2 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Couldn't help yourself, could you.

Brown played well last night. 

Absolutely. Even when he wasnt clunking them he got the ball to a comp. Does more than the stats show. So thrilled we got him and hes getting back to his old self.

Edited August 10, 20213 yr by leave it to deever

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

Leppa was weird tho.

Praised Melksham as 'the ultimate competitor'.

Seemed to think Ben Brown was playing an absolute blinder - had good moments interspersed with being unable to break out of a jog.

He clearly has more of an idea of what's going on than most of them, which is hardly a surprise. But overall I wouldn't be racing out to sign him as an assistant from his commentary. And I could kind of understand why he's a good assistant but didn't work out as a head coach.

I have enjoyed leppa on SEN this year. And he has been a good addition to the 7 coverage.

Unfortunately he is seemingly going the way of every special comments person they hire.

Invariably their special comments hires are a recently retired ex footballer or coach, whose knowledge becomes less useful and insightful in direct correlation to their time out of the game. They often talk in footy speak that is full of footy work jargon, which can require decoding, so is annoying.  however, having just come from the game often have up to date, interesting insights.

Unfortunately almost every single one seems then to not make nay effort to stay up to date about trends, players, teams etc etc. So, despite their job being providing analysis and insight, as time passes they offer less and less of both. It feels like they just trun up for the game and don't do any research or preparation. 

Bartel is an exception i find. He is excellent. Daisy too - though she is still involved in footy.

Leppa was assistant coach last year at the tigers. In that role he was scouted all oppostion temas and been accross how they play and their strengths and weaknesses. But as i gather is out of footy now, apart from his media stuff, and his knowledge is not as current.

In addition to his super baffling comments about Melksham (the ultimate competitor? please, not even his mum would agree with that assessment), in talking about Bowey said they like his speed and ability to run and carry from defence becuase that is something we needed.

What?

Has he not heard of Hunt and Rivers? I mean he was politely corrected by, of all people, Richo, who gave him an out by saying that that run was important with Hunt out of the game.  

There was something else he said that jarred becuase it was so inaccurate, but i can't recall what it was now. 

 

Oh, now i remember - it wasn't tactical. In the last quarter, near the end of the game, one of the bald headed eagles dropped his knees to milk a too high free from a terrific Nibbler tackle. The umpire with the deep voice, god bless him , immediately called he dropped and rightly did not pay a free.

Leppa reckons he saw no difference to the one Kozzie got on half time (which turned out to be crucial).

WTF?

Whilst Kozzie dropped a bit, it was 110% a free kick. Every. Day. Of the week.

The umpire quite rightly told a whining unfit eagle, yeo buddy, it was a clothes line (or some such).

You cant round arm a bloke in the head and expect a free not to be paid. 

Edited August 10, 20213 yr by binman
just remembered

I honestly spent half the telecast thinking Leppitsch was Tim Watson, ergo I ignored everything he said. They sound exactly the same.

Did anyone count the number of frees Nicholls gave eagles compared to us. Hes a shocker. Id guestimate it was about 14 to seven. 

He was a shocker in the cats v swans game i watched this year as well. And i agreed with a review of his work of that game that stated...Forward Jeremy Cameron wasnt paid a mark close to goal as umpire Nicholls adjudged the kick had not travelled the required distance, which it did as the AFL accepted the next day. In another piece of play, James Rowbottom should have been penalised for holding the ball from a tackle by Geelong skipper Joel Selwood. Nicholls was again the officiating umpire but he ruled thesiren had saved the Swans.

I think he showed constant poor judgement again last night and gave eagles way too many softies close to goal. Obviously hes a lot closer😁 but aside from the sheer number of dubious ones paid it was the lack of holding the man calls he made. Watching the replay, a lot of our players were held off the ball and a couple of the insufficuent intents on a wet night were not in the spirit of the rule or hes adept in mind reading.

Time to put him out to pasture.

 

 

22 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Couldn't help yourself, could you.

Brown played well last night. 

Find the footage of him stuck in first gear when Jordon laced it out to him and tell me that’s still true.

He had a number of very good moments. Including one lovely goal and one solid mark and goal. Got a gift for his other goal, and should’ve probably got more from the umps but he hasn’t bought his umps with him from North. Missed 2 chances entirely.

Took an important contested mark late. Then turned it over by not making the distance down the line.

Overall he was solid and he’s putting in the effort to adapt to the game plan and play his role. But he’s still just fighting to stay up to the pace of the game. And has moments where he’s just completely off it. 

My criticism is with anyone suggesting he played really well or is on the verge of breaking out. There’s nothing to suggest that so far. 

 

Any news on the Hunt injury? 

35 minutes ago, Nasher said:

I honestly spent half the telecast thinking Leppitsch was Tim Watson, ergo I ignored everything he said. They sound exactly the same.

Haha I thought he was Jobe for the start of the telecast, while I was out of the room but could still hear it. Jobe sounds like Tim only a little more animated and higher in tone. Both annoying though. 

Michael Lynch's votes in The Age.  Big Benny played well, but no way was he the best player out there

Petracca not mentioned, but received five votes from both Goodwin and Simpson in the Coaches' Award.

This is further evidence that it's purely subjective and we all see things differently.

VOTES
Ben Brown (Melbourne) 8
Tim Kelly (West Coast) 7
James Harmes (Melbourne) 7
Alex Neal-Bullen (Melbourne) 7
Jake Bowey (Melbourne) 6

Found some of the Time on Ground interesting for this week;

Jordon - 53%

Harmes - 54%

Vandenberg - 58%

 

4 minutes ago, roy11 said:

Found some of the Time on Ground interesting for this week;

Jordon - 53%

Harmes - 54%

Vandenberg - 58%

 

Good stuff @roy11 - what do you find interesting about it?

54 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Find the footage of him stuck in first gear when Jordon laced it out to him and tell me that’s still true.

He had a number of very good moments. Including one lovely goal and one solid mark and goal. Got a gift for his other goal, and should’ve probably got more from the umps but he hasn’t bought his umps with him from North. Missed 2 chances entirely.

Took an important contested mark late. Then turned it over by not making the distance down the line.

Overall he was solid and he’s putting in the effort to adapt to the game plan and play his role. But he’s still just fighting to stay up to the pace of the game. And has moments where he’s just completely off it. 

My criticism is with anyone suggesting he played really well or is on the verge of breaking out. There’s nothing to suggest that so far. 

 

On a wet night he held seven marks(our highest) bought the ball to ground which resulted directly in two goals...kicked 3 himself, laid two very solid tackles and also rucked. Was our best forward by far.

Edited August 10, 20213 yr by leave it to deever

15 minutes ago, roy11 said:

Found some of the Time on Ground interesting for this week;

Jordon - 53%

Harmes - 54%

Vandenberg - 58%

 

Includes the last quarter - they were on the bench when the lightning struck. Nothing to it. 

40 minutes ago, Demonstone said:

This is further evidence that it's purely subjective and we all see things differently.

Not sure I agree with that ...

Melksham best game for quite a while. Knows he has to be physical if he's to keep his spot come finals.

Vandenberg poor unfortunately. I think Viney can come in and play a similar role to a higher standard, allowing Harmes to keep some more time at the stoppages. 

Bowey excellent. Lock him in for the rest of the year.

ANB played his role to perfection and took difficult opportunities when they presented themselves. Congrats to him on the hard earned 100.

Unless Tom Green gets 40+ touches the next two weeks Luke Jackson has now wrapped up the rising star. He's improving in every way, but I think his marking has come on quicker than expected. Struggled with goalkicking in the rain but I still think his technique looks good and we'll see more of what we saw last week with the four goals straight.

Trent Rivers yet again a quiet achiever. Positioned well and won contests against more experienced footballers. Also his shot for goal missed but is was an absolute roost. Drop punt from 55 and went a good 15 metres past the goals.

 

5 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

On a wet night he held seven marks(our highest) bought the ball to ground which resulted directly in two goals...kicked 3 himself, laid two very solid tackles and also rucked. Was our best forward by far.

He was the best forward on the ground. Darling did SFA and Kennedy was hampered by injury (I think Kennedy is a monster FF and an absolute star but he’s in his twilight now). 

59 minutes ago, DeeSpencer said:

Find the footage of him stuck in first gear when Jordon laced it out to him and tell me that’s still true.

He had a number of very good moments. Including one lovely goal and one solid mark and goal. Got a gift for his other goal, and should’ve probably got more from the umps but he hasn’t bought his umps with him from North. Missed 2 chances entirely.

Took an important contested mark late. Then turned it over by not making the distance down the line.

Overall he was solid and he’s putting in the effort to adapt to the game plan and play his role. But he’s still just fighting to stay up to the pace of the game. And has moments where he’s just completely off it. 

My criticism is with anyone suggesting he played really well or is on the verge of breaking out. There’s nothing to suggest that so far. 

 

Coaches thought differently.!!

7 hours ago, old dee said:

We are now contenders. 

I think we are more than that OD, we are the ones to beat

I don't know about you all but I'm stuffed today. Haven't felt this bad since the day after our Rd 22 win over the Eagles in 2018..

11 minutes ago, Jaded said:

He was the best forward on the ground. Darling did SFA and Kennedy was hampered by injury (I think Kennedy is a monster FF and an absolute star but he’s in his twilight now). 

Eagles are well and truly an aging team compared to us. I think they had about 10 players in the over 150 game zone compared to us with about 3. Their reign is over and ours is starting to begin. We had about ten outs from the prelim game and some wonderful new young ins. No wonder eagles fans are frustrated. 

1 minute ago, Greendale said:

Melksham best game for quite a while. Knows he has to be physical if he's to keep his spot come finals.

 

I fully admit to having a pretty strong confirmation bias against Melksham, particularly in regard to his intensity and pressure

But i thought he was terrible in the first half. No tackles, did my head in a couple of times with the stupid corralling he does (rather than attacking the man) and sat off a contest on the half back line, where he simply just had to put his body on the line.

I acknowledge that he had a defensive role on Hurn and then McGovern, and did an ok job, but by the shadows of half time i had had enough of him.

But then he showed great intensity to stay in the contest and make second and third efforts, in the play that ultimately ended up with the Kozzie free and super important goal. 

And he carried that intensity into the second half. That's all i want to see. He will always do the brilliant stuff. Just has to keep doing the hard stuff

He showed intent, continued to do well on McGovern, set up the harmes goal with smart, quick play and kicked two clever goals himself. The first of those was exactly why Goody needs him in our finals team. Brilliant, super smart kick on his non preferred kick.  And coming after a terrific effort to mark it. 

There is not one other player in our team who i would be confident to kick that goal. I was sure Melksham was going to.

With him and Bowey in the team our kicking skills have received a massive boost.

Makes us a better team.

But please Melk - no more corralling!

I thought I'd completely skip the Gold Coast game a few weeks ago, take the kids to the movies and ignore the scores until the game finished. Avoided footy all day that Saturday. Smugly came  out of the movies to check the final scores having avoided all the stress of the game only to find out it'd be postponed to Sunday!

Didn't want to follow it last night...didn't want to go to bed wound up and unable to sleep. Thought I'd check the final scores when I stirred during the night. Happened to look at the clock at 11PM...thought beauty I'll check the final scores...only to see the quarter had been going for 45 minutes and looked like it still had time to go. We were 24 points up at the time so I figured it was safe to go turn on the TV and watch the last 7 minutes. Suffice to say I ended up going back to bed wound up. Could only happen with the MFC!

While those last 7 minutes of clock time were completely horrendous from us (reckon we must have been beaten in contests 25 to 3 or something like that), it is pretty decent that we came out of our games vs. the Dogs and WCE with 1 win and 1 loss while wearing a minus 26 on the free kick count. We're going to need to be a 5+ goal better side than the Dogs to beat them in September with the artificial assistance.

16 minutes ago, DeeZone said:

Coaches thought differently.!!

One of the coaches! One of the coaches also couldn’t find a vote for Nibbler so I’m not sure how much we should worry about that 

11 minutes ago, binman said:

There is not one other player in our team who i would be confident to kick that goal. I was sure Melksham was going to.

Used to be a big fan of him but thought his laat ywo years have been well below.

At his best, three years ago he was an elite athelete and very fast for his size. He use of ball was excellent.

If Jake gets back to three qrts of his old form and intensity it coyld be a big factor in our remaining games and finals.

Great to see a few growing in form and the introduction of Bowey late in the season.

Could all the planets be aligning?

16 hours ago, DubDee said:

OMG we are witnessing something special 

*what was it like Dad when you were top at round 21?
Dunno son, we were all too busy complaining about the umpires to enjoy it

As opposed to when I asked my old man about the 50's.

"We'd just kick back and wait for 'em to kick 8 goals in the last qr."

1 hour ago, DeeSpencer said:

My criticism is with anyone suggesting he played really well or is on the verge of breaking out. There’s nothing to suggest that so far. 

 

The Age gave him the most votes with 8.