poita

How he kicks 40 plus goals in that forward line with our woeful ball movement and kicking skills is beyond me. He would kick 70 in a team that had a clue how to play football.

80 plus possessions between Nick and Josh, and we didn't lay a finger on either all night. Teams must love playing against such a clueless, half hearted group.

A dismal performance by a disinterested and untalented group of players who were poorly coached by an individual who is completely clueless about modern ball movement and structures. Unfortunately the club seems convinced that overturning a few close losses is all that is keeping us from contending, when the reality is that we are light years from consistently competing with the better sides. Either through the draft, trades or internal improvement, we need to find 7-8 additional quality players by round 1 to hope to be competitive in 2025. Fronting up with the same tired, ageing group will guarantee a bottom 4 finish.

Laurie doesn't have a single part of his game that is AFL standard. The decision to extend his contract was appalling. Prior to tonight he'd played five games this year and been dropped four times. If the club is fair dinkum they should delist him and pay out his contract in the next week. To do anything else is just wasting everyone's time.

If we're going to gift a game to Laurie, we may as well have given Ben Brown a farewell match. They'd have much the same impact running through the midfield

A very thin midfield group gets a fair bit thinner with Purcell's injury. I was all for rejuvenating the list, but Eliza West would be handy right about now. The pre season form has to be a major concern, as does the reliance on Hore to play key roles all over the field.

Except that Geelong don't hand out 4 years to guys in their 30s. I love Jack Viney and never thought he'd leave, but a 4 year deal is insane.

Liam Reidy to debut this week. I hope we're watching closely.

I knew we were cactus when Brayshaw retired. I regained a small amount of hope after Geelong, but that was well and truly extinguished when the poor start against Carlton was followed by a four quarter debacle against West Coast. Ultimately too many players, coaches and officials have been sleeping on the job since September 2021, and especially since September 2023.

Not surprising. They are a big, well resourced club, playing a great style of football and have a coach that is currently getting the best out of his players. Contrast that to our horrible game plan and a list that has seen most players regress since 2021.

I prefer my captain to be in the team's best 22 players, so that rules out Lever. An AFL defender should be able to defend players 15cm smaller than them, but Lever would rather point and yell at teammates rather than being accountable for an opponent. Maybe that works when you are a top 4 side, or when a younger Steven May was able to do the work of two men, but we can't continue to carry Lever whilst we are struggling. The leadership cupboard looks fairly bare to me, but Neal-Bullen looks the best short term option before the next generation comes through.

The effort was very good from the majority of the players, but the execution of basic skills and the decision making was woeful from all other than Pickett. It's a very sad state of affairs when a side that has been top 4 for three years running has to resort to under 8s level congestion to keep themselves competitive. I'm not surprised at reports that players are unhappy and considering their options when we play like this. It is a horrible brand of football to watch and horrible to play. Ultimately it is not a game plan that can be played successfully for four quarters week after week, which is why we've put in some horribly uncompetitive performances this year. Goodwin will receive credit from some happy clappers for keeping us competitive this week, but he is doing massive damage to our brand by having us play in a manner than nobody wants to watch, even our "supporters". Don't complain when we have the bare minimum of marquee matches and FTA coverage next year. He also deserves significant criticism for his handling of Oliver and other injured players this year. When you have different rules for some favoured types, and allow certain players to dictate terms, you breed all sort of resentment and unhappiness. Oliver was an absolute liability last night and has been for weeks. He needs to be "managed" for the remainder of the season. Ditto his mates Lever and Melksham. I know Van Rooyen had a poor night, but his substitution in the last night forced Gawn to ruck the entire last quarter solo. The poor guy could barely stand in the last ten minutes he was so tired from carrying the team all year. It was an awful decision, made worse by the fact that his replacement contributed nothing.

I think the frustration around Kentfield is less about how he is performing and more about a club that is clearly confused about where it is placed, both now and in coming years. On one hand we have Goodwin still picking injured veterans in a forlorn hope of making finals and Lamb making bizarre player trades supposedly to keep us in a premiership window. On the other we get a chance to get an immediate impact in a need area in the MSD and we pick a highly speculative project player. We need to fully commit to one strategy or we set ourselves up for years of mediocrity.

Absolutely no way Salem should play again this year. How many times has broken down and left us a man short? Tomlinson for May makes sense, but Hore is another backwards move. He's another who is likely to injure himself in the first quarter. I can't believe Melksham gets to front up again after two woeful performances, but it helps being mates with the coach. I'd rather see Howes or AMW get a run on the wing and KBrown up forward, than Melksham get another game. All in all, very ordinary changes.

Windsor has been fantastic to date, and hopefully he has more levels to rise through. I'm not convinced by Tholstrup, and I certainly didn't want us to trade up to get him. Not taking more picks in that draft, plus the McAdam misfire, are both major negatives to me. Great series by the way.

The biggest mistake we made in this draft was not taking another pick to bring in a young midfielder. Surely we could have found someone to take a punt on with a late selection.

It all depends on the depth we have in each position. There's no point playing May and Lever at half fitness when Tomlinson, Petty and Turner are options. Viney at full fitness is irreplaceable, but at half fitness you may as well bring in Brown or (shudder) Laurie. Gawn is a stubborn fool so I'm assuming he'll keep playing until his leg falls off.

That's exactly the problem with our list - we keep wanting to give players like Laurie, McAdam, Smith and so on more chances, even though they've proven time and time again that they're not up to it. You could say the same about Salem given his past three years. At some point you have to rip off the bandaid and move on.

Since round 8: 4 wins, 8 losses, percentage of 84.76% - only the bottom 3 teams have performed worse over that period. With one star player and one other best 22 player on the injury list. Simply embarrassing from players and coaches alike.

I doubt Jefferson could have less impact than Melksham has in the past two weeks. My only fear is that our ball movement and forward structures are so dysfunctional that playing him at this time could be seriously detrimental to his confidence and development.

Bevo has never been afraid of trying things and moving players around. Goodwin never makes a move until the game is gone. Their situations are poles apart.

We're playing kids, but how can you be confident that most of them will make it? McVee and Van Rooyen will be fine. Windsor can clearly play. That's it. I have real concerns about Tholstrup, Howes, Moniz-Wakefield and Turner. Bowey has regressed. Laurie is a bust. Woewodin and Brown are triers, but not sure they can step up. Kentfield was a bizarre swing and miss.

Any faint hope was lost in the first ten minutes when all our match ups were completely wrong and our players were just casual observers. If the Bulldogs had kicked straight we would have (deservedly) lost by 100 points. The sooner Goodwin, Lamb and their ship of fools departs, the better.

Terrible quarter from the first minute to the last. We have maybe three players who want to be there, the rest are clearly looking forward to going on holidays.

6 players with 3 or less disposals. Any chance Pickett and Chandler can do anything useful?