The heart beats true

Tracc has looked off his best for most of the second half of the season. I think in general we are carrying too many niggles and injuries. Oliver, Gawn, Petracca, May and Lever are the pillars of our system, and I’d suggest since mid season 3 of those 5 have had injury issues in almost every game we’ve played. Our system works when we execute, but it’s weaknesses can be exposed when we aren’t fully firing.

I forwarded this thread onto Gary Pert. He responded and said he’s still getting back to all the emails from Glenn Bartlett but should get to this in early 2023.

I read that too. He was absolutely slaughtered on Friday night. He should be really disappointed in himself for not shaking May’s hand before the game. That was as low an act as you’ll see before a game. The media would go after anyone else hard for that.

Cmon Dees fans. This our chance to make the G as inhospitable as we can. Get there. Make a hell of a noise. Show the team how much we appreciate them.

From memory we’ve won 4 of our last 14 second halves. Port, Adelaide, Brisbane (after the bye), and Freo.

I dunno. 90% of the game is played between the ears. Steven May deliberately took 3-4 high risk kicks through the middle of the ground from defence. They come off and we are running through the middle and the Swans are panicking about our waves of players and speed. Sadly, he missed them, Swans goaled, and we all went into our shells and played too predictably again. This is where a fit and healthy Salem makes a huge difference. He can take that kick and make it and we do different things, and clubs set up differently around us. It’s hard to ask that of Bowey just yet, but he should be doing that too. We have to balance risk and reward better - especially at the G where we haven’t got it right and are far too predictable.

Why is Wayne Carey still a thing? I vote no.

Laitham Vandermeer sounds like a Dutch logistics company.

Collingwood would have won that if their cheer squad made more noise.

The AFL has a problem with the players returning the ball back after a mark or free. The umpires are pedantic about players running within a 10 metre square that has no impact on the game, but the last few months players can just throw the ball in the general vicinity and run off. It’s weird.

One of the reasons Collingwood supporters are so loud is because they clearly don’t understand the rules.

100%. I think there might have been an over reliance on what has worked, when clearly a third of our best 22 are battling to stay out there. Will be interesting to see how we shape up next year.

I agree that it wasn’t a shock loss, but I wonder what the club makes of where we are at with our fitness. Our last halves have been horrible for 3 months (hence not a shock). Last night at 3/4 time I watched the players come in for the huddle and they looked absolutely cooked. I’ve felt that at all the games I’ve seen in Melbourne since Freo before the bye. It’s why I brought into the loading idea so heavily. I’d think the club is very unhappy with our ability to run out games. We look to have got it wrong.

This so interesting to watch. Ed was right. Collingwood’s game style is all duck and no dinner. They’ll take it on, but you get such good looks if they turn it over. I have serious doubts about its ability to be consistently competitive over seasons. They’ve been great this year and ridden the wave, but teams will get better at figuring it out. Its actually a massive credit to them that they’ve sustained it. It looks exhausting.

At least it’s not Fritta with a hairline fracture. That’d be a big injury. Sorry. It’s been a long week, and this place needs to lighten up.

Kills me to say it but without Hawkins Geelong would be a 6-8th ranked side. He’s been so good for so long. The minute he retires they’ll be 4 goals worse off.

Right?

Moore got the ball on super quickly from fullback. McRae is coaching against the idea of how teams like us play. Go and work it out on the fly. The worst thing you can do is stop and allow structure.

Umpires put the whistle away in this game. Let’s hope they don’t make it all about them like the second quarter last night.

I like the optimism. The issue for mine is that our games are trending painfully similarly. If we are matched for contest work and teams can stick with us until half way through the 3rd the pattern suggests we will be over run.

Yep, and our game plan is very reliant on them.

Nah. I think that’s fair enough. We are painfully quiet. 👍

Thanks for the info WCW. Cheer squad looked and sounded incredible last night - the huge flag was brilliant. Congrats to all involved for their efforts. I think I might join up next year. The passion is inspiring. Go Dees! ✊

I agree with this, and I think a lot of Melbourne supporters who follow the team closely and go to games have seen that game play out 5 times already this year. I think it’s in part why our supporter base was quieter last night. It all felt very familiar. We are a systems based team, but if the system is matched (and it has been this year by top 6 teams) we appear incapable of diverse thinking. Last night we were 4 goals down in the last and kept going long down the line. It’s too easy to coach against. We were getting killed at the fall of the ball because they knew where we were going - so got there quicker.

Regardless of what we have tried to do this year in terms of training loads it hasn’t worked. Our last half form has been atrocious since round 11 onwards. We’ve won 4 last halves in our last 14 games. I wouldn’t want to be the fitness department this week.