Earl Hood

6 Petracca 5 May 4 Gawn 3 Salem 2 Brayshaw 1 McVee

From memory played round 1 down back and had a very serviceable game against the Dogs. Then was the fall guy for our shocker against Brisbane in Round 2 where the midfield went missing and the backline crumbled under pressure with May putting in a shocker along with many others. Tommo was then banished to Casey where he has played very well.

Interesting. If you look at our heat map in the AFL map it clearly shows a concentration of play to one side for 3 quarters. Assuming the map is oriented so north is up then the majority of play is on the south side. But I could be reading the map wrong.

Umpires have turned this game on its head!

Which wing? If you were on the Southern wing, you would have seen a lot of footy close up. If you were on the members wing with me you spent most of the day looking at the f**king big screen to work out what was happening.

Yes agree with this. Watching Collingwood on the rampage, the thing that stands out is their quick lateral movement of the ball and use of the whole ground from half back to stretch opposition defenders. So what are we doing replicating our 2022 one dimensional, predictable ball movement, playing the southern wing all day? We had opportunities to switch but rarely did. Not sure about the training issue but we do look slow and so the midfield is incapable of running the ball into the forward 50 and spotting up a short lead, instead booting the ball long from outside 50m hoping for a pack mark. It’s the 2022 failed game plan revisited, very disappointing. And our fabulous set shot goal kicking accuracy has gone missing as well. We need Petty and Oliver back asap but this just highlights the lack of depth on our list.

What is going on with Viney? We are playing a man down.

And to me that’s a key question. Why can’t we reproduce that midfield pressure intensity that we displayed in the second half of 2021 that took us all the way? What has changed in terms of personnel, not a lot I think. And it’s not just the followers, it’s the wings, the half forwards and half backs. Watching the Pies do over Carlton today, their pressure on the ball carrier is what we were doing and this allowed Darcy Moore to sit back and intercept at will. Very reminiscent of our once impregnable defence with Lever & May picking off hurried disposals into the opposition’s forward line. That was us in 2021, harassing, chasing, intercepting and going back the other way so quickly, the lack of resistance allowed our midfield to pick out a forward at their leisure. And suddenly our poor forward connection problems evaporated and we dominated the finals series. That defensive, offensive running dominance has gone against better sides anyway. Without being fully competitive between the arcs our weaknesses up forward get exposed. The personnel are still there but the intensity seems to be missing.

Who is doing the camera work on the coverage, it’s hard to focus?

Great on paper but not performing but the good news is it should be easy to get it working in the second half of the season but the bad news might be I am not confident that will happen. No idea what the problems are when you have 2 dominant rucks tapping to the likes of Oliver, Tracc and Viney.

Technically it was there like about 80 others not paid this match in the rain. Rivers holding on didn’t actually impede the player who was going no where in that scrimmage but you know give the umps half a chance.

TMac form is the least of our problems. He is trying and breaking packs, it would be working if we were dominating inside 50 deliveries. But we can’t get our hands on the [censored] ball! That’s the problem.

Midfield has gone MIA. Zero clearances that quarter. WTF is going on? Ruck dominance means nothing if you can’t win clearances and we are seeing nothing much in aerial dominance around the ground. If our mids don’t pressure the ball carrier they won’t be kicking long down the line.

6 Tracc 5 Viney 4 Oliver 3 Hibberd 2 Rivers 1 Gawn

No I f**king haven’t right!

What’s with the sloppy handballs?

Boundary umpires need to lift their game this quarter.

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty he is free at last!

But on this precedent you don’t need to actually injure the player. The act itself, if it doesn’t show a duty of care, is sufficient to be reported.

I suspect Gleeson was worded up prior, to back the MRO this week after some very poor outcomes in recent weeks. That’s how the AFL operates.

2 out 3 wins for the MRO is acceptable to the AFL for this week I guess.

Jonathon Brown, Nick Reiwolt and even Kenny Hunter, back in the day would be banned from the game these days. Going back with the flight into a pack to take a mark is just too dangerous! Where is the duty of care? Oh hold on Jono always kept his eyes on the ball, that would be totally different, that’s safe. I mean if you looked at your opponents before you polaxed them, that’s not upholding your duty of care. yes it all makes sense now.

Well the logic if it was followed through by umpires and the AFL is we have entered the era of touch footy! On this ruling you can’t initiate contact with a player in possession of the ball in any way as it could result in injury. Of course the AFL will ignore the logic and ignore similar collisions if it involves a high profile player or a big club in finals contention. And in the finals when the game gets really brutal the MRO will be looking the other way.

Unfortunately we are still on AFL welfare. Suspect we will get told to wear it or there could be ramifications. As soon as the Geelong guy went down I thought the Van was in trouble. Suspect the tribunal has been worded up to back the MRO after a succession of tribunal hearings overturning the MRO.

Yes I managed to make my way up to one of the spires to watch the second half on my phone between ceremonies. Big day, what with me riding in to the Abbey the King’s Cavalry and me holding the Royal Sceptre aloft!