Dr. Gonzo

Jets get Darnold I was expecting Mayfield wonder if Browns will live to regret that decision. Looking forward to next season hopefully the Jets can get back to playoffs it's been a long drought as a Jets/Demons supporter

Since last year they've made the arrangement that Melb/Ess and Rich/Coll will play each other the week after. In 2016 the Anzac Eve game was on a Sunday night I believe so there wasn't the short break to work around. Interestingly, someone posted on BF that next year ANZAC Day falls the Thurs after Easter. So we will have Thurs night footy, Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Easter Monday, break (Tues), ANZAC Eve, ANZAC Day, Friday night, etc This means that the only way around the shorter breaks (assuming they make Tuesday the day off between rounds) is for Melb/Ess & Rich/Coll to be on Saturday or for one of the games to be on Good Friday. Will be interesting to see how they schedule it.

Obviously the "game plan" isn't to play stagnant kick-down-the-line footy. We are being forced into that style of play. The question is why and how do we get back to playing the way we want to play.

I remember reading some time ago that this was the "compromise" instituted by the AFL for always having a home game against Collingwood.

As far as I'm aware My 5yo son likes the Royal Blue jumper better than the Navy Blue one

Must be the Royal Blue one

That is a good question. I wonder whether we spend much time managing the mental aspect of our players within the club. Richmond have spruiked the mindfulness work they've been doing and I think it is something that could really benefit us especially the younger players. Mistakes, inflexibility & frenetic behaviour can all be symptoms of anxiousness or lack of confidence. Our team seems to be "off" mentally at the moment for example even when individuals are playing well (Hogan, Gawn, Hibberd etc) there's no flow with the rest of the team. Their good work is isolated, there is no smooth play with the team as a whole. This can be a result of a structural breakdown and/or fumbling, second-guessing, lack of confidence in each other etc

Conversely, when we had possession our players were often gang-tackled and couldn't get the ball away cleanly to players waiting outside the contest

Most of that comes down to confidence

The idea that grown men get into legitimate and heated/physical arguments watching younger men play a game is unfathomable to me. Obviously I know it happens but I cannot comprehend the mentality. If anyone tries to rile me up or gets angry at what I say at the footy I just laugh at them they don't really know how to handle that.

None of those seem to be what we need though

To be fair we couldn't have played much worse either yet were within 20 points at half time

I don't get supporters who complain about opposition supporters in members areas. Yeah if they're being a nuisance fair enough but I saw security escort a young family out of a Tridents area once on Queen's Bday just because the kids were waving their Collingwood flags. Like seriously? I'm an AFL member and constantly surrounded by opposition supporters and have to watch the Melbourne supporters all in the Northern Stand. When you're losing it sucks but when you win a close game (like Queen's Bday last year) it is awesome giving it to the opposition supporters and seeing the looks on their faces.

They probably opened those seats up to GA because it is better to have people in there than empty seats when they were expecting a large crowd. 77k was bad if it was under 70k because our Melbourne reserved seat areas were half empty the AFL might start questioning whether we are the best partner for Richmond in this game.

I also noticed during the warm up Oliver and Jones fumble ground balls that went rolling through their legs. This was a minute or so before the bounce and I commented on it to my brother. Game starts and it was happening to the whole side.

The main difference for me is confidence. Our players seem bereft of it at the moment and so are playing it safe, panicking and second guessing. The tigers have confidence in their teammates and structures and so have more flow to their game. I don't think we're that far off. We have to tweak a few things and play a bit "tighter" for lack of a better word, we're a bit sloppy going forward at the moment relying on frenetic attack when it needs to be a bit more measured. Our effort was there last night, out pressure was there. Those bemoaning our skills must've only watched one team because the Tigers players were equally as poor with the footy for a lot of the game and equally as under the pump due to our pressure. They were better drilled than us which caused us to play down the members wing for the whole game, as soon as we'd get the ball on the back flank they'd have 3 or 4 players zones off through the centre square cutting off our ability to switch. They also got 3 goals from the goal square due to our ridiculous all up defence. Weideman was good that gave me some confidence in him. OMac was very good, Hibberd, Jetta and Lever were a lot better. Hogan was good even if his touch was a little off and he should've kicked that goal in the 3rd with a drop punt, not attempt that around the corner kick. ANB, Harmes, Hunt, Stretch, Kent, Wagner and even Garlett were all poor. Garlett has runs on the board but the rest who knows if they'll make it. Salem, Petracca and Brayshaw all need to be getting more of the footy, <20 touches isn't good enough.

Fair enough I haven't analysed the game to that extent and we obviously dropped off at the end but for the most part it seemed our effort and pressure around the ball and around the ground was pretty good

You weren't happy with the effort?

I was at the Qualifying Final last year and what you describe is almost an exact replica of that game. Seeing them live tonight drilled home for me actually how good the Tigers are. They aren't a team of champions but they are definitely well drilled. We kept going down the line because they had players set up perfectly to defend the switch into the middle. They read our centre work well. They had players in support so had the confidence to flick the ball around. They gang tackled us while our guys waited for the release but we couldn't get it to them. We have issues with the game plan at the moment, our inability to score is baffling considering this was a strength last year. Either Goodwin has been figured out and needs to go back to the drawing board or there are some things that aren't working that can be fixed with tweaking. Some of our players seem devoid of confidence at the moment and those "bottom 6" players who stepped last year are ALL struggling. ANB, Harmes, Stretch, Bugg etc all have gone backwards. Salem and Petracca need to find more of the footy in positions where they can use it and not just dish it out. I thought out pressure tonight was very good. We need to take our opportunities when they present, Hogan's miss in the 3rd was unforgiveable. 3 men up and letting them get easy uncontested goals in the goal square is unacceptable. They ran away at the end but for the most part we matched their pressure and stayed with them until the last 10 or 15 minutes. I don't think things are as bad as they seem but the last 2 games have been a step backwards. The crowd was also disappointing, 77k so 5-10k below expectation. Not sure how much that extra 5-10k cost us probably a couple hundred thousand

Our effort and pressure is good. Skills for both sides have been bad very fumbly and a lot of hack kicks forward due to the pressure. We refuse to switch the play, constantly going down the line to contests where we are outmsnned and /or outsized Richmond have kicked 2 goals off the deck due to 3 defenders going for the ball. Same old story. Richmond have killed us in the centre clearances 7-2. Martin killed us out if the middle that quarter. Oscar has been very good, Lever serviceable in defence.

And he was kicking them out of his arse! Never seen him so accurate and in rubbish conditions. Hopefully doesn't have his radar on tomorrow night.

For Android? Do you have to use it as a browser or is it an app/plugin?

I've been having an issue with Demonland on and off for at least a few months that now. Pages keep redirecting to ads for free phones or Amazon Gift Cards etc I thought I my have some adware/malware on my phone but it only happens when I'm on Demonland and I did a security scan and nothing came up. I did a bit of googling and it seems it may be an issue with Demonlands ad services. Anyone else having this issue? Its making demonland almost unusable for me. This morning it kept happening every 5 seconds while trying to respond to the "MFC won't make the 8" thread. This the link I found below for the admins to have a look into https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8220208

Oh you mean like how in round 1 we went into halftime 5 goals down and lost by 3 points at the death knell

Nah it was the Blues, we beat them in the Qualifying Final though not the Prelim