So far this year all our losses have been on us. We have lost them ourselves alot more than the other side won them. essentially our own dumb fault. Lost very narrowly to a couple of very good sides despite playing poor footy. Essentially a lack of the intensity we had last year. What we do this year is up to us, no-one else. Play with the right intensity and we roll anyone. Hopefully this happens when the whips crack in the 2nd half of the year when it is time to peak.
Whilst I think we need to beat the contenders, I'd more pissed off or concerned if we dropped more games like the Adelaide one where we simply should not have.
They laid 88 tackles last night, their season average is 67.6. Their 2023 season average for tackles was 64.1. You won't be laying 88 tackles very often in one season. The link between their high tackle numbers and the I50 differential seems pretty clear in my non expert opinion.
Yep he nailed it and I thought the midfield stuff was on the money too, they had a plan , worked us out and I thought Pendlebury was finished but he played some game on the bigger Cripps.
Charlie might be carrying a niggle that is preventing him from churning out kms or being explosive. Who knows? All I can see is that he isn't himself. Again, I dont want to highlight him when you have 7 or 8 that were very bad.
Collingwood's game tally for tackles, and tackles I50 were significantly above their season averages. Their tally for I50's and clearances was also well above their average.
They played out of their skins on the tackling side of things, and that level of commitment and effort is not sustainable.
I thought everything about their "game" wasn't sustainable last year until it was.
Go back and watch the replay, Walsh is basically in a bear hug every other stoppage with arms around his waist, nada, nothing, nought!
Fans want to whack Williams, but what he did players do all the time and do not get pinged. The willingness of fans to throw rocks at Williams goes back to when he signed on, fans bitched and moaned about the dollars, but that is not Williams fault, much like it wasn't the fault of Martin or McGovern before him. But the dollars put him in the sh1thouse with many fans forever more with the dollars equating to tall poppy syndrome!
Then you have the intentional out of bounds, our bloke gets pinged for a kick off the side of the boot, Pendlebury kicks it 50m almost directly sideways in the dying moments and gets away with it.
These are game changing moments caused by officials not good play by an opponent.
I get our club doesn't want to be seen as whinging, but if they are raising these issues in a very public way it's never going to go our way. The privacy does nothing, we need the AFL giving fans a public explanation. When the AFL officials get sick of making up excuses, the errors will diminish.
I dont need to watch anything, I saw it the first time.
Got a few big heads drinking their own bathwater and forgetting about doing the hard stuff hoping stalwarts Cripps, Weitering etc will save the day. We lost the clearances to a depleted Pies midfield ...that should never , never happen if we want to win the big games.
Agree.....the Voss reaction with Cerra on the boundary shows he isnt happy and Id expect a few home truths and back to basics football vs Melbourne with defense ,manning up as a priority and sticking to the game plan.
Its not panic stations yet but we need to beat the Colls, the Geels, etc. Right now with Freo beating Rich, we are sitting 8th.
Geelong are posers we should have won that game last week if it wasn't for meek defensive efforts from the usual suspects - giving away goals like lollies.
Better defensively against the Filth and Gov is coming back which will settle and reinforce the defence a little bit more.
Right this very minute, I say we are the posers and better rectify it quickly if we want to contend.
That's how it's umpired, paying the Elliott frees is fair enough but Harry got nothing for the same holding treatment down the other end and I think that's what's irking a few fans .
Not paying the ones to Harry doesnt make the Elliot ones not there. Point is he panicked everytime the ball csme to them
Elliott engages his opponent to push off and create separation. They grab each other. Ump sees it pays a free kick. Watch every single duel and tell me that they aren't all identical. I watched Rhys Stanley do similar to Max gawn (and arguably worse) and it was play on.
The subjective nature here is what the problem is. They ping Williams twice and then don't pay another free like it until mason Cox gets a bit of the same.
That equated to about 3 goals. There was also the cripps handball paid holding the ball and then the jack crisp "drop" handball that was paid play on.
These things are a frequent occurrence, and I don't really debate the action I debate the consistency. It's a free in our defensive 50 but you won't find a similar free for essentially the same action in our forward 50. Why?
The blocks that occur that take walsh off daicos and at other times cowan off Elliott.
They're not illegal. Their blokes get on the bike and run around others who are there to hold illegally but no one cares about those holds.
He put his arms around him, once you do that youre gone.
who Melbourne or Geelong? Had Cameron kicked like last week Geelong would have won.
What Melbourne didn't do is attack the ball carrier leaving players free in defensive 50. They worked backwards to cover options which artificially creates panic and makes players kick longer to a contest.
We didn't change this against Geelong until it was far too late, and paid dearly for it.
Lever and May will just gobble up our bombs into the fwd line.
Williams coped two umpiring clangers early and fans spent the next four quarters blaming him for everything, he wasn't that bad.
Walsh left Daicos free unchecked in F50 in the critical game ending final moment, and fans are silent!
He gave away 2 or 3 frees for holding plain and simple, his opponents had him bluffed. Not a defenders a-hole. I called out Walsh immediately and will continue to.
I don't expect to win but I expect a lot of improvement in work rate, selection, and on field set up. A case of "how we play" (process) moreso than the results.
To be fair Prof, we did a lot well vs the Filth considering the limited I50s and only lost by 6 points as a result of a brain fade at a stoppage.
