At the break of Gawn

Heeney has absolutely killed us. 

Damian Barrett having Geelong as Runners up is wild. Probably the most unhinged prediction I’ve seen.

Considering we’ve gone out in straight sets twice as premiership favourites, it’ll be interesting to see how we go without some of the pressure.

I know this is frivolous, but does this also mean the end of Gus and Gawny? 
 

Today’s news is just a [censored] sandwich. He’s a heart & soul player.

Maynard’s medal will always have an asterisk for mine.

Missing finals for me. I think we’ll finish around the 10th to 12th mark. 

For me, it’s not the off-field stuff it’s the lack of upcoming talent in key positions and injuries. May will be on his last legs by season’s end, Gawn will be exhausted and our lack of leg speed off the half back line will really be exposed. This competition moves at break neck speed and there’s quite a few teams that will unfortunately leap frog us.

I know it’s only a praccy, but to lose to a team expected to be bottom 4 further cements my thinking that we’ll slide out of the 8 this year.

Winning the flag this year would be so incredibly sweet with the media pile on and to shut up all the Pies supporters who think they're going b2b. 

Unfortunately I just can't see us making the leap. I can't see where the improvement is really going to come from in our front half and to do it in a reliable and consistent manner. 

I know I'll get flamed for this but I think we'll finish just outside the 8. 

Not sure how accurate the Swans numbers are as a lot of assumptions thrown into that. Collingwood probably does have the biggest supporter base. I hate to admit it but with yesterday’s victory you’d probably argue Collingwood has probably been the most successful club out of all the original foundation clubs given they’ve won the equal most AFL/VFL premierships and contended in the most grand finals.

1 hour ago, Ned said:

I still feel like we were the best shot and it still hurts. I also feel like they scammed their way to the premiership with 7, 1 and 4 point wins. But you don’t keep winning those tight ones if you’re no good. I think their coach is superb. It’s painful!

We were realistically the best chance of beating them but we had two really unlucky things not go our way.

1. Brayshaw getting knocked out

2. A wet night at the MCG. If the weather was like the Carlton game, I think we would have won.

I despise Collingwood but their defending in their back 50 in the last qtr won them all three finals and the flag. 

Something to be learnt about backing in your defenders as opposed to pressing so high up that you defend well but can’t score on the counter.

Probably already been said, but we would have killed it in this heat if we were playing today. Very Melbourne to have to play the first final in the wet while the rest of September has been a scorcher. 

Any news on Stafford on the move? Been with us for 10 years and it’s probably time we have fresh eyes. 

1 minute ago, The Stigga said:

yep I cant see Neale getting more than 3 votes from here 

Neale will get 6 in rounds 23 and 24.

I think we’ll make finals again in 2024 but we won’t be able to judge us properly until after our first final.

What strikes me about JDG is that he doesn’t seem like someone who thinks too much. Probably why he’s such a good finals player.

This is like the QF but the Giants limited the damage better than us in the first qtr and have gained momentum quicker than us.

What was the scuttlebutt around Jennings leaving us? Did him and Goody clash?

I know there was no 6-6-6 in 2018 but some of our offensive work was bloody good with Jennings there.

Campbell Brown has always hated and disrespected us. I don’t think he tipped us at all in the 2021 finals series because he couldn’t possibly accept that we’d be successful. The guy is a fringe media commentator these days. He’ll be lucky to be in the industry in a couple of years.

10 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

Picked up on something from Goodwin presser that he would be more involved in the drafting process of new players, just sounded like he wasn’t happy with how this had taken place… 

He basically orchestrated the Grundy trade though. He wined and dined Grundy.

Fair analysis although maybe a bit harsh on Grundy. I thought he was very good in a couple of his solo ruck games. Gawn as a forward failed miserably though.

We were a very poor team in close finishes this year:

Our losses:

1) Round 10 vs Port - 4 point loss - had no composure with our last 5-6 entries

2) Round 11 vs Freo - 7 point loss- Missed a couple of chances late and again poor composure.

3) Round 16 vs GWS - 2 point loss - Horrible last qtr with so many chances missed and a defensive lapse.

4) Round 22 Vs Carlton - 4 point loss. Denied by ARC, however had other chances late and blew them (e.g Salem)

5) QF vs Pies - 7 point loss - Missed a whole bunch of shots as we all know.

6) SF vs Blues - 2 point loss - Obviously we all know what happened but blew a heap of chances and had a defensive and turn over breakdown. Had no composure.

Even with our close wins, I only think the Brisbane one we did everything right. I thought we were lucky against the Suns (they missed that set shot), Adelaide blew some chances, while we shouldn’t have let the Pies get to 4 pts in the QBD game. 

Nice to see Hogan so much more comfortable talking to the media. He absolutely hated doing it when he was a young kid at Melbourne.

Giants can absolutely beat the Pies. They won’t care at all about the crowd. They’re used to never having it on their side. 

3 hours ago, Roost it far said:

it’s not the coach

We’re ranked 16th or something with ball in hand. That’s the coach

14 minutes ago, loges said:

Our game plan whilst it keeps us always with a chance of winning it does the same for our opponents. We get away with it against lesser sides, but  against the better slides, well we all are seeing what happens if we don't take our chances.

This. Need to improve our forward half and get distance on our opponents like we did in ‘21.