At the break of Gawn

On First Crack, they showed some vision of Grundy’s defensive running against Draper. It was only one example, but it wasn’t pretty. I think we forget how good Gawn’s two way running is. If it was just Gawn playing yesterday, there’s no way Draper and Phillips kick 5 between them.

After yesterday’s performance and how easily we were to score against, I wonder if we’ve over corrected too much with prioritising scoring over defence?

I know it’s only 5 games in, but we’re ranked No.1 for points scored but now we’re ranked 8th for points conceded. The past couple of seasons we were always 1st or 2nd in this stat.

I still can’t get over how easily Essendon scored when they got it in their forward 50. The most significant feature of “that wasn’t us” (per Goodwin), was how easily they scored against us. Lever is the best in the business at knowing when to leave his man and we missed him badly. Even Hibbo does it really well. 

At one stage their efficiency was at 60% which is just outrageously bad for us. I have a feeling this will be a strong focus this week on the training track.

I’m worried Goodwin won’t drop Tmac after that one poor performance, but I can’t see how he doesn’t come out for Brown on team balance.

Out: Tomlinson, Spargo, Melksham, Tmac

In: Lever, Hibberd, Brown, Jordan

Petty, Brown and JvR as the starting tall forwards. 

Richmond only have two tall forwards (Ryan and Riewoldt) so Petty can play forward on Balta.

1 hour ago, Hellaintabadplacetobe said:

55 tackles for a match in those conditions is damning.

They had 71 and clearly wanted it more.

The fact that we were the best tackling team so far this season and then to dish out that seems to me that the 6 day break and consecutive interstate trips had an influence.

In saying that, I think Goodwin and co. need to finally decide on what our forward mix is going to look like. Since round 1 last year it's been a revolving doors between Weid (now Schache), Tmac, Brown and now Petty. JVR has to be a mainstay, and so is Fritsch. We just need to stick with one and build the chemistry. I for one wouldn't mind seeing Shache have a go (pending how he goes tomorrow). 

60% inside efficiency for Essendon is disgusting. That is terrible for the best defence in the league.

Most we’ve conceded in a first half since the 2018 prelim…

Anyone else see this tweet?

53 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Kangas v Blues 

1. Carlton rely on Curnow and McKay. But they are seriously very good. 
2. Kangas youngsters are impressive.  Simpkin, Sheezel, LDU and they’ll add Wardlaw in next few weeks. 
3. Kangas poor goalkicking and Larkeys injury hurt their chances. 
4. Blues need Sam Walsh in. He’s run was missed and he will be a key to their premiership chances 

5. Umpires in 3rd quarter were horribly favouring Carlton. It killed North to see Blues get so many frees whilst they didn’t get one for the last 20 minutes in the 3rd. Best comment about the umps. No comment. 

I might be in the minority here, but Carlton haven’t proven anything yet. They’ve had a very soft draw and only just beat the Giants after a ridiculous free kick and just did enough against North.

Just wait until they play a genuine contender. Then we’ll see the real Carlton.

3 hours ago, george_on_the_outer said:

Apart from 2021 when there was a big jump toward the end of the season, for obvious reasons, there hasn't been much change historically from the increase in numbers from about early April. 

i.e. we are up by about 2-3,000 on last year, which will get us to about 68-69k by year end.

It’s crazy that 10k members sign up midway through the season. Surely most would be 3 game memberships.

Love his interviews. Always a lot more honest and insightful than what we get from most players. 

I reckon BB will go out for Pickett. Melksham will stay as sub. Petty and JVR up forward. Rivers is tall enough to play on Waterman. Their only interceptor is Barrass.

Daicos would be in front. He’s probably on 7 or 8. De Goey will take votes off him though.

Cripps’ early form would also mean he’d be right up there. No other mids taking votes off him at the moment.

Oliver’s handball smother on Ladhams was incredible. His head is always in the game and to have that awareness was just awe-inspiring. His whole third qtr was very influential, but that moment was special when it set up a goal.

We’re so lucky to be able to watch this generational talent run around.

I’ve got no idea who wins today. I was supremely confident in the QF last year but they taught us lesson. All I know is that we’ll learn a lot about how we will go this year depending on the outcome of this game. This is an old fashion litmus test and audit of our game plan.

It’s funny how last year we blamed most of our forward problems on Tmac not playing in the second half of the year. Yet, after just 2 games this year, he’s dropped. I agree he’s been poor so far, but it’s putting a lot of faith in Brown, Fritsch and JVR against last year’s grand finalist…

I swear the Lions are just a different side at the GABBA while it’s still humid during March/April. Wouldn’t be surprised if they beat Collingwood next week. 

Can’t believe how Daniher, Bailey, McCarthy, Cameron all playing stinkers yet they all played blinders against us

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

My hope is that the Gawn injury is a blessing in disguise as it’ll sort of force our hand to play JVR who might just be the star we need to change our attack.

It also gives the rest of our leaders a good opportunity to standup. I was very disappointed with how the group reacted when Gawn went down. Other than Lever, the rest of the leaders did not deliver. 
Viney especially needs to have a good game this week after a poor showing last week. 
 

I want to believe last week was a one off. If we beat the Swans we are 2-1 and head into a stretch of “softer” games in a great position even without Max. Lose and you’d want to make sure you win all of the next 6 games. 

I’m also in the same boat about Gawn not playing. We’re now not as predictable.

People forget we went 2-0 without Gawn last year. We beat the Lions by 10 goals at the G and beat Adelaide away. Viney was also inspirational in both those games.

1 hour ago, Lucifers Hero said:

As odd as this may sound, Max being out could be a blessing.

They have one player over 200m (Ladhams) available who has played any AFL games and then only 45.  A key tall fwd, Reid is also out.  Hickey is out.

With Hickey and Reid out they have no player 195+ cm who has played more than 80 games.  So by necessity they will go in relatively 'short'. 

Without Max we still have an abundance of tall players.  Surely their lack of experienced talls is something we can exploit around the ground.  Grundy will take care of Ladhams in the ruck.

Feeling a bit more optimistic🙃

Reid and Hickey out is great for us. Both of them killed us last time. I'm worried about their smalls more than anything. 

I know most of the focus is on team changes at the moment, but I can’t stop thinking about how important this game is. I truly believe this game will determine how well we’ll go this year. No Gawn (and Kozzy) against a team that has had the wood over us who are also in terrific form. We can’t just tread water and hopefully win some games while we wait for Gawn to come back. We had a terrible record against top 4/8 teams last year. Here’s a golden opportunity to prove that we’re going to be a genuine contender this season.

21 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

Goodwin in his presser said we didn't handle the conditions well, but also mentioned that the centre square is on a cricket pitch which we don't often play on.

We haven't played on the Gabba this early in a season since 2018, when we beat Brisbane, but they were a bottom 4 side that year. Since then, the earliest we've played on it was Round 15 2019 (June), with all our other games July or August.

I have zero idea whether playing on it 4 months after the cricket season makes any difference as compared to playing on it weeks after cricket, but it sounds like Goodwin thinks it might have. If it did, I have no idea how, but anyway.

I'm not using this as any sort of excuse, by the way. We knew about this fixture since December. 

100%.  As soon as I heard Goody’s comments, I knew this was a conditions affected performance more than anything else. The GABBA is a different venue early on in the season vs late in the season. It’s much more humid and slippery and the Lions play it very well. In fact the Lions have only lost at the GABBA before round 11 once in 3 years compared to 3 times in Rounds 15 and later over that same period.

So, if Melbourne had come back and got this within 6 pts or something, they would still call it a win for Brisbane? The AFL needs to change this rule. Melbourne isn’t coming back but the way the modern game is played, if this was only a goal or two, it’d be a great injustice.

1 minute ago, The heart beats true said:

Not even close. 2019? 2020?

2019 had a heap worse than this.

I don’t know what holding the ball is anymore.