Adam The God

And not to be that [censored] who quotes his own post, but on point 3, the only reason Sydney didn't handball their way out of defensive fifty like the other sides had done, was because they don't have the leg speed. The scary thing is Longmire showed the competition how to beat us even without leg speed.

There are similarities between all our loses at the MCG against good opposition this year. They've actually been almost carbon copies. 1) we've dominated games early but have squandered our dominance in front of goal (Hawthorn, Richmond and now Sydney). 2) given up really easy stoppage goals and failed to arrest the momentum by creating or taking chances. 3) we've allowed the opposition (Geelong, Hawthorn, Richmond and Sydney) easy exits out of their back half. All of those teams have followed the same exit strategy. Short chip to an unmarked player in the pocket and then another chip to fifty and handballed out or kicked long to the boundary and reset. That we haven't been able to prevent this or put anything in place to stop this is staggering. You could see it was a problem with our forward zonal set up literally an hour into our Round 1 game. So whilst Goody and his coaching staff aren't responsible for our players choking in front of goal, they are culpable for failing to address issues in our system that have been present all year. I'm not going to highlight any one players performance, but for me, we've not only thrown away a top 4 spot, but we've most likely thrown away our finals chance.

They rate what he has. That much is clear.

What is Carey on about? Is he the worst commentator going around? What's he basing Parish becoming an AA on? Handball receives off half back?

Richardson's gone, surely...

Hang on. Why are we trading out Tyson simply for a pick? Gaff would come in as a FA. Unless you package a pick you get for Tyson to get a real 'need' onto the list, I'd be holding on to Tyson as depth.

How was Parish's attempted tackle again there? Butter Parish.

Despite those muppets talking up Parish, gee he's soft. Went back with one hand before. Okay on the outside, but soft on the inside if the heat's on.

Let's hope so mate.

He is not a good ball user. Criminally slow now too, in both mind and body. He's done. Lewis on the other hand has another year left in him. Potentially two. We'll see. The end does come quickly sometimes. I have a feeling he could be in and out of the team in 2020 if he wants to play on. I reckon Pedersen will get another one year deal. I'd give Johnstone a one year deal or delist and re-rookie. I don't rate AVB, but reckon he'll go around again if he can stay fit for the rest of the year. Kent will move on. Pat McKenna has to be close to gone. Likewise, Maynard. Bugg will go too.

Quite a different player and how often does he get on the park these days? Good player, but I'd look elsewhere.

I don't think we turned up...

I'm sorry. That's a laughable call.

The inevitable post... how the [censored] did we lose to St Kilda? What a rabble they are. Their skills and decision making are appalling.

If Carlton aren't careful and lift themselves off the canvas in the next decade, I reckon they'll fold in 15-20 years. They have lost a lot of fans and I'd argue have probably compromised losing a generation of supporters.

Well, you are basing that assertion on 50+ year old stats. Not sure too many teams will win a flag with a top goal scorer only getting 35.

Providing Hunt is matchfit, I'd be going Hunt for Smith and Melksham for Vandenberg.

Kennedy, surely.

I think the thing we have going for us is being able to score big. Sydney simply don't score highly enough. Buddy kicked most of their score. Limit him to even 5 and make sure no one else bobs up and we should have them covered.

Yeah, we're talking set shots though. I found his 50% conversion rate, but that doesn't tell us what his set shots have been like. I think you'll find a lot of those misses were snaps.

I disagree. He's our second best set shot behind Tommy. Would love to see some stats on this - couldn't find any. Think of the Richmond game earlier in the year where Jesse couldn't hit the side of a barn and Jake kept us in it with his kicking.

I think it'd be hilarious if Collingwood missed the finals from here. They won't but I'd love it. As long as they don't get the double chance...

We'll be able to cover him this week. However, against the good teams, and make no mistake, Sydney are still a good team, his ability to hit targets inside 50 when no one else can is his major asset. Given our deplorable efficiency inside 50 at times this year, without Melksham's kicking, a side like Sydney will make us pay. And if I've gone the hyperbolic route, let me adjust it to say without Melksham against Sydney, it will be very tough to beat them.

Was that Judd's grandmother, mate? ?

Actually, if you look at the importance of the missing players at Collingwood and compare them with ours, our injury list is very comparable. Collingwood's injuries have been played up greatly for a few years now and yet whenever anyone else has injuries, they're pretty much overlooked. Collingwood are thought to have great courage and system despite all their injuries and yet we played stretches of 2017 without both captains (one of whom was the equivalent of Treloar in Viney), our AA ruckman, our gun CHF and still won many games and were competitive in all. This year we've lost our most important KPB (the week before playing Collingwood who have only beaten us in the top 8 - we didn't have time to adjust our system to cater for Cox); another AA defender from last year is injured in Hibberd; arguably our most important midfielder in Viney has barely played any of the season; despite his form, Hunt's injury has crippled our running stocks; and now our leading half forward and the leading assister in the league, is injured. But we're chokers who haven't beaten anyone in the top 8 and Collingwood are a premiership threat who have lost to Richmond by the same margin we did, but done it twice. Both times, Collingwood were lauded for the way they played in comfortable Richmond victories. Yet when we played Richmond, we were without Tom McDonald who incredibly could still win the Coleman despite missing a quarter of the season, and is as vital to our structure as Riewoldt is to Richmond's. I think it's [censored]. Don't get sucked in by the media love for Collingwood. Buckley's been there for years and is only just starting to beat teams in the bottom half of the ladder that they should be beating. They still haven't beaten anyone else in the top 8. End rant.