Yeah , above the shoulders for sure . After the Cats game we were equal Flag favourites . And we had injury concerns at that time . Its not like we had a full list . Equal Flag favourites with a slapped together makeshift team ffs . And then we dish up probably the worst half of football I can recall in seventy years of following our Club . Something aint right in Denmark .

We need to do what Geelong do. Debut 3 kids a year & give them game time, whether you're pressing for a flag that year or not.

Phew what a game......glad that season is over.

We got smashed, no other way to look at it.
Anyone that thinks we played a better second half probably hasn't thought it through enough, the Lions took the foot off the pedal and when we got a little too close in the 4th they just put the foot back down to keep any chance of a look gone.
They literally played with us in the second half.

We were woeful from selection to end.
Doc was not ready, he avoided contact with other players a few times as one would expect.
Williams, not good enough for a seasoned player.
McLovin went ok.
TDK went ok.
Cerra gave us little.
And McKay, seriously........

Hewett, Cripps and Walsh all tried but too little too late.
Acres just can't kick, it's quite embarrassing that he is on the wing when his delivery is consistently so poor.
Ollie, is not a wing, he is too slow (no matter what people want to believe) and is not creative enough to deliver into F50 and he sure as hell is not a tagger, that was a fail.
Why we didn't have Cincotta in is beyond belief, Lord, Moir or even Carroll would've been better than Motlop and Durdin.
I'm not sure how the match committee thought we'd beat Brisbane going with a slow team is beyond me.
And why the F did we have TDK as a sub, then sub out Kennedy for him.
I mean I know Kennedy is slow, but at least he has more heart that 50% of the team.
Fantasia is cooked, a great link up player but he misses so many shots on goal it is almost like he is an *Essendon** plant.
Cowan was pretty poor also, I like the kid but the clangers coming out of defence.
The only surprise was Young, who seemed to have one of his best games (not that that bar is very high).

If Voss, coaching and Austin are worth anything we need to rebuild our midfield and smalls and add a ton of speed to the team.
- Re-sign Owies, he was missed.
- Trade out/delist injured players
- Trade Motlop and or C Durdin, we can't keep two slow forwards that add little.
- Trade Harry, it'll be a bit of a loss but is most likely the only way to get some better talent in the middle or another first rounder.
- Trade Martin
- Trade Williams
- Trade in some developed players that are 1. quick and 2. can kick the ball or draft them and start a mini rebuild.
- Move and train Ollie to play HB, he was actually good in that position.
- Sack most of the assistant coaches and bring in a strategist to help Voss
- Give Austin his final warning for the trade period, it's time to get creative.
- And as much as I love Doc, it's time to retire...maybe he can start coaching, as an assistant.

We've only got this trade/draft period and next before Tasmania should be allowed to start their drafting for 2028.
Plus some of our key core players are all starting to get older and we may lose them to other teams if we don't do something soon.

Ok, rant over.
Still frustrated as hell though.

this needs to be a non-negotiable. it's how you turnover your list.

Oh I think we've got turnovers pretty well covered

yes.



(although, the assistants are all contracted thru '25. which fills me with a deep dread. if we're stuck with them and their one-dimensional, conservative bullshit for another year, we're screwed. the tassie effect will have kicked in and all the prime picks will be moving south.)

I have also followed the club for over 70 years and I can't recall anything like that rubbish they served up in the first half

They seem to be the Hawthorn of the northern states. Bad losers, worse winners and absolute bandwagoners.

Do we normally do MVP threads for finals?

of this, we can be certain of. there's a disconnect, or some raging incompetence going on somewhere in the club.

the clueless faces among the coaches in the qtr-time huddle is something burned into my brain.