At the break of Gawn

I think 99% of the footy world knew Mummy did it deliberately, but be disguised it so well, it was impossible to suspend him.

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

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.

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.

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?

Yep, Lever is the one.

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.

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.

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.

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.