At the break of Gawn

I think you’re too concerned with the W/L columns. Goodwin and co are more concerned about how we are playing. As per the stats at the start of the thread, our game is in terrible shape. If we get our game in good shape, the wins will come and they’ll come against good teams not just North and West Coast. The bye couldn’t have come quick enough for a reset.

Ok, so if they say AFL official it must have been an umpire because all the other AFL officials are at the interchange. Is it possible he was just calling out a nickname or calling out to a player and the umps have just misheard him? Totally bizarre.

Sounds like he’s gone for the year

I think our former captain has summed it up best. We’re not a top 4 or even a top 8 side anymore.

Umm he played his usual share in the ruck and was very effective. Goody let him be our deepest forward at times which looked good and he brought Fritsch up the ground.

Anyone listen to SEN morning with Garry & Tim? Interesting hearing that Tim Watson said he watched May quite closely and said he looked disinterested and lazy at times. He basically said he doesn’t seem to want to chase a leading player, doesn’t like playing on anyone mobile and just wants the ball in long so he can intercept. I find this really disappointing given he supposed to be a leader of this club. With Champion Data rating his season as his lowest ever, I wonder if the cliff is now for him? Anyone know when his contract expires?

Bugger. A real unnecessary knee from Moore and horrible kick forward that just sat on the players heads too.

We wouldn’t have this anger towards Maynard if the AFL had rightly suspended him for 3 weeks and he would have missed out on a premiership medal and potentially Collingwood wouldn’t have even won the flag.

Another poor performance from our midfield. I’m glad Goody acknowledged how bad we are at centre clearance and clearances in general in his presser. It makes it very difficult to play a strong territory game when you get smashed in clearances. I also think Viney is really struggling. Who knows if he’s injured or not but only 19 disposals. Only 1 clearance, went at 53% and only 20 pressure acts. I’m just not sure what we do with him. How can we overcome this clearance problem in the middle? Is it the player mix or is it more of a positioning and strategy thing?

It would take us 10 years to turn over our list to get something like Sydney has. I think Goody is a good coach. He created a defensive system that took the comp by storm and won a flag with it. I’m a big believer in bringing in fresh voices. In 2020/21 we brought in Yze, Burgess, Choco and Richardson. We gave Goody a great team of coaches. Now I think that era has past and we need fresh voices. If I was Pert, I’d be going hard after Leppitsch, Bolton, Dew and maybe a Scott Burns who’s been pretty good for Adelaide as a forwards coach.

I feel we need to go back to basics in the off-season. Take a leaf out of Collingwood’s book and bring back stern non-negotiables. We were the number 1 pressure side in 2021 and there’s no wonder we won the flag. We were an anytime, anywhere side. Now we’re so flakey, that we need perfect dry conditions, against a small club at the MCG to guarantee a win.

Pressure stats can be skewed with game style. The Pies like to get it on the outside so it makes it hard to pressure them when they take the heat out of it. On the flip side, when the ball is in contest, they swarm and are the no.1 pressure side. I [censored] hate the fact that the Pies are so well drilled. I’ve heard Fly say that at training they basically spend all their time on basic fundamentals and pressure.

I’m actually not sure if we were better at the contest this week because the Pies lose the contested possession by 20 on average each week. What disappointed me is that we didn’t make it a scrap. The Pies love the outside ball, and to lose clearances to them and let them get it to the outside was ultimately our downfall. Our centre square and stoppage positioning needs a complete overhaul. Regarding any sense of improvement from last week, I think as a fan base we just have to accept that this isn’t going to happen overnight. Maybe get some momentum against North but I can’t see us beating Brisbane at the GABBA.

I know we would have scolded Goody if we hadn’t of tagged Daicos, but tagging Daicos with AnB let them have that extra spare down back which absolutely killed our forward chances, especially early. Very poor from our mids again, especially after half time. Got belted in clearance. Bit hard to win territory when they win clearances (especially centre clearances so easily) Should have gone a hard tag from Viney if I’m honest but he doesn’t have the tank. I know he puts 100% in but he’s the opposite of a dangerous mid, he’s offering us nothing at the moment. Poor coaching again of our mids. We just have no answer to winning clearances. Poor coaching again of our forwards. I’m not sure what they’re doing with Fritsch but he doesn’t look dangerous anymore. We’re just a middle of the road side extremely down on confidence. If I were Goody, I’d use the remaining games for a launchpad for 2025.

They can’t do anything wrong and will kick goals from the 4th level. We can’t do anything right.

Carlton also 2nd on the ladder playing our exact 2023 game plan but with some better forwards. Just shows it still goes alright. Will be great to see the contest and territory game back today.

Maybe I’ve been sucked in by the Jake Lever interview and all the other media interviews this week, but I can’t see how we lose today to a undermanned Collingwood. With the talent that we have, and an expected 100% application of effort, we get the job done. Dees to win the inside 50 count by 15+ Dees to win contested possession by 10+ Dees to play a strong forward half game. Dees by 26pts

Some real bottom of the barrel players for the Pies. Surely our response for last week and with their weaker team we get the job done.

I feel like using the evenness of the competition is giving this group an excuse. The coach and players have already come out and said last week was unacceptable, even Lever said in an interview that complacency has seeped into the group. I absolutely expect a fierce response tomorrow and hopefully it continues on after the bye.

Neither of them lost to the Eagles or by 90pts though.

This qtr shows no team is immune to pressure. Even the best team in the comp by a mile. Makes me wonder why some teams just don’t dial it up more.

Surely that’s one of the best surnames going around.

I reckon It will be: Out: Hunter, McAdam, Tomlinson In: Laurie, JvR, Howes Tomlinson had a shocker last week and the Pies have a very short forward line so I think Howes will come in for him.

I’d almost suggest we need a royal commission on how we lost to West Coast, but I guess I only have to look as far as last week’s loss and understand.

Jake Lever’s interview on the Deebrief podcast was excellent. Highly recommend giving it a listen. He alluded to a few things: 1) Effort and prep. I’m paraphrasing here but he basically said “There may be some complacency that’s seeped into the group. It’s winter in Melbourne now, and when you’ve just come off a win to get the pressure off your back, you sometimes don’t do all the necessary steps to back up the next week. Sunday’s loss shows there’s no room to be any less prepared with how tight the comp is.” 2) This also led to a focus on the group to ask themselves are they doing everything necessary in their preparation each week. 3) There has been a bit of an over correction on focusing too much on offence and not the hallmarks of our game (contest and defence). This is being addressed and expect a more contested brand from this week.