3 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This probably belongs in the Stats File thread, but great find.

Not only are we 1 at defending clearance, we're 2 at attacking from clearance. So, whilst our raw clearance winning numbers are down, we make the most of them without being punished the other way.

We're not being outscored in the stoppage game whilst having spent the first 7 weeks of the year working hard on our turnover game (which needs more work, given we're still only 11th for scoring from intercept which puts us behind all of the better sides in it and, weirdly enough, also behind North and Hawthorn).

A key factor in our ability to defend clearances is having one less at tbe stoppages.

The fact we are number 2 for attacking from clearance and  dominate in scores from stoppages (bar the lions game) playimg one down at stoppages shows how good our midfield and set ups are.

On expected score that was a 21 point win, which feels closer to the mark to me than the 43 points we got away with. 

They didn’t take all their chances, and our defence held them out well but they also didn’t have a forward line. Put Lynch and Balta up there and those wasted i50s they had turn into scoring opportunities. 

On our side we kicked 13 goals but had 3 at half time (after 3 at 3QT against the lions). Did the tigers set out to stop us scoring? Yes. Dud teams do that every week, and good teams kick goals anyway. We’ve still got issues going forward, hopefully we can get them sorted - ultimately there’s still time to get things right by year end, but you don’t make top 4 kicking 2 or 3 goals in a half cos you won’t win enough games and you won’t keep the % high enough. 

The biggest plus for me is that we aren’t playing all that well and 3 of our best 6 or 7 aren’t playing that well (Trac, Oliver, Viney). If your guns are firing and you’re still struggling there’s a big problem, but if those 3 can get back to their usual then we’ll be in a much better place. We have room to grow into the season, but we don’t want to lose too many as we need a top 4 finish. Hopefully put two sketchy games behind us and give the Cats a flogging

8 hours ago, Demonstone said:

The answer was 42 of course, which is why Disco Turner was our answer on ANZAC Eve.

Apparently some Demon fans think that Turner should henceforth be nicknamed "Plugger".

NOOO! HIS NAME IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE DISCO…

 

 

Coz if nan calls him Disco, it’s Disco

🥹

 

On 25/04/2024 at 09:04, Dee Viney Intervention said:

In my lifetime I have never been so meh about a 43 point win. I guess it is a good thing because for most of my Melbourne supporting life we have been poor. I don’t want to be the supporter that is just satisfied, I want more. I don’t want mediocre I want great.
 Defensively outstanding as a unit and occasional howlers aside individually Lever, May, McDonald were good and I thought Rivers was outstanding.

We started to win clearance in the middle in the 3rd 1/4. As we should though. We have a generational ruckman and AA midfielders we should be winning the clearance battle more often than not. 
 

But I am losing faith in our structure forward of the ball. Until it is sorted out we are not troubling the best teams in the competition. After years of this relatively stable coaching group we still do not know what our best forward line looks like. But more importantly for me is the structure. Our forwards all push so high up the ground eg Fritsch taking marks at Centre Half Back and the Back Pocket. He is a crafty forward one on one that is also our best shot for goal. We win the ball thru turnover and we can’t go quick because we literally have nobody to give it to so we have the go slow,chip, chip, chip it around. 
 Why can’t we structurally have two talls and a small stay in our front half to give us a quick release target and beat congestion in our forward line and give ourselves the best and highest percentage chance to score with clean looks on goal. 
 There is zero urgency in the offensive side of our game. We switch the ball and there is no urgency to spread and work to the fat side of the ground or spread for a quick transition into our forward line which should be relatively open. Yet the work their arses off to set up defensively the second we are not in possession.
 Our commitment and work rate to defend is absolutely outstanding.and I cannot be more effusive in our praise there.I had hoped with Mcqualter coming in that we would see a change in ball movement and a more connected attacking game plan. 
 That first half last night was garbage littered with skill errors and I believe that it is because we overuse the ball and I think it is the way we are set up that forces the overuse because of the congestion we create structurally. 
 It has been the same issue for years connection and forwardline. This group has had more than enough time to sort it out, they haven’t and I am started to get a bit over it. Can this coaching group please put some value on the offensive side of our game because until we do we are just making up the numbers. Our brand or gamestyle is not enjoyable to watch but the most important question is our brand or gamestyle enjoyable to play. If you were a forward at Melbourne I would say no.

Nice that we got the win against a bog ordinary Richmond side but Meh. 

You’re finally losing faith in the forward structure? Now???

2 hours ago, binman said:

A key factor in our ability to defend clearances is having one less at tbe stoppages.

The fact we are number 2 for attacking from clearance and  dominate in scores from stoppages (bar the lions game) playimg one down at stoppages shows how good our midfield and set ups are.

Now these are the stats I care about.

11 hours ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

biggest plus for me is that we aren’t playing all that well and 3 of our best 6 or 7 aren’t playing that well (Trac, Oliver, Viney). If your guns are firing and you’re still struggling there’s a big problem, but if those 3 can get back to their usual then we’ll be in a much better place. We have room to grow into the season, but we don’t want to lose too many as we need a top 4 finish. Hopefully put two sketchy

Also as you mentioned if we need to sort out our fwd line. It's a pretty big headache at the moment. Thankfully we have found an excellent new component in Disco there but Petty is a real worry. Calls for Casey but I don't think he'll be dropped. Apparently Bbb has struggled at Casey. And for some reason Jvrs form isn't as good as it was last year. Is now the time to play Fullerton? I mean he can't really offer less than the two talls in TP and BN. And we'll get some ruck work thrown in.

Our mids will sort themselves out. I think they have been down in general play but the three you named are champions of the game and will dominate again. Of this I'm sure. Except maybe for Sparrow but I don't think we have anyone to replace him with.

I'd maybe make Woey the sub and give Laurie a game who impressed for the first time in a limited run. 

As for our lions game  sluggish effort I can understand that being from fatigue but the tigers game with a substantial break from the bye doesn't equate. Unless the club are simply training to the max.

How else can one explain quite a few of the leagues top rated players butcher like they did?  This cats game is a huge one for us. Hard to feel confident though.

15 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

This probably belongs in the Stats File thread, but great find.

Not only are we 1 at defending clearance, we're 2 at attacking from clearance. So, whilst our raw clearance winning numbers are down, we make the most of them without being punished the other way.

We're not being outscored in the stoppage game whilst having spent the first 7 weeks of the year working hard on our turnover game (which needs more work, given we're still only 11th for scoring from intercept which puts us behind all of the better sides in it and, weirdly enough, also behind North and Hawthorn).

The surprise is how highly the Dogs are ranked

Caught the butt end of a conversation on the radio about the game. If I heard correctly, we had eight players on the field who had played 40 games or less, with five of those in single figures. Amazing really. 

52 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Caught the butt end of a conversation on the radio about the game. If I heard correctly, we had eight players on the field who had played 40 games or less, with five of those in single figures. Amazing really. 

 

Playing 8 players 50 and under games, giving them opportunities to see who stands up.

Once we can bring back 2 or 3 of Salem, Bowey, Hunter, McAdam, and Melksham it will add a bit of stability and quality kicking skills that will make a difference.

Give Petty another 4-5 games to recover from his foot injury and he will come good!

Poor skills in 1st half, but 10 goals in 2nd half, Turner kicking 3, it’s not all doom and gloom!

We have 16 more weeks to get everything right, a bit of luck and you never know! Versus last years [censored] luck with injuries in the last 8 weeks that killed us!

8 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

 

Yes this is something that is not really being talked about much amongst the media up until now. The team has really evolved a lot since the 2021 GF win, it’s not the same side and we have had to reinvent ourselves in many different ways. We’ve lost a lot of experience and talent from that team, we’ve also had positional changes. But the nucleus of the most important players are arguably still there in Max, Trac, Oliver, Viney and May. 
 

We’ve been forced to change the way we play, but also throw the magnets around a bit due to injury, age, retirements etc. To be 5 wins and 2 losses while getting games into the younger players is a good achievement. If they can tidy up their disposal efficiency a bit more then I’d say we are probably still a top 4 side. Let’s hope that as they play more together these sort of things gets ironed out a bit more and they make less mistakes in transition etc. Hopefully they get better as the year goes on.

On 25/04/2024 at 18:23, dee-tox said:

Interesting observation. Essendon were particularly strong in the air. In 2021, with Jackson, Gawn, TMac, BBB  May and Lever that was our modis operandi too.

Contested marking is gold 

On 27/04/2024 at 12:54, Ethan Tremblay said:

Caught the butt end of a conversation on the radio about the game. If I heard correctly, we had eight players on the field who had played 40 games or less, with five of those in single figures. Amazing really. 

Cats had one vs Carlton and 8 players over 31yo.