At the break of Gawn

This anonymous Twitter account which I think is run by a former AFL umpire rates every game from an umpiring perspective and also comments on controversial decisions. This was his take on Saturday’s game.

Oliver likely to win b2b coaches awards is rare air. I think Ablett Jnr was the last player to do so.

I just can’t see them matching Oliver, Petracca and Viney. Our dynamic and more powerful midfield was the reason in the PF and it’ll be the difference once again. Thank god, all 3 of them are in ripping form. Biggest threat is Jeremy Cameron. If Petty can tighten up on him we’ll be golden.

Worst umpiring I’ve seen in years. None of our tackles rewarded, Adelaide paid marks over the boundary line, Tex Walker basically cheating the ruck system, high tackles not paid etc. [censored], I loved it when we kicked those two quick goals in the last qtr and shut up those stupid Crom supporters and said a big F you to the umpires trying to steal it from us. Also, blessed that we get to watch Oliver, Trac and Viney at their absolute best.

Petty was actually pretty good. Brayshaw’s kicking is consistently letting us down no matter how good his intercept game is.

Walker will get up to play us. He hates Melbourne and would love nothing more to knock us off again at home.

Thought Trac was really dynamic. Just need his set shots sorted.

Best qtr all year. Viney absolutely huge.

As long as Richmond don’t win. Their nuffy supporters will say that Melbourne only won in 2021 because of all the injuries Richmond had.

Montagna had some fantastic vision on AFL360 of Melbourne’s forwards against Collingwood. It seemed that when we generated a turn over in the middle, our forwards were too far up the ground and were just generally disorganised. He hypothesised that our forwards were overcompensating for our defence. Most of the vision was in the 3rd qtr when our defence was short so it’ll be interesting to see if our forwards hold their structure tomorrow better with May back.

Have to say, a 10 day break isn’t really a bye. We’ve really been screwed over by the AFL here. I hope the boys have freshened up.

I got the sense that Weideman will come in based off Goody’s presser. The fact that he elaborated on him either doing ruck or as a tall forward is a good sign. Out: Gawn, Turner In: Weideman, May.

Genuinely surprised we are favourites for this game. I predict one of two things are going to happen on Thursday: 1) We get off to a good start and then get overrun again to further confirm we are still way off it and our season is in real danger 2) We play a sustained brand of footy and beat them and it actually looks like we’re back (despite missing Max)

I’ll be happy with 15 wins to be honest.

Just a couple of observations from me: 1) We have lost contested marks the last 3 weeks (and badly). You’d be hard pressed to find a game last year where we lost that stat and from rounds 1-10 we won contested marks every match. Anyone have any thoughts on this? 2) Opposition efficiency inside 50. Most of 2021 teams would average around 20-30% against us. In rounds 1-10 it was still mainly 30% with an occasional 40% and one 50%. The last 3 weeks the opposition is scoring >50% of the time for each entry which is just unsustainable. Is this from Steven May not being there or is it more related to our poor pressure on the ball carrier?

Geez I’m glad Howe will never taste premiership success.

Think there was a bit of a collective gasp of shock in the crowd when he won which then the boos followed. Cox should have won it.

Really don’t want to see a thread like this again until we are absolutely humming and won 5 in a row.

AnB is a real concern. His disposal has dropped off significantly and he just can’t convert at all.

As many have mentioned earlier, we’ve been flat for 5-6 weeks. I’m not sure about this training load theory. From memory that happened after the bye last year and not before it. A couple of observations - Why are we insisting on making the ground so wide? Time and time we had players free in the corridor but opted for the Wings/flanks. I understand turning it over there is risky and a lot of the top 4 teams are keeping width, but when we turned it over, Collingwood had so much time and space to use the corridor they cut us to ribbons. - Teams are holding their defenders back against us now. We are a turn over side and when it’s our turn to go, we run harder than anyone. Unfortunately, teams have worked out you can’t get sucked up high against Melbourne or they’ll get out the back. We scored 2 goals off turn overs today and 0 last week. It’s diabolical and we need to figure this out. Unfortunately we don’t have the talent of a McKay or a Curnow, so Goody and Stafford need to improve that connection with the midfielders and our forwards. - Our pressure is way off - especially our tackling pressure. Our mids just aren’t closing space well enough. - No Steven May really hurts and a few times Collingwood got players out the back.

Pretty sure I predicted a low scoring game. 70-55 I think. But the other way around…

Crazy to think we haven’t beaten this mob on QBD since 2017 and Jack Watts’ goal. We’re too good of a team to not beat them today. As I said in another thread, I think we’ll win today but it’ll be a smallish margin. It’ll be low scoring like 70-55.

Anyone know average age and experience between us and the Pies for tomorrow’s line-up? Pies often touted as a young list but pretty sure they’re quite the opposite.

I honestly can’t wait to see how we respond. I’m really curious to see if we steel ourselves or turn to water. Regardless of how intense our attack on the ball is, our problems run deeper than just an effort level. Our forward line is completely at sea and we’re a long way off from clicking, so even if we do win, it won’t be by much as I think we’ll struggle to kick over 70-80pts.

Goody should have asked where were all the Tigers supporters last night…