Gawndy the Great

On 22/05/2024 at 10:35, Diamond_Jim said:

Looking like it's going to be a year of who wins relative to us.

Positions 1-10 up for grabs

Time to get on the Eagles bandwagon and hope that they beat all before them. Somehow I doubt it will happen

WC will fall flat in their face this week. 

Let the Sydney downfall begin.

59 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Saints at full strength. Absolutely their best 22 will be on the park.  FFS.  
 

Agree they bring in Membrey, Crouch, Butler and Higgins. Hunter Clark also likely back in as Sub.  
 

Sinclair Wilkie Howard

Wanganeenmilera Battle Hill

Wilson Crouch Henry

Butler Membrey Wood 

Higgins King Owens

Marshall Steele Windhager

Int  Bonner Phillipou Paton  Dow

sub  Clark

outs. Webster. Caminiti. Collard. Sharman Jones

emerg. Jones Sharman Webster

Two things that will happen:

1. We will get jumped in Q1 again

2. We will lose contested footy.

Will not surprised if we lost this one too. St Kilda are under the pump and will match us in the middle of the ground based on form. 

My MFCSS is on full throttle so there is no stopping my anxiety about this game. Our top 4 chances are on the line in this game, lose it and we almost need to go undefeated for the remainder of the season to make up for it. We cannot be dropping any more games. 

No way. Let him play the year out in the VFL. He needs to be banging the door down and demand selection not have it gifted to him in desperation. Selection integrity is not something you meddle with. Its detrimental to culture

Has 1 year left on his contract with Sydney.

Would you offer him 2+1 contract. Will get him for peanuts.

Gives us the midfield depth we need. If we can’t get LDU this has to be a legit target if there’s no one else on the market.

23 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

I agree mostly .

And despite others, I too thought Salo was good. Especially considering his considerable absence.

Anb and Kozzie too although Kozzys disposal at times was substantially errant. 

But the fact we are mentioning only 3 players is very alarming 

What has happened to our midfield? Tracca look like he was wearing cement shoes trying to chase Reid. But his midfield companions were all down in form and have been for a while.

Viney is a shadow of his yesteryear form. He must be struggling with some sort of injury.

And Sparrow never really seems to step up. Plays the odd good game but rarely back to back.

And our fwd line is to be quite frank a complete shambles. Despite Fritta and Kozzie who both give at most around a combination of about four goals, we can't kick winning scores.

We have kicked 100 points plus once this year. Petty really shouldn't be playing after only giving only one good account 

But it comes down to a case of the cupboard being empty. I read the Casey reports and we don't really seem to have much depth. Besides the fact that we are already playing a fair amount of young players already.

And I'm not just referring to our fwd line depth. We don't seem to be overflowing with mids and wingmen. 

This is the biggest concern for me. A lack of a bog bodied tall fwd or two like Hogan or Tmac of old who good boot four a game each. 

And someone to come in when Langers can't or Sparrow gets dropped.  There is no real pressure on players in terms of being relegated to the twos like a few years ago.

It used to be Sparrow was competing for his spot and players like Milkshake were also competing for a game.

All that aside you are correct in this being an incredibly close season.

This round was proof of that with all it's upsets. Being slightly off will see top teams defeated by lesser ones. So the top four is still wide open.

We have survived without a potent fwd line by having a power house of a backline. But it's just not enough when our midfield falls in a heap. Our slow starts are baffling and the coaches need to do something significant about our game prep.

All in all, unless we can fix our fwd line we are going to struggle. I'm sure our midfield will sort itself out soon . But it better hurry. Salo or Rivers in the middle will help. Or perhaps even giving Bowey a few rotations.

But I don't know about or scoring problem. Jvr has gone backwards in form to last year. Chandler has disappeared again like last year and should be dropped. But who do we replace him with?

So for me I think there are some pretty big issues that will exclude us from the top four despite the very even comp.

We are using players like Bbb who is really struggling because there is nobody else. And Bbbs been struggling for two years now. I know someone will say there have been no key forwards to recruit and maybe this is true so I guess it's nobody's fault.

As for our midfielders they really need a rocket up them. To see a young Reid show up our touted great guns was embarrassing.

We look woefully lacking in confidence and skills. There were too many unforced errors and poor decisions made often. In short some horrible panic footy. As much as I love Fritta it was not a good look to see him laughing at times. It wasn't a good look .

The players look like they have lost some passion and if they didn't fight back in the Carlton game I would be extremely worried.

But yesterday we got smashed by the third bottom team when a third top spot was on the line. We didn't want it enough. Pure and simple. No excuses. 

I know we will be playing finals but I'm sure we won't be top four. Yesterday was a must win. And we got thumped.

We have done some great recruiting but we have also lost some good players. And we have recruited some bad ones too. Also losing Gus and Smith has been a big blow.

I really think the window of flags has started to swing shut now and I can't see how we are going to stop it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I dont diasgree about our forward line capability but on paper they are not really any worse than a lot of other teams out there i.e. Collingwood, Sydney, Adelaide etc. Not everyone has a Curnow, McKay combo. 

Our problem is what happens with ball in hand. THat continues to be our vulnerability. We don't have smart ball users. Not a single one that would be considered elite. I hope Windsor develops into that. 

We need to recruit smart decision makers with skill and athleticism that can sit behind the ball, generate turnover and hurt teams. Especially now that we are focusing on improving scores from defensive half. Salem and Bowey are serviceable but are far cry from what we need. McVee might be something but it seems like we are using him as  a small defender. I wonder what he'd like as a true HB flanker. Rivers has all the traits but often makes poor decisions and is good by foot but not elite. 

Personally i'd park our investments into the forward line as there is enough youth there in development. If we can score a readymade KPF, sure go for it but our priority is ball users. Elite ball users. 

Him and LDU and we are back in it in 2025. Trade up for a top 10 and go for another gun - not sure what would be high on our list.

2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Who? Because both Hore and Disco are injured. So in fact we have 0 intercept defenders right now who are fit. 

I didn’t know Hore was injured. 

3 hours ago, roy11 said:

Even if 'Gus was playing I feel we may be having this issue. Need something extra/different in the midfield composition.  
Kozzie show flashes but need him forward defensive pressure as well so not a permanent solution. 

We lack a midfielder with composure / kicking ability. Doesn’t have to be a brute or usan bolt mk2. 
 

I also don’t think we can continue to play any 3 of Viney , sparrow, Trac and Oliver at the same time. 

Kozzy and Rivers  need to come into the mix.

We have plenty of cover for him. Not 100% but good enough. Next in line .

6 hours ago, manny100 said:

We lost Brayshaw who is a gun and Smith who was  handy player.

This game we lost JVR and Langdon. Lever subbed off early.

We have a lot of inexperienced players in the team. The list is being refreshed.

The scene was set early for a WCE win.

We have our core of guns still playing well. We need to lure another gun tall off-season.

 

Joel Smith was never going to set the house on fire, nor was he going to make an AA. But his athleticism was something our team lacks.

I think we are seeing the toll of this off season (losing Gus and Joel and the forbidden topic)- one that is going to take a while to remedy unfortunately. 
 

I have no answers but after a solid 2 hours sleep I’m a bit calmer and think if the Pies could turn it around after 0-3 , so can we. 

The road to top 4? I think we just missed the turn pyke .

18 minutes ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

Reminded me a lot of the match against Essendon last year during Gather Round. 
Opposition playing well and our entire line up looking off the pace.

It’s not yet a pattern but we’re yet to string enough consistent performances together to be counted as a threat.

We’re a finals team but not sure how much further than that.

 

Not yet a pattern? Seriously? 

We are trailing in stats that were once the pinnacle of our game.
 

Contested footy 

F50 entries

Clearances

F50 territory.

Were once synonymous with our brand.

We had 1 goal from turnover. 1 goal against a team that is 16th! Got smashed by the Pies by 11 goals last week. 
 

I dunno, in my desperation I’m thinking Perhaps this is the season we have to have in order to reshape our direction footy wise. I just can’t see it though, the players look all over the shop they are confused, complacent and lost.

21 minutes ago, layzie said:

Well I can't imagine that's directed at me because I agree. Today was very telling and showed an underbelly that I thought had been dead a long time. 

I thought the loss to Essendon in Gather Round last year was a critical loss but this one, it won't be forgotten quickly.

No not for a moment mate. Was more of a general comment. 
 

It was a great observation that I picked up one game team. I mean Schofield mentioned it like every 3 minutes.

7 minutes ago, layzie said:

10 goals from turnover for them, 1 for us.

In a game style where that stat matters that's game over right there.

And scores from turnovers is what wins you flags. 

You can burry your head in the sand, attack other supporters for their pessimism, but barring an absolute gift from god, we are done. There is no denying it now. Expect an absolute savage assessment by the media - and so they should, that was an indefensible loss to a team that finished dead last last year. Let that sink in.

1 hour ago, Red But Mostly Blue said:

To all the posters saying a 6-7 goal win was guaranteed/a must - that mentality is exactly why we lost. Because it was shared by this team. We expected to walk up and win, but the Eagles, like every other team know that if you show up and work hard from the first bounce, you can beat us. Which they did, but in truth they humbled us, and we were also embarrassed by a first year player.

Our midfield is non existent. Our backline was woeful. Cant blame Lever, as you cannot say we are nothing without one guy. 

Umpiring didn’t cost us. 

Outmarked and outworked everywhere.

A disgrace. The team wants to talk about earning respect? None. Zero for tonight and last week we did nothing for a whole half+ 

So disappointed. 

No I disagree. Talent wise that is what is expected of us. 

You cannot fault the Eagles effort and intensity. That is a team that is in the hunt and eager.

Something don’t smell right with this team. To look that flat and chasing tale off a 10 day break ? I mean seriously we should have been all over them. 
 

what about out contest work ? What in hell is going on there? We saw the intensity of the last quarter last week and that is what I expected all game as a response. 

I know we will string a few good games together but our weaknesses are for all to see. This new game plan will not solve anything. 

Our midfield is overrated. A kid with 9 games just showed the world that fact. 

And to think this team is missing their key forward and best ball user. Who were we missing besides Lever? JVR has he even kicked 10 goals? Turner is still wet behind the ears.

We should have let Petty go to the Crows and given the kitchen sink for Reid. 
 

Macca has been absolute big ordinary. Has had 5 kicked on him. Just shocking.

Can’t complain about the umps. Can’t complain about fatigue. Can’t complaint about injuries.

Fork in it. 

Ran further than Rankine there. 

Get ready for an old school shellacking. We are nowhere near it

I have seen all that I needed to see that we are no chance today or this year. 

I’m just not surprised anymore. We still have these games in us that shatter you confidence and feed you MFCSS.

11 minutes ago, Ollie fan said:

Swans v us

I think we’ll be lucky to make a prelim with our forward line. Still plenty of time but having suffered these issues for the last 2 years I don’t hold much hope especially with our underperforming midfield. 

2 hours ago, Demonsone said:

Imagine Grundy & Jordan winning a flag 

Grundy looks pretty good. But outside the ruck contest he is non existent. 
 

Jordy would have been good as a cooler on the opponent teams #1 midfielder. Unfortunately Goody doesn’t believe in a tag.