Pates

Win, just effing win. Resting our future on playing (or not playing) for picks left a stain on our club that will never be removed. Couldn’t care less where we finish in the picks order. Call that dumb if you want but I’d rather us finish the year with the boys singing the song than us debating what pick we’ll get from losing.

Don’t see how Hore doesn’t come in for either Wagner or OMac. With May, Lever, and Frost in the line up Oscar not only feels like we’re going in with poor match ups but two turnover merchants in Frost and Oscar. Hore may also have those issues but at least he’s able to take a defensive mark. OMac and Frost should not be in the same team unless absolutely necessary.

I feel it should be either at the end of the first round or perhaps at the end of the bottom 8. Throwing picks at them isn’t going to solve the problem, they need to get senior players that will help build a strong culture. They haven’t had that at all, they got star power through Ablett but he isn’t a culture leader. The AFL could instead look at an underage mini-draft that can get them 3-4 gun underage youngsters that can go through their system before the usual draft. But if culture is an issue than those kids will just be learning bad habits from an earlier age.

I swear I thought I heard somewhere that despite him having played more games for Freo by the end he considers himself closer aligned to the Dees. If his son is a gun in the making hopefully the likes of Neita, Schwartz and co will get in his ear to pry him away from Perth.

Sometimes you have to take a risk on getting a player that appears to be “damaged goods” but with potential upside. I’m not entirely convinced of Bennell but the big thing would be if we’re getting him for nothing the risk/reward factor could be quite high. Of course due diligence would be important on hit fitness and other issues.

This year has been complete garbage, how year back it up next year could define us for the next decade. If 2020 is another disappointing year then we could slip back to being a permanent fixture in the bottom 5, if we're able to bounce back strongly and learn from the mistakes of 2019 it could set us up for a strong 5-10 years. As for being relevant, actually couldn't care less about that right now. By the way, was she seriously being critical for has having 52,000 members?

Probably the most frustrating thing about this year is that it's almost the same story every week. Getting scored against too easily on poor turnovers. The most concerning thing is that the poor skills seem to almost be infectious. Salem, Hibberd, Melksham, and Lever, all usually good users of the ball but all of them did poor turnovers that resulted in Richmond forward entries. We really need to tidy things up for 2020, work on our skills and work on our two way running. We still get way too caught on the hop and fail to get back into positions quick enough. Tigers should've won by more, we were soundly beaten in the second half.

Turnovers turnovers turnovers!!!

We have no idea how to play the conditions, don’t look like scoring a goal.

Fair dinkum we aren’t getting the most basic free kicks while they are plucking bizarre ones for the Tigers.

Turnovers again, we’re our own worst enemy.

Can this season please just bloody end. It’s almost worse that all those years we were preparing ourselves to be tripe.

What was frost hand-balling to???

That free kick for Long could be the game defining moment.

Big time of the game here, dogs can take it away from us if we don't dig in.

So the thread seems to be mostly negative but I think there are some positives in there. For one this it's one point the margin and anyone's game, it's been swinging in momentum but both teams are stifling each other, which is a surprise given both teams styles of play. I wonder if our match committee felt to try to match the dogs in outside run this year would be a mistake as we are getting caught out too much with two way running. We are winning at clearances, Gawn and Pruess are giving our players silver service (Gawn moreso obviously), we just need to start taking better advantage of it. If both rucks are on the ground then they need to be more separated, a few times they were right near each other and it eliminates the advantage of having the tall timbre rather down the line. To sum up for me, we aren't playing well but we're not playing great. We are still getting done with sub par forward entries and basic skills. Zero doubt in my mind that we can win from here and stuff up my tipping.

Gold Coast teams don't work, that place is cursed! It's almost like they need to build the team from scratch again.

Hate Essendon, but what a great goal to win it.

I wouldn't necessarily go after him but if ever we needed proof of needing an elite small forward then that is it. Jeffy was that a few years back, form and injury has lost whatever magic he had, we have to search high and low in the draft or in the lower comps for an excitement machine that will create forward pressure and get those mercurial goals. Amazing goal to win the game.

It’s not time for a rebuild but it’s definitely time for a harsh analysis of where certain players are at and where we thought they would be. I keep saying it in different threads but 2019 is still an opportunity to build something for 2020 and that has to start with playing things smart and potentially ruthless. I think the bigger issue lies with our gameplan and less the players executing it. When the plan works it’s breathtaking and exciting but when it fails it backfired on us horrifically. There surely has to be a middle ground in there that allows for patience before pulling the trigger at the right time. I feel like someone like Salem understands and does this more than anyone else. He looks for the lateral movement kick that can free someone up further afield rather than going for the long 1 on 1 to a bad position and to a guy that doesn’t actually have anyone to go to even if he wins it. Too often we get a mark near the center and immediately handball to a runner going past, they immediately get pressured into either a long no look bomb or get caught (which happened a lot v Lions). Before we start a player rebuild, we should be looking at a game style rebuild.

Big stretch to be whacking him straight up to captain after the disgraceful condition he turned up to the club in for pre-season, but he is settling into his role well and I would be looking at him being in the leadership group next year. I also liked him getting angry and giving Frost a bit of an on field roast, we don’t need primary school teaches that will give gold stars for doing the basics correct, we need a general there and he can definitely be that. Amazingly after the awful start our defence had to this year it is starting to feel better down back. Though still got some NQRs with footy brains the size of grain of rice.

To be fair until this year we had improved year on year since Roos took over. This isn’t excusing our season but we are having our dip in the cycle that in my gut I kinda felt was going to come. The biggest error the club can make right now is just continue on our current trajectory with a game plan that clearly isn’t working. This year has worth to it, massive worth that I firmly believe could take us all the way in the future. It sounds ridiculous but I’m actually upbeat because I was worried that we would make a crazy charge for the finals and smash our players into the ground in the process. Finals are now mathematically basically gone, focus on 2020 and what we can get out of this year. I would actually like to see the club and football department undergo a rigorous analysis ASAP of the game plan, how we see it being tweaked or completely changed, who we need to target whether that’s players or coaches, and start the wheels turning now. Geelong before their push into that first premiership run had a bad year (although not as bad as we’ve got going now) but they used it to set things up. We have to do the same.

One thing that really annoys me is that after last week Goodwin and Co were talking up the fact that there was better connection between midfield and forwards. That disconnect still clearly exists, countless times we did look away bombs or kicking it to positions that weren’t in our favour. Our midfield has gone from looking like a 8/10 stunner to a donkey. I don’t know what’s happened to Gus but all the poise and good play he had last year has completely left him. Oliver is still over handballing and when he does kick it it’s generally not great. A typical game from Petracca today, kicks 2 early goals and barely seen after that. And Viney, I just wonder if he is carrying something, looks half a meter off the pace. Give Gawn the week off, Preuss had a good game for Casey and the season is officially done. No point in risking him.

Aaaaaaand that’s me switching off much like Melbourne for the last 5min of the 3rd quarter until now.