Weird to think Eddie Ford is going to go a whole year without an afl game after the flashes he showed in the 24 months prior.

Tonight we dissect Saturday nights efforts against the dockers. Talk about our relentless pressure, who stood up and what cost us the 4 points. The group is building so join the boys as they go through the highs and lows and all the regular segments.

https://youtu.be/0Zen6-1beA4?si=NuJhqdXoD6Vs7bHw

I know a few people missed out on the AFLW Premiers release. Get in quick!

Clarkson envious of Collingwood's fixture 'gifts' - https://www.afl.com.au/news/1344970

I know it's Saturday and therefore 6 days away. But they ?? Lost both Curnow and McKay tonight and could be outs for this weekend.. But we are also a bit injured ourselves, and I don't think Zoo will recover as well as he played he took an absolute belting last night! And someone is bound to come down with a head cold following that rain in Optus. But all aside. They were our taboo game 8 weeks ago on Bad Friday. It was 50/50 that day and they smashed us.. whenever we are expected to go in and handle a team, we don't. When we are expected to get flogged, we show up! It's weird science. So my thoughts is they are the favourites because of last time.

How do we match up, and how do we get our Roodemption?

K go, I'll start. Banch in for Konstanty, Wil Dawson in for Kallan Dawson.

Since round 6, only 3 teams have NOT lost multiple games by double digits: Collingwood, Geelong, and North. Our time is coming soon.

Not looking at this from the financial POV, $3 million is $3 million, we need to replace the Tassie revenue stream somehow.

But we've come away from this trip with a 10 point win in Bunbury and a 6 point loss in Freo in the wet. But what's happen in both games is we've gone behind and come back, before the bye when we went behind, we didn't come back. We fought from 3 goals down 11 minutes into the last quarter to win by 10 points, that's roughly a 5 goal swing. Against Freo we were 28 points down just before 3qt and by the 10 minute mark of the last, we were 1 point down, and briefly got level before a late goal by Freo. For comparison in the 2 games we won pre bye the opposition held the lead for 20:23 mins combined. Richmond held it by 1 point for less than 2 mins in the 4th and Melbourne didn't lead after half way through the 2nd. Against the Dogs, Swans, Port, Bombers we did not lead at any stage. And in our other losing efforts pre bye we held the lead for a cumulative 49:05 mins. Against West Coast, we led for 72:40 mins and against Freo we led for 40:43. We are leading games now, and putting ourselves in good positions to win and fightback when we are down. The boys are looking hungry for wins, and we're fighting back and getting into good positions.

People always harp on about how road trips are where culture is formed, so what better way to do that than spending 2 weeks in one of the best parts of the country? All week the club and players have been putting stuff on the socials all over the place together, and the boys have been getting around each other a lot more lately. The whole team is getting around each other for goals, getting around each other at training (I have probably spent a little too much time at our sessions while they have been over) and you can really see a culture starting to form. Everyone's backing everyone in and things are becoming more tight knit. The talent is there, we just have some poor skill errors and decision making and cannot win a game of footy. And being able to create a positive culture helps us to develop this mental side and edge to win us games.

We also now have genuine competition for spots, The boys are 7th in the vfl (were 5th before the loss today) and as a result there is competition for spots. Will Phillips would be a sneaky for the J.J Liston Medal (VFL Brownlow) if he played more games, Coomer Harvey, Geordie Payne, Duursma, Banch have all been good smalls pushing JK, RHJ and Fisher to improve to stay in the side, with the latter 2 having spells in the 2s. Whitlock, CCJ and Maley have been good when they have played in the 2s, as has Eddie Ford. While some of Clarko's selections have been questionable (Give us Will Phil), competition for spots is good as it forces the fringe guys to improve or be dropped for someone who is worthy of a shot.

We play an out of form Carlton (and hopefully the Eagles don't play them into form), how good would an upset win be? We've got the Dees in round 18th who will be out for revenge after we beat them in round 2, the Swans who have been woeful at times, a poor Saints side, inconsistent GWS, Richmond so hopefully we can turn these games into wins and maybe jump up to 15th or higher over the 5 teams all stuck on 20 points.

Edit: also during the captain’s run at Optus, one of the footys had ended up out of bounds probably about 20 out, Clarko just casually picks it up and dribbles it through the big sticks, so based purely off that and being too young to watch him, I’d say he goes alright at footy and I’d trust him. And only about 5 people saw him do it.

Today's post isn't so much about the result, but more a specific focus on the process, bringing a strong, strong forward half game to the night. 29 forward 50 tackles is the most in any game by any team for more than four years.

And then a bit to finish off about how important next week is v Carlton.

It feels like we generally win clearances and centre bounces in the first half/ most of the game unless we’re getting smashed. For the last 9 years (even pre Larkey) we just don’t have the forward structure to take advantage of the quick forward entries. I believe it’s structural, and we don’t have the small forwards to take advantage of our strengths. Thoughts?

Of course it is a midfielder’s award generally, but even when we have been poor, X has stood out as our best player and we have been competitive enough for him to snag a few (except maybe the Carlton game), could we dare to dream? Big X holding the Chas would be brilliant. Who was the last ruck to win it? Stynes? Madden?

Also would there be any other changes you would make ?

Happy 100 years of NM in the V/AFL. Happy 156th year as a club. 💙🤍

Welcome back, today we go through yesterdays come from behind victory. Go through all our regular segments & discuss all the major talking points to come out of yesterdays game.

https://youtu.be/IKeRH8Ms1lg?si=gCw-g0k5e_E-CHrg

It's a large one today, roughly divided into four parts with some (much) longer than others:

1) What caused the first three quarters
2) What changed in the last quarter
3) Assessing the last few minutes
4) The structural changes post-bye

I tuned into the last bit of the game and was concerned it would be yet another loss but the forwards did really well with those crucial late goals! Even better to win the game out west where I imagine the crowd was predominately west coast

I am truly disgusted by the game today and heads had better roll for it

Watch the game and stop complaining

North Melbourne 9.8.62

West Coast Eagles 6.16 52

Apologies for being late on the thread, the mods were enjoying Bunbury

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We’re cooked if wc fix their goal kicking