Rodney (Balls) Grinter

It really was smart coaching from Kingy to make this a focus, given how many close ones we lost last year and even just in general it's pretty low hanging fruit to be good at winning the close ones. All that effort to play well for ~110mins means nothing if you loose it in the last 10mins. I'm not saying Goodwin was all that bad at this aspect either though. Back in 2021, we made something of a habit of winning by smallish margins and controlling the game in the second half to do so. I think it's something that perhaps got a bit lost the past couple of years as we transitioned to a more attacking game overall, that we lost that ability to change the tempo and control the dying stages of games. Controlling the tempo of games like this in-game is something of a measure of the maturity of teams and I do think King has inherited a list with a good spread of mature leaders to implement this kind of measure.

Agree. Hate those bastards

....yes 😂

More like a MOOQOOOsss, more similar to BROOOOOOsss I think, but yeah hope the crowd makes it happen

On this point, I actually think we're likely to see more of this going forward as well. Just my take, but I think things have changed somewhat since the Grundy days. At that time, Gawn was what 4 years younger and we were in the window to win another flag mode. Fast forward to the present day and I even think Gawn would acknowledge that he's closer to the end, we're in a rebuild phase and will be more willing to sacrifice some of Gawns output to get The Moose an opportunity to establish himself. I also think the 5th bench spot has resulted in more teams playing 2 genuine rucks and I think that actually impacts Gawn's ability to out work a single main ruckman. I think the Moose also has more potential to impact up forward than Grundy, which is partly why the Grundy experiment failed, because he didn't have much forward ability. Also as much as I actually really quite liked Petty's impact in the ruck, bringing in Moose will allow Petty to focus on being the quality key backman I think he can be and we need him to be. The past few weeks, he's been a bit of a utility type player, whilst we've had a gallant, but lacking in mobility T Mac down back - it's been a bit half pregnant and I'm not sure that has worked.

Well we've got Max and Heath in the same side. Incidentally, even if Gawn doesn't play, it's likely we'll still have Max and Heath play in the same side!

Shows more than Laurie IMHO

Yeah, but at least The MOOSE 🫎 has got a gig. And good on your boy Jeffo - hope he plays well and builds his game at AFL level. I do see the potential there. No doubt Kentfield will get an opportunity sooner or later.

Swap out Jeffo for Kentfield and I really like that bench. We need to be maximising guys that really attack the ball. As smart and experienced as Miochek is, I don't really think he brings that kind of energy to our forward line. Would love to see The Moose smash some packs.

It's an absolute joke and a disgrace. How do the AFL claim to run an elite competition with such a massive disconnect to the reserves comp. It's well overdue that someone stood up and took responsibility for this garbage, but I guess the AFL executives are more interested in sampling wine in the Barrossa and selling whatever games they can to the highest bidder than running a proper football competition.

Awsome. No need to rush in the first round, fist year draftees in some kind of knee-[censored] reaction. Will XT actually ever be a 'T Mac replacement' though? Would be great to have a true rebounding defender with good foot skills though. I love Disco's intercept work and some of the other things he does in the backline, but do feel that he's unreliable, boarding on a turnover merchant by foot at this stage.

Agree with alot of what you are saying Re T Mac. He did a great job against Carlton after we lost Disco and were potentually short a tall in the backline and love how the guy keeps putting in and putting his hand up, but I actually thought his lack of mobility looked like a bit of a liabilty against the Suns. It was hard to drop anyone asides from Laurie from such a good team confidence building win, but I feel that if we were being ruthless, then we would have also have bought in a younger more mobile runner in place of T Mac. AMW would be my first guess. I also like Petty has been doing pinch hitting in the ruck and further up the ground, his marking confidence has returned and I really think he should be covering the other key back position, not T Mac, both for this season and our structure in seasons ahead.

Totally agree. If he was a forward, then they'd say he was protecting the ball drop for himself. I can partly understand if there were other players in the area that he allowed easier access to the ball through his positioning, but it was a one of one contest. T Mac then copped a fair push in the back a bit later, which was allowed and again they goaled. The umpires also had a real crackdown on insufficient intent/deliberate out of bounds which I feel was inconsistent and went mostly against us a key times. Noticed this in other games I've watched this weekend as well to an extent - how are players suposed to react to these changes in interpretation week to week. I had also thought the lassoo rule had done a reasonable job of bringing consistency to the deliberate out of bounds - apparently not. Beyond all else, I really did think they got some stinkers (probably a bunch of those deliberate decisions) and non paid decisions to us that helped shift the momentum in the 3rd quarter that got them back into the game after we had opened up a bit of a break on them.

Was always going to be hard to make changes from the winning team we had last week, but as much as I'm a huge fan of him, I would have picked T Mac against Essendon. Leaving out Heath, Kentfield and/or AJ was also something of a mistake in my mind.

Agree with alot of the above. I think we relied alot on Melksham firing last week to get us over the line. When he got hobbled early, we didn't really have a forward that looked like taking the game on. Didn’t help that we delivered poorly into forward 50 and let them keep picking it off. But I actually think good, contested forwards would see that happening and somewhat adjust for it. It's not just Roo that concerns me, I also think Mihocek has equally underdelivered in the past few weeks. I'm not sure that dropping either of them is the answer though. I'd be looking to bring in either AJ, Kentfield or maybe even The Moose for someone with a bit more bash and crash, contested style. Could be wrong, but I suspect Melksham will sit out next week with that ankle.

This loss is the flip side to the wins we've pulled in over the past few weeks. We have a developing team and all asked for a more attacking game style, which has been embraced and delivered results faster than expected. When the game style works, we expose our opponents and look like superstars. When we don't win enough of the footy and/or execute well enough when we have it and the game style falls apart, we get exposed and it looks alot like a lack of effort. I think at the start of the season, we all expected something of a roller-coaster ride, which is somewhat the thing we're getting. Honestly, I hate the losses and I've lost patience with them and can't tollerate them week after week, because of the history we had 2006 - 2017, but I think we need to accept that looses like today are going to happen. It's now about how we respond.

I don't nessacerilly disagree, but I also don't think many saw the Carlton or Gold Coast wins coming either. Will be a big test for King and Co to see how they can turn things around.

Makes zero difference when we front up next week against Brisbane. Yeah Essendon were absolute puss against North 2 weeks ago and I'd personally hoped that would continue, but it didn't. They showed signs against the Dogs last week amd we just happened to be their mark this week. Too bad, tough shiiiit. Move on. What do you want - us to flagellate ourselves for the rest of the season?

Honestly, I think we need to move on from this kind of narrative. It's not a winning formula. We're in a semi rebuild, but even last season's premiers and grand finalists are getting mixed results this time of year. I'm supper [censored] with the result and think it's a massive opportunity missed. But in all honesty, at this point, it's just one game. The coaching group and the team have already moved on from this as a loss and are just thinking how we can beat the reigning premier's next week, which I think we can and look forward to being there to watch it.

With a bit of perspective, I know I'd still rather be 3 & 2 this season, than 1 & 4 and / or 1 & 17. Still think we can beat Brisbane at the MCG next week. We lost. Reset, reload and let's keep moving forward towards another premiership.

Saw it comming, but honestly thought we were past this kinda [censored]

Add Cully to that. Got a new contract during the week and did almost nothing today.

Upon reflection of my previous post, I think it's ridiculous that we expect old Max to dominate for us every week. We've come to rely and depend on this far too much and other teams work it out. We simply must play young Max Heath next week. I don't care if he only takes 4 marks and has 5 possessions for the game, we need someone to take the physical and physiological heat off Gawn as well as developing an alternative for the future. The Moose 🫎 is the man for the job - time we give him a go.

Add to that, Langford often gets lauded for his good games, but doesn't get called out in his ordinary ones - today was one of them. Was also very disappointed in Langdon, Sparrow, Chandler, Steele, Gawn and co that should have done far more. I do think umpiring, momentum and the footy Gods were against us today but this was a game we should absolutely have won, but didn't.