Bring-Back-Powell

Really poor turn out by our fans on about as good a night as you’ll get in August. Our record low crowd is 12k V Port.

GWS going to win another game purely on accuracy. Are they going to win consistent finals kicking 5 behinds a game? Is it sustainable in finals?

Unfortunately we’re back to the days of hoping for 100% effort and as close to a 4 quarter performance as possible. Looking forward to seeing the future on display tonight - JVR, McVee, Rivers, Kolt, Kozzie, Houston.

Collingwood were the better team on the night. Pure and simple. They had a lead of 33-6 early in the second quarter and 58-31 at the 25 minute mark of the third quarter. You ain’t coming back from that deficit in a final against the minor premiers. And before you use the Brayshaw excuse, the inside 50 and possession count was so lop sided before the incident even happened. Collingwood were ready to go from the opening bounce and we weren’t. The Carlton semi final loss is the one that got away, but the Collingwood final - we were beaten by the better team.

Collingwood’s last quarters are as bad as ours. Even against Richmond they got outscored by 3 goals. Round 24 will be interesting now that both clubs are out of business.

I would still like us to pick up a genuine ruckman this off season. We can't have a repeat of the Freo game where we've got literally nobody to counter Darcy and Jackson. That was an absolute list management bungle of the highest order. Kane Cornes last night suggested having a look at Riley O'Brien from Adelaide. I don't mind it on the proviso: 1) Max is willing to have some weeks off if the injury curse doesn't get him first 2) Riley is willing to play VFL with clear scope for senior appearances. The only negative is that JVR would still be rucking 7 minutes a quarter.

In my post I wrote a player "LIKE" Brynn Teackle. The operative word being like, with full knowledge that we had our pick after North.

Houston was a 2023 All Australian. Houston is tracking towards a 2024 All Australian as suggested by Kane Cornes who is on the committee himself. I note that he wasn't in the mid season mock All Australian sides but appears to have stepped up his game in the second half of the year. Champion Data have him as the top 5 best user of the footy in the league. Imagine having an MFC player that is in the top 5 users of the prune in the league. Last year against Essendon, Houston kicked what I consider to be the best after the siren winning goal behind Mal Blight in the mid 70's. To be potentially a back to back All Australian means you're a player at the absolute peak of your career and clearly an A to A+ grade player. That in anyone's language is worth a pick 7. The risk I concede is that Houston is probably having the best 2 seasons of his career, and may not be able to replicate them again if he were to cross over to the MFC.

Very good point. I can see the rationale behind shopping early before everyone else gets a chance in November. However, I still think the mid season draft should be used to satisfy mid season deficiencies, and we clearly had a pressing need for a second ruck. Someone like a ready made Brynn Teakle type player (North Mebourne) would have been a smart selection for us in order to allow JVR to focus 100% on his forward craft and development.

I was lucky enough to attend the round 3 win and it was definitely one of our best wins in recent years. That last quarter was inspirational in hostile territory and the boys refused to head out of Adelaide Oval without the 4 points. A completely different attitude to the one post round 9.

For those that keep a close eye on the oppo's ins/outs each week, when was the last time our opposition lost a key player to injury heading into our game. Seems like key players always come back in for our game, but never go out. Georgiades is a big out for them.

Fair call about Salem continually breaking down. Our fitness guru didn’t exactly sound convincing about Salem’s availability this week.

4 possessions and 1 mark a game probably suggests there’s some scope for improvement. I wonder if we were tempted to recruit a ready made ruck in the mid season draft if one was available?

Any chance we can bring the attitude and zest for the contest that we brought to the recent Brisbane game as opposed to the suburban league level pressure we brought to the Freo and Dogs games? Even the GWS game was more than acceptable. Feels like we’re picking and choosing which games we can be azzed turning up to.

Guessing the player was Brayden Preuss or Sam Frost?

Port are top 3 in both clearances and goals from clearances in the last 6 weeks, and top 3 in points against. Certainly been a brutal 4 weeks in terms of playing teams in form.

Dan Houston is top 5 in the league at the moment in damaging use of the footy. Hayden Young is #1. Any wonder we're interested in him given the slop we've been dishing in week in week out. Giving up a top 10 pick and potentially more is a valid argument against trading for Houston, but it doesn't take away the fact that he'd be instantly our best user of the footy, and easily top 10 in the league. Better than peak Salem.

I was all for the wild card weekend until this idea came up. Perth will probably get it.

I guess the big question on everyone’s mind is can Petty crack the 10 goal milestone as a permanent key forward by season end?

On Saturday night we need to be on our best behaviour and avoid this game being a complete mess if he's seriously considering the Dees. I can't imagine the impression we're going to leave him if we get tonked. And why is he considering leaving Port? Homesick?

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1621609/goodwin-talks-forward-six-media-conference-focuses “We want to be playing finals footy and right now we're still a chance,” Goodwin said.

If they're not playing Jefferson this week, then give BBB a game. He played his one of his best games for the MFC in the 'business trip' and Bulldogs supporter were actually relieved that he wasn't playing last week, such is the trouble BB has caused them since 2021. Port have an undersized defence now that Ratugulea has moved forward, so maybe his height could cause them an issue.

You’d probably look at Tomlinson back for this one as a like for like for May. He seems to play well on his return game from the VFL, but struggles the game after and then finds himself back to square one. I also think T Mac might be dropped for this one. Somehow scored a player rating score below 0 and has really struggled in our last 3 losses.

Round 21, 2022

Jay Clark on Fox Footy’s “The Tackle” made another mention tonight that he thinks we’ll get Houston. He’d CLEARLY be our best acquisition since May in late 2018.