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Injuries don’t really factor into prep if they aren’t soft tissue. You can just have bad luck. The difference between a good run and a bad run may be our last two years.

Agreed but I think injury has played a big part too. Can’t see how fitness falls away so badly without injury playing a part.

There can be only one answer surely. Fitness. What went wrong in that regard we may find out in time. I suspect injuries killed us. First quarter last night we looked great. Our running patterns were great in the forward half. We were proactive and lowering the eyes. Brisbane didn’t come up with the answer miraculously after 9 quarters of us belting them this year. It was obvious at the ground we had nothing in the tank in the second half

Mate, chill the [censored] out. I watch all the games and replays of the games. We looked in trouble at the end of the 2nd and we barely won a contest after that. We are obviously hobbling over the line. Soon we will find the extent of the injuries. Loading isn’t a theory but we’ll done for getting personal. Classy stuff.

I’ve not seen us looked that gassed before. We had nothing left to give.

given our second halves and the limping going on out there I think we need to be further ahead.

Brisbane look like they are prepping for Monday. No presence early. Found something in the last 5 minutes.

Injuries are the #1 factor for how well you can go throughout the year. If last year was our ceiling(for arguments sake), with the same list, how could we expect to be better this year given the difference in injuries to key personnel. We weren’t banged up this time last year. We had an incredible run. We all know the injuries we’ve had. Our continuity this year has been poor. Our stars bar Oliver have struggled to get going. How can you refuse to use injuries as a reason for why we aren’t where we were last year? It’s not the sole reason but it’s a big one. You could also say dysfunctional forward line for example, but who’s missing? Tom Mac. Why? Injuries. A few percent off this time of year can be everything. We don’t have endless depth.

Revisionist it could be argued that the pro loading community were the ones crying out for a more nuanced look at the game and our form etc. those who were allergic to it just preferred the channel 7/fox footy talking points that are overly simplistic and lack context.

I wonder whether the club sees it as flirting with form. You have to go in with a plan. The best laid plans often go astray. The plan worked last year. It’s true in life and in sport, sometimes you have to deal with unforeseen circumstances. It’s possible trying to change the plan on the run mid season would end up being worse, I’m not sure. A fitness plan would surely be set and then adhered to as best as possible. No team can cover injuries to players beyond a point whether it be quantity or key players. I saw the season as dealing with what we had as best we could. We ended up second and look like finishing top 4 in a very competitive season.

There are good excuses. We are banged up currently. We have been banged up for large parts of the year. Injuries interrupt a teams ability to work toward collective fitness levels due to interruptions to the individualised programs throughout the season which means as a group we just aren’t as fit as last year. We just haven’t had the chance to build throughout the year the same way we did last year. This affects form, fitness, psychology. All kinds of stuff. There are so many factors to consider, to just say we aren’t as fit as last year, someone must be to blame is unfair. Pressure and fitness are as linked as anything could be in the game of football, it seems obvious that pressure goes down with fitness going down.

They were, you’re right, and without the three 50s it was a four point game. Point is even though we look miles off and they smashed us, we’re really close.

It was a 4 point game without the gifts.

So because you want more flags anything less says the club is inept? Disregard all the other good clubs who also want flags and how difficult it is. How you need form, injuries etc to all go your way in periods when your list is in the right position. Geelong only won every second year in their dynasty, Richmond lost one in amongst theirs. Great sides. This league is hard. We’ve had issues this year and we are still contending. Calm down and enjoy having a side filled with stars. It’s not all about flags it’s about the journey your club takes you on. This journey is a great one. And it’s for years to go.

These people have short memories and or know nothing about football. Good on them.

It would be fitting to see the pies lose both of their finals by a goal and get bundled out in straight sets. Come on footy gods.

In game injuries and injuries generally have a strong correlation with our losses and form. It has effected our ability to have continuity and build throughout the season. This effects our ability to prepare to our potential and has made it harder to hit the peaks we did last year. We have the players and our game plan generally stacks up, as boring as many consider it to be. Some teams have come up to a higher level and put more time into our game plan etc but we haven’t had the chance to build our year the same way we did last year. We will without question look to improve and change where needed in the off season. A better functioning forward line pretty much solves everything. Injuries dictate your ability to succeed like only a few other metrics. When you have a list like ours it’s the defining metric in many ways. So I don’t believe loading was an unreasonable talking point throughout the year. Looking to win this conversation seems to mean you misunderstood it to begin with.

With the injury news coming out this morning it makes a bit more sense why we didn’t have the drive/energy you expect in a big game. Not surprised that injuries could finally put an end to this season. It’s just been a bit like that this year. Haven’t been able to get going because of it. List health is the most important stat in football after all.

If that’s the case buddy should have been done three or four times for holding someone up like that.

May didn’t do anything. That’s all on the ****ty umpiring

I’m not taking comfort from it. If that’s what we are, it’s too late this year. I’ve reserved judgement on us this year till I saw a final and the biggest issues were we were out worked, out coached and mentally weak, and I think the mentally weak tag is generally a useless one in understanding a teams performance but I don’t know what else to call last night. They dug in and we refused to go with them. The upside for me is beyond this year in that we are likely a contender for a while and we can improve a few areas to go again. Even though a lot has gone wrong this year and it never felt like we got it together we are likely a prelim side.

I guess the upside is we were average they were good, they got a couple of goals from very soft free kicks and they only won by four goals. Feels like we are miles off but we are still thereabouts in a lot of areas.

I was screaming my head off. Felt like a real feral and probably upset the children in the general area. No one around me had much to say. Felt very lonely.

It felt like we got a bit rattled after the buddy 50, absolute gift of a goal that it was. We lost our composure and never really got it back. I wasn’t expecting us to lose the mental battle. We seemed to get frustrated that they wouldn’t let us do what we wanted and weren’t willing to turn it into a brutal grind when we should have. They were incredibly well set up all night and played to it really well. There has to be an element of luck with the way the ball fell to their set up enough over the night to do so well with stoppage but we didn’t try and stop it. They pounced on our errors and spillages time and time again. We gave them too much room particularly across contests on their half forward line. they gave us nothing all night and were very good. Can’t see us going all the way after tonight. Geelong and Sydney are ahead of us on form and we look like we have too many problems and too many holes to plug. Hope I’m wrong but we didn’t look like a convincing side tonight.

I think they may have over rated their list or at least where it’s at. Feels a bit like they panicked with the Clarkson situation and the media pile on and now they have to follow through. Stability is a vital asset to improvement and winning finals. They have none of it. Let’s hope they double down rather than clean out, for the good of the competition.