poita

Woefully inept performance for all but the last 5 minutes when Hawthorn had moved on to next week. There are comfortably 10 players from today who I'd be happy to never see play for the club again. If we go into next year with Sparrow, Langdon, Chandler and Salem as walk up selections, we're certain that to be bottom 6 again. Select them when there is a defined role and they are in form, but they play VFL otherwise. May is done and should retire. We need to start from scratch in defence, probably building around Petty. And Sharp, as expected, was completely useless. He offers less than nothing.

Sharp is playing his 17th AFL game this week - I'm pretty sure the limit is 12 to be eligible for VFL finals. I would have thought Howes would be okay either way as he has only played 10 AFL games, but perhaps the rule is less than 12 AFL games.

Also, not sure if it has been mentioned earlier, but congratulations to Harry Petty on reaching 100 games this week. It has been a long road to get there, but his last few weeks have been solid. Hopefully he can have a big 2026.

I'm pretty sure we've tried Sharp enough times already and have seen what he can contribute (very little). How are we possibly worse off by having a look at Brown or Woewodin at this stage of the season?

Jobe Fricken' Watson - what the heck would he know about being part of a successful, high performing sporting organisation?

I think one of the problems is that there is no secondary competition to keep players active if they are not playing (once the local leagues finish in September). With only 21 playing each week, there will be plenty of clubs with 5 or 6 players twiddling their thumbs on the sidelines. That said, it is hugely disruptive to teams from the VFL and other state leagues if Melbourne start raiding them for players with finals starting in the next few weeks. I don't know what the solution is, other than playing AFLW from March - September like every other competition in the country.

21 according to the link below https://central.rookieme.com/afl/player/flynn-riley/

Kate Hore at No.14 (below Eliza West) - that's hilarious.

I'd pack Lever's bags and drive him to his new club free of charge if we could get a first rounder for him. I'd happily move on Salem and Langdon for nothing as well to get their contracts off the books.

Another big day for Crystal Palace fans with victory over Liverpool in the Community Shield overnight. If the club can hold on to Guehi and Eze, this group is capable of doing some damage this season.

Overall the effort is pretty good, but our skills are disgusting. I can't count the number of times we have been streaming towards goal and have missed a target by 10 metres. The fact that Salem, Chandler and Sparrow have played every game this year (when fit) tells you exactly why we are in the bottom 6. And yes, Baker is clearly the best wing on either side. Great to see him doing well.

Nobody is questioning his ability to dominate at VFL level, however I note he still didn't hit the scoreboard with those 22 touches.

Harry Sharp's last three months: Round 10: Activated sub Round 11: Subbed off Round 12: Full game AFL Round 13: Dropped, no game Round 14: Played VFL Round 15: Bye Round 16: Activated sub Round 17: Activated sub Round 18: Dropped, played VFL Round 19: Full game AFL Round 20: Dropped, played VFL Round 21: Activated sub Round 22: Dropped, ?? In 12 weeks that's 2 full AFL games, 3 VFL games, 4 games activated sub, 1 game subbed off, and 2 weeks off, plus whatever comes this week. Firstly, I'm not sure what we expect from him when we drop him and bring him straight back the next week. Secondly, how is he ever going to develop when he is yo-yoing between AFL and VFL, and playing completely different roles in each?

Yawn, another underwhelming week at selection. To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't dropped Sharp and replaced him with Spargo or Tholstrup - swapping those guys around seems to be the extent of the selectors' creativity this year.

I can only assume that Laurie's two year contract extension was given because of great attendance or some other intangible, because it surely wasn't based on his football potential. I don't understand why this club continually rushes into list management decisions that can be held off for another 12 months or more (see Viney's extension for another example). I do feel sorry for Laurie that he hasn't been given an opportunity this year when others of similar ability have received plenty, but ultimately he is just a very average footballer.

I'm okay with Campbell getting another year, but neither he or Verrall is our long term Gawn replacement. The sooner we get our future no.1 ruckman on to the list, learning from Gawn, the better.

A permanent forward who has kicked 1 goal in 10 games this year. Supposedly a wonderful kick inside 50, but he only has 4 goal assists in those 10 games. I genuinely don't understand what his role is meant to be, but surely he can't be performing it to the level expected. No doubt he played an important part in 2021 but, like most of his teammates, he has gone significantly backwards since. The best thing for both player and club would be for him to find a new home at year end, likely as a delisted free agent.

Hasn't Ed got a life time ban from speaking publicly? Hopefully it is a once-only connected to his milestone game.

Normally I'd agree, but our record of trading with Collingwood in the past 30 years is spectacularly bad.

I suspect we might see a pretty half hearted effort this week as well. It will be tough for the players to get up for this one.

I'm not a Goodwin fan, but I thought he conducted himself very well all things considered. Green was pretty unimpressive and I feel less confident in our ability to navigate our way through this mess than I did half an hour ago.

Sharp has been dropped 3 times in his past four games. Sure, we know he's not an AFL standard player, but lets give him yet another opportunity because he kicked a few goals in the VFL. Culley should have played last week, but better late than never. Hopefully he avoids the sub vest. Lindsay should have been rested a month ago (probably against Port). Hopefully he actually does sit this week out, instead of playing at Casey. Spargo should have about five mates playing with him at Casey - Sparrow and Salem for starters. I assume he'll get his standard 15 touches and come back in next week, probably for Sharp. And Viney being selected this week when injured is the dumbest thing I have ever heard, and this club has made plenty of dumb decisions this year.

Super footballer, absolutely yes. We should have gone after him even harder about 3 years ago when Collingwood last tried to stuff him around.

That's great news, and something that should have happened last week (if not earlier). But ... having sat out last week as the carry over emergency, Jai now hasn't played for two weeks. How is that optimal preparation for playing your first game? Surely we should be rewarding players for good performances when they happen, not several weeks down the track. Do we actually consider the consequences of the decisions we make, or just throw darts at the wall and see what comes? I agree that a debut for Adams also makes sense (and should have happened last week). Brown is the other one who deserves a game this week.

Don't worry too much about the crowd. There was clearly no more than 15K at Sunday's game, but the official attendance was 22,570. Even with 10K this week, the AFL will still report 15K-16K.