RedBlueandTrue

Extremely harsh on the draft rating in my view. Not a pick before 29 and yet we drafted three premiership players with 4 picks, one with a lazy 6 goals in that game. That is an unworldly hit rate. 9.5/10.

Everyone calling for rain! I want it as dry as possible. Was a wet day the last time we played them and it didn't stop draper and phillips combining for 5 strong goals and killing us! They're in good form and it will be tough, but I'm loving the new look Dees. Hoping we can work on some better method out of the centre by necessity without Maxy. Team has grown so much in the last three weeks. Let that continue! Go Dees

I really feel a ruckman is only worth what they can do around the ground. Ruck duels for me are such a 50 50. Don't mind the selection at all! Much prefer it to playing someone they don't think is ready.

Oliver with his current situation will not be traded. He has no value. I would be suprised if any team wanted to take on his contract with the way he is playing currently and the questions on his future, let alone part with a pick of any value for him. He's worth much more to us in trying to build him back up. Last season was the time to trade him, that opportunity is gone. I'd say the same for Petty too - so much more value keeping him than what we'd ever get in a trade now.

Don't think he'll move and believe the price would be too high for us if he did. Would love him because he's an absolute gun! Reckon he'll have a few years of being a top 5 mid. I think if north finish the year with a bit more promise he'll sign on. I think North will turn the corner soon and shoot up to the middle sort of tier with an absolutely elite midfield. Forwards aren't too bad either, need a bit more quality in the smalls though and probably another gun tall or medium. Obviously defence is the issue and they'll probably need to target elite defenders as we did.

Late to the party but thank you, really interesting. I was noticing Carlton doing this with Cincotta on Butters on Thursday. He'd start with a really hard forward tag on Houston to try and stop him intercepting if blues win centre clearance, then push to Butters at next stoppage.

Lowest iq coach to stay in the top 4 for 3 years. Imagine he was also an intellectual like us K. Things a bit shaky at the minute especially given finding success following stylistic change is historically instantaneous in team sport. We'll be right or we won't. Doesn't change that Goody has delivered us success no other coach could for almost 6 decades.

Yes - money and playing opportunity, the other 2 factors I said above (sorry not trying to sound smart - just saying that I agree with the sort of player you can get). Hindsight is 20/20. Essendon took a punt on a speculative player that had the same 'lacks competitiveness' tag that schache still has. It worked out. Same way we took a punt on brown. Worked for a year and helped deliver a flag. Point remains - very difficult and rare to get a readymade gun key forward in, you need to find a diamond in the rough or someone serviceable to play the role as we have tried to.

I'm pretty sure we've said the same thing but you've removed location. When was the last time a gun key forward moved between Vic clubs? Or even a serviceable one? Defenders sometimes - mckay last year an example at free agency. I swear it just doesn't happen.

It's not just about trading for people. We are always prepared to pay a fair price. The hard part is getting players to want to move. Which key forwards have shown any indication that they'll move lately? Pro footy players are very competitive and the idea of moving from a lower team to a higher team for an easy shot at a flag isn't as appealing as some seem to think. Barely happens - no one wants to end up like deledio. There has to be an issue - playing time/position, location or money. If a key fwd has one of those issues and wants to move then 17 clubs ask the question.

It's hard to tell. If we magically start doing better in midfield, I think everything will start to look better. How much are the midfield issues tactically vs form based? Difficult to say. It's a bloody hard comp at the moment. Yeah WC have been trash for years, but they clearly put a pretty good game together on the weekend and would've given most a run for their money I reckon. Hope we can iron things out and pull away - we're in a pretty good position considering there's so many things we should be able to improve. Optimist in me says we can!

I suppose I expected a slow start due to the break differential so the marks inside 50 didn't really phase me in q1 as they then only took another 4 for the game. Not too bad considering the 'firepower' that they have in the twin towers. We had 2 more marks i50 than they did! If they had continued to do so I would be much more worried. But we adjusted as we always do in those situations and it wasnt an issue for the rest of the game. You're never going to be able to stop a team scoring completely and dees won't be happy to concede 12 when 10 is the target. But it is worth noting that Carlton finished their work at a level well above afl average. I certainly agree that we need to improve with our transition into attacking 50, but with mcadam to come in, maybe melksham as well, Petty to keep getting better (which of course is up to debate, I certainly think he will keep trending upwards as confidence in his foot and ability grows) and oliver to continue getting better, I think this will happen. I hope bowey can come back and find some form too, he can play a big part in this with his skillset as can Salem. Obviously at the end of the day a big part of it all will come down to which teams cop injuries and where, doesn't take an expert to know that we were always going to struggle last year with half the forwardline going down. Pretty wild that we were still close to winning our finals despite this. I will always believe that relying on defence is much better than relying on attack. We clearly are trying to improve our consistency with ball movement though and think there is a lot of improvement to come from us in this regard. Need a lot of luck as any team does but I think if we do get some luck we are as well placed as any of the top teams to take advantage. Sorry for rambling! Just happy to have a great team to follow

Anyone feeling weirdly positive despite the loss? Umps were very frustrating but they always are. Sad not to win, but the performance has left me more confident with the direction we are heading tactically. I also love the way we were able to slowly wrestle away and maintain momentum right up to the end after a demoralising first quarter. This game for me, was decided by Carlton's ability to nail shot after shot, in the first quarter in particular. Yes, we started slowly (cough 5 day break cough), but our start was made to look a lot worse due to Carlton making us pay for every shot. If we're looking at 3.3, 2.5 or even 4.1 instead of 5.0 at the break, you can be looking at an entirely different game. More than at any time when I have been following footy, accuracy seems to be king with the protected zone and stand rules obviously playing a part in this. Our 5 straight in the last won it last week. It is clear that we are finally in the process of adjusting our plan to generate less but higher-percentage goal-scoring opportunities. If we can get it to click more consistently and confidently I think we will be as well placed as we have been since 2021. For what it's worth, I also feel that we seem to have that extra little intangible bit of belief and team spirit that perhaps was not so obvious at times in 2022 and 2023. We are in a very strong position and I am more confident than ever that we are putting the pieces in place to get the team peaking at the right time. To be 6-3 with such drastic changes to our style is so fantastic. I had us 4-5 at this point on my preseason ladder predictor and still finishing 3rd, so I am absolutely wrapped. I think our premiership profile is building and last night's loss did nothing to change my mind - I doubt it changed the belief of the coaches and players either. Could of course be an unrealistically positive take but I honestly feel we have a really exciting and memorable season unfolding.

Yep, was absolutely no surprise hearing this after the jvr comments. Dude can't think.

I like Robbo, don't agree with some of his calls, an obvious clanger on Fritsch but he doesn't try to be smarter than he is and gets most of the big issues right for mine. Better than someone like Kingy who flip-flops his life philosophies after every round on misguided 'technical' analysis or the Morris types of the world. Don't think my opinion can be trusted though because I like Cornes and McClure for constantly pissing off entire supporter bases.

Agree, can't stand the campaigner 😉

This is absolutely true, great post. Scott is calculating and doing everything he can to further his clubs interests. The guy could not care less if he comes across as arrogant if he believes it will give his team a psychological advantage. Same as after the 2021 prelim - people hate on him for the illness excuse but he gives his players a reason outside their control for the soul destroying loss to quell the recurrence of any mental demons in the future. They then win the next flag after a loss that most thought would shut their window. Very different approach to Goody, who champions the consistent messaging of respect for the competition and is very frustrating for opposition fans but Scott's messaging is and always has been tactically rather than personality-based.

I choose to believe you were the reverse jinx we needed

I know we don't like to talk about it and a lot has happened since then but for me he was our best player in the finals series. Clearly a lot would have been happening at the time but he was still near his very best particularly in the first final.

Nope, they've changed it this year. Eg Tsatas sub after being named on field.

Oliver May Gawn Petracca Billings Clear top 5 for me then a raffle at 6 Viney - set us up for a good day in front of the sticks

A premiership season with spargs and Billo leading the afl for goal assists is going to be so enjoyable

When he finally did move, it really looked for a very short period like Wattsy could've finally put it all together at Port before injuries struck. Would love to draft an 18 year old Jack Watts (or Jack Billings for that matter) into our current development set up.

Probably about spot on based on this years form for mine. Petty, JVR and J Smith have a lot of scope to improve though through consistent playing time together. Just have to have those fingers crossed that we can keep them on the park and keep building their understanding. If you get that, then Koz just needs to have the glass shatter moment where he realises that he actually has an extra second to compose himself and our perceived 'weak' fwdline because a wonderful strength. Same with the other high calibre teams, if you can keep your best players on the park building cohesion, you're going to be very tough to beat.

Golly I really don't see a forward half issue... biggest issue for me is lack of precision kicks which means that if we try to pick passes inside 50 rather than bomb or kick to flanks we run risk of turn over on the op d50 line. The collingwoods and Brisbanes then sting you on the counter. Collingwood were the ones playing extremely defensive against us in that final and they were able to punch us on the break enough to get over the line despite our territory game being in great form. It's this defensive game that allows them to score goals out the back but they also won't generate as many opportunities. Of course if all of our better forwards are injured then it gets harder to score goals but the king brothers haven't been any more durable than Petty over the years and charlie has only really got his body right the last two years. Our ball wining and territory domination is our greatest strength (along with turnover - particularly fwd half) which has put us in a great position to challenge 3 years in a row. I honestly believe that once you have the system and players good enough to be top 4 (preferably top 2) then the rest is luck with timing of fitness, injuries and where those injuries are on the field - our forwardline was crucified, take daniher and McCarthy out of Brisbane's fwdline and suddenly they don't look nearly as menacing. I still think even with our injuries that if you played the finals series 100 times we would probably win at least 30. Sorry for rambling and getting off track, I think footy is a funny luck based game past a certain point and there's no golden fix for our perceived issues that doesn't hurt our game in other areas and decrease our overall ability to compete for the premiership. Looking forward to rolling those dice again next year with Fulla and hopefully McAdam for some more flair and fun. Wouldn't mind a classier user in the mids, but you don't want to reduce our ability to win territory despite being undermanned at stoppage... go dees