At the break of Gawn

Viney is the perfect matchup for Butters. He is easily Port's best player. If we can curtail him we'll be in good shape. Oliver will go to JHF at centre bounces and I think Rivers will cover him when he drifts forward. Melksham to try and stop Aliir's intercept work while hopefully Petty has enough talent over Ratugolea. This might be JvR's opportunity to get some form against a lesser opponent in Zerk-Thatcher. You'd think May, Lever and Turner can cover Georgiades and a resting Sweet pretty comfortably.

100% - I'm still dirty on the Saints loss. The loss to Collingwood stings but the overriding feeling is that we demonstrated we can match it with the best. Unfortunately we have this Saints loss hanging over our heads which casts doubts on where we're really at.

I feel like ever since 2022, Goodwin is still searching for the best forward mix and we waste chunks of seasons doing so. In 2023 it took us to round 19 but then Petty got injured. In 2024 we couldn't find it at all. Surely once Goody thinks we're not going to make finals, he just bites the bullet with Jefferson, JvR and Petty. The two talls we look too short which we often saw when JvR went in the ruck. Howe was marking everything back there. Adelaide has shown 3 talls up forward can work and I think we just need to stick to a forward set up and get games into them so we're not wasting half of 2026 trying to find the best mix.

The bye is the AFL's way of hiding the fact that we have 3 interstate trips in a row. Only team subjected to that this year and quite possibly the last time it happened was 2020 during covid

Of the game itself, I thought we were far better with contest and clearance, but as expected, Collingwood's defence was just too good and our forward entries not dangerous enough. I'm a firm believer that we're never going to have the wood over Collingwood until both Pendles and Sidebottom retire. Their on-field leadership and footy IQ is too far above ours.

May played a ripper of a game, but he has form with sort of behavior. Gawn on the other hand has been reminded time and time again to be aware of his limitations with his kicking, yet decides to do a torp and inevitable turns it over I'm sort of in both camps here, but May needs to say this at the team review. Not out on the field

Hopeful but not confident like many others on here. A bit like before the Brisbane game although I think we have a good history of challenging the Lions, the Pies we don't. We flipped the script against Freo back in round 6 so maybe we can do it against the Pies. If there's one vulnerability for the Pies it's their midfield, and despite the debacle last week in Alice, we've been basically the best contest and clearance side over the last 6 weeks. Stopping Daicos is crucial and someone needs to run with Sidebottom all day. Melksham can hopefully limit Moore's intercepts and then we're in with a shot. Dees by 10 if the above can happen.

You know May got coaches votes last week, right?

I'm happy with the JvR inclusion. He really troubled Moore last year in this game. Although tbh more forwards troubled Moore last year. Not quite sure about the Howes inclusion. Only thing I can think of is allowing us more flexibility with Turner or it's to move Windsor back to the wing.

I'm actually happy that Cox played VFL and not an inclusion. Cox has played some blinders against us and he always goes in hard against Gawn almost with an intent to injure. McStay will be severely underdone and I hope they select him.

In: JvR Out: AJ Does McVee take Hill or Elliott?

Was thinking the very same thing this evening. The Suns streak since 2015 being broken was also a real shame.

Interesting you say that because the last two times we've played there we've let the opposition have 140+marks and 100 more disposals. Ross must have just watched last year's tape because it's pretty obvious we just don't know how to defend that ground or the players just curl their toes up every time they go to Alice.

Yeah I agree their intensity was way off. But surely to allow an opposition 140 marks comes down to coaching too? Surely it's just not a matter of asking the players to close down space but not being able to. Clearances were relatively equal and contested possessions were too.

Pressure ratings can sometimes be misleading in high possession games. The saints had 100 more disposals than us and a 140 marks which is just ridiculous. They made the ground wide and played keepings off the whole game. Unfortunately when you play a zone defence, you just open up pockets of space.