Just had a look at the first half on replay tonight and Gus was by far our best defender, the only one who stood up.

7 hours ago, rjay said:

Just had a look at the first half on replay tonight and Gus was by far our best defender, the only one who stood up.

We sat behind the cheer squad rjay and Gus did a lot of work off the ball clearing space for the likes of McVee and Bowey. Numerous times he would give a clever little bump to Ess forwards so May and co could have a free jump at a mark. Ran it out until the end, he was the least of our worries on Saturday.

 It almost feels like early 2021 where Gus was solely judged on his possession numbers until it was known what his exact role was.

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

We sat behind the cheer squad rjay and Gus did a lot of work off the ball clearing space for the likes of McVee and Bowey. Numerous times he would give a clever little bump to Ess forwards so May and co could have a free jump at a mark. Ran it out until the end, he was the least of our worries on Saturday.

 It almost feels like early 2021 where Gus was solely judged on his possession numbers until it was known what his exact role was.

Yeah this guy gets it 🙂

Like any team we are the sum of all parts.  When one or more of Rick, May or Gawny are missing things tend not to go to script quite so smoothly and we are sometimes found out.

Getting these three into tip top shape and back will obviously make a huge difference.

Max is a big out to say the least, especially his impact up forward & down the line marking / spoils.

Hopefully the 9 day break will assist here.

Would also like to see Dunstan come in for Sparrow and share a mid / HF role with Viney to assist with clearances.  Dunstan is also a VG distributor by hand.  He seems to have a few more smarts and time up his sleeve and he's very difficult to bring down in a tackle.  Might provide us some extra grunt, strength over-the-ball and up the pressure a little inside 50 when resting there with Viney.  Doesn't mind a goal or two either.

Who comes in for Spargo anyway?  We have three choices imv, assuming Sparrow retains his spot.  Harmes, Bill or Dunstan.

Does Schache get his first call up for either Macca or JVR?

BBB back for one of those two as well or is he still in recovery mode?

Edited April 19, 20231 yr by Demon Dynasty

Why has he largely stopped being part of our mid rotation. I would of thought he, Bowey and Rivers could all move through HB and the middle

Talented player prepared to sacrifice his own game to play necessary roles for MFC team success.

He could be making more money playing midfield at another team but that's not his priority.

He's stuck with us to win flags. Next captain IMO.

Curious, is there a website where you can actually see the midfield minutes by player per game? Would be interesting to see the mix for each game this year. 

Just now, Port Demons said:

Curious, is there a website where you can actually see the midfield minutes by player per game? Would be interesting to see the mix for each game this year. 

I'm not sure about a breakdown of actual midfield minutes, but you can check out centre bounce attendances below:

https://dfsaustralia.com/afl-cbas/?team=MEL&season=2023

I only got to half-watch the Essendon game so I'm comforted by the reports of Gus still being the consummate team player. Normally I watch him pretty closely because I have a theory that he isn't actually very good at football, he just has powerful psychic abilities which make the play go just a little bit more our way whenever he is nearby.

The fragments of game I watched featured the commentators banging on about Stringer being used to drag May away from his normal defensive 50 guardian role and allowing Essendon's other forwards a pretty open run at it with any of May or Lever or Gawn or even Hibberd at home to provide intercepts and third-man-up support.

If that is a fair assessment then it seems Scott made a pretty sharp coaching move, identifying that we were three players down in a role and that the value of making that four was even greater than the value of Stringer lurking close to goal.

Anyway, just to bring it back to the thread; it works seem that Gus was called upon once again to take up a responsibility that isn't his ideal role, and once again was able to use his psychic powers to remarkable effect.

1 hour ago, old55 said:

Next captain IMO.

Big call

I reckon Lever has it in the bag

1 minute ago, Jaded No More said:

Big call

I reckon Lever has it in the bag

Same

Anyone know what this means?

 

Yeah what’s up with that? 

20 minutes ago, Demonland said:

Anyone know what this means?

 

It looks like the AFL House Twitterist is having a medical emergency. 

He was fined.

You can appeal a fine by written submission, rather than go to the tribunal.

The Appeal failed.

what was he tripping on?

6 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

Big call

I reckon Lever has it in the bag

I wouldn't be surprised if Brayshaw became captain down the track. Maybe Lever, but not necessarily. This is just my observation and plenty will disagree, but I mostly see him (Lever) yelling at other players. He may be marshaling the backline or telling another player off, but I seem to only see or hear him yelling. If Lever stuffs up, other players will console him as they all do for each other. If any player around him stuffs up, he yells at them. In my book, yelling shouldn't be an autoresponse for a leader.

Just not cuddly enough I'm afraid!

Edited April 19, 20231 yr by Roger Mellie

Congrats to Angus and Danielle on their engagement.