Bring-Back-Powell

Sparrow’s been hanging around the 16 possession mark a game over the last 2 years. Would like to see that increase to 20 next year, particularly given there may be an opening for more midfield minutes next year. I would also like him to play more games like the St Kilda game at Marvel this year. 22 and 2 goals. If he can start doing that on a semi regular basis, he’s really going to elevate himself to a seriously good AFL player.

Should not have played under any circumstances against Carlton. His performance in week 1 finals was off the pace and attracted warranted media scrutiny post game. And yet the selection panel retained him for the Carlton final as part of a litany of questionable selections in the finals series. We had a perfectly fit Grundy or Shache that could’ve played his role as the second ruck and have a smaller sub to provide late game run on a warming night for a final. I agree with their idea of training him and ultimately playing him as the third tall defender. It will be good to have Tomlinson, Turner and T Mac fighting for the one spot and T Mac is a proven commodity down back.

I like this line of thinking. Offering solutions to that game rather than making excuses. Surprised he’s only averaged 0.7 goals a game in his career for someone that’s lined up in the forward line for basically every game. Definitely in the mix next year.

Was YouTubing some late 1980’s MFC games and came across a 1988 game against Collingwood at Waverley. We won by about 10 points but Wilson was the absolute difference in the game with 30 touches and 5 goals. Genuine super star performance.

If you told me at the time we recruited Schache that we would subsequently go into a game without Petty, JVR, Melksham and BBB (with T Mac grossly out of form) and yet we still couldn’t find room for him in a depleted forward line, you’d probably wonder what the point of his recruitment was. His decent accuracy would be a welcome boost to our forward line but I’m not sure what else he brings to the table. Would be fighting with Fullerton for that potential back up ruck role next year.

Criminally underused by Goodwin. Even gets dropped after a career best performance.

You'd imagine Tomlinson and Turner (both 194 cm) will be competing with each other for that third tall defender spot behind May and Lever. Can't see our weekly backline containing all four players. Arguably stiff to be dropped for the Pies final after a very encouraging round 24 game in which the stakes were high for Sydney.

I agree that we should've challenged Kozzie's hit on Smith from 2 weeks to 1. The AFL community were outraged with Kozzie's hit on Smith and that in the spirit of football we should not have even dared to challenge it. However in reality, Smith was perfectly fine and the incident should have been deemed medium impact rather than high. In fairness to us, we went into bat for JVR and Hunter with varying results.

What do you want me to say or suggest? I'm merely pointing out the deplorable stats of the first five minutes of that final which set the tone for most the night, which caused us to play catch up footy. I've listened to numerous NFL press conferences this year and the common theme from the losing coach is "we were flat and didn't come to play, that's on me as the head coach, I take responsibility for not having them prepared" It's up to Goodwin and Co to analyse how they prepared the players in the lead up to the Collingwood final and why we were jumped in such spectacular fashion.

I agree that the coaching staff should not be immune to criticism despite them being the obvious key drivers in winning the 2021 flag. We can be forever indebted to them, but we also have to move on and critique them year on year. Accordingly Goodwin and Co need to take responsibility for the Collingwood final, and specifically not having the troops ready and switched on from the opening bounce when the finals are their hottest. The first 5 minutes set us on the wrong course to get to GF day. Before the Maynard hit when we were 12 points to 0 down: Inside 50's - down 7-0 Ground ball gets - down 9-2 Contested ball - down by 10. All critical KPI's to win a final. There were also extremely questionable selection moves. Played 1 tall defender short which enabled McStay to kick 2 third quarter goals - a contested mark between Rivers and McVee and an uncontested mark with no defender in the same postcode which screamed structural issues. In fairness the poor start was rectified against Carlton the next week before the next set of issues reared their head in that final.

Oh yeah I forgot Tomlinson played his career best game on Kings Birthday only for our master mind of a coach to drop him the next week in a bad loss to Geelong. Not as bizarre as dropping the third tall defender for the Collingwood final but still pretty baffling.

Putting the Maynard incident aside, we came out as flat as a pancake for a final, barely went inside 50 and lost the contested possession count by 10 (a key KPI for a final) before the incident occurred. Collingwood set the tone before the Maynard incident and it just wasn't our night whichever way one looks at it.

Geez and I thought 2013 was bad.

Round 20 1988. MCG Melbourne V Bulldogs. We lost by 10 points after being down by 8 goals at 3 quarter time. We were in the midst of some really poor football in late 1988 after an 11-3 start to the year. My second and third games were much better. Early 1989 wins over Fitzroy and Richmond at the MCG as well.

Our game is apparently nearly sold out. Restricted viewing only.

Wouldn't say no to a Wednesday night game in town after work.

Had a great career at the MFC, particularly his first season of 2017 when he made the AA team. One of our better trades in recent years. Was a victim of Goody's roulette selection wheel in the 2023 finals series as he was dropped for the Blues final.

Collingwood beat us fair and square. They were more finals ready than us, attacked the game harder from the outset(Maynard aside) and kicked their goals in bursts. The Carlton final was the one we really should've won. Brisbane would've been an easier prospect IMO due to their MCG record, but we'll agree to disagree.

And yet each game is played for premiership points. If we took this year’s game against Essendon seriously, when we went in as red hot favourites, we would’ve won and finished second and avoided the Pies in week 1 finals.

I did 6 Gather Round games this year and then fronted up the following week for Anzac Eve. Next year I’m shooting for 7.

Disappointing.

Max Gawn polled coaches votes in 5 of the first 9 games that the combo played together. All five of those games that he polled were dry weather games. Grundy didn't play well in 2 of the next 3 games (Geelong, GWS and St Kilda) and we all know how bad the weather was in 2 of those games. To say the combination didn't work is ignoring what happened in the first half of the season, and Goodwin made a selection blunder in the dry semi final simply due to valuing T Mac and Schache ahead of Grundy. With that being said, Grundy is a ruck by trade so I have no issue that he chased a starting ruck role at Sydney.

Had a really poor year. Started 2022 in great nick getting 20+ touches and a goal a game but has gone backwards ever since. Became a genuine liability in his final games for the club. Think of the two first quarter elementary set shot misses against Richmond, and then being unable to execute a 20 metre pass to a loose teammate close to the boundary line in Hobart. Needs to be a tagger ala 2018 or somehow re-create himself as a permanent medium forward as he is a natural goal kicker when he has confidence.

Accuracy. I'm sure there are a million and one other factors to consider but if you take a study of the last 3 years, our 2023 season was the second costliest behind Adelaide's 2023 season, based on the metric of having more scoring shots than the opposition but losing. We had 5 games this year where we outscored the opposition but still lost the game. As a poster mentioned earlier, we had 8 more scoring shots than GWS in Alice as well as Carlton in the semi. Not only are these numbers unacceptable, but they're unsustainable for the opposition to rely on our gross inaccuracy. To outscore the opposition twice by 8 shots and lose both times is a complete outlier and won't happen next year IMO. If we lose the same games or more next year, it will be due to simply being outplayed rather than inaccuracy. In the last 3 years, Adelaide (in 2023) had the most games of outscoring the opposition but losing the game (think of their heartbreakers against Collingwood) and they did this 6 times, one more than us. This suggests to me that they're coming like a bullet next year if they tidy up their accuracy, which they will. As mentioned we had 5 games where we outscored the oppo but lost the game. In 2021 and 2022 this only occurred twice (key games included the Brisbane 2022 semi final and the Adelaide game in 2021 where we lost by a point). In 2021 GWS did this 3 times and in 2022 Essendon and the Dogs did it 3 times. This proves that our 5 performances this year where we outscored the oppo but lost are hopefully an outlier, and if we do fail to take the next step it will be due to other inherent issues.

Jordon's probably the more reliable player in terms of getting a solid 20 touches a game but Sparrow has more upside. Sydney are absolutely excited to have JJ on board. Kinnear Beatson was extremely bullish on what he can provide when interviewed post trade week.