accounts we probably won by 7 goals or ten if the umpires rewarded our tackling. Seriously last week we saw an example of a player being pinged in the blink of an eye.

While the sun's players had an eternity and then still the umps bounced it.

I think there was one tackle by us where I went and made a cup of tea ...came back and it was still in progress.

Ball up.

The umps need to start paying these because it makes tacklers more aggressive and more prone to swinging their opponents around more and likely more chance of heads hitting the turf.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Dee Vinci

Well my selection comments are still based on little knowledge so Ill take the coaches and selectors team as a winner.

Im going over invited by my Bombers supporting mate, he's actually the husband of my friend, but has endeared himself to me despite that. He does love his footy and has again prepared a weekend of football fever, with multiple matches including in the box and special events. His wife doesnt really care for footy and is happy that I can distract him for the weekend.

BUT I really want the Dees to continue his misery, although in his defence he is more frustrated than miserable criticising many of the actions his club has taken.

Still I would like to see a few rested with Jeffo, Kentfield, Heath and anyone else who played well at Casey given a run. Id include Laurie even though he didnt excell.. Petty provided a really good role through back and forward and does ruck well but we know what he can deliver. Id still like to see some work into JVR as full time forward only NO RUCK. Rest any player who may have a niggle and get em cherry ripe for Brisbane.

But given I didnt think Milky would play given his Casey appearance and how well he played Im prepared for anything.

It does make the trip more interesting but gee winning is way better than losing.

GO DEES

1 hour ago, binman said:

I've learned my lesson making definitive statements about selections when i posted ahead of the Suns game that there was zero chance Melksham would get selected for that game

That said, there is zero chance Culley gets dropped.

He's a very important part of King's game plan:

• super fit, he can do the defensive and offensive running the game plan demands

• the game play requires players who can play multiple roles and positions - Culley can play, and has this season, wing, tall marking option up forward, mid and even pinch hit in the ruck

• Culley has shown this season he has the discipline to play a specific role or task, an important attribute all game plans demand

• King wants every player to be involved in creating scoring opportunities - whilst Culley has only kicked one goal this season he is averaging five score involvements a game

And leaving aside that stuff he's playing terrific footy this season, as evidenced by his Champion Data player rating this season of 9.55.

By way of contrast, Windsor, who has been terrific has a player rating this season thus far of 7.36.

And Langford, who is playing almost an identical role to Culley has a player rating this season thus far of 8.88

A question for you binman

Is it likely that Roo becomes Max's replacement due to his mobility and running?

I'm beginning to think that the ruck will now be a tall athletic type and that Max Jr will not even be close to selection as a result

13 minutes ago, defuture15 said:

A question for you binman

Is it likely that Roo becomes Max's replacement due to his mobility and running?

I'm beginning to think that the ruck will now be a tall athletic type and that Max Jr will not even be close to selection as a result

I don't think so. Ultimately i think Heath will replace Maxy, with Kalani supporting Heath (and eventually replacing him).

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by binman

If you ever feel useless, just remember bellends like this exists:

And if you're wondering how things stood on the eve of Gather Round at this time last year (note Gold Coast and Essendon had a game to make up as a result of Cyclone Alfred):-

ROUND 4	W	L	D	FOR	AGST	%	PTS
HAWTHORN	4	0	0	363	285	127.37	16
BRISBANE LIONS	4	0	0	368	308	119.48	16
GOLD COAST	3	0	0	347	201	172.64	12
GWS GIANTS	3	1	0	377	253	149.01	12
ADELAIDE	3	1	0	500	341	146.63	12
COLLINGWOOD	3	1	0	327	265	123.40	12
ST KILDA	3	1	0	394	351	112.25	12
GEELONG	2	2	0	384	283	135.69	8
SYDNEY SWANS	2	2	0	343	299	114.72	8
WESTERN BULLDOGS	2	2	0	347	345	100.58	8
FREMANTLE	2	2	0	337	364	92.58	8
PORT ADELAIDE	1	3	0	317	365	86.85	4
NORTH MELBOURNE	1	3	0	352	410	85.85	4
ESSENDON	1	2	0	257	332	77.41	4
RICHMOND	1	3	0	293	462	63.42	4
CARLTON	0	4	0	250	308	81.17	0
MELBOURNE	0	4	0	248	407	60.93	0
WEST COAST	0	4	0	243	468	51.92	0