leave it to deever

Pardon the obscure title, but it's the best way to sum this year up. Our last game revealed yet again our forward line problems and other issues and why it was in fact our last game. I can still remember the joy from winning both games in S.A and the incredible accuracy on goal against port at their home ground. We came back four from five and didn't we celebrate. Despite two years of final loss straight sets, we were back. Then it's hard to say what really happened. Maybe we believed our own hype plus the media declaration that the lions were finished. We certainly turned up like they were. Since that game we have been all over the place. But mostly in the wrong spot and not only losing games but being demolished at times. We have ironically been.... consistently inconsistent. Our fwd line again was the big problem. It seemed incapable of kicking anything near 100 points well too often. ( This was achieved all of four times).l The finger pointing at Petty and Goody has not been wrong. Week after week and month after month Petty was backed despite returning one goal every fortnight But something else happened to our fwd line. At around the midway point of the season,Jvr and Fritta were off the boil. Jvr averaged the same amount of goals this year as per last but most of them were kicked in the front end and at any rate he didn't improve goal tally this season. Kozzie was the same. He averaged the same number of sausage rolls in 24 as 23. And again like Jvr fell off mid season bar a cameo against the lions . Fritta as mentioned was well down in goal power this year compared to his previous seasons. Turner apart from last night gets an honorary mention but it's hard to know where he fits in. Chandler too. For me he doesn't hit the scoreboard enough. So once again our fwd line has been a debacle. I guess Kozzie gets excused somewhat for having to spend more time in the middle. Maybe Jvr a little having to spend his time often rucking in the middle So a struggling fwd line that lacked depth struggled even more because our ruck stocks lacked depth. Which brings us to the midfield letting us down this year. Despite finishing in a flurry , Jack Viney was well and truly down on his wonderful form of 2023. A long way. Oliver has been fantastic and.......well.....um.. horrible. But he was last year when we made it to a prelim. And now apparently injured Tracca injured obviously a huge loss and our best mid until he went down. But there is the problem. Our midfield depth includes players like Sparrow and Billings . Hmmmm. Well not even depth. They olare our regular players. In 21 it seemed really hard for players to break into a solid, successful and tight knit outfit. 2024 seemed the exact opposite. We seemed to be scraping blokes together to field a team. Blokes that too often didn't perform but then didn't get dropped. I'm not saying that players didn't perform their best because they were not relegated to the twos but many players didn't have to look over their collective shoulders most of the season. This is not a thread to provide an analysis of want went wrong. That would take pages. As well as qualifications others on this site have in spades over me. It's a opportunity to vent and raise concerns. I've vented. Thanks. It helps. But my concerns are...well.... concerning . Anb has moved on. A massive lost. Gawn and May are showing their age.... injury wise. We don't have a second ruck or emergency for that matter. We are not entirely sure how long Tracca will remain a demon. Will premier cup and champagne players like Lever and Salo return close to their heights? The upside...there are a great deal of positives with some great young talent constantly proving their worth. But for me there is mostly a lot of doubt heading into 2025. It's been our worst season in the last four. We talk about premiership windows. Well if they are real then it would be a fair call to say ours closed this year. Or is it the case of it just being dropped temporarily until all the stars align again and we win another flag. That would require a great deal of luck but we would have to make a great deal of it ourselves through some savvy recruiting. No more club hand me downs if you will. I don't want to make this thread about should Goody ...he has the credits in the bank but if he pulled a Biden, I'm not entirely against such a move . It could help for us creating a fresh start. Probably wise to handball at this point. What can we do that won't see us stuck in the bottom eight for the next four years? Can we prise open the window enough to win the ultimate prize in the next two years or is that unrealistic? I mean even despite finishing where we did if we had won our four close games the reality is, we would have finished top four. I imagine the seasons are going to become even closer each year. Especially with the introduction of another team. So now is the time to be super aggressive. We need to go after every player we can afford to and be ruthless in our pruning. If there is any window left, then let's throw caution to the wind and go for it

Surely this season can be somewhat salvaged by Freo leapfrogging over Carlton.

Nothing to see here. And where does Maynard get off preaching to others.

My dream fwd line of a few decades ago would be possibly a combo of A. Jacko G.Lion Neita Robbo Farmer Schwartz

Not saying it doesn't warrant five weeks. But certainly stating how unjust it was that Maynard got zilch. Seriously wth? AFL is a poor joke at times.

Most going through at post height too.

JL is a classy bloke and loyal member of the Mfc for sure.

A chance to see another Mfc player have his career altered by a cwood player. But that aside worth giving Anb and Bbb a good send off . Maybe bbb could give Maynard a goodbye tap.

Will only get worse with the introduction of Tasmania's team too.

Perhaps a small ban on threads like this before my head explodes. I feel we are we some sort of dying carcass on the side of the road being circled by vultures.

What about Anb, Jv and Tracca?

Your right. Good post . I've changed my mind. They should be reserved for lifelong players and captains. Bbb while instrumental in our 21 success probably needs to be acknowledged but not in playing.

Not like we are playing finals. Give him a go. He's been good for the club and helped break the drought.

This season is a total bust . No finals and no chance to destroy cwoods chances.

On reflection, you may be more on the mark than my seven. Missing finals should be taken into consideration.

There's a couple you mentioned that I don't think would harms us, if they left.

Bravo. I'm personally tired of the go watch golf response to these sort of incidents. One can always retort go watch kick boxing. I see a young man going about playing a sport, I presume he loves being deliberately lined up and smashed. What sort of chance did he have to brace or protect himself? Just like poor Gus.....Zippo. And yea a lot of us have a little blood lust in us. Surely that is satiated in fair bumps and shepherds in what is still a very physical game But this sort of thuggery is not right. Imagine if that was your young son out there going about his business. The AFL has a responsibility and duty of care to protect these guys. 7 weeks.

How about...."The poster formerly known as Binman PA."

I'm sure there will be a few here defending Houston ' s knock and objecting to his penalty, rolling out the old chestnut of............ if you don't want physical contest go and watch tennis. It's an effort not to tell them to watch MMA. (they probably do anyway). In any event, this kind of deliberate violence has no place. I'd bet it Triggers players like Gus and a myriad of others. It's just a nasty and very dangerous cheep shot.

Damn Cwood. 12 wins so far. One more than us. We had five games that were determined by a goal or less. We lost four of them. The pies however had 9 games decided by a goal or less Two were a draw. They lost only one of nine. Twenty four points v our four. Other teams above us won their fair share of close ones when we were lost the most. Something we need to fix.

Good to see him back. Tough readjustment last week but turned up today. Well done.

I hope not. I guess with Gus gone. Anb possibly leaving. Tracca injured. Oliver too... The club doesn't seem so tight knit. Hopefully it's still woven deep and we lose nobody. Wins like this certainly help.

I hate to say it but if we won just two of those four games we lost by less than a goal..ie lions....Port...Gws... Carlton.... We would be playing finals again. Throw in some shocking injuries and it explains quite a bit.

Great win by the club against so much criticism. Kozzie well down. No May. No Oliver. No Tracca. Highest score for the year. Go figure. Viney best game of the year. Langers not far off. Please stay Anb. Despite a very slow start, he stormed home. Disco could be our future Coleman.

Highest score for the year. Go Disco