Rivers Run Red

M30 again, better not be infiltrated with oppo fans like last week.

And I'll say the same next year if we end up in this predicament again.

Same, you earn a double chancebfor a reason. There's 4 teams that still have to win a game of footy to be in the same position as we are right now. Would be nice to be 1 win away, but we are still only 2 wins away from the big dance.

Best defensive team due to structure, it's easier to pick out players from teams whose whole defence is on one blokes shoulders.

What can we do... Ignore it, win flags.

Gents, is everyone looking at the Grundy situation wrong. This time last year gawn was cooked, we get bundled out of finals with gawn looking very tired. Fast forward to 23 and we witness that game from gawn, and we are looking at finals with AFLs #1 ruck fit and firing and a top 4 finish. Should we stop looking at it as a dual ruck set-up, and more of a support act (albeit quite an expensive investment), and a view to a replacement for gawn in 3-4 years where we will still have trac/oliver prime and the next tier coming through.

@AFLxScore on twitter

Whoa. I know we were bad, but the answer is not to bring in even bigger passenegers.

Choco better have a good word with them this week. 5 missed set shots from directly in front. A 24 point xscore swing on scores alone, not counting all the blunders which seem to be the melbourne way going forward at the moment. Never been to a more frustrating game of football.

It was where we rank in the comp (which I hope is averages not totals) Scores from stoppages, we are #7 in the comp, or #14 if we exclude the easy kills General play contested ball wins, #5, down to #10 (we've been #1 last 2 seasons) Defensive 50 stoppage was the poorest as we are #18 already. Regardless of the comparisons between easy/hard teams, we are down in all 3 metrics.

Should've been more specific. Stat was for D50 stoppages. My bad.

Thought it was a pretty fair reflection of where we are at. Down on contested ball, bleeding in the back half, struggling at stoppage. Particularly liked the reference to the brutality of 21 and early 22, id love to see us destroy a contender (somewhere around june 12 preferably).

Gutted with the loss, outplayed for 3 quarters, but find respite in the fact that we lost by 4 points. Adding to this, they had a bloke play the highest rated game for the year, got some calls thier way, and still only 4 points. I want to convince myself this is unsustainable and we will be ok, and that our method will get us though, but I'm getting more shades of a misfiring 2022 Dees than a team that deserves to be second in the flag betting. One of my tigers mates said after our flag, "it gets harder now, teams will hunt the demons, get pride from beating the demons" I think about this way too much. Rant over, love the pod guys.

Gawns been niggled and infringed for 2 years and we've not responded. Why start now. Was a bad take, 1 goal the other way and they are talking about how he battled through the adversity. The niggles weren't the be all of the game.

If someone has goodys number can you let him know it's OK to deploy a cooler if one of thier blokes is getting off chain.

Bring back Hankook

So.... do we strategically drop games against the bottom 4 to improve our pick?

Most vocal I've heard us in a while. Great atmosphere. Not a pretty win, but a very enjoyable one.

Some of my finest work 😁

Let's not forget that this was this first time the dons had left Melbourne and have played 3 of this year's probable bottom 4. They were fresh and up for a fight.

Some? Biggest nuffie supporter base going.

The chaotic ball will drag the best of teams into a scrap, and we played into thier hands by keeping the ball moving. It was a shoot out and they had the forward options we were lacking. They crashed and bodied us at every chance, will be some very sore players tonight. Was also one of the worst umpired games both ways I've seen in a loooong time.

Yes! Get to retain the handle

7th highest clearance differential ever (well while stats are available), usually in our favour. Take a 2 goal loss and move on.

Loved the fact we looked for different options in transition. We got one dimensional last year to our detriment. If we are as clinical as we were yesterday, the unpredictability, we will be very hard to stop. A fit maxy helps a heap too