titan_uranus

Possibly (he was pretty good last week IIRC), but he's barely been in our bottom 6-8 like, unfortunately, Jetta and Brayshaw were today.

3-4, so 10 games to come. Will probably need to finish 9-8 at worst to make finals, so we need to find at least 6 more wins. It won't be easy but it's certainly doable. Our draw has Adelaide, North Melbourne, Sydney, Fremantle, Essendon, GWS, the Dogs, St Kilda, Port, Collingwood. The first four are the bottom four. Essendon struggles to beat anyone outside of the bottom four. GWS, St Kilda and the Dogs are all hot/cold. Port and Collingwood are better than us but are both capable of poor football (see this weekend as an example). There are no un-winnable games left in our fixture so let's shelve the "our season's over" talk for now.

Agree with this, they were holding him at most stoppages in the first half.

6 - VIney 5 - May 4 - Lever 3 - Oliver 2 - Melksham 1 - Petracca

With a four day break and a few passengers today, there are a few options on the table here. Jetta was really poor and I wouldn't be upset to see Rivers return. Each of Jones, Brayshaw and Bennell struggled IMO. But is there anyone outside the 22 who is an improvement? Does TMac get one of their spots? Are we going to see players like Smith or Hunt or ANB coming in to bring some extra run after the short break?

Here's a question. Why does the Lever score review need to stop play? Why can't the ARC review it behind the scenes and if it turns out it was a behind, then bring it back. The goal umpire should have called it a mark from the start. The score review system is making goal umpires second guess themselves.

You either have absolutely NFI, or you're a deadset troll. Either way, I cannot stand you.

Would love to see what other options he had. If he had nothing, I'd have preferred him to wait for an option that wasn't on the boundary. Fritsch leading to the pocket on his wrong side isn't ideal.

We lost that. We were on top for longer than they would and we should have won by 2-3 goals. Take your pick of which of our awful mistakes lost it for us: Weideman's missed shots, Bennell's miss, Pickett's miss, or the Hannan-Fritsch disaster late. The umpiring didn't help, nor did the crowd: that was an away game for us. The late "dangerous tackle" call on Pickett was an absolute disgrace. The score review on Lever was unfair too. The second quarter was poor but in the other three quarters were were good enough to win. It was those three quarters where we lost it.

We should have won the first quarter by 1-2 goals and that quarter by 2-3 goals. But we're 3 goals down and the game is probably gone (only one side all year has come back from a 3QT deficit and that was pre-COVID). We haven't been disgraced and IMO our defensive setup has again stood up well: the two goals we conceded that quarter were from a Jetta brainfade (he's had an absolute shocker IMO) and a throw in a stoppage following Bennell's horrible miss. Too many what ifs (Weideman's 0.3, Bennell's miss, Pickett failing to pass to Langdon, Jetta's free against, etc.) to win a game against a top 4 side.

Their two goals this quarter are from Jetta's horrendous free and Bennell missing from 10m. We've lifted this quarter but no reward for that lifted effort.

That's because Brisbane's got the game set up in their forward half, which is what we'd prefer to be doing.

We're not playing as badly as this thread suggests. We can't win when we're beaten this badly in the middle but our backline held up OK despite extreme pressure that quarter and we still look dangerous enough when we go inside 50. Need our mids to lift at stoppages and if we do that a lot will flow from there.

Oh, and Gerard Healy is up there for the biggest [censored] on TV.

The umpiring is undoubtedly one of the reasons we're behind - they're holding us at stoppages, they're dropping it out of tackles, and they're getting rewarded for HTB when we aren't. The crowd is heavily in their favour which doesn't help on that front (some sort of "home" game this is, thanks AFL). But this is really only a small part of it. Our mids are way off the pace compared to last week. We're losing CPs and clearances despite Max being on top in the hit outs. We're reverting to some old habits with the ball, too. Kicks are missing targets, and under their midfield's pressure we're starting to play hot potato with the ball. Having said all that, we've weathered a big Brisbane storm in that quarter and we're only 14 points behind. It's not an insurmountable deficit if we can lift around the stoppages.

We're getting blown apart in the middle. They're holding us a little bit, but we're just second to the ball. Must lift or this game will disappear from our reach.

Also there was a blatant HTB in our forward pocket where Neale/Rayner (can't recall who) was spun in a tackle and threw it out. When those aren't paid, and then the Harmes one is paid, it gets frustrating.

Jetta looks concussed, hope it's not that and it's minor. We started poorly but settled and our defence of the ground improved. They've only scored from a turnover and a free, we're otherwise doing well to limit their scoring. Up the other end we're doing a lot right but Weid's two misses are frustrating. He should have 2 goals and we should be 1-2 goals up. Weid, Jackson, Hannan and Melksham all looking dangerous. Jones looks a step off the pace, hope he picks that up soon.

Weid and Jackson look good early.

Brisbane is better than us. Big question about whether we can perform against a side stronger than GC/Carlton, mid-table sides. But I'm really looking forward to it. If we play the same way we did last week, we can certainly win.

Why? It's a recent season where the majority of our current list played good football for long periods. Just because we lost the prelim doesn't mean there's nothing from 2018 that is of relevance or that can be used for comparison or reflection.

It's a fair change for balance reasons. TMac throws the balance out, the more so if it's rainy. Keeps pressure on Jackson and Weideman to perform. And gives Jones a crack to get back in and keep a spot in the 22. Let's hope he's refreshed and ready to go.

Not a bad result for us. Should mean the game is in Queensland, which will mean we don't have to move between three states in those four rounds, and avoids giving up an away game to North. This will be the fourth time this season one of our games has been affected by COVID: Round 1 (played after the suspension announcement), Round 3 (Essendon game postponed), Round 5 (opponent/state switch), now Round 11 (state switch, possible day/time switch).

Agree, anyone suggesting Neale isn't damaging is incorrect IMO. Also agree that Viney, Brayshaw and Oliver could add goalkicking to their game to go to another level, although it doesn't bother me too much. I actually wish we'd rest Oliver in the forward line more, I remember that game in 2018 vs North when he went forward and looked fantastic as a lead-up marking forward. Might have been a once-off but I feel he can do that more often.

The rain and Martin out means I think we can't go in too tall. As such, I think only one of Jackson and TMac plays. I wouldn't be surprised if it's TMac with Jackson getting rested for next Thursday night vs Port. But that will mean someone else has to replace vandenBerg. Presumably that will be Jones, but that doesn't particularly thrill me. You are crazy. Neale is a top 5 player in the comp at the moment.