Dr. Gonzo

But you're not the only one

I think what gets lost about Kardinia Park is that it is a narrow ground but is also longer. It is not a "smaller" ground, it is a skinnier ground. The Cats play the length well, several times they had players congregating at half forward where they raffled it and also picked through the zone at half back before going long. Trying to go long from deep in defense or across half back plays into the opposition's hands because you end up in no man's land (similar to Subiaco).

It's not that it's "all good", the point is that similar things were being said this time last year and look what happened. I'm not (and I assume others are not) saying, "relax we got this" and the flag is ours to lose - what we are saying is that the level of pessimism on here is out of whack. Let's see how things play out over the next 2 and a half months first before spitting the dummy.

And despite all that we are 2nd on the ladder with 6 games left. Imagine if we actually start playing well!

It's even more pronounced when Gawn and Jackson arent sticking marks.

Appreciate your comments mate. As someone who was at the ground would be good to know what the forward half looked like when we were rebounding off half back. The coverage was back to its typical rubbish last night with close in shots of contests without knowing what's happening upfield. So it was very frustrating seeing us try and handball in circles or take a split second too long to dispose of the footy but if there was nothing presenting upfield it's certainly understandable. Did we have no-one there? We're we outnumbered? Was it one on one contests with no clear targets? I thought the Cats player us extremely well last night and we were clearly off. For all that we could have hit the lead with 10 minutes left. I still feel pretty positive after last night's game but we can't afford to drop many more games leading into finals.

It won't. He is our leading goalkickers this year, has kicked goals in each game. We already have an underdone forward line and you want to remove our biggest weapon down there? Come on be serious. A word to him about making sure he looks at options instead of blazibg away should be sufficient. Certainly not the reason we lost last night.

We definitely looked sluggish and "off" tonight for whatever that's worth. I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating so we will just have to wait and see.

If we keep Gus it will ease the pain a bit - I just don't want to get screwed on a trade though, hopefully Freo realise they're going to have to make the trade work not just expect they can get him to nominate, offer a late teens pick or two and say "take it or leave it"

Feral scum from a feral wasteland

Was one of our best last week.

The free to May that wasn't when Hawkins tackled him to the ground and then Hawkins snaps a goal at the next stoppage. People are making out like it was a diabolical performance. It wasn't. We were a bit off and it showed from the first bounce. May was off all game. We tried to work our way back into it but couldn't get our noses in front and they had the answers when it counted. You could tell this meant a lot to them after r23 and the Prelim last year and they really set up around the contests to stifle us and worked our talls under the ball so they couldn't take contested marks. Well played and coached by them but I'm not giving up on the season on that performance. Plenty on here prepared to jump off at the first hurdle, get a grip!

Exactly. When you get smashed around the contest the forwards have no hope. This was on the midfielders not the forwards. Not too concerned though.

Kicking to Maxys end in the last 🤞

And out on the fulls

We could pinch it but have to up our game around the contest. Been very sloppy all game, our touch seems a little off.

Stanley? Was rumoured earlier in the week.

There was a Deebrief podcast today with Stafford, he said the players love getting up for the "prize fights". Been buzzing for the past two days waiting for this one, lets [censored] go!

Because the AFL makes up the rules as they go (plus they have the ability to waive the rules if they deem fit). The AFL brought in the rule to stop teams mortgaging their future but Jackson is only in his 3rd season so giving up pick 2 or 3 for him when he was a pick 3 three years ago will be signed off easily. They did a similar thing with the Hawks or Cats a few years back, signed off on them trading out a pick when they hadn't used enough in the 4 year period.

Not necessarily, we've been pretty good at identifying teams needing points for FS/academy selections and trading up the draft order by bundling picks. I know they've changed the rules on this recently but if we package picks 36 (at this stage) & 41 we may be able to move up. Plus we don't know whether we'll get any compo if Gus decides to leave or a trade in a 2nd round pick if someone asks for a trade (say Hunt?)

Or we could just give them our 1st rounder back and they include their 2nd rounder - basically will be a downgrade of 2-5 picks

Exactly - it's not just working with Max, it's working with Tracca, Oliver, Viney, Harmes, Sparrow, Jordon, Langdon, Brayshaw(?) - Freo have a very good midfield too but Fyfe and Mundy won't be around forever either.

Hes also missed 3 games (Essendon, Port and GWS) so you'd think he'd have at least another 4 or 5 goals from those 3 games. He's averaging 1.7 goals a game. Ideally he'd be up around 2.5 goals a game but he's had to play a lone hand for the last 5 or 6 weeks since TMac went down. He can play better but I don't see him being dropped.

That's not his only job, but it's a key part of his role and something Weideman has struggled to do. If we had someone better at playing that role they would be in, but we don't. Besides Brown has kicked 5 goals in the last 3 games and really should've had two more. Would be nice if he was averaging 2 a game but it's not like he's been unsighted.

Ben Brown has been OK the last 3 games I think. Much better than his previous run of games. It's difficult being the only key forward defenders have to worry about and it would be great if he can clunk a couple of extra marks per game but as long as he's not getting outmarked and is bringing the footy to ground then he's playing his role.