At the break of Gawn

He looks miserable because, like Hogan, he is very hard on himself as a player as I think he does have high expectations on himself and what he can do. As per what Rooey said, he probably dominated in the juniors and expected the AFL to be the same. Didn’t he once say he was going to be an ‘All of famer’ in an interview and he wanted to be the no.1 pick? I just feel he’s trying too hard to be some flashy player and not enough as just a hard working half forward. He’s not going to be a De Goey as he’s not fast enough off the mark and lacks some of the skills so I wouldn’t even bother to try and emulate that. He doesn’t have a great tank (so he can’t be a midfielder). He just needs to be a strong contributing half forward. He’s a similar height to Breust (albeit not as skillful) maybe that could be a player he should be aiming to be.

Sure, lose the first 6 and you can still get 16 wins and probably finish top 4. The issue is that the further behind you fall, the less margin for error later. Having said all that, I’ll reserve my judgment until after round 6. If we’re 3-3 I think we’ll be ok.

Been ruled out - via official comms. Uncertain as to how long though.

Round 2 last year. How did Port, Suns, North and Adelaide go for the reminder of the year? Also, what about those 16th placed Pies and the 12th placed Tigers?

Honestly feel they almost have a better list than us. Cameron is a star, Rayner, McCluggage and Hipwood up and coming stars. Neale is a beast. Harris Andrews a pillar in defence. We only beat them in the ruck and midfield slightly.

I think a large part of our loss wasn't necessary our game plan, but perhaps how it was executed and the part which we failed (effective inside 50s) played into the hands of Geelong who are the best defensive side in the league. Geelong had the lowest points against in the league in 2018 (and will most likely claim that in 2019). They have been for years, an extremely tough team to score against. Bombing in long and cleaning it up is their bread and butter. Goodwin and co need to recognise that not all teams can be dealt with the same way. Look at how Collingwood dismantled Richmond on Friday night? The tigers can't pressure you if you keep the ball off them. If we get 70 inside 50s against Essendon, we will beat them by 10 goals because they are a weak defensive side and are missing some key players (such as Hooker) - plus I assume it'll be better conditions. I think another thing that needs to come into focus in the defensive/two way running of our midfielders/half backs. Time and time again Geelong got on fast break aways, and with our defensive structures already pushed up the ground, it just leads to easy scoring. Which is how you get a 63% effectiveness against us. Goodwin recognised our defensive structures were too high up after the Hawks game last year and he needs to adjust it again. We have to stop being so easy to score against otherwise this whole season is going to be a waste. He needs to take a leaf from Chris Scott's book and adapt to how they structure behind the ball - because it's the best in the league (same with the Hawks). You basically never get goal side against Geelong and the Hawks, but getting goal side of a melbourne mid or half back is a common occurrence in every game.

Goody shouldn't have listened to the media hype about Weid after the first 2 finals - he's no where near Hogan. Should have risked not trading Hogan and hoped he would have changed his mind and not lose him as a FA.

I keep hearing about teams reinventing themselves over the offseason. Port made wholesale changes, Cats have reinvented their forward line (already had a strong midfield and defence). Us on the otherhand, just kept with our same game plan and I feel we haven’t tried to change this to go that next step.

Wow

We have the worst defence in the league. It’s not just the personnel it’s the structures. Every time Geelong goes forward it’s like a sunny day with a dry ball.

Haha whoops. That was the only reason I could think of

The AFL want to showcase the AFLW grand final.

I'm worried that Saturday's performance has held quite a few back from re-signing.

Didn't Sydney go 0-6 and still make the finals a couple of years ago? I'm not too worried yet.

Eagles also looked underdone against the Lions. I’m not sure how interrupted their pre-season was, but it was obviously shorter like ours, but you would normally expect them to beat Brisbane. Like us, they started like a house on fire before the cracks started to appear.

Yep, I went the early crow and thought Eagles were going to dominate after the first qtr, but as you said, after qtr time the Eagles looked really slow under done. With the Pies losing, Richmond anything but convincing, Eagles losing and us also losing, there's a clear correlation between shorter pre-seasons (and hence less prep) and round 1 performances.

WCE has the shortest pre-season out of anyone and yet still pantsing Brisbane at the Gabba who pantsed us in the JLT. Not sure how long this short pre-season excuse is going to work for us.

One of Max’s trademarks last year was playing a loose man in defence sort of role to great effect after the centre bounce. I didn’t really notice this watching the game live, but if Preuss comes in, then surely that will help Max clunk a few.

I think the loss of Hogan is going to be noticed a fair bit this year. Tmac is a very straight up and down forward with out any sort of tricks, and I feel Weideman is the same. They don’t have the forward nous to create goals when they don’t mark the ball. I think people were too overawed with Weid’s 1-2 good finals games that they forgot the body of his work. Joel smith might provide something dynamic when he returns to assist with those two tall forwards.

I'm tipping Ryder will have a tough time tomorrow with it being 31 degrees while wearing that giant stackhat on his head. Surely he won't be clunking them with it also obstructing his vision slightly.

Watts will play half back. Played there both JLT games. Ryder and Marshall will be their talls.

100% - some turn to alcohol to diminish the uncomfortable feelings that anxiety brings up, and some get caught in the trap to think that this is the only way to deal with them. Hence, I understand when Peter Bell says Jesse’s anxiety problem can lead him to making poor choices on alcohol consumption. I hope that Jesse can find the right way to manage his anxiety without the use of alcohol.

If I recall correctly, by the time finals came round last year we actually went back to a more traditional 6-6-6 structure, and no more silly centre bounce setups. Thus, we should be well adjusted to this set up.

Have seen on Instagram that Viney is doing an intermittent fasting diet. Essentially he fasts between 8pm at night to 12pm the next day. He’s claimed it’s helped him lose a bit more weight (without losing muscle) and his training hasn’t been affected. Will be interesting to see if he continues it during the season. Also said that “Personally, I think alcohol plays no role in an athlete’s diet”.

Has anyone had their membership pack delivered yet? I upgraded to Demon Seat plus in mid October and haven’t received a thing.