bing181

Oh for god's sake.

Except that it's not Misson's responsibility to clear players to play or not. But heh, facts.

Surprise surprise.

Or were they? I would suggest that internally, we knew the risks that we were taking, but went ahead now anyway, on the assumption (correct in my view) that this was never going to be our year for a flag, but next year might be.

You wonder at what point you write off the season - though for me, we'd partly written it off before it started with so many players having compromised preseasons due to elective surgeries. Perhaps time to start investing in players like Sparrow and Petty, and seeing where we are with players like Keilty.

Story of the night in our I50 stats - we had 8 more than them, but couldn't turn those into goals. Melksham and Tom Mac - who has been one of the best KPF's in the league - both down on form, Hunt still finding his feet up forward (if he ever will), Spargo same, Petracca still getting going after not much of a preseason. The list goes on. This then creates issues elsewhere, especially that because we can't capitalise or keep the ball locked in, it provides a springboard for their attacks: 46 rebounds to our 32. Ironically enough, our attacks become the basis for theirs.

Yes. First couple of rounds where the breakdowns were happening further up the field leaving the backline under the pump the whole time couldn't have helped. He'll be back, just needs to find his mojo.

It's a press conference.

Not when it's public communication via TV - and even less via radio. The figures that are bandied about are largely a myth, exclude vocal communication (e.g., voice intonation), and focus mainly on one-to-one communication in social settings.

Or not.

Stretch wasn't that bad, I'd give him at least another match or two to find his feet (again?) at this level. It's a big step up from VFL. Re other changes, two factors that will probably come into play are: - we have a very short turnaround (as noted) - Casey have a bye next week

Good for Jeffy's own sake that he's getting a bit of his mojo back.

Nice. That back line on paper, plus the late withdrawals, on top of how we haven't been playing, it looked like a mountain to climb. A scrappy, hard-fought win away from home against a good side, I'll take it. Now to back it up, and keep backing it up. Still a very long way to go.

Sure, but the forward line isn't really the problem, it's up the other end of the ground where we've been leaking goals all season. Even against Essendon we managed 18 goals - which, incidentally was the 3rd highest score in the whole round.

Good that the club is taking it seriously. Precautionary as much as anything?

Seriously? Jeff "zero tackles" Garlett is not the saviour. If defensive pressure is the mantra, he's the last person you want in the team, it's like giving the opposition an extra player down back. As for the goals part ... how many did he kick at Casey on the weekend? Having said that, I like Garlett a lot, but he's so far off the pace he's unrecognisable as the player he once was.

It's happening because players are playing as individuals, not as a team. At the very least, they're not trusting each other.

It's not just about a single season - this is a group that will be together for 5+ years (10 years for some). People should go back and look at what happened to Geelong after they got to the Prelim in 2004. They spent two years going "backwards". Then ... wham.

I knew I'd regret opening this thread. Don't ever change.

Can't see us winning this - but expect a better showing, at least.

Losing this week won't necessarily end our finals chances. But if it does, it won't be these losses that cost us a place in the finals per se, it'll be not having had a large slab of the team - including most of our key players - unavailable for full training until mid-January (or later for some).

“Once everyone starts buying in and we start defending well we’ll start playing a lot better football” James Harmes. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-04-09/we-can-turn-it-around-harmes

Not sure what you're referring to, no doubt it was a hectic environment, and I appreciate that you took the time to post. My comment was re what BM was saying.

Horse's mouth.

Fairly obvious I would have thought.