Bring-Back-Powell

The free kick count is the most irrelevant stat in footy. If an umpires objective was to ensure an even free kick tally, then they’d be punted to the bush and never to return. And we lost last Thursday because of our disgraceful first quarter, not because of a couple of umpiring decisions.

I get that we all hate Essendon but you have to give them a lot of credit for their win over a massive contender in GWS. And they’ve kept us the top 4 which was nice of them.

Assuming he’s available, do we put the Salem to midfield experiment back on the agenda? I think Trac needs to spend far more time up forward as he’s a natural forward who will get plenty of looks each game. But we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The final round usually gets released in late July/early August. You could probably almost bank that Melbourne v Collingwood will be Friday night.

Sydney are so impressive offensively and defensively and are clearly the number 1 seed at the moment. However, Sydney are disgraceful in grand finals under Longmire. Why would this year be any different? And what did Jordon get up to over summer? Has become an accomplished player.

How can you do that to yourself? The coaching staff will have enough trouble trying to watch it, but at least they get paid for it.

My cats are too busy sleeping 22 hours a day to come over for a cuddle post loss.

Last week I would've put Billings on the chopping block but he responded last night with 20 touches and good ball use in the last quarter. His passing and inside 50 entries were as advertised when we recruited him. No change this week. Goodwin last week said McAdam is weeks off a debut, so perhaps he debuts against St Kilda. Our forward line needs an overhaul and I can see McAdam and Melksham (provided he recovers well from his ACL) replacing Turner and someone else (maybe Petty if he persists with these sub 10 possession/2 mark/goalless games.)

I don’t have them handy but I recall Collingwood knocking off Adelaide last year and Carlton knocking off Sydney in 2022 off 5 day breaks. And obviously we won a 5 day break in Adelaide in round 4, and also won off a 5 day break last year (Richmond into North round 7). Meanwhile Adelaide just won a showdown off a 5 day break, and Brisbane put in a shocker on Anzac Day Vs GWS off a 5 day break. I honestly don’t think 5 day breaks are as bad as what people make them out to be. It’s the accumulated condensed breaks that probably trouble clubs.

Makes last week's win over Geelong so important, and a valuable bit of insurance to mitigate last night. If you told me we'd go 1-1 against Geelong and Carlton (with a 1 point loss) after our underwhelming fortnight against Brisbane and Richmond, I would've taken it. Two flip of the coins against premiership contenders is promising despite some issues we need to deal with. We'll go in favourites against West Coast and St Kilda, and if we are to win both games we'll be 8-3, a win better than at the same point of round 11 2023, and on track for a 16 or 17 win season. To win both of these shouldn't be underestimated.

Fair point about the oppo Still, 1-6 (14% success rate) in our previous 7 Thursday night games when we have an overall 60% winning ratio during that time frame is a little interesting in my book.

I wasn't one of the people that complained about prime tv spots. I go to the games as opposed to watching them on TV so I couldn't care less what time slot we're on. I love Saturday afternoon footy which has become a TV dead zone. The point I was making is that we clearly have an issue with Thursday night games given the record I quoted. If we have preparation issues heading into Thursday night games, I'd therefore be happy to not play in them.

I’ll be happy to see the back of Thursday night footy. We’ve lost 6 of our last 7 Thursday night games with the one win occurring on the “business trip” earlier this year. I think heard earlier that that upcoming round 16-23 fixture release will have little to no Thursday night games.

Curnow kicked 1 behind. Walsh kicked 1 behind. They were the only Carlton players to register a behind for the entire game. That’s three games in a row that Carlton have beaten us due to their accuracy. Our accuracy was neither here/neither there tonight. Petty and Fritta were only blatant misses.

Two weeks in a row where we’ve managed just 3 goals in a half, except we’ve been punished this week. We need to address our scoring issues if we want to dream of winning a final this year.

He always runs riot against us. We would’ve been in a prelim last year if it wasn’t for his heroics.

Yeah the wet weather totally nullifies Gawn's influence as he'll only take between 0 to 2 marks, and if Gawn has a poor game, we inevitably have a poor game. Our record is scarily bad in wet weather.

Wil Powell's copped a 5 week suspension for a homophobic slur. I think he was the bloke that had a crack at JVR on radio last year. He might want to ease up on the verbal.

The double header on Friday night is due to having one less game on Mother’s Day. That one looks to be a staple in the fixture. After Friday night, Ess/GWS and Adelaide/Brisbane should be good games.

GC usually have their best fortnight of the year in Darwin and then fall off the cliff. Therefore tipping Norf would he be beyond brave. Freo could definitely knock off Sydney in Perth if they’re at their best.

Thanks FTB. They could've easily put Geelong V Port on Thursday night and us on the Friday night. Port haven't had a 5 day break yet and we've obviously already had one. (Geelong have already had one, but the AFL wouldn't dare inconvenience them any more than possible) I was under the impression Friday night takes priority over Thursday night, and by any measure our game is far more high profile than the Geelong/Port game.

What sort of crowd are we expecting @FearTheBeard? High 50's given it's a Thursday night not in school holidays? They're not yet selling mid or back row AFL members top level which would suggest it's not going to be a crowd for the ages.

Probably not for a while.

It's unusual for players from the losing side to be the two highest vote getters but I don't disagree that Z Guthrie and Holmes were excellent for them.

We've been a little fortunate with our oppo's inaccuracy at 44% which is the second worst in the league. The Adelaide, Hawthorn and Richmond games come to mind where the oppo's inaccuracy was deplorable. Unfortunately that will correct itself as the year unfolds so we'll need to be on our game with our accuracy. Contrast that to last year's finals series where our oppo kicked a combined 20.13 to our 16.28.