rufus

Elliott is exactly why I want Hibberd playing. Our best 1 v 1 defender for the smaller forwards.

The selection decisions around the last 2 talls (prob one forward and one back) are going to be very interesting...I honestly have no idea what they can do. Tomlinson I am not sure is up to a big final...and I am sure we cannot put McDonald out there in a big final with his lack of ability to contest in the air or on the ground. We've just seen it too many times. Think we'll end up going with a pretty small forward line with Fritsch coming back. Also if we do select Tomlinson I really want Hibberd in the 23 so we have a really strong one on one competitor in the mix for the back 6.

Credit to the club and players for securing top four for the 3rd successive season. Something completely unprecedented in my time following the Demons, and something to be very grateful for. I actually felt we were getting a bit shaky for finals before the last win streak so top four is a massive result. Do they have it in them to find a way to 3 more wins this year? I'm not sure but they have given themselves a chance to fight for it...if we can't take home the ultimate prize I hope we make another team really earn it on the way out...

60 minutes to show some top 8 level competence otherwise top 4 is slipping away from us. Underwhelming but not unsurprising.

The way to deal with a young team like this is to hit them harder around the contest than they have been getting hit recently. Second last round I reckon they could put the queue in the rack if we make it very uncomfortable for them from the jump. If we let them play the way they're wanting to play this could go very badly for us.

I think the coach is the most important person at an AFL club and by some margin. Without Clarkson those Hawks sides would not have achieved close to what they did. Same goes for Richmond. Both were able to get full buy in...players prepared to sacrifice a bit of their own potential glory for the good of team (which ironically ends up enhancing the reputation of the individuals anyway). For Goodwin to have got that buy in during 2021 is something I will forever be grateful for and in awe of. We had everyone bought in all the way down to getting more physicality from our less physical players like Fritsch. Hopefully Goodwin can conjure that up again with this group at some point between now and when Oliver and Gawn are too old to be the cream that can carry us over the top. We are not quite there at this stage.

This is exactly right. And it's getting way too close to the pointy end for us still to be lapsing in that regard. If we can't apply that pressure to a finals level consistently then we'll have simply wasted another season in a way that was in our control.

Defence was poor. Our senior players had another one of those games that completely belies their experience and played like first year players. While they are pretty good most of the time, our senior backs just have too many brain farts to lift our defence to the levels that other repeat premiers were able to get to. 47 tackles to 69 on our home ground is abysmal. 1 to 13 tackles inside 50 actually suggests we just don't understand what makes our current style of play work. That lack of pressure on the oppo is exactly what causes our crowd to lose engagement in the game as we enact our 'by the numbers' ball movement. Thought Adelaide were the better team and were probably hard done by with umpiring too. Still, we have lost some close ones where we were probably the better team, so it seems to be evening out. End of the day, we certainly didn't look a class above a 13th placed team who were out of form and coming to our patch. Was hoping last week's win might have started building some momentum as it really is time to start pressing for the home run now. But from the perspective of winning finals we look miles behind Coll and Bris who I think are the pack leaders, and would struggle with Port and Carlton the way we are playing right now.

Interesting hearing Goodwin and one or two players mention after the game about engaging attack mode when we really needed to score at the end. Footy games these days go in big momentum swings, much like how NBA games go. Would love our leaders on the ground to be in a position to call for us to engage that attack mode during games when we have the momentum. That is the time to cash in and at times I think we could get the 25 point buffers that we regularly seem to build out to 45 and break the oppo. I think it would also result in our forwards getting better looks and building confidence. Not going into attack mode is what cost the Saints flags in that 2009-2010 period...they dominated games only to keep their opponents within reach by sticking with the ultra defensive method. Same for Freo a few years later.

The result was very important from a ladder perspective. But irrespective of that, the fact that we stood up and completely dominated them in the contest for the last 40 minutes was the biggest takeout. That 'never give up' attitude is a big part of what we need to embed into our culture. If we bring our contested game from that last section of the game more consistently then we would have a chance to do some damage. Seems maybe we go as Max goes a bit. He's a legend of our club and if he's going to be at his best when given a full run at it without Grundy, then Grundy stays in the two's. Also great to win in a game where our defence was pretty ordinary and without our best ever midfielder (who also happens to be the best mid in the game). I guess it also can't be understated the difference it makes when Petracca kicks 4 goals instead of 4 points.

Players should be fired up to take it to this mob physically...after the awkward fallout from the Gabba game at the end of last year we rolled over to them in the biggest moment on our home ground in a final. They belted us at the contest earlier this year too. In my view, it's our players who can get the crowd involved. If we lay some big hits and put them under a heap of pressure the crowd will respond and get into the game. With our style of play, if our pressure is off the crowd loses interest very quickly and we lose that home ground advantage.

Our important numbers have been decent over the last few weeks but we haven't been winning much (i50s, contest pos, tackles, tackles i50, scoring shots for and against). Today we got pretty well beaten in a lot of numbers but found a way to win, which is great. Badly needed win and keeps us in a decent position to make finals. Reality is though, if you only play 1 or maybe 2 games a season where you bring a level of heat that matches or exceeds your opponent's level over the full 4 quarters then you just aren't a contender. We just drop the pressure off way too often within games. Not sure if it is a fitness thing or maybe the coaching messages just aren't hitting the mark, but we are rapidly wasting a window of opportunity here.

I don't really care about the optics of the argument between Oliver and the fitness guy. I only care about Oliver getting back ASAP. If he misses too many more I am concerned we're going to slip out of the 8...and this whole era that was nicely building 2 years ago will continue to waste away.

Normal service resumed. Embarrassing.

That's not just a this season thing either. They fight like tooth and nail and want to dominate teams...we are so submissive when the pressure really gets turned on...been that way for a long time. We just don't know how to become winners. The absolute delusion from the club through the spruiking of our 'changed culture' after 2021 was embarrassing at the time...but now it looks like maybe they really did think the work had been done and everything would just happen from there. The approach of Richmond, on field and off field, to strive for sustained success after 2017 puts our club to absolute shame. You win a flag, then 10 games in a row, then opposition start throwing some different stuff at you and we just completely wilted...the heart just isn't there.

Eventually I guess you just have to laugh. From premiers back to our normal historical calamity within about 10 months. We played 3.9 quarters of competent football against Collingwood...the only time anywhere near 4 quarters for over 12 months and then 2 weeks of utter Shi'ite. These guys are energy suckers and people wonder why our crowd is bored out of their brains watching us play at the 'G. Prideless pea hearts.

Great win. We took the physical/attrition side out of the equation by matching them in that aspect for a full game. We needed to get back to winning a game that way. Might the result have been different if both teams weren't affected by missing/potentially underdone players? Who cares. Because if we play with that level of effort and happen to lose a final to a better team then so be it. If we bring sub par intensity like our finals last year, and the Ess/Port/Freo games this year, we will lose finals and it will again leave a really bad taste in the mouth. Also, that's 2 weeks in a row where we have conceded under the magic 18 scoring shots to our oppo. I believe that is the number that would see us being there at the pointy end.

Pies list of missing players will not be the deciding factor today. They recently (and historically) best us by being harder and stronger for longer all over the ground. Today is another big test for whether we can go hard enough for long enough against decent competition.

This times 1000. Is and has for a long time been the missing piece that drives the big gap between our best and worst.

I guess each umpire has 2 buttons...one for each team. Need two presses for the same team to award a free.

My solution to the umpiring problem: - Get three of them off the ground and sitting behind a TV monitor. - Each has a button to press, if they think free kick hit the button. - Two or more buttons pressed, fourth umpire (on ground) gets signal into ear piece, blows whistle and pays free. Obviously would need some tweaking but in general the advantages are: - Decisions no longer influenced by crowd at all. - Decisions no longer influenced by anything being said on the field. - No more players complaining to umpire (the one on the field is simply the messenger). - More consistent decisions with each contest being adjudicated by three people. - Should not slow the game down as technology should allow the decision and communication to happen in an instant - Generally get a better view of the contest from TV screen anyway. The main things that would need working through: - Watching off ball / off screen stuff. - Anything sound related (e.g. touched kicks or contact made that was not clear to see but could be heard). - Is one on field 'messenger' enough to keep up with where the ball is.

I reckon it will definitely come down to 3 three you've mentioned. The 4th team in a preliminary finally is going to be significantly out of their weight division (unless Geelong perks up). When our intensity and pressure are up we can hang with those top sides, but we have too many lulls and unfortunately we just don't seem to have the ability to execute offensively when under pressure...which hurts in keeping the scoreboard ticking over against good sides.

Losing Hibberd hurts us given he's one of our guys who attacks the contest the right way. Harmes and McDonald out should theoretically help our contest, although our depth is looking very concerning when Smith and Tomlinson are now both in the side. Hunter also a net negative for our chance of putting up a decent effort if tested in the physicality stakes. Simply can't see us winning without Oliver if Carlton bring the heat physically...hopefully they don't (or we go back to applying pressure like we did for a fleeting period a few years back, in which case we'd be fine).

Carlton are going to pressure us physically big time...that's how they very nearly beat us with half a VFL team last year. Collingwood will obviously go harder for longer than us...they wanted it more both times last year and can't see how we'll go toe to toe with them in the pressure stakes. Who knows with Geelong...their pressure has dropped off a bit like ours...but they do have a recent history with an expectancy of competitiveness which will continue to hold then in good stead...

This is it. And you have to ask why? Don't these guys want to win another flag? Is it all just too hard? Collingwood have a team of good ordinary players yet they crack in every week...and look at the results.