Bring-Back-Powell

Yeah it was a pretty meh win off memory even though we kicked the first 4 goals of the game. Round 4 2021 V Geelong at the MCG was the first time I started to believe something was brewing.

Giants have a brutal 3 weeks coming up. North at home, West Coast and GC at Gather round.

Thought I’d post before we see today’s 48 point come back.

BBB has a knack for kicking his 3 or 4 goals against the Dogs in our recent round 1 games. Unless he’s nowhere near match fit I’d consider bringing him in. Drop Schache and give JVR or Fullarton the resting ruck gig.

We could salvage something out of the weekend with Collingwood losing to GWS.

Brisbane badly missed the run of Coleman and McKenna off half back. However that’s an indictment on them given Carlton’s long list of outs. How they won without Weitering and Walsh is amazing? This Carlton team has a serious hunger about it that can definitely take them to the promise land this year.

Not that I’m complaining but there might be a bit of through to that. In round 24 last year Gulden played a near perfect 40 possession 2 goal game and yet Viney got the 3 votes. I reckon Viney will poll extremely well in the Brownlow this year provided we tick the wins over.

The why on earth did we blow a first rounder on him? Thats a bog ordinary assessment.

And for me too. Aside from a couple of entertaining wins over Brisbane, Adelaide and Richmond in July when we kicked straight, we’ve been playing an unattractive, sloppy and often soul destroying brand of footy since about round 10 last year.

In Carlton’s last 5 games they haven’t kicked double figures in behinds. In our last 4 games we’ve kicked nothing but double figures in behinds. One club takes their opportunities and the other doesn’t.

That win was miles ahead of the win over the Dees in the semi.

I hope we’re not involved in opening round next year. If we are it will mean we’ll either be in Sydney or SE QLD whereby we’ve proved time and time again that we can’t handle the greasy conditions. I think we were about 1-7in the wet or humidity last year and the one win was against Richmond when it rained for all of 10 minutes. Anthony Hudson spoke to a non participating VIC club today and he was told that the 4 VIC clubs that travelled this weekend would surely be at a distinct disadvantage. I also don’t believe the forward line we put out last night was good enough to win a game of footy against a contender in Sydney. It was honestly 2012-2013 stuff. It will get better but by how much?

We should have demanded Melbourne born Hayden Mclean in return who kicked 21 goals last year as a back up ruck which is very Luke Jackson ish, and was Sydney's best tall forward last night and in their elimination final last year. Sydney were in dire need of a first ruck. We were in dire need of a goal kicking back up ruck. Why did we not play hard ball given Sydney needed and wanted Grundy? Didn't we hold the leverage? Can someone explain to me why we just made a rival significantly and noticeably better in exchange for a couple of picks in the 40's.

I think a lot of us did.

JVR’s going to have a very poor season if he’s forced to take the oppo’s best defender every week because Schache is the only other key fwd. It’s unfair on the kid and another question mark on our list management at the moment that our number 1 forward is often in the stands injured. Do we look at BBB for the Dogs game to provide support for JVR? If Petty returns for Hawthorn and has an injury free run, I think our fortunes will change for the better.

Good point except you can’t leave out a mid that had 30 and 2 goals. I expect Viney to have received Brownlow votes last night. Probably the first of many.

If Gawn and co are willing to use the humidity as an excuse, then fair enough, but they’d want to back up their words next week and run the game out well when it’s probably going to be in the low 20’s on Sunday week. With that being said, which Victorian side would you have been confident of beating Sydney tonight? Perhaps Collingwood?

He was one of the major disappointments tonight after a great practice match the week before. Your opinion of him was vindicated tonight. Did he have one clean possession?

If they don’t finish top 4 they’ll go close. Unlike our club, they have a team full of elite kicks.

Petty likely back for Hawthorn. Will train fully next week. Bowey 2-4 but not confirmed yet.

It was nice and generous of our club to trade this tremendous ruckman to Sydney for a half eaten ham sandwich. All we’ve achieved is making a top 8 rival’s midfield considerably better, while our ruck department is now depleted. Club should have asked for a first rounder based on what Grundy was worth to Sydney, not what he showed in 2023.

Outstanding use of the sub by Goodwin yet again. Billings came across to Melbourne to seek a fresh start and regain some much needed confidence. So nothing surer than our master mind coach starting Billings as sub and denting whatever confidence he gained in the practice matches. We looked unfit and unskilled. The large rehab group throughout pre season was reflective tonight. We badly missed Kozzie’s spark while Sydney didn’t appear to miss their three mids at all.

Depends on the loss. If we lose a highly entertaining game where we've had the lead in the last quarter, kick accurately and our inside 50 entries have improved from last year, then I'll just write it down as bad luck and we'll bounce back next week. If we get done by 7+ goals and kick an atrocious 7.17, followed by the draw from hell to start the year, then valid questions will be asked. Posters should be entitled to express their concerns and disappointment under this scenario.

So who’s sub tonight out of Billings, Windsor Chandler or Laurie? Clearly Bowey will start. A bit of noise over at Bigfooty that it’s Billings.

Enjoy the family road trip! 2020 we beat the Crows by 51.