Kick_It_To_Pickett

What did we get for our 150th, it was 2008, so I’ve mostly blocked it out of my mind

Collingwood won, but they weren’t playing much, let’s be honest. Couldn’t believe the media hype around Richmond in the preseason. They are not the same side that won the flags. They look beat up and disjointed. Taranto can’t kick, no surprise…Riewoldt is only good at drawing free kicks.

Brisbane might just be the flat track bullies. Love it on their home deck, in humid conditions, but fail away from home. They also greatly benefited from a weakened Melbourne team last week. I guess Fagan will complain that the extra thirty seconds the dogs had, as the first team out after half time ruined their chances. I hate both sides, and that game was a stinker

Just took it upon myself to watch the replay of our game. Been too angry to watch until now. Given all the whinging that the Lions have done, let me do a little of my own: 1. The game was turned on it’s head after the first ‘rotation’ when Grundy was on the bench 2. The umpiring in that period was horrendous 3. Max Bailey goes for a goal, realises that he will have his kick smothered, drops the ball, only to retake possession and try and draw a high free kick by ducking his head, Brayshaw tackles him, clear holding the ball and is called ball up. Lions score from inside 50 stoppage 4. Just prior to the Gawn injury there was a horrendously short boundary throw in which doesn’t reach the ruckmen..allows Brisbane a roving goal 5. Towards the end of the quarter Lachie Neale is wrapped up in a strong tackle and throws the ball out, as called by commentators- called play on… 6. Oscar McInerney takes a contested grab on Tom McDonald while Grundy is resting. Kicks a goal 7. Joe Daniher kicks a goal from forward fifty stoppage, whilst McDonald is rucking - [censored] poor tackle from TMAC 8. Our mids fumbled thereafter and the game was done my takeaway was that the 6 minutes before quarter time lost us the game. It was done at quarter time due to the aforementioned incidents. They were the result of poor umpiring and bad management covering Gawn. I reckon we got rotations wrong. I realise it’s hard, when you haven’t planned for a situation like that, but that’s the way I saw it. we evened the contest in the 2nd quarter, but reverted to dump kicks inside 50. Gave us no chance to score goals

I spent time playing footy up on the Gold Coast, and it was always humid. The ball was always slippery and wet. A yellow football was always worse than a red. I am not sure why that is, but the yellow Sherrin was always harder to grip. I am not excusing our players, as some of the tackling was also deplorable, but so many guys had the fumbles, which were completely uncharacteristic.

Having watched last week's replay a few times, I reckon it was more to do with a failure to adapt to the conditions. The humidity seemed to be our undoing. We made so many basic skills errors, all over the ground, that seemed to be a result of a slippery footy. Petty dropped three basic chest marks, just as an example of that. Our mids double touched everything. I expect that we will be a lot cleaner this week and we will see a return to method that we had in the preseason. I am hopeful of that. If we can win the midfield battle, we will win the game. That final last year was turned when Buddy sucked the umpire in on two occasions. I really hope we have addressed that with the AFL and umpires. The bloke was completely outplayed by May, and resorted to his usual dirty tactics. If they fall for any of his rubbish this week, i'll be ropable.

Hibberd

Our finals last year attracted a very poor turnout. Also, our flag unveiling attracted less than 60k. I know there were reasons like COVID, it just feels very flat at our games.

That will be a disaster IMHO. Papley is a very smart footballer. He is strong, takes overhead marks and has serious pace. I think we need someone more experienced

McVee has been serviceable, but who plays on Papley?

If we can’t get at least 40k this Sunday, against a fellow top 4 aspirant, our club has a serious issue with attracting supporters. Why that is, I have no idea. We need to start showing up to games. It’s Sunday, it’s 3:20pm. The complaints last year were around night fixtures and train services etc. that doesn’t fly this weekend

I'd actually say minimum was 40k that night, but our crowds have been poor since 2022. It does not help that we play interstate sides at the G as the majority of home games, but it's true that we were outnumbered by Sydney supporters last year...that's an indictment

will be lucky to be 30k there and 20k will be Swans...our supporters don't show up anymore. Don't know what happened, you'd think the Premiership would have sparked a resurgence, but it feels like some have just become content. Not expecting a big crowd at all, happy to be proven wrong.

we went out and got Josh Schache....

We are paying Grundy 300k less than what Jackson would have cost us

Is this game being broadcast anywhere?

Had Goodwin done a press conference ?

What’s the story with May? Was he a genuine chance to play tonight ? Or was it all foxing? Was it a conservative approach? Or did he breakdown at training? He is very important, so I hope he comes back in next week. The midfield was woefully out of touch. We did not adjust to the humid conditions at all. The amount of fumbles and dropped marks was appalling. Gotta get some soldiers back soon. Too many gaps. Melksham can go as sub. Harmes on such thin ice. Viney needs to spend time on his disposal. Time to try a new forward mix. TMac looks cooked

After tonight, is that any great loss

One team trains in it all year mate

Some of this fumbling has to be down to the humidity. Every Melbourne player has fumbled. Some under no pressure. Petty early was horrendous

Honestly, this is fairly insipid. The game was over when Gawn went down, but some of the efforts tonight are so bad.

Lovely eye rake there from Hawkins. Amazing how often he is clumsy with his hands and elbows. Not a peep from the commentators

If it’s 31C, will there be extra breaks? What’s the AFL heat policy? I realise it’s a night game, but that’s a ridiculous temperature to be playing AFL football in

What is this about being in Port Adelaide..is this an attempt at sarcasm?