Red But Mostly Blue

While we’re waiting, this is that strange place where satire and (almost) reality meet…

That’s what you and I and a bunch of other normal, reasonable people think, but then again we’re not a rabbid bunch of ignorant, soulless hooligans who think it’s ok to chant their team’s name as a supposedly respected oppo player is concussed, then carried off the ground.

Lots of Pies also not understanding that the biomechanist didn't really help their case. While he said Maynard would not have had any time to react and became an airborne frisbee with legs - it leaves the conclusion, then, that he willingly put himself in a position for which he had no ability to correct, despite the risk of harm to the oncoming Gus (who despite Maynard's Neanderthal grunts indicating he didn't see Gus - which is weird from a guy who admits he was trying to smother a ball leaving Gus' boot)... ... which IS CARELESS

The Pies lemmings are in full force on twitter, saying the biomechanist is 'cooking'. These guys are drongos. Wouldn't have read a damn thing of any educational value in any of their graceless, sad sack lives. abut all of a sudden, an 'expert' fitting into their agenda is 'cooking'. They are all for science now (unless it concerns concussion). Righto.

I don't understand, if Maynard didn't know Gus was 'there' - who was he smothering???

I know it's been mentioned/discussed already, but holy hell the comments on David Zita's Twitter are obscene. The Magpie army have well and truly disgraced themselves. Not that they would know what that means, or likely care. They would probably wear the label as a badge of honour. It's actually pretty deflating stuff to know there are such inconsiderate human beings out there. They're parents, educators, your co-workers etc. Gross.

The thing about witnesses and lawyers, is that ultimately the evidence, no matter if it is/isn't coached, ultimately it still needs to be delivered by the witness. I don't want to be mean, but Maynard is not a very smart man. Counsel would know they're pushing up hill with his testimony. I say the more he talks, the better - let him talk :-)

Excellent. Can't wait to blow that corporate dream into red and blue confetti.

We need somewhere to put our darkest thoughts and relieve some stress! haha

I love a lot of this! in Fact off the top of my head I can't even think of something I would like to disagree with, even for the sake of disagreement (and I am a lawyer, so I have form). MAYBE Kozzie in the midfield as I have enjoyed seeing him there to get involved. But you're right, if we ground him, he is fantastic at picking up the stuff probably no other guy on the ground will get to. Smarts and skills off the chart. We have the ingredients to make something delicious here, but are we going to be brave enough to use the right ones, and use them in the right way? The idea that some have put forward Schache/Jefferson instead of Grundy is wild. But I get it. We lost SOME of those games and arguably had better results with just Max, but as he has said himself, Max was in an ordinary form for a while. People are understandably spooked by bringing Grundy back. It can't hurt though. He's a more reliable prospect than Schache and certainly Jefferson. It'll mean Max has to sacrifice a bit, but he's the captain, he may understand we need to do things differently to get the win which is more important. Because if we don't, we won't get to plan for next week, we'll be talking about *gulp* learnings. The alternative is to try untested/unreliables, and do what we did last week. Which may work, but it might not unless we mysteriously get better at i50 delivery. Our accuracy is likely to be better, but there's no guarantee. Very interested to see how this unfolds. We are on the cusp of straight sets #2 - I'd love to see some cojones and of course the boys coming out from the first bounce with fire in the belly and a destroy Carlton attitude (which should come naturally to everyone anyway).

Posted elsewhere, but realised it probably sits better here... I have been bummed for a few days but right now, I'm feeling OK. There are really only one of two ways the first bounce goes this Friday. Either we breathe FIRE from the first second - because the reality is we entered the finals better than last year (aside from the decimation of our forward line - but we were finding ways to score, and our defence is solid) - and the boys will know that and will not let the blues take this from us. They may have a few obviously solid guns, but we are a better team, even without a forward line (with a forward line we destroy the Pies, and GWS/Port en route to the GF... ), in our last game they played out of their skins, we were average and we only lost due to arc madness. With everything on the line, I think the Blues are tiring and we have a statement to make. It's overdue now. OR we come out the same way against the Pies. Sleepy, late, sloppy, bombing balls into the 50 with no learnings at all, having to chase, in which case we likely lose, because the Blues will bank on that, and will probably expect it. Then we have to deep dive over summer because skills aside, there's a mental issue - 2 straight sets with our list is v bad. BUT - I think it's the former. We come out and raise hell for 4 quarters and give the Lions something to think about. (I think we beat the Lions, we just have to get there)

Love your positivity as always! I'm usually pretty upbeat about opportunities, and this one bummed me out a bit more than normal, mostly because we lost it, rather than got beaten, and the path for the Pies is now much easier than ours. BUT - right now (maybe it's the coffee I am drinking), I'm feeling OK. There are really only one of two ways the first bounce goes this Friday. Either we breathe FIRE from the first second - because the reality is we entered the finals better than last year (aside from the decimation of our forward line - but we were finding ways to score, and our defence is solid) - and the boys will know that and will not let the blues take this from us. They may have a few obviously solid guns, but we are a better team, even without a forward line (with a forward line we destroy the Pies, and GWS/Port en route to the GF... ), in our last game they played out of their skins, we were average and we only lost due to arc madness. With everything on the line, I think the Blues are tiring and we have a statement to make. It's overdue now. OR we come out the same way against the Pies. Sleepy, late, sloppy, bombing balls into the 50 with no learnings at all, having to chase, in which case we likely lose, because the Blues will bank on that, and will probably expect it. Then we have to deep dive over summer because skills aside, there's a mental issue - 2 straight sets with our list is v bad. BUT - I think it's the former. We come out and raise hell for 4 quarters and give the Lions something to think about. (I think we beat the Lions, we just have to get there)

I hope you’re right!! Makes sense to me. It would feel so good sending the baggers home, then giving us a crack at the lions up there. One step at a time…

I hope so, although I wish they did it for Gus against the Pies since it was one of them who knocked him out. And now it’s a much harder run when it didn’t have to be.

Haha I love this answer, thanks mate. Lucky coffee and wine are my jam 🤣🤣

I’m normally very positive but still feeling pretty deflated about Thursday. So I like reading stuff like this, even if my gut is telling me, or maybe just preparing me, for a loss. A lot of the game is in the head, I think 0-3 in recent finals will either inspire or put doubt in our group. Honestly I felt if there was motivation to avenge it should have been on show on Thursday, not via a spirited 4th qtr effort, but fire from the first bounce, which is what the pies did. They started the game like they had a point to prove. Anyway, I hope you’re right. Even with a cobbled together makeshift forward being serviced by dumb repeat bombing into the 50 we are a much better side. But they have their tails up after a first finals win. Let’s see. Our group certainly has a point to prove, let’s hope they make it and we don’t hear about more learnings for next year’s ‘point to prove’.

The Saints have been boring and wont be missed but I won’t trash talk their finals exit until we beat the blues and save ourselves from another straight sets exit 😬

Whatever happens can we just START FAST AND HUNGRY? Show us 0-3 in the last 3 finals burns. Like, actually burns. Enough to come out breathing fire from the FIRST SECOND until the LAST SECOND, and bury these cheating [censored]. We can’t go down 0-4 and 2 straight sets against the blues. We just can’t.

True. But we’ll still bomb the ball in a billion times and score 6.28…🤣😭

Agree with both assessments and you’re not wrong, we need to beat either. We are better and can, but the usual Melbourne conundrum is which one of our teams will turn up?

So who do we want to play here? Mind you it almost doesn’t matter as we’re our own worst enemy and will probably end up beating ourselves next week. But still, who suits us better?

YEP

The blues seem to touch a lot of balls on the line hey?

So I’ve had the benefit of some sleep and this is what I came up with: Firstly I hope Gus is ok. I can only imagine the emotions/pain he’s going through. We were beaten by a better team on the night. We had our chances to take the game. 4+ out of bounds is seriously not good enough. 1-2 goals from those and we win. But bad kicking is bad footy as we know. We might be missing forwards but the guys who missed those should not be missing like that. Bad night for Jack to have a quiet one. We needed someone to tear the game apart. Kept expecting him to do it but he didn’t. Too many guys in this category. The Pies came out hot. That lead won them the game. … so my question is. If we were burning in the guts from last year’s straight sets exit, why wasn’t it US who came out breathing fire. The Pies looked like they had something to prove. Not us. It looks like we wilted under the pressure until, as always, it was too late and we had nothing left to lose. Now we face the prospect of another straight sets exit. I’m not even confident we’ll beat (the Blues?). Might be my deflated self talking. But we go with no Gus, JVR, and a whole bunch of guys who are now 0-3 in recent finals and showed no fire in the belly when they walked out. Nothing to avenge apparently. The blues will smell blood in the water, and why wouldn’t they? Ugh. Our premiership window 😢

We need a Curnow type gun who might be able to mark one or two of those dumb bombs into the 50, since we are intent on dumping the ball forward without bothering to look. Hopefully we think about this when we go shopping for players this year.