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22 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

I can't believe this needs to be done, but anyway:

Here's the BOM data for Sydney during game time:

image.png.537ab9a131189ddf211cc9a9ab975c11.png

84% humidity during the game. The dew point is also a measure of moisture - it is the temperature to which air has to be cooled in order to produce condensation. The higher it is, the the more moisture in the air.

The BOM says that a dew point of 21 means the weather is "muggy, quite uncomfortable" (5-10 is "dry", 10-15 is "comfortable").

I get that you have the word "Cranky" in your username, but seriously.

Oh look that "balmy" 24 C, so hot! 🔥🥵

 
1 hour ago, BDA said:

A lot of Brody Grundy revisionism going on today

Finally a voice of reason.

Playing Max and Grundy wouldn't have fixed our scoring woes. So unless we paid Grundy his full contract to sit out of football for 5 years, he was always going to come up against Max at some stage this year.

We have bigger issues than Max.

On the bright side we at least keep our streak of being in the 8 going. 

 
9 minutes ago, ElDiablo14 said:

Expect Simon Premiership Goodwin to shock next week selecting one of Tmac or BBB (both probably underdone and/or past it).

If it means Schache is out then l’m all for it.

4 minutes ago, Dee Zephyr said:

On the bright side we at least keep our streak of being in the 8 going. 

But not top 4, sadly.


1 hour ago, Cranky Franky said:

Dunno where you got that. The BOM site said humidity was 56% at 4.30 pm.

And I am astounded at the excuses being made here. Melbourne has been just as hot as Sydney in the last month.

It's not like we played in Darwin or Cairns.

We were rubbish & supporters should stop looking for weasel excuses.

It was dry & perfect for football. 

 

No matter the conditions it’s the same for both sides!

Happiness central in here. We'll be fine.

All BS aside tell me teams getting less travel are not more advantageous… imagine this in a finals, tell me pies playing last 5 games in melb before the finals wasn’t a clear advantage 

 

our club is cursed 
 

Tom Morris &

Follow

@tommorris32

Not ideal for@melbournefc following last night's loss... 20 minutes into the flight home this morning the plane had technical issues, forcing it to turn around & land back in Sydney.

Now the Demons are awaiting another flight, likely in the early

 

I still get very disappointed after losses, particularly bad ones. But the disappointment doesn't last for days like it used to. 

I suspect that seeing a flag (2021) has helped in that regard. 

3 hours ago, BDA said:

A lot of Brody Grundy revisionism going on today

Is it revisionism? What was wrong with having Grundy and Gawn play together 18 times a year and into finals. Dominate the centre. We couldn’t make it work yet we play Schache? We weren’t smart enough and we dropped the ball on this one.


I know it doesn't nullify our poor performance last night by so many but it was a big stage game.

Record Sydney crowd ever at the Scg with the club celebrating it's history by hosting hundreds of old players.

Almost a finals type atmosphere in slippery humid conditions as a first game isn't ideal.

Hopefully next year we play our first game at home.

1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

Is it revisionism? What was wrong with having Grundy and Gawn play together 18 times a year and into finals. Dominate the centre. We couldn’t make it work yet we play Schache? We weren’t smart enough and we dropped the ball on this one.

Grundy and Max didn't work. Grundy could mark and had a poor season.

Maybe if we persevered it could have. Certainly worth a try given who we have at present though .

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

I can't believe this needs to be done, but anyway:

Here's the BOM data for Sydney during game time:

image.png.537ab9a131189ddf211cc9a9ab975c11.png

84% humidity during the game. The dew point is also a measure of moisture - it is the temperature to which air has to be cooled in order to produce condensation. The higher it is, the the more moisture in the air.

The BOM says that a dew point of 21 means the weather is "muggy, quite uncomfortable" (5-10 is "dry", 10-15 is "comfortable").

I get that you have the word "Cranky" in your username, but seriously.

Point taken I was wrong about the humidity but posters hiding behind the weather as an excuse are deluding themselves.

1 hour ago, mo64 said:

Finally a voice of reason.

Playing Max and Grundy wouldn't have fixed our scoring woes. So unless we paid Grundy his full contract to sit out of football for 5 years, he was always going to come up against Max at some stage this year.

We have bigger issues than Max.

True but if we aren’t concerned about Max getting an injury then we sure as hell should be because we have very little in reserve with any form as an AFL grade ruck 

10 minutes ago, leave it to deever said:

Grundy and Max didn't work. Grundy could mark and had a poor season.

Maybe if we persevered it could have. Certainly worth a try given who we have at present though .

In my opinion the club mishandled how they played. They needed 10-12 rounds playing together with Max playing 50 ruck, 20 forward and 30 bench with Grundy playing 50 ruck and  50 bench, with some forward pinch hitting. 


1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

In my opinion the club mishandled how they played. They needed 10-12 rounds playing together with Max playing 50 ruck, 20 forward and 30 bench with Grundy playing 50 ruck and  50 bench, with some forward pinch hitting. 

Even with the same performances from last year... Grundy up fwd for Schache would be an improvement in anyone's book.

9 hours ago, Cranky Franky said:

IT WAS BONE DRY, PERFECT FOOTBALL CONDITIONS, WITH A NICE BREEZE BLOWING ACROSS THE GROUND & MUCH COOLER THAN MELBOURNE'S LAST MONTH. I WAS IN THE BRADMAN STAND & PUT ON A JUMPER AT HALF TIME

 

7 hours ago, loges said:

Right and about 10 people on here that were there have stated the opposite myself included, what were you sitting in, the fridge.

It seems like the conditions were different depending on where one was sitting. I was in the stand behind the goals in the top deck. The humidity was appalling. Many people around me were using their floggers to fan themselves. It was pretty awful.

Here are the stats for last night. I can add them to the Stats Files thread once @Demon Dynasty creates it for 2024. It's largely the same range of stats as last year, although I have developed an expected score model over the off season so this is included. Attn @binman

Melbourne v Sydney (Opening Round, 2024)

https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_match_stats.html?ID=20240001

Key Team Stats

Stats highlighted purple were won by Melbourne.

Stat For Against Diff
Disposal Efficiency 71.1 68.9 +2.2
Kicking Efficiency 63.4 64.5 -1.1
Metres Gained 5534 6279 -745
Inside 50s 51 65 -14
Shots At Goal 21 29 -8
Shots Per Inside 50 41.2 44.6 -3.4
Contested Possessions 145 146 -1
Ground Ball Gets 109 98 +11
Intercepts 78 75 +3
Intercept Marks 14 18 -4
Centre Clearances 12 9 +3
Stoppage Clearances 22 36 -14
Contested Marks 3 8 -5
Marks Inside 50 5 9 -4
Hitouts 38 46 -8
Hitouts To Advantage 9 13 -4
Tackles 65 63 +2
Tackles Inside 50 24 13 +11
Def One On One Loss % 20.0 28.6 -8.6

Expected scores

Team Shots Score Accuracy xScore +/- xSc. /
Shot
Shot
Rating
Overall
Melbourne 21 9.8.62 42.9% 63.7 −1.7 3.03 −0.08
Sydney 29 12.10.82 41.4% 79.7 +2.3 2.75 +0.08
General Play
Melbourne 15 5.6.36 33.3% 43.2 −7.2 2.88 −0.48
Sydney 16 7.8.50 43.8% 42.3 +7.7 2.64 +0.48
Set Position
Melbourne 6 4.2.26 66.7% 20.5 +5.5 3.42 +0.91
Sydney 13 5.2.32 38.5% 37.4 −5.4 2.88 −0.42
  • xScore: total expected score from all shots taken.
  • +/-: total score above or below expected score.
  • xSc. / Shot: average expected score per shot. This represents the average shot difficulty.
  • Shot Rating: average score above or below expected score per shot at goal.

Notes: Expected scores are calculated by Wheelo Ratings. Each shot at goal is assigned an expected score based on the distance from goal, shot angle, and type of shot (e.g. set shot, general play following contested possession, general play following uncontested possession, ground kick, etc) as a proxy for pressure. The model does not take into account factors like the player, whether the ball was kicked with their preferred or non-preferred foot, and pressure on the player when taking the shot. Rushed behinds are excluded from actual and expected scores.

Pressure

Team pressure

Quarter For Against
1 193 202
2 177 171
3 195 186
4 159 204
Match 182 190

Source: Herald Sun

Most Pressure Points

Note: pressure points are the weighed sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points, closing acts are worth 2.25 points, chasing acts are 1.5 points and corralling are 1.2. ( https://www.championdata.com/glossary/afl/ )

Player Pressure
Acts
Pressure
Points
Season
Average
Tom Sparrow 31 71 71.0
Jack Viney 30 63 63.0
Kade Chandler 20 47 47.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 20 47 47.0
Clayton Oliver 25 46 46.0
Caleb Windsor 20 45 45.0
Blake Howes 12 34 34.0
Ed Langdon 18 34 34.0
Max Gawn 11 30 30.0
Christian Petracca 15 30 30.0
Christian Salem 14 28 28.0
Bayley Fritsch 11 19 19.0
Steven May 8 18 18.0
Adam Tomlinson 8 18 18.0
Jack Billings 6 17 17.0
Trent Rivers 10 17 17.0
Josh Schache 8 17 17.0
Charlie Spargo 8 17 17.0
Jacob van Rooyen 6 16 16.0
Bailey Laurie 8 15 15.0
Jake Bowey 5 11 11.0
Jake Lever 3 4 4.0
Judd McVee 1 2 2.0

Source: Herald Sun

Time in Forward Half

Quarter For Against
1 48% 52%
2 55% 45%
3 39% 61%
4 40% 60%
Match 48% 52%

Source: Match total sourced from the Herald Sun; quarter values are my own calculations.

Score Sources

Summary

Category Score Against Diff
Kick-in 0.0.0 0.0.0 +0
Centre Bounce 1.1.7 0.3.3 +4
Stoppage (Other) 2.4.16 4.4.28 -12
Turnover 6.5.41 8.7.55 -14
Score Source For Against
Match Season Match Season *
Centre Bounce 7 7.0 3 3.0
Stoppage (Other) 16 16.0 28 28.0
Turnover 41 41.0 55 55.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Chain start region

Note: region is from the scoring team's perspective.

Category Region For Against
Match Season Match Season *
Centre Bounce Centre 7 7.0 3 3.0
Stoppage (Other) Centre 0 0.0 1 1.0
Stoppage (Other) Wing 7 7.0 26 26.0
Stoppage (Other) F50 9 9.0 1 1.0
Turnover D50 2 2.0 6 6.0
Turnover Centre 6 6.0 6 6.0
Turnover Wing 9 9.0 39 39.0
Turnover F50 24 24.0 4 4.0
Region For Against
Match Season Match Season *
D50 2 2.0 6 6.0
Centre 13 13.0 10 10.0
Wing 16 16.0 65 65.0
F50 33 33.0 5 5.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Points from defensive half

For Against
Match Season Match Season *
8 8.0 27 27.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Centre Bounce Attendances

  CBAs CBA % 2024 % 2023 %
Max Gawn 21 88 87.5 64.9
Jack Viney 19 79 79.2 72.1
Clayton Oliver 15 62 62.5 81.4
Christian Petracca 14 58 58.3 61.1
Tom Sparrow 13 54 54.2 44.9
Christian Salem 9 38 37.5 0.0
Josh Schache 2 8 8.3 0.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 1 4 4.2 2.1
Charlie Spargo 1 4 4.2 0.0
Jacob van Rooyen 1 4 4.2 7.6
Trent Rivers 0 0 0.0 3.0

Ruck Contests and Hitouts

Ruck Contests

  Ruck
Contests
RC % 2024 % 2023 %
Max Gawn 89 85 84.8 57.5
Josh Schache 14 13 13.3 4.1
Jacob van Rooyen 2 2 1.9 13.1
Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0 0.0 0.0
Christian Petracca 0 0 0.0 0.4
Clayton Oliver 0 0 0.0 0.1
Steven May 0 0 0.0 0.0
Tom Sparrow 0 0 0.0 0.0

Hitouts

  Ruck
Contests
Hitouts To
Adv.
To Adv. %
(2024)
To Adv. %
(2023)
Max Gawn 89 37 8 21.6 30.1
Josh Schache 14 1 1 100.0 0.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0 0   0.0
Christian Petracca 0 0 0   100.0
Jacob van Rooyen 2 0 0   31.1

Opposition hitouts

  Ruck
Contests
Hitouts To
Adv.
Brodie Grundy 76 33 13
Hayden McLean 24 10 0
Joel Amartey 4 2 0
Justin McInerney 1 1 0

I can’t believe i waited so long for that game. it was so dull and disappointing 

skills were poor 

Im losing faith in the coaching unit 


I hope we’re not involved in opening round next year. If we are it will mean we’ll either be in Sydney or SE QLD whereby we’ve proved time and time again that we can’t handle the greasy conditions. I think we were about 1-7in the wet or humidity last year and the one win was against Richmond when it rained for all of 10 minutes.

Anthony Hudson spoke to a non participating VIC club today and he was told that the 4 VIC clubs that travelled this weekend would surely be at a distinct disadvantage.

I also don’t believe the forward line we put out last night was good enough to win a game of footy against a  contender in Sydney. It was honestly 2012-2013 stuff. It will get better but by how much?

Edited by Bring-Back-Powell

1 minute ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

I hope we’re not involved in opening round next year. If we are it will mean we’ll either be in Sydney or SE QLD whereby we’ve proved time and time again that we can’t handle the greasy conditions. I think we were about 1-7in the wet or humidity last year and the one win was against Richmond when it rained for all of 10 minutes.

Anthony Hudson spoke to a non participating VIC club today and he was told that the 4 VIC clubs that travelled this weekend would surely be at a distinct disadvantage.

I also don’t believe the forward line we put out last night was good enough to win a game of footy against a  contender in Sydney. It was honestly 2012-2013 stuff. It will get better but by how much?

Pickett changes us enormously. He can make things happen with forward 50 ground balls that no one else can (and particularly not Laurie or Spargo).

Petty, Fullarton or B Brown are going to be more competitive in the air than Schache. 

Those two key changes, plus less humidity, should hopefully be enough to make the forward line good enough.

15 minutes ago, WheeloRatings said:

Here are the stats for last night. I can add them to the Stats Files thread once @Demon Dynasty creates it for 2024. It's largely the same range of stats as last year, although I have developed an expected score model over the off season so this is included. Attn @binman

Melbourne v Sydney (Opening Round, 2024)

https://www.wheeloratings.com/afl_match_stats.html?ID=20240001

Key Team Stats

Stats highlighted purple were won by Melbourne.

Stat For Against Diff
Disposal Efficiency 71.1 68.9 +2.2
Kicking Efficiency 63.4 64.5 -1.1
Metres Gained 5534 6279 -745
Inside 50s 51 65 -14
Shots At Goal 21 29 -8
Shots Per Inside 50 41.2 44.6 -3.4
Contested Possessions 145 146 -1
Ground Ball Gets 109 98 +11
Intercepts 78 75 +3
Intercept Marks 14 18 -4
Centre Clearances 12 9 +3
Stoppage Clearances 22 36 -14
Contested Marks 3 8 -5
Marks Inside 50 5 9 -4
Hitouts 38 46 -8
Hitouts To Advantage 9 13 -4
Tackles 65 63 +2
Tackles Inside 50 24 13 +11
Def One On One Loss % 20.0 28.6 -8.6

Expected scores

Team Shots Score Accuracy xScore +/- xSc. /
Shot
Shot
Rating
Overall
Melbourne 21 9.8.62 42.9% 63.7 −1.7 3.03 −0.08
Sydney 29 12.10.82 41.4% 79.7 +2.3 2.75 +0.08
General Play
Melbourne 15 5.6.36 33.3% 43.2 −7.2 2.88 −0.48
Sydney 16 7.8.50 43.8% 42.3 +7.7 2.64 +0.48
Set Position
Melbourne 6 4.2.26 66.7% 20.5 +5.5 3.42 +0.91
Sydney 13 5.2.32 38.5% 37.4 −5.4 2.88 −0.42
  • xScore: total expected score from all shots taken.
  • +/-: total score above or below expected score.
  • xSc. / Shot: average expected score per shot. This represents the average shot difficulty.
  • Shot Rating: average score above or below expected score per shot at goal.

Notes: Expected scores are calculated by Wheelo Ratings. Each shot at goal is assigned an expected score based on the distance from goal, shot angle, and type of shot (e.g. set shot, general play following contested possession, general play following uncontested possession, ground kick, etc) as a proxy for pressure. The model does not take into account factors like the player, whether the ball was kicked with their preferred or non-preferred foot, and pressure on the player when taking the shot. Rushed behinds are excluded from actual and expected scores.

Pressure

Team pressure

Quarter For Against
1 193 202
2 177 171
3 195 186
4 159 204
Match 182 190

Source: Herald Sun

Most Pressure Points

Note: pressure points are the weighed sum of pressure acts. Physical pressure acts are worth 3.75 points, closing acts are worth 2.25 points, chasing acts are 1.5 points and corralling are 1.2. ( https://www.championdata.com/glossary/afl/ )

Player Pressure
Acts
Pressure
Points
Season
Average
Tom Sparrow 31 71 71.0
Jack Viney 30 63 63.0
Kade Chandler 20 47 47.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 20 47 47.0
Clayton Oliver 25 46 46.0
Caleb Windsor 20 45 45.0
Blake Howes 12 34 34.0
Ed Langdon 18 34 34.0
Max Gawn 11 30 30.0
Christian Petracca 15 30 30.0
Christian Salem 14 28 28.0
Bayley Fritsch 11 19 19.0
Steven May 8 18 18.0
Adam Tomlinson 8 18 18.0
Jack Billings 6 17 17.0
Trent Rivers 10 17 17.0
Josh Schache 8 17 17.0
Charlie Spargo 8 17 17.0
Jacob van Rooyen 6 16 16.0
Bailey Laurie 8 15 15.0
Jake Bowey 5 11 11.0
Jake Lever 3 4 4.0
Judd McVee 1 2 2.0

Source: Herald Sun

Time in Forward Half

Quarter For Against
1 48% 52%
2 55% 45%
3 39% 61%
4 40% 60%
Match 48% 52%

Source: Match total sourced from the Herald Sun; quarter values are my own calculations.

Score Sources

Summary

Category Score Against Diff
Kick-in 0.0.0 0.0.0 +0
Centre Bounce 1.1.7 0.3.3 +4
Stoppage (Other) 2.4.16 4.4.28 -12
Turnover 6.5.41 8.7.55 -14
Score Source For Against
Match Season Match Season *
Centre Bounce 7 7.0 3 3.0
Stoppage (Other) 16 16.0 28 28.0
Turnover 41 41.0 55 55.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Chain start region

Note: region is from the scoring team's perspective.

Category Region For Against
Match Season Match Season *
Centre Bounce Centre 7 7.0 3 3.0
Stoppage (Other) Centre 0 0.0 1 1.0
Stoppage (Other) Wing 7 7.0 26 26.0
Stoppage (Other) F50 9 9.0 1 1.0
Turnover D50 2 2.0 6 6.0
Turnover Centre 6 6.0 6 6.0
Turnover Wing 9 9.0 39 39.0
Turnover F50 24 24.0 4 4.0
Region For Against
Match Season Match Season *
D50 2 2.0 6 6.0
Centre 13 13.0 10 10.0
Wing 16 16.0 65 65.0
F50 33 33.0 5 5.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Points from defensive half

For Against
Match Season Match Season *
8 8.0 27 27.0

* Against season average represents average points conceded by Melbourne across the season, not average points scored by Sydney.

Centre Bounce Attendances

  CBAs CBA % 2024 % 2023 %
Max Gawn 21 88 87.5 64.9
Jack Viney 19 79 79.2 72.1
Clayton Oliver 15 62 62.5 81.4
Christian Petracca 14 58 58.3 61.1
Tom Sparrow 13 54 54.2 44.9
Christian Salem 9 38 37.5 0.0
Josh Schache 2 8 8.3 0.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 1 4 4.2 2.1
Charlie Spargo 1 4 4.2 0.0
Jacob van Rooyen 1 4 4.2 7.6
Trent Rivers 0 0 0.0 3.0

Ruck Contests and Hitouts

Ruck Contests

  Ruck
Contests
RC % 2024 % 2023 %
Max Gawn 89 85 84.8 57.5
Josh Schache 14 13 13.3 4.1
Jacob van Rooyen 2 2 1.9 13.1
Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0 0.0 0.0
Christian Petracca 0 0 0.0 0.4
Clayton Oliver 0 0 0.0 0.1
Steven May 0 0 0.0 0.0
Tom Sparrow 0 0 0.0 0.0

Hitouts

  Ruck
Contests
Hitouts To
Adv.
To Adv. %
(2024)
To Adv. %
(2023)
Max Gawn 89 37 8 21.6 30.1
Josh Schache 14 1 1 100.0 0.0
Alex Neal-Bullen 0 0 0   0.0
Christian Petracca 0 0 0   100.0
Jacob van Rooyen 2 0 0   31.1

Opposition hitouts

  Ruck
Contests
Hitouts To
Adv.
Brodie Grundy 76 33 13
Hayden McLean 24 10 0
Joel Amartey 4 2 0
Justin McInerney 1 1 0

Thanks Wheelo... i'll start it up tonight

 
21 hours ago, monoccular said:

Despite Ollie's lack of preparation he was a solid contributor.  Who else would you have played?

It’s a very fair question, and reflecting on it I deleted my original post.

I agree, he was a solid contributor. I should have recalibrated my expectations from his previous elite performances, but nonetheless this was good enough.

Cheers

1 hour ago, Roost it far said:

I actually think Max spat the dummy and wanted to ruck alone

All that happened points to just that conclusion. The refusal to select Grundy in the last 5 weeks or so tells me something went wrong at the club. The original plan was for Grundy to ruck and Max to go forward and pinch hit in the ruck. Max didn’t work up forward. By round 18 it was Grundy who was sent packing to work on his forward craft because it wasn’t working up forward. And that was it for Grundy. It’s a team sport but I have had a suspicion that the captain spat the dummy on this. 

Edited by Earl Hood


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  • NON-MFC: Round 04

    Round 4 kicks off with a blockbuster on Thursday night as traditional rivals Collingwood and Carlton clash at the MCG, with the Magpies looking to assert themselves as early-season contenders and the Blues seeking their first win of the season. Saturday opens with Gold Coast hosting Adelaide, a key test for the Suns as they aim to back up their big win last week, while the Crows will be looking to keep their perfect record intact. Reigning wooden spooners Richmond have the daunting task of facing reigning premiers Brisbane at the ‘G and the Lions will be eager to reaffirm their premiership credentials after a patchy start. Saturday night sees North Melbourne take on Sydney at Marvel Stadium, with the Swans looking to build on their first win of the season last week against a rebuilding Roos outfit. Sunday’s action begins with GWS hosting West Coast at ENGIE Stadium, a game that could get ugly very early for the visitors. Port Adelaide vs St Kilda at Adelaide Oval looms as a interesting clash, with both clubs form being very hard to read. The round wraps up with Fremantle taking on the Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium in what could be a fierce contest between two sides with top-eight ambitions. Who are you tipping this week and what are the best results for the Demons besides us winning?

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