At the break of Gawn

16 minutes ago, Redleg said:

I think Grundy will do most of the rucking tonight.

I can’t see that happening with his around the ground dominance of Gawn. I think JvR will play the Petty role and Grundy the JvR role. I’ll put my house on Grundy starting on the ground at FF/CHF.

5 hours ago, binman said:

 

(we are the better team, have been playing at a higher level, have much fewer best 22 not available - and the blues form isn't as good as it looks from the win loss column - the Saints are average, the Pies looked flat as a tack, Port had seven outs and forget about the others)

I’m glad I’m not the only one that sees it this way. Yes, Carlton are a better side now, but they’ve played every team at the right time. Pies off, Port basically tanked that game with 7 changes, the Saints have lost their way, Eagles don’t count, for every good Hawks game they put in a shocker, while the Suns and Freo have had a terrible second half of the year. 

I think tomorrow they’ll get found out and they’ll be fighting for a top 8 position for the last two rounds like last year.

I’ll be more interested in how we play. Sure a win is great but if Grundy does nothing and somehow Melksham kicks a bag then I’m not sure I’ll take a whole lot of confidence from it.

1 minute ago, picket fence said:

Other way around... Max to have MORE MINUTES FORWARD!!

No thanks. Max is much better around the ground.

38 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

I believe we always pick a ruckman as an emergency. Usually the breakdown of the emergencies is one forward, one defender, one midfielder (non-ruckman) and one ruckman.

As I see it, Schache is an emergency because he's the next ruckman in line after Gawn and Grundy. 

Hmm not sure. I can’t recall seeing him in as an emergency in a long time.

Pretty expected changes following the Mitch Cleary tweet. Good to see Schache named in the emergencies. Hopefully he’s closer to be selected if this Grundy plan goes balls up.

If the Grundy news is true, then with the heavy rain on Saturday it might be ok due to the number of stoppages expected. Gawn will get exhausted going against two rucks for 90% game time. 

I’m not sure Grundy is the answer for the finals series but he’s probably the answer for this Saturday. Smith absolutely needs to be the sub in case we need more mobility in the forward line.

I thought Goody normally does his presser at our main training session? It’s today isn’t it?

Completely unrelated, but does anyone know why Trac isn’t on AFL360 player’s night anymore? It was great having him on the last couple of years but I don’t think he’s been on since before round 10 this year.

Based on the weather forecast (high chance of showers) I think Smith as a forward will work well. We’ll need a mobile forward set up on Saturday night.

Ben Brown out with knee soreness this week.

Tom Mac playing in the VFL

It’s down to 3 options:

Grundy

Schache

Smith

Update from the club now would be appreciated. 

I assume we’ll definitely hear by tomorrow. Maybe just wrapped up in the usual article but you’d think the club would release something earlier given how critical it is.

27 minutes ago, RedLegs23 said:

Sam Edmund reporting that it’s a Lisfranc injury.

I’m just going to wait for MFC media to confirm. Sam has been wrong on his injury info previously.

Definitely don’t feel that we’re as good. But I feel we’re 10x better than we were last year. Our ability to swing momentum in games is the best in the league. 

https://twitter.com/andrew_whelan/status/1688139851223511042?s=46&t=PgGGBVtPGxmKYqlW0SqdRw

I’d love for the FD to consider Schache. He can do backup ruck which means JVR can stay at home in the F50 more. 

Brown is done, Grundy back and doing more forward won’t work. Tmac hasn’t been the same since 2021.

For me it’s either Schache or maybe Smith and go for an ultra mobile forward 50.

Petty is almost irreplaceable with his recent form. We just can’t go back to BBB or Tmac. 

What are the chances of this being just a sprained ankle?

If Sparrow had actually done a decent kick it would have hit Petty on the chest. It’s symbolic that a massive injury for us is due to butchering the ball.

Lucky we’ve been accurate. I’ll take being 4pts down. Hopefully that end isn’t the scoring end and we are chasing down a lead in the last.

I hope after yesterday’s results, Goody has reminded the players you can’t take any opposition lightly. West Coast almost and then the Hawks. Blow them away early and put it to bed.

Swans winning basically guarantees that rnd 24 for them will be an elimination final. Won’t be easy to knock them off.

Cats were pretty awful. They’ll lose next week and I think the Dogs will get them in round 24.

C’mon Cats!!

Cats have the momentum here now. Need to capitalise.