Everything posted by titan_uranus
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POSTGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Were we loading? I hope the club is as embarrassed as we are angry. Weāve not only just [censored] 4 points down the drain, we somehow managed to again lose by 30 points, taking yet another percentage hit. We conceded 6 goals in the first quarter to St Kilda. Theyād barely kicked 6 goals to three quarter time in the last two months.
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Garry Lyon admitted on radio earlier this year that he hadnāt appreciated how good Tom Barrass was until he saw him live, as heād only seen him on TV when he played in Perth. Studio-based commentary is sub-standard. Foxtel know that but donāt care.
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We're Not Dead Yet - The 2025 Season
My current thinking around the "run home" (which at this point is better described as the second half of the season). We have 12 games remaining. 6 of them are against sides currently below us on the ladder (St Kilda x 2, Carlton, Port Adelaide, North Melbourne, West Coast). The other 6 are, obviously, against sides currently above us (Collingwood x 2, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Hawthorn, Bulldogs). If we win the 6 games against the sides below us, that gets us 11 wins. We'd then need at least 2, maybe 3, of the other 6 to get into the top 8. For every game we drop against the lower ranked sides we have to win another one against the higher ranked sides. It won't be easy, but it's doable. Going into the byes last year Hawthorn was 4-7 with a percentage of 82.8%, but got their percentage up to 118.5% by winning 10 of their last 12 games - however, 6 of their last 7 wins were by 60+ points, including a 124 point win vs North in the final round. If we fall short, we're going to seriously rue the loss to GWS most of all, and then the terrible fourth quarter drop offs vs North, Geelong, Essendon and Hawthorn. The percentage damage we took when those margins blew out late could easily ruin us, if we do get on a roll from here.
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Callum Mills
That wasnāt to the head. It was to the side. Seemed totally fair to me.
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Iād say ādecent chanceā for finals, at best, not āalmost certaintiesā. We have a tough fixture and strong competition for top 8 spots, and we did exhibit some truly rank football 6 weeks ago. One week at a time.
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
A good question. Surely Laurie gets a go.
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Fully agree that we canāt get too confident this week (or any week tbh). But St Kilda have lost 6 of their last 7. Yes the win in the middle was a 10 goal win over Fremantle but Freo didnāt turn up that day. Theyāve also lost to West Coast and Carlton in the last 3 weeks, neither of whom are good/in form. Again, donāt get me wrong, if we donāt bring our A game we lose, but Iāll say that every week. Just like Sydney, my view is we are a better side than St Kilda and should win this if we play anything like we have the last 6 weeks.
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Time to go Goody?
Well weāve beaten Brisbane, and Fremantle (9th, out of the 8 on percentage only), lost to GWS (8th) by a kick in somewhat unlucky circumstances and played well against Hawthorn. That resume isnāt actually all that bad. Hawthorn, the Dogs and Adelaide have each only beaten one top 8 side (GWS for both). GWS has beaten two (Collingwood and Geelong).
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2025 MFC Injury List
Scapula yes, but club saying 4-6. Injured in the incident before the Mills hit. Viney likely but not confirmed. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1792732/injury-report-strong-session-strengthens-viney-case
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Spargo confirmed out for 4-6 with a scapula injury. Viney likely but not confirmed. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1792732/injury-report-strong-session-strengthens-viney-case
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Callum Mills
The latest example of the MRO system being the AFL's most embarrassing joke. Why does the "potential to cause serious injury" thing get rolled out some times (e.g. Pickett on Smith in 2023) but not others? Why not here? What Mills did was reckless and had clear potential to KO Spargo, even though it didn't. Meanwhile Paul Curtis gets three weeks for a tackle that was almost done perfectly but still accidentally caused concussion, whilst Jackson Archer and now Alex Pearce get three weeks for largely unavoidable collisions. Just a genuinely broken farce, the MRO.
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PREGAME: Rd 12 vs St. Kilda
Viney for Spargo. I'd be comfortable making that change even if Spargo is fit - IMO he's clearly 23 out of 23 right now and Viney will come back assuming he's fit. Interesting question if Spargo's injured and Viney still isn't right. Laurie? TMac for Lever if there's even a shadow of doubt over Lever's fitness. Wouldn't be surprised to see May "managed" this week either. AJ stays until JVR puts together weeks of good VFL form. Not one match against the bottom side. I'm not convinced by this. As in, I accept he's doing more than the raw stats often show us, but I'm not convinced that's keeping him in the side. Who is at Casey right now who is banging the door down to take his place? Laurie? And that aside, if he and Viney are both fit this week, and noting you've already accepted Viney is an automatic selection, who makes way for Viney?
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POSTGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
I've now had the chance to watch the replay and my first thought was that @fr_ap was spot on to highlight Sydney's pressure. Yes, they were poor at moving the ball, and they fell apart late, but for most of the game they were giving us properly strong opposition. We were just better than them, and had we not had a series of unfortunate misses in the second, we should have been 60 points up at half time. The other main thing I liked was seeing Sydney seriously challenge us early in the third, only for us to steady and bite back. Hayward had a chance to bring the margin back to 11 points and they looked like they were about to have their one good quarter but thankfully he missed, and from there we put them away. We're as in form as anyone else right now and we're playing a brand that stacks up - it starts with proper defensive pressure across the entire 18, and we're outscoring on turnover. This football can win us enough matches to make finals, even despite the 0-5 start, so long as we can keep it up. Enough's been said about Koz and Gawn but I absolutely loved Langford and Lindsay - we have nailed those two picks, so much so that I genuinely no longer give a rat's tossbag about Essendon holding our first rounder this year. Enough's also been said about AJ but my view on that is pretty clear - he holds that spot until JVR puts together weeks of consistent VFL form. Then JVR can have that spot back. JVR's clearly the more talented long-term fit for the team.
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POSTGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
We have St Kilda next week, not Collingwood.
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POSTGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
We won all four quarters, including 8 goals in the fourth, winning it by 3 goals despite Sydney having had 2 extra daysā break and us playing in Brisbane last week. Any reason why Langdon only played 78% TOG? Very low by his standards. Managing him through this tough part of the fixture? Pickett did everything he did despite only 76% TOG. He only played 3/4 of the match!
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POSTGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
I havenāt seen the game but if their pressure was 220 in the first half and we still managed to win both quarters and lead by 20āodd, thatās a stunning outcome and, like you, probably going to be my favourite thing to come out of today. Although also, @jnrmac will be happy as we won all four quarters!
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We're Not Dead Yet - The 2025 Season
The final 10 games starts with Port Adelaide (before the bye), followed by GC and Adelaide post-bye, all away. Iāve never seen a side have three consecutive road trips (whether or not including a bye). Itās a brutal month. We then get North, Carlton, St Kilda and West Coast, before closing with the Dogs, Hawthorn and Collingwood. Even if we do win the next 3, having to go 7-3 from the rest seems very difficult IMO. But for me, letās just see how we go tomorrow. As good as last week was, and even respecting that weāve gone 4-1 over the last 5 weeks, a loss tomorrow will flip these sorts of threads back into āsack Goodwinā and āomg we donāt have a first round pickā again.
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PREGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
Well then we could easily have said he was being managed, like we did with Melksham a few weeks ago. This is as surprising a selection decision as I can think of, and thatās saying something given recent history.
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PREGAME: Rd 11 vs Sydney
I donāt agree. I actually think their percentage hides their true performance. They regularly only play 1-2 quarters per week. Last week they kicked 5 of their 12 goals in the fourth quarter. The week before v Essendon, as youāve noted, they kicked 2.4 in a half. The week before v GWS they kicked 5 goals in the first 10 minutes and then 7 for the rest of the match. Against GC it was really just one quarter - 6 goals in the first, 6 for the rest of the match (3 of which came in the last 10 minutes of junk time). They were 5 goals down to Port at 3QT (at home) before kicking 5 of their 10 overall goals in the fourth to narrow the margin. Weāre not good enough yet to be raging favourites but if we bring last weekās form (big if, I know), we should have Sydneyās measure, even (I think) with Mills and Adams back.
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Time to go Goody?
If we make finals, after missing them last year and starting 0-5, youād sack him? Crazy. If we make finals from here we are necessarily going to have to string together a bunch of wins over good sides. If we put a strong enough last 13 games together to do that, there is not a shred of doubt that heās our coach next year. Not a shred.
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POSTGAME: Rd 10 vs Brisbane
It was so bad. The score at the bottom of the screen changes between the Chandler kick and when he comes to the bench. Weād kicked 2 more goals in between FFS!
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POSTGAME: Rd 10 vs Brisbane
Only the 4th time in 8.5 seasons that someone has beaten Brisbane at the Gabba when trailing at 3QT.
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POSTGAME: Rd 10 vs Brisbane
Does it? Does one good fourth quarter mean weāre fit? Iām sure thereās a mental aspect to it but doing it once doesnāt mean weāre necessarily fit enough to do it each week. I havenāt seen the game yet but Iāve noticed it was a fairly low tackle count - 39-41, including just 7 each in the fourth. Contrast with last week, which was 61-44. Perhaps that impacted our ability to run this one out?
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POSTGAME: Rd 10 vs Brisbane
Weāre out of the bottom 4! In all seriousness, I canāt wait to watch this one having missed it. We have a rivalry of sorts with Brisbane and itās become quite enjoyable beating them, but far more importantly itās what the win signifies. Of all the games to find something in the last, itās this one. +9 in CPs and +13 inside 50s, for 4.8 to 1.1. Could have blown them out of the water but given they were 1st and we were 15th, beggars canāt be choosers. Weāve won 4 of our last 5 and the 5th was a game we arguably should have won. Itās fair enough now to say our form is turning, if it hasnāt already. Less than halfway in and weāre 1 game (and a stack of percentage) out of the 8. We have plenty to play for, even if weāre coming from too far back.
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CASEY: Rd 08 vs Southport
Didnāt see the game but if Tholstrup appeared to be disinterested/sooking, that presents him and us with an important moment in his fledgling career. We canāt have anyone at our club who acts like that. We can use this to spark him into realising that an AFL career can be blown up all too easily, and he can start to get real with his attitude. If he wants to play seniors, go and earn it. Make this a turning point in his development.