Jaded No More

I think there is no argument to be made that Petty is a better player down back than Tomlinson. We all recognise that. However on team balance, Tomlinson can get the job done in the backline without robbing us of our defensive power IMO. But do we have someone who can play the role that TMac played in 2021 other than Petty? I think not. BB is not a Petty replacement. They are very different players. BB is a stay at home forward. He has neither the speed, nor the ground level agility nor the fitness to play the high forward role that we've been desperately missing since Tmac got injured. I would argue that BB need to play and Gawn has to not play forward, because a forward he ain't. JVR could play the Tmac role long term, but it's asking too much from him right at this moment. I think we can play all of JVR, BB and Petty forward, especially with Fritta injured and especially if we let go of the hope that Gawn becomes a goal kicking marking forward. You would play JVR is the Fritta role, because he is very competitive at ground level and is a good kick for goal. You play Petty in the Tmac role, to give us an actual marking target to kick to going inside 50, and you play BB deep for that "kick it long and deep and hope" play which will either result in a mark or will create a spillage to give our smalls a chance to crumb closer to goal, not 55m out on an 87 degree angle! For mine Smith is neither here nor there. He is more of a defensive medium forward. You could play him instead of Chandler or ANB realistically, but that won't happen. If they want to keep trying him then he can stay ahead of JVR for now.

My issue is that we haven't settled on a best 23 and it's July! I don't know what our best mix is. Do you? and more worryingly, do our coaches? I just don't understand why we persevered with Petty forward, only to throw him down back again just as Tomlinson was finding good form and we were starting to get back to our defensive best. And it's not as if Petty is setting the world on fire down back. He's been good, but it feels counterproductive when we have someone else who can step into that role, and a forwardline screaming for anything resembling quality.

Without Fritsch, this must surely be the way forward. We will not win a flag with a forward combination of Gawn/BB/Smith. We just won't.

Probably one of the worst games for him to return in. It was an absolutely no win situation in these conditions. He fought manfully and gave us a contest, but FFS those conditions were the least suited to talls, and we ended up with 3 giants, 2 down on form and 1 back from a long lay off in the seniors. It was, quite frankly, bad team selection. JVR would have been as good in these conditions, and BB would have been better off coming in this week on a dry and fast deck where he has done his best work.

Appreciate your update. I am fearing he won't play again this year and have resigned myself to that fact, along with our chances of winning a flag slipping away. I just hope it is not an injury that will impact him long term, because he is so important to us. Fingers crossed it's something he can get right and come back cherry ripe in 2024. Please pass on all the good healing vibes from every Melbourne supporter. I think he is one player that is universally regarded as one of our very very best and most important! As for the vitriol, I think it's only as bad as you take it. There is as much good analysis mixed in with obvious and understandable frustration, as there is out and out rubbish. I am sure the players are feeling very frustrated, and so it is only fair that supporters feel the same. I can count on one hand the spiteful comments I've seen here post match to be honest. Most of it is people trying to make sense of the recent poor form, especially forward of centre. As far as footy forums go, this has to be one of the best ones for analytical discussion vs pure [censored] ratio. I don't know that you'd ever log on to a Carlton or Richmond supporter forum!

According to @WalkingCivilWar it wasn’t sounding good yesterday. I guess we will know more today or tomorrow.

You cannot drop Kosi. No matter how 'down' on form he is, he is one of only two forwards in our side who can make something out of nothing, and is a reliable kick for goal. Considering the other one might not play again this season, if you drop Kosi you might as well concede that we won't kick more than 5 goals a game.

We kept them to 12 scoring shots. Hard to complain about that, when they kept us to 90000 scoring shots, 89999 of them resulting in no score.

I have a lot of sympathy for our defenders, who are absolutely dominating, only to watch our forwardline break down so spectacularly at the other end. Bowey kicking a goal yesterday was just so ironic. Of course one of our most talented ball users who is of course a defender, goes forward and nails a shot on goal. He must be wondering WTAF is going on. It might be time to switch things up and look to push Bowey or McVee to a wing and/or half forward, because frankly if I have to keep watching the dysfunctional mess that is our forwardline, I am going to poke both my eyes out with a hot stick.

I agree with this. But I think we need some new assistants next season.

It feels like for every game Pies somehow find a way to win, we find a way to lose. It really is so infuriating 😭

Or the mental health activists

This is soul destroying stuff.

I think if we can learn to execute simple skills anywhere near and around the forward 50, we can win the game and the premiership. Sadly it’s been 78 years since we’ve had a functional forwardline and an ability to create meaningful entries forward.

If you saw him walking off the ground at half time, you could see how upset he was. He was visibly distraught. At this point in his career there is absolutely no doubt in mind it is mental. All in his head. This is a guy who kicked an impossible soccer goal in a grand final when everything was on the line. He is a NSM and one of the best players in the game. He needs to seek help to get over the mental demons that are haunting him around goal, because nothing he does at training seems to be working when he’s out on the field.

I am saying tho that we shouldn’t be still fatigued now. This is when we should be starting to run on top of the ground. So either we planned things badly, or we are carrying injuries we don’t want to admit. I’m all for looking at reasons for a loss beyond “we suck” and I’m trying hard to look past the really disappointing month we’ve had. Maybe @binman will give me some hope.

Saints still found a way to win. If only we could say the same.

We are one of the few sides to lose to a team coming off a bye. I am not a denier of loading, but at what point do we stop using fatigue to excuse really basic fundamental errors that you don’t even see at VFL level? And when do we start getting back to peak fitness? Because it feels like we’ve been running in cement for weeks now.

I mean our effort wasn’t the problem today. We dominated every key stat associated with “effort”. You can’t ask the players to physically put themselves in the contest anymore than they did. Effort is not the issue. It hasn’t been since the early days of Paul Roos. Execution and game plan is the issue.

Tell him that I’ll leave a tub of hair gel out for him while I have a mental breakdown at the thought of our forwardline without him

Has been unbelievable all season and especially since Clarry went down. Superb game from him yet again. The effort across the board was very good. You can’t question the commitment or the hardness. We played very good strong contested footy. But we cannot execute simple skills and we make some mind boggling decisions going forward. It is why Bowey, Salem and McVee stand out so much. Because their ball use is at top tier god levels, and the rest are at VFL reserves levels.

I give this post negative 900 stars. Wish I didn’t read it I do really appreciate the updates @WalkingCivilWar

He was looking for Salem or Rivers to run past. I think that we don’t know what we are doing going inside 50 and it shows.

It is getting increasingly difficult to take positives from games that we dominate in every key stat, but lose with diabolical forward half play and frankly embarrassing goal kicking.