A few journalists have excused North somewhat due to their in experience line up that took the field yesterday.

Now to correct that uneducated observation.

North Melbourne’s total games experience 2458 games.

Melbourne’s total games experience 1837 games 

For some reason North had 26 listed players and Melbourne 24 so if you use that to compare the fielded teams average games experience North had 94.5 games / player and Melbourne 76.5 games / player

20 hours ago, Dees2014 said:

What stood out for me is big Max. Never seen him look as fit, back to All Australian form I would say. Also the team looked a lot more confident in their moving the ball  at all cost which in the second half of last year they seemed to have lost by being too tentative. 

Fritsch a revelation, and a perfect replacement for Watts. 

Some on the park who I think will struggle to make our best 22 for round 1, particularly Brayshaw and Peterson. Saddens me to say so because at their best they are in our best 18.

Brayshaw? I’d say his is in our top 5 players. A sure starter as long as he is fit 

9 minutes ago, JAG007 said:

A few journalists have excused North somewhat due to their in experience line up that took the field yesterday.

Now to correct that uneducated observation.

North Melbourne’s total games experience 2458 games.

Melbourne’s total games experience 1837 games 

For some reason North had 26 listed players and Melbourne 24 so if you use that to compare the fielded teams average games experience North had 94.5 games / player and Melbourne 76.5 games / player

Who were they missing? Pruce? 

It was a good hit out yesterday, i was very impressed with Fritsch and how he knew where to position himself so often in order to get the best use of a possession, ( he not once just kicked in hope)

But Nought put so little pressure on us. I hope JLT 2 is closer to the real thing. We need a tough game before Round 1, i want relentless pressure on Jeelong...

Edited February 25, 20187 yr by Sir Why You Little

1 hour ago, Dr.D said:

liked what I saw.

guys like harmes, hannan, melksham ANB etc.get a tough time on this board but they make our team competitive. 

getting rid of watts and adding guys that hunt the footy is going to do wonders for our team. 

i want it to go on record to say that ive always beena fan of harmes and melksham when no-one else has. 

on a separate note, pederson is going to be at casey unfortunately but hogan needs to pull his finger out. if he demonstrates any lack of defensive pressure or poor body language i'd kick him back to the 2's for pedo. pedo showed last year that his performance ceiling is just as high if not more than hogan 

I would never ever drop hogan for pedo ever, jess would have to have played 4 bad game in a row for that to happened, pedo would never be able to do half the things hogan can do, pedo has never kicked more then 4 goals in a game.  Pedo The most over rated player on the list by many on this site, he is depth only.

52 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Brayshaw? I’d say his is in our top 5 players. A sure starter as long as he is fit 

Not a chance he is anywhere near our top 5 players. If the team was picked for round 1 now on merit, he would not be in the side.

He has been underwhelming in the little we have seen this preseason. Was given a go in the midfield yesterday and failed to make an impact then gave away silly free kicks when playing down back. 

The biggest concern is his poor skills, that kick to Salem 1 on 3 was dreadful.

Like everyone I'm hoping he can become what we thought he would be, but he is far from that at the moment. 

39 minutes ago, don't make me angry said:

pedo has never kicked more then (sic) 4 goals in a game.

Correction. 

Pedersen has never kicked 4 goals in a game. 

Just watched the replay. Loved our performance.

If this team wasn’t called Melbourne, and the last 11 or so years could be expunged from the record, you’d think we’re a top 4 side. Our list is so well balanced. Picking our best 22 is going to be super difficult.

It’s the first time in my life that I’m actually looking forward to winter. My heart’s beating again. I can feel it. Finals are absolutely within our grasp now.

 

Pedo is depth, quite handy depth. Not many would argue with that, probably knows it himself. Having said that, he plays his best footy when he's given an opportunity with back to the wall to perform. That's the kind of depth I like. Guys such as Pedo, Stretch, Vince, Bugg, JKH, etc will be in and out of the team knowing there are no longer easy games at the club

1 hour ago, Watts the matter said:

Not a chance he is anywhere near our top 5 players. If the team was picked for round 1 now on merit, he would not be in the side.

He has been underwhelming in the little we have seen this preseason. Was given a go in the midfield yesterday and failed to make an impact then gave away silly free kicks when playing down back. 

The biggest concern is his poor skills, that kick to Salem 1 on 3 was dreadful.

Like everyone I'm hoping he can become what we thought he would be, but he is far from that at the moment. 

So you are another who watches the game for mistakes first

Listen to Goody's presser and his comments re Gus

5 hours ago, MT64 said:

Spot on Deemania. Anthony Hudson was starting to give me the "willies" during the  call. He is not the only one with a bias against Melbourne. Have spoken to Johnathan Brown over golf and he is very upbeat over Melbourne.

he's a cat supporter.....maybe getting nervous for round 1

27 minutes ago, Satyriconhome said:

So you are another who watches the game for mistakes first

Listen to Goody's presser and his comments re Gus

No, I'm someone that uses my two eyes and form an objectives view. 

He is competing with a number of players for a place in the team. Bugg, Melksham, Frisch etc. all put their best foot forward yesterday while Brayshaw failed to impact the game. Can you remember any memorable plays from him within the game? What did he do well yesterday? 

I find Goodwin an incredibly boring speaker who gives little insight so I won't waste my time. I'm sure he will tell you everyone is doing great.

Edited February 25, 20187 yr by Watts the matter

2 hours ago, don't make me angry said:

I would never ever drop hogan for pedo ever, jess would have to have played 400 bad games in a row

Thought I'd adjust the 4 to 400 for you....

3 hours ago, bandicoot said:

Who were they missing? Pruce? 

I was at Kingston with my brother-in-law (a norf supporter) and he said to me they were basically full-strength. Preust (spelling??) just wasn't in the 24(??), the only one they were missing was the guy who had the unfortunate run-in with the scooter when on the beers last weekend and Mason Wood. They will definitely be bottom 4.

I thought we were missing significantly more quality than them. Viney, Tyson, Jetta, Garlett - but we looked more confident, faster, stronger, more skilled and most importantly "hungry". Hopefully it translates to round 1 and the cats match and then we can all put the nightmare of r23 behind us (and perhaps in time it will be recognised as better to have missed finals because of how hungry the players were in 2018)

Norfs Taylor Garner is handy too.

27 minutes ago, Watts the matter said:

No, I'm someone that uses my two eyes and form an objectives view. 

He is competing with a number of players for a place in the team. Bugg, Melksham, Frisch etc. all put their best foot forward yesterday while Brayshaw failed to impact the game. Can you remember any memorable plays from him within the game? What did he do well yesterday? 

I find Goodwin an incredibly boring speaker who gives little insight so I won't waste my time. I'm sure he will tell you everyone is doing great.

Except those you mention are essentially forwards, and Gus is a midfielder who can play back, as he did yesterday when Lewis went down. It's not a pecking order, as such, more who can play their assigned role for the given conditions and match ups.

But I respect your view and won't be offhand or dismissive of it despite not being in agreement 

Edited February 25, 20187 yr by Moonshadow

21 minutes ago, Watts the matter said:

No, I'm someone that uses my two eyes and form an objectives view. 

He is competing with a number of players for a place in the team. Bugg, Melksham, Frisch etc. all put their best foot forward yesterday while Brayshaw failed to impact the game. Can you remember any memorable plays from him within the game? What did he do well yesterday? 

I find Goodwin an incredibly boring speaker who gives little insight so I won't waste my time. I'm sure he will tell you everyone is doing great.

I agree with your assertion that Gus had, in the context of how everyone else played, a rather poor day out and he is fighting for a spot in the side at the minute.

After his concussion issues I'm happy to give him time to regain his confidence at AFL level.  In fact, I'd give him the whole year to do it.  I still think he can play a big part for the club going forward, but he's coming from a long way back, and therefore I'd be happy to give him plenty of time to improve.

He will struggle, at the minute, for a spot in our Round 1 side though.

37 minutes ago, KingSlayer33 said:

I was at Kingston with my brother-in-law (a norf supporter) and he said to me they were basically full-strength. Preust (spelling??) just wasn't in the 24(??), the only one they were missing was the guy who had the unfortunate run-in with the scooter when on the beers last weekend and Mason Wood. They will definitely be bottom 4.

I thought we were missing significantly more quality than them. Viney, Tyson, Jetta, Garlett - but we looked more confident, faster, stronger, more skilled and most importantly "hungry". Hopefully it translates to round 1 and the cats match and then we can all put the nightmare of r23 behind us (and perhaps in time it will be recognised as better to have missed finals because of how hungry the players were in 2018)

Preuss is better than Goldstein but Brad Scott doesn't want to admit it yet.

Wood was the main out. He's the type of player who causes us issues.

Jamie MacMillan is a very good player and maybe even North's best defender. He's their other main out. Garner is ok but has had a lot of injuries. And of course Simpkin.

Fair to say we had more out but not by a huge margin. It's also important to note that they would've been a 3 or so goal better side if they sat Majak on the pine all day instead of playing him full back. 

At close to full strength North will probably be competitive - they have good players in the most important spots, and I'm hoping that was the case in the first half of yesterdays game where we couldn't really open a big advantage. The second half was indicative of them resting/rotating some good players and their younger players dropping off. 

45 minutes ago, jumbo returns said:

Thought I'd adjust the 4 to 400 for you....

Yes thanks for that honestly I can't understand poster who under rate hogan and over rate pedo, some even say trade hogan because pedo can replace him.

3 hours ago, don't make me angry said:

I would never ever drop hogan for pedo ever, jess would have to have played 4 bad game in a row for that to happened, pedo would never be able to do half the things hogan can do, pedo has never kicked more then 4 goals in a game.  Pedo The most over rated player on the list by many on this site, he is depth only.

 clearly you werent around last season. pedo had a patch of form over a month or so that was AA form. 

hogan is no longer regarded by other teams as a real threat and guys like daniher have gone straight passed him.  he used to be a good contested mark but now he just wrestles his man 1 on 1 and stages for frees. he needs to kick 50 goals minumum this season.

 

1 hour ago, Watts the matter said:

What did he do well yesterday? 

He played the role he was asked to play

26 minutes ago, Dr.D said:

 clearly you werent around last season. pedo had a patch of form over a month or so that was AA form. 

hogan is no longer regarded by other teams as a real threat and guys like daniher have gone straight passed him.  he used to be a good contested mark but now he just wrestles his man 1 on 1 and stages for frees. he needs to kick 50 goals minumum this season.

 

Give it a break mate...

...put him on the open market and see how unregarded he is...not.

7 hours ago, binman said:

Who is calling him to be dropped? He is a lock best 22 and will be a mainstay of this side for the next 10 years. Ther will be a fair bit of humble pie eating on DL. 

 

So I finally put two and two together re. your relentless defence of Oscar.  Namesake, right?

8 hours ago, Petraccattack said:

And just to add to that..  LOL @ Essendrug for giving us Michael Hibberd and Jake Melksham for picks 30 and 31.

 

And just to add to that, let's not forget those were bitching about paying even that for them (or even getting them at all ... ).

7 minutes ago, bing181 said:

And just to add to that, let's not forget those were bitching about paying even that for them (or even getting them at all ... ).

The backlash when we traded for Melksham was ridiculous at the time.  

Melksham is proof that patience is required with any deal.  It took him half a season to settle, but he's looking better and better with every game.  He is looming as a very shrewd piece of business.