Gawndy the Great

That’s a bit much. I reckon if there was anything at all in it, they wouldn’t risk it. It’s during the week so the scans and doctors would have seen the results before teams were named and would have had Tommo in the extended squad.

I think he’s not quite right. I don’t remember him being this bad at all.

Said it last week , we made the Lions look better than they are.

Should have been a free to Naughton… poor umpiring . I feel filthy saying that.

Doggies will win this. Lions were lucky last week and are the real pretenders.

The names were submitted after training and any potential scan that took place. Why would they drop Tommo if there was a shred of doubt on Mays injury. I call BS

I think the Doggies will get their first W tonight only because of what will happen if they don’t.

Steven May Mk II

Injured?

Im swinging between both possible outcomes quite frequently. On one hand, im expecting quite a significant response from the whole team. I expect hard running and frantic pressure, but on the other hand im also not sure what type of melbourne team is going to show up. Sydney melted in the GF when they were met with similar pressure from the Cats and they just couldnt settle. They'll have some misplaced confidence from the two bruise free wins from this year and the fact they have the wood over us. It just takes a small amount of complacency to get put on your bum. Game plan wise, i think (hope) we'll see something a little different to stifle their ball movement. We have to capitalize when we have the ball and kick 4-5 goals in the first 15 minutes - anything less will keep them in the game for longer. The key is to dent their confidence and get them to lose some dare in ball movement and start playing a little more conservatively. If we can do this (ala Dogs and many other teams in 21) we will be able to really lock the game down defensively and capitalise on turnover and scores from HB. A few key matchups: We have to make McCartin accountable. If JVR plays, you can bet your house that'll try to force that matchup. We need manic forward half pressure from Chandler, ANB and Spargs. Getting anything out of TMAC, BBB and Fritta is a pipe dream so we need to make sure these smaller fellas are instructed to run and tackle hard. Gulden is one of their better kicks and we cannot let him get off the handle on the wing or HF. Similarly the lizard is a reasonable kick off HB and has some pace. We have to have a defensive matchup on both. Lastly is our offesnive ball movement. I dont rate Sydney's back six that highly and are vulnerable to faster ball movement. They can be scored heavily against if you move it quickly against them. So in summary: pressure all over the ground, to force turnover and/or win contest and clerance -> quick ball movement to stop defenders zoning off and isolate our key forwards.

Question is would we / should we put on the table Our two 1st 2023 rounders plus our F1 for pick 1 to take Reid? I’m not sure what type of player he is but is he perhaps the star we’ll need for life after Trac and Oliver? Or should we chase a KPD for life after May? Hard choices.

Jack is the perfect sergeant to marshall the troops but I’m afraid he is no modern day football captain. I think it is probably going to be Angus as he seems to be the player that is able connect with a broader range of players. But getting the leadership group right is probably more important as you cannot rely on one bloke. I think having a group that is represented on all lines and are best 22 is the qualifying criteria. Not 100% sure who’s in the group this year but I feel like the forward line is under represented

I don’t think this is just about the boys being primed and putting on a performance to remember. They definitely need to make up for their performance on Friday but horse will have his team ready for that as well and he’ll do it in a very cunning way ie sit outside the contest and apply 200+ pressure index or something ridiculous. He is a remarkable game day coach. We have to have game plan ms A, B and C and knowing when one isn’t working and when to switch. We also need a plan to disarm Sydney’s strengths put to bed this notion of sticking to our plan only and doing it better than Sydney doing there’s. Yze and Goodwin are just as much on watch as the players this weekend. They have a lot to make up for in the wake of Sunday nights capitulation. it may sound harsh, but that is the standard we need to hold ourselves to in order to be a team to be remembered for the ages.

This rang true with me as well. Leaders have to do the hard stuff and was really surprised at Jacks handling - perhaps he felt terrible as the one who caused the injury. I can understand that but the other leaders were really really poor at getting the team to reset. It took up until lights out to make any real adjustment in endeavour. It’s a rare thing to deal with - granted - and I hear that the footage of Gawn went up on the screen several times, which without context is probably telling everyone it’s an ACL.

5-6 goals from d50 stoppages is unforgivable. We have suffered from these types of brain fades in the past and need a goto formula to really knuckle down and choke the stoppage in d50. I noticed it in game and am not surprised it has come up on here. You can excuse 1 -2 per game but even that in consecutive games would be a red flag let alone 6 in one game. Yze would want to pull his finger out and focus on his job as the midfield and stoppage coach and not let this develop into a trend as there were a few last week as well and can bet your house that the Swans will have a plan to win exploit us in this space too.

Is it the same knee / ailment that affected him last year?

Wasn’t able to listen live… how soon does the podcast become available on the cloud?

clearly coaches agree on the 5,4,3 but Goody thought Lever and Oliver were better than Dunkley and Cameron. Thought Daniher should have got some votes with his 5 snags

I think most of the main questions around our performance have already been asked. I want to know the opinion or the team resilience aka mental toughness. I think we can all agree that a portion of our (non) performance on Friday night was attributed to Gawn's injury (or was it?) but what does it say for us to just switch of like we did after he got injured? Not everything goes your way in a game and i thought we were made of some pretty tough stuff. Is this an isolated case or does it speak to some of our performances late last season - when the tough got going we were not prepared to go in knee deep.

To avoid any doubt. Watch today's media conference. The potential confusion is that he has yet to go the club to confirm a treatment plan. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1293098/rd-3-media-conference-max-gawn?videoId=1293098&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1679875709001 Some positive soundbites: No swelling, starting to feel better already, wont be 2-3 weeks as a minimum (comparison to Jack's recovery) but still feel bullish.

A KPD is a must given its approaching 11 o'clock on May's career. Cant see him playing more than 2-3 years with his history of soft-tissue. I think one of Sparrow/Taj takes Viney's role when he leaves and we have a few more years before we need to stress about life after Oliver/Trac. Kynan will probably get an opportunity at HF early in his career but provides another option as insider midfield in 4-5 years time. Our two KPF are untried, but we are covered for now. White's boy will come in when Gawndy retires in 5-6 years time. Ultimately we have a good list that are currently in the window. We will taper off in 5-6 years but should avoid a major re-build if we are able to restock this year with 2 quality players.

I was up in Brissy a few weeks back and it was very sticky. Had some colleagues over from SE Asia and they said it felt like home just a bit cooler. I guess that could explain the fumbles. But the contested possession count … how do we explain the lack of grit? Is it really Gawns injury? I mean I understand if it is, but that also concerns me that we could be that easily distracted.

We beat Sydney twice last year if it wasn’t for injuries / fitness. I expect the midfield to come out and make a huge statement next week. They have too much pride to accept the dismal performance.

There is evidence building that he may just not be as good as we all thought he’d be… it happens.

Which at the time was his worth as a rising star and premiership player. Just goes to show we got shafted when the deal was made as we all thought Freo were top 4…. Hence this threads existence