Pates

So many mixtures of emotions at this news. Firstly mostly sadness as Gus is not only a fantastic player for us but quite simply a great bloke. To have his career cut short because of concussion after he fought so hard to come back is devastating. I wish him all the good health in the world and I hope he sticks around the club to mentor and still feel a part of the red and blue.

The news also brought back a lot of the feelings I had at the time, mostly anger at not only Maynard but the Pies fans, Eddie Maguire, the AFL Media, and the tribunal. The conduct of the pies fans knowing full well that if the roles were reversed they would have been screaming for Angus to be strung up was disgraceful, they are scum pure and simple. They weren't cheering someone for doing something courageous, they were cheering someone who had blatantly and recklessly taken a key player out of the game (and now his career). The tribunal were gutless in that they didn't want to suspend someone from a potential premiership, if ever there was proof that different rules exist during finals that was it. They even said it that "the stakes were high for Maynard", that should never have come into the conversation.

And as for Maynard, I hope you choke on your dinner tonight, karma's a [censored] and I hope with every part of me that it finds you with full force.

I'm sorry, maybe I'm just emotional right now but justice was not served here and because of Maynard's recklessness a fantastic player has had to retire prematurely.

2 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Can anyone who watched today, support my view that Shache could and should play in the opening round?

Maybe he'll be the sub and not used again.

The whole point of the award is to keep finals and H&A achievements separate. What I don't agree with is that it's a combined Mens and Womens award. 

I think it should be $500k for the mens team that finishes top and $500k to the womens team that finishes first. simple as that, and actually award it to the team by getting a trophy awarded on the day it becomes a statistical conclusion. 

That's just my thoughts though.

I'm wondering whether on the back of the stuff that's been going on lately, adding in our clear issues when dealing with pressure, we need to invest heavily in sports phycology. I feel like the incidents that have happened are a reflection of players not dealing with stress and frustration in a healthy way, while on field we got found out in pressure situations and inability to execute when needed (ie inaccuracy in front of goal, not entering the forward line with logic and poise, not staying cool under pressure at the end vs Carlton).

These point to issues between the ears instead of issues in on field ability.

That said our forward tactics do need a serious looking at, while having JVR and Petty have as good a pre-season as possible will go a long way towards helping the cause.

I really think we need to play Tommo this week with Carlton's tall players, I just don't know who for. 

My current changes are

Out: Gus (inj), JVR (sus), Lauri (sub)
In: JJ, Grundy, Woewoden (sub)

As for Tommo coming in I wonder if we can have him as the sub as a flexible tall in case they are getting on top of us. I just don't see him as an "impact" player. Whereas Woey has speed and a little bit of skill and flare. His youthful exuberance could be a real asset. I also wonder whether an option to throw around is to play Salem more in the forward half of the ground just to try something new. 

I'm expecting with Grundy playing we will revert back to Max and Grundy splitting ruck duties and resting forward. A totally crazy idea would be to START the centre bounce with Grundy and play Max forward. 

1 minute ago, YearOfTheDees said:

I think we are about to hear some real s--t from Collingwood. And even more if it goes to appeal.

Just wait for them to pull out the "well he should've been off the ground as he was concussed already", or "his history of concussions means this impact is more than what it would've been with other players". 

They will stoop to every low possible on this just like their scum fans.

38 minutes ago, spirit of norm smith said:

David Mundy. 376 games of AFL 

 

“If Brayden Maynard was falling and that was Scott Pendlebury underneath him, I think he would make a different decision than cover up and just protect himself and not worry about the other player.”

When asked by Adam Papalia what Maynard should have done differently, Mundy used all of his 376 games of AFL experience when building his response.

“When you’ve jumped up and you’re in the air and there’s a player underneath you, you have the ability to almost catch yourself as you’re falling on top of them. It would have been really awkward and they’d have had a tumble, but that response has a much lesser chance of resulting in serious health concerns.”

I think Mundy nails this, if it's a teammate he's protecting the teammate. Because it's an oppo player he doesn't have the same care and instead is happy to throw his body in. Honestly if Maynard gets off it will be the biggest disgrace in AFL tribunal history.

9 hours ago, picket fence said:

Yep adds structure !

I don't say this often Picket but I'm with you. I think having Brown has straightened us up and I felt like the goals were coming. I'm not sold on Petty forward, but Tommo has been in ripper form and deserves his spot so I can see from the POV of the selection committee that they want Petty in the 22.

But we need Petty to become a consistent 1-2 goal a game player if we're sacrificing the forward craft experience that we get from Brown.

I'm willing to back this move and turning a negative into a positive at least we have players to come in and out that we know can do a job if needs be. Plus Melksham has been turning back the clock with this late season run, if Fritta gets fit prior to finals and we throw him in I personally have the mix as follows:

Chandler Petracca Melk

Fritta JVR Kozzie

Obviously the spots will change, I then have Petty/Brown coming off the bench to rotate with JVR. I have a bad feeling for Tommo that the selection committee are waiting for one bad game and then he's back to Casey. It's so harsh and I hope that it isn't that black and white, but Petty is a natural defender, I think that where they want him for finals.

Also just an aside, Smith has become the super sub. Two weeks in a row he has come on and made an immediate impact (though he needed to celebrate that "touched" goal harder, if the soft call had been on our side it would've been given!).

59 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

And Adelaide lost to Collingwood by 2 points 3 weeks ago on the MCG. And since Collingwood according to the media are the best team that has ever played in the history of the game and are certainties for the 2023 Premiership that's pretty good form. I do disagree with you though. You can discount 2 teams for the rest of the year: North Melbourne & West Coast. 

Totally agree with this, we have had at times a habit of winning the big ones and then dropping our standards to lesser teams. We need the Brisbane game to be a launch pad, come in a be professional with all our performances. Do the job. Don't go in thinking "oh we beat Brisbane who are amazing, we should beat Adelaide". 

I would even say North in Tassie is not a straight forward prospect.

On 7/16/2023 at 8:02 PM, kev martin said:

Watched the replay. 

We dominated the last quarter, those saying we got lucky or stole it, are wrong I reckon. Four misses early on, continued pushing, played desperate, and had belief. We opened the forward area well, and that gave us the ability to compete and score.

What I would like to see us develop, is the ability to clear the ball out of the backline. The Saints held it in and Brissy did it for those two quarters that we lost. They forced multiple entries on us, as we struggled to get the ball past the centre. We fell off their players and our zone got picked because we didn't have time to set it. We need to either find a boundary, a releasing mark, a corridor or maintain possession, when exiting.

Can't let the oppo put that much pressure on our backs.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed this. At the ground I was saying to my dad, "how did this happen???" but the truth was we were all over them for 90% of the quarter but we just weren't taking our chances until we finally did with Melk x2, Kozzie, and Viney. I put a lot of that down to a good talk at 3 quarter time of don't give in" but also the Lions went into "protecting mode" from the moment Daniher got his goal 3min into the quarter. I of course give us huge credit for coming back but they played very poor footy for most of the quarter.

Can i also make a comment that after Kozzie was sick against the Saints and practically useless, we picked an underdone Harry Petty who looked hampered from the end of the 1st quarter. Can we please stop picking players that are hurt/injured and instead trust our depth to get the job done? I can only imagine they are giving the players way to much of an ability to make the decision on whether they are picked. We looked a so much better team the moment Smith came on for Petty.

On 7/15/2023 at 9:41 AM, Demon17 said:

Sure is.  A good recent example was (listening to ABC driving home last night) Kelli Underwood bringing it up in the context that she said Steven May was the only player not to run up to Melksham to congratulate him on that final goal.

Pathetic Kelli. Just a talking head .  Malthouse to his credit batted away the insinuation.

I usually don't mind Underwood as a host of a show and chat guest, but that is the dumbest comment she may have ever made (if she said it). In the rooms May and Melksham were arm in arm and May was getting around him more than any other player.

If she said it she should actually apologise because that's creating a narrative that doesn't exist.

This will probably be an unpopular thought but I actually didn't think Tomlinson played a bad game, and I don't think it's a coincidence that Lever had one of his best games for the year with him in. McKay is a bloody good footballer and was getting regular (and quite often unpressured) service, getting hands on the ball hasn't been his problem it's the finishing that's been his main issue. I personally think Tommo stays, as does Smith.

Unless there are absolute gun footballers that are direct replacements (say a Petty or Oliver) I say given them a body of games to prove their worth to the team. Our backline functions better with to key pillars complimenting the Lever interceptor. And JVR and Smith seemed to have space from each other which is actually what Roo needs, space to have his opponent one on one. I would expect more from Smith going forward, but giving him one game and dropping is going to do nothing for him or the team.

Bowser for Hibberd
Sparrow for for Oliver (Sparrow Sub)

I should be confident about tonight but I haven't seen much in the last month of footy to tell me that we are genuine this season. Hopefully it starts with them tonight.

Really hoping Smith can show something. His time is now, he either brings it this season or he's done.

Also looking for big games for Kozzie, Fritta, ANB, Spargo, and Chandler. Our small/mid forwards haven't been performing of late, we need our tackling pressure game to come back in a big way, especially leading into next week.

5 hours ago, beelzebub said:

Confounds me why anyone ( here ) would be interested. 

Let him ( sadly ) be some other club's trainwreck.

Not all cut out for the big time.

Lets find those that are. 

I think the sad thing about him is that he was a part of our program and we definitely would've picked him up had it not been for the rule change after Jamarra Ugle-Hagen. I also don't think he was worth the pick that GC gave up for him, he was a bolter that was boosted in profile because of his connection to us.

Staying in our system may well have helped to avoid the situations he's found himself in. GC has a proven track record of failing to keep players on the straight and narrow (doesn't help the culture up that way for young people does centre around gambling, partying, drugs, and alcohol).

I think it would be a fair critique to say they could have a dedicated button on the main menu rather than being in the drop down for "teams". It's not like it doesn't exist it's just a little hidden.

It's funny, I used to kinda enjoy "Frost Ball" when he was with us because it enjoyable seeing someone from our club take the game on. Now I enjoy it even more as an oppo fan because I'd say the success rate is below 50%, and it's utter chaos to the point it unsettles his own team. It's exciting and exhilarating when it comes off, but most of the time it's just insane!

I would imagine Frost will be going to JvR, it could actually be an interesting match up. Frost has speed and strength, but JvR is pretty smart for a young pup so I could see him running rings around him if given the chance. I would love for him to kick a bag today.

Death riding Freo's season has become such an enjoyable second storyline to the season. It's not just that it's fun watching their fans go from "Flagmantle" to working out where it's gone wrong, it's that they've paid so much supreme talent after chasing him so hard only to use him so badly that you can see it's affecting him (I don't wish ill on Jacko, just on Freo). I hope after this season they do manage to work it out, it would be sad to see such potential [censored] down the toilet.

But for now let it ride!

I have to imagine that Kozzie's drop in form has been the direct result of these negotiations dragging out. I've got no doubt once it's all done and dusted he'll be fine. Really wish he, his manager, and the club had just sorted it out before the start of the season if Melbourne was always going to be his final destination.

I think he just needs to get back to basics; tackle, pressure, stay on the ground for a bit, be at the fall of the ball.

We've been playing poorly and only looked to have a bit of flow about us towards the end. But jeez the umpires are killing us. How that ANB 50 isn't paid given EVERYTHING we've seen this year and the soft ones that do get paid is completely beyond me.

So I was at a stag do on Saturday which centred around a mate who's a big Dees fan. After going to one pub for some drinks we then went on another place to watch the Dees, not gonna lie it reminded me that no matter how far we've come our mighty Dees still have the great ability to ruin a party!

I can't remember much because we got into a fair bit of booze, but we just looked off in all aspects. 2nd to the ball, not enough 2nd, 3rd and 4th efforts, skills not adapting to the conditions (twice we've been undone when the ball and ground is slick). I think what frustrated me was there seemed to be an element of accepting the day as a loss after a while, there didn't seem to be that hunger to come back.

Anyway, alcohol (and since then a stomach virus) has managed to wipe away most of the tripe we witnessed. It makes ANZAC eve a massive match for us, it has to be a statement that we are not to be f---ed with. 

I would much prefer to see JVR given a run and keep Harry in the back line. That said I don’t want him to be stay at home, if something in game needs to change I’ve got no issue with throwing him forward. Don’t wait until the final 4min of our season. 

I’m ignoring the Hawks result, they live up to the colours on their jumper. I don’t have much confidence coming into this match, they’ve had the wood on us for a while. We can’t play anywhere near that poo that we played vs Brisbane, it will be over at half time. The positive part of me is looking at a few things:

Our defensive general May is back, Viney and Fritta will be better for their runs last week, Brown is in great form, and I’m hoping that JVR will finally be brought in to add some excitement to the squad. 

First game of the year for me, so hopefully they put in a good showing. 

**** wow, they’re going through the doldrums of a few bad years after a dynasty and already they’re crying about being carp? Get stuffed and have 50+ years of pain, then talk to us. 

Ok look, the points system sucked but what I don't understand is can't they have a caution system where repeat offenders that do a number of "small" acts end up getting a one week suspension.

It seems the most obvious way to go about it, the caution can hang for 6 weeks before it goes away if people don't want it always there for the entire season. 

In isolation I would agree that all these incidents don't merit suspension, but give them warnings that leave them open to potential suspension and they might think about doing something idiotic the next time.

15 hours ago, AzzKikA said:

Agree that we had injuries but you can't say we were the only team leading into finals with injury concerns. It is one factor but imo another factor is the desire, they just didn't seem to want it as much as 2021, could it have been the fact we won it the year before and the desperation to break the drought just wasn't there?

While you can't control GETTING injured, you can control management of players and loading through the year. I would be shocked and disappointed if our fitness/injury management team didn't recognise some significant mistakes throughout the season. The most glaring was the decision to take Max over to Perth for the WC game. I get that you should always respect the opposition but there are times when management of players is absolutely critical, Geelong mastered it last season and now it's on the selection team to place faith in the squad to ensure players that are tired or playing through pain are given an opportunity to rest properly.

We need to get back to being fast finishers, not limping over the line.