Jaded No More

I too sit right near the bench. Not only was Oliver dripping snot as he was coming to the bench (it was quite the sight 🤮), in the first quarter he was on hands and knees on the field, with our team doctor, sticking his fingers down his throat in an effort to make himself throw up as he was presumably unwell. As someone with a serious phobia of vomiting, that nearly ended my 25 year stint at the football 😂 JVR also looked absolutely cooked every time he ran to the bench. It was like the jogging to the bench was going to end him. COME AT ME FACE PALMERS 💪🏻

My apologies your royal highness 🙄

Are those 8 blokes aware that he's coming back from a serious injury and has had no pre-season? He might be just as poor playing defensively if he's struggling with his foot, except playing forward he is less costly when he's out of form than playing as a defender. Besides if those 8 fans came on Saturday night, they would have seen Petty play really well and take some very good marks playing up forward. You summed it up when you said our fan base is fickle. That's all there is to it, they pick and choose when to show up based solely on ladder position.

I think that he's held up his end of the signed contract for a very long time, winning 4 B&Fs (including in our premiership year), 3 AAs and 2 Coaches Awards. One bad season doesn't define someone's career, especially someone who has achieved so much already. He has to play a lot better next season, and if he doesn't, I am sure discussions will be had. But throwing away one of the best players to ever pull on the red and blue because of one bad season, where there are legitimate reasons for his output, is not only bad form it's bad culture. Also to say he is not invested is very unfair. You have no idea what he was/is going through off the field. He has battled so many personal demons, and a terrible hand injury that he still needs fixing. Someone who isn't invested is not putting in the hard yards to get themselves mentally fit to play like Clarry has. I think he would be feeling far more frustrated than any of us by his form. Do you think he goes home and is happy that he can't perform to the level he's used to? But for someone many inside the club thought would struggle to play at all this year, he's played all but one game and that is a massive credit to the hard work he has done off field on himself.

It is their right of course, but it's also a ridiculous reason not to attend a game. Are people refusing to go because Rivers is playing midfield? Or because TMac is back in defense? I understand that sometimes we don't play the most exciting brand of footy, but if we were playing the exact same way and winning and contesting for a flag this year, we would get the crowd numbers. The rest are just excuses. Our fans stop turning up when we stop winning. It's never been any different.

I would love a medal, for continuously trying to make sense of the need for posters to take every single thing that someone else says that they disagree with out of context. You wrongly noted we only missed 2 of our best 22 against Port, and I corrected you and said we also missed May (who I assume you agree is a best 22 player). You then went on and on because another posted noted that we were 'severely undermanned', not me mind you, another poster. So I just wanted to point out, that had you actually read this thread from the start, you'd know that straight after the game the ONLY comment I made was about our skills and decision making costing us the game. I never mentioned injuries. All I wanted to do was point out that you forgot to mention May in your list of outs. I even made a joke about him not being great, you know, to lighten the mood. Demonland is such a miserable place when we are losing, not because people are rightly frustrated and want to express their views, but because everyone who wants to be a sad sack gets so overly sensitive when someone else tries to refute their opinion, or show them the positives.

No it’s not, it’s just missing key players. I did note well before you did, in this very thread, that our skills and decision making are not good and were why we lost. Just thought I’d remind you that Trac and Windsor are not the only best 22 players we missing yesterday

Well when two of those players happen to be one of the best players in the game and one of the best defenders in the game, it’s quite something. Most teams missing their FB and number one player would struggle. Like if Port didn’t have Butters yesterday or Aliir Aliir I reckon we win.

Also missing May, but I guess he definitely doesn’t help stop goals so who cares about him 😂

You of course ignored the post where Brisbane is ranked number one for the number of players who played every game. I don’t disagree with you that we needed to get support for Max, but that doesn’t change the fact that we were never going to replace someone the quality of Gus or Trac or an underperforming Clarry in a mid season draft. I brought up Curnow because every side has injuries, but some players who get injured have a far bigger impact than others. IMO Trac is far more important to Melbourne than any of the players Brisbane have lost to injury, not to mention a far better player. For example I think the Dogs can’t win a flag without Bont even if the rest of their list is fit. Whereas Sydney bat very deep in their midfield so losing Mills didn’t hurt them. The point again being that the number of injuries is neither here nor there. It’s the impact they have on your side. Like last year, losing Melksham who is not exactly a premiership winning make or break player, but as you’ve noted yourself, was a massive out for us because our forward line was already down with other injuries. This year the injuries and lack of form has hit our midfield hard and it’s showed. Our midfield numbers have been atrocious in many games, but again let me be clear, that injuries alone are not the only problem. Set ups, game plan, fitness have all been major issues for us this year. Injuries just made these things worse, and can’t be brushed off as an excuse. We all know that having a healthy list is one of the most important factors when it comes to winning a flag.

Also thought this was an interesting one re: Brisbane

I already said that it’s not just injuries that have killed our season, so not sure why I have to debate this point again. All I mentioned is that it’s too simplistic to just list games lost thru injury. I mean why is Gus not included? He’s missed 22 games. We planned our season with him being on the list, only to lose him on the eve of the season without being able to replace him via draft or trade. Likewise Joel Smith. Brisbane started like a dumpster fire and picked up pace as the year progressed. They’ve done very well and credit to them. Let’s see if they fail again when it counts. My guess is they will. Let’s also see how Carlton goes now if they’ve lost Curnow for a while. Don’t think they’ll make the 8 without him.

Pies are sitting where we are. I never said it’s the injuries alone, but it’s absolutely part of the reason. On paper Clarry and Petty missed two games, but we all know they never got close to hitting form because they had interrupted pre seasons. There are a number of factors for why we are where we are, it’s not just injuries, but they certainly didn’t help. In a season so tight, the number of games we’ve lost by under a goal is the difference between 13th and 4th.

Also missed Lever for 4 games, Gawn missed 2, Bowey 8 weeks, Salem I don’t even know how many, Petty off no pre season and a serious injury, no Spargo, Melksham out for half the season, and the list goes on. And while some of those players are not make or break, what the sum of the injuries does is force you to play lesser or younger players for way longer than you would normally. That takes its toll over a long season. May is probably a 2 point difference yesterday as an example.

We tried changing the game style earlier in the season. It was very obvious we tried playing more attacking but we don’t have the players to play that style. And we lost the few quality ball users we had in Bowey and then Salem, plus Trac. We then reverted back to a contest and defense game style when it became obvious that we aren’t capable of executing a more attacking game style. I fully support changing the game plan and understand it’s important to evolve with the competition. But I also understand that we’ve been a bloody good team for 3 years now, and have given ourselves serious shots at multiple flags. I sat thru the Neeld years and I longed for the day that my side was competitive and a shot at finals. I didn’t care how we played, I just wanted not to be an uncompetitive embarrassment. And last night was a really good competitive performance. Regardless of game style, that is good enough for me to want to attend games.

Sure, but we were still a contest and defense first team. And we didn’t score highly during the season. We didn’t win by big margins either throughout the season. We were something else in finals, but our performances were an outlier. We had one of the best combined winning margin in finals in two decades. Look at how close most finals were last season. Including the grand final.

And yet I bet you were happy to attend finals and cheered when we won the flag with the same game style.

Luke Jackson trade has got us Jefferson and Windsor. At least one of those players will be better than Jackson.

Exactly this. One of if not the best spine in the league. A graders on every line. To not even make the 8, when their best players have been mostly healthy all season, is absolutely the worst underachievement of the season.

The answer is pretty obvious considering we had big turn outs the last few years playing a very similar game style. If we were in the 8 currently there would be at least another 5,000 people there yesterday, maybe more. The reality is that our fans stop turning up when things aren’t going well, and it doesn’t matter how good we’ve been the last 3 seasons. Which is really disappointing, because I thought the unquestionable effort yesterday from our players, with illness widespread, deserved better support. It’s also proven that noise of affirmation is a real thing and influences umpiring decisions. So that we can’t get decent turnouts to games, especially against interstate sides, means we miss out on that advantage. I bet that round 24 versus the Pies will be well attended, despite both clubs not playing finals. And I bet the crowd will be heavily skewed with Pies fans despite this being our home game.

Something that nearly ever member of Demonland likes to ignore. In a competition this close, luck and especially injury luck, is one of the key factors in winning premierships.

Just a lovely example of your posting right here Deadset if you don’t attend I don’t think the players will miss your “supporting”

Such sensitive defensive posters in here, who also get stuck into posters for being sensitive and defensive about our players and our club. Oh the irony.

Yes that’s very possible. He looked stuffed trying to get to the bench.

Really? All you’ve done the last few weeks is post one negative thing after the other about our club. How is it hyperbole to suggest getting less than 20,000 to a Saturday night match in perfect weather is embarrassing? And nobody is shaming anyone. We’ve been thru this before, if you have a legitimate reason to not attend that’s fine. But there are plenty of who just simply didn’t attend and stopped attending because we aren’t playing great football. Watch them all come out of the woodworks when we play finals again.