titan_uranus

Yeah that free against Pickett was a disgrace, but what Cameron didn't look like a free to me.

Ugh what a night. Collingwood can't miss top 4 now (unless GWS beats St Kilda by some ridiculous margin). If they finish 4th (which is what will happen if Brisbane wins), they'll get Adelaide in the first final. I can just see them winning that. Adelaide, without Rankine, haven't made finals for 8 years, pressure on. Ugh. Logic says GC beat Essendon by 60+ on Wednesday, but the pressure on them now, knowing it's win and win, is extreme. They crumbled tonight against a side that statistically was as bad as West Coast has been over the last 6 weeks. Surely they don't drop the Essendon game...surely...

By the length of the Flemington straight, the best thing to come out of this season. A genuine star in the making. What he did tonight, and has done before, as a 19 year old without a full pre-season, has been stunning. Can't wait for him to launch into 2026.

What was wrong with the "body slam"?

Makes no sense. As fun as the Hinkley emotion is, the AFL surely wants GC to win to get them into the finals, whilst also making the Dogs-Fremantle game a proper sudden death affair. Is the world really going to tune into GC v Essendon on a Wednesday night just to see if GC makes finals or not?

27 touches this week for 5 score involvements. 30 touches last week for 3 score involvements. He's been better the last month, but the bar was too low. We need more from Salem than what we're getting, and he is part of the leadership problem.

He was closer to our best than the comments on here allow for. There is clearly a level of emotional dislike for Trac after what happened last year. It's the opposite of red and blue glasses with him. People see what they want to see. Like the poster having a go at him for not redeeming that kick from May.

I get it. I liked a lot of what I saw too. But I think there's significant danger in the "some polish, some refinements" argument. Just tweaking and hoping the same core group is going to fix the close losses is IMO not right. We went 0-6 in games decided by less than 10 points this year. Going back to last year we're now on an 0-9 run in these games, and 3-10 overall. Going back another season it's 7-16, including the two finals in 2023. This year was the worst year for close losses, but it's not a new problem, and going into 2026 trying to hold onto as much of the 2021 premiership side as we can and tweaking around the edges is IMO likely to lead to too much more of the same.

This is what I want to think. The Demonland consensus pre-game was that we were no chance and going to be belted. They kicked 2 quick early goals and I'm sure the Game Day thread assumed a 10-goal loss was on its way. So we clearly did well to exceed those expectations (by a lot) and play what was at times really strong football that suggests we ought to be in the top 9, not the bottom 6. But then of course I see us lose yet another close game. I see us lose yet another fourth quarter. Yet another late lead squandered. 5 behinds in the first three quarters but then 5 behind in the fourth when we just needed someone to find a goal. Pressure goes up and we revert to consistent long kicks to the hot spot over, and over, and over. Gawn tries to do it all himself. So the fourth quarter was the "perfect" end to this disaster of a season. It encapsulated almost everything that's wrong with us, the more so because it came off the back of 2.5 quarters of really good footy.

My heart skips a beat every time I see @Chook in Perth pop up.

I've said this before in another thread, and this isn't really the place anyway, but for a player to have this record (12 games in 5 years, only 3 of which he wasn't subbed on or off), and having only been selected once all season despite being fit all year, it's maddening that he's contracted for next year.

For those who can read it, anything new from Ralphy here? Or just reheated soup?

I’m not sure what you want done about this (edit: the fixture bit). It’s luck more than anything. Unfortunately not. The Dogs-Freo game is actually the main one - Collingwood can’t go below the loser of that game. They’re locked in.

It’s possible to celebrate the achievements of our premiership players and long time stalwarts of the club, whilst simultaneously being open to challenging their role now, or moving forward.

I reckon both @Howard_Grimes and @binman are right, and therefore wrong. It’s frankly dumb to attempt to ignore the 9 day vs 6 day break. It is clearly capable of being a factor, particularly for a side like us which appears to me to have struggled with aerobic fitness all year. But then of course you see Adelaide have no discernible fitness issue against Collingwood despite the exact same 9 day vs 6 day break issue. Fitness and that 3-day break difference cannot, and does not, explain everything.

If he finishes top 10, let alone top 5, that will say so much about our season. He is IMO at the heart of our struggles. A leader, but coasts through games, takes dinky and easy kicks, never imposes himself, all whilst playing a position that in the modern game sets up the best sides. An absolute mile off the best half backs, it isn’t even close. That he is never seriously discussed as being on the chopping block at selection is a genuine part of our current predicament (the same goes for Sparrow, Petty and Langdon).

This has mountain and molehill vibes all over it. Trac and Clarry are 11th and 12th in the league for CPs. They have more than Libba, Neale, Newcombe, Brayshaw, Dunkley, Butters, Dawson, and of course about 600 others. The gap is such that, across the season, Clarry averages 1 CP fewer than Gawn per game, and Trac 2. Is this really an issue? IMO, Gawn dominates this stat because he’s a legend of the game. Indeed, it’s arguable that for Trac and Clarry to have had as much as they have had despite Gawn’s dominance is a testament to how good they are in this area.

[censored] I’m sick of the “changing the coach does nothing” argument. Anyone who thinks changing the coach without making any other changes is going to see some marked turnaround is clearly wrong. But genuinely how many of them are there? Most of those who were in the camp of a new coach for 2026 are also posters who want a new approach to our midfield, forward line, stoppage setup, training structure, etc. At the heart of the argument for changing the coach is to bring other changes that perhaps would not have occurred under Goodwin.

Can't recall the last time we lost as badly as we did today and it wasn't almost entirely due to scores from turnover. Also how about that third quarter. 64% in forward half, 20 inside 50s to 7, yet outscored 3.3 to 2.0. Classic.

Despite how bad Port have been of late, that game does have hallmarks of a Port win. That would then leave GC to have to beat Essendon in the final game of the year to make their first ever finals series, and knock out the loser of WB-Fremantle. The pressure on them to not choke would be so, so high...

We just have to beat them by 300 points or something for that to happen. Fremantle losing to Brisbane pretty much locked Collingwood (and Hawthorn now) into finals, given Fremantle's much lower percentage. We can hold them out of top 4, though. And for a side which was 10 points clear on top of the ladder after 16 games, that'll be some achievement.

We're not about to pick Laurie, Woewodin, Brown or Billings after ignoring them all year. What would we gain by giving them this one game anyway?

The gap between our best and our worst is bigger than the Grand Canyon. Maybe this was always going to be a down week after the emotion of the last fortnight but we still play incredibly poor football when we're off. Let's hope we can fire ourselves up one more time to try to get some positivity into the group before what will be the most important off- and pre-season we've had in a long time.

Hawthorn, GC and GWS all still have to win at least one more game (Dogs have to beat WC too). So if we beat Hawthorn, they are still at massive risk of missing. But if they beat us, then Freo either have to beat the Dogs or hope that St Kilda beats GWS or GC somehow loses to Essendon or Port.

What a waste of space Caro’s article today is. Reheating the “Goodwin clips Casey” comment from the presser that was 11 days ago. Again saying the coaching job isn’t enticing (oh, Leigh Matthews agrees? That renowned lover of the MFC?). She makes valid points about the club being dysfunctional, but she’s repeating herself. It’s all been said. Move the [censored] on.