titan_uranus

I think you mean you couldn’t care less. I’m not sure if ignoring the journos would have helped. After what he copped for the argument with the doctor, imagine if he did a “no comment” or acted like he didn’t want to talk. Just as bad, if not worse.

Except for when we lose, in which case it’s a land of lava, pain and where you can’t say anything positive lest you be called a “happy clapper”.

I agree with you that Carlton are being seriously underrated on here. But I don’t agree with everything in this post. St Kilda’s been out of form since the bye and they struggled to get separation against them for 2.5 quarters. The Saints’ defensive ranking stems from their pre-bye form (North scored 34 and the Dogs 41 which skews their points against total a bit too). Jack Steele’s 2023 form is a shadow of his 2020-22 form, too. And I don’t think Tom De Koning is “smashing” into anyone (North played two much bigger rucks this weekend and Gawn had no issues from a physicality perspective). Clearly though they play a brand of football that stacks up. They have talent on every line and as you say, McKay out has forced them to think about their forward line (a bit like Fristch out for us I think) and they’re finding new ways to score. My principal concern is their backline - we have to neutralise the air and without Petty, I fear that is going to be a big task.

My thoughts precisely. I saw the posts here and braced myself for some sort of bombshell. It was just standard Clayton Oliver. He’s flat when he talks and he’s clearly jaded by how many times he’s had to press for fitness that he’s almost joking about it.

Well we know it won’t be Brown or TMac replacing Petty. I think it’ll be Smith, with Hibberd or Tomlinson into the backline.

Close. Away games to GWS at Manuka: Western Bulldogs - 7 Melbourne - 4 Gold Coast - 4 Port Adelaide - 3 Fremantle - 3 Geelong - 3 St Kilda - 3 Brisbane - 2 Hawthorn - 1 North Melbourne - 1 Adelaide - 1 Richmond - 1 Carlton - 0 Collingwood - 0 Essendon - 0 Sydney - 0 West Coast - 0

Games at Blundstone since 2012 (when North started playing home games there): GWS - 6 Melbourne - 5 Adelaide - 3 St Kilda - 3 Sydney - 3 West Coast - 3 Port Adelaide - 3 Geelong - 2 Richmond - 2 Gold Coast - 1 (will be 2 by the end of this year) Hawthorn - 1 Brisbane - 1 Carlton - 1 Collingwood - 0 Essendon - 0 Fremantle - 0 Western Bulldogs - 0

Also gets us FTA exposure again. Sat arvo has become the AFL’s graveyard slot. Sunday arvo is now more prestigious. Collingwood played a stack of Sunday games earlier this year.

I think a comfortable Collingwood win is more likely than Geelong winning by 20.

I doubt we're going to go with JVR, Smith and one of Brown/Schache/Grundy. I don't think we've played three tall forwards since the GWS game (if you allow Fritsch to be the third, as we went in with him, Brown and Smith). We're 5-0 since then with one fewer tall, and scoring well. I doubt that's going to be changed now.

I think we have as tough a run home from here as any other side. Carlton and Sydney are two of the form teams of the competition right now. But I think "limping over the line" is a bit melodramatic, given that, in the last month: We rested our stars in the fourth quarter yesterday and appeared to ease up, with a six-day break coming We blew Richmond off the park in the fourth quarter last week We came from 5 goals down in the fourth quarter to beat Brisbane We were patchy yesterday for sure, but the previous three weeks were pretty solid hit outs and whilst we had issues in all three, I don't require us to be flawless to consider we have a chance to do serious damage in September. There isn't a flawless team out there right now.

Sums up this situation perfectly IMO.

They still need another 3 goals (without Fremantle scoring) to pass us on percentage.

For two weeks. Surely we want them to beat Port as well in Round 23?

I can’t get around this deathriding stuff. We absolutely want Brisbane to lose. A flag and pick 6 is infinitely better than no flag and pick 4.

But he was averaging 4 goals a game the past 2 weeks. His recent form was promising. I agree it’s not the end of the world. He only returned last week and we won 3 straight without him, including Brisbane and Adelaide.

Geelong and Sydney are the most likely to pounce on St Kilda and GWS, who are the two most shaky current top 8 sides. But if Adelaide beat Sydney in a fortnight (at home) and we then beat Sydney in Round 24, could also be Adelaide.

You might do well to take a leaf out of his book.

St Kilda kicking 1 goal in the second half against a Carlton side missing most of their starting midfield is just rubbish. They had the chance to win this game, have blown it, and now face the slide that their form warrants.

I’m taking solace from when Ross Lyon said Max King was done for the year a month ago yet he’s back playing today. But it does seem Petty’s going to struggle to get back soon.

Oliver for Harmes seems a reasonable bet. A few options for Petty. We could try Grundy. We could flip Smith back to the forward line and bring Tomlinson back. We could go back to the well with Brown, but I doubt that will happen. A lot of food for thought. A shame Casey didn't play this weekend.

It's a shame we had to fight back from 33 points down in the first place, but I felt all week that North were going to come out a different side with the bounce from Clarkson returning and Ziebell announcing his retirement. It was a terrible way to start, but we acknowledged it, and when we got going the game played out as we all wanted it to - we kicked 14 goals to 4, and that includes the last quarter where we put the cue in the rack (which IMO is the right call - the ladder will take care of itself and we have a six-day break into the Carlton game next week). Seeing Pickett, ANB and Chandler each kicking 3 is really promising. Having them hitting the scoreboard is critical to any success we want to have in September. Petty's injury is shocking news. Various options present themselves to replace him but it's a major spanner in the works given we'd settled on him as the forward and he'd come into some form. Now to have to change, again, three weeks from finals, is far from ideal.

4.4 is North's second-best first quarter for the season. Their best was 5.1 in Gather Round vs Brisbane (in which they were level at quarter time). This season North average 18 scoring shots a match. They already have 8, 22 minutes into the first quarter.

I don't like Gameday threads because of the overwhelming negativity, so I won't be hanging around here all that much. But my early thoughts are: If there was any chance for the upset of the season, it was going to be off the back of North starting well and us starting poorly We don't play day games that well any more, barely playing them at all (0-2 this year with a red Sherrin) Edit: is there a wind advantage? We'd want to hope so...

On your theory, does loading have to take place mid-season in order to have effect in September? Or does it only take place then because that's when we get the bye and some longer breaks and can therefore afford to do it whilst minimising impact on games? If it's the latter, why can't Collingwood be doing it now in an effort to increase their aerobic capacity, if they can afford to lose games now because of their ladder position? They're locked into top 4, and nearly locked into top 2.