Pates

I can only imagine he’s a training hero, loves a practice match (hey he was good against Carlton last week) but he shows nothing when the game means something.

How we didn’t seek a new coach at the end of last season is beyond me.

Our ball handling skills are VFL level right now, dropping easy marks and fumbling the ball like amateurs.

Am I tripping? I swear I couldn’t see the finger “clearly” moving.

Thank you Nibbler!

Can a forward take a f###ing Mark?!

Spargo and Fritta have to nail those two goals, you don’t miss them at AFL level. We aren’t playing well, but it’s the first quarter. Get a run on and get some confidence.

A genuine thought IF the AFL were to go down the path of forcing us to pay it inside the cap, I wonder if we could repurpose Gus into a coaching role. Gus as a midfield/role model coach could at least mean that money isn't completely dead to us. I really do have to wonder about any opposition fans having an issue about us requesting it be outside the cap. I would have compassion for any player and club that is in the situation that we are, and not only should common sense prevail, but basic human decency. Of course such a thing is practically impossible for the fans wearing Black and White.

Brayshaw's loss is definitely going to expose our midfield depth, or possibly lack there of. But what it will also do is force some changes that perhaps were coming over time anyway. I've often felt that Rivers was destined for a midfield role, particularly after the Lions game last year where his boldness help us win the game. We also do have a couple of young guns that we recruited and would be itching for a regular game. There is every chance there will be a bolter we don't see coming this season. One thing last season did show is that we need the flexibility to send Trac forward, he is just too important forward of the ball.

I hope that at least one of the players (Gawn or Trac my picks) will do a golf swing celebration after a goal in tribute to Gus. As for Dees fans I think the 10min mark 1min applause is a good idea.

Yep the Pies narrowly had top spot in the most hated department for a while, now no club will ever come close to the hatred I have for them. I hope this premiership is cursed and they never see another premiership until they permanently retire his cursed number.

The thing that drives me nuts about the Brayshaw/Maynard incident is that I thought that the messaging for years has been if you do not show proper duty of care for your opponent, and they are severely injured with a head injury then you get suspended. He opened the door for suspension the moment he went up and didn't show care for the opposition player.

It's definitely an interesting and different situation to other retirements from the game. Most if not all players wind down their careers with 1-2 year contracts and at most might have an extra year to run in which they fully intended on playing but got say a knee injury that prevented them from seeing out the contract. This on the other hand is totally different, this is a player that was very much part of the future for the next 5+ years and has been forced to retire due to an act on the footy field causing severe brain injury. I think it's only right in this context that the AFL allows his contract to be paid outside of the salary cap or at the very least most of it outside. It's not like we entered into the long term deal with the idea of a medical retirement on the cards. Jesus effing christ that Maynard hit is going to be one of the most constant reasons to hate Collingwood for me, I had managed to move on from it but this has brought it right back. I hope their club is cursed from the 2023 premiership and they never see another until Maynard is a bitter old man.

I would expect about this level of care from the AFL about compensating or helping us after this.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!).

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.

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.

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.