titan_uranus

Really not a huge fan of posts criticising effort or lack of fight. Fight and effort were there. What wasn't there was skill under pressure. The stats have been bandied around today: we had first possession in 5 of the 10 centre bounces in the third quarter, but only converted that to a clearance once. Fremantle brought heat and we struggled to deal with it. Without Petracca, with Darcy on top of Gawn, and with Aish tagging Oliver, we needed Sparrow, Dunstan, ANB and Jackson to stand up. Disappointingly, none of of them did. Yep. He also could have been another marking forward option, given all we had was Brown who was being double-teamed and Fritsch. No one else able to attract the ball, and it showed. Again though, it highlights the disappointing performances of Sparrow, Dunstan, ANB and Jackson, as well as the obvious poor game from Melksham. We needed lifts from the second/third string players when the A-graders were down/out. We didn't get it. Against a lesser side we might have coped, but against Fremantle no chance.

Couldn't disagree more. We've always made noise far louder than our numbers. The 2018 finals is a great example, but it's always happened. I did notice on Saturday that the Melbourne crowd overall was quieter, but I think a lot of it was shock. The crowd just wasn't prepared for us to fall apart and there wasn't enough for us to get around before it was too late. I don't know if this has anything to do with it but I couldn't agree more on it. I've said it before, the single worst thing to happen to football is "fan activations". People who are wholly disconnected from football making decisions about what fans want, almost always tied to music/video/demonstrations, rather than the actual [censored] game itself.

Fantastic summation. The Guidelines go on to give this not very helpful example: For example, a strike will be regarded as Intentional where a Player delivers a blow to an opponent with the intention of striking him. To run the intent argument, Franklin has to argue he didn't have the intention of striking Cotchin. This isn't a Hawkins on May 2021 sort of situation. It's a blatantly intentional strike, and as you say, the fact it made high contact rather than to the chest is irrelevant. If I were Sydney I'd be arguing the force was too low to constitute a reportable offence. Personally, such an argument should go in the bin. If you lash out at someone and you hit them high, you cop your time, like Brown did in the VFL earlier this year.

I'd be flabbergasted if Salem plays. For one, he's been tracking behind in his rehab for the last month. For another, he hasn't played footy at any level for 11 weeks. I'd prefer to see him get a half game at Casey first before we throw him into a block of really tough and important games. Tomlinson for May. Then Langdon, Harmes and TMac all straight back in for Melksham, Dunstan and Weideman. Bedford back to the sub role, which is harsh but we can't play all of Pickett, ANB, Spargo and Bedford. I won't lose much sleep if Brown gets dropped instead of Weideman but I don't think Weid deserves the spot any more than Brown, and Brown in my view is more likely to win us a game if he turns his form around than Weideman.

Fair dinkum does Demonland know how to jump off at the earliest opportunity. Jackson's a 20 year old tall who has already shown in his 40 games that he is capable of doing things that very few other footballers can do. It hasn't been consistent, but 20 year old talls are rarely consistent. Focusing on the current form slump and using it to water down what he's shown to date is a ridiculous way to assess him. We should be doing everything we can to re-sign him. Draft picks are great but the phrase "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" couldn't be more appropriate.

But let's assume all of Langdon, McDonald and Harmes are fit. Tomlinson replaces May but those three all come straight back, which would be four changes, all of which we should be 100% making.

Interesting that he was sick the day before. Maybe he woke up yesterday morning feeling better, put his hand up to play, but realised mid-game he didn't have the energy? If it's just how he's feeling, I imagine it would have been hard for Goodwin to overrule him if he's declaring himself over his sickness.

I can't stand revisionism and this is no exception. We ended the H&A season 17-1-4 with a percentage of 130.8%. We beat 16 of the 17 other sides, including Port Adelaide (2nd) in Adelaide, Geelong (3rd) in Geelong, the Dogs (5th and runners up) at Marvel and GWS (7th) in Canberra. We were supreme in finals but we were exceptional in the H&A season. We didn't do a 2016 Dogs and fluke a September run, we developed incredible form across 23 rounds and then found everything click into place in a near-perfect way in the finals.

Petracca's done this for us repeatedly. He wasn't right yesterday and couldn't do it. Oliver's done it too, but he was copping a tight tag. Gawn's done it too, but he was in a strong battle with Darcy and had to pay him respect. May's done it but wasn't on the field. Lever's done it but was being asked to man our entire defence without May and with Petty on one leg. I'm more disappointed in the next level down - Jackson, Hunt, Sparrow, Rivers, Brown, ANB, players who have been reliable since Round 1 2021 but who all yesterday were off the boil. Without Petracca or Oliver able to turn the tide with their brilliance, none of them were able to go with a hot opponent.

Whilst it's not all as simple as this, there's no doubt that there are a lot of over-reactions on here, which I suppose is what happens after 17 straight wins. There's also a lack of appreciation for how good Fremantle is. We cannot afford to be that far off our best (as to personnel and as to form) against a side of Fremantle's quality.

The problem with winning 17 on the trot and a flag, if there can be a problem with that, is the height of the bar that it sets. Good sides play bad games in almost every year. The media love talking about 2018 Richmond and comparing us to them. In 2018 Richmond lost mid year to West Coast by 47 points. Remained the dominant H&A side that year. Then in 2019 Richmond lost six games, each one by at least 33 points, and one by 67 points to Geelong in Round 13. The point being that good sides, even great ones like 2018-19 Richmond, can lose games badly. The fact we didn't lose one badly at all in 2021 is a testament to how good we are, not a cause for this level of concern in 2022.

Harsh. In the first half he was the number one reason we dominated. Was a class above all our other midfielders and took it right up to the Fremantle midfield almost on his own. Second half he was tagged relentlessly by Aish and couldn't break the tag. In part because Petracca wasn't there to help out.

Each loss compounded the next. May went down, exposing Petty, who then played injured, whilst Lever probably isn't fully fit himself. Meanwhile we went in without Hibberd or Joel Smith so we had a lack of height to help cover for May missing, and we went in without TMac so we didn't have him to swing back. And we had a short midfielder as the sub. And we played against probably the best ruckman in the game, so any time we tried to drop Gawn behind the ball Darcy exposed us.

Melksham - shouldn't have played Dunstan - not good enough Weideman - not good enough Hunt - season worst game Jackson - season worst game Brown - can't get worse Petracca - shouldn't have played (given he was sick) Spargo - not a winger Rivers - out of form May - irreplaceable, irreplaceable, irreplaceable

I take it you haven't met olisik before?

This has to be considered. Brayshaw was for the most part good tonight at half-back and has been great all year. I'm sure the FD will be loathe to move him after 11 weeks of learning to be a defender. But the Spargo on the wing experiment was an utter failure and we can't repeat it.

Good call on the second quarter. I agree with you - we were dominant in the middle, were walking it into our forward half, were not being exposed out the back, and should have kicked a much higher score than 4.6. I reckon the best thing that happened to Fremantle was losing to Collingwood last week. They put the GC loss down to a mulligan but when it happened again, they stood up and took notice. They got back to what made them thump Carlton and Geelong - CP and stoppage dominance, led by Darcy. Like us, they get hands on it first in the middle, and they are set up well behind the ball. Eventually, our under-strength backline broke.

Rest of your post was good but just on this, Weideman was poor beyond the forward line issues you mentioned. He can set himself apart from Brown, and play more like the man he replaced (TMac) by being mobile, attacking the ball and buttering up. He did none of that. And he visibly dropped his bundle each time he was outworked. Can't stand the whole "that's how you beat us" schtick. Not only was their ball movement not the number one thing for them (CPs and stoppages were the main reason they got on top - look at the second quarter when we dominated that area), but it's nothing surprising to see us be put under pressure by quick ball movement: literally every side in the league struggles against quick ball movement. Also, perhaps the easiest way to beat us is to not have to go up against May, Salem, Langdon, Harmes, McDonald or a fit Petracca.

Two of the Demonland top 10 in the POTY didn't play (Langdon and Harmes), a third (May) only played 15 minutes and a fourth (Petracca) was sick, may as well have not played, and probably shouldn't have played. Against a top 4 side, we can't struggle that much and expect to win.

6 - Oliver 5 - Jordon 4 - Viney 3 - Gawn 2 - Brayshaw 1 - Fritsch

Tomlinson for May is a certainty. After that depends on Petty, Petracca and Lever's fitness, and the fitness of those who we desperately need back. Melksham, Dunstan and Weideman should all be dropped. Who replaces them is TBD but hopefully Langdon, Harmes and McDonald are fit. If Langdon's not ready we can't go into the game with Spargo the starting wing. I'm prepared to give Brown one more game, in the hope that the delivery is better than it was tonight. And because Weideman was just as bad but with fewer credits in the bank.

The [censored] returns. First post since the season began. Fifth post since we were behind in the Grand Final. Honestly, the worst thing about a loss is seeing people like olisik return.

Fremantle's best is very good. They were two players off their best 22 and they played the best football they've played since 2015. We can't beat good sides, let alone sides flying like Fremantle today, when we had as much go wrong as we did today. No Salem, Langdon, McDonald or Harmes. No May after 15 minutes. If you were at the game you'll have seen Petracca was wholly devoid of energy. It doesn't surprise to hear Goodwin suggest he was sick. Petty was injured and popped painkillers to run out the game. And Lever's been carrying something for weeks. The replacements were almost all really poor. Melksham was just terrible, Dunstan not much better, Bedford isn't good or fit enough (not sure which) to play four quarters, and Weideman was both shocking and lacking in all confidence. We tried to cover Langdon with Spargo on a wing. It didn't work twice - it meant we were exposed on that wing, and we lacked Spargo's pressure inside 50. Brown had a nightmare but to be fair to him, we kept kicking the ball on his head and he was double-teamed for most of the game because we had no other marking options. And then our inaccuracy hit us again. Fritsch and Weideman missed shots they should have kicked and we honestly should have been 7 or 8 goals up at half time. Game could and I suspect would have played out much differently had Fritsch's set shot goal in the third restored a 6 or 7 goal margin, rather than a 3 goal margin. We still generated enough opportunity to keep ourselves in the game but when we needed a goal to get the crowd going and to give us some confidence, Trac missed his snap in the third and then Spargo missed his early fourth quarter shot. May going down is a disaster, compounded by Petty being injured (and I reckon Lever being injured too). And then double-compounded by having no McDonald who could have covered infinitely better than Weideman. We haven't missed Hibberd all year but we could have used his height today: Bowey, Rivers, Hunt and Brayshaw aren't tall enough to help cover tall forwards and it showed. We should see a handful of changes next week. There is a lot we need to improve to be sure of restoring our form.

Not hugely surprising, which we've come to expect these days. Baker, sadly, has never shown enough form at even VFL level to suggest he's ready to become a consistent AFL player, and his AFL opportunities, although limited, have never really been good enough. Well done to Melksham on 200. I'm not sure how many more there will be once Salem, Langdon and Harmes get fit, but here's hoping he puts in a stunner for his milestone.

Fair reason why Geelong might still be a more solid side than Carlton, but the gap just isn't wide enough to have the worst Geelong model scoring just as high as the best Carlton model.