At the break of Gawn

Softest free and I just knew he’d kick it. FMD

May has actually been pretty good.

Centre clearances are the most important thing in the game these days with the 6-6-6 and forward half game. Our coaches have spent no time on it this year because we’ve been [censored] all year and we haven’t looked to improve it.

3 hours ago, Gator said:

Petracca was best on ground.

Petracca had 5 goal assists.  To put that in perspective, Joel Selwood's career high from his 355 games is 4.  And we all know how Geelong liked sharing it around in their dominant years.

Dustin Martin's career high is also 4.

None of the other 45 players who took the field had more than one.

Petracca also had an equal high clearance game, was second in contested possessions with 15, had a game high score involvements (12 - next best 9), and the most metres gained of any player.

Can’t see that being beaten this year, but can you believe the record is 10 by Stevie J? Although it might have been against us in the 186 game…

Obviously, like everyone on here I think we’ll win, however I don’t think it’ll be as big as the North win. I’m expecting an 8-10 goal win.

The club will definitely appeal based on the reasoning given. We'll be back talking about this Thursday night. 

I thought Trac would have got votes for sure. Very interesting that he didn’t. No one can dispute Anderson though. 

In: BB

Out: Turner

Spargo to be the sub.

Almost lost it at selection. As soon as Dew named Casboult it was clear we would have to make a late change to bring in another tall. The most obvious choice was probably bringing back Schache or BBB and send Petty back, but instead Goody has the bright idea of bringing in a second gamer who was overwhelmed. Petty ain’t a forward. He has no forward craft and when he does mark up the ground, he’s not a good enough kick inside fifty. At least Schache has a good leg on him in that regard. 

I actually didn’t think May was that bad. He kept King basically statless but he did let Chol take a couple of grabs when he was on him. My biggest take out from the game is that Petty needs to go back. The experiment is over. It should just be Schache, BBB and Tmac competing for that one spot. Also, the Suns are a good side. Wouldn’t be surprised if they make finals.

For those saying we were lucky with the umps in the last qtr, maybe so, but geez we blew some chances. Fritsch missed two regulation shots and Trac completely burnt Grundy in the last few mins.

I’m not as optimistic as others on here. We’re short in defence and Dew has gone very tall which is a worry. If we beat them at the source we’ll be ok, but I worry that if they get on top with clearance it’s going to be a challenge for our defence. 

They haven’t beaten us since 2014. I hope that run continues but it’s going to end one day…

19 hours ago, loges said:

Why would Hibberd be a late out ?

Because Gold Coast will stretch our defence. Bringing Casboult in is a ploy by Dew to stretch us. There's no way our tall forwards are going to be just JVR and Gawn. We've gone 3 talls up forward all year so I can't see Goody then throwing Petty down back to cover Chol or Lukosius. 

Also, Hibberd has a sore achilles

Where’s Spargo? Also, surely Hibberd is a late out and someone like Schache comes back in so Petty can go down back? Suns have got 3x 195cm+ forwards and they’ve brought in Casboult. 
 

Weather forecast also says it’ll be a dry game.

Wonderful interview. He spoke so openly and honest and didn't give us the usual media trained answers that we normally get from players. 

With Collingwood looming as our greatest threat this year for another flag, how does he think our defensive system can nullify their fast ball movement and use of the corridor? 

It’s happening!

I was at the game last night and I found the atmosphere very flat and almost eerily quiet for most of the match. I suppose that’s what happens when you nail 5 goals in the first few minutes against a team who is massive underdogs and everyone in the crowd thinks “ok this is going exactly to script”. 

I’m genuinely surprised any North fans stayed after halftime. After being really poor the last two weeks, they were horrible in the opening qtr.

Scintillating start to the game but you could tell Clarko wanted to limit the damage after qtr time with a possession heavy kick mark game. Yeah the last 3 goals were disappointing but the thing with footy is that it rarely ever goes your entire way. We were already 6 to zip that qtr before they got 3 quick ones.

Regarding Schache, I feel like he gets another week. Some of his inside 50 kicks (especially the one to Fritsch in the first qtr) were very good. I know he’s still lacking mongrel, but I’m not sure BB or Tmac is the 2023 answer. 2023 is all about ground ball and Schache is much better than BB or Tmac in that area.

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

May had 11 intercept possessions against Richmond and for a fair part of the game I thought he played very well.

Our zone system asks May to stay back inside 50 and let his man go up and mark outside 50. Largely that has served us well. By the time a forward marks around 60m out someone comes and takes the mark, others fill in the spaces and May nullifies the corridor meaning teams can’t get high quality shots on goal.

The issue is teams have identified the 40-50m zone as an area where May will still drop back and surrender leads in to. This is still a low percentage shot on goal but it’s a bit higher than I’d like to give up!

Personally I think May plays his best games where he’s given a dangerous one on one match up and told not worry about the zone. But when he’s not playing on Buddy or Naughton and especially when he doesn’t have full faith in the other defenders he will default to zoning. When the zone works with upfield pressure you end up with teams kicking long to May by himself inside d50. That doesn’t end well for them.

I’m not buying the injury excuse. He looks fine when he’s coming up at contests with confidence. He’s always been a little iffy when forced to attack the ball on the ground and he’s 31 now.

There’s a couple of tweaks I’d like in our zone, the first been for May to trust the deep defenders a touch more and see if he can win contests around the 50m arc. He had one such big win in the 3rd with an aggressive spoil that started a chain of possessions for a goal.

The second one is just more communication with Brayshaw, Rivers, McVee etc when he’s going to let his man come free outside 50. I don’t necessarily think we have to go taller (short term) but the flankers have to be more aware of the handover. And especially for Grundy when he’s the ruck who often takes that handover.

The leg rope given to Riewoldt makes sense if he’s marking it 60-70m out as May can then fold back and play as an interceptor, but there were also a few times when he gave Riewoldt significant meters ahead of him which allowed Riewoldt to take some pretty easy marks 30-40m mark. It was obvious that Richmond was using a tactic of lowering their eyes and not kicking in long but it seemed May was still hoping to take an intercept for a long kick and not paying any respect to Riewoldt. He should have been playing back shoulder on him when Richmond were going into their forward 50.

1 hour ago, djr said:

May is ranked 1 in the AFL for Effective Metres Gained for Tall defenders and 12th overall behind Nic Daicos, Luke Ryan (Fre) other medium defenders. Not bad for a guy that is struggling. 

Yeah but he takes the kick outs most time so I’m not putting any weight to that stat. 

I feel this needs its own thread. What the hell is going on with May? It’s not just this year I feel, the back half of 2022 he wasn’t the same either.

For those who saw the replay of the game on Monday on Fox, there was a segment right near the end on Brayshaw mic’d up against Essendon right near the end. There were a couple of interactions between him and May, and it just seemed May is really lacking confidence. I’m not sure if it’s a niggle, old age, or a mental thing, but he’s just not the same player as he was in 2021 and the first half of 2022.

it’s also getting a bit of media attention now.

1 hour ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Kozzy was terrible last night. He really needs to get more consistency in his game - he’s not a second or third year player anymore. Hasn’t been right since he got suspended. 

Given he’s likely to sign you’d think he would play with more freedom. I wonder what’s beyond his form slump.

He was on two pretty decent players at different stages (Baker and Rioli) last night. I’m not too concerned. Wouldn’t be surprised if he kicks 5 next week.

No doubt Clarko will rise up for this challenge. He’s had a terrific record against us over the years, including in 2021 when he somehow got a draw out of us. 

A 5 day break sniffs of a danger game for me. I know North only have a 6 day trip from the GC, but after what we dished up against Essendon I’m still a bit worried. 

I really feel it’s an opportunity to bring in Schache and put Petty back. He’s probably the ideal match up for Larkey.

Staggering the lack of love for Grundy’s game. His second half was huge and if you listened to Hardwick’s press conference you’d learn that he was becoming the difference for us and that they were forced to move Balta into the ruck which led to JVR clunking some. 

9 minutes ago, praha said:

63% f50 efficiency to 36%

That’s disgusting 

I don’t even know who Miller is. Honestly they’re rubbish in 2023 and I’ll be severely disappointed if we lost to them.

Those on twitter will know that Richmond have some of the most arrogant supporters. They would need to win the wooden spoon for them to accept that their dynasty is over.

8 minutes ago, McQueen said:

Coaches votes are in. 
 

Goody couldn’t even give Oliver a single vote for 41 touches. 

Unbelievable. Bit of a slap in the face as he tried his guts out in the last qtr to get us close. I guess he probably did the votes based off when the game was won (the first half)