praha

I have been to a few Storm games and also to a handful of Brisbane and Roosters games. Melbourne puts on a good show and it helps that the team is always good. But it has a gimmicky feel to it, unsurprising as they are competiting in a highly competitive sport environment. Roosters games are a bit like Demons games: soulless. Brisbane games and their stadium are top notch. It's like a party atmosphere.

They haven't fired a shot in the second half. Looks like a choke for the second year in a row so maybe we are more like them than you think.

I mean we're not in the business of helping other teams be better.

Roos was a teacher, he put his arm around blokes. Yes he was firm and he held players to account but he was also quite zen. Confident is a given. Goodwin was also quite tempered. I don't think he held players to account enough. And when he started to (ie. Lever this year) it came as a shock and fractured the playing group. I guess what I am saying is that King is coming in and speaking like as if he's the principal of a school for troubled youths. There is a tough balancing act, maybe King has been briefed that he needs to be a hard [censored]? I don't know. It might explain dumping May and Oliver, I am not massively hurt by that, but collectively with everything it does seem a little like we are losing control.

If GC agrees to this I'll eat my head on livestream.

crazy how people think adding TDK and Silvagni makes them finals caliber overnight. Didn't seem to help the Blues much.

I'm getting concerned. King has come in with very firm, confident lines, but the last time we saw that we ended up with a season percentage of like 52%. We're losing McVee, who chose to leave after meeting King. We have shown May the door. Let Petracca choose where he wants to go and now lost any chance of a reasonable trade with Flanders choosing St Kilda, unless GC magically decides to give us Humphries. We've told Oliver that he is a VFL player in a 14th-placed team, meaning we'll get peanuts for him and still pay $700k of his salary until the end of the decade. We have Jack Viney touring facilities. I don't know. I think everyone needs to buckle in.

Petracca and Pick 23 (Freo) and 27 (Freo) to Gold Coast Flanders and McVee to Freo Jackson and Pick 13 (GC) to Melbourne Who says no?

And then pick 6 to Freo for Jackson

St Kilda has a bad reputation in the league dating back to the early 2000s and their dealings to nab a few stars from other clubs. They are basically Temu Geelong in that area in terms of promising the universe to players with added dangling carrots. They have always had a weird allure that I just don't understand. But they would have been in TDK and Silvangi's ears for a while now and honestly I reckon they have Flanders in the bag as well. They don't often trade or sign strategically like a Collingwood or Hawthorn or Geelong. They're doing exactly what they did to nab Gehrig and Hamill back in the day. They are a nothing club of hot headed Frankston High graduates.

The AFLW will go the way of the WNBA in being ridiculed and lambasted by cynics if we keep forcing token gestures just for the sake of it. He also clearly says "end of the AFL season" before mentioning AFLW. I'm sure the AFLW team can deal.

He and has management have clearly taken Melbourne for a ride as leverage to get a strong deal from Freo. This seems certain given he didn't mention wanting a trade at exit interviews. Yes he may well have been waiting for King and that might have played a role if he isn't getting what he wanted, but he didn't know Goodwin would be sacked. So the narrative that he was waiting to see who the coach would be doesn't align for mine. He was always leaving.

Also I am guessing this means we keep May? No way we can afford to lose two key defenders in one off season after having already lost Hibberd.

Is anyone really surprised? You don't wait this long and then opt to stay. Freo is pulling dodgy on us and the club absolutely needs to stand firm. We can't keep bleeding out WA talent after a few years. It's not bloody good enough.

Pick 11 or gtfo.

Scott's a little b-i-t-ch. It's everyone else's fault but his own. They live in a little media and football bubble down the highway. It's like the twilight zone down there. Everything is so pristine and perfect that when things don't go their way, there must be a reason that isn't related to something they did (or didn't) do.

I guess they always come up Gee-short.

whispers we beat the premiers on their home turf.

Suck [censored] Geelong

I think that what we saw this finals series, it really woke Goody up to the reality. After beating Geelong in 2021, they have played in three Prelims, two Grand Finals, and won a flag. After beating Brisbane, they've played in four Prelims, three Grand Finals, and won a flag. Hawthorn threw absolutely everything at Geelong: in the last quarter they were a completely different line-up and outside of moving Petty back/forward we just never saw that type of readjustment mid game from Goodwin. I think it really showed how far off his high pressure coaching was.

Hawthorn and Collingwood both struggled after their drought breaking flags. Pies in 1990, were pretty average for a decade after. Hawthorn only went 18 years without a flag but it took them 4 seasons to get good again.

Great, now have that stupid "Despacito" song stuck in my head.

I mean they're not really world beaters. All very good role players. Geelong has landed Dangerfield, Cameron and Smith, three of arguably the top 50 players of the past decade. Collingwood Wait until things start clicking for GC.

It was hard to be excited about last night. The media banged on about it being a huge game but for many of us we watched it with a lingering sense of bitterness. It reality that combination of teams is boring to everyone except Geelong and Hawthorn supporters. The outcome is hardly surprising. And we all know it'll be a Collingwood v Geelong Grand Final. They'll each be playing in Grand Final No. 7 since 2007. Of which only two will be against each other. Meaning 10 of the last 19 Grand Finals have included one of them. Brisbane or Hawthorn winning wouldn't have been much different. The sad thing is that Hawthorn is the only one that has done this without really raiding other team lists, and done it through strong drafting. I'd have been okay with them winning this year precisely because it would show how quickly things can turn if you trust your list and players.

Yes, we're all aware that people need to leave Melbourne to see sustained success. Nothing new there.