Pates

Does anyone else feel that Nibbler in particular has been given time to find his form based off his form last season? The match selection committee has really shown a lack of bite to cut players who are down on form. The fact we have been “getting the job done” for the first 10 weeks has masked more than a few players who have been coasting for the most part.

Out: M Brown, ANB, Turner In: Weid, Chandler/Bedford, May Alternatively keep Turner in and push Petty forward. Love Petty as a defender but there needs to be a shake up of the forward line so throwing him forward could provide something.

The small forwards and our lack of pressure/conversion from inside 50s has become a massive issue for us. The coaches have persisted with the group that got us to a premiership, fair enough, but when things aren’t working you can’t keep doing the same thing with the same personal. I really admire ANB for the way he forced his way back into the team and became an important part of our premiership team, but he has really been off for the first half of the season. I have been putting in Bedford for ANB for a few weeks now to shake up that group, I now think is HAS to happen. He can’t keep riding on the coat tails of his premiership year, new year clean slate and for me he’s been mostly average or poor. Spargo has been off as well, he used to make things happen with his kicks inside 50. I remember one of the coaches saying start of 2021 that he was the one they wanted to have the ball when entering the 50. There’s two things I would say about that for this year, firstly it’s not happening as often as it did last year and secondly he hasn’t been anywhere near as efficient or damaging as he was last year. I don’t think you can change the mix so strongly as to drop both Spargo and ANB but Charlie is also on thin ice. I’m a footy nuffie so I have very little to go off from an experience point of view, but I feel like there needs to be a shake up of the whole line which could include throwing different players in there. This could look like a number of things including giving Petracca, Oliver, and Viney more time in the forward line, or doing something radical like throwing Petty forward or giving JvR some game time. Hell give Majak Daw a crack at some matches and rotate him, Max, and Jacko through there. There’s no spark, we have the bye to find it.

We’ve definitely lost our dare, the players have regressed to being afraid to make a mistake. I’m all for playing intelligent football in looking for the short out player, but the difference is last year we would then have Petracca, Oliver, Viney, and others look for that inside corridor option that opens the play up. It’s now very stagnant, slow, and predictable.

Weid's young and at least has a chance of improving. M Brown is done, he's a VFL player, leave him at Casey. I wouldn't be against the idea of throwing Daw into the mix, especially if Max is hurt. B Brown was at least a target today and had patches of being decent but he had no support. Fritta is nowhere to be seen right now. To think we started the year lauding our depth to cover positions, our depth was MASSIVELY overrated.

We were good, even blistering in patches. Showed some of what we’re capable of, but does anyone else thinking we are making the job hard on ourselves? Running straight into traffic rather than trying to evade and look for the out. Fumbling at key moments, dropping marks we’d usually take, missing handballs. It’s all really scrappy, and frankly reminds me of 2019/20. It’s like we’re “almost there” but then making critical errors that hurt. One thing that definitely reminds me of 2019, kicking it down the throat of the opposition spare defender. We had so many inside 50s that were gladly snatched up by the Pies talls, and the most frustrating thing was it gave them confidence. I’m not at panic stations yet, but things need to change. We have a tough second half to the year and in no way are we playing anywhere near good enough to be top 4 let alone competing for the premiership.

There’s a few that need goal kicking practice, Nibbler’s kicking for goal has been shocking and only recently costly. I would be up for BBB being asked to play more of the TMac, up the ground role and give Fritta some time one out in the forward 50. M Brown just needs to provide a genuine second target, someone that the Pies have to be accountable for.

Sadly it’s his job now, and as someone who experienced so much garbage at the club and then only just missed out on a premiership I think he’s entitled to an opinion.

Really hope this is a preview of Monday, beating the Pies twice in a weekend is a great weekend!

Cheers for this advice, I’m coming straight from work so reserving a GA seat would be tricky. We’ve decided to go for the reserved seats, I like being on that wing near the MCC as well. Hopefully there won’t be too many insane pies fans around us! 😬

I feel like the low confidence in the talks is almost endemic. It’s like it’s spreading amongst all of them and they don’t know how it’s going to break. We just need one of our tall defenders and one of our tall forwards to stand up, and I genuinely think the others will follow. BBB needs to get involved on Monday, even in his worst form last season he still had a presence and managed to snag a goal or two. The last month he has been MIA. I realise this is a thread about Disco so I’m just going to say good luck to the bloke and it’s great seeing guys like this being given an opportunity.

Do you have an 11 game membership? If so and you’re wanting both of you to have a reserved seat then you have to select a seat for you both. The digital membership only gets you General Admission, there’s no seat attached to it.

My dad and I are trying to book tickets together on separate memberships at the reduced price, does anyone know how to do this? When I put my code in I can get my single allocated reduced ticket but I can only get the one, how do I get them both at the reduced $8 price? Also anyone know if this is going to put us automatically into a Melbourne area?

I wouldn’t say I’m getting more annoyed but it hasn’t passed like it has before. This was such an avoidable situation and for May as a leader to stuff up like this is so embarrassing and potentially costly for our season.

6 behinds scored in the final quarter by two teams is embarrassing for the AFL; Sevens ratings must’ve plummeted and their sponsors would’ve been [censored]!

Fritta’s miss was massively demoralising, it was such an awful shank from a usually dead eye. That was the moment for me, even Max’s checkside miss wasn’t as heartbreaking as that.

Thursday night footy is seen as a success for the league as the broadcasters love it, but for the viewing public it’s an awful time to go for I would say most of the public. I understand the benefits the league gets from TV rights but there has to be a balance to ensure the fans are being looked after as well.

Very separate issues but it’s a fair point. There are people that operate within the AFL that act as the moral police but have allowed so many worse indiscretions to continue or fade into oblivion. These “revelations” regarding May potentially going onto another venue afterwards, without sounding like I’m defending May I’m wondering what difference does it make? The issue stemmed from the argument and subsequent alteration with Melksham, is it a bad look that he could’ve gone on afterwards? Yes. Does it mean he should be given a further sanction? For what? I think at some stage it would be good to hear from Melksham, it can be during the bye once the dust has settled. I think what we need to see on Monday is a side that’s banding together, not breaking apart.

They’re waiting to see how Petty comes up I’d imagine, giving him probably until the last moment possible.

Good causes and good news stories don’t sell papers, it’s all about negative stories with clubs in turmoil.

That’s the thing though, I feel like we’ve acted very appropriately towards May so I can only imagine that the lack of sanction towards Melksham is the only part that could genuinely be questioned. Beyond that I can’t see what it else we could’ve done.

Of course it’s the way that this is all phrased which is what matters. I imagine just about every incident that results in a player being suspended is actually investigated by the AFL Integrity unit, but saying “Breaking: AFL launching their own investigation” sounds so much more dramatic and can of course fill more pages of the newspaper. What really grinds me is that this week and match should be focused on MND and the Big Freeze, but the actions of May and Melksham have ruined it and placed the club in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Even though I back Melky for sticking up for his teammates, it did make me wonder about him getting out of this with no sanction.

If we’re looking at it purely from a breaching codes of conduct side of things, aside from making a clown of himself and clearly making poor choices what has he actually done that would require AFL intervention? If anything perhaps there could be an argument for the AFL enforcing a ban on Melksham for violent conduct, however he’s injured anyway. Commentators and media pundits push these stories as far as they go because they know it gets more viewers, readers, listeners, and followers. It’s not because they think it’s right, it’s because they smell blood.

I think AA is extreme, however I would be very keen for the club to put some pressure on for him to give up the booze for the season. In a similar way a driver forfeits his right to driving when he breaks the law I feel that May has breached the club’s confidence in him being able to make the right decisions surrounding alcohol. Giving it up for the season shows genuine remorse and indicates we wants to do better for his teammates. But hey maybe I’m sitting too high on my high horse. I just think his decision making has been [censored] poor and alcohol has played a big part.

My opinion of someone increases when they stick up for a teammate, and when one of the “leaders” is in fact acting like a complete tool. Melksham’s decision to use violence is something I don’t condone, but his actions behind it are far better than the actions of May.