Dee*ceiving

Great post. Something in this. The umpires definitely don't operate as a team. The challenge for the master umpire would be trying to keep an eye on everything. I wonder if we could manage with two on the ground and one in the arc with direct audio to the on field umpires?

It's not just umpiring sadly it's the entire administration of the game that is a mess. KPIs are way too heavily skewed to $$$ TV networks dictate way to much, 'fix'-ture is screwed, too many games, 5 day breaks, stupid byes... Changing rules in season, don't trial rules at lower levers Umpires not professional 4 umpires just means more amateurs making poor decisions. Make them pro and go back to two

Anyone else notice the massive hit side bottom put on rowell in the last. Straight after a centre bounce, levelled him with an elbow/shoulder to the chin head on. No free kick. Watched it back again this morning, looks like weeks to me? About 11mins to go in the last.

Yep. BS

Nibs got a stack of runs on the board. No way I can blame him.

The 50 early was BS too. Free kick sure but not 50

Just get games into the kids now. AMW KOLT PUP TURNER JEFFO find an FA or two, plus trac, melk back next year...go dees

I reckon he over balanced but I don't blame the umpire for paying it. There were several others though that were complete BS

Petty actually hitting some form but I agree. He's a Backman. Play him back. Sadly we have no forwards. It's criminal that Harris goes to Fritsch.

Intensity definitely at a level we haven't seen since the Geelong game. Physical or mental? Gotta be both...

Correct. No way too far. Though Petty and Langdon had chances to bury it

Great effort from the dees. Officiating disgraceful. Surprised no ref bump and run in... No way rivers ran too far and for a whole half of football we only got free kicks from holding the balls. For 60 minutes of football not one Brisbane player infringed on a Melbourne player. Please!

Obviously highly unlikely but Smith would be ideal for us. Has pace and we've got a spot for him on the inside if he really wants it (not sure why one would though? I wouldn't count out the Pies in a two horse race with anyone for a signature, even the Cats (sadly). Cotton on can become Nike pretty quickly I suspect and there's plenty of real estate in Melbourne too

Gonna need to find some blokes with pace I reckon. None of Silvagni, Martin & Parrish will help in this space. Don't mind the idea of Marhsall but we couldn't make Gawn/Grundy work, Marshall is a different player but I have low confidence this FD could come up with more than one plan. If the first doesn't work it will be discarded like a four n' twenty wrapper

Clarry is an absolute champion of the club. Unfortunately we haven't had as many as most other clubs over the last 40 years. He is not the first champion player to have a form slump following injury, personal challenges or other matters. Plenty of them have and from my recollection those that were 27/28 all or at least most got back to their best form. Clarry is will be back, it might not be this year but does that really matter. The goal from here should be to get the team fit, confident in a game plan and aligned/unified ready for preseason 2025.

That's the part that annoys me as well. Why the wholesale change? As a close observer I would agree we've vastly overcorrected. Not sure how intentional it was, but it's happened. Then the 3 contested bulls in the middle have presented a range of other challenges to our midfield effectiveness Tracc, needed up forward then mauled by a Collingwood player Clarrie, no preseason, hand injury & potentially mental health/behavioural concerns Viney, seemingly carrying injuries since Rd 4 or 5

Sparrow's best game for some time IMO, but agree not to level he ahs been previously (has plenty of mates you could say that about). Windsor looks tired to me. Needs a week off

That 70m penalty was absolutely bizarro. Shouldn't have been paid in the first place then raced forward from just beyond the D50 to the F50! WTF?

Good questions Why. Re: the first one I think the why is known, we were getting to finals and falling just short despite winning contest and I50s etc. The theory was our method to winning those things was causing fatigue and resulting in many of our I50 entries being poor, into a congested forward line etc. This was resulting in lower score conversions, eg, more rebound 50s for the opposition and difficult shots at goal taken by fatigued players. It's time to accept that the gameplan change isn't working and move to improve it. I think we've been hamstrung by the salaray cap the last couple of years. We got in who we could. Losing LJ was a big blow and taking the gamble on Grundy only to give up at Rd 17 a horrific own goal. Hunter was actually pretty good in 22/23 (though i agree he can't kick over a jam tin)

Seems odd. Not sure how it relates to our chances on the field though?

We've gambled on players form, fitness and positions all season. Sadly a lot of those gambles have failed. Begs the question have we been gambling more this season, possibly out of desperation? Or have we gambled similarly in the previous 2-3 seasons but had more of those gambles deliver a positive return?

I would agree in that we haven't heard boo from Roffey or Pert

Ridiculous assessment of the analyis djr...but each to their own FYI it took me 10 minutes

The failure of the FD to make Gawn/Grundy work was astonishingly poor. They had one plan! One! It's a 23 game season, why was it necessary for them to both picked every week? Could we not have planned for them both to play ~16 games? Hence 7 games where only one of them plays? Could we not have been smart enough, injuries permitting, to make sure these games are against teams that play two ruckmen? Could we not have used this flexibility to avoid Max travelling interstate 8+ times a season? Could we not have subbed one of the two off occassionaly if it wasn't working mid game? Max didn't hit the scorebard for a run of 4 games, in June... R13 defeated Collingwood 66-62 (BG: 13 disposals, 5 marks, 26 HOs 1g1b; MG 15 disposals, 6 marks 17 HOs) R15 lost to Geelong 63-78 (BG: 13 disposals, 5 marks, 19 HOs; MG 15 disposals, 1 marks 23 HOs;) R16 lost to Giants 45-47 (BG: 15 disposals, 3 marks, 16 HOs, 1g0b; MG 20 disposals, 2 marks 17 HOs;) R17 defeated Saints 79-58 (BG: 13 disposals, 3 marks, 17 HOs; MG 16 disposals, 6 marks 21 HOs;) After neither of them were able to hit the scoreboard, in the middle of winter. During a period where our highest conceded score was 78, we went 2Ws & 2Ls vs 4 teams that played finals where one game was played in a hurricane we completely abandoned the concept. Brodie was sent to the VFL until R22 a 56-60 loss to the Blues in the wet! Please! This was a balls up of epic proportions. Had we played one ruck v Giants and one v Blues we probably win both those games. Why on earth did we pick Max, Brown and Grundy to play the Giants, in a Hurrican in Alice??? Max should have been rested that game and come in cherry ripe v the Blues. Many of us raised these questions at the time and we were 100% right! I am a big SG supporter, have been all along but not being able to at least try another tact or two is utterly pathetic and now we've gifted the Swans exactly what they needed to jump from 6-8 to no. 1.

Maynard's initial intention was to smother. His second intention include zero compassion for an opponent