At the break of Gawn

I think we persist with Petty. You need absolute competitors up forward in finals. Finals tend to bring heaps more pressure on the ball carrier, and at times we may need to just bomb it in long to gain territory. Petty, at his best, is a fantastic contested mark and is someone who could have one of those nights to turn a game. 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

Well hang on, this factually incorrect.

Doesn't hurt to go back over time and see where other premiership teams and contenders have conceded huge amount of scores in games.

Collingwood and Brisbane 2023

Geelong and Sydney 2022

Richmond 2017

Happy to add more if you'd like? These just small examples.

What does this prove? Nothing.. Just because you're a contender doesn't mean you're vulnerable to conceding big scores.

Sometimes it's a good thing to have games where you do concede big score because it gives you the opportunity to reassess your team defensive structure. Not even a bad thing if Carlton failed whatever test you're thinking of. Geelong are just a bloody good side with a strong offensive and forward structure.

Simon Goodwin has been on record in stating this over the last few years.

It’s not the fact that Carlton gave up 20 goals, Carlton’s defence is horrible at the moment. They’re in the bottom 10 for points against. No premiership winner in the last 20 years has been below 6th for points against. I know they’ve got some players out, but even Adelaide has conceded less than them.

Melbourne is 1st for points against. I’d almost be willing to bet that we wont give up more than 80pts against Geelong. If we take our chances and kick accurately we’ll win.

13 hours ago, Demonland said:

 

I really can’t understand the Carlton love at the moment. They’re in the bottom 10 for points against and they’ve conceded more points than Adelaide this year. Melbourne, Cats, Giants and Sydney are the only real contenders at the moment.

24 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Poor defending by the blues allowing 18 goals … let’s see how our defence stacks up. 

They’ll do nothing this year unless they fix that up. 3 weeks in a row conceding 100pts and they allowed Geelong to score 62% of forward entries. That’s bottom 4 defending.

Thought our second half was very good. Geez we're defending well at the moment. If we can defend like that against the Cats and the Blues I’m confident we can win. The wheel is going to turn for Petty I think and we really uncovered a gem with Disco.

Also, I’m pretty happy with my prediction pre-game if I don’t say so myself!

Melbourne beating Melbourne tonight. Absolute horrid turnovers resulting in direct Richmond goals. 

Need more from our mids. Trac has started poorly, a couple of poor turn overs from Oliver too.

I've got a sneaky suspicion that we'll start off slow and the Tigers might even be winning at half time. I know we had a bad loss to Brisbanne, but they would've been really disappointed in their effort against West Coast so I think they'll come out firing. We'll overtake them in the second half and win by about 30 points. 

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

Grimes stiffens them up a fair bit. Grimes, Vlastuin and Broad are still very handy so we'll need to be smart about our forward entries. 

I’m not taking anything out of this Geelong win. The Lions are terrible in the wet. Result could be completely different if it was dry.

22 hours ago, jumbo returns said:

This is going to be a tough game - if y’all think the Tiges will just roll over and capitulate, youse need to reflect

Yze will be filthy with that effort even with the injuries. The Tigers also troubled us in that practice game. I think we’ll win but they won’t be a pushover. I wouldn’t be surprised if it takes us a half or even 3qtrs to shake them.

4 hours ago, chook fowler said:

really want Max to get AA number 7.

Can’t see anyone getting near him really. English has had a really poor start, Briggs has dropped off, Grundy hasn’t done much since opening round. There’s no real challenger except maybe Marshall if he gets going.

On 14/04/2024 at 08:52, Dodos Demons said:

The hypothesis that requires the fewest possible assumptions (without internal intel) is that we were physically cooked from the get go (illness or conditioning, who knows).  Time will tell.  

Or that we were just beaten by a better team? They have basically had our measure since the ‘22 Semi final (won 3 of the last 4 and could easily be 4-0 if not for a miracle comeback).

17 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

No way. They are clear on why head high contact gets upgraded to medium. 

So Sydney’s not achieving anything this year?

You do know Richmond have lost like 4-5 of their best players since that game? Some people are tipping West Coast to beat them tomorrow.

Brisbane have our measure and have proven the last 3 times we’ve played them that they can move the ball easily through our team defence. I’d like to know what the panel think of how we can combat this if we play them in the finals. I don't think it’s as simple as winning more clearance and taking territory. Their ability to transition deep out of our defence (especially via kick-ins) through to their forward half was ultra impressive and I don’t know if we have an answer to that.

4 hours ago, rpfc said:

What if we lose, ATBOG? 

Yea that is your acronym.

ATBOG

If we lose to Richmond then we’re not achieving anything this year.

The point I was trying to make is that there’s no point putting any weight to a win against Richmond. The games against the Cats and the Blues will be our next audit. 

1 hour ago, rpfc said:

Can’t win when your midfield gets smashed like that, and outworked around the ground.

We will find out 12 days whether it’s an anomaly.

No we won’t. Richmond have an injury list as long as the Nile. We'll find out against Geelong and Carlton.

9 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

It’s overcome with pressure. That’s why it doesn’t stand up in finals. 

Stood up in the ‘22 SF for them.

Since belting them at the GABBA in rnd 23 2022 they’ve had our measure.

2 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Burn the tape and move on. 
It is clear that our midfield has got away with subpar performances all year, but not tonight. A big area for improvement. 

It wasn’t just our mids, it was our whole team defence. Our system got dismantled.

I actually don’t think we have a game style that can beat Brisbane. They sliced through us like they did last year at the MCG but this time they went on with it. We barely adjusted to close down space and they ran us off our legs with all those uncontested marks. 

If we play them in the finals, Goodwin will need to be completely prepared for this as this uncontested game will torch us again.

Not our year. In 2021 we beat all contenders. We’re just pretenders this year.

Defensive transition is just diabolical.

Absolutely smashed in the coaches box - David King

Game over. We look shot

Should never have played Oliver. Liability with that finger injury. I can see a 5+ goal loss coming our way.