At the break of Gawn

If we’re as good as we’re meant to be, I actually expect us to go second after KBD because I think Essendon will lose today and next week.

Can’t believe some media people had the Cats for the flag after round 7

I don’t think the Eagles side we saw against us will ever return this year. It was like they drank something from the water before us just to knock us off.

Waterman out

Got a feeling the Eagles have a big late out and will be poor against the Saints. Just our luck they had one of their strongest sides and absolutely set them selves for us.

I hope Maynard doesn’t get delayed concussion and miss KBD. I want to see May to do what Darcy did.

This is the weakest Collingwood side we will have faced in probably 6-7 years. We really should be looking for a 5+ goal win.

All 3 phases of the game really as Goodwin would say.

No Elliot as well I think too. Basically no forward line for them.

Pretty happy with that performance. We got our forward half game back, got a heap of forward half intercepts, repeat entries, high inside 50 count and pressed up better. I’m not fussed about the late goals as you often see that with fatigue, but our defence was rock solid and almost kept the Saints to our lowest score this season. I just wanted us to get to 100pts which we did. Also, props to Salem who had a terrific game in the middle We’re still a massive work in progress though. That forward connection just still isn’t there yet and it’s hard to blame just one or two culprits because they all do it. Kozzy goes for his mate McAdam instead of Petty all alone, AnB (had a great game) had a few poor entries, Clarry too, Hunter, Chandler etc. I’d just love to see a game where we just nail that because we’d honestly beat anyone.

Look so much better when we move the ball with speed

Pickett’s burning of Petty to look for his mate was shocking there

We were dominated in the middle that qtr. Steele, Sinclair and Dow all 10+ disposals that qtr. 1 disposal from Viney 3 disposals from Trac. Same old story this year where our mids just aren’t getting enough.

Great example of Petty burning our chance to score on turnover

McAdam?

Not confident at all and I’ve even put some money on the Saints ($3.40 is too good to resist). Our scoring and turnover game is a disaster at the minute and a lot of our mids just aren’t getting enough of the ball nor doing any damage with it. Hopefully we see a shift back to some of our old game plan today with a better inside 50 differential and we kick a decent score. The Saints have a very limited midfield so I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see better numbers out of Viney, Oliver and Sparrow.

Just gotta win by a few goals tomorrow and we’re back in 4th 🙏

Carlton’s mids have given the GC mids an absolute bath. 120+ more disposals.

They actually also play the MCG pretty well and had their best win of the season there. They’re a bargain at $3.40

A loss late season when all your key metrics are healthy can often be a blip. However, a loss when lots of your key metrics are unhealthy can often point to a more significant issue that many on here are overlooking. We’re 17th from scores from turnover (Only Richmond is worse) over the last 5 matches and we’ve got a midfield mix who have next to nothing score involvement averages (apart from Trac). A win this week will be nice, but honestly all I want is to kick a healthy score off turnover and an improvement in score involvements across our mids. Freo are also the best team at moving the ball so it doesn’t get better next week.

Binman was saying on the podcast that the change in game style was to score more from turnover, however the numbers aren’t showing that at all. Have a look at these sobering stats on how we’re fairing in the turnover game this year ‘24 season: Scores from turnover: Ranked 14th Scores from turnover differential: Ranked 13th Last 5 matches: Scores from turnover: Ranked 17th Scores from turnover differential: Ranked 15th Let’s compare it to 2023 Scores from turnover: Ranked 7th (Pies were 6th) Scores from turnover differential: Ranked 3rd (Collingwood was 2nd) The Eagles were a bottom 6 turnover side but they’ve improved over the last 5 matches and are ranked 7th now for differential. I’ve got no idea what the coaches are trying, but our turnover scores and turnover differential (the biggest key indicator of winning the flag) is in the toilet. People on the forum love to say “oh but the Pies lost to the Hawks last year and won the flag”. Yes, they did. But it’s not all about the Win-losses at the moment, it’s about the way we’re playing and we’re playing ****house.

As I said on another thread, the coaches have thrown the baby out with the bath water. We only needed a few tweaks to our game plan to challenge and win finals. As Hoyney said last night, we won on expected score the last 3 finals, we probably should have beaten Collingwood and we definitely should have beaten Carlton last year. The coaches have overreacted and we’ve gone backwards. Time to go back to our DNA I say.

I think Hoyney from Champion data sums up what most of us are thinking

3 of Sydney’s mids are in the top 10 for score involvements. Gold Coast have 3 in the top 20. Freo have 3 in the top 20. The Dogs have 3 (If I also count English) in the top 20. We have Petracca at 2 (always excellent with SI) and then Gawn at 42, Oliver at 84 and Viney is at 121. Despite what you say about our mids and their contest work, outside of Petracca, we have one of the least damaging midfields in the game. Goody talks about “punishing off turnover” and we have the meekest punishers in the game when it comes to midfielders outside of Trac.

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