titan_uranus

We'd be rooted without him. He and Gawn were holding us together in the middle early yesterday, until we got going later. Sticks his tackles (would have been a focus for everyone after the poor tackling efforts vs Fremantle, but he nails that brief week in, week out). Doesn't shirk. Runs both ways.

I expect a loss but the more I think about the timing of the match up, the more I start feeling weirdly optimistic. No Petracca, no Humphrey, (probably) no Rowell, at the G, they're off a bye, we're off a confidence-boosting win, when we're on we're on, we weren't even that bad for 2.5 quarters vs Fremantle... Nah, still a respectable but comfortable loss coming up. Surely...

They were all on the ground pre-game for a photo with Gawn and TMac and were there when they ran through the banner. I saw Spargo and Weideman outside the ground and spotted Howe and Harmes on the ground, but haven’t yet seen a photo of all of them together. Seemed a fair few though.

That’s a good defence of the Hewett free kick but IMO in real time, no benefit of replays or slow mo, that just wasn’t holding the ball. The Evans one I think was line ball so IMO wasn’t egregious at all, but the Hewett one was a mistake and I’d have been livid if that had been against us, at that stage of the game.

We're not dropping Petty, not against Gold Coast and not, at the absolute least, until Turner's fit again. May well just be finding a replacement for CJ - could be Rivers, but not sure what he learns about himself without a run at Casey. Could be AMW, but he may need another week at Casey. I feel we're a touch too short and Gold Coast may exploit that. Not sure if we're going to change the forward line dynamic to get Heath in (or, later on, Kentfield) nor how we'd do it (might be Cross who makes way).

6 - Steele 5 - Kozzie 4 - Gawn 3 - Lever 2 - Sparrow 1 - Fritsch

That's the second time in three weeks I've had such fun at the footy, although this time obviously only for half the game. It might be 3 years since we've had fun at the footy this much across a three game period. That of itself is noteworthy. We must gain so much confidence and belief from holding firm to how we wanted to play despite the abysmal start. King said it in his presser though, unlike last week where Fremantle smacked us across the park, the start this week was more about how awful we were. When we are bad, we are terrible - fumbly, over-running the ball, kicks missing targets. Kozzie was emblematic of it. But the way we worked through that and turned the game on its head was remarkable. Felt to me like we ditched the tag and stopped running Tholstrup in CBAs in the second half, which helped us match them. Not sure if causation or correlation but our ball movement also felt better after Jiath went off. Koz's second half was stupidly good, but Steele's first half was so important when most of the 23 were down. Sparrow's game was a stand-out too. Not sure how related it is to Rivers coming out of the middle but if that was part of it, then Riv's got a bit of work to do as that level from Sparrow makes us such a better side. Major improvement IMO from Langford, Culley and (a bit less so) Lindsay. I'm really hoping that they are just starting to find themselves in this side and are gelling with each other, as seeing Langford get into the game and on the scoreboard is critical to balancing our midfield. Loved the MFC supporter energy in the crowd. Probably outnumbered by Carlton fans 2-1 but the noise when we got going was pulsating (at least on the members' side of the ground it was). Expecting another come-down next week vs Gold Coast but, like Round 1 into Round 2, I'm OK with that. We are building belief in a brand of football that stacks up. It won't work every week, and against the best sides we just won't be good enough for long enough, but we're 12 quarters in now and 8-9 of them have been pretty good.

I personally haven’t been overly concerned with Rivers so far this year, despite acknowledging he has a fair amount of room for improvement. I’m not quite sure dropping a core player, these days a leader, after two games into a new era at the club is the right move, but then again many spent the last 9 years complaining about Goodwin never dropping players so this approach is a new to us!

Rivers dropped! Well done @Bring-Back-Powell

You’re probably right, but I highly doubt he is getting dropped off one mistake (or 2, or 3). King spent all summer talking about how our players need to stop being afraid of making mistakes as we learn how to adapt to the new style/coaching. If anyone gets dropped I suspect it will be for structural or more basic/fundamental reasons (effort, intensity, etc).

I’m with @dazzledavey36 , at least a bit. Salem frustrates me. Yes, he has skill and loyalty, but to me he dines out on those attributes whilst putting teammates under pressure with nothing/dinky kicks and then, as on the weekend, not going when it’s his turn. The clips Riewoldt mentioned are in this video from the 34.43 minute mark: https://youtu.be/iQ-FM--mTLQ?si=bVT2FXNfmnG5n5t8 IMO it’s absolutely fair to call out Salem, a leader, for this stuff. In addition to the poor showing in the clips, on the weekend he had 7 pressure acts (5th worst for us, excluding Disco who already had 6 before his injury) and 0 tackles. I reckon this happens often with him and then posters like you will say “but he’s a classy kick” or “look at his B&F finishes”.

Round 4 is next week? So he might just miss the one week? Would be a pretty good result if so.

Yeah but he only had 8 pressure acts, 7th lowest in our side. 0 tackles, 0 score involvements. Not much defence, not much offence. He also looks 2-4 steps off the pace. Yes, he brings excitement, but it's also pretty apparent that the step up from the level he was playing at last year to AFL level is significant for him, and having had a taste, it might be best to get him back to Casey and get him finding some confidence on either offence or defence before he's back.

TMac for Turner. I’d consider Heath, but not necessarily this week vs Carlton. I’d prefer Lindsay up the ground more and AMW coming in may help with that. Latrelle is fun but also not ready IMO for the pace of AFL level football, so I’d make that swap.

No, but if your commentary reads like you don’t appreciate their experience/age nor any of the other context (Round 2, 6-day break, trip to Perth, hot weather, opposition is in flag contention with a far more talented and mature midfield), then be prepared for someone to disagree with you.

I’m not for a second suggesting we have nothing to worry about. We have heaps to worry about. This game didn’t suddenly reveal them. They were clear going into 2026 and a side primed for a flag like Fremantle, with a stacked midfield, was always likely to expose that. I maintain that it’s unreasonable to pile on those three kids. Langdord and Lindsay have barely, if at all, played 20 games whilst this was Windsor’s second game as a centre bounce mid. Again, we didn’t play just anyone, we played a side that is much, much, much better than us in the middle. It is not surprising we looked slow, timid and fumbly. That happens when you are under pressure (real and perceived) all game. I want to see them improve but we need to see a lot more than two games, one off a six day break in Perth in the heat against a flag contender.

6 - Gawn 5 - Langdon 4 - Tholstrup 3 - Rivers 2 - Steele 1 - Chandler

This is only a reality check if you got ahead of yourself. This was a totally unsurprising result. Honestly, winning two quarters after that nightmare start, and fighting back in the last, is to our credit. Losing Turner ruined our defence, highlighting that we were too short for Fremantle at selection. Ridiculous to see posters already piling on Langford, Lindsay and Windsor. In what world are they going to compete on a 6 day break, on a hot evening, against a midfield like Fremantle’s? Clearly work to do for them but FFS just bear in mind how much more experienced and talented the opposition were. Tholstrup’s job on Serong was fantastic, Gawn is ridiculous (Darcy’s a fail of a ruckman though), Langdon played his best game in ages, Chandler fought it out and Rivers looked a lot better this week IMO. We are going to be thrashed by a few sides this year. Next week should be a better showing.

I reckon we get belted but if we can maintain our style from last week and show continuity in our method, I’ll be ok with that. If we minimise the margin that will be a bonus.

No he’s out. Huge help for us tbh. King said as much in his presser.

I dunno about that. I don’t think Carlton has any issues selling merch with the CFC monogram and without “Blues” meaning anything. Essendon’s logo is a plane and that doesn’t seem to stop them selling merch. Port’s logo is a monogram too. In saying that, I do think we should be leaning into the demon heavily. Using the flamehead as a retro throwback once a year is IMO a perfect way to do that.

This is so important. Engaged, connected, informed. Such a basic concept but up to last year, one we had failed at miserably. Our comms were awful, our attempts lacking, and the connection and engagement from the member base was dwindling. So happy to see the club care about this, and for us as members to be buying back in.

I personally think we’re no chance, but I’m ok with that. We should have major difficulties curbing their mids - Young, Serong, Brayshaw and Jackson is a much bigger test than what St Kilda threw at us. That midfield delivering to a very dangerous forward line spells trouble for us.

Seems to have been suggested that the new race is bigger with more screens to give us more “vibe” running onto the ground. I hated it, as I prefer to see us emerge from within the MCC heartland, but the X post dazzle quoted gives a better justification for it - change the rooms, leave the old Melbourne behind, including our old rooms.

This is the sort of thing that tells me he can be damaging at AFL level once he adjusts to the pace and gets fitter (which admittedly are 1-3 years off). At the moment he's too slight and likely aerobically won't be able to hold his spot in the side for long periods at a time, but the way he finds space, and uses it, is a stand out (except yesterday when Koz was leading into the goal square and he got caught in two minds as to whether to kick it, which he should have, or pass it to Koz).