At the break of Gawn

There’s no way Petty will play forward. I think it’s as simple as they like the Smith forward setup, and Petty is in our best back 6 (while Tomlinson isn’t) and now that he’s back, he’ll play there.

Probably fair enough given we have another 10 day break after this. It’ll absolutely ensure he’s right to go. Probably harms his AA chances though missing 4 games.

Going to be a wet night it seems so I think a smaller forward line will be ok.

I just finished watching the presser, and I could be wildly inaccurate here, but I think Goody has deliberately stayed quiet on the Oliver and Petty situation as a way to get a tactical edge on Scott. We all know Goody has lost tactical battles against him so I think he wants to keep him guessing as close to the game as possible. Secondly, I think it’s a brilliant idea to train at GMHBA, no other Victorian teams do it and often the Cats will get a fast start when the opposition is still adjusting to the ground. We’ve been a good travelling side in the past so I think to treat this as an interstate game is really smart. Let’s hope it pays off!

Is it just me or do the Saints supporters sound bloody loud on the TV? Thought they’d only have about 15-20k there.

When Max was interviewed by Whateley last week before the Pies game, the topic of the short bye and 3 x 10 day breaks was brought up. Max actually said that the strength and conditioning team saw it as an advantage to the rest of the competition due to the training blocks we could get in to help with the backend of the season.

Do you remember what happened in 2021? Port are Prelim choking specialists.

Johnson has been anti-Melbourne since we embarrassed the Dogs in the ‘21 GF.

I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned yet as I haven’t read the entire thread, but did you notice how happy and relaxed Goody was in the post match? I can’t recall too many times seeing him like that. It was just great to see him so happy, and even cracking jokes, after completing outcoaching the opposition. Also, just in regards to Brayshaw, his first few mins of the game were awful but to his credit he bounced back and had a solid game. My only other dig at him would be in the last centre bounce. Mitchell completely got off the chain and almost won that centre clearance. I dare say that if Oliver was there instead, there’s no way Mitchell would have got that sort of separation on someone as quick as Oliver.

Like a few on here, I thought last weeks performance spoke volumes about our clearance and contest game. We brought it again today and dismantled the Pies. Hats off to Tomlinson as well. Played his best game and could be pivotal in our defence if Petty is to remain forward.

How have we gone from one of the most accurate to the one of the worst? Just basic set shots being missed.

I think with all the other teams losing around us, it’s not essential we win for top 4. In fact a loss will still see us stay in 3rd. However if we lose, I think it’ll be very difficult to finish top 2 unless Port or the Pies have a significant stumble in the back half.

I think we win today. The media undersold our win last week because of our low score, but the fact is we were dominant in the contest, clearances and we were terribly inaccurate. Dees to be up by 2 goals at 3qtr time with BT going nuts over with the Pies are going to run over the top of us narrative, but instead we win the qtr by a couple of goals to win by 4-5 goals.

Today has been a great day for our ladder position.

If we lose on Monday the gap between 3rd and 2nd will probably become out of reach with the way Port are going.

Considering they’ve lost 3 prelims under Ken it’s fairly certain it’ll happen again.

Dogs really unlucky there. I’ve seen our defenders get decapitated on a goal line shepherd.

Since Twitter changed it's algorithms for timelines, I've had the unfortunate experience of seeing more and more tweets from Collingwood supporters this season. They are, without doubt, the most arrogant and ignorant bunch of supporters out there. Not only do they think they've already won the flag, they love to brag about being the biggest club, the only club where supporters turn up week-in-week-out, and the most successful club in the AFL (despite only winning 2 flags in 70 years!). If there's one game I'd just absolutely love to win this H&A season, it's this one.

Can’t remember a player ever missing with a blister - infected or not.

I’ve got a spare ticket if anyone wants it. I’m going MCC as a guest for the game but have a demon seats membership level 1 if anyone wants it.

I’m not a big fan of a continuous revolving doors forward set up, but Schache has had two pretty good weeks in a row in the VFL, while Smith didn’t do a whole lot on Friday. I understand the need for role players, but you can’t just rely on Fritsch to kick a bag when you’ve got JvR averaging 1 a game and Pickett the same. With Moore and Frampton both being >200cm then surely Goodwin brings in Schache to help with our height down there with Grundy/Gawn. You’d think then that Murphy takes JVR, Maynard on Fritsch, and Quaynor on Pickett. Ins: Schache, Hibberd, Jordon (sub) Outs: Smith, Bowey, Harmes.

Not sure if he’s injured, but he’s not getting to anywhere near enough contests and he’s practically lost any pace he had from last year.

Controversial opinion, but I think it was our best performance over the past month. Our contested game was strong, our clearance game was excellent, numbers around the contest was up, our defence looked very organised and we only gave up 6 goals. Carlton are lucky McKay actually kicked straight early or they would have been in real trouble. Yes, our set shot kicking was awful and some of our inside 50 kicks were misguided and rushed, but if we get that many inside 50s next week with the same level of effort across the ground (contest, clearance, defence) then I think we’ll beat the Pies.

JVR is very lucky I reckon. He’s been pretty terrible the last few weeks. Brown over him would have been a good swap on form but I guess the coaches want more agility at ground.

I think this was highlighted on “on the couch”. Our wingers are basically part of the stoppage cluster which means once the opposition gets through our line there’s basically no one to hold them up between our defence.