3 hours ago, praha said:

With McVee returning I would assume that sees Rivers return to the midfield and Salem being able to push up the ground more. Still missing Lever obviously and an underdone May... structurally we are struggling as well.

Should see Rivers as a mid and Salem doing Judds old role,need Judds kicking skills moving forward

On 14/04/2025 at 15:29, Waltham33 said:

Play Jeffo and Fullarton both close to goal to drag their key defenders to the goal square. Make Freo defend height - Lions select Hipwood for that reason alone

You need to stop talking sense Waltham.

4 hours ago, SthSea22 said:

100%

Just think AJ has the angro and body to crash and bash

Roo needs to sit in the square

HF - Pickett, Jefferson/Turner, Chandler

F - Fritsch, van Rooyen/AJ, Tholtrup

Van Rooyen needs to go back to Slithera Park and

1 Learn to judge the trajectory of the ball

2 Not go to ground

3 Take a mark or two

3 kick a goal or 5

Till then he simply cannot be picked again!

5 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Van Rooyen needs to go back to Slithera Park and

1 Learn to judge the trajectory of the ball

2 Not go to ground

3 Take a mark or two

3 kick a goal or 5

Till then he simply cannot be picked again!

Arguably yes.

Reality ...won't happen

On 15/04/2025 at 09:30, beelzebub said:

Then maybe that is the move

Petty fwd.. Roo back

Either way both need to improve.

30 minutes ago, picket fence said:

Van Rooyen needs to go back to Slithera Park and

1 Learn to judge the trajectory of the ball

2 Not go to ground

3 Take a mark or two

3 kick a goal or 5

Till then he simply cannot be picked again!

1000% this.

Killing Rooh's confidence. He has zero form at present. All he does is ensure a complete team deflator for mids / wingers etc with no genuine dangerous key TALL target that presents, gets ball to ground, takes a few grabs and snags a few sausage rolls.

More shots & more goals also = more recovery time for mids & defenders, organising the press better, fresh players rotating off the bench and / or preferrably getting the man v man match ups (where / when needed) right✅️

With more goals also comes more CBs, a rare aspect of the game that we've actually improved in over recent weeks (ie; CB clearances!)✅️

This was last week's story which should've seen Fullo in for Rooh. The Petty forward move confirming this failure at selection ❌️

Brown Dog should've been in last week ahead of Spargo. It would seem Simon obviously doesn't rate either (Browny & Fullo) 👎🏻

Windsor back to his wing pls 👍🏻

Praying for Mcvee back this week. Allows Rivers to up his mid minutes even more = less minutes for Vines👍🏻

STILL WAITING FOR 'RUTHLESS' Simon!!

Won’t happen due to prior selection habits and delusions shown by Goody and MFC … but I’d go with some radical changes. ie. Any change is radical !!

Outs. Spargo. Henderson. JVR. Melksham.

Ins. Fullarton. Turner. Sestan. Kynan Brown.

Sestan to debut why not? Let the youngster show us something … or we can delist him at year end ! At least give him a go

Adams as an emergency in case May fails last minute fitness test

(Presume McVee and Throlstrup return via Casey)

Salem May Tmcd

Riv Petty Bowey

Windsor Viney Langdon

Chandler Turner Trac

Sharp Fullarton Fritsch

Gawn Langford Oliver

Int. Sestan Sparrow Lindsay Sharp

Sub. K.Brown

Emerg. Johnson Adams Verrall

12 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

I watched at summer training the forward coaching that Chappy did with interest. All of his positioning and pattern work is nowhere to be seen. They have completely gone into panic mode and are not doing what they were taught over the off season. In particular, the lead ups, the use of small forwards to rove contexts etc.

When what you learn is not followed, all we have is the old forward panic stations. God help us…..

This has been one if the most noticeable aspects - where are all the leads from our forwards, medium and talls?

It was particularly evident in the bombers game given they went small with selection.

Leaving aside the inanity of that decision, why weren't the smalls and mediums going crazy making lead after lead?

It did my head in watching us constantly kicking long to mediums and smalls, in most cases out numbered ones at that - surely that wasn't the plan?

And jvr seems to have stopped making any leads altogether. Just wants to wrestle.

Jeez I dislike being ordinary so soon after climbing to the top. For mine it’s an indictment on the whole club and everyone in it. We simply shouldn’t be where we are. Fremantle will very likely belt us on our home turf with 15-16 Premiership players and several high draft picks. That’s simply embarrassing.

On 13/04/2025 at 12:44, jane02 said:

Ok - I’m going to go. I’m so disappointed like everyone else but I’m not giving up on the club. Been a member for a long time and we’ve been down this path before.

I'm taking young Edward again. My poor 4 year old is going to learn resilience through the Melbourne Football Club like his father. His first full match was the North game and his second full match was the Suns game. He's very lucky.

11 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

Jeez I dislike being ordinary so soon after climbing to the top. For mine it’s an indictment on the whole club and everyone in it. We simply shouldn’t be where we are. Fremantle will very likely belt us on our home turf with 15-16 Premiership players and several high draft picks. That’s simply embarrassing.

Me neither

I hate it more that Greg hates his last round at Augusta in 96

13 minutes ago, Adam The God said:

I'm taking young Edward again. My poor 4 year old is going to learn resilience through the Melbourne Football Club like his father. His first full match was the North game and his second full match was the Suns game. He's very lucky.

I just got my 15 year old daughter to love the footy. We’re going on Saturday so we better see some decent effort.

There’s lots of pieces to move about but changes I really want to see:

Disco in to play CHB, lever type roaming role. Came to the club and played this role at Casey to knock the door down for his debut. If he took an intercept mark a quarter and had a few spoils (with low frees against) that would be a huge win.

Kynan in to tag serong. If he can’t last the game, no worries. Give him help. Sub him out if he empties his tank. But let him have a chance to make a difference. I have no doubt he is willing to try. A win for him in my eyes would be 12 touches and 8+ tackles. (That said Serong is a gun and could pick him or any one of our players apart on his day)

5 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I just got my 15 year old daughter to love the footy. We’re going on Saturday so we better see some decent effort.

The crazy thing is as furious as i was, and still am, about our performance lsd5 week, I'm starting to get excited about going to the footy on Saturday.

As always, we'll know 10 minutes in if we've come to play. My mood will revert very quickly if the answer we haven't.

I picked the wrong season to start following the spurs.

8 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

I just got my 15 year old daughter to love the footy. We’re going on Saturday so we better see some decent effort.

Does she know how scoring works?

‘No no, the lower score the better, look at us go!’

2 minutes ago, binman said:

The crazy thing is as furious as i was, and still am, about our performance lsd5 week, I'm starting to get excited about going to the footy on Saturday.

As always, we'll know 10 minutes in if we've come to play. My mood will revert very quickly if the answer we haven't.

I picked the wrong season to start following the spurs.

The problem is 2fold though. Sure we need to bring some serious effort but if our forward entries are more of the same Freo will have a field day from the back half.

3 minutes ago, BoBo said:

Does she know how scoring works?

‘No no, the lower score the better, look at us go!’

I'd stick with - geez our jumper is the best. Great colours.

13 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

I watched at summer training the forward coaching that Chappy did with interest. All of his positioning and pattern work is nowhere to be seen.

This.

Worth remembering that we kicked 18.9 in the practice match against the Roos, and 11.24 (accuracy!) against Fremantle. Not too many problems with scoring in either of those games.

5 minutes ago, binman said:

I'd stick with - geez our jumper is the best. Great colours.

It’s really a matter of representing the best 2 out of 3 primary colours. Always has been.

Yellow, pffft, please.

If anyone's looking to Jefferson (2 games ...) and Fullarton (6 goals over 3 seasons at the Lions) to save us, we're in trouble.

We desperately needed JVR to step up, Turner to consolidate his position up forward, Johnson to be that niggling 1 - 2 goals a game journeyman forward, even Jefferson to show he's ready for the big time. But so far, none of that has happened.

I don't know what the answer is as I don't believe that we currently have one. Tom McD or Petty forward? At least they'd make a contest.

We could always try using Pickett in the role Charlie Cameron fills so effectively for the Lions.

Oh, I forgot. We don't have a single elite tall forward and anyway our coach obviously prefers us to just bomb long kicks aimlessly into the eager hands of defenders.

Sigh.

16 hours ago, buck_nekkid said:

I watched at summer training the forward coaching that Chappy did with interest. All of his positioning and pattern work is nowhere to be seen. They have completely gone into panic mode and are not doing what they were taught over the off season. In particular, the lead ups, the use of small forwards to rove contexts etc.

When what you learn is not followed, all we have is the old forward panic stations. God help us…..

Aside from Kozzy (a natural) and Melk (experienced but not at the level he was in 2018 - 2020 ish and coming back from a niggle) we have no leaders / major experience down there BN.

Someone who has the craft down pat and can lead the way when the less experienced are waning / wondering and finding their feet.

Certainly not in a genuine power forward / key forward sense anyway. We put all our eggs into Rooh but to date he hasn't come on and looks like he is badly in need of major forward craft coaching from a reputable ex top line forward.

At this point in his career Rooh should only be a 2nd stringer behind the main go to key forward surely. And that's IF he can hold that down. Maybe he can, maybe he can't.

In that sense the cupboard is bare.

Rooh is also being asked to ruck a fair bit.

The only other option is T-Mac (unlikely as he is well past his best in this part of the ground, from the horses mouth) and Petty. Petty already under the pump and struggling down back.

Goodwin could give the Petty forward experiment another few chances. But may need to bring Adams to cover off down back. Petty forward smacks of desperation though.

Big bodied (decent) KFs don't seem to find their way to the MFC either. We had one in the making in Hogan but alas.

3 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Petty forward smacks of desperation though.

We're desperate.

11 hours ago, Adam The God said:

I'm taking young Edward again. My poor 4 year old is going to learn resilience through the Melbourne Football Club like his father. His first full match was the North game and his second full match was the Suns game. He's very lucky.

He is very lucky but so are we all,

10 hours ago, bing181 said:

If anyone's looking to Jefferson (2 games ...) and Fullarton (6 goals over 3 seasons at the Lions) to save us, we're in trouble.

We desperately needed JVR to step up, Turner to consolidate his position up forward, Johnson to be that niggling 1 - 2 goals a game journeyman forward, even Jefferson to show he's ready for the big time. But so far, none of that has happened.

I don't know what the answer is as I don't believe that we currently have one. Tom McD or Petty forward? At least they'd make a contest.

I sure hope not. With no Lever and likely no May this is not the game to muck around with our key backs. Treacy is probably the form key forward in the comp. They have a very good forward line

IN :JEFFO, FULLO, BROWNO, SESTO, LAURO

OUT : VAN ROOYENO, SPARGO, HENDO, SHARPO, MELKO

LUCKY TO HOLD PLACE VINEYO

Assumes Mayo and Kozzo are fit!

Won't happen though coz the luuuurve childs will play coz incredibly confident coach is backing F Troop to turn it around!