Pates

Bloody hell that's a massive goal from Kozzie.

Christ Fritta is in really poor form, burning teammates and then missing very getable (and crucial) goals. This team looks a lot more like 2020 rather than 2021.

Kozzie showing Fritta how to be selfless and lower the eyes,

I'm not sure what has happened to our team first mantra. That was what got us the premiership last year.

That was a shocking burn from Fritta, I'm all for having a go at goal but fmd that was an easy goal gone begging.

Wow that's some proper doom and gloom! MFCSS has got you good!

Bring the pressure game and the rest will fall into place. Our defence, even with Petty missing (who's arguably been our best defender this season), knows what to do. Our midfield is weakened with Oliver missing but I reckon we could see Brayshaw have a run in there with Rivers back. Our forward line is out of form, but we just need to lock the ball in with pressure and the opportunities will come. I really feel like the "Melbourne Brand" that we had going last season has only existed a few times this season. The Saints, GWS, and Brisbane. All other wins we've got through on bursts of class, and our losses I can't really say we were anywhere near our best apart from one quarter against Freo. That fills me with hope because we are still in a good position for the season, and we haven't hit our straps. Today needs to be a statement day to come back from losing last week. We win today I feel like we get top 4. I'm backing in the players coming in to be desperate to keep their spots.

I tried to explain that to some other fans when I said my frustration at us always being sent there, for me they have the best of all worlds. Less travel and a massive home ground advantage. Personally I would actually like them to play all their home games there so at least across the board every team has to experience it, essentially turn them into an interstate team.

They seem to have had a bit of a habit of peaking a little early in recent years. Love it, would love them going on a drought of 30+ years where they keep getting close but never winning.

This is exactly it, but the mistake I think we're falling into is thinking that needs to be the problem that gets solved. We can kick a winning score with a smaller forward line and midfielders kicking goals (like the Brisbane match), it starts with making sure when the ball hits the ground the opposition is under such immense pressure they stuff it up.

Biggest thing we need to recapture over the last rounds of footy is the finals like pressure that defined us. We don't have to go all out to the point it'll exhaust us before the finals but we need to bring a lot more heat than we have in recent times. The likes of Nibbler, Spargo, and Kozzie need to up it to 2021 levels, while there's been issues with the key forwards for me it starts with pressure. Swan's system won tonight but they suffocated Freo at the fall of the ball.

Yep, I think Blues will finish 6th-7th and might win through to the second week. I also agree that we can take the cats. We can take all comers, for me our best beats everyone's best. It's just we've been inconsistent with our form this season while getting most of the jobs done.

Jeez this is such a tight year, I think the important thing for us is to purely worry about the week to week. We have the hardest run home of all, we can win them all and we can win them all. Swans and the Cats look the goods tonight, who will look the goods next week?

I'm backing Melks in, he's a veteran that I reckon will be given a job to do. He's still one of the best at delivering to our forwards (something we have been lacking at lately).

I hope there were a bunch of our players watching the Roos game for a few reasons. For one I hope it would remind a few that it wasn't that long ago that these wins were what we experienced. I would also hope it reminds players to place value on the wins and don't take them for granted. Finally I would also hope that they get reminded that bad kicking is bad footy, we've missed some very getable chances this year and it has cost us, Richmond lost that off their kicking boots. Great for North, hilarious to watch.

Absolutely, the whole "I just really want to go home" line does tend to fall away when they then say they'll only go to a certain club. I think we're going to struggle to get a gun player out of it unless there is a multi deal with other clubs to satisfy our desires.

I was just thinking the same thing! I also don't get why people are jumping at shadows with Gus, he just called a 100 year old member to wish him a happy birthday. He's the epitome of a "clubman", it's why the only reason I see him leaving is if Jackson stays in order to maximise his final contract. Jackson makes perfect sense, he's got ties and roots in WA. He's also been involved in a premiership with the Dees (crucially involved as well) so in his mind he might well feel that he doesn't owe the club anything as he's provided that service. That said, his body language definitely is of a bloke that enjoys his time with everyone at the club.

I feel like the contract negotiations between Jacko and the club could well be a bit linked to Gus, if Jackson is hinting that he will go then I very much doubt that Gus will go as well. However is Jackson stays, it might be a lot harder to squeeze in Gus under the cap. I feel a lot more confident about Gus than I do Jackson. Prove me wrong Dogga!

This honestly needs to be made a bigger issue but the fact is that the "newsbreakers" and those who like to control the agenda are fans or have investment in the "bigger" Victorian clubs. There is absolutely no reason these days why there shouldn't be a rotation policy for all Victorian clubs to be sent down there. The AFL fixture is the most compromised, inequitable, and unfair draw of any professional code in the world. It's amateurish. Tell it to ANY fan of any code around the world and they would laugh. They are using the fixture to cheat the system. Once the new stand opens up there is no reason why all Victorian teams can't go down there, and the AFL should be forcing the cats to allocate more seats to opposition fans. If nobody snaps the tickets up by a certain time then by all means make it available to all.

You might need the barf bag ready picket, honestly reckon that's the way they'll go. Don't forget he was an absolute liability against the Pies. I'm not gonna say that Weid had a good game against the Crows but he was being asked to be something he's not. If Jayden Hunt is being asked to play on Tom Hawkins we wouldn't expect miracles so we couldn't have ask more than Weid than to give his best go at each ruck contest, which IMO he did.

Is it at all a surprise to anyone that now that our backline is settled again, our forward-line/scoring has improved as well? We set up a lot of our play from behind with May, Lever, Petty, and Gus taking interception marks and starting the chain from there. I'm not saying that we don't have an issue with the forward line; BBB is horribly out of form, Fritta seems to float in and out, and we don't seem to have a settled second tall forward, but we seem to generate a lot of scoring from the midfield and from players that rest/push forward. Trac played as a mid/HFF v Adelaide, Langdon has been much more willing to push forward for goals, while recently Sparrow and JJ have got the confidence to have cracks at goal themselves. If Gawn is the only one coming in I think M Brown makes way as Weid is the better ruckman, if Jackson is ready to return it's a no brainer; Weid comes out as well. If both are being "rushed" in I would have at least one of Weid, Brown, or Tommo as sub.

Completely agree with this, I get the dislike of Weid as he hasn’t come on as we would like but jeez he had to be the number one ruck against guys he’s was giving size and height, and battled as best he could. If it’s just Max back in, M Brown will make way. He didn’t do much wrong but match ups/positions wise it just makes sense. BBB would be the only other potential change, he looked ginger at one stage. Can’t picture any other changes, Bedford was down but he deserves a lengthy run in the seniors. I’d have Tomlinson as the sub, in case Hawkins decides to take out one of our key defenders again.

I really haven't had too much of a close look at our run home until now, boy our "easier" games are very few and far between. To be fair as well, I'm not saying experiment this week is a good idea, in fact I think the Crows have shown themselves more than capable of playing good footy, but if we are going to throw something new into the mix this week might be a week to trial it. When Max comes back we will have to really consider what our forward set up is going to look like. If that means we keep going with the smaller look forward line with Jackson/Gawn rotating, great. But if we want to keep the structure that got us to the promised land last season than Weid is the best option we have. I also think that we have to consider having utility players such as Tomlinson and Hunt as our subs as coverage. At least then is we get another injury to a defender we have that coverage, and likewise if a forward goes down then I would be looking at throwing Petty forward with the sub moving into defence. We also then have the extra small already out there that can play midfield minutes if needed.

Shame we never got to see him out on the G as a full fledged demon but wish him all the best in his next chapter.

Looking at the disposal stats for Weids game on Thursday would be completely unfair to him. He competed hard, and in ruck contests I felt he was at absolute worst 50/50 with his direct opponent. He used his body, did teams things, to me it looked like a much improved version of Weid and certainly something to build on.