titan_uranus

We’ll have a plan fitness-wise, given the 5-day break. Billings and Laurie the two spots that don’t appear solid right now. Chandler deserves to stay on previous weeks.

6 - Lever 5 - Gawn 4 - May 3 - Petty 2 - Langdon 1 - Oliver

Mids were beaten? We won CPs by 3 and clearances by 1. Their major ball winners were half backs (Holmes and Z Guthrie).

Unbelievable win. Devastated I couldn’t be there. It’s been noted but Goodwin got it spot on tonight. The control of the ball and the defence of the corridor threw their ball movement right off. When we bring that level of pressure (13 tackles inside 50 to 2), and set up that well defensively, even the best sides struggle to score against us. And xScore shows that our misses were far more diabolical than theirs, so we should have been further in front for most of the game. Petty reminded us why he’s so talented. That sort of marking changes us. Thought Sparrow played much better, as did Viney. And if Windsor isn’t AA this week, we should all riot. We’re going to be up against it next week on a 5 day break after that game but even if we’d lost, we are clearly in the flag race this year. Get around us, if you’re not already.

Jordon’s had 9 touches, Bedford 6.

A win gets us a game clear in the top 4, takes a big scalp, and hopefully gives us good confidence for next week and a tricky month ahead. A loss sees us slip behind the top sides, will have Demonland baying for blood, and will be extra frustrating given it’s Geelong.

Carlton have been really good at winning close ones recently but have lost three in a row. Walsh got left behind by Daicos. He’ll be filthy. Expect him to come out red hot next week.

Carlton were beaten most of the night. Shouldn’t have been that close. Game on the line and they go 5-21 inside 50s in the fourth. McKay’s kick was terrible. And that was a blatant insufficient intent free.

It's got a run on The Age though: AFL 2024: Hamish Brayshaw launches impassioned attack on AFL judiciary (theage.com.au)

Source? I thought they stopped publishing their expected crowds?

I am going to continue to challenge the notion that we have an excellent list. If you're looking at the top 10-12 or so on the list, then sure, not only are we excellent but we're in the conversation for number 1. But the entire list? Do we bat as deep as GWS, or Carlton, or even Port Adelaide? Are we across the board as strong as Geelong, or Sydney, or Collingwood? Can our list be "excellent" given our forward line? It's fast becoming fourth, or even fifth, most important. Both Thursday and Friday night are now seen as bigger than Saturday night. Channel 7 seems to want to push the Sunday 3.20pm slot too, whilst Fox is going bananas this week over the Saturday twilight slot.

I don’t agree and will continue to fight back against this assertion. Premierships are hard to win. Everyone (current and former players, current and former coaches, analysts, everyone) says it. The bar should never be set at multiple flags. The fact that recent sides (Richmond, Hawthorn, Geelong) have done so doesn’t change that. They are the elite of the elite, not the standard. GWS and Carlton started this year better than us already - they made prelims, we didn’t. However I can’t stand the whole “they’ve passed us” rhetoric that we see on here after losses or when people get down on our fortunes. It’s not how it works.

They have a tough stretch coming up. Carlton, then us, then a six day break into Port (at home), then another six day break into GC in Darwin, then GWS at home 9 days later, then a further two games, the second of which is Sydney in Sydney before their only bye in Round 14.

I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you that Geelong are good but when we win games despite those same underlying stats how many on here say “we were lucky” or similar? (eg the Port win)

I can do one better. Fremantle plays the Dogs again on 15 June, in 7 weeks (Geel v Carlton is on 21 June, in 8 weeks).

This is so important to keep in mind. Carlton beat GWS with these 6-8 best 23 players out then put 100 on Geelong (admittedly plenty scored late). I still rate Carlton as the number 1 seed. I rate us higher than many but I don’t think we’d be as strong as they’ve been with equivalent players out.

Depends who you ask. Some say Geelong wants all 11 home games in Geelong but the AFL doesn’t want 30,000+ missing out on tickets to games featuring Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon etc. Some say Geelong wants the two MCG home games to maximise its number of games on the G each year (ie irrespective of money). That answer (Ess/Carl playing more at the G) is not a viable one for so long as there is a minimum game requirement at Marvel per season, nor is it one I want to see. If they get more home games there, others have to fill the void with home games at Marvel. Richmond, Hawthorn and Collingwood all have them already. We’d be next.

It's not necessarily true that in 2024 Petty is a higher quality back than TMac. It's also not necessarily true that in 2024 TMac is a level above Petty as a forward. But what's clear to me is that TMac has been part of our yet-again-competition-leading elite defence for the last 6 games. It's not worth disrupting just to try to get Petty more into the game.

As to Schache, yes we can. We’ve seen enough of him at senior level to know he’s not the answer. As to Fullarton, we need to see more at VFL level. If he keeps up his recent form and Petty doesn’t improve, then sure, the pressure will come.

Port was +21 CPs, +38 disposals yet +28 tackles, +7 inside 50s and +10 scoring shots. All while having half their side play the entire 4th quarter because they had no bench. I don’t see “umpiring gifted Port”. I see Port being too good and St Kilda wasting a golden opportunity.

I can indeed do better. They’ve won 3 of the last 4 against us. But we’ve played them so much of late, that only goes back to September 2022. We won the four games in a row prior to that, including belting them in the last game of 2022 (their last loss at the Gabba until Opening Round this year). So there aren’t really “issues” over “a number of seasons”. 1-1 in 2023, 2-1 in 2022. 0-1 so far in 2024 but let’s see how we go in the return game when we’re (hopefully) not on a 5-day break straight after a fortnight interstate.

Put the umpiring to one side, Port have no one on the bench and St Kilda still couldn’t get anything going. Hate them or not, Port deserve that win.

He's not playing well but I think there are good enough reasons for it to warrant persisting longer. He is a confidence player but is at I think 1.5 from set shots. I suspect if he had nailed a few more of his set shots earlier, he'd be feeling better about himself. He also isn't fit enough but I suspect the FD think he'll get that fitness just as quickly in the seniors than anywhere else. I can't deal with the "swap TMac and Petty" stuff though. TMac's looked great in the backline so far this year and looked awful in the forward line last year. Robbing Peter to (potentially) pay Paul isn't the answer.

A bit like how I opened this thread thinking it was about the best all-in team effort we've had during a quarter of any match so far, that is precisely how your earlier post read.