Gawndy the Great

100%. The only issues id see here is licensing and use of the other radio streams. All roads lead back to the AFL so im sure they are on top of this. Id also like to see an audio option where the team & coaching panel do some commentary - almost like a 'directors cut' type of thing. Not sure 4K would be an option as the channel 7 camera's at the ground are probably not capable of that level yet given they still broadcast in a poor man's HD (720p) format.

I did see it up on our shop initially but its not there anymore. Do you know if they will be relisting this? As this is probably new territory for all of us, i am hopeful that they have some additional features over and above the game.

They increase training load to maintain / extend fitness levels so they can hold up in September. Short term pain for long term gain.. think of it as a mini preseason during the season.

We were rated the most inaccurate for a fair chunk of the season. Improve that and perhaps we can go even better!

17-1-4 (130.8%) for a total of 70 pts was our record in the 2021 home and away season. 3-0-0 (213.1%) was our finals record taking our overall season performance to 20-1-4 (139.4%). We had some fantastic wins with 80% win-loss against the top 8 sides. But i want to examine how close we really were to pulling off one of the most amazing seasons in AFL history. Our finals will go down in the history books as being one of the most dominant and clinical performances, effectively putting to bed beyond any doubt that we were the best team in 2021. But this thread is not about that. I wanted to hone in on where we left some points on the table and determine how close we were to pulling off a lossless season. Round 10: AFC vs MFC 96-95. It was a tantalizing game of football by one of the up and coming (surprisingly) teams in the AFL. The Crows put up a performance that everyone was probably a little unprepared for including the players out on the ground. We hadn't seen that brand of fast ball movement and tactics against our defensive structures. Whilst the Crows were at/near the bottom, they were definitely giving us a sneak peak of the threat they will pose with their list in the years to come. How close were we? Really really close. I think we all agree we were robbed in this game of at least 2 points. A few very controversial non free kicks in the last 1-2 mins. It was also probably the first signs of fatigue starting to set in in the season. Salem was rested, our forward 50 connection was not where we wanted it to be. Some interesting stats from the game. +37 disposals Crows, +7 i50 Dees, +23 clearances Dees, +11 contested possessions, 15-6 to 14-11 and we were in front for about 70% Round 13: MFC vs CFC 63-80. We actually started this game well, but you could tell there was a lack of intensity in comparison to the Pies from the get go. Could have been that wave 3 was kicking in, but probably had more to do with the Pies playing out of their skins for Bucks. In retrospect, this was one of, if not the worst performance of 2021 and it was only a 3 goal loss. We have all heard that good teams can still find a way to win, even if they are not playing well, but we didn't use the ball well enough (despite having lower turnovers that the Pies). The Pies were able to get their kick-mark game going (97- 124), which we were never really looked to undo. Surprisingly we took back the lead in the 3rd quarter and also won the free kick count (28-17), but after being beaten in the clearances and back-to-back-to-back goals to start the last quarter, it was just not going to be our day. How close were we? Had a sniff. I'd say that the occasion had the Pies playing well above themselves and that a few players had already checked out for the upcoming bye. Round 16: MFC vs GWS 55-64 Cant say i recall too much from this game other than thinking we were outcoached. I have always rated GWSs stoppage work - they are so tenacious and clean at the contest and were able to get the ball out of traffic quickly and seamlessly, to their runners with such ease. Our goal kicking accuracy also really let us down with a 2.4 to 1.2 last quarter performance that had it been reversed, would have just got us over the line. We had +1 scoring shots, had much more of the ball but were smashed in the stoppage game. The narrative of the inevitable fall was also starting to take hold in the media. Only lead for 2 mins, but probably was the impetus of GWS late season build of form. How close were we? Could of, should of, would of. Bad kicking = Bad football. Round 18: MFC vs HFC 79-79. I hate the Hawks (lot of rivalry with mates during early 2000s) and so whenever we dont win, it feels like the end of the world for me at least. This game had a cracking first quarter, but my attention was drawn to the intensity of HFC and thought it was not going to be a walk in the park despite where they were on the ladder. It had some similarities to the Crows about 2 months earlier. Whilst we beat them comprehensively earlier in the year, it was only the last quarter where we were able to build a generous lead. We all know the genius coaching of Clarko and how he is able to take our game away from us and we saw it again on this occasion with a Clarko masterclass. We had well and truly settled into being one of the least accurate goal kicking teams with another poor 11-13 to 12-7 display. How close were we? Statistically speaking, this was ours, but had the game gone on another 1-2 mins, you feel like we were lucky to hang onto the 2 points in the end. Round 19: MFC vs WB 65-85 Our first and only back-to-back loss of the year but more importantly, our last one too. Like the first encounter, it was a subdued game where both teams were trying to find a weakness but not really challenging each other. The Doggies were able to adjust their game style to suit the conditions. The umpires had an absolute howler of a game where they were responsible for changing the momentum in the last quarter even though we got to within a goal of the margin. Doggies had a freakish forward 50 stoppage conversion game and our goal kicking accuracy again haunted us with a 1.4 opening quarter. How close were we? Loading, umpiring & goal kicking accuracy. Projected score (champion data) had us winning by 1. So there you go folks, we were 18 points away from the statistically perfect season. We had no blow outs, despite clearly hitting some form issues after the bye and our total losing margin for the whole year was 49 points. FORTY-NINE POINTS! I still cannot believe that. An amazing 2021 capped off in the best way possible. It is going to be tough to top that in 2022 but it is absolutely possible.

I’ve watched the Kayo mini about 10 times and bits and pieces of the full replay on and off for the last 7 days so couldn’t say precisely. I could watch the last 8-10 mins of the 3 rd quarter infinitely it was that good.

Don’t forget we’ll have a look at Jeff Whites young boy in about 4 years time as well. The kid is 194 cm at 14 yo and playing well.

We would have got peanuts for Weed going by these trades.

I was thinking back to the comments in the media last and earlier this year around Petraccas comparison to Dusty and how he’d have to prove it on the big stage. I know Dusty has 3 ( 1 should have really gone to Bachar) Norms but I think Tracs performance is leaps and bounds ahead of Dusty’s and i think is now the new bench mark. I don’t think this performance has been lauded enough for what it was imo. Maybe it will be spoken of more in the coming years but it will go down in history as one of the best GF games anyone has played. Really wish he got the 40 touches and kicked 1 more goal… so close.

I think the bottom 4-6 players as a unit have all improved but the one player I noticed yelling at much less was ANB 😀 so he takes the cake.

If I was Norf I’d go for him at pick 1 and make the Doggies cash in a lot of future picks and fringe players. The fact they can finish as they have in the past two years and get the crème of the crop is fundamentally wrong. We get robbed of Mac Andrew and the team that caused that rule change will still get another top 5 draft player albeit via F/S just doesn’t sit well.

The Doggies just had there’s. I hope they do it sooner rather than later and they broadcast it live like previous years.

Just watched the team signing merch and noticed they had a whole bunch of Sherrins but can’t find them for sale anywhere. Anyone know if they are sold out or yet to go on sale?

i'd love to see us get 70K+. A bit silly that the memberships are not yet available. The club should be doing their best to sign up new members following the GF and keep the momentum going.

i have decked out in my gear to just to head to the local Woolies - recently to buy the Herald Sun Premiership poster! Even had the old scarves out the car window flapping in the wind for all over 900m which is the journey to the store - i usually walk but wanted to understand the feeling of this gf celebratory tradition.

Did anybody else notice the 'celebratory burns' on Jack right after the final siren. Everyone in the vicinity ran straight passed him. I may be reading into things a bit here, but i genuinely wonder if he has burnt some bridges following 2019 at which he then lost the captaincy to Gawn. I still rate him - love him in our team - would never want to trade him.

I too wondered what is this guy doing coaching a VFL side. He still has the hunger to be head coach and I think will challenge himself at times to remember his place amongst his colleagues - more so now that he is receiving public acknowledgement that he has contributed to another flag. We can all laud his efforts thus far, but equally when things are not going well, his temperament and style with the playing group can also contribute to his downfall. Personally I think as a development coach, he knows how to extract every last drop of talent from every player - which is great for the club - but may bruise a few egos along the way. His longevity will rest upon how well he can get this balanced.

1. Injuries are a bit of luck but I think we took our fair share in 2019 that robbed us of two years. 2. Let them come. We just showed the comp what it will take and there are not many teams on their best day that can match us. 3. we were already hunted all season. Nothing to fear. 4. This is the big question. They are competitors and now know what it takes to get to the final dance.I believe we still have room to improve ourselves - our bottom 10 players have so much upside and the players 23-30 will keep us focused on the prize. Talk of dynasties is premature to an extent but it’s totally Within our grasp.

7.6 pts per game vs 6.3 says Trac was better. If that was the case, then McRae still win doesn’t he? I think you just remove the SF from the calculations so the EF/QF, PF and GF are the games that poll.

I haven't watched any other teams DVD/HDDVD but curious to know whether the club will produce something in the coming months around the finals etc - more than just the replay. Having Goody, Choco, Yze with audio commentary on the game - player interviews, Behind the scenes footage from players cameras, phones etc.

Not saying it wasn't there. It was. But Maxy over exaggerated the impact and injured himself in the process. And the exaggeration alone will have it tossed out of the MRO. We will never know how much sling was actually involved unfortunately. I also thought he would be pulled off for a concussion test, but I'm afraid that would have been self-inflicted. Was seething in the moment, but after watching several times it was clear that there was a bit of staging involved.

Some great suggestions on here. I never thought about someone else in the team taking it over from Jonesy. But most of the mature crop probably has their own story with their own number by now. From the new lot, Kozzy #36 has ties to Davey and Garlett, but not sure about Dogga, Bowey, Rivers or Laurie. I'd let Jonesy decide what he wants to do or give it to. He absolutely has to unfurl the flag. There is nobody else - nobody - that deserves to do this more. Combine that up with a proper farewell

100% Agree. And the good news is we will have all of Choco, Richo and Yze for at least another year. I think Dew will be gone end of next year and probably will be replaced by Clarko, so possibly even another 2 years. We finally have some balance and stability in the coaching group and we can look to further polish areas in our game. No major tinkering is necessary and we can now hone in our craft some more. The last 4 games this year revealed what I think was a stoppage / clearance gameplan that we had kept a lid on all year. I mean there is no other explanation of this. The last two games (in PF and GF mind you) combined to something like150+ pts from centre clearances. THAT IS TRULY EPIC. We can get you on turnover and from stoppage.. And when we dont have the ball, good luck scoring against our history making d50. What was i hear for again? Oh yea...thanks Mark :)

Gawn wore a nice bump on his head after that sling tackle, but i think he made a bit of a goose of himself and exaggerated the fall to get the free. Bont should have been reported for that hit. Oliver was over the ball and vulnerable and he elected to bump. No other way of looking at it. Im hoping Christiansen's is removed as he has been far too inconsistent. The AFL (Scott) need to fix up the gaping holes in the MRO grading system - it is reprehensible. Outcome vs Intent - i dont really care which way we go but select one and tell the footy loving public.

This will become a debate for the ages (Oliver vs Trac). Oliver was clearly better this year for larger chunks of the season. The AFLCA, Brownlow and probably B&F will be a testament to this. But Trac has the ability to grab a game by the scruff of the neck and really make it his own. I think their roles compliment each other beautifully and tbh its shouldnt really matter, because they are both Demons players! How good is life right now!