Review Round 3, 2026 vs West Coast

[Jonts]

We decided to bank picks for next year in the hope the AFL will let us trade them away to get the points for Dougie Cochrane. We don't even know whether that can be done anyway. I think we have been too kind in assessing our list managers, Cripps in particular. Parker has been denied the chance to draft players in the first and second rounds far too often. Now when you look at our midfield options we don't have any decent young mids coming through. With Rozee going down and Bergman injured this week, our lack of options is scary. Moraes shows some glimpses but he is a poor kick, so whats the point in picking him.

Dig deeper
Giving up any extras on top of a first and houston for Lukosius and berry
Trading up for sinn
Trading up for Berry

Last years trade period is only a small piece of the pie

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

A Fagan coached side wouldn’t have dropped two games to the two spooners 100%

He might have with our list

 

[Cam1870]

He could be one of the best forwards in the league if he just actually ****ing attacked the footy. Has all the tools except the mentality. So frustrating.

True. But if my auntie had balls etc... or if Luko had them.

I feel bad saying that but I'm old enough to remember watching the Maggie's in the late 80s when we were still actually Port Adelaide. With his attack on the ball and body Jack would have shipped him so fast to Glenelg it would make his head spin.

 

[Duckimus Prime]

Parker has been denied the chance to draft players in the first and second rounds far too often. Now when you look at our midfield options we don't have any decent young mids coming through.

The only times he's been denied was when we gave up pick 8 and a future first for Jason Horne-Francis.

Otherwise our first round pick trading has been getting extra first round picks like when we traded forward for Marshall and SPP, and when we traded our future first to Brisbane to get Georgiades.

It did feel like we lacked targets going forward today. We really struggled with marks leading up the ground and West Coast were killing us in this area. Lukosius was horrible. We lack a transition marking Brad Ebert type who can run all day and mark overhead. It just felt once West Coast dialed up the pressure we had no answer to their press.

We don't have a get out kick down the line. Georgiades isn't a good enough wrestle and mark forward for it. Whitlock probably isn't there physically yet. And both ruck options stink as contested marks.

Lukosius isn't that option either.

 

[edgie]

A Fagan coached side wouldn’t have dropped two games to the two spooners 100%

A Fagan coached side was the spooners or close to it

 

[Willsy10]

Have the media called out the umpiring howlers in this match that possibly cost us the match or does that only happen for crows matches?

Disclaimer: we were fckn awful but copped some absolute shocking decisions that cost us and gave them goals.

 

[Blinky Nyland]

I suspect we are tying to play a game style that at least half the guys lack the skill or confidence to pull-off and half the guys also lack the ticker for. We were particularly found out around the spillage today. We just didn't hunt the ball hard enough and but for Butters had nobody who could consistently do anything when they got the ball.

Durdin is a win so far for the new guys. He makes the most of his chances to score and his tackling and pressure has been good. He's not as classy as Rioli but he's certainly better in his ability to apply pressure. Wehr isn't as shocking as some suggest but he looks like he can do more when he gets the ball than he is delivering. Hopefully its a confidence thing but we need a lift from him.

Lukosius is poised to challenge Mead for the position of number one whipping boy. It's a pity Pervitin isn't allowed these days. He needs something to fire him up.

 

[Portwon]

Dropped a very very winnable game.

In lots of ways reflected the magpies performance as it has for many games in the last few years.

Given the state of our list and the wider club I think we need to focus on three things.

Building the right culture on and off field across the club which promotes success is performance based and demands effort. Which makes the decision to have Vis as an emergency impacting the magpies an interesting one. Every game every contest needs to have effort attached. If not consequences apply. The North game was shite but have seen effort in most of the other two.

The development of a game plan that when embedded fully stands up in all games (especially big games) is resilient in withstanding players being out (within reason) and is enhanced by rather than depends on individual brilliance. I think I have seen very green shoots of that.

Movement towards having a list of players that can win a one on one contest (not they they will every time) but pound for pound you would back them in most of the time. We are very far from that at the moment and that will mean player turnover.

Angry, frustrated but still better than most of the last few years when I could see we would lose in the first five minutes could almost guarantee we would ease up when we should put the foot down or excused poor performance.

Gonna be a journey and cant excuse and accept defeat but much like the times around 2011got to stick fat and look for the diamonds (and jonny butcha).

 

[pastmyprimus]

Durdin maintaining his 2 goal per game record. He’s been a handy pickup.

 

[It Just Is]

Durdin maintaining his 2 goal per game record. He’s been a handy pickup.

Other than maybe Tom Cochrane, he’s our only recruit, through trade or draft, since JHF who consistently finishes his work. Refreshing.

 

[x_les_x]

Mackinley has promise with his speed and agility but holy **** sometimes with ball in hand he looks like a virgin touching a girl for the first time with his disposal.

 

[Portmagpies36]

I don't fully disagree but you put him in a top 10 team where he's the 21st best player picked, he'd look ok. moves ok, does some nice things, things to work with etc. But he's in a team with Mead, McKinley, Watkins, Wehr, Evans, Brodie etc and so just because of his draft pick he has to be better than all those guys. He's just a kid whose played less than 20 games in a rubbish team. He may yet be a good footballer.
Having said all that, chances are he'll be a 250 game DBJ type whose number of games is more an indictment of the club than an indication of his impact

DBJ the worst Port Adelaide footballer I have seen play 200 games should be eternally grateful to the previous coach for point blank refusing to drop him on several occasions.
Berry needs time fair enough but I just can’t see anything special in his game that justifies such a high draft pick. (Hope he proves me wrong)

 

[Portmagpies36]

True. But if my auntie had balls etc... or if Luko had them.

I feel bad saying that but I'm old enough to remember watching the Maggie's in the late 80s when we were still actually Port Adelaide. With his attack on the ball and body Jack would have shipped him so fast to Glenelg it would make his head spin.

Timmy G said the same thing after the game today when someone mentioned Lukosius and his complete lack of physicality in a contest. He said Jack Cahill would give it to you big time and if it happened next week goodbye.

 

[240volt]

Timmy G said the same thing after the game today when someone mentioned Lukosius and his complete lack of physicality in a contest. He said Jack Cahill would give it to you big time and if it happened next week goodbye.

Can’t upset the little precious kids anymore by saying nasty things.
It’s all positive BS these days.

 

[Willsy10]

so is this Eleni ump that clearly has it in for us a legit crows fan? It would make her umpiring against us make sense.

 

[Portmagpies36]

I'm certainly a bit worried about our effort level under Carr. Pressure is about effort. We've spent 5 quarters this year downhill skiing against trash but as soon as the opposition pressure raised a bit, we completely folded. Having a bad list doesn't make experienced, proven players play lazy footy, and we've seen plenty of that in the first 3 weeks.

I fully agree that a lot of this is just a continuation of our culture under Hinkley but it actually seems a little bit worse than that. Where is the new coach bounce? Where is the initial setting of standards?

Glad you bought this up, everyone knows our list is crap but where is the new coach bounce (have a look at Melbourne today!) Unfortunately they all know Josh Carr and it’s a familiar voice. There was zero pressure from Essendon last week and none in the first quarter today when the opposition step it up there has been zero resistance. That is huge alarm bells especially as the sides we have played are bang average.

 

[Portmagpies36]

Can’t upset the little precious kids anymore by saying nasty things.
It’s all positive BS these days.

No instead you get a 6 year contract on 800k a year

 

[The Hobo]

I’ll get to our shithouse performance in a moment but **** me, a stand needs to be made against this umpiring

Any team gets just 1-3 of those decisions and it would be front page news. There were honestly 20+ wild calls there.

I’ve never ever seen so many not 15 calls so consistently called against one team. And the consistent calls of play on while our players are going back on the mark. Just bizarre.

Often teams get wrong calls against them, but they’re often calls that have some basis in dispute , ie a htb call where they’re arguing he did or didn’t get the handball away or have prior. The kind of wrong calls that every team cops here and there.

The bad calls we get against us aren’t that, they’re wild and just things we don’t ever see.

Like a high call against jones for a spoil where he touched a shoulder which if it had any basis in reality would cancel out nearly every speccie taken in the history of the game. The “hold” against Josh Lai when you could have parked an American pickup truck between him and his opponent. That bounce paid as a mark that could be seen from space. And that 50 against Alir for not standing the mark when he was 30m away. Sweets clear mark not being paid.

Just to mention a few

Yup we got absolutely reamed by the umpires today.

 

[Portmagpies36]

We have been horrific at contested footy for all of last year and this year so far. It’s not a quick fix, our players are mostly undersized & skinny.

Zak Butters is undersized and skinny he doesn’t seem to have a problem with contested footy. We have recruited a lot of mentally soft players who can’t stand the heat when it’s turned up.

 

[The Hobo]

Time for both Parker & Cripps to fall on their swords and apologise for two of the worst list calls in living memory.

Rat is both overweight and injury prone, while Luko could go down as the most deplorable one million dollar per season spineless jellyfish’s to ever play the game.

Rat was playing very well until he got injured

 

[Pt Augusta Power]

This is the arse end of the ‘all in’ for Ken failure. Not sure it’s Carr’s shot to carry but he’s the bail out for the boards cowardice. Now we’ve got captain mediocre on the board - this should be great!

 

[Portmagpies36]

Key defensive stocks are dwindling. Ramm, Ratugolea and Marshall out. BZT, Walsh and Moss not up to it. I worry greatly about how easily the opposition's tall forwards are able to score easily.

Aliir is not a 1-on-1 defender. He likes to peel off and intercept. He hasn't been able to do that on the level of his 2021 season when he was an AA.

Wait until we play a half decent side it’s going to be carnage

 

[PeacefulWarrior]

Zak Butters is undersized and skinny he doesn’t seem to have a problem with contested footy. We have recruited a lot of mentally soft players who can’t stand the heat when it’s turned up.

Yep Contested footy is a mindset.

If it was all about size you’d just be recruiting the biggest inside mids each draft.

We know we are mentally soft, have been for years, and accordingly we get flogged at contested ball in finals

 

[The Hobo]

We look like a team that has recruited a team of mostly mid-draft players.

Because that's exactly what we have done.

 

[Chewy316]

Zak Butters is undersized and skinny he doesn’t seem to have a problem with contested footy. We have recruited a lot of mentally soft players who can’t stand the heat when it’s turned up.

The environment in the footy department under Ken was also a soft one where the players were considered as boys rather than men.

Rejigging that is the biggest issue from a footy perspective for the Club right now. I don't know if they'll fix it any time soon, but I'm positive given that Carr has known for ages that this shift needed to happen, and he's done a lot over the last few months to start turning the culture around.