Pates

It must be hurting Saints fans seeing how well he’s playing. We’ve had a few early draft burns but Trac looks to be what we’ve been crying out for.

I liked seeing it from him, we were 48 points up and cruising but he didn’t like seeing that passage of play and that says he’s not interested in seeing the team coast. He wants them playing right the entire game.

He’s improving and now starting to have more confidence in his kicking, but still gives off these dinky little handballs that do nothing. He sold Max into trouble with one in the last quarter and the look on his face was priceless. Didn’t even consider he would go to Max when Clarry had the momentum out of the backline. Thankfully Gawn is a quality player and made it work (to a point).

I only managed to see the second half, but what really pleased me was in the third quarter Hawthorn were getting momentum and confidence but we responded and hit them harder. Viney and Gawn were huge in that 5min patch where the game could go either way. But Petracca, wow. He has to be considered one of the form players of the competition right now. Even when we weren’t getting the wins he was still playing well. He keeps going to another level, this week importantly his kicking was a lot better. Absolutely stoked for Weids, 3 goals, could’ve had 4 but for his wobbly last shot. I said leading into the match I’d love to see him kick 3+ goals and have a good outing. Maybe some day we’ll find out why it took so long for Goodwin to play him, but I’m just really enjoying seeing him taking his chance. It was also interesting that the commentators were discussing how Gawn came to be the player he is with a breakout game vs Geelong while Sam was on screen. They ended up talking about Petracca but I was thinking as a big man it was more relevant to Sam. Max worked hard and took his chance when it came, perhaps we’ll be saying the same about Sam in a few years time. Great win, great for our percentage. I can’t imagine we’ve been above 100 since 2018. Hopefully this is the start of something.

Tigers are missing a few players as well, North should surely be under the spotlight this week. More I look at the ladder the more I think this week could make/break our year. I know we have a game in hand vs Essendon but there’s still the psychological aspect of being planted down the bottom which hurts.

Nothing too drastically stupid in there, the points about low scoring I’m really hoping that the win and high(er) score last week will give a few players confidence. Petracca is definitely getting noticed more, most weeks are a close to 4 quarter effort now. Hopefully his disposal is cleaner this week.

I don’t know that it smacks of desperation, our other most likely option would be to play Brown but remember that Max has been playing most of the game time in our matches and everything is pointing to the fixture being crammed in. The club could be trying to look after Max’s longevity in the season while also giving an opportunity to a player they obviously think very highly of. They may be backing Luke in to get some confidence and form so that he can be a semi-regular fixture in our line up. Brown’s worth is that he’s more experienced (and he would’ve been my personal choice) but I understand and am comfortable to a point with us giving Luke another crack at it.

I’m a bit surprised it’s not a thing either, the broadcasts that get sent around to the networks typically have a mixed audio (with coms) on the first two channels and the effects audio from the ground on the 3rd and 4th channel. There are probably more mixes happening because of no crowd but I’d be very surprised if it couldn’t be a relatively easy option to create on the TVs. I’d be a strong supporter of being able to choose different radio stations commentary as well. Some of the commentators on Seven in particular are infuriating.

I like Tom as the high CHF role with Weids at FF, it seems more natural to both of them. Bit sad the TMac got his eye injury as I think it’ll take a couple of games for them to get gelling together properly. Would absolutely love to see Weids get 3+ goals this weekend and have a cracker.

I’m not exactly sure where you get garbage from, we won last week so it stands to reason minimal changes would be made. What makes you hot on Smith coming in? Brown I can understand, more experienced body would’ve been my preferred choice but I also recognise the LJ was close to plucking a lot of marks in his first game, he may have had the jitters. I’m ok with them giving him another crack at it, and LJ can provide Max with some much needed relief.

That was a concern I had with us selecting Jackson over Brown, I’m not entirely against it but I worry that we’re hoping a large portion of our goals will come from a combination of a returning young forward who’s trying to gain confidence and a first year high draft pick who’s more ruckman than forward. Perhaps LJs bigger role will be to provide foil for Weid and larger amount of ruck duties to allow Max to play forward. I also can see a few magnets getting thrown around a bit at times. Would’ve preferred Brown for his experience but still good luck to Luke!

It was interesting last week seeing May drift forward at one stage, it indicates that Goodwin isn’t averse to trying that every now and then. May didn’t do a lot right up there but his last quarter was downright bizarre, took some good marks but had diabolical disposal and decision making. Who knows, May could become a swing man for us as and when he’s needed.

The difference is that McCartin isn’t on our list, Brayshaw was a contracted played when his issues started and I believe he even had an additional year at least to run. Brayshaw was our responsibility so it stands to reason that we would give him every opportunity to get better, I should also mention that even though they were taking his issues very seriously the general chatter from the club was that progress was being made. The same, from what I can see, can’t be said about McCartin which is why St Kilda and Paddy decided his best opportunity (whether that be life or football) was the not continue to be on the list. We’ve helped Brayshaw and Jetta recover, given KK an opportunity but it doesn’t look great, as I’ve said barring the general consensus being that he’s passed the worst and the chances of that “one knock and he’s set back a year” being low I wouldn’t like us taking a chance with him. That’s not double standard, that’s list management.

I've seen plenty of players make contact with the ball and the umpires still say "unrealistic attempt". He jumped early and took May out of the contest, from what I've seen that's usually a free kick. EDIT it's also true it's open to interpretation, so my "every day of the week" point was probably a bit over the top! ?

It's a different situation, we had Brayshaw on our list so we intimately knew his situation and everything that he was going through. We also did the same with Jetta so I'm well aware that the club has stuck with players suffering through concussion issues and come out the other side. But bringing on KK with his problems shows the risk you take when the player hasn't been regularly assessed by your own medicos and the inherit unpredictability when dealing with brain injuries. Paddy might well be feeling good right now, but one knock could set him back to where he was 1 year ago. Or it could be he recovers immediately, but with long term concussion issues there is still so much uncertainty. It was unfair for me to say KK was clogging our list, he was a cheery on top of the May deal that I could see a reason for us taking the punt and I genuinely hope he's able to recover from long term concussion issues.

It's a no from me, Burgess is a great asset to have at our club but he can't do anything for concussion issues and we've had our list clogged by Kolo helping him through his concussion issues, not interested in us taking in another unless there's a huge confidence he's out the other side. Even so, I just don't feel it's the right move.

Just watching the final quarter, in the lead up to Rankine's goal where he sharks Gawns tap (great goal, absolutely give him that) all of the commentators choose to completely ignore the fact that he should've been pinged for a stone cold push in the back from his leap taking May completely out of the contest. Now if the player nabs the mark he is given it, but if he doesn't it is a free kick to the other player. EVERY. DAY. OF. THE. WEEK. The commentators have every reason to get excited about him but their blind bias around him is infuriating to listen to.

Another way our lack of home games to start the year has hurt us. I hope there will be a away to transfer at least some of what we would've got over to the games at Metricon and the Gabba.

He's a project player that I think is going to take time. For me his instincts resemble more of a Russell Roberston and I think he's more suited to playing as a forward. He's got the natural athleticism, but just doesn't seem to have much of a footy IQ, for me that's why he looks like a liability in defence. I'm hoping at some point this year he gets a crack playing forward. If he's able to take out opposition players in the same way he took out his teammates against Carlton that could actually be quite valuable.

I doubt it would happen but wouldn't it be something if collectively sporting codes removed themselves from twitter until some kind of accountability was created.

Really happy to hear that, our play on at all costs style has sent us into trouble way too many times.

Jeez that's lucky, Dr. Browny was worried his retina was damaged. ? Seriously though that is really good to hear, will be interesting to see how they play it with him. It's not exactly an injury you can deal with other than waiting. If they decide not to go with TMac I think Brown comes in, possible switch up is bring Smith in and play him as a forward. I just worry they will get in each others way. Brown's experience I think will combine better with Weiderman.

I was one that was really baffled by the inclusion (and continued selection) of Smith over Oscar from the start. Keep in mind I would never want Oscar as my number one, best defender, but as a second defender he usually doesn't do a whole lot wrong. In fact I've pretty much always rated him over the likes of Frost who so many on here fawn over. What Oscar brings to the table is simplicity; he is a defender, he mostly gets himself in the right positions and when he spoils, he spoils properly. He has been guilty of brain farts in the past (like many current and former Melbourne players) but structurally we look better with him in. For depth I'm happy to continue with the Smith experiment in the background, but long term I think Smith's attributes suit him more to being a forward.

That was very much my take as well, Max was marking it so well all night that it made it work. Perhaps their belief is keep going to him if he's clunking them, but if he doesn't seem to be in good marking form perhaps they look at other options. I'd like to see more variety with our exits from behinds, look for short kicks in the centre of the arc and launch from there. We just look really predictable. Also May is usually a good kick but that was definitely not the case Saturday night. A bit heart in mouth at times!