Heart Beats True

Blake Howes just isn’t a backman. Wish he played higher up the ground. He also desperately needs to get some mongrel in his game.

Good to see the Demons mantra of giving hospital hand passes has made its way to Casey.

Stupid free by Adams led to that goal, squarely pushed him in the back.

He’s been calling Yze as Brown the entire game.

Fullarton making a case for a senior debut over the past couple of weeks.

Rubbish advantage call there by the umpire. Zero advantage to be gained.

Don’t think he’s been on yet.

And there goes the stream 🤦

AJ’s follow-up work from marking contests is impressive.

Sestan’s footskills are sublime. Kicking absolute darts to players.

Any chance of actually hanging onto a chest mark? Some absolute sitters dropped in the forward 50. Delivery has been pretty good.

Top 4 is great. Winning 0 finals is abysmal.

Port had 16 wins last year and 17 in 2024 yet Hinkley is on the way out. Winning finals is what it’s about. I this regard we have been abysmal since 2021.

Useless as in half the players playing who are out of form? Petty was useless all of last year yet he survives. Fritta has also been useless and has been given a big run. Laurie hasn’t been given an extended run in the seniors and deserves one.

Laurie should be in for Spargo. Just don’t understand why players get a free run at playing seniors with little footy behind them. Laurie deserves a solid run at it.

If that’s the case it is doomed to fail. The Hawks and Giants play with speed and supreme foot skills. We desperately lack both even with a full team to pick from.

The rolling rebuild is also aided by the Cats having one of the best strategic and game day coaches going around. This is critical for any rebuild.

Sorry but building confidence and mental strength is a major part of the coach’s role. He needs to drive belief, standards and provide a clear vision. Anxiety in the football team at the moment is born from not knowing what to do. It’s certainly not born from the threat of being dropped if you have a bad game.

In a nutshell: substandard skills, zero confidence, no leadership, incredibly slow ball movement, dysfunctional forward line, back line very loose, and worryingly some very frustrated senior players. Coach has clearly lost them. Everything most of us probably expected.

Watching Max’s postgame interview and he is a shell of the leader he once was. He looked dejected, made little eye contact and, to me, looked worried. Mind you, doing an interview after you’ve been spanked for the second week in a row and openly admitting he’s out of form with a number of other teammates, wouldn’t be wonderful.

Hindsight is a cruel mistress.

He did walk down the race with the team after the game without crutches but had a noticeable limp.

Time for Bill Laurie to get a sustained run in the firsts.

Alright everybody grab your [censored]-word bingo cards for Simon's cliche riddled press conference.

Just a filthy display by a rudderless team with zero confidence.