I have been concerned about Ben Brown and his fit in the side so I was encouraged with his game. Brown looked to move better on Saturday than the previous weeks and he looked better on the bigger MCG.

That said, he has pushed Fritsch further up the ground and he is keeping a very good player (Weideman) out of the side, so he needs to keep kicking goals.

I watched the game live and on replay and I am not understanding the criticism of Harmes. He was tough, fast, good pressure and prolific. 

13 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

I have been concerned about Ben Brown and his fit in the side so I was encouraged with his game. Brown looked to move better on Saturday than the previous weeks and he looked better on the bigger MCG.

That said, he has pushed Fritsch further up the ground and he is keeping a very good player (Weideman) out of the side, so he needs to keep kicking goals.

I think B.Brown is going to be great for us.  His reach is so long it's very hard to defend - it contributed to each of his three marking-goals in different ways.  I also thought his defensive intent when the ball hit the ground was fine - he stayed involved.

He worked up and down the ground and I think at times we committed too many marking targets to the contest.  I think it would be better to keep one of BB, TMac or Fritsch deeper and draw a defender away from the immediate contest and provide an ongoing one-out target if we win it.  I think that synergy can come when they play together more.

I agree FT I have watched the replay three times now and that last 10 minutes where we held them to 1 point despite repeated forward 50 entries at least 5-6 times and James Harmes featured strongly throughout.  I bet the Coaches would have been rapt with his toughness, pressure and endurance. I might add no one on the ground was really clean due to the pressure, pressure, pressure.

Well done James Harmes, I noted most Demonlanders managed to squeeze you into their votes as well.

I thought that apart from Tmac, Clarry, Salem, Max, Ed, Tracc and Jordon it was a really strong Team Effort. So happy that we are 8-0 and that next week we get a better run with the Umps and that we turn up to play like Demons. Go Dee’s...!!!!

The only potential issue with B Brown is his knee. If he stays fit and healthy he can only be an asset for us.

Talk of him not fitting the system are silly. If you have a 60 goal a year forward in the team best to tweak the system to make sure you optimise his skillset.

On access all areas on the afl site today Matthew Lloyd showed some down the ground vision of TMac and BB working in tandem. They stayed out of each others road easily so no doubt they can play together. Plus 7 of 10 goals from your KPF duo in a tight battle is a great return. BB also pushed up the ground to take some relieving marks on the wing for us. I was quite satisfied with his contribution.

I have no concerns about BB or his fit for us whatsoever.

38 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

I watched the game live and on replay and I am not understanding the criticism of Harmes. He was tough, fast, good pressure and prolific. 

Dare I say it FT he along with a lot of others JH showed “Leadership “.

Melbourne v Sydney

10 Tom McDonald (MELB)
7 Callum Mills (SYD)
6 Clayton Oliver (MELB)
3 Steven May (MELB)
2 James Harmes (MELB)
1 Tom Hickey (SYD)
1 Christian Salem (MELB)

19 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

I think B.Brown is going to be great for us.  His reach is so long it's very hard to defend - it contributed to each of his three marking-goals in different ways.  I also thought his defensive intent when the ball hit the ground was fine - he stayed involved.

He worked up and down the ground and I think at times we committed too many marking targets to the contest.  I think it would be better to keep one of BB, TMac or Fritsch deeper and draw a defender away from the immediate contest and provide an ongoing one-out target if we win it.  I think that synergy can come when they play together more.

Brown is elite when the ball is put to his advantage and a great finisher. But he is not great at bringing the ball to ground when out of position, doesn't provide much pressure and isn't great on the deck. I think he needs to kick a lot of goals to make us better than other combinations because we have a lot of very good forward options to choose from.

I think he moved pretty well and better than last year or this year.

We have been using Max at full forward and he has similar strengths in the air (not as good a kick for goal). 

1 minute ago, Pollyanna said:

Melbourne v Sydney

10 Tom McDonald (MELB)
7 Callum Mills (SYD)
6 Clayton Oliver (MELB)
3 Steven May (MELB)
2 James Harmes (MELB)
1 Tom Hickey (SYD)
1 Christian Salem (MELB)

Thanks Pollyanna I think that sums up what I was talking about.!!!!

I thought Ben Brown was very good, and it is no coincidence that Tommy kicks his first bag of goals for the year when BB is playing well and dragging away a defender. 7 goals from our 2 talls in the wet is a fantastic return (should have been 8, Brown just missed a gettable one). 

It was nice to see Brown jumping at the footy a bit more. He is not going to win agility awards, but to his credit was involved when the ball hit the deck. He is about as defensive as Fritsch when the ball hits the ground, which is acceptable for a big man (Fritsch however needs to do more, especially when he can't get a sniff of the goals).

He was a very unlikable player for me when he was at Norf, so I sort of ignored his talents. But he is undeniably a very very good forward who is hard to defend against because he is so tall and such a good overhead mark. A team can never play against him and not put a lot of thought into how to defend against him, which is a great thing for us, as it means Tmac and Fritsch are less likely to be double and triple teamed.

Once these 3 can learn to not all jump for the same mark, we will see even better results. This was happening a bit when May, Lever and Tomlinson first started playing together, but now they have sorted themselves out beautifully (and Petty was definitely not getting in their way on the weekend to his credit). The same will happen with some continuity for these 3. 

1 hour ago, hardtack said:

I actually feel for the umpires ....but have to make a decision based on where they are standing in relation to the action.

They stand in terrible spots, are regularly blindsided and often guess decisions. 

Goal umps are worse. How often do you see them backed up against the goal post and the ball hits them..

There is no feel or intutition.

8 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

Melbourne v Sydney

10 Tom McDonald (MELB)
7 Callum Mills (SYD)
6 Clayton Oliver (MELB)
3 Steven May (MELB)
2 James Harmes (MELB)
1 Tom Hickey (SYD)
1 Christian Salem (MELB)

Oliver was better than Mills when it counted. There, I said it!

I saw behind the goal footage and Ben Brown gave Melksham a mouthful when he ignored his lead when he blazed away at goal for only for McDonald to spoil and lead to the Petracca goal.

I'm glad Brown gave Melksham a spray because if it wasn't for the McDonald spoil, Sydney easily clear that away.

4 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I have been concerned about Ben Brown and his fit in the side so I was encouraged with his game. Brown looked to move better on Saturday than the previous weeks and he looked better on the bigger MCG.

That said, he has pushed Fritsch further up the ground and he is keeping a very good player (Weideman) out of the side, so he needs to keep kicking goals.

Didnt seem to have the same ammount of room in our fwd line as per last week. 

It stiffled frittas game but not bbb whos just too tall.

Despite his late entry I reckon hell still beat Tom i n the goal kicking states. ...which is a big call.

People seem to forget that prior to last year he was the leading h and a goal kickwr for Three years. Its why hes a lock before Sw.

Three years!

(In a mediocre club)

23 hours ago, old dee said:

I have canned Spargo a lot but have to say he is now worth his spot. Still wish he would actually get the ball a bit more. But some good games so far this year.

His pressure has been elite all year. Look at the way he tackles, guys way bigger than him can't escape his grip. Reminds me of Michael Long when he first burst on the scene in 89/90.

22 hours ago, Nascent said:

Just watching the replay and it's astonishing how many tackles went unrewarded for holding-the-ball. There must have been at least a dozen of incorrect disposals with nothing given. The worst of which were those where players just dropped the ball when tackled. Felt bad for lever when Hayward dropped the ball immediately when lever tackled him only for the umpire to penalise lever for falling into his back afterwards.

 

Yet Trac got pinged twice in extremely unlucky circumstances. First time he collected the footy, was tackled and the ball spilt free almost all simultaneously. The second time the ball was basically knocked into his lap and he was tackled instantly with no chance of the ball coming out yet he was pinged for not making a sufficient attempt nevermind the fact the ball was never coming out and it should've been a ball up.

13 hours ago, Fat Tony said:

I watched the game live and on replay and I am not understanding the criticism of Harmes. He was tough, fast, good pressure and prolific. 

Totally agree, I just watched the first half finally and aside from a couple of clangers he did a really serviceable job doing what we would probably expect from Viney. Really can't work out where people are coming from with their harsh critique of him.

Going on from that my thoughts from the first half were that we were clearly the better team but botched some really golden opportunities and interestingly it was some favourites that made some of the errors. I'm talking Kozzie, Fritta (who had possibly one of his worst games), and even Spargo (who I know was good in the second half). We really should have been 20+ points in front and the Swans were only just holding on.

Brown looked good and more confident than his first match against Kangas. TMac was in everything, for me BOG for the first half. Petracca got plenty of opportunities but couldn't seem to finish it off. Hickey had Gawn's measure and seemed to beat Dogga in the ruck, but Doggo was more better at ground level. May barely gave Franklin an inch (how he got fined for that "eblow" is beyond me). Petty similar to his first half against the Hawks was nervous, I'm still very much on edge if he has the ball. Salem on the other hand might just be the coolest cucumber to ever play for the Dees.

Getting onto the second half re-watch now.

23 hours ago, Mazer Rackham said:

"Can you smell that? Soggy chips, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of soggy chips after a game. One time we played Adelaide at Adelaide. Sell out crowd. Scores level at three quarter time, then we piled on ten goals to nothing in the last. When the final siren blew I looked into the stands. Not one Crows fan there. Just piles of soggy chips. The smell, you know that squashed potato smell, the whole grandstand. Smelled like ...... victory ........................................ someday this season is gonna end."

I am surprised you came out alive. They are the worst supporters bar none. Oh Eagles might be close.

23 hours ago, Cards13 said:

My pet hate is the hold the man rule or total lack of. How many times does a player literally not have possession, they may have touched the ball with 1 hand for a split second, and yet they are tackled or dragged off the ball. 

Or 3 opos pile on top making it impossible  to dispose and the ball is down near the players feet still in dispute

The interpretation of the rules is a joke

19 minutes ago, Kent said:

Or 3 opos pile on top making it impossible  to dispose and the ball is down near the players feet still in dispute

The interpretation of the rules is a joke

Spot on, Kent! The current interpretation of the rule encourages the 'stacks on' behaviour of the players, who have been encouraged to pull the ball in under the player being tackled because 50% of the time they can 'earn' a cheap free!

There were a number of players down on form against Sydney eg. Fritsch, Pickett, Jackson, Petracca, Brayshaw, Gawn. This gives me confidence that we are a well balanced side and we don't rely on the stars  to fire for us to win. 

On 5/9/2021 at 7:58 PM, Monocology said:

Something caught my attention Saturday night whilst mincing down through the bleachers to take a nature break end of 3rd....

...... caught glimse of tellie, you know the ground broadcast which is generally free of the garbage on Ch7, & spotted Williams circling possibly the back 6 huddle, chewing his gum, intense yet steely composed, & giving instruction yet not using any eye contact whatsoever - like the guy in Apocalypse Now during a napalm strike.

It was frigg'n impressive - regardless of possessing no lip-reading skills - & a 'rutheless vibe' I've never seen in my 50 years. The kind that makes you either burst into tears (me) or switch into overdrive (us). Stuck with me the rest of the night even though it was probably 20 seconds of footage.

I now believe.

 

Williams is a big part of this transformation 

On 5/10/2021 at 1:34 PM, hardtack said:

I actually feel for the umpires as they, like the players, are having to make split second decisions and therefore are not always going to get it right.  Unfortunately, they don't have the benefit of slow motion replays from countless angles, but have to make a decision based on where they are standing in relation to the action... people might say they should consider the decision before blowing the whistle, but then those same people would probably complain because the umpire took so long to signal the free; they're damned either way.  This is not meant as a serious suggestion, but maybe they should introduce an appeals system like in cricket, where a team has two or three appeals available to them... but, to make them think twice before they appeal, if the appeal fails, a 50m penalty is applied ?.

And I certainly do not buy into the conspiracy theories that have the umpires (or certain umpires) hating the Dees.

Not sure if it has been mentioned here but Rugby have a "Captains Call" where each Captain have one opportunity to ask the Ref to check with the TMO for an infringement prior to a try or to review foul play. Why can't we introduce something similar.

My comment was more out of frustration but I do agree that that they are split second decisions but some umpires get it wrong more than others.