Mel Bourne

Yes, that was frustrating as all hell. But you don’t blame an individual for “costing us the game” because that particular individual made an error in the dying minutes of the match. Games are won or lost over four quarters of football.

By “stuck”, I mean how many of those have been wrapping players up in tight contests resulting in a ball-up? Yes, those are certainly not without their importance, but those kinds of tackles are just the basic requirements of the game. I’m not overly moved by this statistic when compared to his others. His game yesterday was a slight improvement on his recent form, but 1.2 is nothing worth getting excited about from a key small forward, who we all got terribly excited about his signing for four more years. Look, I really want him to do well. Love the kid when he’s on. And they hype from the footy media has definitely been a hinderance when it comes to how we view him as a player. But you can’t deny that he is in a slump, and one many of us here have noticed. I still back him, but he needs to find something better than what he’s currently giving us. Maybe some of that will be solved by giving him space in our otherwise stupidly-congested forward 50.

I’m struggling to see how his occasional shirking of hard-ball-gets, poor positioning at contests and ridiculously-selfish leaps for glory translate as “doing his job”. I see it more as him doing the bare minimum. His tackle count is the most impressive stat out of all of those, and yes, it does indicate effort. But stats are deceiving. How many of those tackles have stuck? How many have resulted in a free kick? The problems do indeed lie elsewhere (and yesterday, practically everywhere) but his form is definitely one of the ingredients in the current soup of mediocrity we’ve been dishing up of late.

Sorry, are we supposed to be impressed by these stats? He may be holding his spot in this side, but compare him to the league and not his also-struggling team members, and you get a much more accurate depiction of where he’s at. No, he won’t get dropped. Simply not an option. But if you’re trying to make the case that we should be impressed with his recent form, you’ll understand if I politely tell you to make it somewhere else.

He broke new ground in the last quarter. Went for the fly before the camera had even caught up with him. It’s embarrassing to watch.

I’m not sure if I’d label it “class and poise” as much as I would “opportunistic”. The “opportunity” being that Trac and Lever decided - for god knows what reason - not to stand the mark and allow him to play on.

My history of posts would tell you I’m neither believer nor denier. I simply care very little for withdrawn battles of conjecture. I don’t like seeing this site descend to personal grudges/snipes against other posters. Feel vindicated as much as you need to, but are the many “told you so” posts really that necessary?

Why would you put someone so hell-bent on making the highlights package instead of playing the actual game into the midfield?

Did I say it wasn’t? I’m just sick to death of the “Loading Wars”.

Dude really, this is so tedious.

Not even the most optimistic, supportive poster on this site can deny how putrid the team was today. I will calm down eventually but right now I am disgusted. Pickett, Harmes and ANB need to all make room for different players next week, and I don’t give a [censored] which players those are.

Let it go.

Grundy constantly dishes off poorly thought-through handballs to players in danger. Something I’ve noticed all season.

As far as our decline in accuracy is concerned, we have a case fairly contagious yips. It’s been hard to watch, but I’m not concerned that it’s anything to worry about. These things tend to move through like waves. What I’m more concerned about is the lack of connection, the lack of viable one-on-one options, the cluster-fudges of pack contests that produce too-little fruit, and the lack of crumbers at the foot of these contests. As far as this list goes, ranking-wise there’s a pretty decent chasm between 1st-6th and the rest. Interesting that Trac is in there, given he’s the only midfielder on the list. You’d like to see Bailey and Kossie higher, obviously.

Aside from everything else being said (I have no opinion on loading, except to say that it would be quite a blessing to actually get a player/coaching staff tell us what exactly is happening in this regard), this aspect of Kozzie’s game really does my head in, sometimes. I get that wet-weather footy tends to ask players to keep on their feet, so I was willing to let it slide last game, but it’s a general technique he employs in most matches. You’ll see it work for him on occasion, which probably keeps enough heat from the coaching staff at bay, but I get really frustrated watching Koz stick his feet into the packs hoping to pluck out miracles when four out of five times he should be getting his hands dirty.

That’s our year? Dear, oh dear. I think not.

Four pages of ridiculing Mason Cox with absolutely nothing of any real substance to anybody’s posts whatsoever. I’m all for it.

Brian (Damage)Taylor was very quick to label Fritter as a stager after the first replay (and his peanut gallery all concurred). They show the zoomed-in second replay which shows that there was definitely some force behind it, and it was met with a stony-silence. I wonder how many other professional sporting leagues around the world have as many hacks in the commentary box as the AFL does.

It seems I’m one of the few people here that doesn’t mind Dangerfield. Hope he recovers well.

SEN played a snippet from his podcast and he said in no uncertain terms that Trac had apologised to him and they’ve moved on. So if he’s lying it’s incredibly blatant. As for whatever censored word you used to describe him, I wholeheartedly agree.

Yeah he’s not exactly on my Xmas card list. But in this instance Trac seems to have put his hand up for being at fault.

Mason “Bag Of” Cox said on his podcast today that Trac apologised to HIM and he’s accepted it. SEN just discussed it. What was said will remain between the players.

Sure, but I’m seeing his game yesterday and most of his games this season for what they’ve been, not what they could have been. Like everybody here, I love watching the kid play when he’s on, and want nothing more than for him to progress as a player, but I think he’s still lacking some basic small-forward craft (specifically where he positions himself). His pressure is usually impressive for sure, as is his inside-50 tackle count. But if I wanted to be cynical for a second, that stat suggests to me that he is the hunter more often than he should be the prey.

Hunter was a helluva lot better than “some iffy disposals”.

Indeed. Both Spargo and Kossie racked up a mere six disposals and three tackles each today. Kossie's few pressure acts made the slim difference.