Lord Travis

Outside the first 8-10 minute burst, Lions have dominated. Our small forwards have been seriously poor the past two months. Kozzie looks disinterested and not going at the ball. Spargo jogging round aimlessly. Neither crumbing. Neither defending. We’re getting nothing out of them at present and getting killed on rebound too.

I’d pay big bucks to watch someone cave his skull in. [censored] of a human.

Los by 16 points. Hope I'm wrong and the BBrown and JVR combo works out. Fingers crossed Gawn can handle solo rucking without injury and significantly lifts his form.

In terms of margins, our finals series in 2021 is the most dominant finals series since Essendon 2000, and it's roughly on par with that (3 points less on average). Statistically it will be decades before we see a team as dominant as we were in finals. Geelong were good last year, but fell over the line against the Pies by a kick and were a level below us (16 points less on average). With that in mind, we should appreciate how insanely brilliant our 2021 finals series was and likelihood says no team, let alone us again, will repeat it anytime soon. We'll always have 2021!

Dropping Grundy to work on his forward craft at Casey WHEN THE VFL HAS A BYE is the epitome of stupidity and sums up our selection committee this year. I don't think the Gawn and Grundy partnership has been great, but we've also not played to either of their strengths. Grundy has been better than Gawn this year. It's Gawn who's had a big drop off in form and probably needs a spell. He's been ineffective both up forward and in the ruck, where as Grundy has been decent in the ruck. Our midfield has performed better when Grundy has been around the ball too with our contested numbers being the best we've seen since our 2021 peak. That tells me we need to find a different role for Max, not Grundy. Why they haven't tried other tactics with the pair such as one front half one back half, Gawn ruck Grundy mid, or Max behind ball and smaller forward line etc is beyond me. It appears we've wasted the year to experiment and now we're just going to hope for the best come finals time. But hey what do I know!

Their confidence is warranted. They’re in much better form than us. Hopefully their MCG woes give us a leg up, but I’m not expecting a win this week. Our whole team defense will need an a grade effort for us to be a chance.

Gawn and Grundy is no different to Gawn and Jackson. We’ve played two rucks for years and Grundys output this year has been superior to Jackson’s output with us. Grundy has been our best ruckman this year. It would be strange to drop the better performing player, but I get you can’t drop your captain. Grundy hasn’t been incredible either, but he’s been serviceable and will be our ruckman after Gawn retires. The transition has already begun. This issue is that Gawn has fallen off a cliff compared to his past 8 years and currently doesn’t deserve his place in the team on output. Whether that’s himself as a player or the role the coaches have put him in, his form is the issue. Gawn is best as a ruckman who then plays behind the ball intercepting. Grundy is best as a mobile ruckman linking up around the ground. Neither is competent as a tall forward. The coaches haven’t found a solution, but need to look at the strengths of both and ditch the forward experiment. Personally, I’d try Gawn in defense seeing as we play a zone and throw Petty forward to pair with BBrown or JVR. We’re getting to crunch time now and the coaches need to find an answer quickly or we’ve wasted a second year in a row of a brilliant lists peak years.

He’s done a few, including our match against GWS recently. He’s decent on commentary, but depending on who he’s with he can get sucked into the typical boys club wind up and lose focus.

Haven’t seen enough of Reid play, but if he’s similar style and quality to Petracca, you’d draft him in every possible scenario. Having a Petracca in the midfield and a Petracca up forward is basically the dream combination for any team and would have you permanently in premiership contention.

5 years too late for us. Our wings are sorted now, he’s at the end of his career and his contract is way too big for us.

I’d argue it is, but the ball moves quicker than a person, so quick ball movement is more important than actual leg speed. Guys like Salem and Bowey are key to that from the back half. In terms of leg speed, Kozzy and Chandler have genuine pace. Mcvee is average pace but has great agility and a brilliant side step. I’d argue Bowey is below average pace for his smaller size and makes up for it with quick decision making. We do miss Hunt in that regard as a line breaker and it sucks seeing him in career best form outperforming basically all our medium and small defenders, but stuck in a [censored] team. Taj seems to be ok for pace. He wasn’t great defensively and needs to keep building his upper body strength. He’s very young though and has plenty of time. Offensively I liked his debut game. Helped setup a few goals, went when it was his turn and nearly kicked a great snap goal. There’s something to work with there.

When asked about it he said he’d gladly take the call. So he’s already he’s entertaining it and not shutting it down. Very high likelihood the jobs his already.

Looking good early. Keep going Carlton! Pick 6 on offer. My love for the Dees outweighs my hatred for other teams.

I hate what this team has become. It’s [censored] to watch and now it’s losing more than it’s winning. Cmon boys wake up!

We get such poor drive out of our back half considering the talent we have to rebound across half back.

The fact it’s so compromised again means we’d be better off trading up to pick 1 for a bonafide star than getting in a few less than stellar talents IMO.

Jayden Hunt currently on 25 disposals with 100% efficiency. The cleanest player on the ground and continues to give his all. Well done Jayden. Wish you were still in red and blue!

It’s an 8 point game as winner goes a game clear in fourth, so we need to win tonight. Saints have some bad outs so no excuses if we lose. Looking forward to seeing young Woe and hope he shows a bit of dash and skill.

With Oliver out and Salem back and in decent form, I hope we see Rivers given substantial midfield minutes over the next month. He’s having a breakout season and is one of the few players who has improved. He’s got the chops to have an impact in there with Oliver out.

Not sure there’s much more he can do with his limited footy iq. He’s been led to the ball and let his opponents intercept and charge out of defense this past few weeks. His lack of forward craft has been a key reason our forward line hasn’t functioned. He’s an athlete not a footballer. At 27 years old he’s yet to cement a spot at AFL level, so the writings on the wall for him. He’s been tried in basically every position on the ground at this point with no success. Definition of a list clogger unfortunately. Disappointed not to see JVR back in the team. He wasn’t setting the world on fire, but he can provide a contest and I would’ve liked to see him and BBrown work together to split defenses apart and not allow so many easy intercepts and rebounds. I guess that’s why we’ve gone smaller though; locking it in up forward.

On one hand I don’t want Brisbane gaining too much percentage and putting third position on the ladder out of our reach. On the other hand, this is definitely a death ride I can get behind. The Eagles suck and it would be great for them to go a step beyond 186 as the ****test club in the land.

On another note, is Damien Barrett the biggest turdlet on the planet? No need to answer folks, it’s a rhetorical question. I’ve got a 5 month old baby who fires off less tish than him!

Club has done well with communicating updates about the injury to a blood hungry and irrational media. Hopefully that shuts them up and stops the pointless and harmful speculation. Hopefully the midfield can get by without him and maintain our hold on a top four spot. Viney has definitely stepped up in his absence.

Fantastic news. Taj has been on the cusp of selection for a while now. Great he gets his chance after a strong line of performances in the VFL. Best of luck to the kid and hope he gives fans something to get excited about like his old man did back in the day!

Don’t love the public pile on happening with Trac. Yes he’s been inaccurate shooting at goal, but he’s still having a great year and would be leading our BnF. He’s sitting top 5 in the league for the coaches votes and Is contention to win the Brownlow. He’s a gun. Not perfect, but no player is. The public pile on is clearly effecting him too as he’s responded to Instagram posts targeting his output. Can’t be good for his confidence and mental health and turning round his accuracy woes. Watch Kane Cornes and other media hypnotics turn around now and defend him and say it’s not good the media are piling on…. after laying the boots in themselves initially.