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Hairline fracture means the bone is still stable, thus can bear weight. If he can do everything he needs without being pain inhibited, he will play I’d say. One week off won’t make enough difference to the vulnerability of the bone to bother missing. It’s all about the pain. If he can’t play with the pain, then he won’t. The one risk in playing on a ‘vulnerable’ bone (it’s essentially a strut), is if he gets the wrong external contact, the bone is more likely to fracture completely. To be brutal, this would heal happily in the off-season (surgery if displaced) and be good to go in early pre-season. Tough decision, but I reckon we all know what he’d want to do.

Brayshaw - 11 turnovers Viney - 9 turnovers Gawn - 7 turnovers Petty - 7 turnovers Lever - 6 turnovers Hibberd - 6 turnovers Sparrow, ANB, Spargo and Melksham combined for 5 turnovers total. Sydney scored 70 points from turnovers. That's the game right there. Not saying those 4 played well by any stretch, but they're not the reason we lost.

Seriously? He was moving like a cripple in the second half. I was gob smacked, and remain so, that Goody didn't bring Smith on for him. I mean, what the point of having a medi sub if you don't use it when needed? We were basically down a player for a big chunk of the match. We really needed the run Smith and energy would have contributed. Totally baffling.

Max Gawn is not and never will be a forward. I hate this experiment with a passion. Almost as much as I hate Gus in the guts when he is clearly a far better player on a wing or at half back. Are we just buckling to his demands to play inside? Because honestly it’s made us worse. Harmes needs to go back inside to play a defensive role. Gus to the wing to replace JJ. And please FFS we have to find a better option than Fumbles Bullen. He kills us with ball use. Play Bowey in that role. Can’t do worse.

Collingwood would have won that if their cheer squad made more noise.

After the walk of solace back from the MCG to the carpark I didn't get back home to the country until after 1am, so this is my first chance to sit and post. I wasn't angry like I have been after other losses, more sad and disappointed. I find all the commentary about game plan a bit ridiculous - it is the same plan that got us a flag with basically the same personnel so that can't really be the problem. We won enough of the ball to win the game. But last night we were poor in a few areas, along with the one glaring problem with our F50 game plan was on full display. Disappointments: Skill execution. So much hard work by backs and midfields in defensive 50, for it to turnover at the wing or half forward or by some silly 'centring' of the ball by players who should read the moment better. So many Swans goals initiated via our own errors resulting in free running Swans play then a goal. Absolutely murdered at ground level. For the talent we have through our midfield, Park, Lloyd, Mills and Rowbottam were cleaner, often first to the ball, and their system was actually amazing to watch. Their half backs were brilliant at ground level. The offerings of ANB, Kozzie, Melksham, Brayshaw and Jackson. I honestly could never expect them all to play that badly in the same game. Fumbling, slipping over, kicking into the corridor with floaty kicks to see one Dee v 2 Swans time and time again. 7 out-on-the-full in the first half, 5 of them unpressured. F50 Game plan: Our one wood is to kick it to the left forward pocket-ish, have BBB attempt to mark, set up defensively around the ground ball, lock it in and make a chaos goal. The problem is that every other team now knows this so they simply put lots of body on BBB (often 2 people) which he can't manage, nor should he have to. If this game plan is to work, it needs a physical marking presence which we simply don't have. Or at least the other forwards working harder to free up BBB, Fritsch etc... I am not in despair after last night, but this list of players is too good to play like they did last night. 3 'learnings" (stuff me I hate that term) to reflect on before we take on the Lions: The INs and OUTs at selection will be crucial. Harmes, ANB and Melksham should not play, but ANB never gets dropped for form reasons so I can't see him being dropped unfortunately. Skills and execution (Maybe Chocco leads a few sessions to tighten this up) One of TMac, Weid or JVR have to play. BBB as a solo forward with Gawn or Jackson resting doesn't work, especially with Jackson playing a howler. Glad to get that off my chest.

Not sure I understand why so many here are angry with May for the first quarter incident. Buddy staged for the free, and was rewarded for it.

Best part of this thread is the match by match interpretations and then the inference of whether he is committed, or what his trade price is.

May owes us jack [censored].

History tells us the Dogs could lose a final at Optus by 74 points from here

Rohan played like he had the pick of his teammates wife’s for the night.

May did nothing, Buddy flopped the umpire got sucked in and both should be ashamed watching that on replay. Give me a spell.

Oh ffs, give me a spell, Spargo a liability. It was turnovers that hurt us and he doesn’t turn it over

Rory Lobb

One of the best games I’ve watched all year and I loathe both teams. #paradox much

Shin guard (ruck style) at best. Depends on the position of fracture, and legality of guard. We’ve actually had a very good year injury-wise. (Total games lost to injury). Huge part of why we finished 2nd. Injuries are not the cause of our current form problems.

There is so much doom and gloom in this thread, and I get it, we didn’t execute when we needed to last night. The swans are so well damn coached that it was never going to be a walk over, and we just couldn’t wrestle back momentum when we needed to in the last. To say that it’s the end of our own dynasty because we lost one final, when we have a double chance next week, is pathetic. Grow up. Even if this year ends up being out in straight sets, we won the flag last year and ended up second this year…. How quickly we forget the years of 2014 when I was just happy for the dees to get an inside 50. Look at our team now full of studs, it’s a bloody joy to just be up to our eyeballs in the pointy end of it all. Have a look at yourselves.

Max Gawn up forward is a cheap trick. Sorry but it has to be said and here's a little something else no one wants to admit, we won't win a flag with him up forward. Let's be honest about it and not stupid for once.

Nah that's crap, Melbourne supporters sat on their hands all night, only a couple of goals in it early in the last and couldn't get a [censored] peep out of them. I hate to say it but we have one of the worst group of supporters in world sport. Kick off the tartan rugs and make some bloody noise, it was noticeable from the first bounce and didn't get better even when we got in front. It's embarassing.

That is the biggest thrashing of Buddy I have ever seen. Buddy had 3 possies late into the last quarter and they were all gifts from the umps.

Streak up Swan street with nothing but my melbourne socks on.

We don’t need to spend 700k+ on a 29 year old injured ruckman. Or any ruckman for that matter. The role is the least impactful on the ground. We need quality tall marking forwards and skillful midfielders and forward flankers. Spend the big bucks on the key forward!

Wife's what? 🙂 That would be wives. See grammar thread.

At least it’s not Fritta with a hairline fracture. That’d be a big injury. Sorry. It’s been a long week, and this place needs to lighten up.

After reading this thread the main theory seems to be we lost because the Mebourne fans didn’t make enough noise. Not that Sydney’s pressure strangled us, not that they were cleaner, not that our bottom tier players were unsighted, but that the supporters didn’t make enough noise 🤦‍♀️

Our biggest problem is our game plan. A team like Sydney don’t allow the backs to make it a half ground press, they keep some honest along the half forward line meaning when the ball comes through the middle they have all the space and slice us up. Goodwin should have seen this 3 months ago but we have stuck with it, which is great when it works but when it doesn’t, nothing changed or ever does. Said this ages ago, we need a actual forwards coach that knows how to structure up a forward line, this kick to the pocket and hope for a re set is great… except it’s always to a 1 on 3 with zero crumbers around. I mean we didn’t even try to isolate Fritta or Trac or anyone deep last night, we just kept on keeping on. It will be enough to beat the Lions but we are about to get slaughtered in the Prelim.

Our biggest issue all season has been the 2021 season. The way we won last year was a once in a generation type performance that will never ever be repeated. As a supporter base and team, I feel like we keep expecting a replication of that form, and it just won’t happen again. We have lost all ability to halt momentum or even maintain our own momentum. We lost that killer instinct that we had in finals and we are nowhere near the defensive giant we were. If we keep expecting 2021 to magically repeat itself we will go out in straight sets.

If we are bringing in Grundy as reported for the sole purpose of Gawn being able to spend more time up forward then we're making a big mistake imo. The Gawn experiment up forward simply has to cease and accept that he's not a natural forward and it completely throws our structure out of wack. Let me remind that since the Sydney game back in round 12 Gawn has kicked only 2 goals. That's right, 2 goals playing more predominantly up forward and having no influence whatsoever. Watching Hickey completely dismantle both Gawn and Jackson shows you don't need to break the bank for a star ruckman.

Jackson playing so much time in the ruck really hurt us. Hickey just rag dolled him. Gawn needs to be in there about 80-20. Hickey had next to no impact when opposed to Gawn. Oliver was magnificent, May was brilliant but had one or two "moments" he'd like back. We won't be making many if any changes. Perhaps Harmes the only (forced) omission. We'll beat the Lions - not easily but we'll get it done. Plenty of teams have come from the semi finals (either QF losers or EF winners) to make GF's and win flags - Both Sydney and the Bulldogs in 2016, Collingwood in 2018, GWS in 2019, Geelong and Richomond in 2020. That's just the last handful of years. The Hawks won the flag in 2015 after losing week 1 of finals. We didn't play a terrible game last night. We made too many errors, some under a lot of pressure and some under not much. Some of our star players were very down - Petracca and Brayshaw haven't played that poorly in some time. Jackson had a season worst game. And despite that we had opportunities to win and were in a good position half way through the third quarter. It's far from over but this the greatest test for this team. I think they can do it.

Spargo’s disposal count is low every game because he gets burnt by his team mates often. The guy is one of the smartest in the team, usually a great ball user and he gets himself into useful positions. Seriously under-utilised in the team. Sydney looked younger and cleaner. Wow their ball movement is beautiful. They own us on our home ground. Hopefully we get the opportunity for a rematch on the 24th to bury the bloods.

Franklin is a [censored] cheat.

They can get stuffed with all the academy free hits they get. Heeney, Mills, Blakey, Gulden who else? Stuff em.

Beaten by a better hungrier team, simple as that. Their pressure was off the charts. It was actually a great game of footy for 3 quarters, great atmosphere. Nobody likes losing but you have to credit Sydney, they were great. We were sloppy at times but played some good footy too. The Buddy dive turned the game, awful, disgraceful decision.

They were incredible. Unfortunately we were not. We had the two best players on the ground in Oliver and May, but it fell away badly. Fritsch aside the entire forward line struggled. Jackson struggled. Brayshaw was terrible. Wirh Trac hobbling, it was too much left to too few. They scored 12 of their 14 goals from turnovers. May turned it over with two shocking inboard kicks, but across the ground we put our backline under pressure by giving up the ball all night. The free and 50 against May on Buddy were two absolutely disgraceful decisions. Utterly abysmal. The umpiring was horrendous all night, both ways, but those two were just disgusting. Turned the momentum, for sure. But Sydney are our kryptonite. They won’t relent in the middle no matter what we throw at them, and their backline is too good for our forward line. It’s actually spooky how similar tonight was to Round 12. Huge pressure on us now to beat Brisbane, a side we have the wood over. I’m hoping with the pre-finals bye, that a week off is a bad thing this year, so I’m trying to tell myself this is a blessing in disguise. But I doubt it, unfortunately.

Sparrow was good. May absolutely killed Franklin and you pick on one error?

Outcoached, outsmarted and outplayed. Down 20 half way through the last qtr, Melksham misses an easy set shot, Trac misses a runner and ANB and Spargo blow and open goal. Just couldn’t get back in it. Disappointing overall result but there is still hope.

Can't say I feel sorry for the Dogs at all. In fact, I take a degree of joy from that.

I think that’s the most contested and hard game of footy I’ve ever seen - so good. And from my two most hated clubs. Off to punish myself for this dirty thought with a nice glass of wine.

I’m so sick of negative [censored]. Let just a enjoy the ride. What ever happens it’s a hella of a lot better than what we have previously experienced before the PREMIERSHIP.

Because they rarely actually touch the pill perhaps??

Accidentally put this in the Game Plan thread. No idea how I got there as I almost never read it. There is a stark difference between rnd 23 vs Lions and last night. In rnd 23 we switched play and centered the ball deep i50. The result was we kicked a high score and were accurate. Reverting to the kick-down-the-line, into- the-pocket didn't look deliberate. It was partly Sydney forcing us to play that way and partly when under pressure players/teams revert to habit. We went back to what was most familiar. It is a miracle Fritsch kicked any goals let alone 3. When we got possession up the ground he was literally sandwiched between two Sydney players. Fritsch's opponent would walk him into a the back of another Sydney player who was pretending to causally walk backwards and they sandwiched him. Even when they separated the front player still stopped Fritsch getting to space. That plus Max and BB not having anywhere to lead left us going to the pockets where the ball came to ground and our lack of pressure allowed Syd to move the ball out. All that aside, what surprised me that we started the last qtr 2 goals down in a low scoring match. Why oh why did we not switch to an attacking game? There was no way we were going to beat Sydney playing our defensive/contested game from 2 goals down. Attack was the only way to win. Take some risks; play the corridor. Hell we may as well lose my 6 goals as 1 point but at least give us some chances.

@Webber would probably be most qualified to give insight but my gut feel would be to give him a week off and bring in Dunstan.

For the life of me I don’t see the big rap that Jackson gets, last night 1 mark, 1 kick, 13 hit outs and 1 clearance. For a second ruckman In any team that would get you dropped the next week. He is living on One quarter in a GF from last year. we lost this game IMO because we have no KPF’s , Brown was poor again and expecting milkshake to be one has less chance that me getting a game next week. We need to play TMac next week at 90% he is better than both of them. Do something we seldom do. Be daring play JVR could he contribute less than Brown?

I thought tonight, and I’ve thought this all year - and for every year Goodwin has coached us, that our game plan is so reliant on winning contest, overwhelming possession and contested marking forward of the ball. All our losses I felt like teams were kicking them from everywhere, but when I watched the replays I realised that aside from Fritsch and an occasional glimpse from Koz, we simply don’t value forward line skill and craft enough across our list. The balance of our play is so reliant on Gawn, Oliver, Petracca, Lever and May that if two of those blokes are down we struggle. I think our game plan in 2022 feels draining like it did circa 2017-18. It’s too reliant on incredible fitness and 110% contest work. We need to get some more polish and an extra dimension into our game style if we want to keep competing. Even in the last we kept kicking it long down the line to 2 ruckmen. It’s too easy to coach against once everyone got a good look at it.

No matter how well we are playing when good sides start challenging and apply manic pressure we wilt. Been a pattern all year, we just fade away. All our losses to Freo, Pies, Bulldogs, Cats, Swans we were in the game and in winnable positions. We lose our shape and let them roll over us.

Steven May is a star. That was an absolutely thorough towelling, the only way Franklin could get in to the game at all was when he flopped, twice. He and Oliver were immense.

Sorry to earlier posters - I love Gus Brayshaw but tonight he was in the bottom “poor” category 11 turnovers!! And fumbled it and didn’t create any real movement probably his worst game of 2022

That result may be a blessing in disguise. Win tonight and no changes and same midset and we could easily lose a PF. I think if we regroup and make a few changes, we beat the Lions and take a different side and mentality into a PF which might get us another GF. All is not lost, YET. Now stop talking about winning it in front of family and friends. Ban interviews this week. Rejig the forward line, by bringing in another key forward Weid/Tom/JVR, get Bowey in and drop Melk and ANB. When you apply supreme pressure to a side, the poorly skilled ones fall apart, as we saw tonight. 6 OOB on the full and countless disposal errors which cost clearances, turnovers and ultimately goals. Yes we can make a PF, but without changes we could stop there.

Not our night. Better team won. Swans were excellent. Tough and clean we regroup and go again next week We can still do this go dees