At the break of Gawn

Love his interviews. Always a lot more honest and insightful than what we get from most players.

I reckon BB will go out for Pickett. Melksham will stay as sub. Petty and JVR up forward. Rivers is tall enough to play on Waterman. Their only interceptor is Barrass.

Daicos would be in front. He’s probably on 7 or 8. De Goey will take votes off him though. Cripps’ early form would also mean he’d be right up there. No other mids taking votes off him at the moment.

Oliver’s handball smother on Ladhams was incredible. His head is always in the game and to have that awareness was just awe-inspiring. His whole third qtr was very influential, but that moment was special when it set up a goal. We’re so lucky to be able to watch this generational talent run around.

I’ve got no idea who wins today. I was supremely confident in the QF last year but they taught us lesson. All I know is that we’ll learn a lot about how we will go this year depending on the outcome of this game. This is an old fashion litmus test and audit of our game plan.

It’s funny how last year we blamed most of our forward problems on Tmac not playing in the second half of the year. Yet, after just 2 games this year, he’s dropped. I agree he’s been poor so far, but it’s putting a lot of faith in Brown, Fritsch and JVR against last year’s grand finalist…

I swear the Lions are just a different side at the GABBA while it’s still humid during March/April. Wouldn’t be surprised if they beat Collingwood next week.

Can’t believe how Daniher, Bailey, McCarthy, Cameron all playing stinkers yet they all played blinders against us

I’m also in the same boat about Gawn not playing. We’re now not as predictable. People forget we went 2-0 without Gawn last year. We beat the Lions by 10 goals at the G and beat Adelaide away. Viney was also inspirational in both those games.

Reid and Hickey out is great for us. Both of them killed us last time. I'm worried about their smalls more than anything.

I know most of the focus is on team changes at the moment, but I can’t stop thinking about how important this game is. I truly believe this game will determine how well we’ll go this year. No Gawn (and Kozzy) against a team that has had the wood over us who are also in terrific form. We can’t just tread water and hopefully win some games while we wait for Gawn to come back. We had a terrible record against top 4/8 teams last year. Here’s a golden opportunity to prove that we’re going to be a genuine contender this season.

100%. As soon as I heard Goody’s comments, I knew this was a conditions affected performance more than anything else. The GABBA is a different venue early on in the season vs late in the season. It’s much more humid and slippery and the Lions play it very well. In fact the Lions have only lost at the GABBA before round 11 once in 3 years compared to 3 times in Rounds 15 and later over that same period.

So, if Melbourne had come back and got this within 6 pts or something, they would still call it a win for Brisbane? The AFL needs to change this rule. Melbourne isn’t coming back but the way the modern game is played, if this was only a goal or two, it’d be a great injustice.

2019 had a heap worse than this.

I don’t know what holding the ball is anymore.

Why fly him up then?

Is it going to be slippery tonight? If I recall correctly, the round 23 game was quite a dry deck. I’m hoping the humidity isn’t too bad again.

Even though we were all on our last legs, I swear to this day we would have won that game if he had played. The small forward set up won it for them.

Out: Tomlinson (stiff because he was good), Pickett In: May, Fritsch

Just a win with our new brand on show will be good enough for me. We’re missing 4 of our best 22 so I’m not expecting anything spectacular. Let the media froth over the Pies for the next month.

I think he’s an upgrade on Weid. He reads the play better (can also go down back), he’s a much better set shot and a longer kick. Tmac JvR Schache That’s my starting tall forwards (Ben Brown is done in my opinion)

West Coast at the MCG. We haven’t played them there since 2014.

So you’re happy to discount one of Melbourne’s best on-field performance in 60 years and just chalk it up to the opposition being under the weather?

I’ve seen at least 3 journos cite the illness that ran through the Geelong camp in the days prior to the 2021 prelim final as a reason they lost that match. It honestly makes me angry about the amount of disrespect they’ve shown towards Melbourne and how good we were that night. What annoys me most is that several Geelong players have brushed off the excuse but the media keeps bringing it up and they almost use Geelong’s 2022 form as a form of validation. Here is another article on it written by Daniel Cherney who I consider one of the better ones out there. The tweet accompanying this article reads “Last year, illness halted Geelong’s Grand Final hopes. 12 months on, they have made up for that misfortune “. https://www.codesports.com.au/afl/geelong/geelong-poised-to-overcome-lingering-pain-of-last-years-83point-preliminary-final-defeat-to-melbourne/news-story/9fdd557b12b3fbed77dafcf16ed5a9e9

I’m glad Cripps won it over Neale. There’s no way Neale is as good as everyone says he is. He was pulling votes in almost every Brisbane game where he had no right to (rnd 23 in particular). Neale has a real nice guy attitude which is why I think the umps love him so much. Honestly can’t fathom how Miocek got 3 votes against us. I thought Cox maybe, but that was just bizarre. This happens year on year with the umpires. We really need to peg down the Brownlow to a middle tier award but the whole ceremony and red carpet just inflates the importance of it.