This changes thread has taken a strange turn.

You don't win many games kicking under 70 points.

Even if you do no one wants to watch that team

1 minute ago, Diamond_Jim said:

This changes thread has taken a strange turn.

You don't win many games kicking under 70 points.

Even if you do no one wants to watch that team

Is this a dig at us or a compliment?

We've scored 70 or more in 11 of our 14 games.

Our opponents have scored 70 or more in 5 of our 14 games.

Compliment, yeah?

Zero chance that Fritsch gets dropped, aside from being our leading goalkicker, he's tenth in the league for marks inside 50.

Edited June 30, 20213 yr by DavidNeitz9

Fritsch for Brown...get real

We need some more forward power

Without Petracca and a couple of lucky goals...Jordan 100 metre penalty...T Mac after the Essendon player knocked himself out on the behind post..

We lost the match

Brown in, either ANB or Sparrow out 

27 minutes ago, Dave1711 said:

Brown in, either ANB or Sparrow out 

I would say this is the most likely change now that Viney is back.

8 hours ago, Zimma said:

If we dropped Spargo it would be the most dysfunctional decision Melbourne could make. His forward pressure and delivery to a moving forward inside 50 has been outstanding.

I would actually like Sparrow to play more time forward as a target. He has a good size body and his conversion rate from outside 50 for goal is high. If we made him a bit more of a target leading up to the ball I think we might have a little gem in Sparrow.

Fritta, Tmac, Kosi, Spargo, LJ are all a lock, who can make the last spot their own.

 

Ok, so Spargo is sticking to structures well and has had some good games delivering into the forward line but he doesn’t apply much pressure at all. I applied the eye test and it is backed up in the stats. He is great at guarding and defending space but not players and that’s not a bad thing - that may even be his role, but this talk of locks is so strange to me.

Do we have selection integrity? If the answer is yes, then we don’t have locks outside of stars, leaders and important structural players.

8 hours ago, Dave1711 said:

Brown in, either ANB or Sparrow out 

Pretty sure Anb is staying in.

17 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Pretty sure Anb is staying in.

Yes, he is leader in the team and his pressure is usually in the top 5. He’s also in career best form. 

Needs to lower his eyes tho…

15 hours ago, forever demons said:

If picking players on form and knocking the door down then Jones in for Sparrow ,jones may lack pace theses days but makes up for it with nouse.Was not really impressed with Brown on weekend but sure tried enough ,we need a key forward and has to be him ,no point him playing the 2s must find form and prove his worth in 1s

Here is a major problem! With Casey probably not playing this weekend then he and others will miss another vital week of playing footy

BB must surely play this week given finals are at play AND we need to get a settled forward structure fixed in

Edited June 30, 20213 yr by picket fence

11 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Here is a major problem! With Casey probably not playing this weekend then he and others will miss another vital week of playing footy

BB must surely play this week given finals are at play AND we need to get a settled forward structure fixed in

At this stage Casey's game against the Giants is going ahead Saturday night at Casey Fields.

Unless you've seen an official announcement somewhere it's off?

 

No chance Kozzie gets dropped.  
 

We had 14 or 15 marks inside 50 last week but kicked terrible.  Does BB help this? Maybe.  The only reason I’d bring Brown in is to allow McDonald to roam further up the ground.  I don’t see us making a change a this week but we will see. 

Our method inside 50 is the issue more than the personnel.  Seems we deliver defensively outside a V at 45 degrees to make the ball easier to trap in.  We then have secondary midfielders present in the V to take inboard marks for easier set shots.  Happened a lot on Saturday night.

this means a big forward has to lead to the pockets to honour the system, which seems crazy.  The other option is to offer the secondary lead.  Seems contrary to what someone like BBB would naturally do (lead at the ball carrier).  Interesting to see if we alter the method or how the personnel play.

The Fox Footy website: "Charlie Sparrow would be unlucky to go out of the side". Coaches have got a tough call to make, but I tend to agree.

Spargs is pretty short so maybe we can get away with an extra player this week by having him sit on Tom Sparrow's shoulders?

5 minutes ago, Mike said:

"Charlie Sparrow would be unlucky to go out of the side"

Tom Spargo a lock? 

Has the club confirmed Jackson is OK? He went off the ground before 3/4 time and was in the rooms for the whole 3/4 time break. He did return to play in the last quarter. He seemed to be limping slightly when he went off but also looked OK when he returned.  

Mind you, if Jackson doesn't play (and let me stress, I assume he will play until we hear otherwise), I suspect Weideman might be a better chance to come in than B Brown because he can be used as the second ruckman.

The simpletons continue to say nonsensical things. 

The knocks on Fritsch are absolutely fair. And the fact that his name has come up as a forward to drop is justified and reasonable. 

We all know his strengths and that he is a weapon offensively. But those strengths have been absent for the last two games and due to his mostly incompetent efforts and willingness join in defensively, then his place in the side should obviously be up for discussion. 

Posters should really stop bringing up his what he's don't previously. It's irrelevant. This is a rolling season and our players must be contributing weekly of they want to keep their spot. 

Fritsch might be given another chance this weekend but it wouldn't surprise me if he was dropped. 

BB deserves another chance a Jones is next in line. 

BB for Fritsch imo. But I imagine they'll go with BB for Sparrow. 

I think Fritsch is like Melksham and he's playing the medium deep-forward role Melksham played late in 2018 with TMac and Weid as key forwards.  But I think we changed our structure to be more defensively oriented now. 

We played Melksham in a forward-mid role rather than deep forward earlier in the year, but he and Jones have been essentially been replaced by Harmes and Sparrow.  I think it's possible the FD might rate Fritsch for this role up the ground, particularly like Melksham - the strength of their delivery inside 50.  I could see a scenario where it's BB directly for Fritsch but it would also be possible that it's BB for Fritsch who moves upfield and one of Harmes or Sparrow goes out.  What I don't see its BB, TMac, Fritsch in his current role and one less mid-forward.

Or maybe they'll give the current personnel another week - but Fritsch would need to deliver.

Interesting times ...

Edited July 1, 20213 yr by Pollyanna

12 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Fritsch for Brown...get real

We need some more forward power

Without Petracca and a couple of lucky goals...Jordan 100 metre penalty...T Mac after the Essendon player knocked himself out on the behind post..

We lost the match

Well said here.

It reminds me of the selction mistake (IMO) prior to the 1987 prelim, when the great John Northey, dropped a forward David Williams, for a defender, Rod Grinter.

Williams was a proven goalkicker and was in tears in the race at the end of that disatsorous game.  He was back in the the 1988 GF team but little consolation at the time.. Willaims had a poor game in the lead up semi against the Swans, but in the prelim our best goalkicker was Ricky Jackson with 3. Wilson 2. The other forwards didn't fire a shot and we lost by only 2 points.

Brown will free up Fristsch to do what he does best - dominate in the air in one on ones.

1 hour ago, JimmyGadson said:

 

BB for Fritsch imo. But I imagine they'll go with BB for Sparrow. 

At our peril.

2 hours ago, Mike said:

The Fox Footy website: "Charlie Sparrow would be unlucky to go out of the side". Coaches have got a tough call to make, but I tend to agree.

Spargs is pretty short so maybe we can get away with an extra player this week by having him sit on Tom Sparrow's shoulders?

The Captain jack avian disease is mutating

Number 32

34 minutes ago, Pollyanna said:

I think Fritsch is like Melksham and he's playing the medium deep-forward role Melksham played late in 2018 with TMac and Weid as key forwards.  But I think we changed our structure to be more defensively oriented now. 

We played Melksham in a forward-mid role rather than deep forward earlier in the year, but he and Jones have been essentially been replaced by Harmes and Sparrow.  I think it's possible the FD might rate Fritsch for this role up the ground, particularly like Melksham - the strength of their delivery inside 50.  I could see a scenario where it's BB directly for Fritsch but it would also be possible that it's BB for Fritsch who moves upfield and one of Harmes or Sparrow goes out.  What I don't see its BB, TMac, Fritsch in his current role and one less mid-forward.

Or maybe they'll give the current personnel another week - but Fritsch would need to deliver.

Interesting times ...

Correct. Ben Brown would have to play the role Fritsch is currently playing.

Fritsch could play another role further up the ground, but including Brown and moving Fritsch results in a significant net reduction in team pressure because one of our smaller forwards is left out.

Harmes is not really at risk at the moment IMO. He is playing too well.

Third hand word.  but is the same person who told me about Brown's six week mini preseason. BB is to play seniors this week. The club really happy with his GPS numbers last week. If you watched the game on turnover BB would sprint up the centre of ground defensively and that plus he was able to get into game on scoreboard has scored him a game apparently.

14 hours ago, Diamond_Jim said:

Fritsch for Brown...get real

We need some more forward power

Without Petracca and a couple of lucky goals...Jordan 100 metre penalty...T Mac after the Essendon player knocked himself out on the behind post..

We lost the match

So what you're saying is "if we didn't kick the goals that we kicked, we would have lost".

No [censored].

I mean, we could have scored 120 but if Essendon had scored 115 you could say the exact same thing.

The fact the game was close does not make your argument about us needing more forward power any stronger.