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PREGAME: Rd 16 vs GWS

Demonland
in Melbourne Demons

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Bowza must come in. Can’t understand why he didn’t come in for Geelong. He is smart, tough and never wastes a disposal. I wonder if he couldn’t be used up forward like Caleb Daniel. Disco Turner is also knocking the door down. 

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    • Thanks 2
     

    It’s got to be BBB time now — that’s the movement and run we needed to see! So despite me wanting Petty fwd, seems it won’t happen unless Smith plays small, which isn’t impossible but BBB, JVR, Fritta has a MUCH nicer look and would worry ANY defence o don’t care what anyone says!  
     

    Cats game a write-off for me in those conditions it’s always a slogfest & Cats got lucky with us being too cute i50 — Dry conditions that fwd setup would be great to see! If we go Petty over Smith or BBB then Disco/Tommo play for Petty spot down-back.

     

     

     

    MY CHANGES:

     

    *If Petty stays back (which I doubt)

    IN: BBB, Bowey, Clarry 

    OUT: Jordon, Chandler, Spaz (sad but who else?!?!)

    *If Petty returns fwd  

    IN: Bowey, BBB 

    OUT: Jordon, Chandler/JVR (IF JVR rested, if not which I’d prefer, just to see JVR/BROWN/PETTY/FRITTA combo I’d drop Chandler, Fritta/Koss/Nibbs enough smalls as Smith is also capable playing small)

    THIS is the fwd setup I’m bloody DYING to see and BBB showed his run this week for first time this year to cover ground doing exactly what they want him to do. His Di is hung much needed and we’d have 4/5 lethal finishers as well, Koss deep with Smith HHF & Nibs slightly deeper at times since BBB can get up ground, Brayshaw to play HHF at times)

    • Like 3

    Agree with most comments here, although the Smith comments or non-selection are amazing - he was clearly our best player to half time with Salem and then had the honour of Stewart moved on to him and then he really struggled.

    The big question for me is whether the selection panel will have any interest in altering our unique four midget small policy or whether someone might query whether that is the right balance given no-one else does it and so far it is yet to provide any decent returns on both a goalscoring count or on a tackle count. 

    Bowey has to come back in (god knows why he fell out of favour), Harmes went close to a rare quadruple double in the VFL so will be stiff to miss again, Brown will come in if we go back to the three bigs structure, Melky is our only sub who has done anything this year, Tomlinson is perfect for Hoges if he comes back from injury - but only if selectors apologise to him first for rating Petty so highly first game back and finally Olly has now missed four weeks which means the club can stop playing Fleetwood's Mac 1977 album at training. And on top of that Goody is keen to give Woey a go to keep his dad happy.

    All of which probably adds up to No Change!

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1
     

    I'd almost be tempted to move Smith back to take Hibberds role and have Brown, JvR as our talls with Fritsch as our 3rd. 

    Hibberd, while playing some good footy this year, looks just about done and can't get through more than a couple games without needing a spell. Not sure we can rely on him come September.

    • Like 1

    This is the team I’d like to play with next week:

    B. Lever, Tomlinson, McVee

    HB. Rivers, Petty, Salem

    C. Langdon, Petracca, Hunter

    HF. Bowey, JVR, Fritsch

    F. Smith, May, Pickett

    R. Gawn, Oliver, Viney

    Int. Grundy, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Chandler

    Sub. D. Turner

    Tommo thoroughly deserves a recall (and shouldn’t have been dropped).

    Petty stays back and will be better for the run(couldn’t be worse!). The club believe he will become a better player than May, so has to stay back.

    Hibbo managed and have assumed Oliver is ok.

    The big call is to play May forward. I think he could be our answer to some of our forward line issues - particularly if Tomo and Petty are able to perform down back. I could be wrong but I have little faith that BBB will be an answer for us.
    Also time to see what our side looks like without ANB and Spargo. Both have not earned their spot for some weeks now, and it’s time they found their form at Casey. 
    Disco has earned a call up and have him as the sub.

     

    Edited by Neil Crompton

    • Like 1

    1 hour ago, chook fowler said:

    Bowza must come in. Can’t understand why he didn’t come in for Geelong. He is smart, tough and never wastes a disposal. I wonder if he couldn’t be used up forward like Caleb Daniel. Disco Turner is also knocking the door down. 

    I'm good with Bowser forward. Has the footskills and defensive capacity to help keep the ball in the fwd 50 - Chandler goes back to the magoo's. Tomlinson is to be played on form - why he was omitted against the Cats is beyond comprehension / what message does that convey to the team/dropping a player who was pivotal to our win against the flag faves??? Petty to play CHF - played a stella half as a forward during his injury game and looked the real deal - JJ is an out for Thommo. JVR to continue with Smith and Fritta as the two mobile mid sizers - Smith's tackling is impressive.   Disco or Mikshake as the sub. No Charlie.

     

     

    • Like 3
    21 hours ago, picket fence said:

    "STARTING TO FEEL SPARGO IS QUITE LIMITED FOR A FOOTBALLER"

    I have been saying this for years!!

    He’s a lot less limited as a footballer then you are as an observer.

    He’s proved you wrong numerous times before and will do so again.

    Some never learn

    • Like 2
    • Love 1
    • Haha 1
    • Clap 1
    12 hours ago, Longsufferingnomore said:

    DD the pain level is supposed to be equivalent to childbirth or worse!!

    I have had two (kidney stones) and the only good thing was the morphine.

    Is the morphine why you are Longsufferingnomore?  😝

    • Haha 4
     

    Watching Tomlinson versus Petty, Tomlinson is a very good chip kicker of the ball. Hits targets and his last two games at both AFL/VFL levels show that. He needs to come back in as we showed again the long down the line uber predictability too much against Geelong. May/Lever look around to short pass then always go long down the line, more and more so under pressure. 

    Petty is probably better against talls, especially resting rucks. I think we've upset him in his development this year trying to create a swingman and for mine they need to play him as a forward at VFL level. BBB was great in the VFL and he got to the backline and up the ground a lot. I think that is how they want Petty to play so send him back to the VFL and get him successful there before bringing him back to AFL level. Having Petty, JVR and Smith as a forward line is just crazy as they don't have the experience individually let alone as a cohesive unit. 

    Bring BBB back in as his forward craft will help us a lot and his accuracy can really help settle us into games.

    I agree our 4 small forwards isn't working. I'd drop ANB. He could really benefit from a stint at VFL level. Instruct him to practice being clean with the ball and more creative. Look to attack more as he needs to bring more to the AFL side than tackling. Smith could play his role as he is worth pursuing as a forward. Also playing only two smalls in Chandler and Kossie is worth a try as well. It may actually free them up and increase our scoring.

    Out Petty, ANB, Spargo

    In BBB, Tomlinson and maybe Bowey, 

    • Like 2
    9 hours ago, bobby1554 said:

    $4.50 for GWS. Say again, $4.50. Is it Christmas?

    You take it, we’ll smash them.

    • Like 2
    • Love 1

    6 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

    You take it, we’ll smash them.

    You know they beat Geelong in Geelong a couple of weeks ago? This won’t be a walk in the park at all.

    Edited by At the break of Gawn

    • Like 5
    On 6/23/2023 at 4:58 PM, Billy said:

    We’ll footy is a winter sport

    Unless it's played under a roof

    • Like 1
    2 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

    You know they beat Geelong in Geelong a couple of weeks ago? This won’t be a walk in the park at all.

    Yes, I’m well aware they beat the Cats down there. It doesn’t mean anything to me. 
    My opinion is we will win well next week. 

    • Like 3
    • Clap 1

    I’ve got no doubt I’ll be admonished for this, but is the Gawn/Grundy combo really working? Is there an opportunity to look at a different mix?

    For example, what if we brought someone like Schache in who is a more natural forward and can ruck. We up Gawn’s game time and let him spend more time around the ball and down the line.

    It’s not the rucking that is the problem, it’s the lack of any return on the scoreboard from these two. Gawn hasn’t kicked a goal in weeks and Grundy at best will get you one.

    Is it too tall if we go with a forward line of:

    JvR, Schache (when not rucking) BBB, Smith, Fritsch and Pickett? Maybe no BBB but I just think we really need to reshape our forward mix and I just can’t see Gawn and Grundy contributing 2-3 goals a game.

    Edited by At the break of Gawn

    • Like 1

    Ins:- Bowey, Clayton, Tomlinson & Brown

    outs:- Spargo, JJ, Hibbo (managed) Petty

    Sub:- Melksham

    • Like 1
    • Vomit 1

    On 6/22/2023 at 11:48 PM, GOLORDIE said:

    I want to know why our big forwards, and our small forwards never make a lead. They all wait in a 12-man pack for someone to bomb it in. I saw Hawkins ( was it Rohan?) take a mark on a lead that must have started before the kicker even had possession. Not even Max can reliably take marks down forward when he's in a 12-man pack. We need more movement in the F50 when we have the ball. 

    This is true, they should start spreading quicker and make more options, too many times we tend to bomb it on our forwards heads. 

    • Like 3
    6 hours ago, chook fowler said:

    Bowza must come in. Can’t understand why he didn’t come in for Geelong. He is smart, tough and never wastes a disposal. I wonder if he couldn’t be used up forward like Caleb Daniel. Disco Turner is also knocking the door down. 

    The chooks got it right. Our back half is doing ok. Bring the Bowser in and play him forward. 

    • Like 1
    1 hour ago, At the break of Gawn said:

    You know they beat Geelong in Geelong a couple of weeks ago? This won’t be a walk in the park at all.

    Remember the circle of parity?

    E9D05F23-8BD0-4163-9F2E-37545FF2395D.thumb.png.223be7bd23c65d0e638f2bae75a31645.png

    You simply can’t use the argument “They beat (insert team name) so they’ll beat us.”

     

    6 hours ago, chook fowler said:

    Bowza must come in. Can’t understand why he didn’t come in for Geelong. He is smart, tough and never wastes a disposal. I wonder if he couldn’t be used up forward like Caleb Daniel. Disco Turner is also knocking the door down. 

    Why can’t we have him play the high half forward role. Given how poor our f50 connection , we good do with a good ball user. 

    • Like 4

    Was listening to ABC radio today and BBBs manager was on talking footy with the ABC commentary team. He was discussing Melbourne and he said he can’t understand why we aren’t playing BBB at the moment.

    Now of course a manger will go into bat for one of his own, but what it tells me is that we are simply not choosing BBB as opposed to him being injured or doing a training block or any other reason.

    Sometimes players don’t get a great deal of the ball and if you look in isolation at their stats you would say drop them, but some players despite limit stats just make the team better for structural/game style reasons. I wonder if Fritta and JVR wouldn’t be better with BBB in the team. The argument that he can’t pick the ball up from the ground is moot as none of our small forwards are doing that anyway so given you would likely replace a small to bring him in I don’t think we would loose a lot at ground level, but would gain by forcing the oppo to spread their defense a little thinner.

    Anyway just thought it was interesting.

    • Like 6

    15 minutes ago, —coach— said:

    Was listening to ABC radio today and BBBs manager was on talking footy with the ABC commentary team. He was discussing Melbourne and he said he can’t understand why we aren’t playing BBB at the moment.

    Now of course a manger will go into bat for one of his own, but what it tells me is that we are simply not choosing BBB as opposed to him being injured or doing a training block or any other reason.

    Sometimes players don’t get a great deal of the ball and if you look in isolation at their stats you would say drop them, but some players despite limit stats just make the team better for structural/game style reasons. I wonder if Fritta and JVR wouldn’t be better with BBB in the team. The argument that he can’t pick the ball up from the ground is moot as none of our small forwards are doing that anyway so given you would likely replace a small to bring him in I don’t think we would loose a lot at ground level, but would gain by forcing the oppo to spread their defense a little thinner.

    Anyway just thought it was interesting.

    The reason is Gawn takes his spot. You cannot play Gawn, BBB and JVR in the same forward line with our delivery and expect to keep the ball in the F50. We need more mobile forwards and having two immobile forwards would be problematic. 

    • Like 1
    19 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

    The reason is Gawn takes his spot. You cannot play Gawn, BBB and JVR in the same forward line with our delivery and expect to keep the ball in the F50. We need more mobile forwards and having two immobile forwards would be problematic. 

    Swing Gawn down back rather than forward and keep a genuine forward (BBB) up forward?

    • Like 6
    37 minutes ago, —coach— said:

    Was listening to ABC radio today and BBBs manager was on talking footy with the ABC commentary team. He was discussing Melbourne and he said he can’t understand why we aren’t playing BBB at the moment.

    Now of course a manger will go into bat for one of his own, but what it tells me is that we are simply not choosing BBB as opposed to him being injured or doing a training block or any other reason.

    Sometimes players don’t get a great deal of the ball and if you look in isolation at their stats you would say drop them, but some players despite limit stats just make the team better for structural/game style reasons. I wonder if Fritta and JVR wouldn’t be better with BBB in the team. The argument that he can’t pick the ball up from the ground is moot as none of our small forwards are doing that anyway so given you would likely replace a small to bring him in I don’t think we would loose a lot at ground level, but would gain by forcing the oppo to spread their defense a little thinner.

    Anyway just thought it was interesting.

    Probably because he hasn't been fit enough, he's had a couple of weeks off, there was a story he'd had his knee drained, apparently played very well yesterday so perhaps he'll  be right to go this week. If fit I think he should be picked.

    • Like 4
     
    On 6/23/2023 at 6:41 PM, The heart beats true said:

    Are you not a Spargo fan? I wasn’t aware. 🙄

    Ive seen him play some "Useful" games but he is very very average in quite a few areas

    1 Slow

    2 Cant kick more than 35-40 m

    3 Doesn't kick enough goals to justify his place

    Cannot continue to play him for these reasons

    • Like 1
    3 hours ago, DeeZone said:

    Ins:- Bowey, Clayton, Tomlinson & Brown

    outs:- Spargo, JJ, Hibbo (managed) Petty

    Sub:- Melksham

    Like this A LOT

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