At the break of Gawn

Why isn't Essendon getting the same culture bashing as Melbourne last year? Last year the narrative was how terrible Melbourne is and how all the players want out. No one ended up leaving. Essendon has 3 of their most important players all wanting to leave (2 100% gone) and it's all about Merrett being selfish and not a true leader.

But good on them for getting away with that. Why aren't we using the same tactics? I can't think of any other team dropping 17% of members in 2 years in my whole time following footy. The trend is usually always upwards. It's an absolute disaster and probably the most pressing issue after finding a coach and the home base.

King still not a fan of Brad Scott...

I've still got a bitter taste in my mouth about this when I saw last month the Dogs and Saints had more members. I know for certain we have more supporters than those 2 clubs. In 2023 I honestly thought we were going to overtake Hawthorn in the next year or two and even get close to Essendon. Instead we've gone backwards fast. If that rabble of the Saints can sell more hope than us then something is drastically wrong. Our whole membership department, marketing and strategy needs to be reviewed.

If Buckley does indeed decide to take the Tassie gig, he'll forever be bashed by the likes of Cornes and other media personalities for giving up a real shot of success as he coaches a bunch of kids to 3-5 years of bottom two finishes before eventually being moved on just like every other foundation coach. It'll be an absolute disaster for him.

I'm definitely clutching at straws here, but hear me out. I don't necessarily think Skipworth bowing out of the gig is all that bad. This is a guy who lost to McQualter for the WCE job. McQualter was less than impressive at Melbourne and he's just had the worst season in VFL/AFL history. The term "highly rated assistant" is used far too often. They describe every assistant as "highly-rated" in the AFL media. Yze, who had 2 or 3 attempts for a senior position lost to Kingsley (3rd consecutive finals series) and Brad Scott (who got alot out of that aging North list). Yze was a good candidate but you can understand why GWS and Essendon went with their choice. Skipworth, on the other hand, being overlooked in favour of another assistant in McQualter isn't exactly a glowing endorsement.

One of the worst in the league and just slightly better than Brisbane who stop giving score updates once they start to lose.

I assume Chappy will do the Goodwin role tomorrow night? Would have been better if it was a bit later in the year so the new coach could be there.

Quite a few Freo players I heard in interviews praised the confidence in their fitness to be one of the best last qtr teams this year with many come from behind victories. I hope Melb makes some enquires.

I wouldn't be surprised if by the end of this week it's down to 2. From memory, Guerra said that the best two candidates will present to the board who will then weigh in on the selection. You'd expect then from the 15th to the 19th they interview the two and decide who's the best candidate to then announce on the 22nd.

Giants are 0-4 in their last 4 finals. At least it's not just us.

Just on C Scott, I have an extended family member who works at the Cats in their strength and conditioning department and I had a conversation with him 6 months ago about why Scott is such a good coach. He basically said he sees the game extremely well, but his best quality was his ability to delegate and trust those around him to get things done. You can tell the guy just demands a heap of respect and everyone who works for him wants to live up to his expectations. He also said that Scott doesn't even speak to the players all that much during the week and leaves that up to the assistant coaches. I guess maybe one voice is easier to listen to than multiple?

Cats v Pies GF is a nightmare matchup. Couldn't being myself to barrack for either of them.

Yep, he said that on the couch and it elicited a response from Goody in a presser who said the "boys had done the work" over the off season. Fitness has a been a problem for a couple of years now.

He left at the end of 2021. The 2022 falling in a heap was under Selwyn. Also, not sure fitness had anything to do with last night. The Crows pressed pretty hard and their pressure was up but Collingwood's defence was too organised.

Absolutely nailed it. Crows were always the best opponent for the Pies.

Nibbler has now played in 5 finals losses in a row. Poor bloke

The Crows are basically the worst side going from D50 to F50 and it showed tonight. They can't score from the back half and they lost one of their best stoppage scorer in Rankine. The Pies are also pretty poor from the back half too but it didn't really matter tonight. I also think the Crows D50 have been over celebrated. They let a dog [censored] North Melbourne side score 100pts against them in round 24. I hope the Lions win tomorrow night because I trust the Cats more than the Lions to knock over Collingwood in the Prelim.

Given Bucks is a fitness freak himself and one of the best prepared players ever, he's going to know a thing or two about fitness. If he's got doubts on their program, I reckon Selwyn will be one of the first to go.

Caro has her fingerprints all over this. What is with her vendetta against Melbourne? Is it purely to spook Buckley away to help Gale and Tassie? I hate the patronising of Melb fans too in this article.

For anyone who's been close to this, does this have much significance? "Melbourne relented on a series of demands surrounding public access to the ovals, payment of rent and control of subleasing."

Can't believe Bont is on 7x already. He'll definitely get to 9 you'd think as he's still 29 (turning 30 this year)

2 x AA for a 14th placed team. Collingwood could only manage 1. We now have 6 x AA winners in our starting 22. Probably a pretty good indicator of under performance.

How does Collingwood have a vote for who do you hope wins the flag?

Hoyney is spot on about team success impacting Langford's media favouritism. If we were top 4 he'd be the shortest price favourite.