spirit of norm smith

Koltyn Tholstrup was the second casualty from the Sunday game, with delayed concussion symptoms pushing him into required protocols. “Koltyn had a head knock in the game,” Griffith said. “He passed the initial SCAT (sport concussion assessment tool) and was cleared of anything there. “Following us returning to Melbourne, he had some delayed symptoms with headaches and altered vision and has now entered the concussion protocol. So, he'll progress through that as symptoms settle.”

I remember there were questions when Grundy was recruited. Everyone was puzzled but we kept the faith and hoped Goodys decision might be strangely a good one. It wasn’t? He ultimately called it and bears the accountability for the failed experiment, but the question is, was it the right or smart move in the first place?

We’ve had two years to replace Jackson. Sure we had Grundy as an experiment. It was unlikely to be the answer but Goody chickened out very quickly. Grundy is making a few MFC decision makers very embarrassed right now. The admission that new recruit Tom Fullarton would have had zero impact in the ruck is a total admission of a failed list manager strategy. We already had multiple tall forwards. Why is he now seen as only a tall forward? Bizarre by coach and list manager. We had the chance to recruit Meek at end of ‘22. We had the chance to get Liam Reddy. We indeed could have grabbed Harry Boyd from the SANFL. Instead MFC decided “apparently” to go with Gawn as the only ruckman. Wow. Poor planning or poor list management. Both. I like Verrall and think he has a future. He can be developed but agree at 20yo that he has more physical development needed. Another 12 months will see him get bigger and stronger imv. Max is 32. He has 3-5 years left definitely. Ruckman develop later but can play longer. Goldstein is still going at 36. But Max needs support and cover as he is only human. We know he’s super human but to go without a Plan B for the ruck in 2024 was an obvious fail. We prayer that Max returns from injury this week.

You get assessed on actions and outcomes. Lamb is tracking for a F grade outcome. Fail. Unsure how he would keep his role going forward. Fyi Josh Mahoney delivered excellent trades and success.

AFL.com.au's predicted final ladder* 1. Sydney 2. Carlton 3. Brisbane 4. Geelong 5. Fremantle 6. Western Bulldogs 7. Greater Western Sydney 8. Essendon 9. Hawthorn 10. Port Adelaide 11. Gold Coast 12. Melbourne 13. Collingwood 14. St Kilda 15. Adelaide 16. North Melbourne 17. West Coast 18. Richmond

Clarry is not going anywhere. With the right support and a solid pre season, he will get back to being a premier midfielder. I’d also have a chat about the stupid little 2 metre handballs. “Run and spread and kick” needs to get back into his game.

Clarry is not going anywhere. With the right support and a solid pre season, he will get back to being a premier midfielder. I’d also have a chat about the stupid little 2 metre handballs. “Run and spread and kick” needs to get back into his game.

memo to Goody and JT Dees need 3 young midfielders in this draft Other teams mids have been restocked and regenerated ( but not ours ) Windsor has been excellent. We need more !! unavailable * Levi Ashcroft - Bris. Father son * Leonardo Lombard - Suns Academy * Ben Camporeale - Glenelg SA Father son * Sam Marshall -Brisbane academy * Luke Camporeale - Glenelg SA Father son Best available midfielders ranked A graders: (likely drafted in 1st round) Finn O'Sullivan - Oakleigh Josh Smillie - Eastern Jagga Smith - Oakleigh Sid Draper - Sth Christian Moraes - Eastern Sam Lalor - GWV Murphy Reid - Sandringham Taj Hotton - Sandringham Toby Travaglia - Bendigo Tom Gross - Oakleigh Xavier Lindsay - Gippsland Harvey Langford - Dandenong Bo Allan -WA likely 2nd rounders Cooper Hynes - Dandenong Zak Johnson - Northern Nash King - Calder Hamish Davis - WA Nathaniel Sulzberger - Sandringham/Tas Damon Hollow - Calder Kade Herbert - SA eagles Patrick Retschko - Oakleigh Later bargains Lucas McInerney - Northern Oliver Depaoli-Kubank - Tassie Cody Anderson - Eastern Lucca Grego - Western Jaxon Artemis - WA Xavier Ivisic - Geelong Luke Urquhart - WA Dees might look to sell the 2025 first round pick to get a look at another 2024 1st round pick and get two quality young midfielders in

Ditto ditto ditto. Goody admits that they have no second ruckman behind Gawn. FFS. How could you prepare for a year without a plan B ruckman. FFS. Had Jackson. Lost Jackson. Got Grundy. Got chicken and traded Grundy. Season 2024. No backup or second ruck. Coach ? What were you thinking ?

Vs. Freo. Round 12 With Gawn hitouts Dees 35-32 🆗 Clearances Freo 48-23💩💩 Centre clearance Freo 22-10💩💩 stoppages Freo 26-13 💩💩

Frees. Freo 22 Dees 14 (half time 12-4) 😡🤮😡🤮 Inside 50s. Freo 60. Dees 47 Efficiency in Fwd50. Freo 58%. Dees 38%. 💩💩💩 Hitouts 47-9💩💩💩 Clrarances. 47-16💩💩💩 Stoppages 30-8💩💩💩 Centre clearance 17-8💩💩💩 Score. Freo. 116. Dees. 66. 💩💩💩

Dees rookie Will Verrall got amongst it, amassing 45 hitouts, 18 disposals and seven clearances. 👏👏👏

So we went into the year without a 2nd ruck at all … wow. And didn’t even think at the half year to cover it. Instead it’s Gawn or nothing. Kentfield is a development player who like Jefferson will take time. We needed a backup Ruck and got caught with our pants down. Coach… list manager… ?!?!?!

Can’t possibly see Sparrow staying in next week. I’ve been a supporter but he has lost something this year. This week he had too many missed tackles. He was easily too often outmuscled in the contest. Lost so many stoppages and clearances. One clearance from 10 centre square and about 15 stoppages. Not alone but was clearly not interested or lost any sense for the contest. His miss in the 3rd quarter… 30 metre out, clear by 10 metre from any opposition. Could have run in and kicked any easy goal. Instead he “chipped” in to the behinds and hardly made the distance. Compelling that he was lacking any confidence or interest.

Longmuir comments in the presser … “ teams have been bringing numbers up to try and nullify our stoppage work because it's a real strength of our game, but we've got to maintain a mindset to be decisive and get on the front foot." Didn’t see any evidence that our coach or coaches implemented this block the stoppage strategy. (?!?!)

With regular footy talk !!!

Not even mentioned in the presser. Soft journalism

Demons' lost the contested ball battle 141-105. Goodwin. "That's been one of the strongest things in our game for the last five weeks … so it wasn't just the hitouts. It was a combination of all that within our game, and we'll own it, we’ll lean into it. And we'll come back better next week." blah blah. Corporate Speak. “Lean into it”. Will we “pivot” to “align to our strategic imperatives “. Goodwin speak is becoming NAUSEOUS!!

Question 1. So we lost Jackson and recruited Grundy. We then traded away Grundy after a short (chickened out) experiment. Problem… 2024 why no Plan for a backup ruck to support Gawn or a plan B for when/if Gawn gets injured? (That’s poor list management. Poor coach management). Question 2. Other clubs can set midfield defensively when Gawn is a dominant ruckman. Why couldn’t we? We got smashed. We couldn’t setup to stop them coming out the front through stoppages or from the centre square!!! Clearance. Spread. Run. Freo goal Question 3. Out the back? Why did we concede 13 goals from turnovers. And the 5 goals for Freo by forwards being all alone in forward 50. Defenders playing 15 metres off their players ??? Why ? How? Question 4. Tackling? Why and how did Freo keep breaking tackles or would get handballs away to running players even with two tacklers !!! lots to discuss

Disposal efficiency top 3 Petty 15 possessions. DE 100% AMW 11 possessions DE 90% McVee 21 possessions. DE 86% bottom 3 Turner 7 possessions DE 28% Viney 23 possessions DE 60% Billings 18 possessions DE 61%

Viney 5/10 - his heart BUT please take first option!!! Please!!! Caught or Smothered DONT THINK !!! Do!!! May 4/10’- tough and hard but loose!!! FFS Lever -1/10- couldn’t do anything right fumbles, slip, turnover, outmarked … worst gsme ever !!! Bowey -4/10 … average !!! Missed kicks and tackles; just stays in Langdon 7/10 yes he actually gave a damn; ran and tackled at least Rivers 6/10 - tried and tried but outclassed Salem -3/10 - looks slow and his kicking is slow and up !! Slow decision making Neal-Bullen -3/10 no influence. Poor tagging hand as he fumbled and stumbled Petty 4/10- overwhelmed but not disgraced , competed hard vanRooyen 5/10- just needs to take his opportunity. Compete hard Moniz-Wakefield - 4/10 let down by experienced teammates; ok in patches McVee -7/10. Our best player. Skilled and reliable. No false moves McDonald -3/10 / oops. Slow today. Finish line is 5 weeks away Windsor 4/10 - at least he runs and showed some heart Sparrow - 1/10 - poor and poor and poor ; slow and fumbled. Why is he playing? Turner -3/10- battled but outgunned by Freo defenders. Fritsch 3/10 - poor today - needs to compete Chandler 4/10 -two goals but otherwise chased grass Oliver 3/10 - battled but outclassed; handballs to no one Tholstrup - 1/10 - caught three times when clear as was run down - little spatial awareness Pickett - 2/10 - fumbles and stumbles and miskick and fumbles and slip over !!! Melksham -5/10 - created goals - kicks accuracy but at times had no forward pressure Billings - 3/10 - did ok. Sub next week as time suits him umpires 1/10 🤮💩🤮💩- on Dockers payroll votes. 3 McVee 2 Langdon 1 Rivers

6 McVee 5 Langdon 4 RIV 3 JVR 2 Petty 1 May mids. Horrible. Oliver. Sparrow. JV7. ANB. Kozzzy. All were horrible. defence. Lever was worst game ever.

Out. Sparrow Salem in. K. Brown Gawn McVee. May. Petty. Bowey Lever AMW Lingers. JV7. Windsor Anb. Tmcd. Pickett Fritsch. JVR. Melksham Gawn. Oliver. Rivers Int. K.Brown Tholstrup Turner Chandler sub Billings emerg. Hore. Howes. Tomlinson

PREMIERSHIP DEFENDER 👏👏👏👏🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 Play him as a key defender Not a key forward He’s a good contested mark.

Lever was horrible. Worst game ever. Outmarked. Fumbles. Stumbled. Missed tackles. You name it !! If he’s was a different name, he’d be dropped !!!