Jaded No More

We will look a different team when Clarry is finally back. Trac and Viney are exhausted. Both should get a week off before finals.

What else do we have left to complain about if not small children singing the song with their dads? 🙄

Idiots will say we weren’t good. They’ll also say Pies are going to win the flag because twice they beat Adelaide by under a goal. Go Dees!

I think Adelaide have caught us off guard here. I don’t think anyone expected them to play so defensive and have an extra down back. We will adjust.

Save it for when the game starts. Only positive vibes pre game.

We beat Lions, we beat Dogs, we beat Geelong. And I bet my bottom dollar that if Oliver doesn’t do his hamstring we beat Port as well. There is a lot to be said for fighting back and winning. But there’s equally a lot to be said for not needing to constantly fight back to win, don’t you think? Why is Pies coming back and winning more impressive than Melbourne being in every game we play and rarely being in a position to not win it?

And we don’t? We fought back twice against the Lions, and against Port and held on against the Pies. Our average losing margin is exceptionally small for a reason. We just don’t get behind as often at the Pies, so nobody rates our ability to fight back and win. But that doesn’t mean we don’t or can’t. We fought back from 19 points down in a grand final and won by 70+.

Still drizzling constantly. Slivers of blue sky in the distance.

Neither of those guys would ever entertain going to West Coast. They are both at the stage of their careers where they want success.

I’d consider him, especially if Tommo leaves or we are still keen on Petty forward. May will be on the wrong side of 30 next year.

Terrible news for Ashcroft. You just hate to see this happen.

It’s currently raining here in Casey. Let’s hope it clears up. We know what happens to us in the rain 🙄

If that’s what they expected, then they severely overrated their list. They were nowhere near a flag last year. They were building nicely, but their list had some serious holes. One of those holes was not a ruckman however. Darcy is a top 5 ruck in the competition. It’s like if we paid what they paid to get Grundy while we also had Gawn. Madness. They also got rid of some really key players in the process of getting Jackson, which hurt them enormously. The joke is that Lobb produced far more up forward for them than Jackson probably ever will. Logue was also a really important part of their defense, which isn’t all that great, when you consider their game plan is built around defensive pressure.

He is, but he isn’t what Freo needed. They already have a gun ruckman. They overpaid because they thought he’d be a KPF who rucks. IMO he isn’t and will never be that. He’s a big midfielder and ruckman. That’s what he is. He’s wasted not being the main ruck. If Darcy leaves then it becomes a different proposition, but they traded not only a huge number of picks for him, but also some really key players in order to fit him into their cap. They went from a top 6 finish to a likely bottom 4 finish in the process. By all measures, this trade has been a disaster for them. With pick 4 this year they could go after a quality mid which they desperately need. Fyfe is finished and they haven’t been able to replace him.

But but but Peter Bell is the master negotiator

What have Tomlinson and Grundy done to deserve this career death sentence?

But we dropped some silly games in 2021 as well. We lost to Collingwood who were bottom 4. We lost to GWS at home. We drew with Hawthorn. Spending all your energy in the home and away season is fraught with danger. As is spending all your luck. Fighting back to win week after week is not only physically taxing it’s also mentally taxing. How long can you sustain that? We saw what happened last year. Started like a house on fire and then the burnt the house down to the ground in finals. Mentally and physically cooked. We have a totally different run home this year and if we can get Clarry and Fritta back and avoid any other injuries, I think we are as good a chance as any other top 4 side. We have the midfield and the defensive game to beat Collingwood, Brisbane and Port.

I agree with Brisbane, unless they play Port at the G. But I think you underestimate Port. I think because they’ve failed so many times in finals we tend to think that history will repeat itself. They were very good tonight. Very impressive. I think nerves got the best of them, but they should have won that game.

And yet we beat them, Brisbane beat them and Port lost by two points because they couldn’t convert their chances. As I said, good team, but just because the media tells me they’ve won the flag, doesn’t mean they’ve won the flag. Are Port not a chance now because Pies beat them by 2 points? Are we not a chance now because we lost to Port by 4 points? Or are the Pies no chance now because they lost to us? Any of the top 4 sides can win it. There isn’t one side that stands out so much or cannot be shut down. Control the corridor against the Pies, and don’t let them believe their own hype, and you win. By the way, our comeback against Brisbane last week was better than the Pies tonight IMO. Brisbane were far more dominant than Port during the game. Nobody talks about us as being real contenders tho do they? And Pies aren’t missing their best midfielder and their best forward tonight either.

Yeah they have two very good defenders. We have 7. They get split open on the counter because they play very one way attacking footy. It works when it works but it’s very costly when it doesn’t. DeGoey has never done a thing in finals. When he does I’ll start to worry. Daicos is a star. But he’s also a kid. A hard tag and he struggles. If you’re relying on him to win a flag, good luck. They went and got Mitchell because they struggle to consistently win the contested ball. Mitchell is a contested ball winning machine but a bog ordinary kick. Our midfield is a level above theirs. They don’t have Clarry or Viney or a Max Gawn. Their forwardline is ordinary but it’s still better than ours. But you can’t tell me their defense is better than ours. It simply isn’t. The sickening love of Collingwood is driven purely by the narrative in the media. It’s fun to watch a team come back every time and win. But really good sides aren’t constantly behind and having to grind wins. Port kick straight and Pies lose. We kick straight and Pies lose by a lot more. They are a good side, but luck has played a massive part in their journey this last two years. Last year it ran out in the prelim. This year I hope it runs out when we play them.

Yep that is basically all they have. They have a very ordinary forwardline, an ok midfield and an average defense. Where they excel is their resilience. They don’t ever think they can lose. They also have some great ball users. But you know who else has come back from big deficits and won? Melbourne. Port have a very poor defense. Just look at their percentage. They couldn’t shut the game down.

See my post above. They have Geelong, Port and Brisbane still to come

The only comfort

Great. Another week of hearing about how Collingwood is the greatest team in the universe.

Garbage result