Lefty

I’d love to get the panel’s thoughts on the backup ruck role that Aidan Johnson played yesterday. Max clearly needs a chop out during games. As much as we’d love him to ruck all day, it’s just not realistic. He needs those breaks so he can produce moments like we saw in the dying stages. At the same time, we don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul by dragging a forward like Petty or Roo out of the attacking 50, only to have them bashed up in the ruck and worn out from covering extra ground. It also seems the selectors aren't overly keen on picking Campbell, and given this is Johnson’s second call-up, he appears to be first in line for the role. On top of that, his ability to contribute as a forward and hit the scoreboard adds another string to his bow. So how did you assess his game, and do you think he’s our best option in that backup ruck role going forward?

Harvey Langford is an absolute star. If he continues along this trajectory he is a lock for the Rising Star award this year. Plays like a 10 year veteran. Stick him permanently in the midfield rotation.

What has happened to our much vaunted and feared defense? Is it a personnel issue? Is it structure? Confidence? Or is the “whole team defense” breaking down and we just can’t stem the flow. Can we fix it?

Goody alluded to Max having personal issues in regards to his performance. All that aside do you think we should have gone with a genuine 2nd ruck this week? Granted AJ was out suspended but do you think it's time that Max had some real support?

Gutted but happy with the effort.

6. Gawn 5. Lindsay 4. Bowey 3. Salem 2. Petty 1. McDonald

Gutted by the result, but like others have mentioned, I was pleased with the effort. I didn’t catch many other games this weekend, so I’m not sure if this is a common tactic now, but did you notice that we’re consistently choosing to man the mark ‘Outside 5’? What are your thoughts on this approach?

On last week's podcast, everyone was understandably thrilled with our new recruits, both traded and drafted. However, I must admit I was a little underwhelmed this week. While it's expected that the young players will take time to develop, Langford looked lost, and I didn’t even realize Sharp was on the field until halfway through the match. On a positive note, Lindsay showed some nice touches and displayed excellent disposal. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the performances of Sharp, Langford, Lindsay, and Johnson.

I wrote this in the Trac thread … It seems that the timeline regarding the "Have you spoken/contacted Trac" question is getting quite confused. My understanding is that this line of questioning pertains specifically to her not having spoken with Trac since the situation escalated, particularly with the talk of him wanting to leave the club. It’s possible that she, along with others at the club, might have reached out to Trac in the early stages, perhaps to check on his well-being, as is common in such circumstances. However, it appears that these welfare checks may have diminished during the Noosa break, with the players likely focused on their own football and the urgent task of trying to salvage the season. During this period, they may have started to question Trac's absence. From what I gather, it seems that President Roffey has not made any attempt to contact Trac since the Tom Morris exclusive, which presents a poor image. However, this doesn't necessarily imply that she hasn’t been monitoring the situation or that others within the club haven’t been in touch with him. Given her position as President, one would expect Roffey to have made an effort to reach out to Trac, perhaps to see if the relationship with the club could be mended. If she hasn’t done so it doesn’t reflect well on her leadership.

Still Woewodin

Waterman’s management like many before him will use teams like Melbourne to get their client’s current team to pay overs. Tale as old as time.

It was great to see Judd McVee get some more midfield minutes finally. So happy for him to snag his first AFL goal too. We love midfielders that kick goals.

It was a low scoring game on a perfect night for footy. Any concerns that our 3 key forwards, Rooey, Petts and Disco failed to hit the scoreboard? I was happy that Petty and Turner were able to clunk marks up the ground but I have grave concerns over both of them being able to take marks, providing a leading option and score goals regularly inside 50? Now that we have had almost a whole season of these guys playing out of their natural positions as defenders how have you rated their performances as forwards and are you hopeful that they can play and contribute as forwards in 2025 and beyond and help us reclaim a finals berth?

I would complain about the terrible umpiring but we have much bigger problems than that.

Our disposal efficiency in this game was just putrid. Our handling of the ball, possibly due to the conditions, was also subpar. After the first quarter I thought the Giants adjusted to the conditions much better than we did. They handled the ball better, knocked it better and used it quickly and efficiently. We just could not handle the ball well and when we did we could not move it on quickly and slow played and either kicked to a contest or directly to an opposition player. Whenever we tried to move quickly it was if the ball was made of soap or we simply made terrible decisions. It's very frustrating.