12 hours ago, Skuit said:

I'm with SONS. Great to show maturity and keep winning crap battles, but we still haven't truly clicked and there are red flags popping up all over the place. At one stage today I even thought it would be best if we lost, as the defeat 'we had to have'. Our structures are falling away, maybe in part because of the loss of Tomlinsen and into of B. Brown, but we will lose to the Dogs if we don't get tested in a fast movement game over the next two weeks before we meet. 

I remember very similar posts going up in the week before the Tigers game. Everything seemed gloom and doom to some but we still go that big game done. We are building an ability to lift when need be, which hasn’t been the case in decades. This is a seriously resilient team, which we all should appreciate, and well coached as well. 
 

We will go ok against the Doggies!

Heads up. Steve may about to be interviewed on abc footy

3 hours ago, Dee Zephyr said:

 Not only did he wear Buddy like a glove, May demands perfection Ox. He’s as vocal as any player I’ve ever seen before during play. Go back to Lloyd’s goal for Sydney in the third that started their run.
How does a guy that takes their kick-outs find himself all alone inside our 50? If you watch the replay Melksham sees him but just jogs casually, Lloyd uncontested turns and goals. May let Melksham know all about it in no uncertain terms.

Petracca cracked it at Melk when Melksham had a shot from 50 instead of hitting up a team mate

3 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

If memory serves me correct there was an out of bounds on the full in a game years ago where they threw it in as the boundary ump didn’t know which player did it as both teams wore red socks. Think AFL mandated the change.

Well, if so, that's plain dumb!  We're the oldest team in the game!  If others' gear clashes with ours, let THEM change theirs!

3 hours ago, Cards13 said:

A few have mentioned that and while I understand the traditional name the Dees haven’t been called the red legs in my life time. I liked the look of the socks as well. 

That's okay, Cards.  We will tolerate young folk like you.  Just so long as you're willing to learn from us old (ancient?) supporters!  The red sox were always a distinctive part of our clobber, and "Redlegs" was a fairly common term for the team "back in the day"...

6 minutes ago, Vagg said:

Well, if so, that's plain dumb!  We're the oldest team in the game!  If others' gear clashes with ours, let THEM change theirs!

We’re also the oldest club in the world (of any/all footy codes). And I know this is true coz it was a question on The Chase. ?

Edited May 9, 20213 yr by Guest

27 minutes ago, binman said:

Heads up. Steve may about to be interviewed on abc footy

What did he say? Anything noteworthy?

First glimpse of it and I’m already a big fan of the Tmac/Brown combination on the MCG. It’s pretty much a guaranteed goal if either take a mark inside forward 50 and that’s going to happen a lot with our game style on the big open  spaces there. 

They’d be nearly 1 and 2 in the league for set shot accuracy. I didn’t just think TMac could kick that difficult snap from the boundary, I expected him to. And there it was, straight through the [censored] middle. 

The post match thread on a Sunday morning with my coffee beats reading any newspaper. Just saying. 

4 hours ago, Engorged Onion said:

Anything you’re not concerned about? 

If you've been on the Forum for the last few years you'll know he/she's not here to post anything positive 

15 hours ago, Nasher said:

Imagine if you said at half time in the match thread that you thought that the best setup was to have Tom McDonald in defence? Won us the game with that mark and goal. I might have to dust Plugger off again.

That was by far the most tough opponent we've had. Definitely not the prettiest win but I'd argue the most satisfying one yet.

Or worse all week thought it before the game like me .

Whoops. Again.

1 hour ago, sue said:

If you hit it wth your fist I don't think it matters if it looks like a flick pass, it is not.  However the appearance will increase the chance of it being mistakenly called a throw. 

 

A handball was defined originally as a closed fist hitting the ball held in a stationary hand. You could never handball over your head for instance. It would always get called a free.

Somewhere that changed but it was never really defined differently. Perhaps it was around the introduction of theAdelaide crows that used to excel at the Crow throw.

Nowadays it seems anything goes particularly both hands moving in the direction of the handball.

Two players really annoyed me last night

Fritsch, who I thought was just lazy and frankly hopeless. Kicking into the man on the mark is inexcusable under the new rules and he denied us a certain i50 entry. And around the ground he displayed no intensity at all. Way too casual. His goal square stuff up was appalling as well. He might as well not have been on the park.

Carrying around too much bathwater in his stomach.

Brayshaw is the other one. I think he has had a terrible year and he was ordinary last night. Another who displays no urgency and appears so casual when he disposes of the footy. He seems to often get stuck in no mans land guarding grass as well.

Both players gained 70m and they had 1 tackle between them

 

And Langdon with 98% game time is simply a machine.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dees2014 said:

I remember very similar posts going up in the week before the Tigers game. Everything seemed gloom and doom to some but we still go that big game done. We are building an ability to lift when need be, which hasn’t been the case in decades. This is a seriously resilient team, which we all should appreciate, and well coached as well. 
 

We will go ok against the Doggies!

Try test of us will be against the dogs.  They killed us for outside run and pace last year through JJ, Smith and even Crozier down back to propel attacks.  They evened out and then beat us on the inside after half time.  We have improved and so have they.  Guys across half fwd like ANB, Spargo, Melksham and Fritsch will have to step up big time to stop their rebounds.  No matter where we sit, that’s the match to test us imv.  

3 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

For this game, I thought so, too, deever. Whilst TMac's mark and goal in the dying seconds was very important and exhibited pure class, as well as good fortune, I really thought we won the game on Clarrie's last quarter of determined excellence. He cleared, created and carried us home - absolutely no doubt. 

The rest of the team was important, too - supporting Clarrie to 'go for it' and enabled pathways for his efforts. A few players across the game were down but under constant pressure, some continuity of difficult games and good opposition tactics all take a respective toll.

Great win just the same. Some focus still required to remediate weaknesses and centre clearances. Chandler might have been useful with his enthusiastic carry and attack as a teamed Chandler-Jordan assault. These two, with Kozzie nearby, are a source of talent and would be very difficult to stop. Eight  - Zero. Who would have thought?

FWIW, I feel all the good defensive work is effective because of a most important link in the chain - Langdon.  His hard running to help out in defence or to create space and options on the wing is critical and is what translates the great defence into something.

If he were out of the side I would worry that we would be getting out of trouble less often and the ball could easily be rebounding back putting immense pressure on our backs who have worked so hard to clear it. Can you imagine any replacement doing what he does. He means so much to this team.

Edited May 9, 20213 yr by Demons3031

 

 

This........ .

 

Following the match, Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin was seen giving the team a talk in a tight huddle before they went into the changerooms and Gawn opened up on just what the coach said

 

"I think the MCG and the Melbourne Football Club hasn't been a place where teams are afraid to come to," he told Fox Footy.

Kossie has been generally great but when the heat is really on against Richmond and Sydney in the wet he hasn't been able to deliver. It's not going to be any easier in big finals, he's applying pressure and laying tackles, but he needs to find a way to win those hyper-contested balls - he's often over-running and fumbling.

9 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Kossie has been generally great but when the heat is really on against Richmond and Sydney in the wet he hasn't been able to deliver. It's not going to be any easier in big finals, he's applying pressure and laying tackles, but he needs to find a way to win those hyper-contested balls - he's often over-running and fumbling.

Still so young with little game time.

6 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Still so young with little game time.

Don't get me wrong - I am setting the bar extremely high because I think he has the attributes to clear it.

1 hour ago, Vagg said:

That's okay, Cards.  We will tolerate young folk like you.  Just so long as you're willing to learn from us old (ancient?) supporters!  The red sox were always a distinctive part of our clobber, and "Redlegs" was a fairly common term for the team "back in the day"...

I think I recall my grandad, maybe mentioning the Redlegs… ?

5 hours ago, praha said:

I feel a lot of people are really understating the significance of last night's win. Sydney were magnificent. They had 40 tackles inside their forward 50 and they threw everything at us.

That was a mostly mature and patient performance. The very definition of "trusting the process". 

Also check out the Sydney Facebook page. Aside from the occasional winge about the umpires, more supporters are praising of the Swans. In a loss. That says a lot about the oppo.

We'll be very battered and bruised after last night. I expect us to really struggle to maintain this level for the next 3 weeks against Carlton, Adelaide and Bulldogs. But last night was as good a win I've seen perhaps ever. 

Speaking to some ransoms today and they were glowing of the standard of the game and how good the Swans look as well is us. 
I said it during the game, the Swannies are a good team, we should be very happy with that result. 

1 minute ago, Cards13 said:

I think I recall my grandad, maybe mentioning the Redlegs… ?

Your Grand-dad was a smart man.  Just needed to rub off on his Grandkid...  (LOL)

1 minute ago, Vagg said:

Your Grand-dad was a smart man.  Just needed to rub off on his Grandkid...  (LOL)

Meh he followed RDB to Carlton…. Not sure of his mettle to be honest. 

48 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Kossie has been generally great but when the heat is really on against Richmond and Sydney in the wet he hasn't been able to deliver. It's not going to be any easier in big finals, he's applying pressure and laying tackles, but he needs to find a way to win those hyper-contested balls - he's often over-running and fumbling.

He had some brilliant moments that didn’t quite work out - weaving through traffic on the members wing - seemingly evading about 5 tackles before narrowly missing the kick out on the full.

Overall he did go in to his shell a little last night, rather than keep backing himself for more. Sydney are so good defensively and lock in early with tackles well off the ball so it’s not easy.

If it’s not on ball we should think about a little bit of wing or half back time for moments when he’s not in the game. Or just roll him up to midfield stoppages as an extra off the back of the stoppage. Oliver or Petracca feeding a handball to Kossie from a midfield stoppage could be very fun. 

There’s plenty of rucks who excel as the main man but don’t like to share. Gawn being a little down and Jackson coming on, when combined with the 2 big forwards means Gawn has to share more.

It also means less game time for all 4 big guys + Fritsch, but especially Gawn who was playing nearly 100% and Jackson.

With the interchange cap it means long spells on the bench too. 7 minutes at times out of the play.

Just something to consider and monitor. I really think Fritsch or Jackson need to take some wing or half back rotations just to stay involved in the game. Plus it will give the mids a little extra rest too.