Jaded No More

He’s also allowing us to play Ed in a more defensive wing role. Langdon is pushing back to help the defenders while Hunter pushes forward to help the forwards. He is also helping out the mids around the throw ins. Often he’s close by on the outside to help with the handball receives. He’s been incredibly important and is heavily involved in almost all of our forward ball movements. I just don’t get why people don’t rate him? Maybe because he was insufferable at the Dogs? 😂

I think that sadly that’s half the problem. He isn’t a showy player. He plays a disciplined team role which is very important but leaves him always competing with others for a spot. I love JJ and I think he has a lot to give but when you’re playing in a side blessed with so so much talent you need to stand out. Look how good Chandler is and it took him 3 years to get consistent game time. It’s the downside of playing in a good team. If JJ played for Hawthorn yesterday he’d be in their top best 5 players comfortably.

The temperature dropped really dramatically between the first and second quarter and there was a bit of dew. It made the ball and the ground slippery. I think that contributed to the fumbling. On JVR you can just tell from the small bits of play that he’s going to be a player. He has such a good attitude. He loves to compete and isn’t shy about asserting himself in a contest. He played higher up yesterday when Petty was off and did well to position himself in dangerous spots. Finished with 14 touches and 5 marks plus a goal. That’s a really good performance for a kid in his 7th game who just went through the week from hell.

Hopefully Crows get the job done over Saints as well. That will be great.

I’ve seen so many random midfield combos this year from us that I think we are genuinely taking the [censored] sometimes. When push comes to shove you’ll see Gawn, Clarry, Trac and Viney do 90% of the centre clearance work and you’ll see us win or at least break even in most of them. This year has been the most mid rotations I’ve seen us use under Goodwin. Trac is playing forward way more and Clarry is on the bench more often than ever. As is Viney. Gawn spends half the game at FF. This is not how things will pan out in September. But doing this now means that come September I’m not watching our best midfield combo limping on the field barely able to give a yelp like last year.

It won’t happen Hunter is an elite endurance athlete and covers so much ground. He is incredibly underrated.

Essendon doing remarkably well considering their outs.

Not one journalist wanted to ask Goody about Trac??? Sounds like Petty is precautionary and will be assessed during the week. Good chance to play Friday night.

Is it something that is likely to get better as the season progresses or not?

He looks injured to me. Kept grabbing his calf. He was off the ground for quite a bit and was in the square more than usual. Clearly pushing thru something @WalkingCivilWar isn’t he?

Need to wait for the injury fall out before we can make an assessment on team changes. I feel we need another tall down back anyway.

He hurt his toe. He came back on then subbed out at half time. I hope it’s precautionary. I guess Goody will tell us more.

Last week was not a soft kill. We got lucky to win.

God damn Hawthorn. Good for nothing useless football club. Relegate them.

I hope it’s a corky not a foot. Limping badly.

WHAT HAPPENED TO TRAC???

Finally got to 100

What a great kick. Rivers has been super today.

WHY?! 😭

I really hate how we capitulate in quarters. It’s one thing to do against good teams. It’s embarrassing to do it against a side that doesn’t even want to win.

Yep we need more from Spargo, ANB and Chandler for starters.

That was a rubbish quarter

Any news on Petty?

This is the [censored] I hate from us. Come out asleep and let them absolutely dominate clearances and ground ball. So disappointing.

I take back what I said. Bloody hell.