Watson11

Agree but would add that we had a big problem at the MCG until the last 4 weeks. We fixed that by defending rebounds out of our inside 50, and beat 3 top 8 sides at the G including smashing GWS who arguably have the best outside runners in the league. Add Lever and I'll be disappointed if we don't finish H&A top or second in 2019 if Max is healthy next year.

Picket fence. Yesterday was a shocker. No defending that. Plenty of young teams have been smashed in big games and gone onto bigger things. Some have been smashed and disappeared. I’ll be there cheering us to go onto bigger and better things. That’s why they call people like us “supporters”.

PS Collingwood played an almost identical contested possession game plan last night and exposed Richmond’s weakness.

Execution of game plan today for whatever reason. WC were 17-0 this season when they lose CP by 11 or less or win it. We were about -20 first half. End of story. All the bad luck, bad turnovers etc were on the back of us having zero experience of losing cp and under so much pressure because of it. We’ll be back and better next season.

Can’t agree. Our game plan is contested possession to get the ball forward and then protect it coming back. But we were smashed in the contest in the first half.

Great post and my sentiments. Gawny is symptomatic of the team. He looked tired against Geelong and Hawthorn and looked spent today. He had no elevation compared to normal but has given it his all as have all the players. They were just spent and this is a great learning experience of how important every one of the 22 H&A games are so as to make top 4. Should drive them a lot further next year. Want Preuss so Gawny isn’t tired next September.

True but this group is built on contest and tackling. They will be gutted by what they served up today. I expect a serious tilt next year. Goody sums up moments like these perfectly. It’s a fine line. Never as good as you think it is and never as bad either.

Terrible first half and 33 tackles not good enough. But I have full confidence this group will use this to drive a ferocious season in 2019. The young guys are proud and they will be far more gutted than anyone and have a lot to prove next year after dishing up 33 tackles and losing contested possession by 15. That is not what this group stands for. The most exciting thing over the last 5 weeks was the team learnt how to defend the entire ground. Doing that with Lever back and we are a 5 goal better team. Lever is a great intercept player and his kicking can break lines. Think we really need Preuss. Max has had a huge load this year and if he carries that load he’ll be 80% this time of year every year. I wasn’t at the game today but was at the last 2 and even then I thought Max was tired. We need max peaking in September from now on, not tired. Perhaps some outside speed but that had nothing to do with today. I think today our engine room is young, looked tired, and didn’t even bring the B standard game in the first half. Losing contested possession was completely foreign and they panicked and lost composure. They’ll learn from that. Selection had nothing to do with it. Smith had 10% of our tackles!! Fritsch wouldn’t have helped the tackle count. I think this will drive us to top 2 at end of round 22 next year. The sky isn’t falling in. Would have been unbelievable to pinch a flag this year. Progress next year will be making a GF. I reckon we’ll do it

Next year would be nice to see Petracca to start backing himself to kick goals. Gives off too much when he is in a position to kick it.

You have to give credit to WC. Started by smashing us in contested ball and we lacked composure, lost structure, panicked etc. winning contested ball this qtr at least.

Richmond got found out for being weak in contested possession and clearances, things Collingwood are pretty good at. They were vulnerable against any team good at those two things.

It will be interesting to see how much time Vardy spends on the ground. It will either be Vardy or Cripps as the 6th forward at times. When Vardy is on I would like to see Frost on him and OMac on JK. Frost could do some real damage running off Vardy. But the rotations when Vardy goes off would be difficult.

I was keen on Gaff but aren’t sure whether bringing in “superstars” on giant money works. Buddy was a success commercially and individually but for Sydney an overall fail football wise. Sydney have given up some critical talent the last 5 years. I actually hope Richmond get Lynch as I think it will weaken their culture and if it does they’ll be mediocre. I’d rather back JT to draft some elite outside speed via the draft and continue to retain and develop our current list.

They have nailed it. Will be won in the midfield. Funny to read the indignant west coast supporter responses.

Interesting stat When WC lose contested possession by more than 11 they are 0-6. When they win CP or lose by less than 11 they are 17-0. We were +23 last time, average +17. WCE average +1. King is right. If we play like first half last week and lose CP we won’t win. But 2nd half last week we were our normal CP beasts and that is why we won. WC are not great at CP and I’ll back our mids with Viney to be +30. Dees by 35 points.

That wasn’t our problem against Hawthorn. First quarter we kicked 3.1 from 6 or 7 inside 50s. We were down in contested ball. Full credit to Hawthorn though. They went taggers on our mids and backed Mitchell to beat Harmes. Went ok first half but we found a way to overcome it. To win when below our best is a huge step up. Only in first half as well. We hardly ever lose contested ball and we lost it first half. WCE have not been great on contested ball. If we win +20, and it’s fine conditions, we’ll beat wce

Not yet

LOL. I was reading the paper today and Ladbrokes are saying all the money is coming in on Hawthorn which I found interesting.... I didn't realise it was from Dees supporters!

I'm not too fussed with all the hype. This is what finals are about. The other big focus is the media are pretty much saying the cup is Richmonds to lose so that is fine with me as well. I think one J Lewis would be earning his paypacket in spades at the moment. The stuff you hear dribbling out about what he has done the last few weeks has been brilliant.

Agree. But if we continue to defend well and pressure well inside 50 we should win even if we kick badly. But it will be stressful if we don't kick straight and give Hawthorn an opportunity, as anything can happen when a team gets their tail up. The dryer it is Friday night the better it is for us. If we get through this week I'm actually looking forward to how we go in the following day game(s) if it is dry. All of our huge wins with good conversion have been dry games, including WCE in Perth. We have big contested possessions advantages over hawks, WCE, and richmond (almost +20) and are ranked 3rd for clearances versus 11th, 13th, and 17th, so will get lots of opportunities, which is why I hope we have dry weather as it helps our inside 50s and forwards. Go dees.

12min 10s

Disagree. He is down on confidence but his "awful" games are mostly good. When you are on the footy field for 2 hours you're going to make mistakes, especially in finals. 15 possessions, 6 tackles, 3 inside 50 tackles, 2 goal assists (most for a D), 3 1%ers etc is not awful. Judd could have put a package together for any player to make them look bad. Brayshaw, Harmes and Oliver were brilliant but had more clangers than Petracca. The stats that take everything into account had him ranked 20 or 24 out of the 44 who played.

I was on level 1 and thought the grand stand was going to collapse. If you look at the vision after NJs goal the camera's (despite the latest anti-shake technology) were shaking all over the place due to how much the entire stadium was rocking. It was insane. Hoping for similar this week.

One week at a time. Warm and sunny predicted for this Friday. If we make it, a nice dry Perth September day would be ideal. We seem to kick straight when it is warm and dry, but can be a bit all over the place when wet and dewy!

Maybe I should have been clearer. We didn’t play well offensively for large parts of the game. 4 qtr defensive effort though.