Dr. Gonzo

32 minutes ago, BW511 said:

The club keeps telling us culture is great but the players really seem to believe they are better than everyone, they play as if they should win every game and it’s only a matter of time before it clicks.

This 100%.

7 hours ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

Great take. Very reminiscent of the Lions game. Our ins next week make us stronger. It’s 1 bloody game. There were 2 points in it at 3/4 time and we were a man down and heaps of rotations short after subbing early. Laurie will never play another senior game for the MFC. 

The problem is the same issues as last year were repeated.

Poor ball movement/disposal

No movement inside 50

Poor entries inside 50

Inaccuracy in front of goal

Too many NQR passengers

Failure from coaches to change things up when not working

7 hours ago, Deecisive said:

Van Rooyen has had a couple of years playing in the seniors and really does not seem to do a lot, he has come out and kicked up a couple of goals in games often late in the game but at other times he can rarely been seen. I dont know how much time we give him, or how much time we can afford to have him failing to hit the score board or help get the ball to our smalls to kick goals.

Come off it he's played one season as a mostly lone key forward in a team with [censored] poor delivery.

If you want to point the finger look at our leaders, Petracca, Oliver, Viney, Gawn, ANB, Langdon, Lever disposal not good enough. How many times did they hack it forward, kick over a teammates head, kick directly to the opposition? JVR is far from the problem and neither are Schache, Laurie or Spargo despite how poor they might have been too.

7 hours ago, Deecisive said:

i often wonder if our team gets ahead of themselves thinking that they have got a game in the bag before the ball is bounced and then go out and fine the opposition wants the ball more than we do. we have lost quite a few games to bottom sides like essendon that we really should not have.

That's why the constant talk about culture is garbage

7 minutes ago, Garbo said:

Can’t believe so many ppl put stock is last weeks performance. We aren’t playing finals this year. Our window for a flag is over 

Yeah I got fooled by how good we looked against a Carlton team missing 1/3 of their best 22 in February praccy game. We're not damaging enough, same issues persist, can't adjust when things aren't going our way etc

6 minutes ago, praha said:

Interesting stat I saw on Twitter. 

Since we lost to Port by 50+ in 2020 we've only lost one other match by 30 or more points (Freo at the MCG in 2022). 

We've also only lost 24 games out of the past like 96. 

It is an outstanding record but it does have me wonder what it's all for.

Feeling we are in for a tough, long season. I just can't see us pulling a Geelong or Hawthorn and suddenly coming good. I don't think Goodwin has the coaching prowess and I feel we are a bit too raw still.

The confidence is there but I think this mob needs a revolutionary leader. Someone to really inject some fresh ideas. We've got another season of this to look forward to and to be quite frank it's not appealing and not good for the fans. 

Tonight was ugly and we simply aren't ready. I hope for Goodwin's sake that this doesn't snowball into another 2019 because he won't survive.

 

It's boring football, just really hard to watch.

2 minutes ago, DaveyJones'sLocker said:

Thought our defence was poor too

Defence held up well considering. If it wasn't for May and Lever Jesus christ

Too many players not up to AFL in the one team. Schache and Laurie chief among them, Chandler and Spargo not far behind. I'm not an ANB basher but he hardly did much tonight, Petraccas disposal was awful, as was Rivers, Clarry underdone, Salem too many dinky handballs etc

Gameplan is garbage, nothing has changed. Our one wood is contest and defence? Maybe it should be kicking goals.

45 minutes ago, Bates Mate said:

Spargo is a dead set liability. Him and Laurie terrible

Spargo underdone, Laurie no good, Schache no good, gameplan no good

6 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

I don't think Schache is going to ever be a player for us.

I actually forgot he was still playing

Way too many passengers

Get Laurie off for Billings

Watching us play is like trudging through quicksand

So much effort, so little reward

It's frustrating and demoralising

Same old [censored]

Disposal is shocking

56 minutes ago, Diamond_Jim said:

BUT the utility of such speed is dependent upon web content providers building networks that avail themselves of the available speed

Exactly, kayo buffers/pixelates regardless of connection. I can watch NBA on gamepass in HD without any issues but watching the NFL on DAZN this year was painful, especially on the AppleTV for some reason. Other live stream apps such as Optus for soccer seem to do ok and often pirate streams run better than the authorised ones! All comes down to the servers, most home connections in Australia can handle streaming HD/4K.

20 hours ago, dee-tox said:

Think the blame should be put on player agents that leak these kind of stories to up the player's price. Ralph isn't making this stuff up.

Really?

"as he holds off contract talks until he established his role in the club’s star-studded midfield."

They get a whiff of a story (Adelaide is interested in Sparrow) and just make [censored] up.

7 hours ago, 2021 said:

On Kayo, I seem to get much better resolution (1080p, which is good enough), if I watch a game live. Resolution doesn’t seem great on replays though.

Also, to see “real” 4K, you have to sit too close, in my opinion, to your tv, for footy. This is a well respected site I use, related to the topic:

eg. For a 65 inch tv, you have to have a viewing distance of less than 2.5 meters, otherwise you can’t even see 4K. But we are talking about “real” 4K here, not streaming.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/by-size/size-to-distance-relationship

They definitely compress the replays making them poor quality - I've found watching the replay within 24 hours is usually decent quality but once they snip out all the pregame/halftime etc it is compressed and makes it hard to watch.

17 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Big news on the NBN front

Those on 100Mb plans should have their speed upgraded to 500down /50up free of charge.

No mention of what those on 50/25 plans get.

Will it make a difference... probably not in the short term but it makes 8k a possibility

Broadband speeds are set to skyrocket for about 9 million Australians, with NBN Co proposing to make its most popular plan five times faster at no extra cost as demand for data explodes.

In a move the company says is to meet unprecedented usage of high-definition streaming and remote work, NBN Co announced plans to raise its 100/20 Mbps Home Fast product to 500/50 Mbps, and triple its Home Superfast product from 250/25 Mbps to 750/50 Mbps.

https://www.theage.com.au/technology/nbn-to-become-five-times-faster-at-no-extra-cost-20240305-p5f9vh.html

Overseas I have 500 up and down. I don't notice any difference from my 100/40 plan in Australia. Web pages open at same speeds etc. Video at same quality. Anyway it may be the future,

Singapore has plans to roll out 10Gb plus speed by 2026

The issue with kayo has never been individual connections, the buffering etc is all to do with their servers.

53 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

On the subject of agro, was it just me but did Maxy look like he'd taken one of his get annoyed pills in the practice game?

Yes seemed he had a point to prove. I hope they remember it's a marathon of a season though and don't blow their load before September again.

On 01/03/2024 at 12:31, DubDee said:

No Mills, Parker or Adams tips the midfield battle in our favour

Sparrow or Viney to lock down Gulden

7 hours ago, Fanatique Demon said:

About a month ago, Kayo offered $15 off their basic plan, so I signed up. Their basic plan was $30 at the time, so I paid $15 for the first month of a 12 month plan. Then this week they raised their prices and the basic plan became $30. They are honouring the $15 off, but I feel duped. After all, I signed up thinking I would pay $15/month. Their tricky method of $15 off allows them to raise their prices by whatever they want. But what’s the bet that if I tried to reduce the 12 month term, they’d charge me anyway? We shall see in October when I cancel. 

I noticed that too, got charged $20 this month instead of the $15 last month. I mean, I expect nothing less from those newscorp stooges.

The good news is there is no lock-in contract so you can cancel anytime. The deal is for 12 months but you could cancel after 1 month if you wanted, you just can't go back on at the reduced price. I will be cancelling at the end of Sept as I do every year.

9 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

I know everyone has Petty pencilled in as a forward after his 6 good quarters last year (admittedly so did I) but if our delivery into 50 is improved and Schache/Fullerton can put up 10 touch, 4 mark, 2 goals stat lines.  Petty down back is an amazing thought.  Carlton don't kick 40 points last night. 

Not a knock on Tomlinson, he played on the best 2nd tall in the comp so it can only get 'easier'. 

Petty plays forward

11 hours ago, binman said:

Yep.

From our best 22 we were missing Clarry, Petty, Hunter and Melk (and potentially spargs and McAdam?). And of course no BB or Tmac.

They had Weitering and Walsh out. I'm not sure if they had other best 22 players out, none were mentioned in the call.

Hard to argue they were more undermanned than us i would have thought (Walsh is gun, calrry is better. Weiterng perhaps has Petts covered, both in terms of ability and importance to the team. But no Mcadam or Melk meant we didn't have a medium size defensive forward we like to run with) 

Weitering Marchbank Walsh Martin Kennedy Williams according to the caller on Lyon's SEN wrap-up

34 minutes ago, Altona-demon said:

- Van Rooyen is ridiculously good for his age - we are so lucky to have him.

He will be an absolute star of the comp in a few years, let's hope we can hang onto him 🤞

Love Salem in the middle

Sparrow in for a big year

Windsor looks elite

Goalkicking accuracy still an issue

Lack of connection still an issue at times (players dropping the ball in the hotspot and no-one contesting)

It's still February but that was a great warm up to the season, really whet the appetite for next week.

5 hours ago, binman said:

What i find bit frustrating on Demomnland is how often discussion becomes binary and devolves into camps. There is a lack of nuance. 

It's the nature of social media, "the medium is the message" etc. The medium determines the level of discourse and social media is designed to encourage binary arguments.

You have made a number of points, most of which I agree with. You're 100% correct, the "shadow" side for lack of a better term of that feralness exhibited by Pies, Blues, Tigers is their instinct to act rashly or act on emotion - I was hoping like all hell the Blues did the dumb thing and sacked Voss halfway through last year but they did the mature thing and stayed the course and the decision was proved correct. I'm not asking for Goodwin to be sacked or the board to be overthrown but I do think it is healthy for the club to know supporters aren't happy with the straight sets exit two years running. First year, fine you can cop that coming off a flag and with the way we limped into finals but last year seems a really lost opportunity especially with the way we came out in the Qualifying Final (before the Maynard/Gus incident).

I think our gameplan is stale, it is too conservative and works well against poorer opposition but against the top teams you have to be a bit more daring. We played far more free flowing footy at times in 2021 especially in the last 6 or so weeks which we haven't really seen since then. Teams have "worked us out" to an extent which doesn't mean our gameplan has crumbled but rather teams know now what to do to make life difficult for us and because we are quite stubborn in the way we play they know we are unlikely to shake things up, we are more likely to persevere and expect things to turn around which makes us easier to play against defensively and easier to frustrate us.

There is certainly an element of luck in the injuries we copped to our forwards last year but overall the team just doesn't seem as sure of itself as it did in 2021 which for supporters is frustrating because after finally getting the monkey off the back and with such a young core of talented players we hoped that they would dominate the comp for 4 or 5 years. We are now into year 3 after the flag and the team hasn't really enjoyed the success that we think they are capable of - yes they have won plenty of games, yes they have sat in the top 4 for all but one or two weeks in that time but the way that they have played, sometimes only scraping past inferior opposition rather than putting them to the sword has been frustrating to watch as a supporter considering the talent in the team.

I don't buy the commentary of some here that our list is overrated. Comparatively I still think we have one of the best most even lists in the comp. But while teams like Collingwood always seem to have a knack of playing "above themselves" (I know many hate this but you know what I mean) we seem to be the opposite where we don't seem to get the best out of our talent.

I'm interested to see how this year plays out, my expectations are not high to be honest but I could see us finishing anywhere from top 2 to bottom 6. And I think you can make arguments either way. I still think it will be a shame not to get at least one more flag out of this group and for the supporters to witness a flag at the G because I think they certainly have had the talent/capacity to win the flag each of the last two years. Not winning the flag in those years doesn't make it a failure but not even making the Prelims does in my opinion.