titan_uranus

I agree the problem is much more than Fritsch’s forward pressure. But he’s generally disinterested and his base skills (uncontested marking and goal kicking) are way, way off. Petty’s just going. I liked his Round 1 game but he can be better. The hard call will come as we can’t play all of May, Petty, TMac and Lever.

No idea why there’s such a turn against Trac. We waste him at FF whilst the ball spends 65%+ of the time at the other end of the ground. But we have hard calls to make on Viney, Salem, Petty and Fritsch. Rivers too if he doesn’t sort his form out.

Is it a suspected PCL, or similar? From a marking contest? Fingers crossed it’s nothing serious. It’s grim how much we’re missing him already, but such is life for us right now.

It’s now two bad games @Adam The God @binman , it’s not overreacting anymore, it’s just reacting. Trac majority forward doesn’t work because our midfield depth outside of him isn’t good enough. We have major personnel issues but we also have best 23 “locks” who are too far below acceptable standard (Viney, Fritsch, JVR, Petty, Rivers, Salem).

It’s also stoppage dominance. -18 in CPs and -16 in clearances this week. Last week -19 in CPs and -12 in clearances. At our peak we rarely lost these stats, which prevented quick breaks against our defence. How often did North and Gold Coast run out the front of stoppages? No defence can compete against that.

Pickett straight back. Turner gets rewarded. Windsor only if he’s 100% fit - don’t rush him back, as tempting as it would be. Lever will come back. Lindsay out injured. One of Petty and TMac has to be dropped for Lever (I can’t stand TMac’s clangers but Petty isn’t in form either). I’d drop Fritsch to wake him up but I’m not expecting that to ever happen. Pickett helps heaps but ultimately if we continue to be massacred at stoppage, we will continue to lose by 60+ points.

We do have to acknowledge that Pickett, McVee, Windsor and Lindsay being out all at once is a disaster. We are so devoid of pace and skill and almost all of it on our list sits with these four. But again, that says as much about our list management as anything. With them out, we’re running with Howes and Billings (neither are good enough), AJ and Sharp (really honest goers but not really at the level, at least not yet), and are carrying players horrendously out of form/confidence in Fritsch, JVR, Rivers and Viney. And calling on Spargo, Woewodin and Laurie isn’t going to help.

6 - Langford 5 - Bowey 4 - Langdon 3 - Chandler 2 - Henderson 1 - Sharp

To cop a flogging in the middle once is bad, but can be explained away and redeemed by what comes next. To be - somehow - worse the following week tells us everything we need to know. We are a mile off. A mile. Almost nothing that we do is acceptable, let alone good. Our skills are deplorable. Our tackling is genuinely weak. Our confidence is shot, our midfield is at sea, and our fitness is unbelievably poor. I reckon Gold Coast are going to belt a few sides this year, but look at their list and midfield depth. It’s so much better than ours it’s not funny. And when we rob Peter to pay Paul by standing Trac in the goal square whilst our mids get creamed at stoppage, we shoot ourselves in the foot. Langford has a bright future, Bowey was very good and I thought Langdon was good too. But we had at least 8 players you’d be comfortable dropping, and that level of uncompetitiveness will see us land in the bottom 4 if it doesn’t improve, and quickly.

Who else could we play to bring additional pressure? We've got Chandler and Henderson. Pickett's unavailable. Sharp needs to lift, but Spargo and Laurie both lack the pace required to provide sustained forward half pressure and neither has struck me as capable of producing it at AFL level for years (or in Laurie's case, at all).

Have you already forgotten how poor Petty was last year in the forward line? His Round 1 game was better than pretty much anything he produced as a forward last year. One poor game, on an AA calibre key forward when our midfield was being slaughtered and they were walking out the front of stoppage, is no basis at all to say Petty should be coming out of the backline. And your hyperbole on JVR is insane.

From what I recall, it factors direction in (I recall him saying something about it taking into account kicks which go sideways).

I do think there is something in Gold Coast’s on/off start to the year. One game, then straight into a bye, doesn’t sound like ideal match fitness prep to me. In June I generally am wary of playing a side coming off a bye, but this week it should work in our favour, albeit we do have a 6-day break.

This morning on radio Hoyne from Champion Data debuted a new “speed of ball movement” stat, an attempt to measure how fast sides move from D50 to forward 50. 100 is considered average pace. He said so far this year we are over 100 for the first time since the flag.

And that’s why I usually don’t focus on these things…

Have to agree with this. I’m not one for focusing on this stuff too much but for it to happen twice in a row with Spargo is…not good

Well it’d be two with AJ. But maybe TMac forward? Otherwise we have four tall defenders?

In: May, Johnson, Billings, Melksham, Langford Out: Jeffo, Spargo (both injured), Woey, Turner, Howes (all dropped)

If this is any indication, Langford, Johnson and Billings will be in and Sharp will be one of the two (other than Jeffo) who is making way.

Ah yes, because all work environments are the same.

1. Well then you can say “if we only win one flag I’ll consider it a failure”. 2. Yes they are. The competition in 2000 was so different to what it is now. The evenness through the ladder right now is unprecedented (we won 11 games last year and finished 14th, for example). The gap between the best and the rest is smaller than it ever has been. It’s “BS” just as much as the assertion that multiple flags was the requirement. 3. Multiple flags is dominance. The sides who’ve done it recently will go down in history for their efforts. But that’s my point - instead of viewing them as the benchmark we were supposed to meet, they should be viewed as the sides who exceed the norm. And your last bit is I think the underlying issue. I think you and the others who agree with you are just frustrated that our flag came in 2021. The benchmark isn’t a second flag, you just want to replicate it in a normal Melbourne year. It reads like you’re criticising me for “reliving” 2021, as if it’s a crime to reflect positively on it.

Speak for yourself. The competition has never been more even. Comparisons to Essendon from 2000 are misguided. The bar has never been, nor should be, multiple flags.

This is just an article quoting the Tradies podcast. Remains the same “source”, McClure.

It’s both. I’m with you on the injury impact. 13 players unavailable is making things tough. But we also have to acknowledge that the likes of Spargo, Laurie, Woewodin and Billings are all a bit “samesy”, on a background of Sparrow plateauing, Howes not improving, and Sestan, Adams and Verrall all queries as to when/whether they will debut.

Why do you even bother supporting this club? Everything is a disaster to you. He fractured his hand (freak/acute incident) then has a calf strain without (AFAIK) a history of calf issues. It’s disappointing but not really that big of an issue.