23 minutes ago, Petraccattack said:

Take Dangerfield out of Geelong or Sloane out of Adelaide  and I bet they would be less competitive than we are without Gawn.

We havent been flogged yet,  the Crows and Cats have both had horrible games and neither team is missing their superstar.

I can't wait until Selwood and Dangerfield begin to drop off and Geelong plummet. Their list is trash.

During the pre- season we referred to losing Gawn as " the unthinkable ".

We didn't contemplate losing Spencer as well.

21 hours ago, Skuit said:

Losing one of our best players in the middle is going to have an impact. Being a ruck and losing him at the start of a game more so. Losing his back-up more so again. Losing his back-up at the start of a separate game again more so. Having no further mature ruck-men compounds the problem . . . Having one tall forward missing half the games, and another not ready to compete, is going to further compound the problem, especially when your third tall has to spend half of the season in ruck. That leaves Pedersen, on a hiding-to-nothing trying to compete against both an opposition's established ruck and their marking utilites in a single game.

Gawn is important. But it's the trickle down effect and the sum of injuries/stage of development in regards our talls. 

This is a list of every player currently ready and available on the Melbourne roster over 190cm.

Watts 196

OMac 196

Hogan 195 (missed 3 games)

TMac 194

Frost 194

Pedersen 193

That's pretty amazing that we only have those to choose from atm. Quite damming.

1 minute ago, Wadda We Sing said:

That's pretty amazing that we only have those to choose from atm. Quite damming.

I was unfair in omitting Weideman from that list. The other absentees however are either long-term injured or aren't even close to getting an AFL call-up. 

 

21 hours ago, Skuit said:

TMac 194

What was Tmacs excuse for being outmarked by Sicily on the wing when we were up by 1 yesterday that gave away 10 minutes of time in defence and a few goals ? He wasnt undersized. He did not go for a spoil and instead went on the offence. Some seriously bad decision making has been one of our biggest problems. Gawn would've not been outmarked in that situation and nor shouldve TMac.

9 minutes ago, DominatrixTyson said:

 

What was Tmacs excuse for being outmarked by Sicily on the wing when we were up by 1 yesterday that gave away 10 minutes and time in defence and a few goals ? He wasnt undersized. He did not go for a spoil. Some seriously bad decision making has been one of our biggest problems.

I'm not in the business of forwarding excuses on behalf of Tom McDonald. Maybe he didn't fly for the ball because he reasoned that every other single Demon past and present including our coaches and administration would make a simultaneous attempt to spoil?

20 minutes ago, Skuit said:

I'm not in the business of forwarding excuses on behalf of Tom McDonald. Maybe he didn't fly for the ball because he reasoned that every other single Demon past and present including our coaches and administration would make a simultaneous attempt to spoil?

Well I did not mean for it to be a tangent, only that our poor decision making in all aspects of our game around the ground is our biggest problem right now, Gawns injury just the catalyst for exposing them to a much higher degree. TMac went for a mark in that particular contest and had no spatial awareness of the incoming player. I think Gawn size and our clubs undersize is being oversold, Gawns decision making and leadership is probably what's being missed about him the most so far, as is the rest of the lists decision making and leadership being missed with few exceptions.

3 minutes ago, DominatrixTyson said:

Well I did not mean for it to be a tangent, only that our poor decision making in all aspects of our game around the ground is our biggest problem right now, Gawns injury just the catalyst for exposing them to a much higher degree. TMac went for a mark in that particular contest and had no spatial awareness of the incoming player.

I'm pretty sure that Tmac was making consistently stupid decisions before Gawn was injured. But I do get your point.

The thing is, apparent poor decision-making can be the result of not having the right options to choose from. Like when players don't spread effectively, the carrier might be blamed for a poor decision to hand-ball in close.

I think our biggest problem right now is the severe structural damage we've copped through injury (and other), and our lack of KPP depth/flexibility to adjust. We probably seemed perfectly fine in our decision-making vs. St Kilda.

Gawn is irreplaceable. Can't say that about too many players.

We probably would be 6-1 if he was fit,  and Hogan and lewis didn't get rubbed out.

I can't see us keeping up with the top 8 while he is out

I know it's borne of spin , but really, what utter tripe.

No disadvantage   

Fmd , if this even hints at the thinking permeating the club, we're heading for a belting or 6

Other teams continue on when they lose their Ruckmen because they have a substantial number of good players.

What the loss of Gawn and then Spencer has shown us is we still have a lot of players who are not good enough.

On 08/05/2017 at 7:52 AM, praha said:

He's important but wouldn't put down the losses exclusively to missing him. We were awful against Carlton with him in the side and probably should have lost it. We destroyed Hawthorn around the clearances yesterday. 

Gawn or no Gawn, playing bad team footy loses you games.

Spot on. If 18 players are prepared to gut run and spread then we should still be able to play a competitive style of game. 

Sunday 3rd Q Gawn was in the Coaches Box

He was also there in the First Half

50 minutes ago, old dee said:

Other teams continue on when they lose their Ruckmen because they have a substantial number of good players.

What the loss of Gawn and then Spencer has shown us is we still have a lot of players who are not good enough.

Correct. Distribution of talent, skills and footy smarts are very uneven. In some cases, it is youth and experience, however there are probably a number of players who are not good enough per se. That of course could be said for all clubs. 

2 minutes ago, hemingway said:

Correct. Distribution of talent, skills and footy smarts are very uneven. In some cases, it is youth and experience, however there are probably a number of players who are not good enough per se. That of course could be said for all clubs. 

Agree Ernest but I don't give two hoots about other clubs.

all I know is we are still a making up the numbers club a lot better than 2015 but still a bottom six team.

On 08/05/2017 at 2:05 AM, Skuit said:

Losing one of our best players in the middle is going to have an impact. Being a ruck and losing him at the start of a game more so. Losing his back-up more so again. Losing his back-up at the start of a separate game again more so. Having no further mature ruck-men compounds the problem . . . Having one tall forward missing half the games, and another not ready to compete, is going to further compound the problem, especially when your third tall has to spend half of the season in ruck. That leaves Pedersen, on a hiding-to-nothing trying to compete against both an opposition's established ruck and their marking utilites in a single game.

Gawn is important. But it's the trickle down effect and the sum of injuries/stage of development in regards our talls. 

This is a list of every player currently ready and available on the Melbourne roster over 190cm.

Watts 196

OMac 196

Hogan 195 (missed 3 games)

TMac 194

Frost 194

Pedersen 193

Weid.    196 cms

1 minute ago, Redleg said:

Weid.    196 cms

I think they are discussing AFL players Mr Leg.

Goes alright i suppose.

A random home for this post, but: I've noticed a number of times that Pedersen has actually managed to get clean, clear hands to the ball in the ruck, yet a) hasn't known where to direct it or had the poise to place it to advantage, or b) our mids weren't expecting it. Once upon a time I had noticed the same with Gawn. Not suggesting he could be our next Max, but that he has the potential to be a very decent second ruck - and is doing surprisingly well to get winning hands on it despite being wildly undersized. The other thing of note - he's given away very few frees (actually 1, with 2 for) - usually a condition of an inexperienced or undersized ruck. Suggests to me that he's quite good with his body-positioning. Maybe the full-time rucking stint will give him some extra confidence as a stay-at-home FF/second-ruck when big Max returns. 

Giddy up..

Mark Stevens@Stevo7AFL

Max Gawn passed significant six week check up today then hit track for running session. Return looming, he speaks to @7NewsMelbourne 645

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Giddy up..

Mark Stevens@Stevo7AFL

Max Gawn passed significant six week check up today then hit track for running session. Return looming, he speaks to @7NewsMelbourne 645

Their saying round 13 vs the dogs... Was hopeful it would be Queens Birthday 

So when he went down it was an 8-12 week injury. He said he could be back by the QB match (round 12), which would actually be a 9-week layover. On the website, however, it has him at 4-6 weeks, which has him returning by round 14-16.

Not very.

Delist at end of season.