Lord Travis

I apologize to all the people I abused online and otherwise*. I really really didn’t think we’d get up like that. Unbelievable effort. *Except Zorko the worthless slug

This for me too. Trac got another 3 Brownlow votes tonight. Gawn and Melksham both great. Rivers continued his breakout season. That burst through multiple opponents in the last quarter was so exciting.

Petty out Tomlinson in Petty is clearly not right and has been subbed off injured two weeks running. Tomlinson had a career best game before being dropped and has been slaughtering it in the VFL.

Holy *************** Go Dees! Unbelievable.

[censored] sick of this team. We’re not a contender this year. What list changes do we make over summer to get back into contention?

Without Petracca it feels like we’d a bottom 8 team.

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.