rpfc

I have been saying similar things when we were 10 and zip - not exactly our blasting away, but the rest of it. We flirted with our form IMO and we are paying the price.

I would t go holistic but I would move Sparrow out in favour of someone who is a forward. With Brayshaw there, it makes his primary function a forward more and more. Harmes struggles to play roles other than mid or run with roles. Maybe he can find a place. I would want to see Chandler but I also think Melksham has made us better up forward… ANB won’t be dropped IMO. But he needs an understudy for the work he does for the mids around stoppages because his decision making has devolved. But really, moves those deck chairs around all you want - Oliver and Petracca need to calm down and go short or hit space and trust their teammates or we are done.

I am sure not having a Curnow or McKay impacts their options - however, it has to be direction for them to pump it into the pocket. They are too good to be so blasé and hamfisted for that much of the game. They don’t want to attempt the hit up to avoid being smashed on the turnover - however, I would argue that they are weighting that pocket kick too heavily. They need to use hands or lower eyes and into the corridor. They leave so many lateral kicks on the table and it looks rushed. And the flip side to the ‘our talls ain’t great’ is the question of - if that is the case, why are we so keen to pump it in there? Spargo dwells on the footy and waits for an option and it is damning his much more vaunted and celebrated teammates.

A lot of people will waive those numbers away because CP5 and CO13 get a number of clearances but just watch them game to game stride out and boot the shizen out of the ball to the pocket. Its horrendous footy. As an aside, Sparrow kicking to a Demon in the 50 only 7% of the time is diabolical. He spends most of time as a HFF! Everyone else are mids except for him and Mr 46%.

Maybe they have a lisp

Yeah, I write as a blend of fandom and on field. It’s a joy, just enjoy it. Although we did get a glimpse into our arrogance and condescension with Ed Langdon’s opinion of the opposition as limited, and his confidence of being able to shut off their limited play by proclaiming it to Andrew’s Maher and Gaze. While I can’t confirm our complacency, I have been seeing it with my lying eyes the entire season; the 10 game winning streak of playing half a game or less, the direction of the coaching staff to not bother with forward pressure (you don’t go from top 4 to last because of anything else) and to just let the opposition to ‘crash against the rocks’ across our half back line… Do we know what happens to rock when enough water hits it? We have been flirting with our form all year for reasons that I can glean but they are reasons that don’t respect our opposition and how hard it is to maintain this kind of form.

Melbourne fans bloodletting after a top of the table loss because we are oh so awesome. If you think what fans think is irrelevant then what the [censored] are you doing on here?

Pick one. They’re all down. It’s an adamant fact - our forward pressure and the Demon Web is being exposed and we are butter to a very hot knife. I don’t get why this is not plain to see to everyone really. Along with our connection into the 50 - it makes up our main issues against the best teams.

I can see Collingwood’s belief taking them to a Prelim. And from there anything is possible as they found out in 2010 and 2018. It sounds trite, but god we skipped over earnest and honest enjoyment of footy to arrogant expectation due to 4 games of footy last year - it is so hard to win a flag, let alone repeat and we should respect those that are rising (or hopefully falling - Geelong) more than we do. Collingwood remind me of us in 2018. We were brash and a bit sloppy but hard as nails and willing to work. We beat a hardened Geelong and a Hawthorn team with little left but then were dispatched by a WCE team that respected us enough to destroy us and everything we stood for. We need to show that same respect.

As a coach, how you play in bad losses matters to me. And thus, I can only assume he will play 200 games for the Dees and win multiple flags.

All this time spent on the 14th reason for how we are currently playing…

A good post in the wrong thread. We shouldn’t lose out if Jackson leaves, and the above puts some meat on that bone.

Yes, unfortunately, I agree. If that is what we continue to value, we shouldn’t bother getting a younger player, we should just target mature bodies and [censored] them for three years like we are doing with Brown.

Another thread derailed by loading back and forth. Great… Of course we can win it and can you imagine any supporter base keen to play us anywhere? We are what the media thinks the Tigers are. We need to adjust our forward setup and what I think is over committing when we have it for long periods in our 50. But we can kick 8 goals in 10 minutes against anyone so of course we can win it. But this group plays like they know that, and that is the end of something, not the beginning.

Been thinking the same names. Geogiades is the most intriguing one for me, he looks a natural forward with his leading patterns and he can mark in contests. But is he a No 1 forward? Henry and McLean I just haven’t seen enough of.

He would be perfect. I would even give him half the year off to fix his knee issues.

The irony is we do that to avoid… Turning it over and being vulnerable to sling shot goals… So how about just kick to someone leading into whatever space there is…

Loading is a thing, it is now over and this thread should die. It simply is not a factor for our season anymore. The bigger factors for our fortunes are on game day; so head on over to the Forward Half Concerns thread and bloodlet! More fun talking footy instead of fitness regimes anyway…

WGAF

I am not sure of the value of our forward line. In the three phases of the game - it looks a massive problem. With footy; other than Koz and Fritsch and a healthy brown - they are not natural forwards so they don’t move well together and rarely find space they way other clubs do. Liabilities: ANB, Sparrow, Spargo (unless he has the ball, teams just leave him alone in the F50 and dare us to kick it to him) Without the footy; this is what they are built for - what to do in the Demon Web but that is falling down constantly now. So the one aspect they were great at is now a small nuisance for good teams then they switch and off we go. Liabilities; in theory - no one, but… brown, Fritsch, the others when ball watching. When ball is in dispute; normally I would say this is a strength, but not this year. Their tackling is down while our I50s are up, the pressure rating (even if it confuses your faculties) is indicative of a forward line that doesn’t pressure anywhere near what we did last year. We were one of the worst teams for letting the ball out of our F50 even after our 10 game winnings streak. Liabilities; Brown, Fritsch, Gawn, the others when they are not applying themselves. So I dare say that our forward line will be overhauled for 2023 with possibly different direction. What can Goodwin and co. do in the next month to address some of it…

You’re such an [censored].

We needed to be more ruthless in front of goals but that doesn’t explain the 96 pts we gave up. Its been a problem all year - but the way we allow the ball to cut through us when we press up so high means that it’s a shot on goal. We are not as disciplined as we were this time last year, we are in the top 4 teams but the Pies have the wood on us. They play the way teams should play us so the FD needs to adjust and quickly.

Well that’s now corroborated, and it can’t now be compartmentalised as just the indigenous boys struggling with this, as some were intimating. This was personal destruction of the marginalised, regardless of skin colour, although it would help if one was in the majority. Those with a mum, dad, and a ‘normal’ upbringing. What a disgrace. Where is the Dr’s report? Where is the AFL investigation summary? Why is Riccuito still there?