At the break of Gawn

Can’t wait for another week of the media’s love affair with Carlton.

It’s a real bugger we lost on Friday. We would have need to only go 4-4 to make finals if that had occurred. Now we need to go 5-3 and a few results fall our way. Definitely need to win the next 2 otherwise we’ll have to either beat Suns away, Freo away or the Pies in the last round. Dogs at Marvel also won’t be easy.

So we’ve gone from 1st to 18th for last qtrs the last 6 weeks and you’re just blaming it on young players? You know North still had more young players and less games experience than us right?

After a consecutive week of goaless last qtrs, I wonder if our playing group is not doing enough off the field or whether we’ve got our training loads out of kilter. We’re a 4 goal worse side at the moment in last qtrs since round 10. I know Binman and co talk about the importance of loading for peaking in August and September but unless we see a shift soon, the whole team will be on holidays in September.

With Giants and Essendon losing tonight, I can safely say that if we win the next two we’ll be firmly in the 8. Our destiny is in our own hands.

Why are the umps so hot on holding the ball but weren’t last night? Like wtf is going on with this competition?

Really need Adelaide to win tonight and probably Geelong to lose to help us get into the top 8 next week.

I know I hate barracking for the Pies but 3 of the Suns only away games left are vs North, Richmond and the Eagles so they could be one of the teams that could kick us out.

I was doing the ladder predictor before and a Suns loss is actually better for us.

Exactly. 8 games left although probably can only drop 3 at most.

I’m happy I bet the line on us. There’s no way it was ever going to be a blow out and 35pts was ridiculously easy. Still feel pretty gutted this morning but honestly if we bring that same level of intensity we’ll smash the Eagles. The Essendon game in a fortnight looms large.

Interested to hear Binman’s thoughts on our fitness levels. Is it the mass of young players with less pre-seasons? We looked absolutely gassed in that last qtr. The group will get a lot of belief out of that performance though. The contested ball game is back and here to stay. I’d put my house on us rolling West Coast next week.

Feel like that was lost on fitness. In the game early we curtailed their uncontested game and we got them out the back a few times. As the game wore on we got more and more tired and couldn’t press up as much. I don’t think it was too much of saving the game, I just think we ran out of gas in the last qtr. Petty’s miss to put us up by 28pts ultimately changed the course of the game I feel. We would have been up 2 goals to 1 that qtr but instead he missed and they go bang bang. Petty’s marking was absolutely elite, but FFS you can’t be kicking 0.4. He needs to be working around the clock on his set shots. Overall, after seeing our contested game come back I think we beat West Coast and Essendon. We’re absolutely a finals chance if we can play like that each week.

Perry’s miss could be so costly

Dees 17-0 when Kozzy kicks 3 or more goals. Going to be a bloody anomaly if we lose this.

If Tholstrup’s ball hadn’t been touched and he kicked the goal it’d almost be game over.

Best qtr since probably’22

If anyone has the link to Alan Richardson’s interview just before on SEN let me know. I only heard the end but sounded like he gave some great insights.

For some reason I think we’ll take it right up to them. Surely the coaching staff have learnt from the previous encounters on how to face Brisbane. Press up on them hard and don’t let them get their kicking game going. Make it a scrap, keep it in tight and beat them at the contest. This Brisbane side is the worst in the comp at defending ball movement and the Saints put on 100 on them 2 weeks ago. They were the best scoring side in 2021 and 2022 and for 4 of those games we kept them to 60pts each time. Our defence isn’t a whole lot different to those years. Payne is also a big loss for them. I think if we can limit their scoring we are right in this.

With Salo’s form it’s actually not a huge loss. He’s also looked really slow of late. Payne out for them is a big bonus. He played like Glen Jakovich last time

Pretty much exactly what Goody had to say. Needs to bring his energy and pressure game back and the rest will follow.

Dees the line at 30.5 is very good value. With Lever back and our game plan having a significant shift back to our old style it won’t be a blowout. 50% of the possessions on Saturday night were contested compared to a 37% season average. We only took 72 marks (well below our average) and we kicked long out of defence instead of trying to switch with short kicks. I can’t see Brisbane putting on a massive score. We’ll squeeze them wide and I expect Lever and May to have a lot of intercept marks.

AnB has to go to Zorko. Brisbane were struggling badly when Coleman went down and it was only when Zorko went to half back that they’ve got their game back. If we can shut him down, then that will go a long way to winning the game.

That’s because the dogs don’t defend so he had the liberty to run amok. I also listened to that Gawn interview and I think we just wait and see how we can get him involved more. Unfortunately he might be tagged again this week but you’d imagine he’d have no excuses against West Coast. I’m 100% backing Clarry to get back to his best. It might not happen completely by the end of this year but he’s too good of player to fade into obscurity. I’m tipping his 2025 will be huge and he’ll remind us how good he really is.

Yeah he definitely tiptoed around the question about his family being upset with the club. Sounds like there must have been some communication breakdown.