titan_uranus

Hawthorn too - they have to bring their four Tasmania games back to Melbourne soon. As I’ve said before, if you withhold attendance to make some sort of point, or because you think attending games should only occur if we’re playing high scoring football, you’re killing the club. We won’t withstand these sorts of narratives forever.

And the Lions aren’t even in the top 4. Dogs, the current flavour of the month, are currently 4 goals down to a bottom 4 side. I’m with you. The frustration for me is that we’ve put this season together in a year where middling form can get you top 4. We’re not that far off Geelong or Port but 1-4 in games decided by under a kick and two beltings to a Fremantle side who hasn’t really achieved much else for 3 months has ruined us.

Hawthorn won’t miss finals from here. They’ve played one bad game since Round 7 and they close with the bottom 2. IMO it’s down to the Dogs, Fremantle and Carlton. Carlton should win their last 2, but can’t be certain with their injury list and loss of form. If they lose again they’re almost certainly done. But if they win both they’ll likely pass Fremantle who have GWS and Port and on current form won’t win both. Dogs have been in top form but have Adelaide and GWS, two games they can easily lose. If they lose both they will also be passed by Carlton if they win twice.

Was it just me or did anyone else reckon Tomlinson has slimmed down and added some pace? He was making a habit last night of tearing off up the ground and I felt like he was much faster than usual.

Agree re Turner (assuming you meant invisible not invincible!). Fritsch could easily have been the sub too, and would have structurally suited us better. But sick or not, JVR was struggling big time.

Turner’s leading and marking yesterday was hugely promising. Not sure his fitness is good enough (a common theme for other players IMO) but with hopefully a strong pre-season I reckon we’ve found something. Now if we can just find someone to do the relief ruck work to allow us to stop rucking JVR…

It’s not an excuse anyway. If they were sick why did we play them? JVR was one of a handful of sub options. I’d have preferred Hore but presumably Melksham as sub forced us to look at a forward.

It’s the nature of this season. Sides are going to make top 4 who just aren’t at the level of top 4 sides of years past. I believe this is the first ever season in which all 18 clubs have had a stretch of going 1-4 or worse. Sydney last week lost by 100. Port just struggled to put away a bottom 6 side (us). GWS has lost on expected score for almost every one of their last 6 wins. Geelong has multiple 10 goal losses and struggled last week against a bottom 4 side. Brisbane isn’t even in the top 4!

Wow. Speechless.

Goodwin said in the presser we had gastro through the group this week. Half a chance Oliver and JVR had it at some point I reckon. Both looked like they had it from the first minute of the game.

If Houston were a free agent I suspect the majority view here would be that he’d be a great addition. We just lost yet another game hallmarked by our poor foot skills and we are seeing increasing calls for McVee to go into the middle. But attaching pick 6 to him is where most of us feel uneasy. IMO trading pick 6 in this draft out for a 28 year old half back just isn’t the right move.

6 - Pickett 5 - Gawn 4 - Viney 3 - Petty 2 - ANB 1 - McVee

No doubt these were the good parts of his game. But he fumbles, he misses easy kicks, he is still too soft, and he dropped his head badly after his howler dropped mark and missed snap. IMO, the good did not do enough to outweigh the bad. But I might be too harsh on him.

How many bemoaning the coaching were saying pre-game that we wouldn’t get near them? If you can’t react to a loss with anything other than “poor coaching” or “sack Goodwin”, just don’t bother. Our set up, effort and intensity is what had us leading the side sitting 2nd, fresh off beating the side sitting first by 100, all night. We lost this game because we’re woefully unskilled, incapable of executing basics under pressure, unfit and panic in close games. Billings drops a chest mark then panics and misses the snap. Kolt misses from 20m. TMac turns it over under no pressure. Langdon fumbled his first touch how many times? We’re carrying unfit players. We’re not aerobically fit enough and so we have players unable to spread or close down space in close games as needed. Despite all that, we kept ourselves in it. Our defensive set up and our brutality at contest for 3.5 quarters, coupled with Kozzie and Gawn masterclasses, was fantastic. But all for nought when we cannot sort out the basics. I’m glad we used McVee in centre bounces more. Should keep doing that now that we’re done. Bring in Bowey or Woey or AMW to cover and run him through the middle more. Time to “manage” Oliver. Get him off for surgery if he needs it or otherwise just start his pre-season ASAP.

Yes. I pretty much explicitly just said that. I also consider this year to have been a significant disappointment, and I was filthy at the two finals losses last year too. The two concepts aren’t mutually exclusive.

It’s funny, Cornes’ article is getting all the attention but earlier this week on SEN Brad Johnson had the counter argument which AFAIK hasn’t been mentioned on here. Collingwood tonight have become very likely to miss the finals. Which, if it happens, will confirm that we are the only one of the last four premiers to make the finals the following year. It’s time we stopped going on about “wasted dynasties” and started acknowledging that in the current era of AFL-driven hypercompetitiveness, winning a flag is difficult, and being successful in back-to-back years is even more so.

Those handful of deliberates late were a bit much. Thankfully Collingwood were the ones to cop them.

Tom Morris just reported that North is targeting Jack Viney to “reunite” him with his father. Demonland implosion incoming…

The changes are more logical than some on here want to admit, but they're equally uninspiring for those of us who have enjoyed seeing fresh faces in the side. I get why Hore and Salem are playing, and more importantly I can accept why AMW isn't, but if I'm honest I'd still rather see AMW out there.

Signing Brayshaw when we did, on the terms we did, was completely reasonable. The "history" of concussions was a thing of the past and what happened to him at the end of 2023 doesn't mean our decision was wrong. Signing Clarry when we did, on the terms we did, was probably something we had no choice over. If we didn't do it, someone else probably would have, irrespective of whatever he was dealing with off-field. There are very valid discussion points around Grundy (not so much trading him IMO as failing to make it work), Petty and the depth list management issues though.

Because they want the suspense of the Sunday having top 4/8 impacting games (people will probably watch the Friday night game regardless), and probably to ensure Foxtel has some good games that round.

There are two MCG games, the other is Rich v GC. They don’t want dead rubbers on the Sunday so they had to put one on Saturday and one on Friday night.

Wholly uncalled for. There is room for debating @WalkingCivilWar’s views on the club given her close connection to the players/coaches/staff. But what cannot be debated is her connection. Which she owns from being completely devoted to the club. I’d like to think the players would tell you to [censored] right off, but I might leave that to WCW.

This is a good post. Principally because it acknowledges that multiple factors go into our performance. It's not just one. It's certainly not just fitness/injuries. It's not just list management. It's not just our game plan, or our ball movement, or even our skills. And it's not just the loss of Gus. It's all of them. I don't come down as harshly on Goodwin as you do, but one area that we have to acknowledge he failed in this year was his attempt to change us after the 2022-23 finals failures by changing our set up and relaxing our press in the first third/half of this season. It didn't work. I think the idea to tweak was correct, but we went too far and, regardless, didn't get it right given our playing list. The lack of a proper second ruck/forward is an absolute disaster of list management/coaching, however you want to split it. Running Gawn into the ground on 1.5 legs and relieving him with our only promising natural tall forward is bananas.