At the break of Gawn

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Yes, absolutely it was wasted. We will go into 2024 as the most under pressure team with the chokers tag (and probably Goodwin as coach) a long with the Dogs and Bevo. Call me crazy, but going into 2021 we were the team with the most pressure coming into the year and Goodwin was the most under pressure coach. Maybe this time we’ll make the right changes and storm through September in 2024?

I know Binman will bang on about how accuracy cost us, and it’s true, but do you think the FD needs to rebalance our contest/defence mantra? We averaged something like 65pts the last 5 weeks. Surely 2024 has to be a focus on scoring.

He’s probably our most consistent finals player. He was amazing. If we had won that, the media would have been talking about his performance all week. I only wish he was 5 years younger.

I don’t think I’ll ever get over that Viney turn over. I’ve watched it 4 times already and I can’t understand it. He wasn’t even under pressure. I’ll have nightmares about that for years. If he had kicked it on the full, got caught holding the ball, a million other things and I think we would have held up. I just can’t believe it.

I don’t want hear about contest and defence next year. We’re way over kilter in our focus on contest and defence. Not just with our game plan but also our list management strategy. All our salary cap is tied up in midfield and defence players. 2024 focus needs to be scoring and ball movement. If we’re not averaging 100pts per game over the last 6 weeks before finals then we’ll see another straight sets exit again. Funnily enough, stone cold Jennings is doing wonders at GWS this year, while someone like Leppitsch would be an amazing get. I think Stafford and Yze will go this year.

I know we lost with our bad kicking for goal, but Viney’s turn over to Weitering will go down as one of the worst turnovers I’ve ever seen in a big game. It completely killed us when we had all our players on that side. You just can’t coach for that.

The chokers tag is bad but it’s not as bad as a 57 year drought hanging over your head. The thing that pisses me off the most is that none of us supporters will have any optimism for next year until we win a final (particularly our first if we finish top 4). The H&A season will seem pointless until Sept where the real test will begin. David King bangs on about it all the time but health is your best list. It’s no surprise that the teams left (excluding Port who’ll probably lose tomorrow) have a complete list to choose from. But overall it’s a wasted season. We learnt from last year by timing our run this time and we looked to do it. We looked so perfectly positioned but then we failed to execute on the big stage. This isn’t Essendon 1999 levels but it’s bloody close.

That’s broken me. Just wanted to see a finals win at the MCG and we couldn’t ice it. People will say the Grundy trade didn’t work because of Gawn’s ruck dominance but Gawn didn’t hold up his end of the bargain in the forward line all season. It was shown again when he missed two easy shots. I’m off AFL Media until the Grand final. Can’t stand the Voss love in when Carlton was cooked we had them and we couldn’t shut the door. The roar at the end was deafening. Saw a few young supporters crying. Umpiring was a disgrace too.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but if we win, I'm definitely going to find some replay of the Blues radio to listen to the next day 😂