Jaded No More

I have never cared less about a game.

I assume TMac will be a late out and Gawn will spend more time floating back to help our defence. Preuss will help in the ruck and rest forward and poor Weids will be saved from the horror of having to take Centre ruck contests.

The helmet does nothing to stop a concussion. Brayshaw wears it because his mum wants him to. He got elbowed in the head. It happens. He obviously is very prone to concussion and we need to manage that. I assume they’ll do with him what they did with Gus and Jetta before him, both of which, touch wood, have come out the other end.

Yeah it’s not been a good run from our recruits over the last 2 years. Lever and KK haven’t done much wrong. Can’t really help knee or head injuries.

KK ruled out after a head knock last week? Very concerning given his head injuries in the past.

Another 10/10 moment brought to you by MFC trading.

I have a feeling I’ll be crying into my wine by quarter time as Buddy kicks his 17th goal.

It’s getting harder and harder to enjoy AFL these days. Between the MRP, the favoritism, the rigged draw, the pathetic standard of umpiring and the rubbish rule changes, the enjoyment is really passing me by.

I shake my head at the Joel Smith one. FFS!

And yet despite their poor standards and lack of training expectations, they have won 2 games and we have won 0.

Gold Coast have won 2 more games than us. Kill me.

So we did no due diligence and no medical before we traded pick 6 for him?

Correct. He is by far our best player and his physical game style is what makes him so good. It’s like asking Viney to be less aggressive at the contest. Neither of them, nor Gus are there to be beautiful users of the footy. Their role is to get the ball in and out of the contest and feed it out cleanly. Oliver is a good user anyway, but all high clearance players generally have higher turnover numbers. It comes with the territory of always disposing under pressure. When it comes to his disposal by hand he rarely makes a mistake.

Making a call on players is not a reflection of people working hard or not. He may not be the best coach but I have no doubt he works hard and is working even harder now to try and turn things around.

Hasn’t played for essentially 2 years. Had no pre season and came in off the back of a practice game in the VFL. Playing limited minutes. Clearly needs to build his fitness again. He can play, it’s proven. He just needs to get himself going again after all those head and neck injuries. It took Gus a good while too, including spending time at Casey. And look at him now. I think he deserves our patience. If by mid year he’s still barely going then I’d start being worried. I don’t even think he would be playing if Vanders, Hannan, Lewis, Lever etc were fit. They rushed him in.

I’m sure he’s worked his butt off. But he never should have come in to begin with unfit. This was his second chance, a new club on the up, experience some success and good culture. And he turns up unfit. It’s pretty [censored] poor. If he was a kid you’d let it slide. But Jesus he’s been around for long enough now. Combine that with his brain fade in the JLT and I think he’s really not made the best impression. I compare him to Lever, 6 years his junior, and the level of professionalism he has shown to his rehab and I shake my head. We invested a LOT in him. I hope he repays the faith. Because if he’s gonna continue to be unfit and be sidelined with multiple soft tissue injuries as he was at GC, it will be one of the costliest trading decisions the MFC has made this decade. And God knows they’ve made a few.

The wings of the MFC- where slow declining players go to retire.

This makes me so angry. We traded a 50 goal a year forward (for a combination of reasons which I support btw), and then gave up pick 6 for someone who wasn’t even in shape! I like May and I know why we traded for him, but FML how did the club not do their due diligence? Why did Goodwin not go meet with him during the trade period and tell him he has to come in to pre season raring to go. I mean what sort of a 27 year old footballer even needs to be told that? And he was a vice captain? Laughable stuff Our backline is an epic failure and the player we recruited and spent so much on to rectify that isn’t playing because he’s unfit. The mind boggles.

This. Rawlings left to get Casey to a grand final, while our defence wouldn’t get us out of a wet paper bag.

Totally spot on. We think that if we win every clearance we will win the game. This never happens. Teams have figured us out. Not only did we do nothing in pre season to rectify our defensive issues, we did nothing to prepare for 6-6-6 and we did not actively chase pace. We have got to be the slowest team in the league. Even a dime a dozen speedy half back flanker like Saad would do.

Middle of the road? I miss middle of the road! We are dead set last. Welcome home Demons fans. Welcome home!

Worst defensive side in the league.

It really saddens me to say, but unless Jones can reinvent himself as a half back flanker, as Lewis did, I think he is done. Which is heartbreaking because nobody deserves to be around for our success* more than he does. *success unlikely

Would it have hurt to wait until round 6 to give him an extension? Because right now we look pretty ordinary. Also unless Pert is doing a Schwabb and getting involved in football matters, his job has zero to do with our appalling form. He ain’t playing FB last time I checked.

Players should always be supremely confident. So I have no issue with that. I have an issue with coming out after half time flat and devoid of any urgency.