Fromgotowoewodin

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

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!