Lord Nev

That was a big Burgess motto and it worked great last year, but feels like maybe this year the injuries/soreness have been worse and maybe it's not had the same effect.

Agree on that, which is why I'd prefer him higher up the ground rather than being a 'key forward' target for Ben Brown to deliver to. Just seems a backwards setup atm to me. Melksham had 0 inside 50s against the Pies and has had only 7 in total over the last 4 weeks.

We're carrying a lot of that this year, especially compared to our run last year, it seems.

Yeah the second key forward has been a problem, but on the flipside Melksham has taken 1 contested mark in the last 4 weeks since playing that kind of role so not sure it helps us not be outmarked inside 50. If he's going to be picked, I'd prefer him outside 50 delivering to our forwards as I reckon he and Spargo are our best users going forward. Agree on Harmes' ball use, can hurt us at times. Not sure how get the trade currency to bring in a better quality mid than him this year though given how much we need to do in the forward and ruck spaces.

Was just interested in your opinion mate. TBH I'm on the fence about both Harmes and Melksham being important for us. Melksham has been better than I expected since coming in, but personally I would prefer a tall forward in his spot, just think that would help our forward problems particularly when we have Ben Brown roaming so high up the ground so often.

Conversely, that would mean you consider Melksham an important player then yes?

Didn't mean to offend you. I'm sure you're right, I'm sure our entire team will go after Cripps and our supporters will boo him all day because he wasn't suspended. Apologies.

Would think if there's any effect at all it would be the complete opposite...

More conspiracies here than Tom McDonald's twitter feed. Anyways, jury is back - he's free to play.

Apart from being out of contract, not wanted to due game style and part of a rebuilding club, sure...

Yeah absolutely, and if (and it's a big if) they were doing something like that it wouldn't be a surprise to see a change up before finals given top 4 is on the line. Who knows if that's something that can even be switched on and off like that anyway hey?

Not that I'm advocating for him, not super keen, but he's 28 and this is the first year he's missed a large amount of games through injury.

I laughed, but only because I had a similar 'what if' thought this morning about our forward delivery. What if, we keep hammering away at the forward pocket with entries not just because of the defensive advantages to it but because when the need arises in finals we know there will often be space/leads/players available straight in front? We've all seen the open players in those spots ignored, it's even been raised by the media types in the last week or two, so it's not something the coaches wouldn't be aware of. Tacking that onto your thoughts and onto loading as well, it does paint a picture of a team maybe looking to slingshot into finals. Just a 'what if' though.

So, one team we ran over at the end of the game and one team we made look like witches hats, but falling over against Collingwood in the second half is more impressive? Sure the opponent is different, but not sure I agree there, and pretty clearly from a purely fitness point of view they are VERY different performances in terms of how we ran out the games.

Splitting hairs a bit there mate. Ok we 'soundly defeated' Adelaide comfortably. Better?

Might not be the best example of a corresponding game given it was in Perth and stopped for 30 minutes due to lightning. On either side of that game we smashed the Suns by 98 points (after flying to QLD and back), and wacked Adelaide at the G by 41 points. There's nuance to the opposition, the traveling, form, current injuries/soreness etc, but that just makes it even MORE irrelevant to directly compare to a game in the same round last year.

Yeah, but Sam Blease was the real heartbreak one...

Not sure what the problem is tbh, I was having a dig at myself, but somehow even that annoys some...

Sorry @Demonstone but you're completely wrong and here's some stats that actually could mean anything but I choose to interpret them in a confirmation bias way to start an argument that will never end...

Absolutely. Love the souva. Just imagine the amount of mongrel we'd have in forward 50 in a year or two with Larkey, JVR and Pickett in there.

Yeah, was a bizarre comment by him, but he did make it, and just using it to illustrate the crowd can give players a lift.

My point is, you can't say: 'We'll smash Freo because loading, and all the analysts and Joe average don't understand that. And the Pies are in trouble next week' And then say: 'Well we lost to the Pies because we're still 7 weeks away from optimal performance'. That's clearly moving the goal posts IMO. As you point out, there's clearly a lot of nuance and context to every game, as well as our form etc etc, none of that is an argument from me, but if you're (binman) going to take credit for your particular loading theory being the reason we won one game (especially when you go so over the top in criticizing footy commentators), then you need to conversely be willing to cop it when your prediction doesn't come to fruition the very next week.

The previous week was a different team. No one has said a hostile crowd means a loss. All that is being said is that in the game on Friday the crowd was a factor in lifting the Pies.

No one said the crowd alone beat us.