rufus

What a great contribution he has made to the club. An outstanding 1 on 1 competitor and never once saw him shirk a contest in the red and blue. He is the embodiment of where this club needs to get to with his relentless competitiveness. He might not have been the most naturally talented player to take the field, but to me he is just about the finest example of what I'd like my kids to aspire to in their sporting pursuits.

Absolutely damning for the players that we've just played a final with that level of pressure. Everyone lamenting our F50 entries are still not ticking that it is pressure up the ground that causes turnovers that allow the ball to come in faster and more dangerously. Fritsch, who's improved physicality in the 2021 finals was key has been called out for his softness on Thu by Luke Hodge. I guess we might get a response on Fri night from the players...but it's scary that we have a whole game plan built around contest and pressure yet we can dish this up in 3 finals in a row. Still just feels like when push comes to shove and things get really hard, our club is the one getting the shove. I think that given we are still prone to drop off in effort at this stage of the year, we're out of the hunt this season. But if we don't fix this next year, this era of our most gifted midfield and backline talent for 50 years might be defined by us just not being able to go hard enough for long enough.

They look very good. They are getting plenty from their young players too...not many players you can try to expose through their team.

Watching the Lions actually makes me feel better about our situation. I thought our finals efforts last year were pathetic but thought we were only at best the 2nd best team in it...didn't think we could beat Geelong anyway. Doubt we'd have much chance against Bris this year...our intensity lapses will see 6+ goals piled on us by these guys. It's easier to move on from a disappointing end when there's a clearly superior outfit in the mix.

Agree with this. I don't hate Collingwood at all...I absolutely admire the way they give 100% all the time. There are no ifs or buts for them. There is a rarely a feeling of excuses like 'yeah but if we had Nick Daicos playing we would have been better'. Such great value for their fans. I actually believe their list right now is bog ordinary yet here we are likely seeing them in another GF. Unbelievable. Compared to us with one of the most dominant midfields of the last 25 years and potentially about to lose a 4th final on the trot.

Goody can't go out there and kick it for them. He's given them a method that generated 26 shots at goal to 16, despite the players starting the game like under 14s playing a match against the under 16s. Is it his job to get them motivated to start the game with the requisite intensity? Maybe, but you would think that after last year's finals debacle a bit of pride would have seen the players drive that themselves.

Just have the weirdest feeling about how it is all unfolding for us after last night. I personally do not believe the problem was that much to do with our method going forward. We were pathetic in the contest in Q1 (really could have been down 35 at qtr time), and all game our forwards were frankly embarrassing. They were given more than enough chances to win the game and they completely sh@t the bed. It's weird because I think we have a method and a midfield and a backline that is so dominant that I think we should make it to the GF and then beat Coll on the day...yet I fully expect that we will lose next week. I still have no confidence in this club just finding a way.

Lost in the first quarter. For a team coming off 2 insipid finals performances last year to get smashed at the contest like we did in Q1 is just hard to fathom. How many teams have done two consecutive straight sets exits? Are we going to add another 'embarrassing record' to our list?

An absolute shambles at the contest in that qtr. Beaten in almost every 50/50 contest. That had nothing to do with umpires coaching or selection. Players need to show something or we're hobbling into a fight against back to back straight sets next week.

Max mentioned during the week that the manner of last year's finals defeats was embarrassing for the group and that they have talked about it this week. I love that and I hope the burn from last year drives them to do everything they can to avoid it happening again.

Our last few months have been encouraging in that we've been able to ratchet up the physicality and pressure and ultimately overwhelm teams with it. That is something we had not seen for the prior 12 months (it had been happening to us in fact). It is much more like our 2021 performance. We are going to get hit harder than we have been hit physically during this 3 year run tonight (starting with Max who they will smash physically by any means possible). Hopefully we hang tough for those first 20 minutes and give it back to them 10 fold.

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.