titan_uranus

Anyone know what this says?

Jeepers, Xerri, Naughton and Merrett probably harshly done by here. I'd like to think Gawn is the ruck with Jackson on the bench as the 2nd ruck/rover/unicorn sort of player. He'll be incredibly harshly done by if Grundy gets in off the back of half a season of good form (admittedly it was a very good half a season, but pre-bye Grundy was nowhere whilst Gawn has bee consistently good all season).

The footage with Gawn and May is quite interesting. For one, it does look like May is at best not listening to Gawn, or at worst rolling his eyes right when Gawn says "we need to learn how to win". But of course then remember that the club posted the video. So we had all the opportunity to see May's reaction before posting. And remember, too, that whilst seeing Gawn speak in the rooms is nice for us fans, the message was the exact same message he gave in his already-posted post-match interview (right down to the "there were three ways this game was going to go" stuff). We could have just capped the video at Chaplin's address. We chose to add in Gawn's speech. Did the club's comms team not see May's reaction? Or see it, but felt it was harmless? Or see it, and didn't care about it being shown to the public?

For anyone still wondering, the “more than likely” gone quote is click bait. The actual quote from the article is: “While he’s contracted for 2026 at Melbourne, it’s more than likely he will be a victim of a list shake-up under the new incoming coach given there will be a thirst for change and May has enough crosses next to his name to be an easy cut.” Just speculation from the journalist, Scott Gullan.

Some interesting stats in this article: Fox SportsWhat went wrong for AFL bottom 9... and who they must tar...What went wrong for AFL bottom 9... and who they must target to bounce back in 2026“The Demons improved their forward 50 connection after a dire first two months of the season. From Rounds 0-9, they ranked a lowly 16th for score-per-inside-50 rate. But after Round 10, the Dees promisingly climbed to fourth in the same metric, suggesting the mid-season changes made by Simon Goodwin were starting to pay dividends. Part of that rectified connection was their chain-to-score rate, which went from 14th to third in the competition in the same aforementioned periods. And from Round 10 onwards, Melbourne was one of the best punishment sides in the league, ranking fifth for intercept-to-score rate; exhibiting their ability to transition threateningly after forcing opposition turnovers. There are reasons to be optimistic about the trajectory of their game style, but it’s now a matter of which direction the new senior coach decides to take it.” “While Melbourne made strides offensively and in terms of its counterpunch ability in transition, it uncharacteristically had one of its poorest defensive campaigns in some time. The Dees’ 88.6 average points conceded was their worst output since 2019, while their score-per-inside-50 against rate was 48 per cent; their worst since 2016. And to cap it off, the club’s pressure rating of just 175 this year was their worst output in a season on record. It came in a sign-of-the-times campaign where long-time pillars Steven May and Jake Lever — who are edging closer to the end — combined for just 23 games played.”

Grain of salt warning! Jon Ralph: Mentions both Clarry and Trac (Trac’s management says he’s “happy and invested”).

Yeah we were in most games this year. But we struggled to run out quarters, and games. We lost 4 times when leading at 3QT and lost 13 odd games when we were within striking distance at 3QT. So whilst we were indeed in most games, I reckon our poor fitness contributed to us only winning 7 of them.

I reckon they’ll struggle to beat Brisbane or Hawthorn. If I were them I’d be hoping for a narrow Hawthorn win, which puts Collingwood 3rd.

Yeah I call bull on that post. No idea if the poster has had good mail before or not, but I call bull on this. Last game of the year, and the rooms are abuzz with both Clarry saying he wants out and the club saying we want him to go? And not a single journo got a hold of that?

My current, too early/raw, views: Of those who are out of contract, I'm very open to any of the following being delisted or traded - Spargo, Sharp, Henderson, Brown, Hore, Woewodin and Fullarton. Billings probably goes here too, but we can't delist everyone and his VFL form perhaps warrants another year as "depth" Of those who are out of contract, I'd like us to keep McVee, Sestan, Campbell, TMac and Melksham (the latter three get one more year). I have no idea if Verrall will ever make it but our list sort of requires us to keep him Of those who are under contract, I'd delist Laurie if we could afford it but the salary cap hit is not ideal, so he may have to stay (I will repeat that the biggest of all the list management blunders we've made was giving Laurie a contract through next year despite seemingly having marked his cards last year, let alone this year). I'd also be open to trading Salem, Sparrow, May, Petty or Lever, if there was a reasonably good deal available We can't and won't move on all of the 13 players I've mentioned above, but that's the portion the list that IMO should be targeted.

IMO the list problem is that we have both Viney and Clarry and we don't need both, and really need to stop playing both moving forward. Neither can play anywhere other than inside mid which is hurting us twice - we can't compete with better midfields because we're too inside and too slow, and we can't get as many midfield minutes into the likes of Windsor, Rivers, Langford and Lindsay. Trac is complimentary, given his ability to go forward. Yes, in 2025 his kicking was awful, and it may remain that way, but with a new coach, a more dynamic midfield and a forward structure which holds its position more than we've been inclined to do under Goodwin, I'm hopeful Trac can return to being closer to the dynamic centre-forward beast he was up to KB last year.

Gawn said last night that he felt we were "in" 20 out of our 23 games this year (the other three being Round 2 v North, Round 2 v GC and Round 23 v Hawthorn). I was thinking about that, and sort of think he's right. By my count, at three quarter time this year we were in front 10 times - we managed to lose four of those (3 in the last 5 weeks). Of the 13 games where we trailed at three quarter time, 10 of those the margin was 18 points or less (the three others were both GC games and Hawthorn last week). An 18 point deficit isn't necessarily something you look at and think "we're on here", but IMO it's a gettable margin. But we only won 1 of those 10 games (Brisbane). So there is probably something to be said for Gawn's comment. (PS: this isn't a "we're close to being good again" argument. We've had this problem for 2.5 seasons now).

Yeah that free against Pickett was a disgrace, but what Cameron didn't look like a free to me.

Ugh what a night. Collingwood can't miss top 4 now (unless GWS beats St Kilda by some ridiculous margin). If they finish 4th (which is what will happen if Brisbane wins), they'll get Adelaide in the first final. I can just see them winning that. Adelaide, without Rankine, haven't made finals for 8 years, pressure on. Ugh. Logic says GC beat Essendon by 60+ on Wednesday, but the pressure on them now, knowing it's win and win, is extreme. They crumbled tonight against a side that statistically was as bad as West Coast has been over the last 6 weeks. Surely they don't drop the Essendon game...surely...

By the length of the Flemington straight, the best thing to come out of this season. A genuine star in the making. What he did tonight, and has done before, as a 19 year old without a full pre-season, has been stunning. Can't wait for him to launch into 2026.

What was wrong with the "body slam"?

Makes no sense. As fun as the Hinkley emotion is, the AFL surely wants GC to win to get them into the finals, whilst also making the Dogs-Fremantle game a proper sudden death affair. Is the world really going to tune into GC v Essendon on a Wednesday night just to see if GC makes finals or not?

27 touches this week for 5 score involvements. 30 touches last week for 3 score involvements. He's been better the last month, but the bar was too low. We need more from Salem than what we're getting, and he is part of the leadership problem.

He was closer to our best than the comments on here allow for. There is clearly a level of emotional dislike for Trac after what happened last year. It's the opposite of red and blue glasses with him. People see what they want to see. Like the poster having a go at him for not redeeming that kick from May.

I get it. I liked a lot of what I saw too. But I think there's significant danger in the "some polish, some refinements" argument. Just tweaking and hoping the same core group is going to fix the close losses is IMO not right. We went 0-6 in games decided by less than 10 points this year. Going back to last year we're now on an 0-9 run in these games, and 3-10 overall. Going back another season it's 7-16, including the two finals in 2023. This year was the worst year for close losses, but it's not a new problem, and going into 2026 trying to hold onto as much of the 2021 premiership side as we can and tweaking around the edges is IMO likely to lead to too much more of the same.

This is what I want to think. The Demonland consensus pre-game was that we were no chance and going to be belted. They kicked 2 quick early goals and I'm sure the Game Day thread assumed a 10-goal loss was on its way. So we clearly did well to exceed those expectations (by a lot) and play what was at times really strong football that suggests we ought to be in the top 9, not the bottom 6. But then of course I see us lose yet another close game. I see us lose yet another fourth quarter. Yet another late lead squandered. 5 behinds in the first three quarters but then 5 behind in the fourth when we just needed someone to find a goal. Pressure goes up and we revert to consistent long kicks to the hot spot over, and over, and over. Gawn tries to do it all himself. So the fourth quarter was the "perfect" end to this disaster of a season. It encapsulated almost everything that's wrong with us, the more so because it came off the back of 2.5 quarters of really good footy.

My heart skips a beat every time I see @Chook in Perth pop up.

I've said this before in another thread, and this isn't really the place anyway, but for a player to have this record (12 games in 5 years, only 3 of which he wasn't subbed on or off), and having only been selected once all season despite being fit all year, it's maddening that he's contracted for next year.

For those who can read it, anything new from Ralphy here? Or just reheated soup?