At the break of Gawn

Any news on Howe? Would be great news if he’s an out.

Cox hasn’t got near it the last few weeks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he got dropped this week for Grundy.

Guaranteed to play finals now. It’s significant because it’s the first time we’ve played consecutive finals series since 05-06! I honestly think out of the 4 games this was our biggest challenge. Freo are a great defensive side and had to play them at home. Pies next Friday night is going to be huge. Let’s pay them back!

Out of the 3 tall forwards for both sides, he was the only one to kick a goal. I’m not saying he played a good game obviously, but I don’t think BB would have done much in those conditions.

I wouldn’t rush Harmes in. Brayshaw’s time in the middle was heaps more impactful than Harmes’ usually is.

Fritsch needs to stop passing it.

This is the real test now. The dogs flicked the switch last week and we couldn’t respond. We have to maintain this lead! C’mon Boys!

100% the amount of times I’ve heard his opinion change is just ridiculous. I remember he said in early 2021 that the Saints had more weapons than Melbourne as an example.

How was that Gus tackle not HTB? Had an eternity

Oliver gone down into the rooms?

Melksham will be needed to nullify Young (they’re roughly the same height). That kid is a jet. We really need Melksham to reprise his half forward defence roll he did on McGovern back in 2018 rnd 22.

Genuinely annoyed that Lobb has been named. I really thought he wasn’t going to get up which would really help us.

I haven’t heard one good answer on the contested marking drop off. I’d love to hear an explanation for this.

The surface isn’t great at the moment in Optus. Saints and Eagles players were slipping over all the time. No Ben Brown might just be a bit of a blessing.

True. 2018 they had a 100pt win against the Suns in round 23 at home and then they came up against us in week 1 of the finals…

I really enjoyed the first 5-6 weeks and especially the afterglow of being premier, but then we started to see huge lapses in our game which still hasn’t been addressed. It’ll never live up to the excitement of ‘21. I still have really fond memories of 2018 but hopefully this year will be better than that.

This. I have no doubt that clubs allocate a greater amount of space for midfielders as compared to a half back/wingman. It will probably be the last contract he’ll ever sign so I understand why he’s doing due diligence. I don’t think he will get the big midfield role at a rival club, however. Essendon for example, has Merrett, Parish, Shiel, Caldwell, Stringer etc at the centre bounce. Hence, I think he needs to be a bit realistic here. Other clubs will want him as a HB now with the way he’s been playing so I don’t think the grass will be greener for him.

Goodwin and co are already well aware of this. That’s why they’ve changed to the 1 tall and 1 resting ruck set up. Last week against the Power was a very decent forward half game with good forward pressure but unfortunately we couldn’t replicate it much at all in the second half last week (although we got smashed in stoppage clearances which doesn’t help).

I’m not surprised Gawn didn’t get a vote. Although he had a fair bit of it he was too loose and unaccountable. Brayshaw also turned it over a bit so no surprises there he got left out,

It would be great if you could discuss how Melbourne should learn from the defeat earlier in the season to Freo and how we will turn things around. From memory, the Dockers kicked a lot of centre bounce goals which is something I feel we’ve been better at defending the last few weeks.

I really hope you’re right.

As someone else said pressure around the contest, but it’s also our unrealistic desire of a clean exit out of stoppage. The number of times we had first hands on the ball at the stoppage (particularly at centre bounce) but we tried to handball it away for a clean exit and the dogs stole it was mind boggling. Same thing also happened with Freo and Geelong. I get that at times we can be really damaging and score goals from clearance but I really think we need the territory first. This desire for a clean exit must be coach driven so maybe they’re worried about our ability to get ball to ground in our F50 if we do a bomb kick?

It’s funny how we solve one problem but then another one pops up. A month ago it was all about our forward connection and our lack of pressure inside 50. We’ve sort of fixed that up with a smaller forward line but now our defence is looking shaky. I for one think Max needs to start to become a bit more accountable for his man rather than fill in the hole. He needs to decide when to go and impact the contest or when he can’t (Jackson included). I’ll also point out that both of our most recent losses have been on smaller grounds where he can’t use the full width like we like to. For me the real test is how we play against the next three weeks. Optus and MCG games are where we are best. If we can’t get it right then it’s good night on 2022.

We might not win it this year, but there’s no way Collingwood are getting anywhere near it. Have had an almighty soft draw and unbelievably lucky to sneak some of those wins.

I think Fritsch’s was also pretty damning. Last year I seemed to recall him do plenty of forward 50 tackles and chase downs. I feel his defensive pressure has dropped off.