Tolstoys Nudge

Glad to see the coaching staff don’t share George’s opinion of AMW, I actually Think he’s really gonna add some composure and poise to be a bit of a point of difference for us this week so let’s see, groundball game is top-notch w/low centre of gravity so am wrapped for the kid who’s preserved and found his spot, for me it likely means Bowser is out so that’s my prediction, really poor on weekend and allowed opponent to fly several times without going with him last week, made poor decisions — but it could be to replace Salo as well if they know he’s out.. 🤔 Id of loved to see Jeffo TBH but there’s a tipping point with youth — job for someone to find out what the HECK is going on with Spargo — we’re down Gus, Lever ( not anymore 😮‍💨), Smith, Trac & Spargo role was rolled to be huge this year so to hear the podcast poo-pooing our depth when we’ve blooded more youth than ANYONE in recent times is really quite stark and barren — With Gus, Brown, Harmes, Grundy, Jordon all off the books the loss in depth with a few injuries is.. surprising? We’ll actually finally get to spend some dough on depth at years end and it’ll mean if we are cooked for this year, we can regenerate fast next year, ppl just have no idea what losing Gus, Smith without ability to replace doesn’t a list then to lose Spargo all year, Melksham all year so far, to say we’ve got no depth left is.. well, a bit mute, dark and masochistic really. But that’s just MFCSS — it’s ok, you’ll come round gents! Although I do say George and Andy enjoy a bit of dour-delight hahaha 🤫 Had a crack at Yeo, having one still at Battle many other names being floated: LDU?! — (we’d hope), Ballard, Davies, S Berry, Pruess, Callahan and others just 2 targets acquired with draft haul is another solid step fwd with 2 of those list slots already available — Taylor and Lamb aren’t gonna be sitting on their hands singing ‘Kumbaya’ that’s for damn sure, they’re the best in the biz and they’ll be working tirelessly to upgrade! My big peeve is what I said at time, WHY WHY WHY give Grundy away to a contender? What did he have on us as leverage? ZIP.. just so silly that’s one I’ll never understand inc media at time who now laugh but we’re a main driver if the narrative that we somehow HAD to let him go for nothing — crazyness! Brown coming off books this off-season releases more dough, we will deliver some juicy surprises just watch. I thought Fullarton has showed signs as well, been emergency several times and isn’t far away stats don’t tell full story there, he’s close! Envy of the comp in terms of youth depth already playing AFL footy, we will live to fight another day next year but I’m not done on this season yet, I’ll say it one more time — I’d MUCH rather this than to perform definition of insanity by expecting a diff result this finals series, at least we haven’t peaked (not by long shot clearly 😂) & as Binman said Goody narrative hasn’t changed, we have weapons galore but obviously need some luck and momentum to get the confidence back. Lever return HUGE.. Kets see if we can put up a fight and take a step fwd again this week.

Yeah.. cus I don’t think he’d have to of demonstrated much forward craft knowledge to together the role would he? Probs not..haha Not to be narcy, but you see my OTT point though right? I’m sure many had same thought — but it’s just something we can never really know (whether he as a had coach isn’t up to snuff I mean) for sure — But we can know that not many of the premium line coaches, only coach the position they played.

Not grat role players OR the right one for a teams needs, this is what’s changing my Friend! The very definition of role players is no longer Steve Kerr or Jud Buechler for Jordan’s Bulls — but now more Mihocek or Nibbler & Rick, in a team full of almost exclusively just role players, alongside a twinkling of stars of course! Depending on the side, the right role player can make them a contender, whereas the star mids impact is declining almost weekly — still valuable, but the 73rd best mid can have 90% of the impact of a top 10 mid — only the true cream Ala Trac, Heeney, Bont being the exception to that rule!

LDU is literally the perfect recruiting target for us imho! Whisky topline mids aren’t as vital as they once weee, what he’d allow by enabling our best role players like Nibbler, Kos to return to the fwd half is where he’d pay-off most. Whilst at same time also add some great inside lateral movement to get the ball to the outside!

Topline mids aren’t what they used to be — the game has turned towards impact role players and will continue to in time

I have a Viney/Clarry monster-game vibe so glad to hear Claz is up and about!

Pls tell me Petty is with Defenders.. Or Turner at least..

sooo he wouldn’t be ahead of others as a defence first? Seems like a strange call to me

sooo he wouldn’t be ahead of others as a defence first? Seems like a strange call to me

cap stretched? that’s an absolute fallacy amigo.. we’re gonna have PLENTY of $$$ to spend!!!

Hallelujah! Exact points I was just making to a colleague — There’s time, it’s a long long year.. it ain’t over by a long shot! Sure we’re playing poorly, but our best is only a game away each week! Let’s all take a breath, and know even if we don’t find our form — we have the players, the weapons & the time to be a dynasty and then some yet.. need we go into our players under 50 games spiel? it could be a disaster year, like 2020 — we all know how the end of that year played out and what occurred following! But it could also be a year of turning it round when it matters and when it is most suited towards finals.. let’s see

I’m not disagreeing, it’s bloody horrific and aggravating but it is what it is — we should of beaten them in the finals and we DIDNT and nothing so we’ve every gonna change or rectify that in our bleeding hearts.. no names in ROLE PLAYER slots, not in important posts — Harrison has looked a player for weeks, as has several others they’ve brought in, like many WE have brought in — but their system execution was just far superior and they kicked goals from EVERYWHERE yet again.. why? Cus they’re CONFIDENT!!! u think it happens weekly by chance??? Go watch their last 200 goals, their goal-kicking is INCREDIBLE

Well you don’t fix it per se, you play through it & eventually it shifts! Im not optimistic, im purely basing this on fact that basically EVERY single team has a bad 3-5WK period across last 24m, and some longer than others — but without drastic list changes or new coach etc all of those sides have worked through it, inc Collingwood whom when healthy were 0-4! No they’re bagged up and WINNING! Cats, Blues, Lions, Swans, Dogs, Bombers You name it, sure the Freo loss was an outlier but that’s what can happen fast in modern footy when one team steamrolls another mid-game and has a run of conversion and luck, they’re able to compound and pile-on fast! Doesn’t mean we’ll 💯 turn it around but it does help offer perspective — with basic conv yest could’ve been a while diff game, not talking expected score, I’m talking purely based on if we’d taken some chances, Trac didn’t get a car-crash type injury, etc we might’ve gotten some confidence and made a run! Time will tell, but green-shoots WERE there to see yesterday that’s just a fact. I’m as angry and frustrated as anyone, but what other options have I got? Wallow? No thanks.

System? Today wasn’t about system as much for me — more about errors, confidence and hesitancy when we need to play with certainty

You don’t think combining took a step fwd today? You’d prefer your leader to fall into a heap would you and say we’re knackered? 🤔 — Jvr — i50 count — Contested possession— Nibbs — Clarry — Kossie flashes — Max — Windsor — May 2nd half ALL steps fwd don’t care what ANY of you say.. Sucks to be sure but forgive me if I’m glad he doesn’t look worried or broken.. that’s for some reason what many wanna see — bizarre!

Without reading any of the predictable responses I thought today was a side zapped or bereft of confidence that’s having their weaknesses exponentially exposed by that. If you look again at the incredible chances they took versus ones we didn’t it’s hard not to see players dropping their head & effort then becoming an issue which for me, despite goody saying it wasn’t, it was in patches. We can’t kill a single ball that’s deep d50 right now, we can’t make hand passes in-tight, we can’t convert easy basic chances — even posters alone today means it’s a diff game if they go thru. It really is a small margin league and unlike Collingwood we need our stars playing well always have or were in trouble so we’re feeling that right now & whilst I’m nowhere near giving up, I do see how easy it is for ppl to fall into trap of tho king it’s worse than it is. The in game swings are a major player in modern footy look at swans yest, nearly smashed but take chances and then our score cats by 12g like it’s nothing! Inside 50 conversion remains the issue but at least we got it in there today, and had a fwd show all he’s a bonafide STAR about to pop-off big time. Adding Lever and Trac helps, Kossie is close to really becoming the great he was always destined to be, but boy it’s tempting to only see the trees right now! But again it’s a small-margin game & I still have belief it’ll turn, our confidence is shot atm, we need a circuit breaker, energiser.. Clarry looked better too, don’t give up, be annoyed upset be livid but don’t fall into the trap it’s all lost.. cus that absolute easy and poisonous greed in my view.

This post at least feels like being solution focused for once! But it’s more than that — this is effort based, and that’s behind coaching or game plan. Recruiting will help, but we’ve gotta identify the cancer first

Yeah it’s garbage.. lol Not the players missing easy shots easy tackles etc it’s binmans positivity that you take umbrage at.. unreal

Let’s hope and be ready to relish that.. Max on MMM was quite soothing.. apart form his issue re recent games margins — was off by about 30 points in 3/4 games he mentioned but maybe that speaks to his feeling in those games and how bad he felt we were 😂

So we should’ve delayed the guy who’d been nothing but a loyal integral part of our squad, who’s contact has 5yrs to run, cus we thought his scan would come back and lead to retirement? How exactly would we have done that champ? Mamma Mia

A bust? Wowsers.. just.. wowwell down for quoting this with composure mate.. unreal

Thanks for making a factual, reasonably sensible argument re our midfield! Whilst I disagree that it’s a midfield issue, it’s a very good well-made point

Don’t anyone would see it that way.. anything less than a Prelim will bring immense dissection and inescapable scrutiny

Disagree — Gus and club were absolutely blindsided by the scan results, as it was first concussion in 5yrs! Club couldn’t act even if hey did know, as AFL still hasn’t fully finalised how his salary cap $$$ will be managed! SL that’s a totally inaccurate and flammable argument!

Not a bad point but I think with JVR back it’s unlikely — that’s more one for when/if we start going down the off-season surgery road by round 19 etc I think but who knows I guess it’s possible! I don’t think we’ll see wholesale changes but I do expect a debut.. AMW/Brown my guess, maybe Fullarton to give Max a chop-out and not have to have JVR ruck.. maybe Howes for Hunter, or Billings I suppose.. I think it’s wrong-round to debut a skinny key fwd! I'm gonna guess 3 changes max! Lord I hope I’m right & we respond, I still think the WCE game was worse — we packed this one in and they had all hail-Mary’s cashed.. we were flat as a tac etc but one thing is, we WILL find out either way!