leave it to deever

Top post. Not sure if I agree on Sparrow though. Against the pies he accumulated 14 disposals. He started very well and 8 of those possessions he amassed in the first quarter. This for me says a lot about him. Although I do think he gives a lot of effort ( his tackling), he rarely backs up a very good game with another. He's also not a ball magnet and for a midfielder, I don't feel he reads the play as well as he should. Players like Oliver and Trac, have an great instinctual feel for the flow and direction of the ball and are in the thick of it so to speak.

It's interesting that since 2021, we have had Max injured, Oliver injured and now Tracca. As much as one wants to be positive, we probably won't see our midfield anywhere near its absolute best. It used to be our biggest weapon. Let's face it Oliver, Tracc, Viney and Gawn at the peak of their powers was a great combo to behold. And we used to cobble together a pretty good fwd line with Tmac, Bbb, Spargo, Anb and Fritta. Kicking 100 points plus didn't seem so hard. And now ( certainly with Lever out, Petty moved forward and May getting older( we can't boast the best backline anymore ). It's another close season ( minus the Swan's) so we will probably stay in touch of the eight but we've come down to one player being injured, determining if we will make them. There's a chance we will break into them but it's the slimmest of slims. Probably likely to cause one or two upsets between now and the finals but imho won't make them. After our SA success, I didn't think I'd witness our decline like this. Top four seemed assured and so soon we are all pretty sure we won't play finals. What a brutal game. When we went out in straight sets in 22, I think I was still distracted by all the success of breaking an over 50 year drought. Last year, I was gutted. It was really bad luck on the fwd injury front. Especially when Milkshake had really stepped up. I know we would have won with Jake and Gus. Quite convincingly. This time the smoke from the whole Maynard event distracted me. And now with what's happened to us in the last six weeks, I've settled back into seeing things more clearly again. It's just so incredibly hard to win premierships. After 56 years of absence, one would think that fact is seared into my frontal lobes. It doesn't take much to derail a flag chance. Like last year with Jake's Knee and Maynards agro, a while years sweat and tears are erased away in a week The problem is We've tasted success and we realise how wonderful it is. I just wish watching the 21 GF replay hadn't lost most of its magic for me. I think the hardest thing to accept is not seeing a flag in person at the MCG. I was really thinking I would be attending one with this list winning more than just one. The whole COVID thing doesn't lessen our flag to me in the slightest. I just so wanted to see one not through a TV camera. It's definitely not going to happen this year and I doubt if it will in the next few. I'm past blaming players and trying to work out where the club went wrong. For me it's about accepting that the window is closed but that we need to get back to making a new one pronto.

Big deal. I forget I'm not a player every single weekend. The Afl could reprimand 99 % of Demonland. (And such damning video footage they have).

Was probably good at bullying though.

He was supposed to be recruiting for his elite kicking skills. I've watched him closely this year and I'm far from convinced. Seems to be in two minds when he disposes of the ball and has turned it over on more than a few occasions without any real pressure on him.

Was thinking exactly the same thing. Definitely need at least one experienced big bodied forward for Tmac. Plus another one with some rucking ability. ( This one could be young if necessary). And Tommo and Tmac are getting long in the tooth so yep. We are a man down with Gus out so he needs replacement but I'd add we really need two or three more mids. Id be inclined to move Sparrow on. And another small forward wouldn't hurt because I'm not sure where Spargo is injury while and for me Laurie hasn't shown much. I also reckon the jury is still out on Chin. Last year he started with all guns blazing and slowed mid season. Seems to be the same this year. Probably need to invest in another young key ruck.

Really not sure why Harmes and Jordan were mentioned. Not really that relevant to our form this year. Harmes as much as I like him and appreciate his contribution was clearly on the decline with us and JJ never really seemed to get out of second gear. Bbb has been out of it all for two years and Jackson apart from giving Max a few rests was never a great forward.( Although light years ahead of Petty). And Sparrow is definitely not on the ascendency as this article claims. In fact he's far from it and has been very consistent in low impact. For 4 years now he's been averaging 14 disposals a game. Nowhere near enough given hes not required to tag or play fwd often. With Tmac and Bbb out of the fwd line we really have only had Fritta and Jvr. The latter I believe will become a very good footballer but in his second year he's still finding his way so there's bound to be inconsistentency. We have Kozzie but he's been drafted into the middle way too often and compromising his goal tally. And Fritta is a skilled player who requires space to showcase his skill and finesse. The congestion in our fwd line this year has been like Sydney peak hour traffic. As mentioned pre pies game, our named six fwds scored an average of less than 40 points combined each game. We just can't kick winning scores. Plus the inaccuracy is woeful. In 2021 we got almost 100 goals out of the combination of Jackson, Bbb, Tmac and Spargo. Also Fritta, Kozzie, Nibbler and Tracca are all down a large amount of their goal tallies this year from 21. Petty is just making up the numbers and without looking at any stats Id wager that there is not another team gifting 11 games to a fwd for a total 3 goal haul. We have relied on our Python like defence in stopping other teams from scoring but eventually this was bound to fall apart. You can't win games with solid back lines. You need to score. And this year our midfield has fallen away as well. Oliver has played a couple of good games and I'm mindful of being gracious with him because he has been one of the best midfielders we have ever had. But this year he is having a well below par season. And his erratic disposal hasn't helped when he has gone and gotten the pill. Jack Viney is having a below par year as well, with five less disposals per game than his norm. Thankfully we have had Max and CP5 still going strong but who knows how long Tracca will be out for. The reality is after winning a flag the club has been for the most part very poor in its recruiting. We have acquired players who were struggling at other clubs and who now struggle at ours. To say we lack depth is an understatement. Imagine if we had the injury runs some other clubs have endured? Imagine if Max went down. Or Fritta.( He Had a couple of shockers but he's still booted over two goals a game). The truth is we are struggling to cobble a side together this year, even without a lot of injuries. How did we go from our 21 flag side with at least half a dozen competitive enough to just miss out to a team this year where half a dozen playing shouldn't be, week in week out? We were also very very lucky with our lack of injury in 21 so our list was never really seriously challenged. No doubt about it, the club did exceptionally well building the list that won the 2021 cup but it stopped building in 2020 pretty much. For four years we have been treading water, plugging holes, bridging gaps and buying excuses ( plus a few other cliches I can't think of at this very moment). But it is true. The list in 21 was exceptional and all the stars aligned for all the stars to shine. Truthfully we may not have batted too deep in 21 but everything still worked out. Rarey did we have to drop players each week and form and consistency reigned supreme. This year we can't afford to drop anyone and we are seeing injured, tired and consistently out of form players in the firsts. And some of our choices of recruiting have been mind boggling with not a few even getting games. All credit to those responsible at the Mfc for building and developing such a great list to finally bring home a flag. Shame on them for letting in deteriorate to where we are today. And let's not kid ourselves it's going to get worse. We are witnessing the beginning of the end. With Tracca injured we now won't make finals. Back to cliches, I hope we bite the bullet at year's end and make a clean sweep of the list where necessary. And especially stand firm in not accepting mediocre players from other clubs anymore.

Really not sure why Harmes and Jordan were mentioned. Not really that relevant to our form this year. Harmes as much as I like him and appreciate his contribution was clearly on the decline with us and JJ never really seemed to get out of second gear. Bbb has been out of it all for two years and Jackson apart from giving Max a few rests was never a great forward.( Although light years ahead of Petty). And Sparrow is definitely not on the ascendency as this article claims. In fact he's far from it and has been very consistent in low impact. For 4 years now he's been averaging 14 disposals a game. Nowhere near enough given hes not required to tag or play fwd often. With Tmac and Bbb out of the fwd line we really have only had Fritta and Jvr. The latter I believe will become a very good footballer but in his second year he's still finding his way so there's bound to be inconsistentency. We have Kozzie but he's been drafted into the middle way too often and compromising his goal tally. And Fritta is a skilled player who requires space to showcase his skill and finesse. The congestion in our fwd line this year has been like Sydney peak hour traffic. As mentioned pre pies game, our named six fwds scored an average of less than 40 points. We just can't kick winning scores. Plus the inaccuracy is woeful. In 2021 we got almost 100 goals out of the combination of Jackson, Bbb, Tmac and Spargo. Also Fritta, Kozzie, Nibbler and Tracca are all down a large amount of their goal tallies this year from 21. Petty is just making up the numbers and without looking at any stats Id wager that there is not another team gifting 11 games to a fwd for a total 3 goal haul. We have relied on our Python like defence in stopping other teams from scoring but eventually this was bound to fall apart. You can't win games with solid back lines. You need to score. And this year our midfield has fallen away as well. Oliver has played a couple of good games and I'm mindful of being gracious with him because he has been one of the best midfielders we have ever had. But this year he is having a well below par season. And his erratic disposal hasn't helped when he has gone and gotten the pill. Jack Viney is having a below par year as well, with five less disposals per game than his norm. Thankfully we have had Max and CP5 still going strong but who knows how long Tracca will be out for. The reality is after winning a flag the club has been for the most part very poor in its recruiting. We have acquired players who were struggling at other clubs and who now struggle at ours. To say we lack depth is an understatement. Imagine if we had the injury runs some other clubs have endured? Imagine if Max went down. Or Fritta.( He Had a couple of shockers but he's still booted over two goals a game). The truth is we are struggling to cobble a side together even without a lot of injuries. How did we go from our 21 flag side with at least half a dozen competitive enough to just miss out to a team this year where half a dozen playing shouldn't be, week in week out? We were also very very lucky with our lack of injury in 21 so our list was never really seriously challenged. No doubt about it, the club did exceptionally well building their list that won the 2021 cup but it stopped building in 2020 pretty much. For four years we have been treading water, plugging holes, bridging gaps and buying excuses ( plus a few other cliches I can't think of at this very moment). But it is true. The list in 21 was exceptional and all the stars aligned for all the stars to shine. Truthfully e may not have batted too deep in 21 but everything still worked out. Rarey did we have to drop players each week and form and consistency reigned supreme. This year we can't afford to drop anyone and we care seeing injured, tired and consistently out of form players in the first. And some of our choices of recruiting have been mind boggling with not a few even getting games. All credit to those responsible at the Mfc for building and developing such a great list to finally bring home a flag. Shame on them for letting in deteriorate to where we are today. And let's not kid ourselves it's going to get worse. We are witnessing the beginning of the end. With Tracca injured we now won't make finals. Back to cliches, I hope we bite the bullet at year's end and make a clean sweep of the list where necessary. And especially stand firm in not accepting mediocre players from other clubs anymore.

There were no fwds eft other than Smith and Fritta. Jvr suspended against Carlton Bbb out injured. Milkshake out...did his knee. Tmac on one foot. Surely has an impact just as much as anything else. Also Laurie was subbed in for Gus in the pies game. Night and day. I guess I'm saying we came very very close to two flags with this list.

They certainly play the game hard. Even if they bend the rules. And even when they play within the rules they take no prisoners. Maynard tackled very hard yesterday with six of them being very strong. Even Moore the captain plays on the edge. I didn't think going into that pack with his knee going in first was necessary but it was totally legal Often times that will leave most players sore or ruing the fact they put their body on the line. I can't say if it was intentional but the result left one of our best players hospitalized. Their tackle count was much higher than ours and we seldom broke them like they did with ours. I can't imagine Daicos having his career completely ended by a demons player and then pies players not responding to him in the next encounter. Rightly or wrongly they would target him at every turn. They certainly wouldn't shake his hand. There is nothing wrong with tackling players hard or bumping them as long as it's within the rules . And in the case of Maynard certainly justified. He's an enforcer for the filth. That's why other clubs go after him. Why shouldn't we. We just don't have that mongrel in us. Maybe we are better for it. Maybe we are gentlemen. I mean as much as I've advocated for Maynard to be roughed up , I don't want us to become like the filth themselves. But this is different imo. We have a beloved player and great contributor removed from the game. What's three or four bone jarring tackles back in response to that. I mean at the end of the day, it's not really a gentlemen's game. Maybe next time. It's probably not going to happen.

From one of the clubs great forwards, David Schwartz)".... "What a load of [censored]. Three years this bull [censored] has been happening in trying to find a forward line… the coaches have to take responsibility. “This isn’t a patch. This is a systematic breakdown of the most important part of your game, which is your forward line. They haven’t been able to address it and it doesn’t matter how many good performances you put in like against St Kilda (in Round 11), it’s just not good enough. “For a club that has got… a good midfield, a good backline and they haven’t been able to address their forward line, (it's not acceptable)." Couldn't agree more with the OX. We tried a few things. We lured big Brodie Grundy even though the bloke takes two marks a game and thought we could make a goal kicker from him. We extended Bbbs career despite the writing on the wall when he kicked only one goal in all our 2022 finals campaign. Tmac was injured .Our fwd line cost us that year. Did the same a year later when we didn't have the players to cover injuries. Tmac managed to do a Bbb and kick one goal in all our finals. This time it was Bbb who w/as injured. Then we have choices like Schache who I can't even remember the last time he played. I remember thinking a he looked very thin. Add others like McAdam who credit to Goody he finally dropped . His distance kicking was strange. Add also Fullerton. Then there are the fwds we do play. Chandler who has averaged this year of not even one goal a game. Who starts each season with a bang and fades into the sunset. Petty who most of us have been screaming for to be dropped. How many forwards if his goal telly is extrapolated is a grand total of SIX for the entire season ( 22 games) get to keep playing every week. Jvr who to his credit tries his all and gives a reasonable return but who is still just starting and it's wrong to he carries such a big load. As the Ox has said, this has been going on for ages For me it's up there with Gone with the wind( much like our kicking accuracy at goal) and I find it past frustrating to almost amusing that a problem so glaring has been patched over or if not ignored for so long now. Want a good gig? Become a fwd at the Mfc. Money is great. No kpis. Free travel. Job security.

Our forward line is a part of why we are losing. We were thumped yesterday but had three less i50s and as many scoring shots. Maybe the entries were not great so that's not on our forwards but their errant shots at goal was solely upon them. And it's been an issue for a few years Jaded. Also I mentioned before the game that our named fwd line of Anb. Chin , Kozzie, Fritta, Petty had a combined average this year of under 40 points. We have kicked 100 points twice this year. I'll give that our delivery to our fwds isn't elite and our mids are lacking in performance this year. But when players like Petty who has kicked three goals in 11 games and mustered about seven possies a game gets a guernsey in our fwd line week in week out, then something's off. And despite all the skills coaching in the world we have displayed a great deal of mental toughness in kicking so many points yesterday. But yesterday our midfield was exposed again. Even with Tracca off Sparrow amassed a mind blowing 14 touches ( eight of which he garnered in the first 20 odd mins. He tackles well but other than that is backup material for the middle for me. And as much as I love Oliver, his disposal yesterday was all over the shop. See ball ...tick. Get ball ..well done. Blindly throw ball on boot...wth? And JV hasn't picked up where he left off last year. I hope Tracca isn't out for too long because if he is, we will see a few more beltings. Despite Tmac playing his best ( has been Tmac of yesteryear back in the backline) even our defence looked shaky. Theee defenders going for the ball. We clearly miss Lever telling people what to do. And Bowey hasn't been the same since he hurt his shoulder. Seems like eons ago since we came back from SA on top of the world and almost on top of the ladder. Someone is going to get tapped to fill in the midfield injury of Tracca. Let's hope they embrace it.

Jvr too. Not that he was bad yesterday. He's still getting bigger and learning his craft. Will start holding more of those grabs after his powerful run and leads to the ball. Just needs to drop and soften his hands and impact of ball and more will stick. Great leap so he plays like he's four inches taller. A future and hopefully long term star at the Mfc. Long may we hear roooooooooo.

There were not a few times at the centre bounce yesterday where it seemed our lads were ball watching while Cwood moved it out of the middle in breakneck time. We appeared to be chained to the ground while it happened too. I thought Max was great though. Without his ground efforts at some of the clearances the metris would have been so much worse. He really is a champion of the game and it's sad to see other senior players not give the same level of commitment he does. I hope he has another five years left in him but given the workload he already carries, I think it will be half that. Also, Im pretty sure now that the big man will play in another grand final./I'm Unlike us in 21 the pies just scraped through with a lot of luck and bluster( Maynard) and won a flag. We got smashed yesterday by a team that really isn't good and who had half a dozen of its good players out. In half a year we have gone from a team that dominated the pies in that final to a team that was a rabble yesterday. Despite Goody claims there were some improvements, there weren't. Our tackling or lack of it was atrocious and our midfielders are just too slow and consistently turning the ball over or delivering the ball i50s in the worst ways possible. Add in the least dynamic forward line and it's a snooze fest. Credit to Jvr for his efforts and accuracy. But Friitas decided to rest for the first three quarters and Petty the last three. What sort of chance do we have when we had just as many scoring shots as the opposition but kick so many goals less. And sadly this wonton goal kicking inaccuracy has been going on now for three years. Good grief. We were not only lacking physicality yesterday but mental toughness as well. With a fwd line that struggles so much we make it even harder but not being psychologically strong enough to put the pill through the long sticks. I hope Tracca isn't out for to long because we are so poor that I think his absence will see losses to even teams like North. Oliver should not really be playing but Sparrow isn't any different. I hope Kynan Brown gets a look in and when Tracca comes back than Sparrow goes to Casey. 14 disposals a game from Sparrow year in and out is not up to scratch. I seriously wonder if his fitness is an issue. How does a player like him yesterday explain getting eight of his total fourteen disposals in the first quarter and then totally fade away. When Oliver wasn't playing last year JV really stepped up and went to another level. Sadly that has stopped but hopefully Traccas absence is a chance for Sparrow to step up. If he fails in this time then, I hope he gets dropped once Tracc is back. And perhaps the club should reassess his tenure at the end of the year .

Jvr gives me some hope. He's going to be a very influential and long term player for us.

I'm surprised we weren't beaten by more. 14 to 6 cc to the pies Ok tracc was injured but the signs were already there. Tracca has been his usual consistent self . Although one thing about his game that is interesting is that he he often starts slowly in terms of accumulating possessions. Often having many more disposals to his first half count in the second. Jack Viney while being ok this year is definitely down on the scintillating form he had last year. In terms of disposals he is down an average of five per game this season. A significant drop of around twenty three percent. Oliver too has been down on his usual percentage of possessions. But his efficiency seems to be way off. Yesterday whilst accumulating the ball quite often., there were too many moments that saw him bang the ball out of a contest. I think if he watched the replay he would notice he often had more time than he probably thought and used the ball better. That leaves us with Sparrow. He played a very good first quarter with amassing seven disposals . Alas he finished the game with fourteen.....his average. Firstly that kind of reflects that he never really smashes games and is really consistently good. Also an average of 14 disposals for a midfielder not just this season but for his career at his age is poor. It's not like he's often used in a tagging capacity. So while our midfield in 21 with the three horsemen,Tracca, Oliver and Jack was the powerful bang bang bang with Sparrow added on was electrifying. Yesterday and not a few other games this year( not just because of Tracca injury) it couldn't power a small light bulb. Credit to Tracca for his efforts but the other three are way off the pace. I would like to see more younger players get some senior game time and not the usual suspects. It's true or midfield stocks are not a deep vein of gold ( or our fwds for that matter). I Wish we had fought harder for Jordan and while Harmes is aging he would at least be handy experience wise now that Tracca is injured. Unless Tracca heals asap we are in deep Doo Doo. Our fwd line is non existent and can't scrape ten goals together or kick straight for the third year in a row. Our mids have also been out of form and now the best of the bunch is injured. I'm not sure where the club went wrong.vif it was complacent or over confident but somewhere and somehow we stopped recruiting and adding to our quality stable. Even worse we lowered the bar and started recruiting rejected players from other clubs plus a strange collection of players that are on the books for a while now that don't ever play in the senior side. I know that when your a top side that frustrated players who can't get a gig in the seniors go and look for greener pasture. But in 21 from memory it seemed that there was a list of up to ten people who were competing for a seniors game and Casey was dominating. Now we are using players week after week who haven't performed because we don't have those team anymore. Why are Schache, Bbb, Fullerton and McAdam on our books? How did our depth disappear so fast from 21? Then there are the players who should be at their prime or entering into it from the 21 list that have seriously gone backwards. Last year I believe we should have won a flag. The fwd line injuries were incredibly cruel and constant but a few could have been predicted ( Bbb, Tmac). Even this year we have played some great footy. I know I'm going off topic here but it's hard to know what's gone wrong. Maybe there are some off field issues eating away at us. I guess it happens. The lions last year's runner's up are struggling. It's just to see the wheels fall off so dramatically and so quickly makes it hard to pinpoint what exactly is the root cause.

Although he faded in the last, I thought he was very good. Particularly in the first and second where he showed some great skill and dare weaving through pies players.

He is although the staff should have probably stepped up and taken him off . With Olivers form being all over the shop and Sparrow never really stepping up.... I mean yesterday was a great example of Sparrow . Sparrow started very well and had a solid first quarter and then he went very quiet. I always had ideas that Sparrow in earlier days would be close to becoming our next Tracca. Alas this is never going to happen. A now seasoned midfielder he averages just over fourteen disposals a game. He shouldn't be selected. Period . So with Oliver having a bad season and Sparrow never really stepping up we have Viney in the spotlight. JV hasn't been bad by most standards but he is clearly down in form. Last year he was on fire and this year while being ok is tearing games apart by any metric. In fact this year he's averaged five disposals less than his norm. I was thinking about our midfield the other day and wondered how much trouble we would be in if Tracca was injured. Well here we are. Get well asap Tracca. We need you so much. Our once famous and powerful midfield is now as hell of its previous self.

It wouldn't have been that hard to lay some heavy tackles on Maynard. We need to go back to basics and play hard contested footy. This bruise free football doesn't fly in the face of clubs like Cwood who are willing to put their body on the lines. Ironically it was Maynard doing the bumping and hard tackles. If this was our fightback response, I'd hate to see anything else. It's one thing on the day it happened not to remonstrate but the next game he not only gets off scott free, his hand is shaken. Not only did we get well beaten and display a litany of poor skills, poor execution, lazy and undisciplined football, we also revealed how soft we are. Surely we could have been much more aggressive and harder at the contests. We had ten players with 1 or zero tackles for the entire game. This in a game we went out of our way in the media to let everyone know that a response would be made. Enough with the big talking please. We didn't respond at all. We were well and truly beaten. Beaten in one of the most the most basic elements of the game.....tackling. When a player is down in form or skills, tackling is one area of the game they can use to show or do that they are making an effort. If they are late to the contest, one can at least lay tackles. If your struggling for a possession, you can always run, chase and tackle an opponent. It's the basic footy block to will oneself into having some sort of impact in a game. But to have a statistic like the ten players with one or zero tackles, shows that many players weren't trying to impact the game as best they could. Tackles create pressure. They make the recipients of them rush their disposal. They cause skill errors and if done properly and often enough, make players nervous. They can hurt too. They should. Not in a malicious way but enough to make a player not want to be tackled again. We claimed we would respond to the huge Freo loss. We didn't. As far as I'm concerned we failed in the most basic endeavor. We lost the tackle count. A part of the game that is entirely in our control. Some of our tackles were very good but many of them were well beaten. So it's one thing to lose the tackle count but I feel we also lost the "tackle effectiveness" count as well. To talk the team up all week about responding to our Freo last loss is all well and good. But to then come out and display a big lack of physicality like we did is a big concern. Perhaps the directive was to not get distracted by the Maynard event and play the ball and not the man. There's some reason to this. The problem is, I thought we were really soft against Freo. I don't think we tackled well. We may have tackled more but I don't think they created enough pressure on Freo players. Tackles were often broken. So I really felt the best response would be to come out against Cwood being much harder in the contest. And the most fundamental thing of all ...to lay harder tackles that would not get broken.To rush them at every opportunity and force skill errors. In short I was hopen for more aggression everywhere. Not blind wonton biffo. But hard hitting legal bumps and tackles that create fear and panic. Relentless tackling at every turn. Turned out it was the pies applying the pressure and us turning the ball over. Maynard would have been a good place to start. I mean surely we had the motivation to. Some hard tackles on him and then on all his mates as well. To show that we are a team that cares if a mate had his vocation taken from him. Rather than be distracted by the whole Maynard thing it could have been a thing to galvanize, inspire and propel. Just like an individual down in form, tackling is a great part of a team's game plan when it's down in form . It's the basic element of a team's weaponry that it can employ to lift it's performance. We may not have won with some more tackling pressure but we could at least say we gave it our all. There are some losses you can accept quite readily. The ones where players look gassed and spent. I'm pretty sure with what we saw yesterday with the stat of ten with one or zero, we can say quite confidently, we didn't give it our all. So enough with the talking and more of the tackling. Ok we don't have Maynard in the mix next game but we certainly have mediocrity. Can we please show some real fightback and start with the basics of chasing and tackling. Just more of them. Less easy to break ones. Let the opposition be the ones afraid and error prone. Let us be the hunters and not the hunted this time.

Out. Those responsible for the lack of depth in our list. Someone was asleep at the wheel.

Petty won't get dropped. Not that he shouldn't be imo. But he's got a fixed gig it seems.

I think they may have been directed to concentrate on playing the ball and not the man. Didn't work. Maybe we would have lost by more if we had gone after him. But at least as some ticker would be on display.

Well the era of dominance was always going to end sooner or later. I just thought it would be much later given the players ages. And also not to implode so much. I thought a more gradual decline. Also given our start it wouldn't happen this year. Boy was I wrong.

Troll

Go away troll.