JLT Round 2 vs. Carlton at Casey Fields

[ILLDieADemon 804]

I haven't seen us win a preseason game that easily for years. 

I think our interactive for the ball will go up another level when we start the season.

Cant wait for the season to start!!

 

[Engorged Onion 10,199]

3 minutes ago, Akum said:

AF, I hope you're right and we're more flexible with selection this year.

As you say, against some sides we'll need Jetta to lock down a dangerous small forward, but against other sides an all-out attacking defence will be an advantage.

Against some sides we'll be better to go with 2 tall & 4 small forwards (e.g. West Coast, to apply more pressure to stop them attacking off the half back line), and against other sides with 3 & 3. Similarly with tall backs.

Against some sides (e.g. Dogs) we could really stretch a defence by giving Gawn a lot of time forward, without losing too much by having Spencil in the ruck. Against other sides (e.g. Hawks), Gawn's ruck dominance gives such a huge advantage that picking Spencer would be a waste.

Gone are the days of a best 22 for every match of the h/a season - MFC have evolved - so should the punters thinking...

[Akum 2,660]

18 minutes ago, Macca said:

Is he the only player on our list who makes the odd error or is it just Tom?  By my reckoning he doesn't make any glaring errors in half the games he plays.

The bias & group-think that goes on here is astonishing at times.  I know at least 8 demon fans who don't post on this site (or anywhere for that matter) and none of them have the McDonald bros in the gun like what goes on here. 

I'm convinced that many are just waiting for the smallest of errors and hey presto, they invade the game-day thread like a army of angry ants.  It works like clockwork. 

Totally agree. I think TMac plays exactly how the coaches want him to play. They want him to be attacking with his ball use, and that means taking risks. When you take risks, there will always be times when it hurts you badly, but on the whole, the credit column is far longer than the debit column. It's only fans who seem to expect no clangers.

[Macca 16,900]

1 minute ago, A F said:

Just on this, I felt Joel Smith struggled today. Did a couple of good things, but generally wasn't up with the pace of the game.

Be interested to see how he goes with a slightly higher tempo at Domain.

He's just a lad with very little big-game experience. 

As always, he'll get his chances and he'll sink or swim.  I thought he competed well when the ball was in his vicinity but it's way too early to tell yet AF.

If you remember, Wagner played in the practice games last year and not much kudos came his way from many here.  Of course, he started off in the seniors right from the get-go and stayed in the side for quite some time. 

Goodwin (just like Roos) will be pulling a few surprises.

[Adam The God 30,021]

16 minutes ago, Akum said:

AF, I hope you're right and we're more flexible with selection this year.

As you say, against some sides we'll need Jetta to lock down a dangerous small forward, but against other sides an all-out attacking defence will be an advantage.

Against some sides we'll be better to go with 2 tall & 4 small forwards (e.g. West Coast, to apply more pressure to stop them attacking off the half back line), and against other sides with 3 & 3. Similarly with tall backs.

Against some sides (e.g. Dogs) we could really stretch a defence by giving Gawn a lot of time forward, without losing too much by having Spencil in the ruck. Against other sides (e.g. Hawks), Gawn's ruck dominance gives such a huge advantage that picking Spencer would be a waste.

Exactly, mate. I'd liken it to switching systems in football/soccer. Going from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 etc. We're a lot harder to predict then and this was being alluded to regularly by the commentators today.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, because I'd equally say that it'd be dangerous to play Gawn and Spencer in the same team against the Dogs in the season proper. They'd just as easily (as would GWS) run all over us off half back. It's the Collingwood's and Richmond's that I'd be open to trying the Gawn/Spencer play. It's certainly a risky one though. 

That said, as long as our ruckman, whoever that may be, gives our mids first use, we become really dangerous with Gawn or Spencer forward. Spencer needs to work on his kicking though.

And finally, just on our mids getting first use, what I noticed today when we didn't win the clearance and we'd committed both our half backs to the contest that had been lost, was that our players gut-ran back into position to cover (if they had time) or the structure of our remaining zone defence held strong. Now, against really good ball users this structure may not hold up as well, but if it does and we can eradicate some of our silly immature errors, it means we can commit more defensive numbers to help out our already dominant midfield and ruckman. Things then bode well for our forwards.

On this note, I'm quite happy for Watts to fight for his spot, because if he toughens up, he'll be an asset, if not, we can probably cover him.

Edited February 25, 2017 by A F

[Adam The God 30,021]

9 minutes ago, Macca said:

He's just a lad with very little big-game experience. 

As always, he'll get his chances and he'll sink or swim.  I thought he competed well when the ball was in his vicinity but it's way too early to tell yet AF.

If you remember, Wagner played in the practice games last year and not much kudos came his way from many here.  Of course, he started off in the seniors right from the get-go and stayed in the side for quite some time. 

Goodwin (just like Roos) will be pulling a few surprises.

Agreed. Just thought it was worth pointing out he did struggle today. There has been a lot of praise and I think it shows he may well not be a lock for early 2017. But how was that leap near the end?!

Edited February 25, 2017 by A F

[Macca 16,900]

4 minutes ago, Akum said:

Totally agree. I think TMac plays exactly how the coaches want him to play. They want him to be attacking with his ball use, and that means taking risks. When you take risks, there will always be times when it hurts you badly, but on the whole, the credit column is far longer than the debit column. It's only fans who seem to expect no clangers.

Tom takes risks just about every time he gets the ball - and rather than having my heart in my mouth, I'm thinking goal scoring opportunity (for us)  But some people worry about getting worried Akum

His other tremendous asset is his ability to create space for himself ... it must be his first 3 steps.  We've just got to learn to allow our players to make the odd error ... the next play is what matters in footy.  Always the next play.

[chook fowler 19,430]

Loved the harassing, the pressure, the smothers, the tackling, the hard ball gets - while still playing an attractive style of footy and kicking plenty of goals. They are playing a finals brand of football.

[Gator 17,261]

Casey Fields is a pathetic venue and all things considered I'm pleased with the performance.   It's not easy to shine there and I truly can't remember any player ever "starring" at that joint.

Really pleased with Petracca's game and felt it was a bit of a break through for him

Oliver is getting closer to dominating games.

The McDonalds will have "McDonald" moments, but their value is immense.

[Nasher 33,607]

Watching the reply - I'm pretty sure Spud Frawley thinks ANB's name is Neil Bullen.

[At the break of Gawn 4,460]

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

[The Backyard Charizard 1,202]

1 minute ago, demon9 said:

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

Round 1 is important - Yes

But if we lose at $hitihad to open our season it will mean very little IMHO

We have bigger fish to fry and greater grounds to conquer

[DeeZone 9,535]

I watched the replay when I got home this arvo, loved the determination and commitment from all our players, pressure on the Blues was intense and I felt that we could have won by more, I was watching the team rather than individuals but Tracc really stood out, thought that we were solid all over the ground, haven't seen the Dee's play this well for a long, long time and I loved every minute of it. Will watch it again tomorrow. Go Dee's!!!

[Akum 2,660]

A bit surprised that no one's commented about Hogan's spells in the midfield. Thought he was really effective there on a few occasions.

[Macca 16,900]

8 minutes ago, demon9 said:

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

It was the way we played this time around d9 ... the team looked totally switched on and focused.  This was definitely different to what we've seen previously.  There was a real confidence shown especially amongst the young players (Petracca,  Oliver,  Salem,  Hunt,  Oscar,  Brayshaw & Viney) 

That's my take on the game and we played very well last week too ... I'm normally quite conservative with projected outcomes but as long as we get a half-decent run with injuries, I can see good times ahead this season (September action)

[Bonkers 994]

2 minutes ago, demon9 said:

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

In my opinion there appears to have been  lot of development with regards to the younger players as well as the style we are playing.

Petracca, Hogan, Oliver and even someone like Smith appear to have become better players over the summer & probably still have a couple of Gears left or  higher level to go to. Apologies to some other players that I'm sure I would have missed. 

Last year we were grinding a lot of games out & our contested brand of footy was what was winning us games from memory? Our attacking play was better but not looking like it does at the moment. That contested brand is still there but Goodwin has added another dimension to our attacking play. Our kicking patterns have changed and the players now appear to be under instruction to take more risks & kick on many different angles rather than a predictable pattern.

The side also has the additions of Lewis, Hibberd & Melksham this year. Which has made us a lot more experienced side with a lot of depth. 

I get what you are saying & it's hard/impossible to predict the future. But I think as supporters we should be expecting to play finals & perhaps even play deep into the finals. I think the club should as well to be honest. If you don't have the vision to succeed then it makes it pretty hard to get to that point in my opinion. 

Hopefully they don't prove me wrong this year! ?

[Demon Jack 6,844]

There is one issue that has come out of this game...

Where's Joeboy and his three word player analysis?

Edited February 25, 2017 by Demon Jack

[Gator 17,261]

28 minutes ago, demon9 said:

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

But the differences are quantum.

The way we're playing is far superior and if you remember the Dogs game they played virtually their seconds team with 15 of their best 22 out and we came back from 19 points down at 3/4 time to win.

The results may be similar (thus far), but the performances are markedly different.

[old dee 23,682]

11 minutes ago, Demon Jack said:

There is one issue that has come out of this game...

Where's Joeboy and his three word player analysis?

I asked that last week DJ

[titan_uranus 24,963]

32 minutes ago, demon9 said:

Although I want to feel optimistic about our performances, I can't ignore the fact we won all 3 preseason games last year and it meant sweet FA in the season proper (lost to saints twice, dogs and port in Darwin). 

These performances feel different, but Saints round 1 still worries me with (especially with how well they play against port in the first half)

Classic MFCSS.

Melbourne does well in the pre-season - "don't read too much into it".

St Kilda does well in the pre-season - "I'm concerned about how good St Kilda looks".

[brendan 3,434]

How rediculous was the tap on from petracca on the wing didn't even have to break stride 

[beelzebub 23,311]

Two doubles in a row !!

[Willmoy1947 4,069]

51 minutes ago, Nasher said:

Watching the reply - I'm pretty sure Spud Frawley thinks ANB's name is Neil Bullen.

I'm just pretty sure, Spud Frawley...

[Willmoy1947 4,069]

It would be remiss of me not to mention how bloody hopeless all the field umpires were

[DemonOX 8,779]

Just finished watching the game and the thing that most impressed me was that we played FOUR quarters of football. 

We kept the pressure on even in the last 3 mins of the last quarter when the game was well and truely done and dusted  

Great to c hopefully it continues into the season proper.