praha

I didn't want to say it after our win last week because there was great energy and it was a great win. But we absolutely need to be prepared for a few beltings this year. You can tell by the fact we cycle so many players through the midfield. I think that as the year progresses we will get better. But at the moment we are living and dying by the turnaround and chaos ball forward, which against strong teams is going to get found out. Freo is a good team that has underperformed, they were always going to belt us tonight. People need to temper expectations and buckle in for the ride. There will be high highs and quite a few low lows. We lost two very good players from our middle, and a strong presence in our defense. Love or hate May, Petracca and Oliver, losing one you can cover, but losing all three is going to create instability and uncertainty in games. It will take 10-12 games at least to find a rhythm.

We ditched the demon in the Schwab era for the "Melbournefc" monstrosity because the club was trying to win over Chinese migrants and they felt the demon would turn them away. Never should have changed. That said I like the current logo.

The AFL is on a fast track to alienating its biggest fanbase: Melbourne. The city. The only one in the media to go against the narrative was Luke Hodge, who on the radio was the only of the three hosts to say he didn't understand the point of the Opening Round. They were talking about how good the energy was around the SCG, but Hodge countered and said if you were in the Sydney CBD that night you wouldn't have known there was a game on. Whereas when Richmond play Carlton there is an energy in Melbourne. It's unmatched. The AFL had completely sucked the energy out of the start of the season. If they really wanted to hype up energy at the start of the season they'd go back to Richmond and Carlton opening, and then send Collingwood to Sydney, Hawthorn to Adelaide or Brisbane and have Freo and West Coast play in Perth. it's not rocket science but the AFL insists on trying to build the game in NSW and QLD with artificial BS. There is a reason why Gather Round works so well and that's because it's a festival of footy. Round 1 used to have a festival vibe but it's gone now.

Re. cj he also set up three goals directly from his drive from half back. All came when we had good space and he was kicking to space. As I mentioned in the game Day thread, the further up the ground he is kicking it the better. He is like Brett Maloney or Lumumba. You can't rely on him to be switching the play to a contest or chipping it around... he's a quick "in transition" player and anything else is a risk. It'll be a big test for him vs Freo.

Langdon - Far too loose He let Hill own both wings. He needs to improve his defensive game when he isn't getting the ball.

I really don't understand Sparrow's role and haven't for a while. Is he a tagger? A decoy? A defensive mid? He doesn't tackle much, doesn't win many contested or uncontested ball, doesn't mark, doesn't hit the scoreboard. There must be something I don't see. He doesn't turn the ball over and is fairly reliable in hand so maybe that is it but he doesn't win it much anyway to cause any damage or impact the result or scoreboard. Surely we benefit more from a Taylor or AMW playing the defensive utility role.

Langdon needs to tighten tf up on Hill. ALL GAME he has been alone.

He has been slow but I think with time he'll pick up the pace.

LOL Wood throws it on his boot... Could the Saints fumble it any more? We have to start punishing them.

Petty sometimes oozes premiership defender. sometimes.

Lever, Fritsch and Sparrow gonna quickly realise that Goodwin isn't their coach anymore. Barely top 23.

Latrelle looks dangerous...

Fritsch....

Both teams are struggling defensively. Gonna be a battle of the forwards today. Absolutely smoking them in the middle

Both teams are struggling defensively. Gonna be a battle of the forwards today.