No Question pies playing well & be hard to beat, but last 5 weeks  they have played bottom 8 sides a stat that the footy experts have been critical of the us, pies have travelled once in 5 weeks also ..  a reflection of the poor scheduling by the AfL, pies will also have the last 4 weeks I’m melb before finals not bad hey 

5 hours ago, Redleg said:

According to Coach and Tracc he is a certainty.

The longer we keep that quiet, the better. Just imagine, Clarrie a surprise inclusion. I have a feeling the leg has been causing some less than striking form for Clarrie, for a while and needed good resting - but he has been out training so it must be OK suggesting he is close to fully 'better' already . Looking forward to some Tracca/Clarrie magic, Petty back in and a royal flush in the mysteries of team selections. Let's not show our hand? We already have the Ten, the Jack, the Queen, the King and just await the Ace from the dealer. It might help to raise the table before we declare ...

17 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Smith got totally worked over by Carlton. Kept of moved off the ball. He is giving up 10cm and 10kg to moore . He isn’t the solution. Moore will have a field day. 

Smith was playing a decoy role. All he needs to do is keep Moore away from the contest as much as possible to stop him from intercepting the ball. 
Being that he spent many seasons in defense, I would hope he could do that to some degree. 
 

While he didn’t impact the scoreboard, Weitering also didn’t have a dominant game so it was a win. 

Edited June 4, 20231 yr by Jaded No More

20 minutes ago, bandicoot said:

Smith got totally worked over by Carlton. Kept of moved off the ball. He is giving up 10cm and 10kg to moore . He isn’t the solution. Moore will have a field day. 

Just BTW, Schache kicked 4 and rucked as Bell went off injured fairly early for Casey.

At 10cms taller than Smith and a good kick, maybe he is worth another game in the F50.

1 hour ago, old dee said:

Funny IRW I was going to say but didn't because the cannot say anything funny mob would come out  crying negativity. 

To the extent that I may be known around here ( very small) I am a grinch with nfi,so I felt safe enough to go one more time ( smile)

4 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

The game needs a red card. That was a pathetic act. It takes one minute for a VAR or video confirmation. Every other sport has it and the universe doesnt implode. 

I watched a local match yesterday and was surprised to see a couple of players get yellow-carded and another was given a red card. I didn’t know that was a thing. I think it’s necessary and should be adopted at AFL level. Dude who was red-carded will think twice next time. 

2 hours ago, old55 said:

We only played 3 good quarters in the 2021 GF

As fearlessly critical as I may be I didn't have the nerve to say that( I did think it though) .

16 minutes ago, Demonsone said:

No Question pies playing well & be hard to beat, but last 5 weeks  they have played bottom 8 sides a stat that the footy experts have been critical of the us, pies have travelled once in 5 weeks also ..  a reflection of the poor scheduling by the AfL, pies will also have the last 4 weeks I’m melb before finals not bad hey 

Other than the Dogs( who I never count) which top sides have the Dee's beaten?

1 hour ago, kev martin said:

I'd like to see Kos stay in the forward area, as I feel he doesn't add enough to the midfield, and the swing seems to effect negatively, how he plays his roles. 

…and for him to desist going for the mark of the year but rather stay at ground level and focus on providing both forward and defensive pressure acts.

11 minutes ago, Deemania since 56 said:

The longer we keep that quiet, the better. Just imagine, Clarrie a surprise inclusion. I have a feeling the leg has been causing some less than striking form for Clarrie, for a while and needed good resting - but he has been out training so it must be OK suggesting he is close to fully 'better' already . Looking forward to some Tracca/Clarrie magic, Petty back in and a royal flush in the mysteries of team selections. Let's not show our hand? We already have the Ten, the Jack, the Queen, the King and just await the Ace from the dealer. It might help to raise the table before we declare ...

A back six of May Petty Lever Salem Hibbert and McVee might be a surprise given the coaches capacity to make bad game calls, but gee it would be useful

2 hours ago, old dee said:

Having watched yesterdays pies game I am confident we can beat them next week. We have the personal but we have to kick better than Friday night. If our delivery and kicking for goal does not improve we lose. It is that simple IMO. 

🚨🚨 HACKER ALERT! 🚨🚨

Mods, Old Dee’s account has clearly been hijacked by an optimistic person!!!

4 minutes ago, Wodjathefirst said:

…and for him to desist going for the mark of the year but rather stay at ground level and focus on providing both forward and defensive pressure acts.

Kozzie attempted MOTY at least a couple of times vs Port. The fact that we lost that match made it surprising (to me anyways) that he did it again in the first few minutes, six days later vs Freo. It’s something that shouldn’t be at the forefront of his mind IMO. I repeat, IN MY OPINION. 😁

2 minutes ago, WalkingCivilWar said:

Kozzie attempted MOTY at least a couple of times vs Port. The fact that we lost that match made it surprising (to me anyways) that he did it again in the first few minutes, six days later vs Freo. It’s something that shouldn’t be at the forefront of his mind IMO. I repeat, IN MY OPINION. 😁

Kozzie is an instinctive player.

If he sees the opportunity for a grab - he'll always go for it.

This is why he's so exciting to watch. Don't think just do!

4 minutes ago, Wodjathefirst said:

…and for him to desist going for the mark of the year but rather stay at ground level and focus on providing both forward and defensive pressure acts.

Too much time in the air or running very fast after someone all parties know he won't catch.

He doesn't seem to choose  the options with the neccesary ruthless cost benefit analysis.

When he's choicelessly in the mix of the play he's electric though.

Good kick but ....and his block to allow Trac to kick "that" goal in the G/F was worth whatever he got paid to extend his contact

35 minutes ago, Bitter but optimistic said:

Kozzie is an instinctive player.

If he sees the opportunity for a grab - he'll always go for it.

This is why he's so exciting to watch. Don't think just do!

Be better though if he did do ...not nearly did 

6 hours ago, Jjrogan said:

The game needs a red card. That was a pathetic act. It takes one minute for a VAR or video confirmation. Every other sport has it and the universe doesnt implode. 

I disagree entirely. Who cares that every other game has a red card? Irrelevant. Nearly every other country doesn't have compulsory and preferential voting. We do and are all the better for it. Don't change something that doesn't need fixing. What exactly is your argument for the red card? I assume that that will somehow change behaviour and punish the perpetrating team. Kossie got rightfully suspended earlier in the year which is what he deserved and it punished the team. The same will happen for De Goey and Colingwood (as it should). That is appropriate deterrent and means quick assessments on-field that are subsequently overturned won't have unjust consequences.

6 hours ago, deejammin' said:

He was listed as two to three weeks last Monday, 29/5. That makes King’s birthday Monday 12/6 exactly two weeks. Now it’s a long shot, there’s no mention of him returning in Goody’s presser for example. But if 2-3 was indeed true then there’s a chance he’s available this week. Otherwise we’ll have him cherry ripe after the bye. It’s probably wishful thinking to have him back for KB but it’s not insane, it’s within the stated timeline. 

Melbourne has a curse regarding foot injuries. I would think it would be incredibly unwise to rush him back. We will have to make do without him, I think, but luckily Collingwood don’t have a heap of tall forwards.

On 6/3/2023 at 3:31 AM, JimmyGadson said:

On current form line, we won't get close to Collingwood.

I just really hope we can put some form together for the second half of the year. 

Atm it feels like second half of last year all over again. 

So unconvincing, sloppy, selfish and patchy. 

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Yes, we only won 6 out of the last 12 H&A in 2022 but did finish 2nd. We thrashed Brisbane in Brisbane in Round 23 and on the balance of play should have beaten Collingwood by about 10 goals in Round 21. Out in straight sets against both the Swans & Brisbane but were well up early in both games. We basically had injuries that meant we were underdone and didn't finish off those games.

Yes, we've been a bit patchy this year but unconvincing, sloppy & selfish seems a bit harsh. 

On 6/3/2023 at 9:43 AM, beelzebub said:

My three ins....  

Oliver, Hibberd and Milkshake

Smith was neither particularly good nor particularly bad but you could ask what he did do that would make retaining in the lineup mandatory. 

We're going to need a little bit of something playing the Pies...  Melky might bring a bag of tricks.

Melksham was out suspended yesterday. He did kick 2 goals from 12 possessions, no tackles, in a poor team performance against Werribee the week before, but I'd be surprised if he came in.

On 6/3/2023 at 10:01 AM, dazzledavey36 said:

I think Smith has to stay another week. In fact I would give him a stretch of 4 games.

His stats don't look great but he at least launched at the ball and created a contest. There was some nearly moments there.

Goodwin has to back this experiment in and not drop him immediately like he did with Schache, that's just [censored] poor development. He's also versatile. If a defender goes down then we can swing him down back.

With that in mind it's simply non negotiable that a tall like Ben Brown simply has to come in. I am having massive anxiety the amount of intercept marks Darcy Moore will take when he's manning up on our CHF players of last night in Kozzie and Spargo.

Make this happen Goody

I agree that Smith should get another week (although a stretch of 4 games is going a bit far imo). I think it's wrong to bring a player in and drop them the week later after one poor stat game as we did with both Schache and Laurie earier in the season. That hardly encourages team-first play.

23 hours ago, speed demon said:

In a sense, Tomlinson and Smith were our weakest players. Yet, by playing their role, both our defensive and forward structure looked much improved. Tomlinson's releasing of Lever to play interceptor - thus improving our defensive unit - has been well commented on. Less cited, has been Smith's contribution to the long-awaited return of 2021-style high intensity pressure inside our F50.

To better assess individual performance, we need to move beyond analysing individual stats to comparing unit / team performance when the Individual is present/absent. Smith will kick less goals than Brown but the team may well kick more goals with Smith. Now the experiment has been commenced, give it a decent evaluation.  

Tomlinson and Smith to both stay in. Both playing to keep their spot from Petty.   

I accept your argument that structure is important but don't accept that having both Hibbo and Tomlinson in the side, presumedly because Bowey is out, will work. That wil negatively affect our structure imo. Hibbo in for Tommo, Deakyn Smith for Bowey, JJ in for Harmes.

Just now, Sydney_Demon said:

I accept your argument that structure is important but don't accept that having both Hibbo and Tomlinson in the side, presumedly because Bowey is out, will work. That wil negatively affect our structure imo. Hibbo in for Tommo, Deakyn Smith for Bowey, JJ in for Harmes.

If Oliver gets up, then obviously he's ahead of Deakyn Smith!

5 hours ago, old55 said:

Collingwood's midfield bats deeper than ours so De Goey and Sidebottom are very handy outs.

MFC: Mids: Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Sparrow, Brayshaw // Wings: Langdon, Hunter

CFC: Mids: Pendlebury, N.Daicos, Mitchell, Crisp, Adams // Wings: J.Daicos, Hoskin-Elliott

Pendlebury is in last season and Daicos in his second. Tackle to hurt them both early.

9 minutes ago, Sydney_Demon said:

 I accept your argument that structure is important but don't accept that having both Hibbo and Tomlinson in the side, presumedly because Bowey is out, will work. That wil negatively affect our structure imo. Hibbo in for Tommo, Deakyn Smith for Bowey, JJ in for Harmes.

Am interested in match ups in the backline - May on Mihocek / Lever takes Ash Johnson / Hibbo tags Elliot / Thommo sits Cox with support from Gawn and Gundy....

5 hours ago, old dee said:

Having watched yesterdays pies game I am confident we can beat them next week. We have the personal but we have to kick better than Friday night. If our delivery and kicking for goal does not improve we lose. It is that simple IMO. 

I agree OD. We need to kick straight. It's less about field kicking for me, obviously that's important, but it's about trying to replicate our early season accuracy.

Have we not learnt about debuting noobs on the Royal Weekend ;)

5 minutes ago, beelzebub said:

Have we not learnt about debuting noobs on the Royal Weekend ;)

Watt?

Jordan De Goey is facing a 3+ match ban, after being sent straight to the tribunal for his bump on Elijah Hewett.