At the break of Gawn

21 minutes ago, Winter Dan said:

Not sure of the stats but seemed like we were denigned scores from turnover today.

Didn't find too much open fwd line entries. 

Sourced from AFL.com, We only scored 2.5 (17) from defensive half scoring chains, despite being ranked No.1 in the comp (averaging 40). In other words, Freo went to work on a ball movement.

8 minutes ago, A F said:

Have you listened to the Demonland podcast with our fitness boss...?

I listened to Binman talk about it every week last year saying we were primed for finals and then I watched us go out in straight sets.

It’s not just one issue. There are many. 

Stoppage game needs an overhaul.

Defensive structure needs an overhaul (need 3 talls).

We can’t carry Chandler, Pickett and Spargo in the one side.

We’re not getting enough goals from our talls. JvR needs a spell IMO.

There are too many “premiership heroes” who are running on reputation. AnB, Harmes, Spargo, Langdon. Everyone talks about pressure for spots and BB, Tmac’s name is mentioned but what about the pressure on those aforementioned. Bevo has his critics but what I love about him is that he’s not afraid to drop a player out of form and neither should Goody.

I’m a firm believer that it’s really the coaching team not the head coach that dictates success. 

Hardwick was seen my many as a horrible coach until Balme and Gale brought in an A+ assistant coach team.

Goodwin was a struggling junior coach until we brought in a good team around him. 

I honestly doubt Fly would be the coach he is if Collingwood had not given him a swag of A grade assistant coaches.

I can’t believe I’ve seen a few mentions of “loading”. That was the biggest myth last year and it’s a “head-in-the-sand” mentality. 

We’re not going to win the flag this year and we’ll be lucky to win one final. 

It honestly amazes me how a premiership can carry a reputation for much longer than what a team deserves. We’re a middle of the road side this year but media experts just can’t seem to finally say it. On the flip side, Port are not a “team on the rise” as they made consecutive prelims in 20-21, and neither are the Dogs who made a GF in ‘21, they both just had a down year in ‘22.

Brayshaw shouldn’t be getting votes. Turns it over way too often and most of us who accurately rate his skills knew he was going to miss that.

Goodwin need to take a leaf out of his opposition coach’s book, admit to being stubborn and shake things up. Longmuir was accused of coaching fake footy and he took the advice on board and completely shifted his team’s ball movement. 

I don’t think it’s possible for Goodwin because I have never seen him make wholesale changes mid season. Didn’t happen in 2019, didn’t happen in 2022 and it ain’t happening in 2023.

Our clearance game is so rubbish. We need wholesale changes next week.

JVR, Chandler; probably AnB all gotta go

AnB is so frustrating with ball in hand. He tackles and pressures and that’s it.

We’re carrying Chandler and JVR as well

Could genuinely see us winning tomorrow but then losing next week. The heat on Carlton will be extreme.

I genuinely hope the Blues win. They’re going to win soon and I hope it’s not against us. I’d rather them win tonight and get their hopes up before we roll them.

No matter how you look at it, we need to get better at defending forward 50 stoppages for the opposition. Even if we got that to inside the top 10 of the comp it’d be a huge improvement. This seems like an easy fix for Yze and the defensive coaches.

Where this club has come back from is remarkable. It’s no wonder that during the post match grand final press conference that Goody mentioned he was in tears before the game even started as he reflected upon how far this club has come back from.

The problem with success though, is once you taste it, you want more and more of it. As a supporter, I thought seeing us win the flag in 2021 would fill my cup for many years. However, the fact I wasn’t able to see it in person at the MCG has left a void, that I, and I imagine many others, also feel. Given the talent of this group, if another can’t be achieved, it will be a failure.

For a guy that’s probably still on the outer, that’s a massive story for Morris to break. Richmond would be furious with that leak.

But good on Hardwick to know when the time is up. He‘s done what Clarko should have done in 2019.

For the last part of this segment, Montagna suggested that Melbourne should give the AFL a heads up on this treatment. We should absolutely be doing this because as soon as the umps start paying some free kicks on this, you’ll see opposition teams stop this in a heartbeat.

I think we’ll need even numbers at stoppage this week. I know Goody loves our turnover game, but Freo have a very good back 6 so I don’t think we’ll be as damaging. Freo are also the no.1 side in clearance differential the last few weeks. If we get smashed at clearances again it’ll cost us the game.

Not sure if others saw First Crack, but David King made a big deal about our players lack of “Flying the flag” for Max given the way Port targeted him. Basically said Max was “left on an island” and no one came to help him. Wrapped it up by saying he was really disappointed and not something we would have done in 2021.

There’s no way we go with BBB as an additional tall in. Our ground level work against Port in our forward 50 was atrocious. You just can’t carry that many talls in while we have Grundy/Gawn as a resting ruck.

My tip is that Gawn will play majority forward this weekend. He had a shocker last week.

Tmac is a potential out for Brown but that’s it I think. 

2 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

We've beaten easy beats and that's it. I got well and truly sucked in last year. Get back to me when we beat Collingwood, Brisbane and Port Adelaide again and prove that we're just not flat track bullies.

Brisbane game was on a cricket pitch and in slippery conditions. Essendon and Port games were in the pouring rain at Adelaide oval. Our next 3 games are at the MCG (where we haven’t lost yet). If we win all 3 we’re the real deal.

Just watched Goody’s presser. Thank god we don’t have to play in Adelaide again this season, but also I hope to god we don’t have to play a Prelim there this year.

Also, I reckon Goody will look back at this game and regret the “experimenting” (his words) in the middle with putting Gus in the middle for so long which sacrificed Petracca’s centre bounce attendance. We looked much better when Trac was in the guts and not forward

6. May

5. Rivers

4. Oliver

3. Petracca

2. Hunter

1. Fritsch
 

1 minute ago, Age said:

I still firmly believe we just got lucky and got hot in September 21. We are going to waste the talent that we have with what we have in charge. 

You’re kidding right? We didn’t lose to a top 8 side in 2021. We were the best that year by far, but this competition moves so fast that you need to continuously innovate.

Just now, PVardy said:

Unfortunately JVR free against Finlayson was the turning point. We had withstood their hot start to the final quarter and were out on the rebound when his act gave them belief.

 

I hope the leadership group and goody will have a good talk to him during the week

Huge moment. We were on the way to get some territory and that just killed us.

What also [censored] me off was AnB’s last kick into the forward 50. Why would he do a flat kick looking for a mark in those conditions? Why not kick a high ball deep to put the pressure on Port’s defence and try and potentially get a stoppage. Was just dumb.

Bit of 2022 about us again this year. Beat up the poor sides and with our 2021 premiership we maintain a healthy reputation but we just can’t beat the better sides.

Out-coached tonight just like Scott did to us in round 5. If you go in with a plan against Melbourne, you usually win.