Kozzie4PM

Disagree. The only good thing to come out of the pandemic was you're now allowed to drink in your seat in the members!!

Awesome view from there.

That's amazing. Can't believe I missed that and hasn't been mentioned in the media. Good on trak - sometimes that gets the crowd going nuts.

We are louder when we are in the majority. Eg 25k melbourne fans in a 30k crowd against an interstate team will make more noise than 25k in 65k crowd against Essendon. It's human nature. People are less likely to ark up if the majority around them go for the other team. I personally go off my tree as much as possible but understand not everyone is a big mouth like me.

Were you at the game?

I think you're half right. If it's close it doesn't matter. If one team wins by 6 goals it matters.

This more or less what I reckon. Collingwood move the ball beautifully but we are a sublime defence and pressure team when we are at our best. I reckon we can put em out of business.

Kozzie is about 0/25 in his mark of the year attempts.

I reckon the AFL should just double their pay across all levels. Heaps of people in their 30s and 40s struggling with a mortgage would give it a go if it was actually a decent earner at local level. I umpired when I was 15 cos the pay was great for a kid that age. Doesn't add up when you're a bit older.

Interesting stats.

I'm usually at the more optimistic end of the spectrum so it feels weird to be coming in more negative than many of the above posters. But the facts are the facts folks. We are 13 and 12 over the last 25 and have rarely looked like a contender during that time. If we include the last two matches of 2020 we were 32-1-4 up to round 10 last year. An extraordinary record. The fact is those are two very different sets of numbers. I think we can win the flag this year. But we aren't playing anywhere near well enough at the moment and haven't for a very long time. Fortunately, it doesn't really matter how we're playing at the moment and there's still ample time for improvement. But make no mistake, significant improvement is required.

Point 2 is a really good point. I did not realise that. With point 3 I may not be in the majority but I don't think we "went too hard too early", I just think we had an easy draw. I don't buy the idea that winning games at the start of the year makes it harder to win games at the end.

It's good for track to hear we are 13 and 12 in the last 25. I liked his answers and think we will finish top 4 this year. But I don't consider us a top 4 team last year. We only made the second round of the finals - that's top 6.

Some really good and thoughtful posts on this thread. I think the above exacerbates the situation. Many of us feel like there is an element of unfinished business to our premiership success, that even though we broke the drought, we didn't quite break the drought. This makes the yearning for that second flag much stronger than it otherwise would be, along with the frustration when things don't go to plan. I am so proud of this team and feel so grateful to get to watch them and call them mine. I reckon we're into this season up to our ears and can't wait for Friday and then bring on the maggots on KB!

Good on ya WCW

Yeh, our 50 point belting of a full strength swans doesn't count 😂

Jacko was a key part of the greatest 15 mins in the club's history (and probably my life 😂). I don't really understand his decision to go home but I won't be booing him. I'd also point out that the system as is basically forces players to lie to clubs about what they're doing the following year.

I reckon they should remove some seats on lvl 1 and make large standing areas at the back right around the ground. This would increase the capacity significantly.

Awesome that it's sold out. Will be a special event. So grateful to be a big team now that plays in these games.

I love that King did this. I have huge admiration for our team who have brought us all so much joy. But we were off the boil against Port. Hopefully the respond with fire next Sat.

This is a logical way of looking at things, however, I retain a bit of optimism. Port have now beaten us, Brisbane and the dogs and got flogged by Collingwood. They played in a prelim in 21 and would feel like they missed an opportunity to win the flag in 2020. They should probably be regarded as contenders. I don't think a 4 point loss to a fellow contender after playing really poorly for a half shows that we are massively off the pace. If Fritsch had kicked that goal at the end we would've won and no-one would be suggesting we can't contend this year. Whether we win by 2 points or lose by 4 points in May doesn't determine how far we can go this season. Had they rolled us by 6 goals I'd be ringing the alarm bells but I don't come away from that match thinking Port are way better than us. I take your point about our poor record against other top 8 sides but I'm inclined to park last year's results. Last year was last year. We're a different side. I thought our key issue last year was fitness and ball movement and it seems like we've addressed both of those. This year our record against the top 8 is we got flogged by the lions (I don't count the comeback after the lights went out), we flogged the dogs (who are now looking pretty handy) and lost narrowly last night. That's not great, but it's not game over...yet. The other thing that allows me to retain a bit of optimism for this year is (and perhaps this is wishful thinking) we seem to be playing the G really well. In 2021 and 2022 (and 2018 for that matter) we were terrific on the road and actually weren't as strong at the G it seemed. This year we've looked much better on the G than elsewhere with our two best results - against Footscray and Sydney - coming there. I'm hoping we're becoming like those Richmond premiership sides that were the gettable on the road but unbeatable on the G where it matters. So I still reckon we're in the premiership hunt, but with games against Collingwood, Geelong, Brissy and the rest coming up, I guess we're about to find out!

Agree with this.

From what I read he didn't account for the fact that teams like hawthorn are kicking out a lot more than us. But maybe that happened on the show.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting.

Thanks for posting that. Footy journos have decided to put "sneaky" in front of everything this season. It's hardly a secret our recruiting has been terrific.