I think it's a case of Thommo is the natural replacement for May while Disco Turner is the natural replacement for Lever.  Let's see how things go down back.  The criticism of Thommo in the practice game against St Kilda has been incredibly overblown. 

12 hours ago, Ouch! said:

But I'm sure Hunter would know about Lobb being at the.... oh yeah right. Hunter would have only seen one season of Darcy. So really he'd be commenting about Ugle-Hagan and Naughton. Which I guess is fair enough. But all 4 are not nimble at ground level. 

i watched  their praccy match and was one of the thing that really surprised me...all 4 of their big blokes put extreme pressure on at ground level.  Beveridge also reiterated at some stage that for their forward line to work all of them are going to need to put pressure on balls whether they are in the air, or on the ground.

They actually looked really dynamic and dangerous i thought....i certainly won't be under rating their talls or the impact they can have.  Going to be a really tough matchup for us!

3 hours ago, dees189227 said:

37 degrees tomorrow. Just be thankful we aren't playing at marvel with the roof closed. I've sat in that ground on a hot day & it's horrible especially when the roof is shut.

And they refuse to turn the air conditioning on in there. 

Ridiculous !!!!!!

27 minutes ago, Vipercrunch said:

 The criticism of Thommo in the practice game against St Kilda has been incredibly overblown. 

Any ideas how he went in the Casey praccy match against Richmond?

Perhaps he played well in the match sim last weekend?

As you said, maybe he just had a plain old bad day against St Kilda.

They guy can play at this level. Aside from getting torn apart by Sam Reid mid last year and an ordinary game against the Dogs late last year, every other game for the MFC he has been serviceable to more than serviceable as a defender.

Tomlinson won't be the reason if/why we lose tomorrow night. It will be missing S May that will be more of the reason.

Edited March 16, 20232 yr by Bring-Back-Powell

1 hour ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

For which we are ever grateful Saty !

And whenever he does come on, he does himself no favours.

16 hours ago, bing181 said:

Notable absentees: Steven May, Jack Viney, Bayley Fritsch, Christian Salem

That's 4 of our top 10 or so players missing, including our key back and forward. May out is massive, our backline is just ordinary without him as the general, and the absences of Viney and Fritsch take the edge off around the ground and up forward.

It'll take a miracle to win this, all those outs to key players have turned us into Essendon or something.

Yep it's not a great start. It reminds me how lucky we were in 21 with our lack of injuries. Hopefully we have more depth to cover some but they are four big names that the dogs would be very happy about being MIA.

I tend to judge sides on how they finished last season. Last night Tigers and Blues didn't look like they had improved and remain around the same level. Bulldogs were rubbish last year , fell into the eight and went straight out , so very sceptical that they will improve much.

Priceless overreactions by some. If you can get there and support the team it would be awesome. We support a team that's very very good right now, believe in them.

Interesting to see Bruce in their line up, surely he won't be up forward too? 

9 minutes ago, MrFreeze said:

Interesting to see Bruce in their line up, surely he won't be up forward too? 

He is playing in defence apparently. 

Probably still kick a bag against us. 

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Unimportant, I know, but does anyone else think that the art design being used here is monstrous? I approve of including the jumper numbers with the names, but the distressed white writing is abominable.

Completely, not helped by the fact there seems to be some quality loss from the compression process (or just Instagram in general lol)

57 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Well said.

I love the Chandler inclusion. He's done his apprenticeship in the 2's and he's ready to go.

I saw enough body of work at Casey ro know he'll be a good little player at AFL level, just needs games and experience.

 

100% agree.

There's another, inter connected factor at play i think, which you allude to dazzler with the comment he's done his apprenticeship in the 2's and he's ready to go.

in terms of both young players such as Chandler AND older players such as Tomo (and hibbo for that matter) the club has to consider the impact on player development, morale (of individual players and collectively) and readiness to play at the senior level of not giving them game time in the ones when the opportunity arises. 

Who could blame, for instance, Bedford leaving to get more senior game time.

How long do you leave talent like JVR in the twos before it starts stalling, or even negative impacting, his development as player.

What about players like Melksham and Hibbo. How do you keep them energised and focused?

In Tomlinson's exit interview, he told Goody he wanted more senior opportunities and if Melbourne can't offer it then he was happy to be traded. He clearly believes he's capable of playing at the level, so I think some people on here carrying on like pork chops over his selection just need to wait a few games before criticising the poor guy before he's even played a game this season. Tomlinson plays May's role the best as a back up and has the experience and knows our system the best to gel well with the other defenders which is why he was selected. 

It will be very interesting who our sub will be... I'd prefer a tall to be the sub, just in case one of our key defenders go down. Otherwise it will be our 2 key defenders against their 4 talls. We could throw McDonald back, but then Brown and Gawn will be double if not triple-teamed going forward. 

3 hours ago, poita said:

For a club that supposedly has excellent depth, we are putting out a pretty ordinary round 1 team. I think I'd rather any of the emergencies than McVee, Laurie or Chandler. I have no issue with playing kids if their form warrants it, but Laurie & McVee were invisible against Richmond.

How Goodwin thinks you can get away with Spargo and Laurie in the same team is beyond me. Neither can win their own ball, neither will be accountable for an opponent and they'll be lucky to get 12 touches between them. Melksham would have been a much better option to replace Fritsch, even if less than full fitness.

May is probably the most important and least replaceable player in the team. Tomlinson is arguably the best replacement, but it is a massive loss for us. If I was the Bulldogs I would be playing through Lever's man all night, because I don't see a good match up for him.

I think we start underdogs here, but the Bulldogs are playing Hannan & Baker, so their depth isn't much better.

3 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

You obviously didn't watch the Richmond game. McVee was 'invisible' because he was playing on Dusty. Dusty did SFA, and hence McVee won the day. He was super impressive against the Saints too.

The reality is that Hibbo is 32 with a history of bad calves, and Salem is injured. We need to have ready made replacements for these guys.

Chandler had a brilliant year at Casey, and absolutely deserves his chances. What do we do if Kosi leaves? You have to keep developing these guys, unless you prefer to keep going with Melksham who is in his last season?

And lastly, I bet that when Bowey debuted you thought "who and why", and he turned out to be a gun and best 22 players.

You have to keep developing your list, even when you are in your premiership window, or else you will end up losing quality players and end up with a very old list.

Agree @Jaded No More. This is just @poita doing poita things. 

Poita last year bemoaned our lack of changes and the staleness of our side. Now they're arguing we should be playing Jordon/Hibberd/Melksham instead of McVee/Chandler/Laurie.

22 hours ago, old55 said:

"General admission tickets for games at the MCG and Marvel Stadium will stay at $27 for adults, $18 for concession card holders and $5 for kids over five years old, while kids under five can get into games for free."

That looks like 2 x $27 + 2 x $5 = $64. Less than half your calculation. It's pretty good value.

Thats different to the Ticketek site. It says frm $27 but when you go to the book seats section its $130 for a family of 3/4

 

Edit Just went on to book and its $161 incl fees for a family of 3.

Edited March 17, 20232 yr by jnrmac

3 minutes ago, jnrmac said:

Thats different to the Ticketek site. It says frm $27 but when you go to the book seats section its $130 for a family of 3/4

 

Edit Just went on to book and its $161 incl fees for a family of 3.

Yes OK reserved seats will be a lot more expensive.

4 hours ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Unimportant, I know, but does anyone else think that the art design being used here is monstrous? I approve of including the jumper numbers with the names, but the distressed white writing is abominable.

With the latest phones it is just so easy to apply the filter '1960s ammunition box labels' to an image.

Not helped by the 'I'm checking if my texta still works' scribble and the random arrows.

There are times to be neat and professional and there are times to cut loose with your graphic design, but this is just a digital mullet.

 

How could sportsbet have us as favourites?

Bulldogs must be a huge chance now that May is also out.

There will be alot of money going on the dogs today before the odds even up.

I hope they know something we dont.

44 minutes ago, Demonland said:

 

This is really good. Well done Melbourne 

6 minutes ago, dees189227 said:

This is really good. Well done Melbourne 

Can't wait. 

2 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Thats different to the Ticketek site. It says frm $27 but when you go to the book seats section its $130 for a family of 3/4

 

Edit Just went on to book and its $161 incl fees for a family of 3.

$161 for 3 people to have a reserved seat at the footy is nuts. We’ve all be fooled

18 minutes ago, Deebauched said:

How could sportsbet have us as favourites?

Bulldogs must be a huge chance now that May is also out.

There will be alot of money going on the dogs today before the odds even up.

I hope they know something we dont.

The market has now had almost 24 hours to react to the May news, so I can't see it changing without other significant changes to either team. Time to get used to the MFC having the reputation of being a bloody good footy team. 

Edited March 17, 20232 yr by Vipercrunch

17 hours ago, binman said:

Agree that he can go to another level if kicks more goals. Great signs on that front in the praccy matches. Hit some beautiful kicks too

But goals are not his kpi

Again it is important to look past the old school stats.

I'm pretty sure nibbler was top 5 in score involvements last season and was probably top 3 in both score involvements and goal assists across the 2 praccy matchs

We score a lot of our goals from the back half on transition. Nibbler is involved in a huge percentage of those scoring chains

That's to say HE DOES create scoreboard pressure. Any goals he might kick are a bonus.

I agree that it might not be one of his KPIs, but 9-17, if he can flip it around it could be worth a win or two.

I agree in the practise matches he was kicking well. I suspect he runs until he's exhausted himself, and when he takes shots in games he needs to just settle a bit. 

I've been watching our round 23 game from last season.  The one where we were up by 66 points at half time against the Lions and playing some great footy.  If we play anywhere near that level, the Bulldogs don't stand a chance.

Assuming Melksham who trained with the main squad at training today is the sub, the team changes from that night to tomorrow night are:-

OUT: Hibberd, May, Hunt, Jackson, Viney, Fritsch, Jordon (came on as medi-sub for Jackson)

IN: McVee, Tomlinson, Hunter, Grundy, Laurie, McDonald, Chandler

I'm not going to try and mount a case either way as to which night was the better line-up because as far as I see it, it's really quite close.

Edited March 17, 20232 yr by Vipercrunch