Deenooos_

I noticed aswell on friday Salem was back to his best. He was hitting up the short kick to CHF much like last season which gives a clean entry inside 50. We have definitely been missing his skillful kicking and to be honest we need Bowey back in the team. His kicking is also elite and often changes angles with an inward kick on the 45. These guys really help our offence from our back half and rarely kick a wasteful kick down the line.

And Sydney or Collingwood wouldn't also be desperate to win to secure a bye? It doesn't matter where you finish inside the top 4, I don't think Geelong is so much harder to beat than any other contender.

Rubbish. There is no difference between top 3 or top 4. We can still win it if we finish 4th, the only thing that counts is the double chance and the opportunity to play in a home prelim.

This.

I'd rather the swans win, that would push us to 2nd (if we win both) and we would play a QF against them rather than against the pies. Would much rather Geelong take care of the pies while they're hot.

Yep he specifically said between rounds 11 and 19 this and last season. We weren't dominated by the pies on Friday the same way we were in our midseason losses, we never controlled that game on QB the way we did in large parts on Friday. We were still in it up to our necks until the last 10min. The pies certainly through everything at us with their ball movement but it was only just enough to beat us. Freo knows how to beat us and our system because they showed that in round 11, so why didn't they replicate it last Friday to beat us again? Maybe our new found fitness restricted this and they didn't have the skills to pull it off against a more "switched on Melbourne". This may prove that Collingwood are a far better side than Freo because they were still able to execute the aggressive ball movement they used against us in round 13 when we were cooked. We were definitely not running with the classic "mud in our boots" on Friday, we looked fit but likely Collingwood are fitter than us at the current moment and had that extra gear to go to at the end. It's now obvious that teams have found ways to beat our defence and get 1vs1 in our defensive half from slingshot quick footy. We are therefore by no means as bullet proof as last year (with full fitness or not) but I think we are still pretty good.

I don't think you quite understand how it works. There is a gradual increase in performance after you stop the increase in training volumes, this process is when the tapering part of the program is implemented. You can think of it like a curve on a graph that is slowly curving upwards and will likely reach its "peak" in 2-4 weeks after tapering has begun, that's the whole idea. I think Binman has been spot on and not moved the goalposts, last year we were still loading in round 19 hence the poor performance against the dogs. It was always talked about that in round 20 we would start to see the benefits of our program and we did against freo last week but we are by no means at our peak. We are no longer loading but that doesn't necessarily mean we should/are peaking right now, but rather it will be an incremental improvement as we get closer to finals, although I've noticed considerable improvement In the past 2 weeks tactics and that jazz aside.

It is true that the players feed off the crowd. This is something I worry about come finals if we were to come up against them in a prelim. This of course depends on our supporter turnout but going off this year it will probably be poor and theirs will dominate. Obviously if we play our best scintillating footy then it should shut them up, but it will always be a motivating factor for them for getting back into the game.

After moving through the emotional 'anger' phase which lasted all of yesterday I am taking a more logical view of the situation. Your comments make it sound like we were beaten by 8 goals and are getting smashed week in week out and are no hope of winning games. We lost by 7 points..... and smashed freo. We also only lost to the bulldogs by just 10 points because some young nerd was having a blinder. We are playing pretty good footy over the last month, we aren't doing a lot wrong.

What makes you believe we aren't tapering yet? I guess when you think about it, prelim/grand final day is still 7-8 weeks away and that is a long time to maintain fitness tbh. When looking back last year and as @binman has mentioned in another thread we weren't playing out of our skins in the r21 west coast and almost got smashed by Geelong even in r23 still. The only dominant football we played was really only the prelim and grand final last which are obviously the most important two games of the season. When, in the H&A season last year did we ever smash a team by 83 and 74 points respectively? None.

Simply change this attitude and we win those games. Confuse our opposition who expect us to play a certain way in second halves and gain an edge. Hopefully this is the plan in the September.

Bs Bris need to win by 70+ to overtake us percentage, not happening edit, sorry replied to wrong post saying we could finish this round outside the 4, can’t happen

Not only did he look angry but extremely confident and full of belief when asked the question if we could still do it. They know they're better than this, and I think this loss to the pies has really angered everyone involved in the club. This will reignite us.

Here’s to a little more of a positive outlook. The dees can definitely still win the flag this year. Imo we have started rounding the corner with our form over the past few weeks depsite what some might think. We have much to look forward to. R19 Loss - 10 point loss against a plucky and revengeful dogs outfit, played some good footy against them. R20 Win - 46 point win over a strong dockers outfit on their home deck, back to our defensive best. R21 Loss - 7 point loss to a momentum riding pies outfit. Dominated all areas of the game, the pies are riding a wave of extreme momentum but the footy they’re playing is not necessarily convincing. Keep the faith fellow supporters, we have so much talent and the next few years to look forward to; JVR, Laurie, Chandler, Howes and Bedford all potential gun players, plus whoever else we pick up along the way.

Yep, Freo drawing with Richmond in the end really killed us. We can’t go 1-1 coz they’ll likely win both their remaining games and scrape into 4th via 2 points. Richmond are almost as useless as us in taking their opportunities… Winning 2 will get us 2nd or 3rd

Hunger, outworked. May have stuffed up our loading program to in season disruption due injuries and Griffith not being able to adapt and implement the training loads. It's a fine balance

Yep can't wrestle back momentum and get ourselves out of trouble like last year. Funnily enough the trend this year is lead at HT by 20-30 points then cough it up. Then last year we trail at HT or in the 3rd and roll the opposition. I prefer the latter.

The dogs game really f'd up our chances at a shot at top 4, such a stupid game to drop. Really disappointing after planting ourselves in top spot at 10-0.... going 5-7 remaining of the year is poor but I think you're too harsh, we will win our remaining 2, we played really well yesterday in all fairness.

There was a different kind of aura to us last year. You can feel the confidence in us wavering throughout the competition. We are no longer feared the way we were, the hunger is definitely gone leaving us looking timid and vulnerable. If we happen to win the flag this year then great but I'm no longer betting on it. Hopefully the way this season has transpired regarding all the off field crap the players will rediscover their hunger for next season, this is a generational team of talent and I doubt it will go to waste.

Yeh but Collingwood's conversion rate inside 50 hasn't been exceptionally good all season this was an outlier and far more due to fact how we were defending than how they were attacking from different angles. Freo had the same i50 count last week yet scored 5 goals instead of 15, but of course their forward line also doesn't set the house on fire.

Finishing top 2 is completely irrelevant now. Gee and Coll are top 2 so any spot in the 4 will have us playing a "home" QF at the MCG. A lot has to go wrong to not finish top 4. Collingwood are arguably in the best 2-3 teams in the comp and we dominated them for most of the night. We should win our next 2. Win the first final from 3rd or 4th and it's a different story. A Prelim against Collingwood would be hectic though.

Anyone know the i50:Goal conversion rate? I think it's something like 22% - If so, the pies went at 36% which is ridiculous. They should have scored 9.0 (54 points) from their 41 i50s. - We on the other hand went at almost the average, 20%, should have kicked 14.3 (86 points) Should have been a comfortable win. I don't think luck is to blame either for their efficiency, our defence made it easy for them for some reason, we were the best at keeping opposition to low conversion rate entering our 50 last year.

Sure, but I don't see why he's left it so late in the season. I'm guessing we're trying to improve our offensive game with these long forward handballs but I wasn't quite aware, were they happening whilst transitioning from HB ? What I can't understand is why we then pause for 30sec when at HF and basically let all of the Collingwood defence reposition only to bomb it in, usually not to our advantage. I really don't think Goody isn't tactically clever but it makes you wonder.

Okay interesting. But why is it that we are implementing new tactics into our gameplay in a must win game to secure a top 4? Surely it's far too late in the season to make any significant changes.

What are you smoking? Of course we've loaded.