Pates

Can I just have a quick mention of how good it is to see Hawthorn place in the “who gives a s***” time-slot in the last round. Welcome to irrelevance Hawthorn fans! ?

This has been a trying year in so many ways, there are issues with Goodwin's coaching that have definitely created question marks but FFS we're into the last round with us in the finals chance. Doing anything destabilising to the admin, and footy department will only hurt the club. We need to go into next season with stability and focus, I know it sucks for a lot of people who want Goodwin gone but our best chance is to stick fat right now. That's not to say there shouldn't be a strong review into the game style, player development, player contracts, recruiting, and assistant coaches. We need to decide who we are as a team and who we need to target to achieve our goals. The MCC would surely prefer for us to just be a strong entity with mutual gains on both sides.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a 7 possie 4 goal game from him every day of the week. That one in the final quarter in particular I liked because he backed his pace and finished well.

Biggest issue is his tank, he just doesn’t seem to have the run to go in the midfield. That said if we had a group of three outside players that we could rotate in the that would be ideal. Rivers, as you said, is definitely another that could go. We need good users on the outside. Salems had a good year though, will be interesting to see his B&F finish.

Still only 7 possessions (4 goals a great effort though), but his biggest issue is that when he goes missing he may as well be in another state. He needs to find the ball more, maybe that comes from be switched up a lot but whatever it is he doesn’t get enough of it.

Almost don’t want Freo to win watching that, you could easily picture an 80+ drubbing against the Weagles. Still got the job done.

Good to see people back in the old Melbourne mentality of wanting to lose. Say hello to cuddles while you’re back in 2009.

That very uninteresting Open Mic with Trenners did seem to indicate that, I believe he said he was on the path to recovery and then when he did his medical with Richmond revealed the complications that had happened. That guy had such rotten luck. Fingers crossed this injury with Gus isn’t as serious as Mitch Clark’s (I have no idea whether there can be severity with such an usual part of the body). The good news is we have Burgess not Misson looking after him.

Yes and no. I definitely agree that the likes of the Pies, Essendon, Blues, Hawks, and Tigers have been well looked after for a while by being given a more commercially helpful draw. The Blues in particular were inexplicably given a free ride for a long time even when they were a pile of crap. It’s why I get defensive towards fans of those clubs when they complain about us getting handouts when they get handouts in a different way (ie a better commercial draw). But at the same time the Hawks are actually a good example of a club that was literally in the same position as us but through intelligent moves managed to become a powerhouse club. I think it is fair that we expect things to be shared more equally as does feel like the powerful clubs have been getting more powerful.

Totally agree, he’s a really smooth user and while the winning goal may have not been exactly what he wanted his fist goal looked beautiful off the boot.

Yep, we had it in front of us. 3 wins from the last 5 got us in and we bottled it against two teams with little to play for other than pride.

Looks like another nail is going into the coffin of our season tonight.

Boy the umps really do seem to be giving the Saints a dream run. That wasn't a mark yet the umpire further down the field paid it....

Agree, GWS don't seem to have anything more than a gritty victory in their bag right now. Saints are keeping the pressure on them whenever it looks like GWS are starting to get a run on.

No match fixing, they're just really bad at their jobs.

Greene may be a little f-wit but he can do some bloody good things. Knew exactly what he was doing as soon as that ball was floating towards him.

JC is not the saviour, he is a naughty (inaccurate) boy.

GWS should have at least 2-3 more goals, their finishing has been atrocious.

Plus side GWS always start slow and are only a kick and a bit behind. Negative they have missed some very gettable chances.

Did he just fake an injury so Hill could take the kick? He looked fine walking off! And GWS, kick straight you muppets!

GWS missing some really good chances early, not great signs. ?

The lisfranc injury sounds familiar, I thought that was the one that Mitch Clark had with us (hopefully if ti is it's a significantly lower severity).

Will he still be eligible? I forget what the maximum amount of games you can play is.

I've chosen the obvious choices, Saints really should be beating GWS and as for the Dogs, I can picture Jesse Hogan having a shot from directly in front to win the game after the siren and missing. We have to do our job, and just beat Essendon. I think they may come out with a bit of fight, they seem to love nothing more than turning things on for us even when they play pure $h!t against everyone else.

I hate to say it for Jonesy but I think his time is up at the club. That said, I would like the club to put it in Nathan's hands. We've given a few the push over the years and it stank up our culture, one thing there is little doubt in my mind is that Jones is well loved by his teammates. Pushing someone who has given his heart and sole for the club out the door could fracture relationships. Tell him the ball is in his court, lay it out honestly that in all likelihood he is not in the best 22 next year and if he wishes to continue then perhaps we make him a sort of playing coach (along the lines of Cross). He would probably show enough to make up the necessary games to get to his 300, and he could act as a mentor for the younger players at Casey.