titan_uranus

Bevo has to be in trouble. Their list cannot be producing as poor football as they’re producing. Confusing selection, confusing messaging, it’s all a bit of a shambles. Meanwhile the 8 might almost be set? Collingwood in for Essendon might be the only change. GC, Dogs and St Kilda don’t look good enough, whilst I’m not sure Adelaide or Brisbane will win enough to claw their way past a side other than Essendon (Port? Freo?).

Unreasonably negative. Lever’s form isn’t just down to how much opponents respect him. You’re giving him next to no credit for his positioning, zoning, reading of the play, his strength in marking contests, even his willingness to be involved in offence. His form is largely his to own.

Looking forward to @WheeloRatings’s stats update but some I’ve noticed: 1. We had 7 of the top 9 pressure act players, with Clarry leading the way. 2. It’s either an ongoing tactic or injuries but we’re resting our mids in-game a lot more this year. Gawn 83% TOG, Trac 79%, Oliver and Viney 77%. All feel lower to me compared to previous years. 3. Doesn’t matter how quiet you keep Trac, he makes things happen - yet again, game high score involvements with 9.

It certainly sounded like a loud and very pro-Melbourne crowd. 51,795 puts it as our 5th biggest H&A crowd against them. The top 4 were all day games - I suspect we lost a few Geelong supporters to the night time slot.

It’s been sustainable for 3 years. But whilst I agree with you that we need to ensure we can score, last night wasn’t really a reflection of a game plan which can’t score. We had easy shot on goal after easy shot on goal and fluffed them. It’s not a situation of what we saw at our worst in 2022-23 when we were either not generating shots or only generating dirty or low percentage shots.

If anyone’s in contention surely they get pulled at 3QT. But seriously, is this not something the AFL and VFL can work on? Is it unavoidable to have Casey play on a Sunday when Melbourne plays the following Thursday?

Sure. Presumably so did our 3 extra days rest. Maybe Bowey, Salem or Melksham would have too?

If you set 2021 as the standard you will be disappointed. That season was elite. Do you think we are a contender in 2023 or not?

Fake side. They will get found out soon enough.

Not back from where? And what more do you think we need to do to get “there”? You don’t think we’re a contender?

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).