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PREGAME: Rd 03 vs Sydney

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4 minutes ago, Demon Disciple said:

Petty has been pretty average down back so far imo.

Drop TMAC, bring in May and have Petty up forward. That’s throwing a bit of a curve ball at them.

I like it DD. JVR for Gawn now Schache is concussed. Grundy will be playing ruck for 90% of the game, if fit. 
 

BBB, Petty and JVR as the three pronged attack. If JVR does not have the endurance, play him rotating off the bench.

 

It might be a good thing that Gawn is out for 6-8 as we need to come up with different systems without him regardless I.e. if he’s having a shocker in a prelim - we need other avenues. 
 

I watched the Brisbane game again and the amount of times I realised that ‘Maxy would take a mark here’ really shows an over reliance and also that he’s arguably the best player in the league, not just the best ruckman IMO.
 

Not sure what that would look like exactly but if we’re a serious premiership contender, over reliance on one player to fulfill a system or team set up has to be overcome. 

I’d also like Goody to tell Grundy, Oliver, Tracc and Viney - free licence out there. Play like you have nothing to lose and whatever happens, happens. I’ve mentioned it before, but Collingwood are given that licence especially in the 4th quarter and it’s worked for them time and time again. Even when Collingwood lose, there’s never a ‘what if’. Everything gets left out on the field. 

Jake Bowey also has an insanely high average disposal efficiency of 81.1% (Nick Daicos avg is 76.8% to put that in context), gotta be a way of utilising that skill to be more damaging. 

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    Salem out for a half a season. It will be a miracle if he is back to his best this season. That's 2 seasons down the drain for him. Such a shame.

    Looks like Petty has avoided serious injury to his knee, which I think sort of got lost in all the Gawn injury drama. That is very good news.

    May will surely be right to go, that's a full 3 weeks since calf strain. Should be cherry ripe.

    I was sure JVR was going to debut in round 4 vs West Coast at his home state anyway, and that one of BB or TMac (or even Gawn) was going to be rested and excused from that long flight. So one week earlier isn't that much of a concern.

    When one door closes and all that... bring him in and lets see how he goes. 

    Also WTF is a pelvis injury? Sounds very painful.

     

    P.S.- I knew last week's injury list was a bad omen.

    Edited by Jaded No More

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    Any idea if Hickey will be back for Sydney?

    Without a recognised second ruckman for us, Sydney could now exploit us in the ruck with Ladhams/Hickey. How things change in the space of a week.

     

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    7 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

    Salem out for a half a season. It will be a miracle if he is back to his best this season. That's 2 seasons down the drain for him. Such a shame.

    Looks like Petty has avoided serious injury to his knee, which I think sort of got lost in all the Gawn injury drama. That is very good news.

    May will surely be right to go, that's a full 3 weeks since calf strain. Should be cherry ripe.

    I was sure JVR was going to debut in round 4 vs West Coast at his home state anyway, and that one of BB or TMac (or even Gawn) was going to be rested and excused from that long flight. So one week earlier isn't that much of a concern.

    When one door closes and all that... bring him in and lets see how he goes. 

    Also WTF is a pelvis injury? Sounds very painful.

     

    P.S.- I knew last week's injury list was a bad omen.

    Ask Dermie, apparently very painful 


    12 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

    Salem out for a half a season. It will be a miracle if he is back to his best this season. That's 2 seasons down the drain for him. Such a shame.

    Looks like Petty has avoided serious injury to his knee, which I think sort of got lost in all the Gawn injury drama. That is very good news.

    May will surely be right to go, that's a full 3 weeks since calf strain. Should be cherry ripe.

    I was sure JVR was going to debut in round 4 vs West Coast at his home state anyway, and that one of BB or TMac (or even Gawn) was going to be rested and excused from that long flight. So one week earlier isn't that much of a concern.

    When one door closes and all that... bring him in and lets see how he goes. 

    Also WTF is a pelvis injury? Sounds very painful.

     

    P.S.- I knew last week's injury list was a bad omen.

    Whatever it is I don't want it. 

    1 hour ago, DubDee said:

    Hard to pick this one. The early rounds can throw up some strange results.

    After the embarrassment of friday night i expect a big response.  JVR in for Gawn.  we desperately need some mobility fwd of the ball.

    DD there shouldve been a big response to getting beaten up a bit in the Semi...

    Surely Friday night is a huge psychological faux pas given we had 6 months to prep for it?

    While i wouldn't be hitting the panic button and there doesn't need to be a Spanish inquisition, Friday night's fail needs to be looked at and questions asked across every Dept including high performance, leadership group, trainers, physios, the Cap, all line/assistant coaches and Goody himself.

    Aside from losing Max early, having to travel, the oppo and the conditions, was there anything majorly diff that stood out with our prep/training/mental approach/strategy/coaching messages or methods during the week leading up to this match vs the week before that we overlooked etc?

    There may not be a simple answer, hec there may be no answer/s.  Yes we should give some cudos to Brisbane's performance.  However, just explaining it away as "they were too good on the night" is a load of buncombe.

    Brisbane weren't / arent that much better and an oppo team doesn't simply become 'that good' in the space of the last 3 encounters, especially given we pantsed them in the first of those just four matches ago at the same ground (final round 2022).

    Edited by Demon Dynasty

    • Like 1

    It’s definitely JVR time, played some good minutes in the ruck and performed well.

    We are down in contested marks so far this year, so the inclusion of JVR and May should help.

    Hibbo has been playing out of his skin the last 3 weeks and deserves another chance .

    Jordon also might be a better bet than Harmes in my opinion.

    I feel for Dunstan as coming to Melbourne was not a great career move, even though he is playing some good footy.

    As for the outs it’ll be Harmes, Gawn and Melksham, maybe McVee for Hibbo but the kids been good.

    TMac the lucky one, as he might get one more week to do something. We need his support in the ruck as well, so we may see a three way rotation with Grundy and JVR , through the Ruck, up forward and resting on the bench.

    We need to make a statement and come out breathing fire, with Viney rarely playing two bad ones in a row.

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    6 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

     

    It's all class

    My Italian mates mom's house was Franco cozzo fully furnished complete with plastic left on the couch for eons.

     

    Edited by leave it to deever

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    8 hours ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

    It’s Clarrie’s 150th game. For all the love and praise he gets from our supporters one would think many of them will turn up. Kinda like a big “thank you.”  What a shame if that’s not the case. 

    And here's another good reason to be there - Reach Round:

    https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1292542/melbourne-and-reach-to-kick-start-change

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    3 hours ago, adonski said:

    image.png.be215b8c17b2ec4115a1bc6b39d7b1e1.png

    I think the modern vernacular is, 'Well, that pivoted!'

    • Haha 1
    49 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

    If JVR doesn’t play this week then I’d like an explanation as to why not 

    Because we were brilliant in round 1 and Goody doesn't change his teams!

    I am in the JVR camp, he needs to come in. Contest and make the McCartins accountable. Hibberd in as well, if nothing else but to pile drive number 11’s head deep into the fresh MCG turf. I think we will make a statement on Sunday.

    42 minutes ago, Flower Magic said:

    Because we were brilliant in round 1 and Goody doesn't change his teams!

    We’ve just lost our number one ruckman, and Tmac is barely going. We have to make changes. 
    Schache would have come in this week but he’s concussed. 
     

    IT IS JVR TIME!

    • Like 1

    8 hours ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

    will be lucky to be 30k there and 20k will be Swans...our supporters don't show up anymore. Don't know what happened, you'd think the Premiership would have sparked a resurgence, but it feels like some have just become content. Not expecting a big crowd at all, happy to be proven wrong. 

    6 hours ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

    I'd actually say minimum was 40k that night, but our crowds have been poor since 2022. It does not help that we play interstate sides at the G as the majority of home games, but it's true that we were outnumbered by Sydney supporters last year...that's an indictment 

    What are you on about?

    We averaged 39,218 to our home games last year. 6th best in the entire competition, behind only the big four (Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Essendon) and Fremantle. We were only fractionally behind Essendon, too, and that was because of the Alice Springs home game. Take that out and we averaged 42,508 from our 10 MCG games, which was 5th best. Inclusive of away games were also 5th highest.

    Other than Fremantle, we had 20,000 fewer members last year than Carlton and Essendon, and 35,000 fewer members than Richmond and Collingwood. I haven't run the precise calculations but as a proportion of our membership our home ground average stacks up bloody well IMO. 

    And last year we were away on both ANZAC Eve and Queen's Birthday.

    I don't know what you mean by "minimum" 40k at Round 1 this year. The crowd was 48,103 on a day with rubbish weather, and the overwhelming majority were Dees fans.

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    4 hours ago, BoBo said:

    It might be a good thing that Gawn is out for 6-8 as we need to come up with different systems without him regardless I.e. if he’s having a shocker in a prelim - we need other avenues. 
     

    I watched the Brisbane game again and the amount of times I realised that ‘Maxy would take a mark here’ really shows an over reliance and also that he’s arguably the best player in the league, not just the best ruckman IMO.
     

    Not sure what that would look like exactly but if we’re a serious premiership contender, over reliance on one player to fulfill a system or team set up has to be overcome. 

    I’d also like Goody to tell Grundy, Oliver, Tracc and Viney - free licence out there. Play like you have nothing to lose and whatever happens, happens. I’ve mentioned it before, but Collingwood are given that licence especially in the 4th quarter and it’s worked for them time and time again. Even when Collingwood lose, there’s never a ‘what if’. Everything gets left out on the field. 

    Jake Bowey also has an insanely high average disposal efficiency of 81.1% (Nick Daicos avg is 76.8% to put that in context), gotta be a way of utilising that skill to be more damaging. 

    nail on the head there. we have some better kickers now and need to get it into their hands. 

    and when we had nothing to lose looked so much better. we played that was in 2021. 

    22 minutes ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

    McVee has been serviceable, but who plays on Papley?

    McVee

    • Like 1

    10 minutes ago, WERRIDEE said:

    McVee

    That will be a disaster IMHO. Papley is a very smart footballer. He is strong, takes overhead marks and has serious pace. I think we need someone more experienced 

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    1 minute ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

    That will be a disaster IMHO. Papley is a very smart footballer. He is strong, takes overhead marks and has serious pace. I think we need someone more experienced 

    I'm not sure a better option is on our list.

    29 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

    What are you on about?

    We averaged 39,218 to our home games last year. 6th best in the entire competition, behind only the big four (Carlton, Collingwood, Richmond and Essendon) and Fremantle. We were only fractionally behind Essendon, too, and that was because of the Alice Springs home game. Take that out and we averaged 42,508 from our 10 MCG games, which was 5th best. Inclusive of away games were also 5th highest.

    Other than Fremantle, we had 20,000 fewer members last year than Carlton and Essendon, and 35,000 fewer members than Richmond and Collingwood. I haven't run the precise calculations but as a proportion of our membership our home ground average stacks up bloody well IMO. 

    And last year we were away on both ANZAC Eve and Queen's Birthday.

    I don't know what you mean by "minimum" 40k at Round 1 this year. The crowd was 48,103 on a day with rubbish weather, and the overwhelming majority were Dees fans.

    Our finals last year attracted a very poor turnout. Also, our flag unveiling attracted less than 60k. I know there were reasons like COVID, it just feels very flat at our games. 

    • Like 1
     
    3 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

    DD there shouldve been a big response to getting beaten up a bit in the Semi...

    Surely Friday night is a huge psychological faux pas given we had 6 months to prep for it?

    While i wouldn't be hitting the panic button and there doesn't need to be a Spanish inquisition, Friday night's fail needs to be looked at and questions asked across every Dept including high performance, leadership group, trainers, physios, the Cap, all line/assistant coaches and Goody himself.

    Aside from losing Max early, having to travel, the oppo and the conditions, was there anything majorly diff that stood out with our prep/training/mental approach/strategy/coaching messages or methods during the week leading up to this match vs the week before that we overlooked etc?

    There may not be a simple answer, hec there may be no answer/s.  Yes we should give some cudos to Brisbane's performance.  However, just explaining it away as "they were too good on the night" is a load of buncombe.

    Brisbane weren't / arent that much better and an oppo team doesn't simply become 'that good' in the space of the last 3 encounters, especially given we pantsed them in the first of those just four matches ago at the same ground (final round 2022).

    i don’t think you expect an emotional response 6 months later. Lions were terrible in round 1 and they responded the week later. i expect a similar response next week. Footy is a crazy game, we cannot explain everything. Port beat lions by 50 and lions beat us easily so port are way better than us? no. it’s more complicated. Judge us over a couple of months. dropping a game away to arguably the flag favourites is no disaster. 

    so no, i don’t think friday was a huge issue. we move on. i think a lot of us overestimated our team after round 1 and are now overreacting to round 2

    • Like 1
    3 minutes ago, Kick_It_To_Pickett said:

    That will be a disaster IMHO. Papley is a very smart footballer. He is strong, takes overhead marks and has serious pace. I think we need someone more experienced 

    He done an alright job on Cameron stick with him. Cameron's better than Papley. Papley is overrated and never should have been AA ahead of Fritsch.


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