praha

Hogan nudges player with his hip. Darcy: "No free kick..." Why would it be a free kick you numpty?

Ugh. We're overrunning the football, missing tackles, and playing far too loose and unaccountable.

Our tackling continues to be average. Their rebounding is very concerning.

They have one of the easiest draws in the league to finish the season

Lloyd made a good point. They lack line breakers. We have plenty of them!

I tell you what, regardless of the type of impact Darwin games have on the team, if anyone from the club reads this thread, we're looking at another decade out of finals. Seriously, this thread is painful, and is as incoherent as Collingwood's gameplan.

He is very highly rated by opposition supporters. He tends to be a high impact player and he stands out when collecting and delivering the ball.

Good stuff. I'm not sure the 4 weeks of pain has to do with us being "disadvantaged" purposefully, just the nature of the draw and our QB match falling right in the middle. Just bad scheduling that the AFL has probably learnt a lesson from. Unfortunately we were the guinea pigs. I remember seeing a presentation by Brendan Gale at Richmond, where he revealed his plan for success. There was an image shown, a circle that showed how tough the league is, and what it takes to be "successful" in all facets: to make money you need to attract fans and sponsors; to attract fans and sponsors you need to win games; to win games you need to make money, and so on and so on. It's a chicken-egg scenario that highlights the challenges of modern football administrations. That PJ and co. have dragged a club on the brink to one of the league's most appealing and popular brands shows just how important his vision has been for the club. Compare this to 2008-2011. We had an administration that applied evolutionary change to the system: quick turnover of players, new brand only a few years after the previous rebranding, and no real plan b. When erratic change works, it works really well, but if it fails, you crash so, so hard. I've worked in m&a and I've seen corporations try to move past mergers and changes really quickly, and what happens 99% of the time is that they end up in a worse place than they were before the merger. People simply don't think fast enough to be able to adjust to such erratic change, and the whole system breaks down. You need to give people the opportunity to adjust, and realistic expectation is a key element: people need to know where they are, where they were, and where they're going. With PJ and also Roos, it has been a (very) slow grind: come in, test the waters, see what works, see what doesn't. Fail quickly, but change slowly: if you're not on a constant rise from your lowest point, you end up in a nasty spiral. You may rise temporarily but once one piece is removed, it all crashes down. We saw this in 2011. I think James McDonald's sacking (let's be honest, that's what it was) is a symbol of the club's broader dysfunction. It's very difficult to get people to "buy in" to a vision. It's about more than being a "people person". Toxicity and "cancers" can drag a vision down. We are still on the way "up". We may be on the verge of something special but it's important that people have "realistic expectations": we're not entitled to success as fans, and the club isn't entitled to success. Some of it is luck, some of it is hard work, but a lot of it is actually being able to learn from your mistakes and knowing when and how to apply change. We see this in team selection as well. It's trivial in the broader scheme of club management, but we see players given opportunities over multiple weeks. The club is still trying to find a groove, it's close, but once it settles we could be one of the all-time great teams. It's such a tough league now but I do truly believe our down years have made us a stronger club. As the old cliche goes, you need to fail before you succeed. We've had bad periods, but it wasn't until the start of the decade that we were given an ultimatum about what it takes to be a *professional* football club. We've struggled more than any other club in the transition from amateur to professional team imo. It's taken a very long time. We absolutely can't forget about where we've come from. Remembering how crap it felt to get belted and pushed around every week will make victories that little bit sweeter. Now, if we could finally beat North, that'd be great.

You're right. It's a super tough competition and we've gotten this far with no much going our way in terms of scheduling, off-field media shenanigans and injuries. Imagine if we got Essendon's fixture and no injuries!

I think Adelaide are pretenders and very beatable but we're missing the key components we need to beat them. No Jones, Tyson AND Viney is huge. Hoping Tyson comes back, may increase odds a bit but not much. Watts is a must in but seems unlikely. Wouldn't be surprised or that angry if we drop this one. We need to two of the games against Port, Saints and GWS, tho.

I much prefer the Duke. Sporting Globe in Moonee Ponds is okay, but the food is average and you get an undesirable crowd there sometimes. Not sure what the Richmond one is like. Duke was great because it's central, and after Melbourne wins they had a free keg for Melbourne members. Had many a big night there from 2015-2016. I won't be rushing out to Sporting Globe anytime soon. Wish they kept it a CBD pub.

End of the day, if we'd beaten Hawthorn and Freo like we were supposed to, we'd be a lock for finals. We need to make those two games up with wins against two of Port, Adelaide, GWS and Saints. Win at least two of those and we'll play finals.

Adelaide is a strange team because they are very good contested ball winners, and very good around stoppages. However unless they go looking for the contact they are easy to push off. The key to beating them imo is setting the standard early and hitting them hard from the onset. With Viney and Jones out this leaves us very vulnerable. Every game brings with it huge challenges. Against Carlton it was in the air and rebounding and they almost beat us. Against Adelaide it'll be the contested ball. We play two of the top three contested ball winning sides in the next two weeks. And there's a lot of travel involved to close out the season. Fact is we've only been soundly beaten once this year and I think the team will be comfortable and settled going into the Crows and Port matches. A steady stream of players returning from injury, and hopefully by Round 22 we have a full strength side.

I'm still recovering from Toumpas tbh.

You're a few Bizkit's short of a Clint.

Couldn't have bothered Hunt much. His run in the last quarter was instrumental.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hogan steps out himself and takes a week off. But being critical of his performance is silly. His presence is undoubtedly important, and the likes of Garlett, ANB, and yes even Kent are better when he is in the side, regardless of his output. His last quarter was very good.

I'm not massive on Kent but I feel he deserves another week. He can be a dumb footballer at times, but I feel that today he was genuinely trying to work himself into the game and apply the pressure we expect from a small forward. He kept the contest going a few times and while he was often beaten, he gets into position, which I think is very important. He has the smarts to be in an appealing position for a delivery. He seems very low on confidence atm and may very well have his foot out the door, but I do feel he's on a learning path. I can see him contributing next week.

Lol...

Been calling it all week. The game was won and lost in the contested ball and in the air. We won pivotal contests and marked importantly in the last moments. Our good were our defenders in the end? Our midfield was pansied but Oliver was still probably BOG. Jetta close behind.

They are two players down More run. More urgency. More leaders.

Lewis....wow.

Melksham was Roos acquisition.

Umpires have been shocking both ways. They've lost control of the game and make really bad calls.

We REALLLLLLLY want to lose this.