PREGAME: Community Series vs Carlton

[picket fence 15,420]

On 2/25/2022 at 3:59 PM, BDA said:

Adam Cerra can get a close up look at what he's missing out on

Adam Who??? Plays non accountable football. Serious question who would he replace in our All star lineup??

[picket fence 15,420]

11 hours ago, Dees2014 said:

What about Dunstan?

If he is fit he plays, perhaps at Jordans expense.

[Bring-Back-Powell 13,350]

Can’t wait to see the boys live for the first time since the GWS game.

27 degrees at bounce time. Watching our reigning premiers. What more do you want…

Hopefully Fritta, Lever and Viney will be back and we can have a full dress rehearsal and hit the ground running for 16 March.

[Fourhands Vaginelli 15]

Any word on Salem ? Is he ok?

[WalkingCivilWar 32,867]

11 hours ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Can’t wait to see the boys live for the first time since the GWS game.

27 degrees at bounce time. Watching our reigning premiers. What more do you want…

Hopefully Fritta, Lever and Viney will be back and we can have a full dress rehearsal and hit the ground running for 16 March.

Of all the Carlton tragics in my life - and they are legion - friends with whom I usually go to Dees vs. Blues games, not one of them is going to Thursday’s match. Their excuses are many and varied, but all share a common theme: they’re flimsy af. 

“It’s only a practice match, it’ll be boring”

Oh, as opposed to watching every single training session, which is riveting?

“I hate Marvel”

Who doesn’t? Besides you never hesitate to go at any other time. 

“It’s gonna be too hot” (this from a friend who, despite hating cricket, has on a couple of occasions come with me to an ODI purely to work on her tan!)

Then it occurred to me… what’s missing this year is that dread. This feeling of confidence (ie. justified confidence) is foreign. Usually with these friends it’s me who’s not keen to go to a match like this one (I’d never bail, though) and over the years, especially when Carlton were successful, my envy of them was almost palpable. Yeah nah, I could get used to this. 😁❤️💙 💪 

[dazzledavey36 49,049]

I had some concerns that Salem might have had a serious injury but going off today's training he seems fine which is good news.

 

[Demon17 4,624]

4 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Of all the Carlton tragics in my life - and they are legion - friends with whom I usually go to Dees vs. Blues games, not one of them is going to Thursday’s match. Their excuses are many and varied, but all share a common theme: they’re flimsy af. 

“It’s only a practice match, it’ll be boring”

Oh, as opposed to watching every single training session, which is riveting?

“I hate Marvel”

Who doesn’t? Besides you never hesitate to go at any other time. 

“It’s gonna be too hot” (this from a friend who, despite hating cricket, has on a couple of occasions come with me to an ODI purely to work on her tan!)

Then it occurred to me… what’s missing this year is that dread. This feeling of confidence (ie. justified confidence) is foreign. Usually with these friends it’s me who’s not keen to go to a match like this one (I’d never bail, though) and over the years, especially when Carlton were successful, my envy of them was almost palpable. Yeah nah, I could get used to this. 😁❤️💙 💪 

You make a good pint WCW .

But if the Dees do to the Blues even closely what they did to the Roos last week, then that's two teams ( and their fans) that will be saying that 2022 will be another lost season without finals.  Maybe that's why your friends don't want to go - seeing that scenario live would be deflating for sure as it used to be for me in the old days.

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,505]

On 2/25/2022 at 3:49 PM, Engorged Onion said:

The Charles Spalding McDonald Cup?

Indeed. Although you could also add Johnson (Chris), McLean (Brock) and Vin Catoggio. 

Of course, the greatest Melbourne-Carlton player is without doubt Ron Barassi. It's quite right that you didn't sully his name by suggesting an artificial trophy be named after him.

[Bring-Back-Powell 13,350]

2 minutes ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Indeed. Although you could also add Johnson (Chris), McLean (Brock) and Vin Catoggio. 

Of course, the greatest Melbourne-Carlton player is without doubt Ron Barassi. It's quite right that you didn't sully his name by suggesting an artificial trophy be named after him.

Have we ever had a Carlton player come to us in the last 40 years?

Seems to be one way traffic going from Melbourne to Carlton eg - Spalding, Brock McLean, Chris Johnson etc...

Edited February 28, 2022 by Bring-Back-Powell

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,505]

13 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Have we ever had a Carlton player come to us in the last 40 years?

Seems to be one way traffic going from Melbourne to Carlton eg - Spalding, Brock McLean, Chris Johnson etc...

Jeff Garlett is one that comes to mind.

[WalkingCivilWar 32,867]

24 minutes ago, Demon17 said:

You make a good pint WCW .

But if the Dees do to the Blues even closely what they did to the Roos last week, then that's two teams ( and their fans) that will be saying that 2022 will be another lost season without finals.  Maybe that's why your friends don't want to go - seeing that scenario live would be deflating for sure as it used to be for me in the old days.

True. But I can’t count the number of times I’ve sat with them watching Carlton beat the Dees. And now the shoe’s on the other foot and they don’t want a bar of it.

Actually, we were all there last season to see us defeat Carlton. And the time before that, I think it was 2018, was when we gave Carlton a hiding of monumental proportions (100+ points). But I wasn’t smug about it. Well, maybe a little smug at the latter game. 🥳  Yeah, the more I think about that day the more I understand why they aren’t keen to go with me . 😆

[Jaded No More 58,693]

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

I had some concerns that Salem might have had a serious injury but going off today's training he seems fine which is good news.

 

Yep he looks to have tape on the back of his knee only. Doubt he’d be doing these agility drills if any concern whatsoever of structural damage. 
 

Is May training I wonder?

[adonski 9,231]

6 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Yep he looks to have tape on the back of his knee only. Doubt he’d be doing these agility drills if any concern whatsoever of structural damage. 
 

Is May training I wonder?

Yep 

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/albums/1069283/training-gallery-february-28?modal=true&type=gallery&playlistId=1069283&playlistSize=33

Edited February 28, 2022 by adonski

[sisso 2,388]

Provided we dont get injuries in this game we are looking to go into round 1 in very good shape, Petty prob the only best 22 player unavailable.

[dazzledavey36 49,049]

27 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

Yep he looks to have tape on the back of his knee only. Doubt he’d be doing these agility drills if any concern whatsoever of structural damage. 
 

Is May training I wonder?

 

21 minutes ago, adonski said:

Yep 

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/albums/1069283/training-gallery-february-28?modal=true&type=gallery&playlistId=1069283&playlistSize=33

Oliver also training..

Fair to say that there were no injury concerns to come out of last week's game?

[Demondan75 179]

This bloke is going to be there (only if his mum says it ok).

[Dees2014 2,377]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:05 PM, FlashInThePan said:

Not at all, happy to elaborate. I’m fixated on the likely COVID impact during the season. I think we, and everyone else, are going to have our depth seriously tested. Teams that can absorb change and maintain their system are likely to do better than teams that can’t.

i understand the counter arguments, maybe we just play the ball in front of us and worry about the future if/when it comes. I just think this is a good opportunity to see whether we can structure up well with some of the next gen players playing.

I think we had it just about right last season, we were almost non affected by Covid by putting strict disciplines in place to minimise it. I’m sure we will follow similar this year with hopefully similar outcomes. It is imperative we take no notice of the outliers who appear to want to ignore it. fortunately we don’t appear to have any of those unlike some other clubs (eg Carlton)

[David-Demon 507]

On 2/26/2022 at 5:58 PM, 640MD said:

Reading the herald-sun

malthouse predicts the bummers to be premiers. Other articles pizz in the pockets of other clubs supporters .

am I missing something, I thought we had dominant wins over the jeelong pensioners and footescray and showed same intensity over norf. Only petty missing from the GF side.

are we flying under the radar again

malted milk house is too old to even think let alone select a Premier for 2022. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by David-Demon

[fr_ap 2,151]

On 2/27/2022 at 9:58 AM, 640MD said:

Reading the herald-sun

malthouse predicts the bummers to be premiers. Other articles pizz in the pockets of other clubs supporters .

am I missing something, I thought we had dominant wins over the jeelong pensioners and footescray and showed same intensity over norf. Only petty missing from the GF side.

are we flying under the radar again

Winning one is hard enough, but this year will be much harder in my opinion. 

Our defensive positioning/game plan and sagging back seemed to catch most teams off guard last year - we can be sure they will all have detailed plans to beat it this year. Add in COVID outs, a few injuries presuming we don't miraculously avoid them again, and who knows. Most teams rely pretty heavily on their top 6 and we are no exception. A long injury or three to the group of Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Salem, Lever or May would make it tough. 

Personally, I think we still look very vulnerable to very tall/resting ruck forwards (all of the big bags kicked against us last year fell into this category) and expect a number of teams to capitalise on this whilst also backing their half backs to handball through and around our speed forwards. Collingwood game last year shows the blueprint. 

As amazing as we were we had our fair share of luck last year. Winning one without it (or maybe without as much of it) is the test from here on out. 

[Webber 10,179]

On 2/27/2022 at 9:58 AM, 640MD said:

malthouse predicts the bummers to be premiers

The pathological hatred MM has for the Dees verges on laughable. I suspect if you asked him, he’d have some explanation for how we stole the Premiership last year, didn’t really deserve it, won’t be much chop this year….blah blah blah. To say he lacks credible objectivity is voicing the bleeding obvious. 

[La Dee-vina Comedia 16,505]

21 minutes ago, Webber said:

The pathological hatred MM has for the Dees verges on laughable. I suspect if you asked him, he’d have some explanation for how we stole the Premiership last year, didn’t really deserve it, won’t be much chop this year….blah blah blah. To say he lacks credible objectivity is voicing the bleeding obvious. 

I think MM's hatred is for anything AFL-related in general. I don't see it as being specifically directed at us. He strikes me as someone who has taken the view that if he can't be front and centre of the AFL, he despises what he's been excluded from. He's been curmudgeonly for years and now seems to be a sad relic of a bygone era. To go one step further, I'm surprised that anyone in the media pays him to provide his opinion as I can't imagine many people are at all interested in what he has to say. 

[DeeSpencer 23,320]

18 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

 

Oliver also training..

Fair to say that there were no injury concerns to come out of last week's game?

Hibbo was the other one to come off and get a good looking over by the medical staff in the last quarter. Can't see him in the photos (which doesn't mean he wasn't there).

[deelusions from afar 1,619]

1 hour ago, fr_ap said:

Winning one is hard enough, but this year will be much harder in my opinion. 

Our defensive positioning/game plan and sagging back seemed to catch most teams off guard last year - we can be sure they will all have detailed plans to beat it this year. Add in COVID outs, a few injuries presuming we don't miraculously avoid them again, and who knows. Most teams rely pretty heavily on their top 6 and we are no exception. A long injury or three to the group of Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Salem, Lever or May would make it tough. 

Personally, I think we still look very vulnerable to very tall/resting ruck forwards (all of the big bags kicked against us last year fell into this category) and expect a number of teams to capitalise on this whilst also backing their half backs to handball through and around our speed forwards. Collingwood game last year shows the blueprint. 

As amazing as we were we had our fair share of luck last year. Winning one without it (or maybe without as much of it) is the test from here on out. 

Good post.  I mostly agree - so much needs to go right to do it again.

However, I think its interesting that the teams that took us apart last year were mostly at the bottom (Pies, North, Adelaide) or teams that we had beaten earlier in the season (Dogs, GWS, Hawthorn).  To me this suggests (especially when you look at our finals form) that it was more above the shoulders.  I don't think it's possible for teams who play such a disciplined game plan to be up for every game - but we showed we could do it when it mattered - not just in finals but the big games through out the season when our reputation was on the line eg tigers, dogs, lions, port, geelong.

I'm not saying I think we are invincible but I think the fact that the pies, crows and north troubled us the most is more about our effort on those days than a game style that is our Achilles heel.

[jnrmac 19,226]

1 hour ago, fr_ap said:

Winning one is hard enough, but this year will be much harder in my opinion. 

Our defensive positioning/game plan and sagging back seemed to catch most teams off guard last year - we can be sure they will all have detailed plans to beat it this year. Add in COVID outs, a few injuries presuming we don't miraculously avoid them again, and who knows. Most teams rely pretty heavily on their top 6 and we are no exception. A long injury or three to the group of Oliver, Petracca, Gawn, Salem, Lever or May would make it tough. 

Personally, I think we still look very vulnerable to very tall/resting ruck forwards (all of the big bags kicked against us last year fell into this category) and expect a number of teams to capitalise on this whilst also backing their half backs to handball through and around our speed forwards. Collingwood game last year shows the blueprint. 

As amazing as we were we had our fair share of luck last year. Winning one without it (or maybe without as much of it) is the test from here on out. 

The mental leap from 'we're not good enough to win a flag' to 'we've won a flag' is enormous.

Players now know they are good enough .. And by some margin. 

Yet the room for improvement is massive. Virtually every player has improvement in them and will. now know that every single step they make in their training can generate the ultimate result.

And the confidence in the game plan, their fitness and their team mates will be sky high. Plus the confidence that they can win from almost every position - other teams will know that Melbourne can pile on goals and win from 7 goals down

I for one think we will improve this year.

 

And when you look at the 2000's once you get to the top you can win 3/4 flags - Brisbane, Geelong, Hawthorn and Richmond have shown how to do it - with the right list, right age/experience bracket and injuries.

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by jnrmac

[binman 38,879]

On 2/26/2022 at 2:53 PM, DeeSpencer said:

This time last year we rested Oliver and Viney was out and otherwise we went with the best 22.

I’d expect we’d go the best 22 again and only rest someone if they are sore. Hibbo and Salem two to watch in that regard.

I don’t expect anyone outside the 22, or possibly the 25 if you include Hunt, Weid and Bedford to get a run. If Fritsch, Lever and Viney are good to go then that’s our best 28. 
 

The opportunity to throw young players in was there against North. But they can do it the old fashioned way through the VFL. 

That's not the case at all.

We ran with our best 22 in the practice match against the Tigers, just as we did against the Roos (except injured players of course) and then experimented in the dogs community series game. 

In the game against the dogs the following non best 22 players lined up (albeit with a 8 man interchange):

(Note: best 22 is a bit of a nebulous concept applied retrospectively to a preseason game, because some of these players ended up in the starting 22 , but were not considered as such at the end of the previous season, or even coming into the game)

• Oskar Baker
• Toby Bedford,
• Bailey Laurie
• Jake Bowey (obviously made the senior team, but not till the end of the season)
• Aaron vandenBerg
• Tom Sparrow (made the senior team, but not 'till about mid season and then as medi sub for much of the rest of the season)
• James Jordon (trained super well over the preseason, but given he had yet to play senior game, he was no lock to get selected round one and beyond - at least from a fan's perspective - ended the year outside of the starting 22)
• Kade Chandler
• Jay Lockhart
• Harrison Petty (was not best 22 at the start of the year - obviously was after tomos injury)

In addition to that list  the following players were borderline best 22, as reflected by the fact that they by mid season they had lost their spot in the senior team:

• Neville Jetta
• Nathan Jones

So, 26 players selected in total. And nearly half of them not best 22, or in the case of 2 or 3 borderline at best. 

I suspect our selection policy will be much the same for the blues game on Thursday and in all likelihood we will see some second year players like Rosman and Laurie get a run, maybe one or two of of our first year players and a number of our fringe players like Smith, Melksham, Chandler, Bedford and Weid. 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by binman