titan_uranus

I only agree to an extent. I think travel and breaks are most impactful on any given week, but they build up over time. So this will be North's 7th game and their 6th different venue (MCG, Marvel, GC, Perth, Adelaide Oval, Launceston). It's tiring moving around that much. There's no routine, just constant movement. For them, the "soft" part of their fixture (travel-wise at least) is coming up - their next 8 games before their bye are all at either Marvel or their second home, Hobart. So IMO I don't think it's purely coincidental that Essendon and St Kilda have started the year well when they've played every game bar Gather Round in Melbourne (including this week and, for St Kilda next week too). That's a 2-month patch where both sides can get into routine, avoid being on planes and in hotels, and settle into their new seasons with new coaches. Chandler having scans? Source?

We played West Coast in Perth in the (relative) heat. So far the only other non-WA side to play West Coast in Perth is GWS, who lost. Comparing our game vs Sydney to Geelong’s is foolish. When we played them all of McCartin, McCartin, Rampe, Franklin and Amartey played. None of them played against Geelong. Two markedly different Sydney sides.

Horrendous fixture for them. Ours better but clearly not by much (remember we’re on the Gold Coast next week too). Meanwhile Essendon and St Kilda haven’t played anywhere other than Marvel/MCG (bar Gather Round).

If we move Petty to defence this week then IMO it’s defence for the year for him. I don’t want us to keep flipping him from week to week. Whether it’s forward or back, he needs to get stability with May/Lever or JVR/whoever. Flipping him around is giving me Brad Miller vibes - never got settled and never got to his potential as a result. If he’s a forward then leave him there. If not, move him back and get Brown back into the side.

I have no idea how you walked away from that game thinking Hunter and (in particular) Langdon didn't do enough. The middle two quarters, their run and width was essential to keeping us in it, then turning the game around. Probably Langdon's best game of the year. I agree, which is a bit sad really given there are plenty of times the Fox crew say stupid stuff (Jonathan Brown sh*ts me). But it's miles, miles, miles in front of the dross Channel 7 give us.

Did Rivers hurt his leg? Looked lame in his last horrible turnover kick then subbed off? Fritsch and Hibberd both had ice on their feet in the rooms post game too Wouldn’t be surprised to see May “managed” with a sore calf, maybe Turner in. Spargo will miss and I’m pretty sure we won’t see Brown or McDonald after the Casey loss.

6 - Viney 5 - Grundy 4 - Chandler 3 - Lever 2 - Gawn 1 - McVee

I’m a seasoned Demonlander but even so I’m surprised at the negativity in this thread. That was a high pressure game for 3.5 quarters in front of a massive crowd. We started poorly, but the incredulously bad umpiring didn’t help. A 50-point turnaround is something we should be impressed with, not describing as “papering over cracks”. We have to stop expecting to blow every side off the park, or to be leading start to finish, or to be flawless. The competition is too even for that. What I want to see is improvement in key areas of concern. We started tonight leaking goals from innocuous inside 50s but ended it with our intercepting game in much better shape (what a difference Lever and Gawn make). No idea why Hibberd is copping so much heat, thought his job on Cumberland and his strength in contest was critical to us evening the game out. As others have said, Grundy’s third quarter stoppage and ruckwork helped turn the game, but I also thought Langdon and Hunter were huge in the middle two quarters when the pressure was right on. I’m far from convinced about Petty as a forward but we have to pick a spot and leave him there. Can’t keep flipping him between forward and back.

Good at best? Our performance against Sydney was up there with the best football any side has produced so far this year. Some of our football against the Dogs was excellent, too. Yes, our worst football this year has been mediocre but our best has been stunning. That is, IMO, part of the disappointment - we're so good when we're on, but we're not that good at all when we're only slightly off. Our gap is too big right now.

We shouldn't be losing this game. Not with their missing players and our close-enough-to full strength line up. Win and we go back into the top 4. Lose and we'll be out of the top 8 for the first time since the end of the 2020 season.

Gee Brown's season's really taken a disappointing turn. Tied for third in the Coleman after two Rounds with 8 goals. Looking as good as he had in his time with us. Back spasms in Round 3, takes longer than anyone expects to heal, can't get back into the seniors even with us coming off a loss and then plays average-to-poor in the VFL. Now being discussed as a "has-been" a month after being discussed as in form and integral to our 2023 flag chances.

I don't think the fact that some of their opponents were top 4 at the time of playing them means a whole lot in the first 6 weeks. Right now Fremantle and Carlton don't look like finals sides. So their wins over the Dogs and Essendon look good. But even then, I'm not sure Essendon will keep it going all year. Plus they're yet to play a non-Gather Round interstate game. Collingwood IMO is miles in front of any other side for flag favouritism. Geelong's beaten two (not even) VFL-quality sides and a Sydney side missing its back and forward lines. St Kilda see above. I'm unsure on Essendon keeping their form for another 18 weeks. Sydney's depth is non-existent and unlike previous years they're going to need it in 2023. Brisbane will win enough H&A games but they still don't defend well and have to get better away from the Gabba. Adelaide struggled to beat Hawthorn and strike me as a massive flash in the pan style side. Port Adelaide are hot/cold. Carlton have problems all over the place. As for us? Well, I don't know. But I know we're not as good as Collingwood.

Jeepers. Four goals down at half time to a side barely VFL quality? Let's hope for some improvement.

I think we know enough about how we were going late last year to know that wasn't our best performance. But even so, that's Brisbane's one finals win of merit in four years of finishing top 6 on the ladder.

Brisbane has one genuine away win so far, and that was yesterday’s far from convincing win over GWS, a likely bottom 6 if not bottom 4 side. Their home wins vs us and Collingwood were excellent but they have dominated at home for 4 years without being good enough to do real finals damage. I’m not at all convinced enough has changed there. Geelong are the only good side to have played both Hawthorn and West Coast plus they got Sydney at the best possible time. Their percentage is hardly reflective of their season so far.

One of only three sides to play both Hawthorn and West Coast so far (North and GWS the other two). They also got Sydney at a low ebb. Essendon, Adelaide, Richmond, Fremantle (away), GWS and the Dogs their pre-bye run. If they clear that 4-2 or better, they'll be fine. They have 6 GMHBA home games and only two road trips post-bye. I'm still not convinced though.

Sorry, that's right, we can only pass them on percentage if they lose. Fixed.

Sydney's missing too many from the same areas - key defenders (McCartin, McCartin, Rampe) and key forward (Franklin, Amartey, Reid). It's much harder to cover those sorts of players, particularly when they're all out at once. Clearly their depth is poor, but it's a tough ask. Our win against them was against a vastly superior version of them, and deserves far more credit than Geelong's win tonight IMO.

I don't know about that. Collingwood play two home games at Marvel this year (one of which is vs North Melbourne, which is ridiculous) and have done so for years, IIRC. I also don't think we are getting a 10th MCG home game as some sort of compensation. My understanding is that the AFL requires a minimum number of games at Marvel and because Carlton and Essendon (Marvel tenants) want and get their bigger games at the MCG, the MCG tenants have to play home games at Marvel. Our 11th home game would almost certainly be at Marvel if we didn't sell the Alice Springs game but we'd stay at 10, I think (Collingwood might drop a Marvel game to compensate). I have no idea how the above leads to us being sent to Geelong each year. I'm nearly 100% sure the basic reason for that is that the AFL (and/or Geelong) decide to make Geelong host bigger Victorian clubs at the MCG, which restricts the pool of Victorian clubs eligible to go down there to us, North, St Kilda and the Dogs. So we cop it most years. We're not ceding anything. It's the AFL and it's our crowd-pulling ability. If we stop selling the Alice Springs game we'll still get at least one more interstate game compared to those other sides. Hawthorn sold 4 home games per year in its dominant years. The AFL minimised the number of away games they otherwise played. We sell a home game but the AFL doesn't minimise our other away games to compensate. That's on the AFL, not on us. If we pull bigger crowds consistently, then more clubs will want to host us in their home games. Everyone wants to host Collingwood (and Richmond, and Essendon, and Carlton). So they get more away games in Victoria. If we pulled bigger crowds we'd get more of those away games in Victoria.

8th. If we lose, we'll be 9th (Adelaide won't lose to Hawthorn). Of course, if we win, we could be 3rd (Coll/Ess winner 1st, St Kilda/Carlton winner 2nd - we can pass St Kilda if they lose and we pass their percentage).

I think it's time to make some changes and set some rules around how teams/squads are named. On Thursday TMac named in the starting 22. Schache not in the squad. On Saturday TMac dropped, Schache now in the squad in his place. What's the point of these squads? Either name actual squads or delay them until a time when clubs know who they are going to pick. Anyway, as to the sub, going to be an interesting new face. I can't see Schache or Turner being the sub so you'd imagine it will be Laurie or Dunstan.

Gawn and Lever in for Tomlinson and Melksham. Spargo either replaced by Jordon or, presumably, Laurie. Surprised re Brown. Nothing in the club’s selection article to explain his situation. Assume he is fit but not picked. Which surprises me given TMac’a form.

Care to identify the things you think we're not doing "well enough"? Our injury situation isn't perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as a number of other clubs (West Coast, St Kilda, Richmond, Carlton and Sydney all immediately come to mind and I haven't even thought about it for all that long).

Well I'm not entirely sure about our forwards being "pus". I mean, we are the highest scoring side in the league...

Agree. I think the Dogs had a fair whack of injuries late in 2016 and Richmond opened 2019 with injuries galore, but by and large premiers are healthy more often than not. So far this year we have used 29 players, which is tied for 8th-most in the competition. It's not entirely coincidental that St Kilda, Sydney and Essendon are in the top 3 for fewest players used.