Pates

FMD

Should be 50+ up, bloody ridiculous.

Positives so far, apart from 75% of the second quarter we have been so clearly the better team it’s ridiculous. Game should be over, simple as that. We killed them for most of the third quarter and missed some very simple chances. Fritsch finally finding the goals was massive then, he simply had to kick it. Bloody hell it’s tight though, shouldn’t be but it is. Bring it home Dees!!!

**** we needed that.

We needed scoreboard pressure in the first quarter. We take our chances and at worst it’s even money right now, instead they’ve taken their chances and we’re three goals behind.

We’ve fallen asleep.

We do know to win the goal the ball has to go through the two big sticks right?

Danger times.

Well there’s a lot of positives in the way we’re playing, BUT YET AGAIN failing to finish. We should be 15-20 points up right now, but poor kicking for goal and poor decisions at critical moment (plus a dubious at best free to King at the end of the quarter) means we’re basically even. I don’t know what to do about Fritta, he’s getting into so many great positions but FMD he’s a coach killer with his set shots. I remember we dropped Bugg because he didn’t finish any of his shots, I really like Fritsch but he is killing us with basic misses. May had a great game last week but credit to the Saints they’re making sure he can’t get free to mark it. He’s been a little hard done by the umpire at the end but other than that King is all over him. Viney was the star of the quarter, absolutely everywhere. Oliver playing great footy. Petracca kinda going back to old Trac of doing good things but also silly things.

That is a disgusting free to end the quarter. ? you umpire.

I’m a Fritsch fan, but he’s going to cost us games if he doesn’t learn to kick goals.

Good second effort Nibbler.

So Viney critics....he’s going ok I guess. ?

We’ve peppered our forward 50, really should have another goal or two.

Congrats Fritta you have a goal against you, not a goal for the Dees a goal for the Saints. Has to kick that, that’s disgusting.

I think Ratten has them playing in a Richmond-esque team way, we got an unexpected win over them that almost stuffed their season last year but hand on heart I think they’ve gone past us. Doesn’t mean we won’t win but we have to bring our best to get a positive result today. I’m sure they’ve done their homework and worked out that they can’t be indiscriminate with their forward entries, we won last week (and last year) largely off of good work from May and Lever. Likewise I’m also hoping that our clearances will kick back into 2018-like gear. I’d really love to say I feel confident but I don’t.

Looking forward to seeing Viney back, he brings a hunger to the game that few in our team possess. I really want to see him played rotation through HF and the midfield guts, I hope he and Oliver have worked on their communication because one knock against him is that he can bulldoze the pack including our own players. Big week for Max and our midfield, they had their pants pulled down vs Fremantle at the stoppages. If we can’t take advantage of one of the games best ruckmen then what’s the point of having him there?

He definitely had prior, chose to spin to take the tackler on there’s nothing more obvious. I imagine the umpire thought he got a clean disposal. Clear mistake by the umpire but the lions had their chances, actually mirrored a lot of our game against them last year where we pumped it in 3-4 times in the last few minutes but stuffed it up. I didn’t watch any of the game, just the closing stages in the highlights but it would’ve been really enjoyable to have the cats start 0-2 after giving up a big early lead. Lions could end up with a Melbourne-2019-like season if they don’t get a wriggle on.

It is going to be interesting to see what they do about Buddy’s arc, what they all seemed to decide on AFL360 is that if you have an arc then you almost have to start off the mark and arc to be kicking over the man. Unsure if this is exactly the rule but I why can’t they just teach players to kick in a straight line? You could use Plugger’s kicking for goal as a ruler it was that straight. Is the arc a modern players invention?

Damn I remember that, I remembered thinking to myself “we beat the Saints then we make finals”. Sadly we were still Melbourne, losing to the Roos twice in tight games and Fremantle at home.

If there’s any stragglers interested in making a (likely small) league in SuperCoach let me know, if I get enough interest I’ll make one.

I get the feeling he would be a very friendly guy to chat to and all round good bloke, but he also has a bit of a privilege smell to him that when things go against him he expects the rules of the world to bend to suit him. I get that the media is asking for comments from him but he’s making a choice to speak to them, he could quite easily just have left his comments afterwards to what he said about understanding the position of the AFL wanting to protect players and say he’ll take the time to reflect and learn. Instead he keeps talking, and coming across as if he’s been victimised. His collision broke a former teammate’s nose and concussed him, he needs to shut his gob and take his lumps.

Be interesting to know how much truth there is to that, you want all your coaches supporting the head coach in the direction of the team but you also want a free exchange of ideas and opinions. Especially if there are issues with gameplan and how players are performing. Doesn’t sound like Choco left the tigers under the most mutual of circumstances so it could have been Hardwick didn’t like Chico’s voicing of strong opinions.

If that’s the case then very simple, Harmes out and Viney in.

I wouldn't exactly say the results were on display on the weekend but I'm really glad he's with us and I have no doubt he would've been filthy at some of the poor kicks/misses in front of goal.