Fromgotowoewodin

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

Agree to disagree it is then. Do we ‘need’ to go into finals where we need to win 3 or 4 in a row against the best teams in the comp in good solid winning form? Yeh maybe not but I don’t like going in on a couple of losses would much prefer to come in hot. Do we ‘need’ Clarry to win those 3/4 games in a row? No we can probably do it without him but I’d like our chances much better if he’s out there.

Of course it counts, but beating the lions and then losing to a couple of bottom 8 teams in the lead in to finals isn’t intimidating anyone. Footy is a mental sport as well as a skill and tactics contest. Are the pies miles ahead? No, but if you don’t think teams are gonna be worried sitting a couple of goals in front of them with a quarter to go I don’t know what to tell you.. winning builds belief and I don’t think you can go into the finals on patchy form and flick a switch, I want to see solid wins from here on

He’s a bit colourful here but I agree with his main point, it’s time to start putting convincing wins together - don’t need to be 100pt smashings but if we’re going all the way we shouldn’t lose a game from here. Today should be a straightforward 30+ point, 4-quarter win. It’s fine to say we’re locked in the top 4 or whatever but I think you’ve gotta start showing the others that you’re the real deal - wins are good but running out 4 quarters and not letting opponents have a sniff means when you’re up in a final they’re thinking “these bastards don’t stop running” not “they’ll let us back in here if we keep pressing”.

Not sure about personal agendas or anything hitting the fan, my original post on this was a guess as to a couple of players I thought it might be, then after I posted I decided I wasn’t comfortable speculating on the personal character of people I don’t know so I edited the post to reflect that. Anyone else is free to do as they please.

Lol. To clarify for you, I don’t mean it’s speculation as to whether there is a player who you think is a [censored] to you and the rest of the cheer squad, I mean I don’t think it’s worth the rest of us trying to work out who it is so we can out one of our own as a [censored] (and slander a bunch of others in the process).

This. I think his current position is as forward as he’ll get, he’s a lock in the defensive set up but the press allows him to get up to 50 and occasionally sneak in and be a target or have a shot if his opponent isn’t paying attention. Wouldn’t expect to see him ever playing as a forward.

Edit: Never mind, this speculation doesn’t end anywhere good

I think this is the right change for the week, one forced, one based on form. Spargo will more than likely come back in at some point but needs to find some football at vfl level. Don’t get attached to Tommo, I’d think given past selection Petty comes straight back when fit. Current iteration of the forward line (bar Spargo) gets another turn to see how it goes, before Gawndy goes into the mix in a few weeks.

I think you’ve got to balance what’s in that article with the fact that Tom Browne is one of the [redacted] [redacted] in an industry populated almost exclusively by [redacted] [redacted]. The other salient point is that they’re all making up this idea that we have to trade him - says who? Bucks is keen to talk all this rubbish up cos how embarrassing would it be for the infallible, incredible all singing all dancing Magpies to be paying $300k of the salary of a player who wins a flag at another club? Oops!

20 goals from Rd18 to GF in 2021 was a fair cameo (incl 2 in the Prelim and 3 in Flag) 30 goals in 2022 (behind only Fritta and Kozzie) 11 in 6 games this year - admittedly 8 in the first 2 games skews that a bit, he got dumped by Rampe after the half time siren in Rd3 and hurt his back which I think set him back for a long time but I think reports of his imminent demise are a little exaggerated to paraphrase.

Used to be (circa mid-2010s) and google tells me there still is, an Aussie bar called Boomerang Bistro. Eating there is probably a waste of your calorie intake given everything else you can eat in Singas but will have the footy on. https://maps.app.goo.gl/GnCYwKGM3tAroLYD6?g_st=ic My take on team selection: Petty out for Tomlinson, surely has a week off at least after getting subbed twice with injury. Would expect given past experience that Petty comes back in when fit (hopefully not before). Spargo v Chandler - can see this going each way, you’d think on pure form Chandler gets a go (good vfl praccy apparently, Spargo not doing much) but Spargo is clearly marked best 22 so I can see them giving him another week or two to get back into form. McVee/Rivers into mids, Bowey fwd? Don’t see any of these happening, I think the FD is pretty settled on the back half and won’t be moving the pieces around too much barring Hibberd coming back and someone making way. Mids - one of Sparrow/Jordan will have to make way for Clarry at some point but probably not this week. Sparrow might become a permanent fwd and Spargo/Chin both miss when that happens. Jordan is vulnerable to going back to sub though given past history, they probably do that. Edit: Forgot my namesake- Taj might be the obvious miss and the other two stay, this got more complicated than I expected when I started.. Fwds - I think apart from the Spargo/Chin shootout the rest stays the same, bar Grundy maybe coming in for JVR (vulnerable due to still learning, BBB still ahead of him in smarts and impact imo). I don’t think all 3 fit in one fwd line or that we can go Gawndy without clogging the fwd 50 too much.

Keeping Petty on was weird but I don’t think Melksham is best as a sub. The only one you’d drop him out of the 22 for now is Fritsch imo, his body work last night was great, plays tall and can kick. Smith worked well as a sub although it was making me nervous ahead of time. Grundy may take either of JVR or BBBs spots, but I’d have those two ahead of him as pure forwards. Although BBB wasn’t as prominent after a good first quarter he still leads and makes space for the others. Chandler or Spargo competing for the same spot, I don’t think ANB or Kozzie are droppable. Forward line continues to improve which has been my big worry, and the Lions game was the biggest pre-finals test. Should just roll the rest of the teams we play pretty comfortably now, hopefully avoid further injuries, get Clarry back with 3-4 games before finals and see how we go.

Not sure how Petty played if we’re trying to avoid the balls up of 2022 - subbed off hurt last week, picked again, subbed off again with what looks like the same problem.. mental stuff

Well this quarter hasn’t been as much fun as the first, a few looking tired

BBB having an outstanding start, Melksham would be too if he took his chances

Well that’s put me back in my box, here’s hoping it works!

Winning form is good form, would you rather finish first and have a home final, or scrape into fourth and potentially play Port in Adelaide? You might say it doesn’t matter but I would much prefer to play at home. I don’t think he’s being managed I think we’re still trying to make the forward line work. Why manage a best 22 player against a fellow top 4 side? Manage players against Norf or Hawthorn.. plus he didn’t look unfit or slow to me last week, but Gawn did - manage Max if anyone.