Watched on delay, agree with binman the umpiring (esp first half) was as brutally inconsistent as I can recall. Great win, love the class of Jords and Rivers. 

3-0 in the Yze era!!

Just now, binman said:

Not sure what you mean.

Jackson will not be dropped.

So TMac is out.... does Jackson start on the wing... or we have three talls and Fritsch + Kossie and Spargo in the forward line?

We ticked a lot of boxes tonight

Make no mistake the giants came to play. Superb win

It's time to skin some cats

Jackson is crucial. Not so much forward, but him going into the ruck frees Max up to do whatever he needs to do e.g. last week he went back, this week he went forward. Jackson is already a competent ruckman, particularly after the ruck contest when the ball hits the deck.

Just now, Grr-owl said:

So TMac is out.... does Jackson start on the wing... or we have three talls and Fritsch + Kossie and Spargo in the forward line?

Three talls.

But with weed and brown in Jackson will play more like a medium, such is his mobility and ability when the ball hits the deck.

Total match up nightmare.

Biggest concerns to me: 

1. GWS only had to switch once or twice to then open up all sorts of room on slow plays. Geelong will kills us if we’re so loose.

2. There’s still a lack of trust with the defenders especially when the ball hits the deck. Too much zoning rather than sticking one on one.

Rivers has to stick tackles and Lever particularly has to know when to get up on his man. He gave Himmelberg way too much space all the time. Get up on him and halve a contest and trust team mates to cover back. Same goes for May when taking a small like Greene. Back Lever, Tomlinson etc to do the aerial contests if you aren’t in best position and stick on your man. 

4 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

We ticked a lot of boxes tonight

Make no mistake the giants came to play. Superb win

It's time to skin some cats

They came to play but half of their side was heading to the bench by half time. 
 

If our players thought their effort was anything more than the minimal required we’re in trouble next week. 

Just back from watching the game down at The Rose. I thought that Vines and Nibbler were good. Particularly early on when the Giants looked like they might build a handy lead. Do we go unchanged again next week ? 

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

They came to play but half of their side was heading to the bench by half time. 
 

If our players thought their effort was anything more than the minimal required we’re in trouble next week. 

Give it a rest. I think you'd complain no matter what DeeS

Reviewing some of the stats on the AFL website.

Jordon and Sparrow only played 66% game time, Jetta 67% and surprisingly ANB only 68%. We're able to rotate them so heavily because Lever played 100%, Tomlinson 96% and Gawn 95%.

Langdon a whopping 903 metres gained, Hunt then had 540 and surprisingly again, Brayshaw came in third at 483.

Our forwards did their bit pressure wise: TMac 4 tackles inside 50, Fritsch 3 (big improvement in this area in his game), ANB 3, Pickett 2, Jackson 2.

The only stat that gives some context to Sparrow's involvement was that he had the 4th most pressure acts for anyone from either side with 24 (Taranto 33, Viney 26, Oliver 25).

Bit of a stat 

The win puts Simon Goodwin back to a 50% record as coach of Melbourne -  43 wins  43 losses

 

When Spargs is up and about and trying to push around guys twice his size you know the Dees are going OK ?

Edited April 4, 20214 yr by 3Dee

4 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

They came to play but half of their side was heading to the bench by half time. 
 

If our players thought their effort was anything more than the minimal required we’re in trouble next week. 

WTF? No idea what you're on about here.

Skill errors were a problem. Effort was not.

1 hour ago, Salems Lot said:

COUGH...17 Touches in the second half that #13

A lot of that was actually playing a kick behind the ball.

I'm going to start by saying that yes GWS had a tonne of injuries, problems, issues etc But there is quite a bit to take out of a win like this.

Some of the performances from not only the usuals but guys like Spargo and Nibbler, I just love how these guys have this relentless pursuit and never give up on tackles. We had 17 tackles inside 50 tonight to GWS's 4 and it's these guys along with Pickett and who are setting the trend. Jayden Hunt had his best game for a long time. The difference on this game was the timing of his dashes and getting the hand off. We've been crying out to see this kind of stuff and it worked beautifully tonight. 

A friend was keen to use the sub to get Fritsch off and Melksham on. This would have been silly, it is well publicised how much Fritsch misses gettable shots and how he 'Needs to practice goal kicking' I've seen every lime to describe this possible. But he's smart and knows how to find the footy in the 50. Action Jackson kicked a very crucial goal when it was needed.

Solid contributions from Salem, Viney and Tomlinson. I don't know about you but I'm starting to take Langdon's games for granted and just assume he's always gonna be out there patrolling that wing. Before I get laid into for thinking such a thing I think this guy alone has changed so much about the effectiveness of our game plan. We are both able to stifle coujter attacks and generate more scoring chances on a regular basis thanks to this guy.

I'm in a good mood, no need to cover any negatives right now. Maybe during the week, not now. Go Dees! Love you all!

 

33 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

That’s why torture doesn’t work. They just give in and tell you what you want to hear for it to stop. 

Well it wasn't torture for me Ethan.

13 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

They came to play but half of their side was heading to the bench by half time. 
 

If our players thought their effort was anything more than the minimal required we’re in trouble next week. 

You're crazy mate

That win had a lot of merit.

Up against it away from home, got jumped , arm wrestle and then took over.

Run of Hunt and Langdon is exciting to watch  and Kozzie is an absolute godsend.

Well, I'm pretty happy with that effort.  We're still well short of what the side will look like when everything clicks, but we're getting glimpses.  As I said last week, it's great that we are undefeated and still have so much room for improvement.  It really bodes well for the back end of the season that we are able to win these early games and buy time to iron out the wrinkles without ruining the season.  These ugly wins are gold for us right now. 

Also really happy to see us win with quiet games from a lot of the prime movers.  Trac was the only one of our big guns who had stats up to his usual levels.  Oliver was well tagged in the first half and we played around it.  Gawn spent far more time forward and let Jackson take a lot more of the ruck duties.  Viney is still finding his mojo, but improved on last week. 

Great to see Fritsch improving his set shots.  This is probably our biggest wrinkle right now and as with the last two weeks, if we'd kicked the set shots we should have this win blew out past ten goals.  Guys like Oliver and Petracca should be slotting those shots, not to mention Gawn missing two set shots from right in front and Spargo missing the gift Jones gave him towards the end.  Once again, winning while there's so much scope to improve is a great thing. 

Thrilled with Hunt's game.  He may have had more disposals in other games, but I don't know that he's ever had as influential a game as that, even with his poor kicking early on. 

Also thrilled and amazed by Kozzie.  We've been crying out for a player like this for so long, and he's so much more than we expected.  For a second year player who missed a big chunk of the pre-season to be that fit is just amazing.  His workrate is off the charts and he just keeps on churning out repeat efforts all night. 

19 minutes ago, Grr-owl said:

What happens when Weid and Brown return?

Assuming we're still playing like this, they will spend some time at Casey getting match fit. 

 

1 hour ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

When his opponent was off with a Hammy, and many of them once the game was over

It's rare, but he was well beaten

I was at the game, and the work that was put into Clarrie off the ball was unbelievable.  His numbers were understandably down.  The umps need to put a stop to this sort of crap.

10 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

WTF? No idea what you're on about here.

Skill errors were a problem. Effort was not.

Was using effort in the overall sense, but I thought the mental effort was lacking pretty much all night. Got jumped at the start. Coasted to a minor lead. Then gave up 2 goals to start the last.

We ran hard and we had a crack but that’s the bare minimum. Skills and smarts were both poor for the majority. 
 

If the Giants didn’t have any injuries is any confident that we even win? They lost 3 leaders and important players.

Was at the game watching from the pocket. It was messy but it never really looked in doubt, even before they went two men down. We are setting up very nicely behind ball and there’s no sense of panic amongst the back 7 regardless of circumstance. Lots of communication which is great to see.

Individuals:

Thank god for Gawn.

Hunt earned a few more weeks at least. He was excellent.

Nibbler won’t be dropped for the rest of the year. When you talk pressure inside 50 he’s at the heart of it.

Lever was hot and cold. His cold was awful.

Oliver likely won’t play a worse game this year.

Kozzie is going to give headaches to every side.

Gus and Salem are now mature players. Composed every time with ball in hand.

Langdon simply doesn’t stop running. A brilliant acquisition.

Bank the four points. Far from perfect but we beat a team we should’ve beaten. Gotta take that.

1 minute ago, Deeoldfart said:

I was at the game, and the work that was put into Clarrie off the ball was unbelievable.  His numbers were understandably down.  The umps need to put a stop to this sort of crap.

They did for a while until they started pinging Clarrie for retaliating. 
 

Proud of the way he composed himself. Not proud of his putrid kicking technique. Help him Choco! 

1 hour ago, Clint Bizkit said:

We are a chance against Geelong because they aren’t quick but the other teams will have our measure.

We've got our uncontested game sorted. Provided we bring the required work rate, the pace thing isn't an issue. It's speed of ball movement and skill execution. Get those things right, convert the scores we should and we're a real chance against most opposition.

1 minute ago, P-man said:

Gus and Salem are now mature players. Composed every time with ball in hand.

Salem definitely. Gus, no.

4 clangers and 4 turnovers tonight.

Going at 57% by foot so far this year.