Webber

Our movement from defence is elite league standard. Our forward line was as disrupted by injury as 2019, and that’s saying something. Petty, JVR, Fritsch, Melk available and together all season (along with our best smalls - Koz, Chandler), and Clarry in the middle all season to free Tracc forward, and we win this year’s flag. That was never even close to happening, sadly. It’s that simple.

Most sensible post of the night. And honest.

Which is precisely the reason Brisbane and Collingwood will contest the GF. They’ve simply had more of their list available across the season than any of the other finalists (along with GWS, who are a good shot against Port). Injury totals across the season determine ladder position. We were never going to get there with our ‘availability’ losses. Doesn’t change the fact that we choked the last 2 games, but either way, the injury factor will claim its victims.

It was actually a very messy game I reckon. Riddled with mistakes, which of course we ultimately turned into some kind of choke art form. But being as poor as you say and still being better than Carlton, apart from kicking for goal obviously, makes it something even worse. I found the whole thing pretty horrible to watch. Brisbane will be licking their lips, and would’ve had we won too.

Yep, you win for stupidest post of the year.

Not that it matters, cos we would have been thumped next week anyway, as will Carlton, but these last 2 games were the biggest choke I’ve ever seen in 5 decades. The way we kept kicking behinds just kept writing the perfect script for Carlton, who were frankly dreadful in the last half. Should have won that by 6 goals. Get ready for the ‘choke’ tag, fellow supporters.

It’s beyond ridiculous, of course. Has to be back-pedalled. In the meantime, I dare say you’ve thought about a ‘shooting stick’ - basically a walking stick with a fold-out handle you can ‘sit on’. Doesn’t qualify as a chair, albeit you could throw it on-field, as I could my prosthetic leg (don’t have one, but that’s how ridiculous this rule is).

I read this and my immediate thought was “this isn’t about the MFC, or the team, it’s about you”. And I get it, those of us who are truly invested are guilty of projecting our emotional state onto the club, team, players and other supporters.

Haha, that’s of course your MFCSS reaction, Andy. Needless to say binman’s option simply had the hurdles evaporate!

Great poddy again, boys. Highlight’s gotta be binman’s “hurdles shmurdles”. Go Dees.

Hey Gents, looking forward to the podcast. Binman will rightfully point out how he predicted that a poor first quarter, and anything beyond a 3 goal jump would be hard to pull back, and others on Demonland will want an explanation and fix for our forward 50 connection, inefficiency and kicking inaccuracy. But I reckon you should iterate to all that there’s a bigger elephant in the room. Injuries across a season are the most objectively reliable indicator of success, for any team. Look at just our forward line……long stretches of unavailability for Tmac, Ben Brown, Bailey Fritsch, Harry Petty, and now Jake Melksham. No JVR this week to boot. Our injury stats this year (obviously compared to our flag competitors) simply look like making it a bridge too far. It’s a depressing perspective, I know, but won’t be ignored. It’s the most inconvenient truth in football.

Yep, that’s how it’ll go.

They will argue he had time only to react instinctively. I’m not saying that’s true, but it will be the defence, and he’ll get the benefit of the doubt I think. That he’s a thug footballer is true enough however. Cox too.

He jumped to smother the ball. It was COMPLETELY justified. That he turned the shoulder rather than holding his hands out and coming front on is something else. He’ll get off though, because they’ll argue lack of time and need to protect himself. JVR will get suspended because his eyes weren’t on the ball, and he raised his elbow. Sad, but true.

If Pies can mark those bombs why couldn't Simple. Speed and space. Not our thing.

Effectively killed our season in that first quarter. We knew that’s what they’d bring, more than anything else about the game. Match them, and it was ours to lose. Let them get a more than 3 goal jump, and it would be too much. That we failed to stop them is enormously disappointing and frustrating. But we just weren’t up to it. Hope it’s not a wasted chance at a flag, but it’s sure looking that way. And to any of you saying Collingwood don’t deserve to be where they are now, wake up! It’s a four quarter game.

We did a few times in that quarter, but none hit target or were intercepted. Collingwood too good defensively at the mo.

1 week for certain, sadly. Textbook careless, late and high. Welcome back Brodie Grundy. Maynard should go too, because he could’ve avoided turning. They’ll give him benefit of the doubt tho.

Unless we can disrupt them defensively by moving more quickly on transition and from half back, this ain’t happening. Hopefully Tracc can lift, and the Pies tire. They should, cos they’ve been fading in the last month, but our inside 50 game at the mo is simply awful. Making it so so easy to defend. Ugly stuff, but there’s time.

That’s the Collingwood we hoped we weren’t going to see again this year. Waaaay too good that quarter. We’ve got it in us to come back, but it’s gonna take some doing. Not what we wanted. And JVR’s gone for that elbow, too, sadly.

Last time I sat up the back of level 4 Southern (Warney) Stand on the wing at the ‘G for a QF, we smacked the Cats, and I’m there again. So, you know, déjà vu all over again. We’ve got this. GO DEES!

First view of this, I thought it was a joke. Still not sure……..

Brilliant. And the bolded is really the stuff people don’t understand as much as I wish. It’s HALF the human market, FFS, absolutely ripe to become more attracted and more fully invested than ever before (which is already a lot). My optimist hope is that they couldn’t stuff it up they tried, but as you say, with the money available, they could be doing so much more, and faster and smarter (just like those fabulous Dees women last night).

Ah, the utterly perfect put-down* *(no disrespect to the appropriate use of Velcro fastening footwear)

Definitely word of the day.