Earl Hood

Sitting above that one he seemed to kick it as the siren sounded unfortunately.

Is the MCG sound system set high for the hearing impaired?

I suppose I presume after 3 seasons of coach talk and then watching NMFC number 30 Charlie Comben take 12 intercept marks in our forward 50 from long bombs on top of JVR and Disco’s heads. I saw no sign of any intent to do things differently in regards to F50 entries.

I saw snippets of some of the commentary and analysis on the various footy shows, of our loss to North, the focus was on the third quarter when we had 19 inside 50’s for 2 goals before being smashed in the last. The vision the analyst showed was quite damning and looking at a replay this arvo of the third you just have to scratch your head at what is going on at the club. It’s total Groundhog Day watching Viney just banging it 40m forward to a nest of NMFC backs whilst there are 3 loose players forward of him, in the corridor, with their arms in the air. It wasn’t just Viney, it was Oliver, Rivers, Turner, even Lindsay blazing away for an out of bounds. Part of the blame sits with the players but really I am exasperated with our coaching staff. 56 F50 entries in the game for a 9% success rate! i still remember when we basically coughed up the 2023 Premiership with our 7 point loss to the Pies after managing 69 to 37 inside F50s! A sobering stat I remember someone posted back then was that final was one of only 3 times that a side had ever lost after having a F50 + differential of that margin. The sample size was 2000 plus games and guess what of the 3 losses listed we were the culprits twice. That failure should have been seared into our coaching staff’s collective brains, never to occur again, but no we have soldiered on with the same one dimensional and predictable delivery ever since, while saying every year since we are working on a new style to improve our “forward connection”! I just don’t get it. It should be drilled into our ball carriers to look for closer options at every opportunity. Forward of centre the ball carrier should be looking to a corridor option and our mids should be busting their guts to be a corridor option. After all at other clubs, players don’t have to look, they are handballing or chipping the ball inboard, knowing a team mate will be running onto it. We would all love a Wayne Carey up forward but it won’t happen, after 4 years of forward disconnection, what we do need is a new head coach!

Let’s hope Chandler keeps improving and Henderson clicks. Then a forward line of Chandler, Henderson or Spargo, with Pickett and Viney spending time as a defensive small forward/midfield and Rotate Tracc and Langford between HF/midfield. Fritsch close to goal in a forward pocket and JVR/ Turner as tall targets. Add AJ as forward/bench/second ruck. Might work with some better than average F50 delivery. Get Langdon and Windsor back to the wings, play Lindsay and Rivers off halfback to feed the F50.

First game back after 12 months. I will give Charlie another go. A number of Demomlanders were scathing of Chandler’s first game against GWS and look what happened last week, BOG for us. In a functioning side where ball carriers have their fair share of the ball and can lower their eyes to pick out targets, I think Spargo has a place. Big ifs I know.

Unfortunately this blind bombing is seemingly ingrained in our core mids, Viney, Oliver, even Tracc. Any attempts to change our delivery into our forward line is going to struggle when our engine room only knows how play one way.

I wonder are they going to stick with these “short, unregulated optional sessions after running out of steam in the last quarter of both games while botching a high % of set shot kicks at goal from inside 40 metres?

I think it was on Footy Inferno yesterday that Hird and Bartel were nominating the best tagger in the league and couldn’t agree on whether it was Jordan or if it was Bedford!

In hindsight I am not sure we shouldn’t have tried to manage the exit at a good price, of several of our best or better players for early draft picks over the last 2 seasons. Petty, Viney, Tracc, Oliver were trades all talked about but never happened. Get 2 of those done for first round picks (plus some) or swaps for the right player, we would be better off as a team.

We saw three fifth’s of f**k all in terms of on field leadership from everybody, Gawn, Tracc, Oliver, Viney, Langdon, Lever……

Sorry I misread your post as that you had some info or a theory. I myself am somewhat discombobulated after today’s debacle!

FFS these 2 at late 20’s should be in their prime physically and mentally! They are both pulling big $, sorry but what’s the excuse?

Maybe that explains the apparent, from afar, total lack of on field leadership? It wasn’t just Max, it’s Tracc, Oliver, Viney. I saw nothing, maybe I missed it.

Just got the time to watch a replay of the last quarter our match after being in attendance at the MCG today after watching the last quarter of last nights Hawks win. The difference in game style in the last quarter of two tight matches at the G in damp conditions was stark. We played our last quarter doggedly, very conservative and defensive and eventually we coughed up a small lead in the last minute. Contrast the Hawks last quarter, they never stopped running, taking risks, moving the ball forward at all costs and extended a 5 pt lead to a 20 pt win. In the first half our ball movement was an improvement on previous years but as the pressure mounted and time wore on I thought we became increasingly slower, defensive and predictable in our ball use. The modern game as played by the Pies, Lions, Hawks, Freo, etc is relentless, risky, rapid ball movement. For all the individual talent we can put on the field, I fear we are going to really struggle with the modern game style.

The Bulldogs battled valiantly but you have to give credit when it is due, it was just relentless pressure from the Umpires that told in the end.

Is Seston a forward or a half back?

It’s in Tassie though.

Agree. What’s frustrating is the first training run at Gosch’s I attended this preseason I was watching a 20 minutes match sim, eagerly looking for signs of our new game plan. Instead it was 20 minutes of negative congested play confined mainly to one side of the ground. I was very unimpressed until I later found out Goody was simulating the last minutes of a close match and how to kill the play etc. So we train for yesterday’s scenario, 3 points up, 2 minutes to go, we have possession and a shot at goal, what to do? DO NOT take the low percentage shot and cough up possession. The rookie AJ is not to blame, where were our on-field leaders?

6 Gawn 5 Salem 4 Lever 3 Sparrow 2 Petracca 1 Windsor

Yes my thoughts exactly as the game ended. AJ should not have taken that low percentage kick at goal with minutes to go. I don’t blame him I blame our senior players and particularly our coaches. He was shooting from near the interchange bench so no issue with instructions. Players needed to set up behind AJ and chip it around soaking up precious time, looking for a better angle and importantly forcing giants to advance forward to force a disposal and hopefully opening up a few holes in a crowded F50. And if that doesn’t occur put the ball into the forward pocket and out of bounds for a throw in. In short DO NOT GIVE THE OPPOSITION A POINT KICK OUT with a 2 minutes to go! End of frustrated rant!

Yep Umpire fell for the 3 card trick. He had no way of knowing whether Greene had one hand holding Petty back or was Petty holding Greene by the arm.

Spare a thought for me I got dragged up to Sydney by my Hawk supporting wife and had to sit through the whole show, pretending to support the Hawks and then getting drenched in the last quarter. Then it took 2 hours to get back to our hotel! Even with the tram and only 40,000 crowd, it’s a schmozzle getting out of that ground and home.

It’s worrying we don’t have big, pack crashing marking options and we are light on for opportunist small forwards with class. Kossi is suspended and earmarked for midfield role when he is back, McAdam injured, Spargo still recovering, Chandler struggling, Mentha, Henderson? Of course with rapid ball movement and good delivery into a F50 with forwards getting separation we might cover the lack of specialists and rack up big scores. But looking at our ball movement against Freo, it frustratingly looks very familiar, shallow entries often to forwards that are covered. The usual so called lack of connection between the mids and forwards! It’s only been an issue for 3 or 4 seasons though.

A whole hour! I hope they don’t overdo things.