Red But Mostly Blue

Hahaha sidebottom. Glad they paid that. Made no attempt at all.

Pretty good start, Oliver pretty much literally everywhere. Jackson getting back into it, great to see. A little too similar to last week with us going into the break with a lead, but oppo not capitalising. The Pies could and should have had a couple. The difference will be how to come back from the break. We've absorbed a lot, so now it's time to make some hay. Sun is shining, it's glorious ☀️😍

Fritter, V classy 😍

To state the obvious, we need a win today. We're the reigning premiers, and we're playing the Pies, who are no chumps, but they are also a long way off where we're at. We also need a good win to take the focus away from some ugly press this week, some of which may thankfully be taken away by Cocaine Bailey (and rightfully so! A scuffle outside a restaurant, whilst not a good look, is certainly a long way off a baggie of the good stuff - provided we make good the damage and refocus on the mission ahead). I doubt we're going to rediscover forward connection today out of nowhere, especially with depleted forward stocks. But there needs to be some improvement and a plan other than bomb it in. Looking for some improvement from Jacko and Lever. Salem will get better for the run. Trac, Oliver and Viney need to take control today. And most importantly, NOT LET UP. We have let a few leads slide in the past few weeks. Anyway, all that aside, I think we'll galvanize after a pretty yucky week and come out on top, not by much, but enough to go into the bye with something positive. 20 points. Go Dees 🔥

Ugh. I hope I'm wrong, but it's starting to look a lot like all the talk of being hungrier than ever for another premiership is just talk. Crap like this, some lazy performances (yes I know we won 10 straight, usually off the back of a quarter of decent footy, sometimes even less - and as is now quite apparent, we had not yet played any of the real threats this year), and some of the guys who look completely off the boil (where did our intensity go? Our tackling? Our selflessness?). Anyway, I appreciate that's a bit broad for the May incident (intensely stupid, and disappointing from someone who is such a leader on the ground, and has come such a long way from his start at the club - and correctly punished even though it hurts, as there's no other punishment that makes any sense/protects the culture we have worked so hard to create). Hopefully this doesn't cost us the game against the Pies. It shouldn't, as we are a great side, even without May, but geez we haven't looked it for a while), and we really need the win to go into the bye with a much needed boost. We need to take stock, remember what we came here to do, and get it done.

Completely agree. I was chatting to anyone who'd listen to me after those games, saying we're going to drop a few, probably these games, and they thought I was just being a depressive Dee. Was crystal clear. It's going to take some serious work to turn this around. We need to beat the Pies and regroup over the bye. Rediscover the hunger, work on skills, and stop dumping the ball into the 50 time and time and time again!!!

Our lack of connection, hunger and skills for much of this year has been masked by the fact we have played mostly average teams. We've played two contenders and have been shown up - and yet again in circumstances where they play their game of the year. Despite us being premiers, teams still fancy themselves against us. The Pies will smell blood in the water. Not that it cost us, but the umpiring was putrid. Maxy was huge.

How the hell did we stuff that up. We are so fumbly.

And here we were thinking we have a full forward problem haha. Maxy is the man!

Yep, and it was very disappointing to have a certified spud in 2022 do that! That would have been watched by others, and clearly Freo.

...Technically 'Narrm' lost today. Go Melbourne Demons! The streak continues!

I hope Bowey is ok ☹️

This has been coming for a long time, but ugh, seriously I'm struggling to find anything positive from today's game. It's a loss we need to have, some of the boys need a kick up the pants, and the natural motivation you can only really get when you lose and have to start chasing again. We were hunted tonight. We need to reset, and get back to hunting others, for 4 quarters. It's been a long time since we did that and there are some tough games coming up so we'll need it.

This is embarrassing now. Losing is fine. I have expected it was coming for a while, we really haven't been that good for a while but this is not a proper loss. We've had no answers and there have been a lot of passengers today. This isn't panic stations obviously but other teams will be looking at our lack of response with interest.

Haha I gotta live in a better place than we're in right now! Just hope we make this looks little more respectable.

Yikes. Ok so we're not going to win but I'd like us to at least show some ticker here otherwise we're sending a message to the rest of the comp that we can be beaten. Which I know we are. Everyone is. But this is not a premier's loss.

If there's a side who can pile then on quick, it's us. But we need to start... now!

This would be a good time to kick a goal, to celebrate 200 and keep us in this. Just.

Wow ANB, we are low on confidence. That would have been the perfect start

Even though we got well and truly smoked in that quarter, some of our misses are now coming back to haunt us. Fritters snap miss when we were on a roll, Weid's post, Trac's snap miss, they'd have us about par right now. I have confidence in us running over the Dockers, generally speaking, but aside from a burst in the second quarter, I'm not sure where it's coming to come from today, we look really flat, and it really does feel like it's going to be the loss that we need to have. I think we've been coasting for a long time and many of the guys really need a jolt. Maybe the loss will do that. A reminder that we are good, but need to be on our toes always, anyone can beat anyone on any given day. I think we can win this. But we need to come out breathing fire.

I know we've been winning, but the last few games really haven't been convincing against plodders, and it felt like we've been inching towards a loss we need to have but I really hope it's not against the Dockers because I don't think they're that good, and it has shown in their last few games against fairly ordinary sides. It's time to find something here. Steady, kick a few goals.

We haven't won a third quarter in quite a while? Need to step up NOW, the Dockers are carving us up all over the place.

Cranking the gear here. We're probably in third gear now? Haha. We'll probably save the higher gears for the better teams, but in saying that I hope we continue to respect the Dockers today, and keep our foot down and crush them 😊

ANB is an excellent example. I am still truly amazed at how far he has come over the last 1-2 years. His skills and split second decision-making/creativity has been great to watch. On top of that, he gets in the right places, applies a ton of pressure and generally kicks the goals. Results.

We now boast the best defence this year (per crude stats anyway), by just one point over Freo.