rpfc

Melksham didn’t play against Sydney.

While I don’t think a club is defined by whether it can best Collingwood while being in a form slump - the next 3 months will define a small number of players, this group as a whole, and the club itself.

Too soon.

Not defending Melksham. I’m explaining why that is more than ‘banter’ and why it wouldn’t be tolerated in our culture.

What awful banter. I had to drop a mate for a GF and it burns still, nearly a decade later. Also, the team has built their culture around positive respect for each other, and not bringing each other down through ‘banter’. Gawn goes into it here. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-imperfects/id1476501557?i=1000563169151

He did give an excuse re: the weather. Caroline rightly smacked that excuse down.

Stoppages have little to do with the loss. Zero goals from turnover. We average 8 goals a game. Its pressure that is missing; our predictable pressure.

I apologise. I don’t think that you are the problem, but the excuses that you mention don’t hold water. I will be down 4 times out of the first 13 rounds because I know that this is a couple of injuries/departures away from ceasing to be, and I thought that the club had a great opportunity to confirm our status as the club just below the big boys with crowds that outshone everyone on big stages like on Saturday night. Its more than disappointing.

Because we are on top, have a generational team that just won the flag and our crowds are so poor that our best player has noticed.

I would push Gawn forward more, leave the Browns for another week. Jordan seems so one paced at the minute on the wing. Maybe ANB to the wing and Bedford in would provide more run. TBH - whatever gets our forward back to their harassing best is what we need. So the acid should be on Spargo, Harmes, Sparrow, ANB, Pickett, Gawn, M Brown, and BBB to do their bit. If Gawn is our answer forward than he does create a hole for that pressure.

So your list of excuses for Dees fans to stay away from watching this team… That is 10 and 2 Thats top of the [censored] ladder That just won the flag That has 3 of the best 5 players That has a % of 140 Your list of excuses is How. The. Team. Is. Playing? This is the kind of nonsense that you would abhor in the past. Again, I ask, in another thread, on another topic - why do we need so many excuses? Why can’t we put our hands up and say that we are not coming to games because of ‘PERSONAL reason blah’ AND it isn’t a great reason and I apologise to my fellow Demons and I will try better in the future. ‘We’ve always had the flu about, we have always had to learn ticketing, watching on my fat [censored] at home is not good enough, not coming to games because I expect them to be in a prelim and I will go then, they are all bad reasons - see you there at all home games!’ Now how hard is that?

I reckon you have written a version of “winning footy not pretty footy” for the last 15 years on this site. I would search for it if I cared enough or the servers didn’t just groan at the thought.

Why not? We aren’t showing up for this generational Premiership team that he just won the Norm Smith in and is about 6th in the Brownlow.

You should be.

That’s a great critique of umpiring - but this is about this particular game that was well umpired. We [censored] on them so much and here we have a game where Melbourne LITERALLY couldn’t capitalise on ONE mistake from Sydney and we have a few people blaming the umpiring? There are so many excuses floating about this place atm. Let’s take some responsibility; whether it be for low crowds, losses, and sloppy play.

I thought it was fine. We gave away crucial frees.

🤷‍♂️

No thanks Joe

Collingwood are a good team that will pounce on mistakes as Sydney did. I still can’t get my head around the 0 goals from turnover; its more than half our score most weeks. What does it tell me? We created less turnovers we could exploit in the forward half, and we also turned the ball over when we did get clean intercepts. So bring the pressure rating back up and we slip back up a few gears everywhere else. Suddenly Brown is one out, Fritsch has room, and Kozzie more freedom.

Also, May being back makes everyone else better.

That mark looked a mark at the ground, papley is a pill but he had knees in his back, gulden was held and Bowey knew it, Oliver would have got the softest 50 for that. What are we doing here? The umpires are being throttled at the moment so let’s get another excuse for the team… (eyeroll emoji) Why does a strong team or a strong club need so many excuses?? For everything?

Makes sense to me; BBB is a proven player who has established himself. Sam has played 5 good games. Selection integrity is important. I hope M Brown gets a few more opportunities.

The dependent issue is our forward half pressure or lack thereof; we then fall back to our zone which sees all our forwards up to centre wing. From a quick turnover we have to go sideways to go forward instead of getting BBB a run at the footy. We average 8 goals from turnover this year and got none against Sydney. And don’t be fooled by ‘repeat entries’ when our zone keeps it parked in our forward line we have no space to do anything with it. So while I am not at all pleased with some of the forward craft, until we get back to our pressure game and winning the ball back when our forwards are actually forward, OR releasing Fritsch and Brown from the zone (which is not ideal) then we can’t blame our talls…

With Goodwin confirming to 3AW that McDonald has what looks like a ‘lisfranc’ issue with his foot - that might be him for the year. That leads us exposed forward of the footy. There is very little forward craft between the players and perhaps we need to shift players around to find something that works; Tomlinson, Daw, keeping Mitch Brown… got to think about all options. TMac wasn’t destined for the forward line until Weideman and Brown got injured at the start of last year…