Pirlo

Only if you view it through a lens of "I want to see Gus again". They offered him the chance to be around his teammates band keep a role in footy. It was the right thing to do. It didn't work out, but that's okay too. Gus will say goodbye when he's ready, not when you're ready.

Everything needs to go well for us to make top 4 next year. Meanwhile, your assessment of McVee is flabbergasting.

He wasn't getting the ball. He was averaging 10 touches and 1 tackle a game last season. I simply refuse to believe that losing him has led to "all lines being decimated".

I appreciate the sentiment of your post, but lets not pretend that Spargo didn't spend the last six weeks of last season at Casey. He's a good pressure player usually, but he kicked 11 in 14 last season, 10 in 24 the year before and just 18 in 25 the season we won the flag. That's not game changing.

Gawn will never agree to a rest, nor will Oliver or Viney.

Tomlinson, I believe, has been available for over a year. Nobody took a bite last year.

Quite possibly, but that suggests a soft underbelly to this team that directly correlates with what we've seen the last two Septembers. Every team goes through adversity. We're handling ours terribly.

Is this ruthless? Ruthless would be sweeping a broom through the above names and taking whatever we can get for the latter four, topping up with a few free agents to take up our cap space, and going hard at the higher end of the draft while Max, May, Viney are still around to mentor the kids. It has been unthinkable for me until tonight, but perhaps even having an honest chat with Oliver and sounding out where he's really at ahead of pre-season.

Do you mean Rivers? Viney has absolutely toiled most of the year compared to his high standards. He's running like his plantar fasciitis is back.

You must have missed the first 10 minutes, when we didn't have a single disposal in our attacking half. They had 21 more scoring shots than us. Well done Melbourne for upping their pressure in the second half when the game was over.

I love Gus, but I'm so tired of hearing this. It gives the group and the club an out for various, systematic miscalculations. He was a gun, and a heart and soul player, but he was our fourth choice inside mid. A valuable rotation, and a super versatile player, but let's not indulge the fantasy that he would have changed much on his own. Had an elite season off the HBF in 22, and a great one on the wing in 21, but would he have moved the needle a huge amount this season?

The Suns choking, as per usual, means we won't get their higher pick... Onto the game: Absolutely flat across the board. The team went in with no confidence or desire and it showed. I like mixing it up, but the season is on the line and we had Woey, Tholstrup and Bowey in at various centre bounces early on. Some good acrobatics from Fritsch Oliver: I'm struggling to stay on board. Love him for all he's done but he's one of our key senior players and there were three absolutely awful efforts in the first 5 minutes of the game that set the tone. He's being paid $1m a year and is being scaled UP with the CBA increasing. We have about three meaningful injuries, this is close to our best 22. Grim. May's back will eventually be the end of him. Just hope he can nurse it through two more seasons. TMac - THUD back down to earth... Two stinkers. Such a good season but age is showing now. Was embarrassed by a stronger man last week and a younger, more atheltic one this time. Flew at everything up forward like a man who knew he wasn't being swung forward to help us win, but was moved out of the way because he was a liability down back. He can have a one year deal on minimum coin, but the club would be derelict to offer him more. If another club offers him two, let him go. Melky - struggling to make an impact now. Needs a pre-season but we'll see at his age. JVR had about a month up forward where he looked untouchable. Then two weeks in the ruck. Now he can't get near it up forward again, as per the start of the season. Give the kid some [censored] consistency. Jefferson kicked 4 and surely gets a go next week. Petty back and TMac dropped would be my preference. And the big one - 'the kids'. I'm glad we're playing them, I like the idea that we're being bold, but let's cast a critical eye over the spread of talent. Windsor, McVee, Rivers, Pickett & JVR are the only under 23s worth singing about right now. If they're tier 1 talent, the rest are either first year kids or tier 3 on exposed form. They all have a long way to go. I imagine he'll be fine long term, and I may get flamed for this (I love his attitude as much as everyone else), but I am struggling to see what Kolt's main strength is aside from his hunger at the ball. A long way to go, and I'll back him in, but it hasn't been the most convincing start to his career. We're a [censored] team, but not [censored] enough that he has to shoulder any load. Taj isn't improving (being sub 10 weeks in a row didn't help), Andy shows a bit but isn't as quick as advertised, Disco was ok in defence while the ball was raining in. Bowey is a battler, unfortunately. Was carried by the star-studded defence. Howes hasn't been the same since he was dropped. Goodwin deserves blame for this. The commentators' only salient point of the evening was that Geelong and Sydney are so good at rebuilding on the go because they run 2 or 3 decent kids through their team when they're good and help build them up. We didn't take those risks, beyond the absolute best 22 ones, and here we are.

Not willing to write a season off after '05 when we are still a reasonable chance, but we'll be sitting 11th in an hour, a game and 18% out of the 8 and playing the team sitting above us on Friday. Yikes.

We were saying similar last night. A better club would have drilled him and them on what to do in that situation. We're more of the "get around him and forget about it" types.

After they won the first month post-Hardwick, a Tigers mate of mine was still so against McQualter getting their gig last year. Said their midfield and clearances had been a huge weak spot for years. We are seeing that now. I don't think Yze got as much out of Gawn's dominance and 4 excellent starting mids as he should have, but its night and day between him and Mini.

Umpires ignored three consecutive HTBs in a minute in our attacking 50. Completely at odds with how they officiated the rest of the night. Disgrace,

Out: Bowey, Billings, Woey In: Howes, K.Brown, Hore Perhaps Turner to start and AMW as sub to bring in some pace late. Gawn looked well off the pace and Verrell played well at VFL level. If he's actually as injured as he looked, protect Max and back in a young guy instead of saying "they can't win hit outs". I get that was aimed at Fullarton being unimpressive at VFL level, but it was cruel.

How was that your take away from today? He's finally building back.

Bowey has to go, and Sparrow can't be given a ride straight back in.

Did such a great job defending the Freo mids as they won the first 24 clearances of the match. Sparrow dropped is great news. At his best, he is slightly unheralded. He hasn't been at his best for a long while.

Many of those stats from a #X in the team POV are not overly relevant when you consider that he's in the team to tackle and provide pressure and the other guys in his position are either playing midfield (Pickett, ANB) or sub 10 games (Tholstrup). Chandler was fumbly and error prone when the game was on the line. Particularly his kicking inside 50. He did most of his good work in the fourth when Freo tapered off a bit. He's in the team to provide pressure, kick inside 50 and hit the scoreboard. I wouldn't drop him, this was one of his better games this season, but at 50 games and 24 years of age, it's time he did more than play a bit part.

Fritsch 35 Pickett 27 JVR 25 Those are our only goal kickers with more than 15. Pickett is playing in the midfield and JVR in the ruck. And people want to drop the one who has kicked the most of all of them and is on track for another 45 goal season. Unbelievable.

Jefferson didn't do enough at Casey on the weekend. He's tracking better than before, but he needs to put up numbers consistently. Miserable rainy day though, in fairness. We were always going to have bad days with the squad as it is. There's not a single player in the reserves who will come in and 'fix' us. No use throwing the baby out with the bath water. Plenty to criticise Goodwin about, but there's been plenty of change this season.

The season is too close for Goody to be too adventurous, I imagine. The team would benefit most from: Out: Bowey, Billings, Sparrow, In: Howes, Gawn, K.Brown With Tholstrup moving to sub after a very poor game. A reprieve for Tholstrup and Bowey to sub if Salem is injured. I expect we'll go for: Out: Billings, AMW/Salem* In: Gawn, K.Brown

Pretty well belted across the park. Have to expect down weeks when you run a team this young and with so many holes, but dispiriting to see the effort in the first q just wasn't there. Need to see way more from a few regular players when their teammates are so young - Sparrow, Chandler, Bowey the main culprits. The gamble to run an extra KPF as ruck makes sense, given how poor or underdone the alternatives are, but the list management team has stuffed us by not having a 2nd ruck on the list. Look how good JVR has become up forward. He should be rucking 15 minutes a game maximum so we don't lose him up there.