2 hours ago, Watts the matter said:

Please....Harmes stopped tagging because he was bad at it last year. He would not have had any impact on Neale who has worked through tags all season. Most overated player on this forum.

You don't go from being one of the games best taggers to not knowing how to. I don't recall him being given a total clamp down role like he used to have.

12 minutes ago, Grimes Times said:

they are in there own hub I think on the goldy, not sure when they complete there quarantine but they wont be joining the others or playing until they do

I believe they will join the whole group on Friday so will not be available for the Port game.

30 minutes ago, Grimes Times said:

they are in there own hub I think on the goldy, not sure when they complete there quarantine but they wont be joining the others or playing until they do

The remainder of the list flew out on the 14/07 to the hub in QLD. that would mean that from today or tomorrow they are out of quarantine and available to train and play with the full squad.

I wasn’t that confident before the lions game but seeing us come so close I’m thinking we have a good chance against port

they  lost to saints last week, just beat Carlton and got beaten easily by the lions

Gee selection is interesting. We're more or less injury free and I recall Goodwin/ the club saying we won't be resting players to cope with the compressed fixture.

I don't believe this will be the case. Blokes might not be injured as such but you'd wonder for example if a small kid like Kozzie can stand up to continuous footy. Jackson is another and Bennell for different reasons.

I'd like to see AVB and TMac back in the side because I reckon they were both just starting to come good but I'm not sure how to accommodate them.

Does anyone know how Spargo has been tracking. (I hope @picket fence doesn't read this) Is he any chance of replacing Kossie as a small forward ?

Nev might need a rest after his whacks to the head. So does Rivers come in or could we play Jones back and tinker at the other end?

I haven't got a clue tbh but FMD - we need to win this one.

27 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

haven't got a clue tb

Your right though, one would think Nev would have a breather and with such a short break Vanders and Tmac make a lot of sense. Would be good to see Spargo back to his old form.

 

4 hours ago, Pollyanna said:

So who out of Petracca, Oliver and Viney did you want out of the primary midfield rotation to enable this to happen?

He tags when there's someone we need him to.

We handled the rotations fine with him doing that in 2018 when we had the same amount of rotating midfielders.

 

3 hours ago, bing181 said:

Unsubstantiated speculation from someone who has has zero actual experience of Goodwin's coaching.

Not 'unsubstantiated' at all mate.

I also have zero experience of going to the moon, but I know it's there. What a silly comment.

39 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

He tags when there's someone we need him to.

We handled the rotations fine with him doing that in 2018 when we had the same amount of rotating midfielders.

 

Petracca was a forward and Viney was injured then.

1 hour ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Gee selection is interesting. We're more or less injury free and I recall Goodwin/ the club saying we won't be resting players to cope with the compressed fixture.

I don't believe this will be the case. Blokes might not be injured as such but you'd wonder for example if a small kid like Kozzie can stand up to continuous footy. Jackson is another and Bennell for different reasons.

I'd like to see AVB and TMac back in the side because I reckon they were both just starting to come good but I'm not sure how to accommodate them.

Does anyone know how Spargo has been tracking. (I hope @picket fence doesn't read this) Is he any chance of replacing Kossie as a small forward ?

Nev might need a rest after his whacks to the head. So does Rivers come in or could we play Jones back and tinker at the other end?

I haven't got a clue tbh but FMD - we need to win this one.

Dear Uncle..

If Spargo plays I will don a tuttu and serve you savouries and beverages all night!

NOT A SNOWFLAKES CHANCE IN HELL!

Interesting to have a quick peek at the Port board selection discussion.  You would not think they are the top team based on that!

They also want to get rid of their coach (that's probably common among about 14 teams) and are wanting them to dump their stars at selection.

It's a bonus to us that Port's next game after us is v the Doggies Monday night so they have 2 days less break after the game to factor in.

A week is a long time in football - especially in current times where you play more than once in a week!

Kind of keen to see Spargo play now for some reason.

45 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Dear Uncle..

If Spargo plays I will don a tuttu and serve you savouries and beverages all night!

NOT A SNOWFLAKES CHANCE IN HELL!

Be careful what you wish for picket !!!

Based on the report from the odd Praccy match, the Sparg is a real chance. Can you believe it? 
 

 

22 minutes ago, Leoncelli_36 said:

Based on the report from the odd Praccy match, the Sparg is a real chance. Can you believe it? 
 

 

If Slow as and no Skills plays thats it....... I'm handing in my resignation.

No Ifs or Buts!

Seriously?!!

9 minutes ago, picket fence said:

If Slow as and no Skills plays thats it....... I'm handing in my resignation.

No Ifs or Buts!

Seriously?!!

I'm no Spargs fan, but he did provide good energy in the forward line during 2018 and for a first year player to do that in a finals winning year that's a decent effort. 

If he's showing form I'd reward him like we rewarded OMac. That said it's pretty hard to forget one of the worst games I've seen by a Melbourne player in Spargo's round one WC performance.

I'm not sure if this is a better option but I'd have ANB over Spargs if they were looking to rest/drop Pickett.

1 hour ago, Pollyanna said:

Petracca was a forward and Viney was injured then.

Yeah that's a fair enough point mate. Viney was back for finals though and we had Gus playing in the middle that year too as well as Jones a bit.

Just think Goody is going to have to weigh up how he's using Gus and Harmes because both are struggling to contribute this year and we may lose one in the trade period due to it.

30 minutes ago, Lord Nev said:

Yeah that's a fair enough point mate. Viney was back for finals though and we had Gus playing in the middle that year too as well as Jones a bit.

Just think Goody is going to have to weigh up how he's using Gus and Harmes because both are struggling to contribute this year and we may lose one in the trade period due to it.

Quarters were 20 minutes plus time on and we had 4 starting mids in the rotations in the finals  - Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney and Harmes, even then Jones was a cameo.  Now Petracca has emerged and games are only 3/4 as long.  Brayshaw and Harmes have been squeezed out and Goodwin believes, not unreasonably that Petracca, Oliver and Viney can go head to head with any midfield.  That theory clearly failed vs Brisbane looking at the clearance numbers  ... and still we lost by 4 points.  We're not far off.

Outs: Jetta, Jones

Ins: TMac, Tomlinson

Play Brayshaw rotating off half back/midfield. If Jetta and Lockhart are being played at 64% and 67% with week (I know Jetta was getting attention a couple of times), and 69%/76% last week then I think we can remove one of them and have midfielder rotating through between Brayshaw and Harmes as well as spot minutes up forward. Definitely don't want to see either on the wing again, asking for their managers threaten to ask for a trade at the end of the season if we don't stop mismanaging them. If I see either below 75% game time I will also not be a happy camper. 

 Jones looked really slow on the weekend. Loved his intent to make an impact but lack of pace was noticeable. I would rather see ANB play the pressure position if that was what he was brought in for (1 tackle) but my preference is to stretch the Port defense with TMac. Port mids put great pressure on the opposing midfield...we need pressure relief marking options to help us stop overhand balling prior to clearance. Not seeing a rainy forecast so no need to be conservative in selection. If we have mids resting forward then we should have great tackle pressure mixed with Hannan and Kozy. 

2 minutes ago, BigMacjnr said:

Outs: Jetta, Jones

Ins: TMac, Tomlinson

Play Brayshaw rotating off half back/midfield. If Jetta and Lockhart are being played at 64% and 67% with week (I know Jetta was getting attention a couple of times), and 69%/76% last week then I think we can remove one of them and have midfielder rotating through between Brayshaw and Harmes as well as spot minutes up forward. Definitely don't want to see either on the wing again, asking for their managers threaten to ask for a trade at the end of the season if we don't stop mismanaging them. If I see either below 75% game time I will also not be a happy camper. 

 Jones looked really slow on the weekend. Loved his intent to make an impact but lack of pace was noticeable. I would rather see ANB play the pressure position if that was what he was brought in for (1 tackle) but my preference is to stretch the Port defense with TMac. Port mids put great pressure on the opposing midfield...we need pressure relief marking options to help us stop overhand balling prior to clearance. Not seeing a rainy forecast so no need to be conservative in selection. If we have mids resting forward then we should have great tackle pressure mixed with Hannan and Kozy. 

Definitely need Tom to play forward with Weed and then play Jacko on the wing or HFF. I think Jetta needs a rest and I'd like to see Smith in to play forward as the x factor. Play Hibberd in the back pocket and even use Salem for a stint on the forward line at least he will kick it straight. 

14 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Quarters were 20 minutes plus time on and we had 4 starting mids in the rotations in the finals  - Oliver, Brayshaw, Viney and Harmes, even then Jones was a cameo.  Now Petracca has emerged and games are only 3/4 as long.  Brayshaw and Harmes have been squeezed out and Goodwin believes, not unreasonably that Petracca, Oliver and Viney can go head to head with any midfield.  That theory clearly failed vs Brisbane looking at the clearance numbers  ... and still we lost by 4 points.  We're not far off.

Agree we're getting there for sure, but carrying badly out of form players still costs us. Even top 4 teams make changes to try and improve, we're on a knife's edge just to make finals so not sure it's the time to sit back and think things will just work themselves out.

3 hours ago, Pates said:

I'm no Spargs fan, but he did provide good energy in the forward line during 2018 and for a first year player to do that in a finals winning year that's a decent effort. 

If he's showing form I'd reward him like we rewarded OMac. That said it's pretty hard to forget one of the worst games I've seen by a Melbourne player in Spargo's round one WC performance.

I'm not sure if this is a better option but I'd have ANB over Spargs if they were looking to rest/drop Pickett.

Spargo is one of the worst players I've seen

On 7/26/2020 at 9:45 PM, Laughing Goat said:

Out: Jetts (2 disposals & 0 tackles) & Hannan 4 disposals (3 turnovers) Pickett on thin ice

In: Rivers & T. Mac

 

Pickett won't be dropped. He's doing everything he has been asked. He's covering a huge amount of territory and putting on great pressure. 

3 hours ago, Elegt said:

Spargo is one of the worst players I've seen

Sadly we have had worse...

Well [censored] me that’s the last time I read the Facebook comments for a while.

Numerous calls to drop Oscar. For T Mac. Who apparently should be moved back to defence. So essentially robbing both Peter and Paul, then kicking Peter in the nuts.

And another bright spark chiming in with: “Weideman the ?,,, won’t be getting any cheap goes in the goal square like 2 weeks ago... hasn’t done nothing again”

It’s like asking Cletus from the Simpsons what he thinks team selection should be.