chookrat

Looking for Tigers to respond strongly in the second half.

Would raise a few eyebrows if he was in attendance wearing a Collingwood scarf.

I'm not to concerned about this. Social media is for communicating externally to the club and anything he posts will end up becoming a distraction. Given Trac doesn't appear to be doing any footy related social media him not posting re our win is consistent with this. Just because he isn't posting on social media doesn't mean he isn't messaging players directly.

Agree with your observations. I also think re Trac the club is careful not to talk on Trac's behalf and is keeping to the facts, e.g. there are frustrations that will be worked through, he is a contracted player and will be playing for us next year. I also think it would be natural for a player to consider their future in the game after such a traumatic injury, and this added to the rawness of Brayshaw being forced into retirement just before the season commences, it is probably a good thing for Trac to take some time away with his family, as he has done, talk to the club and approach the preseason refreshed.

Stay tuned to the next post which is our narrower path to Premiers 🏆

I did say it is a narrow path to Victory 🙌

And the speculation re Trac isn't. By the same logic we should wait until we hear from Trac, his manager or the club. My post is useful in keeping some interest on the remaining rounds on which results are relevant to us. They are also relevant in whether us beating Collingwood next week shuts them out of finals contention.

I have ran the numbers and if some results go our way and we can make up around 120 point turnaround in score for / against we can displace Hawthorn and pass Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon on the ladder. Here is a breakdown re what needs to play out. - *Hawthorn loses to Richmond and North - *Carlton loses to West Coast and St Kilda - Essendon loses or draws to Brisbane - *Melbourne beats Collingwood *Re percentage we have to make up around 7.5% on Hawthorn and 6.5% on Carlton which is roughly a 20 goal differential. To be safe we should try to beat Collingwood by exactly 186 points. Essendon are only 2 points ahead of us and have a worse percentage so either a loss or draw will work. Aside from Hawthorn v Richmond which Hawthorn should win, I reckon the other games are at least a 50 / 50 in our favour. Clarko will get his boys up against his old side, Carlton are ravaged with injury and have 6 forced changes vs West Coast, St Kilda are playing well and Brisbane should beat Essendon. In all of the media hysterics over the past couple of weeks not one person in the media have reported on our narrow path to victory. Dees!

Proud of how the boys played yesterday and some good reward for their effort over the past 6 weeks or so. Viney is an absolute beast and it is so good to see all of the boys in the circle, not to mention a happy Clarry in amongst it. Looking forward to Friday night and hope we bring the heat vs the Filth.

Severe impact so will go to the tribunal with a minimum of 3 weeks. I reckon it will be 4 - 5 weeks which is effectively the season and probably GF appearance if they make it.

Here is what he said and then they went on to lose some more. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.news.com.au/sport/afl/edge-of-being-losers-craig-mcrae-delivers-blunt-reality-check-for-pies/news-story/888cdccdeb39b1aa3f451dc1d0880aa8%3famp

Function and event facilities are really commercial spaces and offer no real community benefit. I'm staggered thay Geelong are pushing for this given the amount of State Government funding they have received in the past 20 years. Hopefully it gets knocked back and the GFC and Local Government are asked to contribute the majority of funding.

I cannot believe our footy department let it come to this. I mean one of our key players being frustrated at how we performed this year and another being approached by a rival club before being able to say no thanks. Another needs to return home to SA for his family and rather than hold him to hos contract like Geelong would, we tell him how much he means to us and we will make it happen. Such outrage, the wheels have clearly falling off.

As supporters it is easy to forget that there are 17 other teams with access to the same level of talent, coaching, fitness and conditioning, facilities and other things that result in a very fine margin between success (Premiership) and failure. Often games are decided by marginal differences in how teams structure up against each other, player form and fitness, injuries, and even a lucky or unlucky bounce or umpiring decision. Collingwood have done well in the past few seasons to maximise their comparative advantage in the noise and energy generated by their supporters. In 2018 we leaned on such energy to win finals vs Hawthorn and Geelong, as a Melbourne support I have never been to a game where our supporters were as vocal as they were in those two games. Outside of the media reporting we have achieved alot more this year than our ladder position suggests: 1. Played alot of young players who have performed well. 2. Resigned key players including Petty, Windsor, Tholstrup, Langdon, and Turner. 3. Supported Clarry to the extent that he played almost every game and is happy and in a really good space to get back to his best in 2025. 4. Worked Petty and Melksham back into the side from serious injuries where they are playing some really good footy. 5. Building synergy with our forward line that will only get better on 2025. 6. Added speed and ball use to our midfield through playing Rivers and at times McVee through the middle. Now is probably a good time to get the negative media reporting out of the way where the focus will shift to Essendon, Carlton and Collingwood if they do not make the finals.

What if Demonland did the internal review. We should compile a list of questions they can ask: 1. Why is Simon Goodwin so stubborn? 2. What is the plan B and C? 3. Why do we lose games at the selection table? 4. Why didn't the President remonstrate with the Collingwood players after the Maynard hit? 5. If our culture was better would we have made up on the scoreboard the less than a single kick losses vs Carlton, Brisbane, GWS and Port Adelaide to be in the top 4? 6. Why haven't we been able to cover the loss of Brayshaw, Trac, Melksham and Olivers injuries/form through first, second and third year players? 7. Why doesn't Goodwin blame close losses on the umpiring like the coach of last years premiers? 8. Our ruckman forward coach failed to deliver more goals in our 2023 finals campaign which had nothing to do with the loss of Melksham, Petty and Fritsch's injury/form. This is the case, no? As Demonlander's what other questions would we ask if we conducted the review?

I was talking to someone with close connections to Collingwood about the Daicos brothers being unhappy at Collingwood and wanting out. Their dramatic fall from 2023 Premiers to being outside of the 8 this year, combined with their coach calling the playing list a bunch of losers a few weeks ago, and then going blaming last weeks loss on the umpires can only have left them disenfranchised with the direction of the club.

Just because we declare in good faith that we will facilitate a trade to get ANB to SA it doesn't mean we don't expect a fair trade. If we are dealing with the clubs and they put up something unreasonable it is pretty easy to show ANB that we are trying to get a fair trade done but the SA club is not acting in good faith, which in his position I would question whether I'd want to play for a club that isn't willing to offer a fair trade.

Agree with this to an extent. We definitely need a quality 23 - 27 year old (or 100 - 150 game experienced) mid or half back with pace and elite footy skills who can win their own ball to complement Viney, Oliver and Trac but also need to develop our own talent through the draft. I wouldn't be using an early first round pick on a 27 year old but for a proven elite 25 year old it would make sense. We should also be prepared to trade out players to bring in the right talent.

To speculate further on us speculating about the journos speculation it would make sense that Oliver's challenges which come to a head late last season have had some impact on some sections of the playing group and how they approached the 2024 season. I'm hopeful a longer break without games in September will help the playing list attack the 2025 preseason and that we will see the best version of Oliver - as good as his footy has been over the years I think he has another level.

It's a no for me. Parker doesn't fit the age profile our list needs as we need younger players with 50 - 100 games experience who can have an immediate impact and will be around for at least the next 5 years. We should be looking for a 23 - 25 year old midfielder who can do this.

Nibbler would be in my top 5 Melbourne players. He is the ultimate team player who has improved every year to be probably our most consistent player who performs his role week in week out to one of our leaders. If he wants to go home to SA for family reasons, as much as it will be difficult to cover the loss, I have no doubt the footy department will make sure it happens. Champion 🏆 On a side note, I suspect this is the real story and the "Trac wants out" narrative was spun before this to create an illusion that the club is in turmoil.

Yep Dogga was so committed that he even turned up to a club meeting after he signed with Freo

That seems a bit complicated. Between having to swap trains and it being dark outside I can see why crowds were low. In seriousness I reckon we have a large cohort of older supporters along with young families with not many supporters in the 15 - 30 year old age bracket given we haven't been an attractive club to attracted new supporters over this period. We seem to have alot of 5 - 15 year old supporters who over the next 10 - 15 will attend more night matches with along with the parents with young kids.

I don't think what he said was too bad re bagging umpires but more so from a culture perspective re making excuses. Instead of focussing on not being 'awarded' a free for an action that created no real disadvantage but might technically be a free, he would have been better off saying we gave up a 5 goal lead in the 4th quarter and will focus on what we did wrong to lose from the position we were in. I wonder how many journos will write that Collingwood have gone from Premiers to zero set finals?

Who cares what a parent supposedly said at a local footy match. Petty, Langdon, Turner, Windor and Koltyn all signed contract extensions over the past couple of months which says alot more about the state of the club than such heresay.