1 minute ago, Binmans PA said:

At his best, I think Billings could be a much greater scoring threat than Hunter. He just hasn't shown it at Melbourne yet.

 

Problem is he is scared of contact. Hunter looks to thrive on it. Unless it’s a dry fast day, Billings is useless.

That was the worst i've seen an opposition play against us this year. St Kilda were atrocious. Their effort was terrible and their ball use even worse.

Positively, that gave us a great win for our confidence. I'm really pleased that Tomlinson, Salem, Van Rooyen and Hunter had good games. Three of them are senior players who we will need come finals.

Still issues from the forward line though. Petty - WTF? 4 touches and 1 mark from 67 inside 50s. McAdam applied good pressure (6 tackles) but would've liked more of a scoreboard impact.

Just now, Doug Reemer said:

It would at the least explain a few things!

What are you thoughts on ANB & Salems games this week? ANB looks to be evening up our centre bounces and Salem’s physicality and hands around the ball beefed up our midfield IMO. (I still think Salem should have come back through the VFL)

Indeed.

I thought ANB was terrific again this week. I felt he was near our best against West Coast and I think his agility is becoming a real asset at centre bounce.

Salem got it a lot, but wasn't pressured much. St Kilda's half forwards were pretty ordinary. Salo hits targets no doubt, but I think he goes too slow and sideways too often. He's a beautiful kick and if he was more attacking with his kicks, I think he'd be more damaging.

I don't have a great deal to say on Salem's midfield work, I felt he was a bigger contributor off the back of stoppage and as an outlet when we moved the ball forward from D50.

I'd almost prefer Bowser playing that quarterback role that Salem played yesterday because IMO Bowser is the better kick. Both in terms of penetration, flatness and accuracy. I do love Salem's grit when the ball is on the ground though.

4 minutes ago, Doug Reemer said:

Problem is he is scared of contact. Hunter looks to thrive on it. Unless it’s a dry fast day, Billings is useless.

I think they both have strengths and weaknesses that aren't the same.

ANB playing more midfield is helping us defend the post clearance possession much better, which is something we've desperately lacked this year. We've let far too many easy 'out the front' balls to come out in stoppages and centre clearances, which has really hurt us. 
I also don't mind the switch up between him and Viney, as Viney is obviously an exceptional tackler, so having him spend time inside 50 while ANB is playing higher up, means we aren't missing out on the crucial defensive work that Nibbler brings to our forwardline. 

 

I am disappointed with what we've seen from McAdams, but I also understand that he is lacking match fitness and it really shows. 

Edited May 27, 20241 yr by Jaded No More

10 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

For those knocking McAdam, whilst he had a quiet one, he still laid 6 tackles as a forward which would still please Goodwin and Chaplin. Had an almost type game today.

It'll come to him, still trying to learn a new system and especially one where we aren't great with forward delivery. 

I reckon we'll see him break out come Kings birthday weekend against Collingwood. 

As far as I'm aware Troy Chaplin is our Backs' coach and Stafford our Forwards' coach.

The reason I bring that up because, IMV, our forward line has not improved one iota in the last two and a bit years.

I know I'm off-topic but:

We're expecting a former ruckman (Stafford) to turn a beckman (Petty) into a forward. That is failing miserably on every measure. Petty is a great, one grab, mark. But we've only seen it twice this year (v Hawks and Cats).

He's a nice kick but we've seen that once as a forward (Tigers last year).

Petty is frequently out of position when the ball enters our fifty. I can't recall seeing him on a lead. 

Currently Harrison is not deserving of his place in the team. A knowlegeable forwards' coach may change that. 

Similarly McAdam would benefit from having a former player experienced in forward craft coaching him.

Just now, M_9 said:

As far as I'm aware Troy Chaplin is our Backs' coach and Stafford our Forwards' coach.

The reason I bring that up because, IMV, our forward line has not improved one iota in the last two and a bit years.

I know I'm off-topic but:

We're expecting a former ruckman (Stafford) to turn a beckman (Petty) into a forward. That is failing miserably on every measure. Petty is a great, one grab, mark. But we've only seen it twice this year (v Hawks and Cats).

He's a nice kick but we've seen that once as a forward (Tigers last year).

Petty is frequently out of position when the ball enters our fifty. I can't recall seeing him on a lead. 

Currently Harrison is not deserving of his place in the team. A knowlegeable forwards' coach may change that. 

Similarly McAdam would benefit from having a former player experienced in forward craft coaching him.

Yeah I've had a brain snap there. Meant Stafford sorry.

5 minutes ago, seventyfour said:

That was the worst i've seen an opposition play against us this year. St Kilda were atrocious. Their effort was terrible and their ball use even worse.

Positively, that gave us a great win for our confidence. I'm really pleased that Tomlinson, Salem, Van Rooyen and Hunter had good games. Three of them are senior players who we will need come finals.

Still issues from the forward line though. Petty - WTF? 4 touches and 1 mark from 67 inside 50s. McAdam applied good pressure (6 tackles) but would've liked more of a scoreboard impact.

I'm actually not getting that excited about McAdams tackles, most of them were on his direct opponent who had beaten him.  McAdam really doesn't look up to AFL standard, Petty too.

I know Goody doesn't like changing a winning team, but we can't carry two players like that every week.  Issue being, who comes in?  I dare say BBB wouldn't relish a trip to the Alice this week.  Possibly Sestan, Kolt or anyone that can apply pressure and has upside.

Similarly, Windsor looked pretty shot and probably could do with a week off.  I dare say Billings is the natural replacement, but I'd like to see Taj get more game time. 

4 minutes ago, Doug Reemer said:

Problem is he is scared of contact. Hunter looks to thrive on it. Unless it’s a dry fast day, Billings is useless.

Hunter? Thriving on contact? Unless he's attempting to draw a free kick he's afraid of it.

Billings could've been the better option on the wing but the times he was used there he seemed to run out of puff pretty quickly and got caught out defensively. Hunter guards against that by spending most of his time parked defensively. The trade off is he gives almost no quick counter attack but that wasn't working for us either. 

Billings also flashed the best his ability as a half forward (mainly in about 2 of his 10 games) but we didn't use the ball well enough to connect with him and like most Melbourne players he lost all confidence in his decision making and goal kicking. Hopefully he can build some confidence back at Casey for his own footy enjoyment as much as anything.

The big test is whether Langdon as a forward can keep driving ball movement in the same way against better sides, because if that keeps working we can get away with getting less from our wings.

15 hours ago, dl4e said:

Positives. 4 points and Tomlinson

Negatives. Too conservative again and slow moving ball.

St Kilda were pathetic.

You can't move the ball quickly if you're playing a forward half game and not kick it straight to a contest or the opposition numbers.

This is why we modified our game from 2021-2023 and started playing a defensive half transition game early this season.

Stand outs for me:

• Max's EIGHT frees.  Yes, 8  !!!  Marshall is a very good ruckman but clearly didn't know how to play Max right from the get go.
• Salem's game:  FOURTEEN Marks.  Yes, 14 !!!.  At the ground it looked like once the ball was in play he placed himself near the centre square and was pivotal in ball movement (32 possessions, 24 kicks/8 HB, @ 75% eff).  At times he went inside d50 to take the kick in.  His role was similar to Gus's in parts of 2020/2021:  in the middle of the ground and directed play.  He looks very fit.  Salem is the perfect person for that role.  Smart, aggressive and accurate.
• Much less kicking long from kick ins, to Max in this game. 
• No passengers yesterday.
• On the not so good:  Chandler (off balance), Rivers (50m line) and Langdon (v tight angle) took difficult 'hero' shots for goal and burnt multiple free players front and square within 20 - 30 mtrs of goal.  Except Langdon they had plenty of time to see the free players.  While intent was admirable it wasn't good teamwork. 

Not a pretty win but great to get it.

A beautiful day for watching a day game at the G.

Edited May 27, 20241 yr by Lucifers Hero

 

3 minutes ago, D Rev said:

Similarly, Windsor looked pretty shot and probably could do with a week off.  I dare say Billings is the natural replacement, but I'd like to see Taj get more game time. 

Billings has to be on the 'never again' pile. 162 games, two clubs. He has talent but is neither consistent nor physical enough to be an AFL contributor.

Agree RE: Windsor. The problem is, when was the last time an MFC player was managed? It's time for Windsor IMO. Taj has to get a run. Leave Windsor behind for the trip to the NT. 

1 minute ago, Demonland said:

 

In other breaking news; teams do well when they have key forwards kicking goals

2 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

You’ve mentioned the goalkicking as a negative. Whilst we had a couple of bad misses (Sparrow in the third the worst), this wasn’t IMO an issue of bad goalkicking, but rather us taking low percentage shots - too many from 40m+ out and/or wide on the boundary. 

We actually outscored our xScore.

I think we outscored our xScore because our kicking was outstanding in the third, kicked some beautiful goals from crazy angles. 
First quarter Fritsch missed from 45 directly in front, Kozzie missed 2 he should kick, Salem also, Langdon missed a low percentage one from the boundary but also missed 40m out on a slight angle. That’s 0/5 relatively easy shots, hit even two of those, game over. Second half was better but low percentage or no we had the chance to make this a much more enjoyable day, first world problems, but a problem that has cost us before.

2 minutes ago, D Rev said:

...

I know Goody doesn't like changing a winning team, but we can't carry two players like that every week.  Issue being, who comes in?  I dare say BBB wouldn't relish a trip to the Alice this week.  Possibly Sestan, Kolt or anyone that can apply pressure and has upside.

...

My sentiments exactly. Three marks and seven disposals between them. Petty laid one tackle. 

Similarly poor results for Petty last week - five disposals and one mark.

As you rightly say, the cupboard is bare as far as a replacement for Petty, but surely BBB on one leg or Sestan, albeit 9cm shorter, would offer more of a contest.

Steven May goal & celebration > Harley Reid 🤣

11 hours ago, PaulRB said:

There was a brief patch in the third quarter where our contest intensity and ball movement went into high gear and in 5 min we’d killed the game. That patch, is the level we’re seeking and working towards.

i was encouraged by that, and if we can take that into next week, grow it some more… then we may build some genuine momentum for the second half of the season and into finals. 
 

pumped! Go Demons…

this patch also reminded me of '21 where we'd have a burst somewhere in the 2nd half (usually in the 3rd quarter) and win the game in a very short period

15 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

Indeed.

I thought ANB was terrific again this week. I felt he was near our best against West Coast and I think his agility is becoming a real asset at centre bounce.

Salem got it a lot, but wasn't pressured much. St Kilda's half forwards were pretty ordinary. Salo hits targets no doubt, but I think he goes too slow and sideways too often. He's a beautiful kick and if he was more attacking with his kicks, I think he'd be more damaging.

I don't have a great deal to say on Salem's midfield work, I felt he was a bigger contributor off the back of stoppage and as an outlet when we moved the ball forward from D50.

I'd almost prefer Bowser playing that quarterback role that Salem played yesterday because IMO Bowser is the better kick. Both in terms of penetration, flatness and accuracy. I do love Salem's grit when the ball is on the ground though.

I thought Salo got the balance about right yesterday, he did take a number of corridor and quicker options, but you're right his default is getting the ball to safety.

And we're all keen for the ball in Bowser's hands more but I love when Bowser plays as a classic do a bit of everything half back flanker and he had a lot of quality defensive involvements. I thought it was a strong bounce back to form game and hopefully one to build on and given he came back fresh off a nasty shoulder injury and tweaked an ankle

We're probably a little light on for height but I thought Salem, Bowey, Riv and McVee all worked beautifully to control the game alongside the talls. Because the talls were going to be up against it if the ball was coming in fast or on the deck too often.

Hill, Henry and Darcy Wilson as a half forward trio have the potential to mess with a lot of sides. They aren't connecting with their mids and half backs well at all right now, but I'm glad we weren't the team to turn their fortunes around.

4 minutes ago, M_9 said:

My sentiments exactly. Three marks and seven disposals between them. Petty laid one tackle. 

Similarly poor results for Petty last week - five disposals and one mark.

As you rightly say, the cupboard is bare as far as a replacement for Petty, but surely BBB on one leg or Sestan, albeit 9cm shorter, would offer more of a contest.

So we saw BBB play last week and he didn't, and Sestan is - as you say, 9cm shorter - and an average VFL player with no tank, so no, he would not offer more of a contest.

Petty's lost all the confidence he had when he first went forward, and even when he first played this year. So if he is injured we need to play someone else. But if he's right to go there really isn't a better option.

10 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

In other breaking news; teams do well when they have key forwards kicking goals

It probably tells us that JVR is not impactful enough to swim against the tide. As in his goal tally is a result of a dominant midfield, not him dominating an opponent.

Free kicks:  21 to 10

Aside from my delight at that I thought the game was well umpired.  At the ground there didn't seem to be too many 'clangers' and rarely was there an uproar from the crowd over a free paid or not paid.

I actually felt a bit sorry for the Saints - that moment of weakness vanished when they put on three junk time goals ...

10 hours ago, Mel Bourne said:

McAdam is very much a work in progress. As well as learning a new system, he missed rounds 2–18 through injury last year, and had a far-from-ideal pre-season. 
 

Some folks here suggesting he “gets in the bin” or posting vomit emojis ought to be ashamed. He’s putting in the work. That’s all you can ask at this particular juncture. It’s about building a squad, and not every new player is going to fulfil some Karate Kid fantasy. 

Yep fair enough. Willing to give him more games to find his feet of course, did not know about the 6 tackles either that Dazzle mentioned earlier. It is easy to forget that he's missed a lot of footy.

Hopefully once he gets that match fitness up we'll see some more sparks.

1 minute ago, DeeSpencer said:

So if he is injured we need to play someone else. But if he's right to go there really isn't a better option.

I think this is it really, we’ve tried Schache, selectors don’t think Fullerton is ready yet, Jefferson and Sestan aren’t there yet and we don’t have anyone else so Petty stays. 

32 minutes ago, Jaded No More said:

I am disappointed with what we've seen from McAdams, but I also understand that he is lacking match fitness and it really shows. 

He stopped chasing late in last quarter on MCC wing, purely IMO from lack of fitness rather than endeavour.  Think Trac's effort to chase down harley last week - thats how its done, unsuccessful but never gave up.

But I can see why we recruited him and I think he has the talent.  Just not fit enough yet, and we only need one player in the team to consistently fly for Mark of the Year - and Kozzie has that entitlement.

BTW - what a lovely sight in the team song having young Casey arms around May and Salem.  Great effort by the club in this space.