At the break of Gawn

Our clearance game is so rubbish. We need wholesale changes next week. JVR, Chandler; probably AnB all gotta go

AnB is so frustrating with ball in hand. He tackles and pressures and that’s it. We’re carrying Chandler and JVR as well

Could genuinely see us winning tomorrow but then losing next week. The heat on Carlton will be extreme.

I genuinely hope the Blues win. They’re going to win soon and I hope it’s not against us. I’d rather them win tonight and get their hopes up before we roll them.

No matter how you look at it, we need to get better at defending forward 50 stoppages for the opposition. Even if we got that to inside the top 10 of the comp it’d be a huge improvement. This seems like an easy fix for Yze and the defensive coaches.

Where this club has come back from is remarkable. It’s no wonder that during the post match grand final press conference that Goody mentioned he was in tears before the game even started as he reflected upon how far this club has come back from. The problem with success though, is once you taste it, you want more and more of it. As a supporter, I thought seeing us win the flag in 2021 would fill my cup for many years. However, the fact I wasn’t able to see it in person at the MCG has left a void, that I, and I imagine many others, also feel. Given the talent of this group, if another can’t be achieved, it will be a failure.

For a guy that’s probably still on the outer, that’s a massive story for Morris to break. Richmond would be furious with that leak. But good on Hardwick to know when the time is up. He‘s done what Clarko should have done in 2019.

For the last part of this segment, Montagna suggested that Melbourne should give the AFL a heads up on this treatment. We should absolutely be doing this because as soon as the umps start paying some free kicks on this, you’ll see opposition teams stop this in a heartbeat.

I think we’ll need even numbers at stoppage this week. I know Goody loves our turnover game, but Freo have a very good back 6 so I don’t think we’ll be as damaging. Freo are also the no.1 side in clearance differential the last few weeks. If we get smashed at clearances again it’ll cost us the game.

Not sure if others saw First Crack, but David King made a big deal about our players lack of “Flying the flag” for Max given the way Port targeted him. Basically said Max was “left on an island” and no one came to help him. Wrapped it up by saying he was really disappointed and not something we would have done in 2021.

There’s no way we go with BBB as an additional tall in. Our ground level work against Port in our forward 50 was atrocious. You just can’t carry that many talls in while we have Grundy/Gawn as a resting ruck. My tip is that Gawn will play majority forward this weekend. He had a shocker last week. Tmac is a potential out for Brown but that’s it I think.

Brisbane game was on a cricket pitch and in slippery conditions. Essendon and Port games were in the pouring rain at Adelaide oval. Our next 3 games are at the MCG (where we haven’t lost yet). If we win all 3 we’re the real deal.

Just watched Goody’s presser. Thank god we don’t have to play in Adelaide again this season, but also I hope to god we don’t have to play a Prelim there this year. Also, I reckon Goody will look back at this game and regret the “experimenting” (his words) in the middle with putting Gus in the middle for so long which sacrificed Petracca’s centre bounce attendance. We looked much better when Trac was in the guts and not forward

6. May 5. Rivers 4. Oliver 3. Petracca 2. Hunter 1. Fritsch

You’re kidding right? We didn’t lose to a top 8 side in 2021. We were the best that year by far, but this competition moves so fast that you need to continuously innovate.

Huge moment. We were on the way to get some territory and that just killed us.

What also [censored] me off was AnB’s last kick into the forward 50. Why would he do a flat kick looking for a mark in those conditions? Why not kick a high ball deep to put the pressure on Port’s defence and try and potentially get a stoppage. Was just dumb.

Bit of 2022 about us again this year. Beat up the poor sides and with our 2021 premiership we maintain a healthy reputation but we just can’t beat the better sides. Out-coached tonight just like Scott did to us in round 5. If you go in with a plan against Melbourne, you usually win.

Softest free and I just knew he’d kick it. FMD

May has actually been pretty good. Centre clearances are the most important thing in the game these days with the 6-6-6 and forward half game. Our coaches have spent no time on it this year because we’ve been [censored] all year and we haven’t looked to improve it.

Can’t see that being beaten this year, but can you believe the record is 10 by Stevie J? Although it might have been against us in the 186 game…

Obviously, like everyone on here I think we’ll win, however I don’t think it’ll be as big as the North win. I’m expecting an 8-10 goal win.

The club will definitely appeal based on the reasoning given. We'll be back talking about this Thursday night.

I thought Trac would have got votes for sure. Very interesting that he didn’t. No one can dispute Anderson though.

In: BB Out: Turner Spargo to be the sub.