14. MELBOURNE

THE TOP-LINERS 

Christian Petracca (22, 81), Tom McDonald (15, 71), Jake Melksham (12, 66), Alex Neal-Bullen (14, 61), Sam Weideman (11, 59), Jayden Hunt (21, 58), Corey Wagner (11, 57)

THE TOP-UPS

Jay Lockhart (12, 52), Harrison Petty (10, 53), Charlie Spargo (8, 43), Mitch Hannan (6, 41), Tom Sparrow (2, 48), Kade Chandler (1, 57), Toby Bedford (0, 0), Aaron Vandenberg (0, 0)

Goddard says: The Demons are still crying out for a key forward, which I think Weideman will be but it has taken a bit longer than we expected. I don’t think he will be an A-Grader, but a lot of the pressure right now falls onto him. McDonald is a better player when he had Weideman and former teammate Jesse Hogan in the team. He needs someone else to step up and take the pressure off him as being the main key position target. The Demons were the second-lowest scoring team in the competition last season so there is certainly room for improvement.

He has had Essendon in the top 8 for all parts of the ground - not sure I put much credence in his assessments.

Full preseason and 22 games from McDonald and weideman will see us rocket up the list 

How did Brendan Goddard become a thing..?

 

 

I should add his forward line rankings

1. Richmond

2. GWS

3. Brisbane

4. Collingwood

5. Geelong

6. West Coast

7. Western Bulldogs

8. Essendon

9. Hawthorn

10. North Melbourne

11. Sydney

12. Carlton

13.  Port Adelaide

14. Melbourne

15. Fremantle

16. St. Kilda

17. Adelaide

18. Gold Coast

Throwing Tantrums in the rooms at Halftime

Number 1. B Goddard

Does he have his eye on Slobbo’s job?

Goddard has just appeared, full back page yesterday...

Who cares....

(We know how bad the forward line was, as bad as your decision to go to Essendrug...)

Edited November 13, 20195 yr by Sir Why You Little

He's ranked our forward line the 14th best in the world, not too shabby. 

Points for and for that matter points against we were second worst in the league in 2019 so he could have ranked us worse.

Looking realistically at out forward line who would you pick as a reliable forward.

Melksham and then Petracca... add in Fritsch perhaps who has hardly ever played the position.

Mc Donald had  a purple patch but 2019 found him wanting. Weideman .. who knows. I'm far from sold on Hunt as a forward.

Sure there's excuses but on 2019 form the assessment could be argued to be generous. 2020 will answer it one way or the other.

Does anyone have a ranking for forward and defensive 50 entries and goals scored.

I have little time for Goddard but his assessment is fair as evidenced by our 2019 %'age being the second worst by a long way. 

But considering Petracca was the 'lone ranger' being the only one to play 22 games forward and most of the other regulars barely played half the season then 14th is ok.  Would be more worried as St Kilda and Crows who have less reasons than us for performing poorly.

Anyway, 2019 was a bad year no matter how it is dissected.  It is now done and dusted.  Nonetheless, we will see many more postmortems to fill the media space and we will not rank well, because we shouldn't.  But they will have little meaning as 2020 will be an immensely better year.

Scribes overrated us at the start of 2019, I will guarantee they will underrate us for 2020.  We will show them!

Edited November 13, 20195 yr by Lucifer's Hero

Makes sense, it will be our biggest weakness in 2020 unless Tom McDonald can recapture his 2018 form and Weideman can double his output.

As far as 2019 goes, can't really argue with him.

The interesting point, given how poorly our forward line worked in 2019, where does our Forward line coach rate in the league?

I'm surprised we ranked so high (though to be fair I don't follow other teams closely).

21 minutes ago, roy11 said:

He's ranked our forward line the 14th best in the world, not too shabby. 

Considering we finished 17th that's a step forward

Tell us something we don't know Goddard ya Pretzel [censored]

Edited November 13, 20195 yr by dazzledavey36

5 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Tell us something we don't know Goddard ya Pretzel [censored]

That's a useful and insightful post Dazzle!  Hope you don't let everything like this upset you.

Second worst in the league in 2019 and best in 2018. Who would have thought that half seasons from McDonald, Weideman, Hannan and Melksham (number 1 for goal assists in 2018) would impact our forward half.  Fritsch having to cover down back, McDonald, Petracca, Hannan and Melksham having significantly interrupted preseasons (Weid as well?) and a compromised back half meaning the midfielders had to cover down there (as well as Gawn).

With a full complement on the field I can't see why we can't get back to close to our 2018 output.

And if Bennell comes good........

Is it just me or do others think that our "forward line issues" are really just the outcome of problems further up the ground?

McDonald was poor in 2019 and Weid didn't come on like we hoped, but my memory of the games - particularly early in the season was terrible inside 50s and a low number of them compared to 2018.  I honestly don't think the best forwards in the game would have made much difference.

I think Fritsch and Melksham playing most games forward in 2020 will make a huge difference (and potentially injury free Hannan, Smith and McDonald) - but I think it is more about the additions of Langdon and Tomlinson (and maybe someone like Young) who give us a bit more run so that we are not so pressured and fatigued when kicking inside 50.

Obviously some improvements / upgrades on the small pressure forwards locking the ball in wouldn't go astray either.  Get the midfield run and delivery right and it won't matter whether we have A grade key position forwards - Weid and McDonald are good enough.

1 hour ago, TeamPlayedFine39 said:

How did Brendan Goddard become a thing..?

 

 

Wish I had his golf swing...

 

35 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Makes sense, it will be our biggest weakness in 2020 unless Tom McDonald can recapture his 2018 form and Weideman can double his output.

Dermot Brereton believes TMAc is not a natural forward and doesn't understand leading, positioning etc. and thus easy to negate. 2018 showed lack of analysis simply by opposition. 2019 was more reflective of his capabilities in playing deep forward.

I suspect he is correct .

53 minutes ago, roy11 said:

He's ranked our forward line the 14th best in the world, not too shabby. 

Gotta agree Roy, anything better than 17th and we've done well. lol

5th last? I’ll take that. 

50 minutes ago, Baghdad Bob said:

That's a useful and insightful post Dazzle!  Hope you don't let everything like this upset you.

Second worst in the league in 2019 and best in 2018. Who would have thought that half seasons from McDonald, Weideman, Hannan and Melksham (number 1 for goal assists in 2018) would impact our forward half.  Fritsch having to cover down back, McDonald, Petracca, Hannan and Melksham having significantly interrupted preseasons (Weid as well?) and a compromised back half meaning the midfielders had to cover down there (as well as Gawn).

With a full complement on the field I can't see why we can't get back to close to our 2018 output.

And if Bennell comes good........

It didn't upset me Bob. I have far worse things in life that upsets me. Not old mate captain obvious.

Goddard is only telling us what majority of supporters have seen all of 2019 and even when Hogan left, a few on here also had concerns that we were too arrogant as a club to replace Hogan, instead putting all of our eggs in the Weideman (off 2 finals games) and McDonald basket. 

I still have concerns. While i have been a big supporter of Sam Weideman, he hasn't exactly shown much to suggest he will be a solid AFL player. I actually have more faith in Harry Petty becoming a better forward then Weideman. 

McDonald I am just not sure If he is capable of being the number 1 forward as of yet. This year he was taking the number one defender and struggled, unlike back in 2018 when he was taking the 2nd best defender.

Our key forwards are still a worry.

Oh and it's Brendan Goddard, the guy is the biggest sook and whinger the game has seen. Played with a former Essendon rookie last year who said that he was quite disliked by majority of younger to mid players. We dont have to like every player thats played the game Bob...

Edited November 13, 20195 yr by dazzledavey36

1 hour ago, Demonland said:

I should add his forward line rankings

1. Richmond

2. GWS

3. Brisbane

4. Collingwood

5. Geelong

6. West Coast

7. Western Bulldogs

8. Essendon

9. Hawthorn

10. North Melbourne

11. Sydney

12. Carlton

13.  Port Adelaide

14. Melbourne

15. Fremantle

16. St. Kilda

17. Adelaide

18. Gold Coast

So basically, he's more or less copied the 2019 ladder and then listed the forward line of each club. 

No doubt he would have had us in the top 4 at the start of the year. Things change quickly.

But ranked about right, god our forwardline was awful...

26 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Dermot Brereton believes TMAc is not a natural forward and doesn't understand leading, positioning etc. and thus easy to negate. 2018 showed lack of analysis simply by opposition. 2019 was more reflective of his capabilities in playing deep forward.

I suspect he is correct .

TMac isn't necessarily a No 1 tall but can't agree with those comments from Dermot .

I think it reflects that we haven't and don't have a forward coach to teach him the finer art.  It also reflects that in 2019 he was the no 1, 2, and 3 tall; no Hogan, a still developing Weideman and a raft of tallish, part time supporting acts. 

57 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

Dermot Brereton believes TMAc is not a natural forward and doesn't understand leading, positioning etc. and thus easy to negate. 2018 showed lack of analysis simply by opposition. 2019 was more reflective of his capabilities in playing deep forward.

I suspect he is correct .

did he say that when he kicked 50 goals, or just this year? when he's up and about he is hard to stop. 

42 minutes ago, Accepting Mediocrity said:

So basically, he's more or less copied the 2019 ladder and then listed the forward line of each club. 

Nailed it.