Ted Lasso

I am defintiely not out of sympathy with the call that the midfield is a huge area of concern especially with the talent we have and the output consistently being well below what you'd expect. being ranked 11th for clearances with a midfield containing Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Gawn and so on is really strange. in saying that i think our issues run quite deep, i find it baffling that since 2018 when we lose, the losses generally look very very similar but it's hard to identify any obvious shift in game style to correct this. I'll forever be grateful for Simon Goodwin in delivering us the first premiership in 57 years and we've had 3 consecutive top 4 finishes which obviously isn't horrible, but i do wonder how this list would perform under a different coach, for example if someone like Craig McRae had hold of this list would we be a better side?

We haven't been able to Win the ball on the inside win the ball on the outside defend ball movement defend slow entries move the ball turn the ball over effectively lay tackles win contested marks and much more. hard to name a single thing that's been AFL standard in this first half

I know he's a premiership coach, but when you consistently lose the same way the pressure is going to come on Goodwin sooner rather than later.

Geez some of our supposedly elite mids are lazy. Roosy came in with the goal of teaching them to be 2 way running mids and they've very clearly forgotten a lot of that. If you watch the mids of Sydney compared to Melbourne the contrast is insane

we have no offensive system at all and the amount of lazy, long bomb kicks is embarrassing, we would do 10-15 for every 1 that Freo do and it's really showing

When you've got arguably the best ruckman in the history of the game and multiple generally considered elite midfielders and you sit 11th for clearances, it's either by design or something is seriously wrong.

Goody likes to be best mates with all the players and it's generally a good thing, but far out these players need a good old fashioned spray. they're far too good to be making stupid mistakes so consistently

A huge part of this is coaching, the players have no idea when to go fast, when to be composed and when to go long down the line, especially the younger guys.

far far too easy for Fremantle here, you don't see many genuine premiership contenders that have patches this poor

We've just gifted them 2 goals with below AFL standard skills in perfect footy conditions, it's a real concern.

If i was to offer advice to Goody and the MFC about how to approach this it would be simple, - the best way to honor Gus even against a fake tough guy like this is to beat the Pies on the kings birthday stage with class and integrity, don't get distracted by Maynard or anything they say to May, just beat them, bank the win and move on towards another premiership tilt. there is nothing we can say or do that's going to undo what happened to Gus, or really matter to Maynard/Collingwood given their injuries, the only real chance they have of beating us is if we get distracted and worry about things other than the game.

Shame Harmes is out of the game, he could have finished the job for his mate Gussy

To be fair, AMW would probably be captain of North Melbourne or St Kilda by now.

Don't humanise the enemy 31.

I would say Lever tries to get to one and use his advantage in the air to be a threat, and Judd takes whoever we feel is more likely to kick a bag

All Petty needs to do is stop him marking it

He looks like he's quite natural at the forward/second ruck role which is exciting! amazing he slipped to the MSD

Not to us

This will be a really challenging game for us because Freo are capable of matching us or beating us out of the middle, we will have to score a lot from pressure, turnover and transition in order to win, which we're capable of doing but it'll be a grind, especially in conditions that might be humid and slippery again.

It's always hard to measure the best in a defensive position, but he's been bloody good for a few years now, has lost a battle maybe 5 times in the last 5 seasons and consistently been around the All Australian mark

I agree, but possibly we wouldn't offer him more than 1 year at this point so if he's got outside interest it seems likely he will go. he'd be a good fit at a club like North. Tmac is probably one more injury away from retiring, so really trying to enjoy his great form while he's going so well

I think it's going to take some time for him to adjust to a totally different system than what he had at Adelaide which was a lot more aggressive all over the ground, he's showing some okay signs early but i'd say he needs another 2-3 weeks to really start to hit form. He was absolutely flying at times during the pre-season

I think this move strongly hints that we will enter 2025 without Tom McDonald or Adam Tommlinson AND we intend to persist with Petty forward into the future. Battle isn't going to come to the MFC to sit in the 2's until May decides to retire, he would rightly want to come to a situation where he is clearly starting 22

If nothing else it does suggest we're running out the games pretty well. i'd say first quarters is a mindset thing, i wonder if perhaps early in games the players are maybe trying a little bit too hard and they relax into it as the game goes on, but as we saw with Carlton, Brisbane and West Coast, by the time we settled into those games we were miles behind

The only thing worse than losing is playing a slow, defensive garbage game style and losing, while at the same time having an deep lack of talent from systemically overrating and overestimating your list. I don't see a way forward for the Saints that doesn't involve bottoming out completely