Gawndy the Great

Freo seem to think they can get LJ for that. Don’t see why we couldn’t do the same for Kings. Of course they will fill him up with 1 team player, building for premiership nonsense etc. but end of the day, does he want a premiership or to fade into mediocrity at the Saints? The other KPF probably have a better chance for a premiership in the next 5 years.

Give them an offer they cannot refuse.

If we do lose Brayshaw and LJ, we are going to have > $1M hole in the salary cap. We should then go after a gun KPF and lure him with the $$$. Whether it happens this year or next. Not some 29yo+ has been, but someone developed in his prime. i.e. King brothers, Curnow, McKay, Naughton ilk... no one is untouchable. We will have the trade picks to initiate a trade as well.

Let the footy do the talking.

We don’t have to really worry about pressure acts in t who ever we recruit . Because, we’ll you know anyone would be an improvement in that area

They are not as clued in as we are on DL. 😀

How the heck does Geelong get to play the Eagles twice? I thought too 6 play other top 6 in the double games?

A Freudian slip? ‘I’m sure wherever we play Angus, in the years moving forward, he’s going to be a very fine player’

Same here. It’s the 2nd game I went to after the opening round and it was thoroughly enjoyable by all who attended. But to answer your question, it’s been slightly less enjoyable than last season not because we are #2 but it’s the expectation of backing it up and the recent 7-8 weeks of footy has really taken the polish off. We all knew it wasn’t possible to sustain the highs but who would have thought that we would be in the lulls that we find ourselves in. Not fun to be here.

It’s a new era of players DD. Could be part of the resigning clause. How many people will be dialling into the podcast over the coming weeks in anticipation? Sponsors would be happy for sure. It sounds silly to you and I but I wouldn’t put it past them.

This is all BS. The talk that Brayshaw doesnt know what he wants is ludicrous. He knows exactly what he wants as he would have advised his management on the parameters of what he would find acceptable. In most cases that primary factor is $$$ and years or total contract value. Everything else is secondary unless of course you are from WA. The interview this morning was 1 of 2 things. 1 he is signed up and was throwing off the media to release the news via his podcast. It sounds cheesy, but this is exactly what i would expect him to do. Or 2. he is trying to squeeze every last dollar out of MFC now that he probably knows LJ is gone and there is money to go around. The challenge for MFC is having enough $$$ to attract talent into the club to fill the LJ void plus for anyone coming out of contract next year. So presumably they would incrementally up the offer until a middle point is reached. It would take a monumental f.up for Brayshaw to walk. He has previously said, he loves the club, loves his team mates etc. So the ball is squarely in MFC's court to close it.

It is first and foremost unrelenting pressure particularly in our forward half. They have unusually tall and skilful defenders. Do not let their intercept game going. Which means no bombing into f50, or to the wings from kick ins. Get those right and we may just win the game. Freo have looked very vulnerable to fast ball movement in the corridor. Yes we expose ourselves if we do this, but the Melbourne way will not work without BBB and TMac.

Because we would get absolutely nothing in return which will hurt us even more.

I found it interesting that there wasn’t one last week.

I always thought his movement out of the midfield group was a mutually agreed move to prolong his career.

I don’t like the way he ultimately gives the club an ultimatum. The selflessness that they talk about is an illusion. I think it has sucked the air out of the club and is evident on the field with lack of effort.

I don’t understand why it is not even been spoken of. His reason is to return to WA. Like Cerra tried to get to us he was more than happy to go to Carlton when it was obvious we couldn’t trade with Freo. If we cannot reach a suitable agreement with Freo, then we pick up the phone to Eagles and ask for pick 2/3 and call it a day. I think the fact that LJ wants to leave and that staying in Melbourne is not an option has lessened what we will get for him.

It’s too simplistic to think this is just about effort. Part of the problem is player positioning and inside 50 delivery. I think Goody mentioned this a while back. This is potentially where opposition coaches have been breaching our first and most important wall of defence. Think about how many dump kicks into Lever, May, Petty you have seen in the last 8 weeks. Goody went on record saying he’s not worried about the back half chip kicks and switches.Well, I think that’s part of the problem. No pressure in the front half and you get cut up as they transition and spread. What is a related and a more telling stat is scores from turnover. This has been well down all year and is directly linked to forward half pressure. So we fix this, we get our mojo back in.

I think that’s it. I can’t remember any other major incidents. I would have guessed big Maxy due to the knee in the head but it’s not a tall.

Both rucks had big impacts on the game, so you could argue they were exposed defensively and hence why that didnt feature much.

If you take out the players on 1 year deals approaching end of career , then I’d say very few

Kids are made of different stuff these days. I think its all LJ.

I'm in the same camp. Until i see sustained output week-in-week-out at a high level, then i wont change that opinion. Playing 1.5 quarters in the GF still only counts for 1.5 quarters of great football. Folks on here talk like that quadruples his talent. I'm afraid it doesn't. He still has plenty of upside, but im not convinced its 'generational talent' just yet. There is only a lot of hype.

So one thing was evident on Saturday night. A problem that we have talked about all too often is the slow, predictable ball movement. Yes it was still there, however there were times where we had real speed on the ball and we took the game on through the middle. This is why our forward 50 connection and efficiency was so good (some of it was from centre bounce clearances as well). Its clear we have a gear that is all out attack and it works really effectively like other teams in the comp. It brings in the likes of Weid and Fritta who have otherwise struggled under the slower ball movement. This - against all intuition - is something we need to maintain going forward as scoring and forward connection has been a real problem for us. The catch, however is that this really exposed us on the turnover and our defensive structures were often caught out - perhaps exacerbated by the absence of Lever. The area we will need to fix is forward and midfield pressure and some adjustments to defensive setup as well so that when we do get caught out, we are not as vulnerable. You have to remember, that the Doggies carve up teams with their ball movement. Our intent and effort was again off - not by much - but it wasnt manic. Loading? maybe, but we have been saying its been off all year. Freo, dont have as potent a forward line as the Doggies, so i think we need to take the same gameplan on Friday night plus some amped up pressure. If we do that, it will be a statement game, the response (drug hit - reference Jaded's post) we all needed and will steady the ship. IF we take Game Plan A, it will be a slog and tbh, Freo are probably better at it than we are right now.

Freo's defence stack up well. I think we play BBB and/or Weid and keep Petty down back for the remainder of the season. Im not against the idea, but it takes time for players to slot into a position - you cannot expect Petty to flick a switch and expect some results immediately. Explore it in pre-season and commit to it if it works. We have the stock in Turner and Tomlinson to cover.