PAFC 2026

[DOC]

Booney.

Yesterday you posted six players not including Jones were not yet up to it.

Do you have Ratogolea in your 6?

[carey]

Lord – I’ve seen all-abilities footballers with more coordination than this buffoon. Absolutely terrible.
Wehr – Not up to it.
Durdin
Watkins – This bloke couldn’t get a game at North!
Evans –
Jones
Mackinlay

Then there’s Farrell, great by foot, but he has at least 5–6 kicked on him directly each week as he simply can’t defend.

Reality is, Port need our prime movers playing well week in, week out or, like yesterday, we’re f@#ked.

I’m genuinely concerned this could be our first spoon. West Coast won the second half against Gold Coast, Richmond probably should’ve won, Carlton and Essendon will win games off the back of crowd and momentum, and North just did us with no Vaseline — straight in.

Yes, it’s one game, but you can’t ignore the signs.

[Lightning McQueen]

I have no words.

Could be our first spoon.

I got in my car and drove to Costco late in the 2nd as it seemed more enjoyable.

[Booney]

Booney.

Yesterday you posted six players not including Jones were not yet up to it.

Do you have Ratogolea in your 6?

No and your defence is at the mercy of the midfield contest and yesterday we offered none.

[bertiebeatle1]

Mids got belted & we won't be getting close in many games if they get beat like they did. Pathetic performance yesty but i'll wait for the next fortnight before the alarm bells start ringing.

No way Lord plays again (i hope anyway). Carr sending a message to Luko but has to pull the trigger for this week now.

Missed Wines badly (same in the preseason). Would have Brodie over Watkins as at least he can provide us better inside work which is what we need without Wines, but probably some other factors in play for Watkins to play over Brodie.

[amber_fluid]

Bit harsh on your 1st year players or 1st game players at the club.
Where was DBJ or JHF or Bergman or Jones or Esava yesterday?
Surely these are your senior players who you need to step up first

[Brodlach]

After quarter time I thought West Coast were a lot better, they are just so young

[bertiebeatle1]

Bit harsh on your 1st year players or 1st game players at the club.
Where was DBJ or JHF or Bergman or Jones or Esava yesterday?
Surely these are your senior players who you need to step up first

I think the defence cops a bit of harsh critiscm. As Booney mentioned, your defence is only as good as the pressure built from the midfield group.
rozee, Butters, Drew, Bergmann all avg-poor yesty. JHF clearly underdone but we knew that heading in & Carr has been honest about that.

No one with 25+ & only 7 between 15 & 25. Didn't have anywhere near enough of it. +16 HO's but -11 clearances. Game ends there.

[Booney]

Ordinary
(adjective)
with no special or distinctive features

Sums up our Sunday at Marvel where North Melbourne controlled every aspect of the match defeating Port Adelaide by 46 points.

It is only the first game of the season proper and it is only the first game under the tutelage of Josh Carr and his team but it’s fair to say there’s much work to be done by this group to firstly bounce back this week and to demand higher standards every week going forward.

With the first two goals of the game Port appeared to have North on the back foot as the 20m grid / zone caught North out as skills let them down and their ball movement was slow, but it didn’t take Clarkson and his group long to counter that and this is where the worry set in for Port fans. From here on in it was all North in every aspect of the game, +83 disposals at 79.5% efficiency, +73 uncontested ( more on this in a moment ), +11 clearances ( all of the 11 were around the ground, it was 12-12 in the centre and I felt Visentini showed he has the right skill set with the new ruck rule ), +45 marks and most damning North +6 tackles. Not only did we allow them the ball when they had it we simply didn’t work hard enough to get it back. Missed tackles were glaringly obvious, intent to go low and hard at the hips was non existent and willingness to stay on the direct opponent, by accident or design, was sub standard.

This mornings review at Alberton should be scathing, I know coaches don’t get too many rockets each year and from what I hear that’s not Carr’s go to but standards are something that must be set early and yesterdays effort fell short on many fronts.

When North didn’t move the ball from end to end Xerri, using his frame and experience, had the better of Visentini around the ground and that’s expected from a developing ruckman what wasn’t to be expected ( or was it ) was the manner in which North controlled the ground balls. Butters did his bit with 9 clearances but 7 of the top 10 for clearances on the ground were in blue and white, no black. Intent at the fall of the ball was off and intent to tackle, harass and pressure was nothing short of ordinary.

Whilst our executive can’t or won’t use the word rebuild and I’m ok with that, call it what you want, we’re going through generational change. The club has brought together an experienced team around Carr for two reasons, one, to support him and two, development. The focus at Alberton is now on how we develop players on our list and it’s something we haven’t done particularly well in recent years under the old program. Smart recruiting and strong draft hands have landed us multiple top end picks. We have 13 players on our list taken inside pick 20 at the national draft over the years, that’s a group that are and should be first pick players. The challenge that presents itself for the short and long term future is the development of players like Lord, Jones, Burgoyne, Berry, Evans, Visentini and to a lesser extent Whitlock and Ramm who are both very much in the start of their careers.

I noted above uncontested possessions, of the 9 games on the weekend 8 winners were for the good on uncontested possessions ( bar St Kilda but we know under Lyon they waste the ball more than any one ) so our zone / grid ( any other words you’d like me to use please post below ) system is playing into the hands of the opposition winning uncontested ball, if a side with the skills of North pick us apart like that what will the elite ball users do? The plan may well be there to safe guard the developing side but it falls down when you don’t hold that shape or pressure the ball carrier to regain possession.

What an interesting few weeks we have ahead as we face teams who are in a similar stage of their “evolution” TM* to us.

Boon's best ( and this was hard work ) – Rozee, Drew, Georgiades, Butters

[Brodlach]

Who is your forwards coach?

[Booney]

Who is your forwards coach?

Reeves.

[Spargo]

Who is your forwards coach?

Reeves.

He’s no good.

[Brodlach]

Who is your forwards coach?

Reeves.

He is a good coach and get them sorted but I’m not sure Lord and Whitlock can play together and give zero effort when the ball is on the ground. They gave no pressure at all.

[Brodlach]

Who is your forwards coach?

Reeves.

He’s no good.

[Booney]

Who is your forwards coach?

Reeves.

He is a good coach and get them sorted but I’m not sure Lord and Whitlock can play together and give zero effort when the ball is on the ground. They gave no pressure at all.

Lord has to play as Whitlock can't be doing any ruck work yet.

[carey]

Lord.

If it looks like Sh!t, Smells like Sh!t then it's probably Sh!t.

[carey]

Jordan Sweet.

[Brodlach]

Sweet seemed unlucky to not play, first couple of rounds have seen similar ruckmen go forward and kick goals (Pittonet and Reeves)

[Booney]

Sweet seemed unlucky to not play, first couple of rounds have seen similar ruckmen go forward and kick goals (Pittonet and Reeves)

At this stage of our evolution* and with the ruck rule changes I'm going with Visentini ahead of Sweet although I think we may need to play both at some stage.

[Brodlach]

Sweet seemed unlucky to not play, first couple of rounds have seen similar ruckmen go forward and kick goals (Pittonet and Reeves)

At this stage of our evolution* and with the ruck rule changes I'm going with Visentini ahead of Sweet although I think we may need to play both at some stage.

I was thinking both with one of the other two (Lord or Whitlock) not playing