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POSTGAME: Rd 20 vs Richmond


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1 hour ago, pitmaster said:

Yeah, saw that on the replay. That sweep of Dusty's arm seemed to suggest he was telling the kid his preferred working space. Nice.

 

I’ve always loved Dusty because despite being one of the best all time players and achieving everything, IMO he’s remained pretty humble. 

It was so nice to see him actually talk to McVee instead of rubbing his face in it, when clearly it’s no shame to lower your colours to a champion like Dusty. It’s happened to far greater and more experienced players. 

He is back in form and that undoubtedly makes Richmond better. An absolute star of the game he is. Some of the stuff he does is mind boggling. Imagine if all those years ago we drafted him ahead of $cully 🤮

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10 hours ago, dl4e said:

Speaking of whining tiger supporters what about baltas goal in the last. Didn't he touch the behind post when he had the ball in his hands a moment before he kicked the goal. I am not 100% sure but is that  out of bounds.

I thought that too, but watching the replay last night the commentators checked the rule and the ball has to touch the post, not just the body of the player holidng the ball 

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9 hours ago, John Demonic said:

The Petty doubter receipt keeping is ridiculous. Goodwin himself inexplicably put him back into defence after the forward experiment and after recovering from injury, when most were calling for him to be continued up forward and Tomlinson played back.

Fair enough that people would hold some doubts, when the coach himself did not back him to play there a month ago, opting for Benny Brown and Joel Smith instead.

It's fine to doubt JD.  I think if we're being honest, most (icluding myself), would say we were not entirely convinced up till yesterday.

The doubting and the doubters....that's part of footy until someone shows something to say otherwise.  A normal part of sport and the game if you like.

And sure, one swallow does not a summer make.  Plenty of work ahead.  But we now know what he's capable of.  And against a solid opposition defence too.

It's the ones that said he will NEVER EVER be a forward and should only be played as a defender that are under scrutiny here.

Let's not confuse the two pls.

That is also part of sport...no one is perfect and we alll get calls wrong at times.

But they are also allowed to be called out for it... there's no rule that says "Leave the critics alone!"

Edited by Demon Dynasty
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1 hour ago, Jaded No More said:

I’ve always loved Dusty because despite being one of the best all time players and achieving everything, IMO he’s remained pretty humble. 

It was so nice to see him actually talk to McVee instead of rubbing his face in it, when clearly it’s no shame to lower your colours to a champion like Dusty. It’s happened to far greater and more experienced players. 

He is back in form and that undoubtedly makes Richmond better. An absolute star of the game he is. Some of the stuff he does is mind boggling. Imagine if all those years ago we drafted him ahead of $cully 🤮

I agree.
And another thing I've noticed is he'll regularly pass to a 1st game player.
Multiple times I've seen him set up young blokes with lace out passes to give them their 1st shot at goal.
Stories they can tell their mates forever no matter how their careers turn out.
"Got my 1st kick/goal from Dusty Martin".

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10 hours ago, hardtack said:

No, they clarified later in the coverage that the ball has to touch the point post… it’s similar to the out of bounds rule in that your body can be over the line as long as you are still controlling the ball in the field of play.

But I thought Balta put the ball on the ground while he was being tackled.

is’nt that  incorrect disposal?( even though he didn’t dispose of it…..it’s like bouncing it when someone has hold of your jumper…. a free)

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2 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

 He is back in form and that undoubtedly makes Richmond better. An absolute star of the game he is. Some of the stuff he does is mind boggling. Imagine if all those years ago we drafted him ahead of $cully 🤮

I'll always remember watching that draft with Martin sittin' there front row with his scowling bikie old man.
There was no way he was coming to Melbourne.
Not our style at all.
And I'm not sure we could've handled him if he did.
Reckon he woulda left.

Edited by Fork 'em
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2 hours ago, layzie said:

His second half was sensational.

He's the type of player that doesn't get fazed if he loses a one on one contest. He can put it behind him and move on to the next one easily whereas it lingers with some other players. He's got the head for AFL footy. 

I have been told i have a great head for radio is that the same

Edited by forever demons
missed word
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10 hours ago, John Demonic said:

The Petty doubter receipt keeping is ridiculous. Goodwin himself inexplicably put him back into defence after the forward experiment and after recovering from injury, when most were calling for him to be continued up forward and Tomlinson played back.

Fair enough that people would hold some doubts, when the coach himself did not back him to play there a month ago, opting for Benny Brown and Joel Smith instead.

We’re now opting for Tomlinson (the Ben Brown of the backline) and Joel Smith to play back.

We’re short a quality tall at one end or the other and will be scrambling. Riding the results week to week will be bumpy and there’s absolutely every chance Petty goes back between now and the end of the year.

It’s impossible to rule out Grundy, Brown, McDonald or even Schache up forward, and Hibberd or even Disco Turner down back. With Smith an option at either end. 

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3 hours ago, Demonland said:

At one stage they were 7 frees to 2 and we got a free kick and the Tiger's supporter near me (with face tatts mind you) was carrying on like a European Soccer player who barely got clipped yelling that the umps have been giving us freebees all blinking day. I didn't have the heart to correct him. He didn't seem to be the kind of guy who likes to be informed that he is wrong by someone with immaculate dental hygiene.

🤣🤣🤣

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Wanted to give a shoutout to the less mentioned:

Nibbler was terrific. He has been consistent all season but some of the critical contests he's winning from and in between the flanks has been key in our success to either win the ball back or get us moving forward. I thought yesterday in the first half especially his efforts to win the contest and find teammates in space really kept us in the game when Richmond had most of the control. His growth in his ball use and especially decision-making has been terrific.

Bowey was another one that was not beaten in contest yesterday and his class with ball in hand was evident again

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21 minutes ago, Young Blood said:

Wanted to give a shoutout to the less mentioned:

Nibbler was terrific. He has been consistent all season but some of the critical contests he's winning from and in between the flanks has been key in our success to either win the ball back or get us moving forward. I thought yesterday in the first half especially his efforts to win the contest and find teammates in space really kept us in the game when Richmond had most of the control. His growth in his ball use and especially decision-making has been terrific.

Bowey was another one that was not beaten in contest yesterday and his class with ball in hand was evident again

Yet reading the game day thread, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ANB was on the Tigers’ payroll. The usual suspects with their blinkers on full lock… couldn’t see all of his acts that actually contributed to our forays towards the goals.  He was excellent!

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15 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

We are building nicely but intriguingly.

We were 4 goals down to Brisbane but fought back and won.

We had Adelaide run us down twice in the last quarter but held on and won.

We were 20 points down to Richmond in the third quarter but won by 6 goals (a 9-goal turnaround in 1.5 quarters).

But in each game we've conceded 90+ points.

I said after the GWS game that we needed to relax our defensive mindset to try to "unlock" higher scoring. It appears we're doing that, and I think it's working. But I'm sure we'd prefer it if we weren't conceding as much as we are. 

There was so much pressure on us today, knowing how many sides around us lost. Securing the win, against a good (not great, but good) side, is IMO huge. 

Petty today makes you wonder why we rushed him back after his long injury to put him in the backline forcing us to drop Tomlinson in the process, when Tomlinson was coming off one of his best games for us. We have to leave him forward now, even if he kicks 0 next week and struggles, and even if Tomlinson struggles. We can't keep moving him around. We've dropped Brown to get him into the forward line, let's leave him there. We now have to back Tomlinson in or, if need be, revert to Smith or Hibberd.

Can Gawn make AA if he keeps this up for the last month? Darcy's out, English is fading, and neither can do what Gawn is doing.

mind pm'ing me Thursdays Powerball numbers T.U. ..Cheers  ( this week...not last...ta...)

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3 hours ago, Jaded No More said:

I’ve always loved Dusty because despite being one of the best all time players and achieving everything, IMO he’s remained pretty humble. 

It was so nice to see him actually talk to McVee instead of rubbing his face in it, when clearly it’s no shame to lower your colours to a champion like Dusty. It’s happened to far greater and more experienced players. 

He is back in form and that undoubtedly makes Richmond better. An absolute star of the game he is. Some of the stuff he does is mind boggling. Imagine if all those years ago we drafted him ahead of $cully 🤮

Agree, he's so great to watch and impeccably fair.  He doesn't complain to umpires and he is a very clean player.  There was one incident in the last quarter where, I think it was, Jack Viney tackled by multiple Richmond players and ended up on his back and Dusty genuinely accidentally fell over the top of Jack's upper body, it would have been so easy to "accidentally" land on Jack's head with his knees - many, many players would have done it - but Dusty took care to avoid that contact. 

He's a true champion!

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5 hours ago, leave it to deever said:

There must be quite a few coaches that would be worried by what they saw yesterday. Firstly the incredible form of Max who has been well below his best since Grundy started playing. But yesterday Max simply went to a new level. He monstered it with his contested possessions and I think he was the best in the comp for this round. Given that he bairly touched the ball in the first half , this is a telling statistic. Secondly, Melksham played another very good game and I imagine his size would be hard to match up. Thirdly, Oliver and Fritta are still in the wings. Finally there was Petty who played his first full game as a forward and kicked SIX goals.

Obviously we need Oliver back ASAP but it seems with Max getting his hands on the ball like that, our midfield is even stronger. And now we also have a forward line that is tall and mobile and accurate and strong in marking.

Our backline did look a little troubled at times ..May looked a little fumbly and Salo was slow to get going but the ball was moving at a very fast pace. Tommo didn't play at his best either but I was glad that Lever seemed a lot better . Besides we have the option of bringing Hibbo back who has from what understand been playing well at Casey.

With him , Oliver and Fritta this is a team with many options and playing well. The stars are aligning at just the right time. Hopefully the cats beat power at kardinia this weekend and we climb into second spot with a good percentage win over North. From there on, destiny is in our hands and we can secure a home final against power or lions.

 

Oh Captain My Captain ! We witnessed true greatness from Captain Max in the second half yesterday. We are blessed to have him & Jack as our leaders. Some of Max’s work below his knees was unbelievable. 

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1 hour ago, Jumping Jack Clennett said:

But I thought Balta put the ball on the ground while he was being tackled.

is’nt that  incorrect disposal?( even though he didn’t dispose of it…..it’s like bouncing it when someone has hold of your jumper…. a free)

I agree.  I thought the same.

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19 hours ago, DubDee said:

second place is there for the taking

With three greats - Clarrie, Hibbo and Fritta - on the road back, one could dream that a little more is there for the taking. Maybe it could be better - a chastened Grundy hitting good form in the ruck just to give Max that short, un-assaulted chop out so he can concentrate on dominating EVERY game. 

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1 hour ago, hardtack said:

Yet reading the game day thread, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ANB was on the Tigers’ payroll. The usual suspects with their blinkers on full lock… couldn’t see all of his acts that actually contributed to our forays towards the goals.  He was excellent!

I think a lot of his good stuff goes under the radar as its a lot of running off the ball, pressure work, in close contested work whereas his bad stuff is glaring so it sticks out ie turnovers. He had a couple of turnovers early in the game which would have set most people's view for the rest of the game.

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1 hour ago, hardtack said:

Yet reading the game day thread, you’d be forgiven for thinking that ANB was on the Tigers’ payroll. The usual suspects with their blinkers on full lock… couldn’t see all of his acts that actually contributed to our forays towards the goals.  He was excellent!

Yep, there is a great, underlying talent with ANB to create disarray and to 'bob' up to slow the opposition, then there is his ability to slow the pace of the ball when necessary, to give his teammates time to re-establish positioning and tag their respective opponents, then, despite a few turnovers when this doesn't work, he rallies like a lightning bolt to support and supply as if to 'clear the plate' through the physical blocking of any opponent with aspirations to become legendary.

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16 hours ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Have they ever seen Dylan Grimes play? Manages to be a flopper and also a sniper, impressive. Gets away with a fair bit cos his natural facial expression looks like a bloke who’d lose at checkers to a chook

Grimes one of the biggest floppers in the game for many years.  May have backed it off a little since the press got hold of him and made a fuss

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image.png.1e0075635aa7c0bbed0ccdab2e043617.png

 

So these are the things I wanted to take a look at yesterday morning.

1. Well it speaks for itself. Credit to Goodwin for trying Petty again again considering he looked to have given up on the idea recently himself. JVR is getting game time and his confidence is growing. I just wonder if taking Petty from the backline is also a big negative as well as a positive. Suddenly and strangely, Tomlinson and/or Smith become very important players to us from here on. Do they move him back when Fritsch comes in, who knows, that will be interesting.

2. We definitely took the game on and played with more flare up the corridor. Whether this was just because Richmond also did it or was tactical who knows, but credit for Goodwin changing it up after half time. Of course our form and taking the game on also coincides with playing 3 very good offensive teams as well, but when the heat is in the kitchen in a final, i think we have that over the top 3. If we can absorb the pressure better defensively (unlike the middle patch v Brisbane) I think we can go all the way. But its also up to our mids to defend better up the ground, we saw how much heat our backline was under yesterday in the first half.

3. Now this is what I find interesting, I tried to keep tally of entries and players as best I could while I minded the kids, of course this is just opinion and not factual. We had 73-45 i50's. There was definitely a massive improvement on the direction of i50's with what I would consider only 8 kicks to the pocket, which has been a real issue for us for a while and massive improvement. It's that forward connection (not loading) that many of us have been wanting to see and the real reason behind our form drop earlier. I reckon we lowered our eyes and looked for a target on 22 occasions which from the naked eye seems like a huge difference to what we are used to.

There still was many bombs into 50 though even when not under pressure, Viney (5), Langdon (4), Gawn (4) (cant fault his second half) and Petracca the worst culprits. With Viney, Langdon and ANB in the (what I considered poor entries) group with the most poor entries in that second category. ANB provided a lot of drive into 50 in the first quarter but boy does he let himself down with poor kicking, can't doubt his endeavour. Tigers entries were sublime at times with Dusty (was he coaching McVee at one stage?) and Bolton. If i was a recruiter I'd be specifically targeting half forwards with elite foot skills, or as some suggested, move Bowey or Salem up to HF.

Anyway just a bit of fun, I always choose a few things to look at each week like this so miss plenty and in no way am I right, everyone would've had their own criteria and standards.

I don't subscribe to the "I told you so posts" about Petty as a forward as even Goodwin had gone against it nor do I believe training loads or fatigue were a factor for our form, which has seen the same forward connection issues for a long time. We seemed to run out games fine during that period. What I will give credit to (which I'm usually sceptical) is the growth of Goodwin to turn around our form. His decisions of late has been THE major contributing factor IMO. 

Petracca majority forward was ballsy, Pickett to the midfield, dropping Grundy (yes he wasn't "rested") and putting trust in to JVR as backup ruck, persistence in Melksham, Brayshaw tagging Neale, May to Dusty in second half after a poor first half, change of gamestyle to take the game on more, the Petty re-experiment, extra goal kicking practice programs, straightening up forward entries away from the pockets, faith in Rivers-Sparrow-Pickett in the middle, giving Brown a chance, giving Gawn a rev up and overall growth to actually make some in-game changes when needed.

I don't think we should be resting players in-form either, flaunting with danger. We can manage them with TOG or via the sub. Carlton and Sydney will also be a good test for us, not easy. Anyone done a ladder predictor yet? ;-)

You'd think Harmes, Jordon, Woewodin are on watch especially with Hibberd, Oliver, Fritsch to come back. I think Goodwin will reward Hibberd this week at the expense of one of those 3. I can't see Grundy coming back now unless Gawn is injured. They even gave away the experiment at Casey yesterday where he played the last half in the ruck after looking lost early.

We look a far better team when we play with flare and bring everyone into the game. Go Dees.

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I think there's no doubt that the FD prefer May, Petty, Lever in the backline and the hope was that when Ben Brown completed his "mini-pre-season" he'd be able to come back and perform effectively.  That's why Petty went back and Tomlinson went out, not because we "abandoned the idea of Petty forward".  But it clearly didn't work, and Tomlinson showed some form, so the Petty-forward option with Tomlinson-back was the best card we had to play.  Goodwin has repeatedly said we're open to trying different things to improve.

Edited by old55
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1 minute ago, old55 said:

I think there's no doubt that the FD prefer May, Petty, Lever in the backline and the hope was that when Ben Brown completed his "mini-pre-season" he'd be able to come back and perform effectively.  That's why Petty went back and Tomlinson went out, not because we "abandoned the idea of Petty forward".  But it clearly didn't work, and Tomlinson showed some form, so the Petty-forward option with Tomlinson-back was the best card we had to play.  Goodwin has repeatedly said we're open to trying different things to improve.

From memory, Tomlinson got dropped while in-form and playing a blinder. That to me tells me he gave up on the idea, as Tomlinson should never have been dropped in the first place. But, we all see it differently and thats OK :-) 

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