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It’s also not what he’s judged on internally. Most oppo supporters don’t rate him very highly. Strangely enough they don’t rate Clarry often either. But Goodwin has suggested he and his small forwards are judged in work rate, pressure acts rather than goals and Kozy is a genius at that stuff

Probably. They squeezed the life out of them not that long ago

You can’t take in the energy of the game. Close ups make the game feel more intense than it sometimes is. You can’t see how the players are covering the ground, setting up etc. in saying this you lose the in close detail of the contest and completely miss the absolute mastery of someone like Clarry. At the ground you see he’s had 40 and go oh wow, didn’t notice. On tv it makes more sense.

I might be biased but i see our mids being held at every clearance/contest/bounce. Especially Clarry. Always being tackled as he is about to take possession. I guess it’s an insurance policy against our terrifying midfield. Play defence and break even.

It’s amazing how much you miss on tv. Impossible to get a genuine feel for the game.

We were all over Richmond when we were up and running. Scoreboard flattered them

Buckley last week after Geelong mentioned it commented along the lines of ‘Geelong have chosen to put an extra load in over the last month and will have to endure the effects of that for the time being but it will hopefully hold them in good stead at the back end of the year’

Good to see us running on top of the ground. First time since round 8 against the saints it’s looked that way. We will have some more running through mud periods no doubt, but it’s good to see we can access that form when required/planned for etc. a stark contrast to the last month.

There weren’t more than 10k Brisbane

No need to perpetuate the dumb drummer stereotype. Blind Freddie understands loading and it’s effects now. Also the media are finally starting to talk about it. To pick a 15 minute patch and say but what about loading here is not even close to the money

That’s so far off the mark

Brisbane are likely working with similar loads in training. Should be interesting

But are they a necessary contribution to the sport? They seem generally peripheral to the game and designed to destabilise.

Amongst a sea of utter nonsense perhaps she’s ok. The standards of the afl media are the lowest of low. There is no genuine football analysis anywhere, just inflamed opinion, high horse editorialising, cheap, shallow points on the game disguised as analysis. She hates Melbourne, refuses to ever bash Richmond and she really doesn’t report on the game. Just the “saucy” stuff outside the actual game. Which I wish the afl media would stop. It is they who create endless problems for players. Most afl “stories” aren’t really stories. They are the media yapping at each other. The industry doesn’t need half of it. Oh and she absolutely wreaks of entitlement, but a lot of the industry does.

Or are we just undermanned and haven’t really had our backline together all year?

They weren’t lost to injuries related to preparation. Joints and knocks, hits etc can’t be prepared for. Tears, strains etc can

If they were soft tissue injuries you would look at your performance team. These are inevitable but random injuries that fitness and prep cannot control

Oh look now dunstall and Buckley are discussing it.

Selwood just spoke of loading live on television. Case closed. We will win the flag after all

They didn’t get anywhere near us at the time we played them

Go and watch Collingwood and Adelaide stream through the middle on the turnover with lethargic Melbourne not able to cover it. So identical it’s amazing how short sighted the media are. If you disagree, how do you think teams beat us last year?

The “teams have worked us out, this is the blue print” media narrative is utter crap. Teams beat us the same way last year. It happened because we were off and couldn’t cover as well. When teams try that against us when we are on it blows up in their face.

Burgo had the luxury of a largely uninterrupted injury run. Makes all the difference. The injuries we are getting aren’t the fitness guys fault. They are joints and knocks etc. They are the law of averages coming back around. I was hoping the great law of averages man in the sky would give us a few extra years before coming for us.

It’s not the max injury in isolation but the trend of injuries coming through consistently and it’s effect on our ability to play out games on top of coming into loading. Max is the icing on the cake hopefully. Hard to get everything lined up for a strong run home from here I think. All good. We have a five year window with this squad and lots can and will happen.

Oh well. It was good being reigning premiers. A good pre season and I go the next and we will be every chance again