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Maybe it'd be easier to wear a loss like this if it didn't feel like this is our ceiling - had an off day, had a lapse, gave up a good opportunity to win, disappointing but there's always next week. But we've seen this before, and thought it signified a rung on the development ladder before, and...

9.8 (62) to 3.2 (20) against since early in the second quarter. We depend a lot on pressure to keep the ball locked in when they have possession, and we have too many players who choose when to contribute to that pressure. Not a new problem, but we'll continue playing like the last two quarters...

In: Larkey, Wardlaw, Harvey, Payne, Goad Out: Maley, Logue, Konstanty, Hansen, Teakle Five changes but it still feels like tinkering at the edges, which says a fair bit about our squad. The core mid group of LDU/Powell/Simpkin isn't coming close to meeting expectations at the moment, but I...

Even if the in-tight contested game we've pivoted to both in 2024 and this season isn't a "long-term sustainable method", surely there's some value in actually going into a season with that approach, and seeing the season out with that approach? Rather than the cycle of trying a more offensive...

Teams that are on the right path don't play like that - clear systemic failures across the grounds from very early on (how many long high kicks to an outnumbered Banch in a dangerous spot to turn it over?), the same indifferent games from players we're so sure are core to our success that we've...

Just a very, very lacklustre way to lose - not diabolically outclassed, not comprehensively outplayed, but even when only two goals down at 3QT, we never seemed to play like we were giving our all to win. I think playing a really defence-focused game, even at the expense of your own scoring...

Bizarrely stagnant stuff - like a game played back at half speed or something. Can't complain too much if it keeps us within touching distance, I guess, but it almost seems like neither side is doing a whole lot to actively win this...

Astounding that somehow it's us who kick the first of the quarter.

A very winnable game goes comfortably begging. I thought we looked mostly quite switched on early - lots of overlap run and a more attacking approach than we normally employ, which is a good development if we could pair it with the ability to switch modes when the game requires it. McKercher...

We looked well on top of them that quarter. Playing generally good football with occasional slip-ups rather than the usual other way around - but they score quick/more efficiently when they do get on top in a passage of play. Should win if we sustain it - but would like to see us closing those...

Some good moments, some bad moments, probably lands about where we'd expect a game like this is going to land given where both clubs are at currently. Considering the injured outs + LDU concussion + Larkey hobbled early, leading to us relying on a younger group where the balance tips too far in...

Felt like a complete reversion to last year's woes, right down to Larkey and LDU having good individual games in a match where nothing could be called a 'good team game'. Every team has down days. You could cop a loss here, even a fairly bad loss, as part of the rebuilding process - especially...

Nowhere near it - Adelaide had a 214-point turnaround v Geelong in 1992 (lost by 123 points in Round 2; won by 91 points in Round 17) and I don't even know if that's the biggest. Without confirming, I suspect there'd be hundreds of turnarounds better than our 93 against Carlton this year. I...

Something of a sour aftertaste with the last quarter (reminded me of this game from 2010 a bit), although even then I think it was really just the last 10 minutes or so that were outright bad rather than just a bit disappointing. Given we looked like we were starting to flag a bit late in the...

We're a strange sort of side at the moment. The old lapses where the opposition take control and pile on a run of goals aren't completely gone, but they are contracting in length, and something approach a new competitive normal is expanding in its place - but sometimes that's long periods where...

The club has openly paralleled our rebuild to Melbourne and to Brisbane. Foolishly, IMO, because good rebuilds are much less ostentatious and drawn out as either of those clubs' was, but we're long-term terrible as well now so let's run with it. Both clubs went from their worst season, where...

I know we were the exact opposite of good at comebacks during the Scott years, but I didn't think I'd have to go as far back as Round 5, 2008 to find the last time this happened. (There were a couple of not-quite cases in between then and now, though - coming back from 15 or 16 down in the...

Good last quarter to win. FOS setting standards already, McKercher's dare paying off or at least not actively hurting us a lot more than earlier in the year, Xerri steering things in the middle with aplomb, Simpkin standing up at the end. Back six as a whole held up pretty well given what they...

2-7-1 and 80.2% is our best standing after the first ten games since 2020 (3-7, 88.5%). It's kind of strange to look at the ladder this far into a season and see that the gap between us and the below-average pack filling out the bottom 10 isn't actually all that big anymore. And with a club so...

I don't rate these suggestions - the incessant creation of restrictive rules to help teams do the attacking or defending for them is why umpiring is in such a state in the first place, and it's ultimately up to the team that conceded the mark or free to close off receiving options just like in...

Scrappy, frustrating, and with so many squandered opportunities - but this is what the style we've used after quarter time in the last two weeks to come back and fall short can do for us in a full game, and if it's a draw against the ladder-leaders then it should mean wins against plenty of...

April 29, 2009. Somehow I've now spent more of my life with a BF account than without - I was 15 when I joined (think I signed up in the computer lab at school?), and got the '16 Year Member' notification earlier this week. Not sure I needed reminding of that... As I remember it, 2009 on this...

This aspect of our game over the last two weeks is maybe the most interesting turn. It can be the sign of a coach that's run out of other ideas and is just looking to minimise damage, or it could be the point where we finally insist on some semblance of team defence - overcompensating as we...

Yeah, count me confused too. Not a superstar but consistently good enough as a role player in a poor side to be a genuine contender for the Syd two years running. I was prepared to write off last year as a bit out-of-sorts after we experimented with him deeper in defence early on, but somehow...

What were we trying to do here? Game there for the taking in the last against a depleted opponent, what was our strategy to win? I just don't get how politely we lost tonight. Exhausted after a 5-day break and travel might explain some of the lethargy, but it doesn't explain Bailey Scott giving...

Structure looks a shambles so far. Loads of our players loose 10m away from the contest, not providing anything nor defending anything - no surprise how easily it gets into our open backline like that.

A prudent league would understand that the concussion lawsuit they're so damn timorous about won't get any easier for them to win so long as their suspensions are all about outcomes. You're not pre-empting anything if your only decisions are reactionary. Not that I think Curtis did anything to...

Hard to know what to make of such a bewildering match. Recovering after the usual bad start is a plus, as is staying competitive on the scoreboard right until the end, but I'm not convinced all that much actually improved here - or at least, most of the usual problems were still painfully...

LDU has always had zero spatial awareness. His eighth league season and hasn't improved on that front since year one.

Strange, strange quarter. Couple of players who definitely stood up for us - Parker and Curtis been great all game, Wardlaw very good in the second, thought FOS is doing a lot right as well - but, the play that led to the Parker goal aside, not a whole lot that you'd call good football, and a...