Pates

Here’s the test Melbourne, we’re leading by 50+ with 11:30 to go. We have to win by minimum 50.

Tyson’s good is really good, his bad is goddamn awful.

Gift to the suns that one.

How was that not holding the ball to Clarry???

Good goal Nibbler.

Only we could be dominating a team so much and only have 22 point lead. Inside 50s have been disgraceful, no one actually looking to see where the forwards are, Clarry’s centering up was actually the perfect example as he put it right where there was a cluster of suns players. Nibbler has been ok but that miss sums up why he’s becoming the new whipping boy. Salems goal at the end of the quarter will hopefully give the boys a boost.

We have kept them in the game and now they are in front, we truly are a rabble.

We have kept them in the game and now they are in front, we truly are a rabble.

Incredible that we don’t have 2-3 goals already this quarter.

Golden opportunity for us at the end almost turned into a goal for the suns. They’re looking a bit up and about, spreading quickly when rebounding out of their defence. Have to come out strong next quarter.

Throw Jones and Tyson and that's batting pretty deep.

Unbelievably I agree, Petracca still flashes in and out of games whereas Gus played 4 quarters yesterday. Petracca has more upside and if he can pull everything together could become one of the premier players in the comp but right now it’s not happening. Gus is playing where he always needed to play, in the guys getting the ball tapped down his throat. Half back/forward was never going to work.

So I live in the UK and it’s interesting seeing the AFL borrowing ideas from other sports. One thing I would love to see them put into practice would be for all games for the final round be on at the same time (probably 2:10 on Saturday or Sunday). The pros of this are that it takes out the possibility of manipulating results, there’s no favouritism when it comes to turnarounds (worst is a Sunday to Saturday break), and the bigger positive is that it’s bloody exciting and intense! Imagine us needing a result to go our way to make finals so we’re keeping up with the scores of other games, our game finishes while theirs keeps going and we’re on the edge of our seats while we wait to hear the result. It’s enthralling to watch the way it’s done in the UK with their leagues when it comes to promotions, especially in the last 5-10min. I recognise it’s unlikely to happen as the AFL would lose out on viewership/tv coverage etc and when it comes to a choice between fairness/integrity vs money the money always wins. But it would actually solve one of the issues that’s been plaguing the last round for a few years now, teams knowing the result of an influential match so pulling out their best players. The logistics wouldn’t be easy either but we have enough stadiums around the country now, it’s not impossible.

Back to what we know he could do. He needed confidence in himself and these games will do him (and us) a world of good.

Since I guess I would be lumped into the negative supporters bracket I’ll throw in my positives for the day. I was so happy to see Gus have a great game out there, it was probably the best we’ve seen him play since he’s come back after his concussion issues. He was in everything and barely made an error. Hogan has continued his great start to the year, he’s consistently getting midfield numbers while also hitting the scoreboard. With TMac back in he side he’s becoming a real weapon for us. Speaking of TMac, how good is it seeing a big man in red and blue leading up for a high kick and thinking “he’s got this”. Best mark at the club and a hugely important player. Jake Lever has gone from strength to strength and this week was far and away his best game. I do t think he made one error all day and I feel like he won every one on one contest. Our back line is starting to gel. Last positive I’ll touch on is that finally we seemed to get rewarded for our ruck dominance, Gawn was putting it exactly where the players were and they were mostly using it fairly well. Clarry, Jones, Tyson, and Brayshaw looked very confident about being in the right places. Back to what D-Land is arguing about, I think most supporters will be very happy we got the win. The Saints have shown their good, bad, and ugly this season, we got their bad (and we didn’t allow them to be good for more than 5-10min patches). But we can’t deny the problem our players seem to have finishing off quarters and games, it feels like we give up a lot of junk time goals and in the grand scheme of this it could really come back to bite us. To give up those two late goals soured what should’ve been a very good win.

If it was a 50% hit rate where we destroy one and slack off for another I’d be less worried, but the only team we have truly murdered by an ugly margin is the bulldogs last year. We’ve been on the end of ugly margins for so many years, hell the Hawks/Tigers losses got ugly, but two weeks in a row when the opportunity was there for us to pound a team into the ground we let late goals slip. When we got 51 points in front I looked at the time and I was screaming at my iPad, 3 and a half minutes to get MORE goals. Instead they stopped, and we lost a percentage that we desperately need to make up. I’m happy we won, there are a lot of positives to come out of this game but the next time we’re in this position I hope Goodwin is sending out the runners to tell the players to play to the final second.

Good easy win, BUT STOP GIVING UP EASY GOALS AT THE END OF QUARTERS!!! Those last two goals from the saints were so soft and all because we had decided the game was done. We should’ve won today by 60+, still no kill instinct. In the position we were in so many other teams would’ve powered on and murdered the Saints instead we given them charity goals at the end. Its the next step we need to take and we seem to refuse to do it. Saying that, happy with the win. Let’s get some momentum.

I’m so angry with that last goal, so soft and yet I could feel it coming.

I didn’t even know he was out there, this can’t be helping his confidence.

Missed the first quarter so can only comment on the second. We were lucky they didn’t put scoreboard pressure on us early in that term, we let them get a lot of look ins at goal but they got no reward for effort. Hopefully that will be what breaks them. Once their pressure dropped we were clearly on top and were it not for some players losing their head, and others bombing indiscriminately we could’ve nailed another one or two. We have the chance to kill the game next quarter, I feel we are the better team and just need to polish off a couple of final points. Tyson doesn’t seem to have any awareness, but that was a huge goal he kicked. Great to see TMac take a full forwards mark from a high ball, was the one he took on the goal line over or not? Tim Watson seemed pretty confident for a bloke that didn’t have any replays to actually show the line. C’mon Dees, keep pushing forward. Job half done.

Suddenly the win against North is looking a lot more important, the next 3 matches are looking so important now. All winnable, and if we get the chocolates in then that could springboard momentum for the rest of the year with Viney and TMac back in the side. But one week at a time, let’s focus on the saints this week.

Jeez even at that age he looked like a bull. So glad they chose McCartin.

Lack of killer instinct has been a trait of this team for a very long time. Haven’t shown it under Goodwin thus far, never had it under Roos, lacked competitiveness or anything resembling a team under Neald, so really the only time in (semi)recent history we had the ability to destroy a team was under Bailey and that was only against lesser opposition. Its the next natural step for us to take but we just don’t seem to want it. As Jack said though underestimate the Saints at your own peril, many still had them in the same grouping as us at the start of the year and when they get their high pressure game up they are a tough team.

Oscar has been flying under the AFLnradar this year but for the most part he’s been very good. He looks more confident in his ability to take marks (similar to how big bro developed) and more incredibly his field kick is much better. I still have kittens when he looks around for kicks but he’s more poised now and is making better decisions. If our defenders start to improve their communication with one another we will look much more solid down there.

Richmond’s charmed injury run continues, fair to say that Viney is our most important midfielder, I wonder how Richmond would be going if they lost the same amount of games from Dusty as we have with Jack.