At the break of Gawn

True, but a lot of those games were at familiar grounds. Adelaide Oval, Optus stadium etc. The Gabba is a different beast, as is the SCG which we don’t have a good record at.

Harmes and he kicked 2 goals himself. I think bringing Harmes in for Sparrow is a decent move (Sparrow becomes the sub) but the fact Harmes will only have a 5 day break has really sabotaged that idea.

I still find it laughable that people entertain the idea of dropping Fritsch. He's our leading goal kicker (by far) and the only player in the AFL this season to kick a goal in every game.

According to the “best analyst in the game”, David King, we’ve become very conservative/boring with our ball movement (from d50 to f50) and champion data has us ranked 17th for it since round 16. We were 1st in the comp from rounds 1-7 (and basically 1st all year last year) What has been the catalyst for this change? We’ve always been a strong defensive side so it’s not like we were leaking goals and now need to play conservative so it’s a head scratcher for mine.

Considering we beat them by 10 goals last time I’m surprised we’re not favourites. They were 1st on the ladder when we played them and were playing better football at the time.

I know at times Brown provided a decent contest but he ran too far under the ball time after time last night. If Weid didn’t get pushed around so easily at times the spot would be his.

I think Friday night will define our premiership chances. If we get top 4 I can almost see us making a prelim and anything can happen. If we lose and finish 6th, I can easily see Richmond rolling us week 1. Their game is in top shape.

I really hope this win bonds the team together to really kick start our finals run. If you go back to last year, it was the Geelong game which pretty much gave this team the belief we can win any game of football even when you’re down. To be down by 2 kicks with 2 mins remaining and end up winning the game will do wonders for the belief. I can appreciate how the belief of Collingwood is sky high with all these close wins.

I’m not as negative about the result as others. I thought Carlton played really well and it was a tough, contested game. We won the game and we played a good forward half game for most of it. We’re the best travelling side in the comp and we’ve had the wood over the Lions over the last couple of years. Bring on top 4.

Can see us losing from here. Terrible in the last qtr.

I’d just go all chips in on Weid for the last few weeks. Brown isn’t the answer. Him making a contest but winning the ground ball is mutually exclusive. Never seen a worser a player when the ball hits the ground.

That Fisher goal was Brayshaw’s. Could have given the handball and instead kicks it out on the full

A bit nervous about tonight. My MFCSS is in full swing. Blues got nothing to lose, Cripps playing, backs against the wall, statement game to claim “The blues are back”. We’re a better side, and we just need to get the job done tonight. Our fan base hasn’t seen a victory against a big Melbourne club since Anzac Eve. As a club we need to win tonight as it’s winning these games which makes our supporter base want to show up rather than get out numbered in the crowd and beaten. Give our supporters a reason to walk out after the game heads held high with a victory.

Never gets a touch against us.

Lions have actually tightened their defence the last few weeks. Not for whole games but definitely large chunks. They’ll be hard to knock over next week.

Will absolutely get booed I’m tipping.

Cripps being in the side gives Carlton a bit of predictability for our coaches. If he was out we’d have no idea who they were going to have run through. I’d still much rather have him out but there is a bit of silver lining there.

Absolute farce if he gets off. You can’t be knocking out blokes who then miss weeks and walk away scot free.

Maybe it’s my MFCSS, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets off, plays against us, is BoG and we lose. It would just be very Melbourne.

Has barely polled a vote since the bye. He won’t even be top 3.

I’m not sure how they can appeal this? It was classed as Careless impact which got him high and the impact was high because he was concussed. The only way is they can contest it to low impact which is ridiculous or if they say it wasn’t a careless act but a footy act?

We’re also ranked 18th for scores from forward half turnovers. Last year we were 5th.

It’ll be a Carlton win for the ages if they get up and it’ll be one of our worst losses in 5 years. Geez I hope we win.

I’m a firm believer that the competition is becoming more of an endurance sport and less and less a sport of skill. The shortened pre-season that the Premier has to face creates a significant disadvantage for the season ahead. The only reason I feel Richmond were able to do it back 2 back was the longer preseason due to COVID and the 17 game fixture. I think more and more teams that will win the flag over the next decade will come from those with early final exits or miss finals altogether. It’s no surprise that our superior fitness came from a long pre-season.

I’ll also add that I’m annoyed Elliott got votes. 2 of his goals came from incorrect HTB decisions. It was only the Hibberd one which was clear. Jordan and Viney had basically no prior.