At the break of Gawn

Does anyone have any insight on why we have been scheduled to have the most home Saturday night games this year? We also have the most free-to-air games this year (15 and 9 either Saturday or Thursday night). Surely part of this is club driven instead of the AFL fixturing luck of the draw?The Pies play most of the interstate teams on Saturday or Sunday afternoon time slots at the MCG, which have great attendance rates, while we’ve got them on a Saturday or Thursday night night which are really poorly attended. For 2025, Pert needs to request all games against small vic clubs or interstate teams to be moved to afternoon slots. These Saturday and Thursday night slots against interstate teams are killing our crowd numbers which has a direct financial impact. They also paint our supporter base in a bad light when we’ve been given the most unkind time slots for attendance this year.

There is something going on with our AFL fixture and high rating time slots for games against poor crowd drawing teams (either interstate or non-big clubs). We’ve played Saturday or Thursday night games (worst attended games but high tv ratings) at the G on 5 occasions. Lions, North, GWS, Port and Geelong (fans don’t travel much for night games). On the flip side, the Pies have played/play Port Adelaide, Adelaide, Eagles and the Lions during afternoon slots at the MCG. Why are we getting more free-to-air games than Collingwood? It doesn’t make sense to me. Collingwood have only 1 Saturday night home game at the MCG this year. We’ve got 5. We have 15 FTA games this year, Collingwood have 14. Is this something that has been driven by us as a club? Because it’s absolutely killing our crowd attendances. Surely it can’t be the luck of the draw with that much of a discrepancy.

This news has made my night.

Need a complete review of the footy department at season’s end with a focus on improving our scoring and ball movement.

Crazy that we have done nothing to address our skills for years.

I know people will argue that you have to support the club no matter what, but we play the most boring style of footy in the AFL, and if there’s no finals aspirations, what’s the incentive for supporters? If we have another down year next year with Goody still pushing the same brand of footy, expect even lower crowds.

We truly are the turn-over kings. Also, Fritsch actually should have been selfish with that goal opportunity. Tholstrup was never kicking that.

Feels like this could be like the GWS game

I’d absolutely sub Oliver off

Surely Tmac doesn’t go around next year

I still reckon we should have asked for a direct swap of him for Jackson.

Unfortunately I think Xerri has got the AA ruck position sewn up after that performance. Max would need a Herculean last 3 games to overtake him.

Unfortunately I think this will be a clearance demolition by Port tonight which will result in a large inside 50 differential and our defence will suffer. There’s only so much a defence can hold up against when the players up ahead of the ball are the 18th ranked group in clearance. Port by 9 goals and the media heat to come on Melbourne’s appointment of McQualter.

Jack ain’t playing for 3 more years. He’s already got his mind on life after footy as per his summer internship at Deloitte. I wouldn’t be surprised if he retired by the end of 2025 or 2026. Carried this midfield? He’s had his worst season in years. He’s part of the problem as to why we’ve been so bad in the middle this year. Our starting midfield next year should be - Trac, Oliver, Rivers and McVee. I really can’t see Jack winding back the clock next year. We need speed and skill in our midfield mix.

Hodge, Mitchell and Lewis are all Hawthorn royalty and club champions and none of them finished their careers at the Hawks. Viney playing his last 1-2 years at North won’t tarnish his Melbourne legacy. If Viney is open to it then I think it’d be foolish not to entertain it given where we are as a club. His Dad and Max already work at North. It’s not a big stretch to see why Jack would say yes to it.

If we’re serious about regenerating our midfield, Viney to North makes a lot of sense. We need a completely different look if we’re going to challenge over the next year or two.

I don’t think we’re a chance at all as we’ll be smashed in the middle but Port’s forward line is pretty trash without Georgiades. Dixon is washed up, Ratugolea is a defender and Marshall has had a really poor season. If our midfield wasn’t the worst in the comp at clearances we’d probably win this game.

I’m actually interested in reading it but it’s behind a paywall. Can anyone paraphrase it?

Hopefully a good amount of Port supporters show up

The Dogs completely changed up their assistant coaches during the off-season and brought in 3 new coaches. It took a while to settle but they’re reaping the rewards now. We need to do the same and also take a lesson out of what we did in 2019/2020. Out: Stafford, Choco, McQualter, maybe even Griffith.

I don’t think Gawn, May, Melksham, Tmac or Viney will be there for our next one. Oliver, Petracca and Lever will be there veterans.

Almost poetic that our window officially shut against the team we won a flag against.

I don’t want to hear from Binman how we evened them in clearances. They had the luxury of taking Libba off at 3 qtr time and we only won them once the game was gone. Can we all acknowledge now that our midfield is our weakest line? I can’t see us winning any of our remaining games against someone who has a decent midfield. Collingwood is probably our best shot.

The game was done when we started winning stoppage. Pert/Richardson need to just say to McQualter. Best of luck but we’re going to go in a different direction.

Nothing compromised at all about that flag. If anything, the compromise was against us because we had to win our first two home finals at neutral venues. You want to know a compromise? Collingwood playing at their home ground against an interstate team on grand final day.