Jaded No More

Pretty harsh on Tmac. Spent most of the prelim in the backline plugging holes and rucking.

We need to have an actual second ruck as well. Max was spent. You can’t have your best player spent at the key part of the season. We need to get that sorted.

I’m just so bloody glad I’m out of here on Sunday morning for a week. I shall spend grand final day as I have the last 18... drinking with friends. Then I will fly to the other side of the world where I can ignore all AFL related things.

And you can’t help but be disappointed when you watch these games and realise just how many list cloggers we still have. Hopefully some have had their papers stamped. I’d rather punt on pick 80 in the draft than keep most of these players.

It has been a pretty awful weekend for the MFC.

It’s still not ok to cheat.

Garlett is poo

This is the most rigged umpiring I have ever seen. Disgusting.

Seriously umpires PAY THE [censored] MARKS THE OTHER WAY FOR ONCE!!!

Much like apparently Nicholls is in the best 6 umps in the AFL. The mind boggles.

Highlight so far is watching Oliver shovel chips into his mouth in the stands. End of season well and truly started ?

Yep til the end of 2019

He was absolute garbage last week too. At least he’s touching something this week, even if it just a microphone.

Fritsch and Vince are a massive level up from this. Both really stand out. Garlett is such a disappointment. What do we do with him next year?

Definitely think the FD is in agreement since we have met with May. We need a strong experienced defender. Since we lost Frawley our backline has been lacking quality talls. I think Oscar has a lot of potential. He is a decent user of the ball and is calm under pressure and usually makes good decisions. Frost is too hit and miss. I would love a starting backline in 2019 of May, Oscar, Lever, Jetta, Salem and hopefully a fit and in form Hunt. This will free Fritsch to play wing which I think is where he will excel with another AFL pre season under his belt. We need to really invest in Stretch as well. He has a lot of attributes to make him a modern day wingman. He just needs continuity and to settle into a single role. I also don’t mind Vanders. I thought he was one of our best yesterday when he was on the wings. Could be another option. If we can’t get Gaff I would save our cash and go hard for Kelly next year.

Wow Box Hill really cannot kick for goal. Lucky for Casey as they’re really dominating at the moment.

So might as well make the vice captain our real captain then. Being captain is not just about on field leadership. There is a whole heaps of off field stuff that goes with it, which I think Jones is very good at and it helps takes a lot of the pressure off Viney.

I’m very calm today and I’m over this loss already. We weren’t ready and the lessons we take away from today will help shape us over the pre season. But for us 2018 was the beginning not the end. And I can’t wait to see what happens next. Bring on trade and draft week (we excel at those!) and bring on the next decade. Go Dees!

I would like to see Viney get thru a full season without injury before we discuss a full time captaincy role

Listen I’m all for the premiership or bust theory. I want a flag and nothing else really pleases me much. However to say that not winning a flag is a bust, is an absolute joke. Richmond can say that, but not us. We wanted to make finals and we did. We were hopeful to win a final and we did. We won two against experienced mature teams who have weathered this storm before. We went to Perth and we failed. It was a mammoth task against yet another very experienced team. We do not walk away from this season as losers, even though we lost the game. We now have a better understanding of what it takes. And we are as well placed as we have been at any time in the last decade to win a premiership.

Not alone. But is also not the future. 2019 is his last year.

Look at the age profile and experience of Collingwood. Their best player last night is what, 30? We are at the start of a long ride to the top. Enjoy it. We take good lessons from today, look to improve our list in the off season, and move on. Lever, a fit Stretch and Hunt, another year of development into Weids Oliver and Brayshaw and hopefully a full season from Viney and we should finish top 4 and ensure we play at the G heading into the grand final.

It was. 10 or so of their players played in their last grand final in 2015. 1 of our player has played in a grand final. Only 2 played in a final before this year.

Terrible terrible way to end the season. But it’s been a very good season and a great building block for a bigger and better 2019.

Trac marks and passes to Tyson. Kill me. Can someone in Perth go run Nicholls with their car at the end of the game? Kthbxby.