Pre Game Perambulations: AFL 2020 R11 Carlton vs West Coast

[Baggers]

When you're one game out of the 8 with a better percentage of course you chase finals. Why the hell would you give that up. Anything else is a losers mentality, which can happen when you lose for most of 20 years. While it's there you chase it hard otherwise it's just purely giving up. We don't expect our side to give up, supporters need to follow suit.

And to me chasing a finals berth hard, firstly requires winning. As a part of that we need to be really honest with ourselves why we do not win when in patches we show we are clearly able to. Our costly fades in games are now legendary. We consistently and persistently give up opposition run-ons of 4-7 goals. No finals until that stops... and it can, now.

Before you can fix something you gotta admit the problem, then apply the solution. Almost every pundit of our game has identified poor adapting to change by our midfield as undermining our potential success. Plus we're so conservative at the selection table and on match day. Boldness needed.

For me it's about doing your utmost to win (rather than focusing on finals)... and knowing that the rest will take care of itself, once you develop the winning habit. And for me winning often means some boldness and a complete intolerance of beige games from anyone. As an example, Murphy is too often a liability... yes, he does some good things but at critical moments you cannot have a leader who can't land a hard tackle and is seemingly committed to bruise free footy. Is his want to play on selfish? There are other examples.

Recruiting blokes as midfielders (Gibbo / SPS for example) then playing them out of position is a recipe for at best ordinariness.

When I suggest being bold at the selection table, player positions and match day tactics it's actually in an effort to win! Playing newbies is not about putting the cue in the rack, rather trying other options in an attempt to improve the chance of winning - and stopping the wild surrenders in games that let opposition sides get a sniff, and more often than not, take the lead. The whole place needs some nasty pills... mongrel... tenacity.

The present situation, the status quo of playing blokes out of position, not rotating more cats through the midfield and so on will only get us more of what we're already getting - close games, with wild fluctuations from us, decided by a coin toss.