At the break of Gawn

Thank you! Thought as much.

Watson’s second half of the year has been really good. I wouldn’t be surprised if he finishes 2nd in the rising star.

Clearly our worst season since 2019 and I’d rank 2017 and 2016 over it too. It’s probably on par with 2015. Even though we looked good after winning those 2 games in Adelaide, the midfield problems were starting to show.

@WheeloRatings wondering if you can help me out. Is this our worst season in a long time of not winning the possession count per game? Feel like we’ve only won possession count a handful of times this year but we regularly won it during 2021-22.

As I said on another thread. List mgmt value the wrong things. They look for contested players but brush over on the required foot skills. We need to put skill execution at the top of the list as the most important factor on recruitment.

I think he’ll get 3 unfortunately. He doesn’t deserve 3, he should get off, but we all know the AFL too well. Great opportunity for McAdam to have a really strong pre-season and play his role for the first few weeks.

Letting them score 70pts off turnover and only scoring 24 ourselves is emblematic of our entire season. Poor at scoring from turnover and poor at defending turnover.

The Pies turnover game makes us look slower than we are. We actually looked really fit against the Suns last week. That’s because their midfield is full of butchers who don’t punish off turnover.

I’m really not a fan of him playing so high up the ground. It really makes us look impotent when the ball goes quickly into the 50. This guy is our best natural forward and had a stellar start playing deep this year. I’m not sure if it’s because of Petracca’s injury but we need him deeper next year.

This is an open ended question, but do you think we are starting to value the wrong things at this footy club? We bring in competitors who will play our contest and defence mantra, but what about valuing the skills of the game? When was the last time this club recruited an absolute elite field kicker? I’m talking a Gulden, Blakey, Daicos level. I see so many guys come through the door who are just average or maybe above average kicks. If we’re ever going to improve our turnover game we’ll need some sort of drastic improvement in kicking skills and decision making under pressure.

Surely no one turns the ball over as much as we do. Need some serious focus on skill execution over the summer. We won 2021 off scores from stoppages, however scores from turnover is the new norm. We’ll never become a good scores from turnover side unless we seriously improve our skill execution.

They are an elite turnover team, apply excellent frontal pressure, swarm at the contest and they have a very solid back 6. Nothing to do with psychology. Goodwin and the coaches need to seriously work on our turnover game, kicking skills and pressure game.

Wow the weather forecast has really turned. A few days ago it looked like a clear night. Typical Melbourne weather. If it’s a wet weather game I think we’ll lose. Of all the times we’ve played fast and attractive footy it’s been dry conditions (West Coast, Gold Coast, Saints). I was hoping a repeat of the Gold Coast game but with this weather, I think it will be a very dour affair.

Darcy is giving Xerri a bath when he’s going in the ruck and then drifting forward. Hopefully this damages Xerri’s chances of AA.

If Kolt can fix up his kicking, he’ll become our best young player very quickly. Runs to the right spots, has pace and loves the contest.

Anyone else confused how Viney can play some games at 110% and go full beast mode while some games he just goes at about 80%? If he played with that intensity every week he’d probably be a top 3 player in the comp. Just incredible.

Surely one of Petty or Turner will have to go back though eventually? I’m a massive Turner fan and I think his attack on the football and his kicking for goal means he’s the better forward.

Stolen from a post on Twitter, but this a great pick up. “Trac spent months in Queensland then conveniently avoided this away trip when so many of the injured players travelled, and our twos were up here too. Today was a very ‘whole club’ vibe. None of this is reflecting very well on him. This is a direction, and he’s not in on it.”

Hope you enjoyed that one, Christian and the “direction” of the club. The only non QLD team to win at HBS this year.

Rivers has got to get those dinky flashy kicks out of his game.

All the off-field stuff has taken the focus off this week’s game. I think we’ll be competitive but ultimately I think the Suns will win by 5 goals. Also predicting the first question from the post match presser to be about the game with the rest to be about Trac and the off-field stuff.

I find it hard to believe that this footy department, which won a flag 3 seasons ago, wouldn’t be receptive to Trac’s feedback on performance, which then led him to go public with his grievances. It’s not like it’s Ablett at the Gold Coast here. I hear guys like May say the Melbourne way, and many media people say we train the hardest (King in particular). I wonder if it’s more to do with this current group’s flag prospects over the next few years. Morris did say “direction of the club”. Trac has his brand and he knows he’s probably only at his peak for 3-4 more years. I can’t wait until he breaks his silence, but he has a lot work to do to make it up to this playing group. Tomorrow’s game is almost a side-show for the media. Goody wasn’t even asked about the game this weekend during his presser.

Yes please

It can often be just one player. I know for 99% certainty that Morris was getting his Bulldogs intel (that caused the Bevo blowup) from a certain key defender who he played club cricket with.

Sayers was fronting up a lot when Voss was under serious heat last year. He backed him in and they went on to make a prelim.