Fromgotowoewodin

At a time when we desperately needed the next goal, it bobbled out of Smith’s perfectly for Harmes to grab it without breaking stride, 3-4 steps and weighted the pass so Fritta could just about walk onto the end of it. If he never plays another game he’s done enough.

I think it’s Gawndy time, didn’t like it earlier in the year as we had 2 talls plus a ruck and it was getting congested. Hopefully with just JVR and a ruck we can create enough space for Trac, Melksham and the rest to get on leads. Key will be having the resting ruck on the move rather than just parking 25m out calling for the ball. Otherwise I think Smith goes back to sub, just don’t think he’s got 4 quarters of concentration in him (5 of his 7 touches came in Q2 this week, 0 in Q3). Hibberd into the 22. Clarry hopefully locked in and not further delayed, out goes Harmes or JJ. I’d prefer Harmes out, looks like it’s gone past him. We’ll always have that pass to Fritta in the GF..

Realistically we sank our chance of a percentage booster in the first quarter, time to avoid injury now and hopefully extend the lead by a goal or two. 2nd spot won’t be won or lost today, still got 3 games to win.

Nice to see Kozzie re-retire Ziebell there after the rest of us have been hand feeding him disposals

Does some impressive things but hoo boy, not a real smart kid

Tend to agree that Charleston is not looking best 22 at the moment. My read up until the last few weeks was that he was rusted-on, best 22 in Goody’s mind but it looks now like he’s slipped down the list a bit. All 25 games in flag year, all 24 last year but only 13/20 this year - 3 to go but it would look like he’s running out of time to get back in before finals. We’re still working on the forward line but I’d think if he was in he’d be in by now and the experiments can happen around him. That he hasn’t been in the mix seems to indicate he needs someone else to drop form or get injured.

In Hibberd’s defence he had a busted kidney from the first quarter

Yes, as often there’s a lot of scrabbling around in the pack with no clear disposals they don’t count losing the ball in there as a turnover, it’s only once the ball is on the outside team they count turnovers. Clearance is the first disposal to clear the stoppage area, can be effective or ineffective. Clangers include disposal clangers (i.e. turnovers) as well as the other categories so you’re always likely to have more clangers than t/overs. And clangers shouldn’t be counted as a % of disposals (you might have a dropped mark clanger and 0 possessions) but with t/overs you can.

Slightly misleading in that it looks like he didn’t do much damage against the Lions but he got those 63 goals in 16 games for an average of 3.9 pg. Someone at Essendon seriously [censored] him off though cos he smashed them all the way through his career at 3.8 pg.

12 days from today is 11 Aug so they’ll still be back by their next game on the 13th imo. Club doctor will probably have more time to focus on his private practice going forward though

Feel free to read my last 2 posts on the matter, unless you’re hard of braining it should be pretty clear why I think this is the week to rest him. I also said I don’t think the club is going to do it because that’s not the performance philosophy but your big brain might’ve skipped that bit.

“Jeopardise his form”? Please, he’s the best ruckman in the comp. What’s he going to get out of playing potatoes in freezing Hobart that he can’t get running around at Casey. Admittedly Goldy isn’t a spud but let the mids earn their kicks for a week and bring him back for the last 3 into finals. We need him firing for a month from the QF onwards, we don’t need him firing against Norf in August. What absolutely must be avoided is a repeat of 2022 when he couldn’t run or get off the ground and we got rolled in straight sets.

I think this is the week to rest Max and Viney, but I get it probably won’t happen. The Burgess/Griffith method appears to be to manage players via training loads primarily and have them play as many games as they’re not actually injured for. I’d still think sticking Max on a return flight to Hobart to play one of the worst 2 teams in the comp is unnecessary. Viney I think should still have a week, he’s had to come to the bench for attention to his right shoulder in multiple games and I wouldn’t want to see it get worse, admittedly I don’t know what the damage is so maybe there’s nothing for it and he might as well play. Would be good week to give Smith a full game, imo for Tomlinson who wasn’t great in the second half of the Crows game and not good for much of the Tiges game either. See if Smith has 4 quarters of concentration in him.

Have they ever seen Dylan Grimes play? Manages to be a flopper and also a sniper, impressive. Gets away with a fair bit cos his natural facial expression looks like a bloke who’d lose at checkers to a chook

Calls for him to be dropped every week but it’s never going to happen. Harmes, Woey or Jordan in line for the axe before they even think about ANB. Coaches clearly love what he does.

Never saw Petty kicking 6, and Maxy what an effort. Picked the boys up and carried them in the second half. Put the big fella on ice for a week, no need to fly him to tassie and play spuds. Grundy can take the load for a week

That was one of the most decrepit efforts by Howe on the wing, stood and watched Martin take a mark one on one, then after the mark is taken leaves curnow and goes to wave at someone running past while curnow takes the next mark. He’s lucky the blues stuffed it up inside 50

He is but the blues seem to have him a bit flustered, cutting off the easy kicks has him trying too much.

Ladder position shows we’re not as dominant this year as the prior 2 (3 weeks in the top 2 this year, vs a total of 8 weeks out of the top 2 over the prior 2 years). Home final in the first week is also pretty handy (yes Pies at the G is neutral but depending on results we could be in Adelaide or Brisbane, yuck). Now there are reasons for that drop, primarily injury (Gawn, Salem, Oliver, Fritsch, TMac, BBB all having extended time out), we’ve covered Oliver with depth, Fritsch with Melksham but haven’t yet found an overall fwd line solution. As I posted earlier it may come together but we’re cutting it finer than I’d like. There’s also a chance one of those teams that’s taken top 2 (Port) has their bubble burst, hopefully so.. I’ve never said it won’t come together but if we pull it off this will be harder than 2021. And if we don’t pull it off it only gets harder as key players get older. That’s just reality. Top 4 again is a great result compared to most of what we’ve seen over past decades, but if you’re printing “Top 4 3-years running” t-shirts maybe test early demand before you get too many done, most in the target market would prefer “Premiers 2023”.

Is there a meaningful distinction between being insane and holding views that are insane? Not that I’m willing to admit that thinking finishing 1st or 2nd is better than finishing 4th is an insane view. Pre-Elon, when there were usable apps for it, less spam and nazis, and more footy chat. The good old days.

Thanks for that, feels like being back on old Twitter. Good stuff. The forward line is bit and pieces and has been all year. I want another flag, to win another flag we’ll need to play better than we currently are. Feel free to disagree, FRO with calling me insane.

This is where I’m at too, we’re clearly not better than 2021, this will be our lowest finish of the 3 years and we’ve already dropped 6 games this year with 5 to play (vs 4 and a draw in 2021, and 6 in 2022). Leaking more goals although this could be due to playing a more open style. Forward line is still a work in progress (sadly 2 years after Flag). Best 22 with Oliver, Fritsch, Petty back might get us to where we need to be with a fwd line of JVR, Fritsch, Melksham and a Gawndy as the tall. Problem is we’re not going to be able to line up like that until Fritta is playing which may not be before the first final - not ideal. It may well work but it’s got the air of a heist movie to it where it looks like they’re all going to jail until someone turns up at the last minute and makes the whole thing come together, hopefully Fritta can be our pocket ace or fixer or whatever and we can slip out with the cup. Some are very confident it’s all going to come together, 40 years of MFCSS has me less confident but buckle up, at least we’ve booked a ticket to the show.

So you know it’s not easy, 350+ afl goals don’t come by accident. No one’s saying he’s not droppable, but even less than 100% fit he’s the best answer we’ve got right now and he’s giving it a crack. If the club thought Schache could do the job he would’ve been tried more than 1 game this year.

Fair to say BBB hasn’t been at his best since coming back in, but he takes heat off JVR, runs good patterns, creates space and brings the ball to ground. Will he be best 22 come finals? Maybe not, but “soft”? Unless you’ve kicked 3 in an AFL flag maybe show some respect to a premiership player

Nothing gutsy about that, hoo boy do we have some improving to do