Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere but the media has highlighted a new tactic used against Melbourne; hiding.  Seeing Jack Higgins hide behind lever and Max Gawn kick to a nearby player upset me in two ways.

(1)  Max laughing after kicking it in a way Higgins could steal the mark.  Any mistake should not be worthy of a laugh or smile. I’ve seen players pound the ground with their fist after making a mistake. Don’t smile, apologise or act upset even if you’re not.

(2) How can a player be so stationary that another player can hide behind him? Why wasn’t Lever moving to give an option. 

These are 2 senior players and leaders of our club.  This was my worry about Gawn as captain.  Gives the impression he doesn’t care enough on the ground.  We have no leadership and have had none for years.  It is no coincidence our best football was when we brought in senior players to lead on the ground (Cross, Lewis, Vince).   Where is our leadership development. Maybe Jim Plunkett should spend less time on zoom calls and more about developing leaders in our young players. Time to start training Sparrow, Rivers, Jordan on becoming effective leaders. 
 

sorry for tirade. Still really upset.

6 minutes ago, Maybe next year said:

Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere but the media has highlighted a new tactic used against Melbourne; hiding.  Seeing Jack Higgins hide behind lever and Max Gawn kick to a nearby player upset me in two ways.

(1)  Max laughing after kicking it in a way Higgins could steal the mark.  Any mistake should not be worthy of a laugh or smile. I’ve seen players pound the ground with their fist after making a mistake. Don’t smile, apologise or act upset even if you’re not.

(2) How can a player be so stationary that another player can hide behind him? Why wasn’t Lever moving to give an option. 

These are 2 senior players and leaders of our club.  This was my worry about Gawn as captain.  Gives the impression he doesn’t care enough on the ground.  We have no leadership and have had none for years.  It is no coincidence our best football was when we brought in senior players to lead on the ground (Cross, Lewis, Vince).   Where is our leadership development. Maybe Jim Plunkett should spend less time on zoom calls and more about developing leaders in our young players. Time to start training Sparrow, Rivers, Jordan on becoming effective leaders. 
 

sorry for tirade. Still really upset.

We had stationary players across the ground numerous times when they could have been presenting.   Backs and forwards.  Disappointing.

I thought the new tactic was to just let us kick the ball, 90% chance we will miss the target and hand the ball over

It's not a new tactic at all. Higgins and others have been doing that to multiple teams for a while.

As for Lever being stationary, you can't clear out your entire defence and I wouldn't blame that incident on him. The golden rule for juniors is never kick short in defensive 50 unless the player you are kicking to is absolutely free. That was entirely Max's fault. He's a terrible kick as a rule and should be looking for a longer target or someone completely free.

Max had no one to kick to out of defensive 50 because he couldn't kick it to himself

1 hour ago, Maybe next year said:

(1)  Max laughing after kicking it in a way Higgins could steal the mark.  Any mistake should not be worthy of a laugh or smile. I’ve seen players pound the ground with their fist after making a mistake. Don’t smile, apologise or act upset even if you’re not.

 

Should have been a 50 metre penalty for a start after Lynch stopped the ball being relayed back.

I think Max was laughing at the umpires explanation, or lack of one. Very poor decision.