The heart beats true

Didn’t look so crash hot when we dominated them for 80% of the game 2 weeks ago. They were one kick away from being beaten at home by the 8th team on the weekend. It’s seems flashy and exciting because they come from behind a lot, but their forward line is as much of a problem as ours, and there’s some clear weak links in their system.

I was just reading some old posts here and realised we haven’t heard from @Sir Why You Little for a few months. Hope he’s doing ok.

Some of the criticism makes me wonder what’s going on. Is it the weight of expectation? Unrealistic expectation? Or, nostalgia rewriting the form of players in 2021? We got rolled by 2 bottom sides in our premiership year. Players form fluctuated (often dramatically). We came within a kick of having to go and play Port at home in our first final. It may have all felt like a fairy tale thinking back on it, but it wasn’t.

That’s the spirit!

Which I don’t have a problem with. I don’t like the travel for the players, and the fact that it’s one less game in Melbourne - where we are based, and need to continue to evolve our games supporter base.

It’s an own goal by the admin of the club to sell a home game these days. We’ve made our own life harder. 65k members. We’ve done our part. If the eyes on the club at this moment can’t be turned into bigger and better sponsorship opportunities then we aren’t working hard enough off the field. Selling a game to the NT stinks, and jeopardises the clubs impact where it matters most.

For those saying Pert should lobby the AFL, first you need to lobby Pert. Email him and tell him. The club works with us. If we make a cohesive argument then it helps him go to the AFL.

First of all this is the funniest way to make an argument against something you don’t believe in. Argue that we aren’t doing it, but that other teams are??? But I’ll humour your odd assumption by saying that you are completely correct. The teams mentioned ARE all in different heavy training, BUT you have to take the contexts of their wins into consideration. Collingwood played against another side off the bye who also are training to be playing in September. Adelaide is Burgess and Burgess is a huge advocate for loading. The effects possibly nullified each other - and it was as close to a draw as you can get. Geelong played last week so would have had a lighter running load this week, and a crucially important week of match conditioning. But don’t take my word for it…. Not one side has won coming off the bye playing a side that played the week before. Not one. The 16th side beat the 3rd side. The 9th side beat the 4th side. The 11th side beat the 6th. I could go on and on across literally every game. All 8 of them. Training loads have a massive impact on output and performance. If you don’t want to see that then there’s not much point talking about it.

I think I see what you are getting at… That we are heavily fatigued from a large block of training and our efficiency by foot drops off as games go on, resulting in poorer shots at goal? Right?

And that makes it 8 straight losses (most of them capitulations) by teams coming off a bye playing teams that didn’t. 🤔

Hawthorn look terrible after beating Brisbane. The bye is the new Covid.

Does Fox know Jeremy Howe only missed 3 months of football? They are carrying on like he’s been cryogenically frozen since 1928.

Imagine having to show up at work everyday and heap praise on the guy who took your job, and makes you look like a fool? Nathan seems to do it with ease. I’m not sure self reflection is a strength of his.

I wonder if Collingwood would have won that game if they sold it to the NT government and played it at Alice Springs?

Did when we played that mob.

That’s 2 games that Adelaide should have won against Collingwood in 10 weeks.

Cox is the biggest a-hole in the AFL.

Watch how often The Crows are hand passing to the player running by from a mark or free - literally every time. Breaks up Collingwood’s zone completely. They are being found out here. This is the blueprint.

Umpires a wake up to Pies Mason Cox on the mark trick in front of goal this week. Twice they’ve called Cox off the make and the offending player back to man it.

I love listening to Bucks talking so confidently about how well Collingwood are setting up and their structure. He’d be a great coach for them.

Only 4 teams got to play each other off a bye this year, todays Crows and Collingwood, and Saints and Swans a few weeks back. The numbers are terrible for teams of the bye. No team has won playing a team who didn’t have the bye the week before. The loses include: Lions to Hawks Dockers to Tigers Geelong to Port Suns to Carlton Essendon to Dockers Eagles to Swans Horror show Us in Geelong The only team not to play yet is the hawks who play the Suns today. If they lose literally every team off the bye has lost playing against a team that played. It’s obviously not a coincidence.

Wasn’t much criticism of them after the Collingwood game. Strange that isn’t it? A loss seems to require a reason, while a win is just the expectation. In a strange way it’s the proof that this is the best time to be a Melbourne supporter in 50 years.

Realistically we are paying Grundy about 600k - which puts him at about 80. It’s Collingwood who are making him a top 10 player.

I would buy this argument in 2011-2021, but not anymore. The AFL missed out on 30,000 extra attendees if they played this game at the G on a Friday or Saturday. 19,000 people at a Victorian game featuring the last 2 premiers, both Victorian sides, is a stinker from a financial and brand perspective. The AFL just completely stuffed this fixture up.

Write to the club and tell them. While you are at it tell them not to sell home games interstate. If you are respectful and constructive they’ll listen and respond.