At the break of Gawn

I agree with the OP. This is a huge game. As Paul Roos likes to say "It's all about momentum". The Tigers have plenty of momentum coming into this game albeit a few easier opponents. Nevertheless, If you look back on our last 3 wins against them, they were struggling form wise during that part of the season when we faced them, while we were doing OK. This is the first time we've played against them when they've come in on red hot form. 2014 - Round 9. Melbourne had beaten Adelaide (in Adelaide) and lost narrowly to the bulldogs the week before. The tigers on the other hand were floundering at that point and couldn't even get it up after the death of Tom Hafey 2015 - Round 4. We were doing "OK" after a win against GC in round 1 and a spirited loss to Adelaide in Adelaide. Tigers again were struggling to kickstart their season. 2016 - Round 5. Melbourne had just beaten the Pies easily and were 2-2 while Richmond again were struggling (1-3) despite making the finals the previous year. If we lose this. It's 3 losses on the trot and a 4th could easily happen at Etihad stadium against the Dons.

Just watched the last 2 mins again of the last qtr. Noticed these mistakes. Feel free to add: 1. Vince's dinky kick which missed the target. 2. Weideman's fresh air kick on the wing 3. Frost's punch although had good intentions 4. McDonald's terrible high kick at CHB (after the deliberate call) to harmes (had Watts in the corridor albeit one on one) 5. Bernie's stupid torp which looked like something you'd see in the amateur's 6. Harmes hail Mary kick on goal with players free to his right. I know I'm probably missing some...

JW's flying for the ball has him taking some good contested marks now. Goodwin's extra work with him on this is being repaid.

Harmes had Jetta to his right all alone. To be fair was 30m to his right. Not in immediate vision.

I just looked back then too. Looks like he deleted it. Probably because he tagged Vince in it.

He should've learnt his lesson against the gold coast. But no, he did it again. So frustrating. David King's tweet summed it up well "Poor efforts from @bvince23 in that last quarter. Far from an elite performance, dropped marks. Poor kicking, disgusting for a leader."

Bugg came first in our 3km time trial. Fittest guy in the team

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/hot-dub-time-machine-announces-2017-hot-dub-wine-machine-tour/ Mainly electronic acts

Bloody hell. Watts is dying in a ditch from exhaustion from rucking all day and Hogan is smoking darts at a music festival...

Never had the hands to just clunk marks. If he did, he'd be a superstar.

That's pretty accurate! Although I reckon Tyson was more of went missing

I can't recall too many games where a player is virtually unsighted and you start to look at the team sheets to check if they are actually playing. Sam Weiderman had one of those today. Needs to go back to Casey for a bit.

Elephant 1 - he's definitely out of form, but I think he held Dangerfield quite well early on. Faded in last qtr. Elephant 2 - Watts did play well and I think everyone has forgotten the preseason circus. Would have loved him full time in the forward line today.

Bernie's tackle on Hawkins was huge though.

Yep. Spencer better dominate. He's got Sandilands up first. He's been asking for his opportunity and now he has it.

Upon reflection, it honestly didn't matter that Gawn went down. We were still winning the clearances at 3qtr time. Missing 20 shots on goal did. When you put that much effort to control the game with all that defensive pressure, you have to nail the goals. Instead we just blew it. Extremely disappointing, because a win like that with our backs against the walls would have been season defining. Instead we fluffed simple set shots.

6 - Jones. Just so inspiring. 5 - Hunt. Dashing off half back really set us up in first 3qtrs 4 - Watts. Was BoG at half time and was serviceable in the ruck. Got tired in last qtr. 3 - Kent. He missed some sitters but he was very dangerous after qtr time. 2.Stretch. Didn't do much wrong and his contested work was very good. 1.AnB. Despite that shocking backwards kick I thought he tried his guts out.

Smith is a great story. But geez, if goody had a crystal ball he would've played Spencer or Pederson today to take the ruck duties. Had no forward line after half time. Watts efforts were admirable, probably BoG at half time but faded due to fatigue.

Shattering loss. Really thought we deserved to win that. Curse those damn set shots.

I'm worried about Viney. Seems to second guess himself these days.

Always found him a bit selfish around goals though. Let's hope he's worked on that shortcoming over the summer.

Yep, gave Brayshaw a cut eye (although later) and punched Watts in the back of the head too. Rowe does it every week.

Pretty sure Pedo won't be back-up ruck. Didn't play that role against the Hawks last year and surprisingly, Roos (and now Goodwin) think Watts is pretty competent at it. I'm actually opting for Spencer on this. Geelong has a big issue with their Rucks. Spencer and Gawn tower over Stanley and Blicavs by >10cm. Secondly, Geelong doesn't have a tall enough defender when either Gawn/Spencer drift forward. Bigger worry could be our defence. Menzel is a hard match-up and in pretty good form. Melksham will have his work cut out for him and could be a defining game for him if he has to play accountable.

I reckon he's not putting his dukes out to mark must have something to do with his injured hand. Never been a player to regularly go for the chest marks. Much easier to mark with your arms outstretched.

Agree on Jetta. Due to our larger midfield brigade getting back, Jetta is getting a lot of uncontested possessions and intercept marks as he doesn't have to stay strictly on his man. This gives the appearance that he's having a blinder where he's actually more just like a loose man in defense. Still a good consistent player and definitely in the top 8 players for us yesterday.