At the break of Gawn

2 minutes ago, drysdale demon said:

Mumford hasn't been suspended

Didn’t even get a mention in the MRO findings ?

Just now, sisso said:

We should try and get as much out of this year before even worrying about 2020 I think: no guarantees we wont have as many injuries/form issues next year. 

Exactly. Injuries are a roll of the dice. Luckily our core midfielders have been relatively injury free this season to date.

We’ll be saying 2021 if next year Gawn, Brayshaw, Oliver, Harmes suffer injuries during the season.

Out: Smith, AnB

In: Preuss, C Wagner

Mummy will 100% go based off his knee to Murphy which means Gawn/Preuss will dominate even more.

Really need to beat the Giants to give ourselves a fighting chance. 

They haven’t beaten us at the G since 2014 and on that day Devon Smith and Thomas Bugg were their best players, so I’m fairly optimistic we can win.

We then beat the Crows in Alice like last time and we’re 5-6 up against the Pies at QB.

Win that and we then need to get 5 wins from Freo (MCG), Carl (MCG), WBD (Mrvl), Saints (Mrvl) Syd (MCG).

And then sneak 2-3 wins from Bris (G), WCE (TP), Rich (MCG), Pies (MCG), North (BA)

All up, I think we can afford to lose 3 more games this season with the % we have. Either way, we need to nail those 5 wins against easier opponents, regardless of how we go over the next 3 weeks. If we don’t win at least 2 of the next 3, it means we can only afford to drop one of the games in the second group I’ve mentioned.

We’ve left ourselves very little room for error with this poor start and the next 3 games define our season.

This belting actually helps us. Giants have had a training run and will be in for a big shock against a good contested side.

4 minutes ago, Rusty Nails said:

IMO the energy used to barn storm our 50 in the first three quarters was pretty much all we had left in the tank ABG.  Unfortunately we didn't put the score on the board by that point and as Goody said we left the door open and they had a little more left in the tank.

I also noticed at one point (mid way through the 2nd quarter or so) we had already used 37 interchange vs their 30.  This may have caught up with us later in the match and the Eagles might have had a few spare to press a late advantage here.

Yeah I think we probably did run out of petrol tickets in the last qtr. A 5 or 6 goal lead at 3qtr time would have got us over the line, but unfortunately as we all know, we didn’t take our chances.

1 hour ago, dees189227 said:

We were 19 points up nearing 3/4 time. We then did what we always do and gave up goals. 

Unfortunately most of the goals they got were from turnovers from us or non decisions.

Kennedy goal - Non decision for unrealistic attempt and completely taking oMac out of the contest.

Ryan goal - Brayshaw slipping over and coughing it up but also a brilliant desperate slap on from Yeo which you won’t often see.

Cripps goal - Turn over handball from Fritsch that went to Vardy.

Dom Sheed goal - Non decision for throw

It’s important to note WCE won the inside 50 count in the last qtr and also improved their contested qtr that game

If you look at the possession heat map you’ll also see that we had much fewer disposals in the middle of the ground as well in the last qtr. I think WCE were either instructed to block the corridor or we were just playing more safe.

We didn’t get an update on May last week. Goody stated after the Hawks game he was 3 weeks.

Does that mean he’s on track for Adelaide?

2 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

No way they’re going to take the captaincy off Viney unless he doesn’t want it.

Gawn will replace Jones as co-captain next year and Lever will be at the very least a co-captain in a few years if his knee holds up. Lever reeks of leadership.

Yep, Lever is the one.

2 hours ago, Redleg said:

Missed 4 easy goals from inside 20 and dropped a simple uncontested mark 20 out.

Momentum killers and kept the Eagles in the game.

Nails them and we are probably 5-6  goals up going into the last. 

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I almost feel Petracca wanted to drop that mark so he wouldn’t have to kick the set shot.

It was bizarre.

I hope he’s seeing the club psychologist because he’s so afraid (potentially of the embarrassment?) to make a mistake right now.

37 minutes ago, joeboy said:

6 - Gawn ( tireless and dominant all game )

5 - Hunt ( emerging as a forward weapon )

4 -  Harmes ( was consistently at the coal face with grunt and vigour)

3 - Frost ( tackle of the year )

2 - Oliver ( for weight of possessions rather than effectiveness)

1 - Hore ( we’ve found one )

 

Copy + Paste

Let’s not forget Fritsch’s terrible work rate here which allowed Ryan to have that free run at it. He was ahead of Ryan but just jogged along. 

He basically set Gawn up for that. 

I’ve given up on Stretch. Really hoped he could make it, but sadly it’s not going to happen for him. Kolodjashnij has his spot if he can ever get on the park.

I felt Oliver tapered off a little when he had a bit of a head clash (not sure if it was second or third qtr) but he was electric before that.

1 minute ago, FireInTheBelly said:

Ridiculous call. Like I said, that situation happens every game, and the player is NEVER called for holding the ball. Yet ours get's knocked out of the game and pinged.

Just 1 in a long line of umpire howlers.

 We should've picked up at least 3 more 50 metre free kicks in that game, but that clearly wasn't 'allowed'

There was an obvious one in the first qtr where Rioli (also on the McGovern diet) just strolled through the protective area (cause he couldn’t keep up with his man) and yet nothing was paid.

I’m just completely baffled that Hickey was a late in for the Eagles and then he starts at the first centre bounce of the game.

I know Gawn dominated all night, but it was obvious Vardy was never going to go up against Gawn. Gawn would have finished with 70 hit outs.

Preuss should have played, although I did admire Smith’s endeavour tonight.

Our oppositions inside 50 efficiency is still way too high.

It was 51% for the Eagles so every second time they got in there, they had a shot.This needs to be around the 30% mark to be a good team.

I suspect this figure will drop significantly once May and Lever are back there. The majority of our defenders just aren’t good one-on-one players.

Thought Frost was quite good tonight - apart from that fumble. 

Also, I cant understand the media’s commentary around Gawn not having that good a year. He’s been excellent since round 2. If he continues this form and gives Grundy a bath on QB, just wait and see the tide turn for them to start calling him the AA ruckman for 2019.

The Jetta thing was bloody annoying. The umpire should have just called a ball up.

I somehow think WCE will argue that it wasn’t a double motion which may be why the umpire didn’t call it.

Even still, I think the MRO will offer him 2 weeks.

Put your house on us winning next week.

Still not sure how Ryan had such a free run at that mark. 

Rioli has destroyed us tonight

Port game away all over again.

We lost our energy after that small break in play. Hopefully we can capitalise this qtr

I re-watched the first half “highlights” of the PF. There’s no way that’s going to happen again. The amount of shocking turn-overs in the middle of the ground streaming forward was like a once in a blue moon sort of perfect storm scenario. Also Lewis single handedly contributed to three of their goals in the back half with some of the worst lazy, loopy handballs you’ll ever see. Luckily he’s not out there tonight.

We might lose, but it won’t be a horror show like that. 

4 hours ago, binman said:

I have been a fan but I'm going a bit luke warm on him to be honest.

I wonder however if the threat of being dropped curtails his game as he is incredibly risk averse with his kicking and in terms of  when to play on after a mark 9often choosing to hold it at half back instead of a quick kick to a free player). Which is a shame because he is an accurate, if not long, kick and good by hand.

Maybe with stretch of games he might be confident to take the game on a bit more. We need good kicks in the side, he is fit, works hard (so important at the moment in terms of getting across to disrupt or man the mark from the chip kicks to free player so many teams are using - which by the by is one reason I'm glad Baker has come in, he will chase and harry all game) and he has his chance to lock in a best 22 spot. JKH will take his spot if he can't do so.

Stretch reminds me a bit like Mason Wood. He spends 12 hrs a day at the club, but leads to him trying way too hard on the field and it ends up having a negative effect on his performance. 

He needs to play a more natural game and play with instinct (be in the moment) instead of worrying too much of the consequence of his actions into the future. 

I really hope he can get this balance right as I feel he has a lot to offer us. 

I’ve got a bet on us to get within 42pts (choose your own line) at $1.30. Pretty good value with all the low scoring.

I highly doubt we’ll get thrashed as some are suggesting. I’ve got some level of confidence that we can win, but worry that we won’t have enough class.

If we had a full-strength side, we'd be pumping up this Friday night as our revenge and a chance to embarrass the Eagles like they did to us. 

Instead, it feels like we're limping over there and an honourable loss will satisfy most.

I hope I'm wrong and the boys play their best game of the season to really kick-start our season.