27 minutes ago, jaydenh10 said:

is it safe to assume that balta wont be playing thurs? was very good last night although

The overwhelming consensus is that Balta will escape jail.

Therefore I don’t see any reason why he doesn’t play, considering Richmond’s been in a hurry to play him.

On a side note, lucky prior suspensions have no bearing or loading on the next one. Kozzie once again reported, but luckily can escape with a fine.

9 minutes ago, binman said:

It also coincidence with two players applying g very little pressure inside 59 being g dropped and season high tackles inside 50 numbers - a key element of our win discussed by both coaches in their pressers

Yep we got the lead out of our saddle bags.

5 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

The overwhelming consensus is that Balta will escape jail.

Therefore I don’t see any reason why he doesn’t play, considering Richmond’s been in a hurry to play him.

On a side note, lucky prior suspensions have no bearing or loading on the next one. Kozzie once again reported, but luckily can escape with a fine.

No idea what his fine was for.

Windsor was also reported for his late bump on Serong. I like his intent and aggression but like Pickett, he needs to learn how to rein it in.

21 minutes ago, titan_uranus said:

Goodwin in the presser mentioned that we needed to bring the ball to ground more, and compete at ground level more, in our forward line.

There's no doubt JVR and Fritsch have been dropped to work on those two things (JVR the former, Fritsch the latter).

I'd like to think that we won't see them back at AFL level until they demonstrate improvement in those areas.

I don't think that's impacted our transition game much at all. The stats had us moving the ball quickly, and getting from D50 to forward 50, better than most prior to yesterday's game. The biggest change yesterday IMO was forward half pressure and our stoppage work. I don't think May or Lever in the side impact either of those things at all, but would have provided us with a stronger back

Edited April 20Apr 20 by Jjrogan

On 19/04/2025 at 19:41, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Fritsch is a gun, the day we decide to move the ball quickly just so happens to coincide with the days he’s in the VFL. If we are now committed to playing this way we need to get him back in asap. Do we honestly think the delivery is going to be that good at Casey.

They must have asked him to work on aspects of his game.

Part of that possibly defence & pressure?

Work rate another maybe?

Edited April 20Apr 20 by Demon Dynasty

Howes can't play as a tall,

I have nothing against him but he will get murdered by Lynch and the other young talls they possess.

If May is still out give Adams Family a crack at it.

How good was the Wizard Jeff Farmers jumper preso speech?! Get more of that around the club. 🔴🔵😍

3 hours ago, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

Pretty sure he was also responsible for a couple of (thank God a lot fewer) poor inside 50 bombs...

Thought he was OK for pressure, but pretty average with ball in hand

Those lauding his best game in a long time are giving him a free kick considering he's barely played in ages

I think it’s more defending the calls for him to be dropped, was reasonable .

On 19/04/2025 at 18:55, Queanbeyan Demon said:

What game did you watch today? Played his best game in recent memory and probably in our best 10 on the ground.

I had Spargo in our bottom 3, not top 10. Too slow for a small with no skills.

11 hours ago, Adam The God said:

Yeah, May really worries me. As does Lever. I just wonder if we're actually going past them as a team. Controversial perhaps.

I'd be trying to get Adams in there. He's a nice kick and quick. The beauty of TMac as a defender is he's super quick to move it on and with movement ahead of him (with further belief in the new system), he's the sort of KPB we want. A neat kick who moves it on quickly and efficiently.

May looks done to me. He's 33 and has used his big frame as a battering ram. I'm surprised we're not giving Adams a shot, which likely has more to do with Adams than anything else. May had a terrible year last year by his standards and 2025 isn't looking much better. TMac on the other hand could well go to 2027, he doesn't play a high impact game and seems as fit as ever. Lever just keeps getting injured and there's not much we can do about that. Turner looked great on Amyss in the first half and Petty kicked 4 so maybe that's how we play it. 2 talls at each end with Windsor, Bowey, McVee and Lindsay running it out of defence and Pickett, Melksham, Fritsch, Petracca and Sparrow as the forwards? It's amazing what a win does for ones day, Life's good and full of opportunities again!

26 minutes ago, Roost it far said:

May looks done to me. He's 33 and has used his big frame as a battering ram. I'm surprised we're not giving Adams a shot, which likely has more to do with Adams than anything else. May had a terrible year last year by his standards and 2025 isn't looking much better. TMac on the other hand could well go to 2027, he doesn't play a high impact game and seems as fit as ever. Lever just keeps getting injured and there's not much we can do about that. Turner looked great on Amyss in the first half and Petty kicked 4 so maybe that's how we play it. 2 talls at each end with Windsor, Bowey, McVee and Lindsay running it out of defence and Pickett, Melksham, Fritsch, Petracca and Sparrow as the forwards? It's amazing what a win does for ones day, Life's good and full of opportunities again!

May is far from done..been carrying an injury.

No change other than McVee in for Turner. Rewards the team as a whole for performing.

Put Sharp on the field and carry a tall as the sub, either Jeffo or AJ. Gives us flexibility to drop Petty back if we need it.

Not as good at 33-34 as st 28-29

Not as good as I once was, but good once as ever I was.

So he plays when he is right to go.

Perhaps May, Petty and Adam’s rotate this spot. Defence does not win many but saves games.

Petty kicked well yesterday strength and aggression, I would like JvR to play that way, don’t think I have seen him get angry.

It makes a nice weekend when we win, Go Dee’s

13 hours ago, Bombay Airconditioning said:

Fritsch’s form is largely dependent on the delivery he receives. If we had been moving the ball like we did yesterday all season and Fritsch was doing nothing I could then cop him being dropped and having to fight his way back in, but we haven’t been so it’s unfair to judge him on 5 games or if you want to go back further. Not only was Fritsch struggling but all our fwds were as would most fwds in the competition if they played for us.

Correct! the delivery to Van Rooyen, Fritsch and Jefferson on Saturday was terrible!

47 minutes ago, seventyfour said:

No change other than McVee in for Turner. Rewards the team as a whole for performing.

Put Sharp on the field and carry a tall as the sub, either Jeffo or AJ. Gives us flexibility to drop Petty back if we need it.

If Jeffo or AJ is the sub, that’s two changes, so you’d be dropping someone else in addition to Turner.

12 hours ago, titan_uranus said:

…

Windsor was also reported for his late bump on Serong. I like his intent and aggression but like Pickett, he needs to learn how to rein it in.

I’ll just correct your spelling of ‘rein’. When talking about Windsor the appropriate spelling is ‘reign’.

12 hours ago, In Harmes Way said:

They took McVee off at 3QT, so judging him by his

17 hours ago, Roost it far said:

You get McVee in asap. We bought Kolt in after a long break, McVee comes in this week.

Mel

17 hours ago, Roost it far said:

You get McVee in asap. We bought Kolt in after a long break, McVee comes in this week.

The more better kicks in Melbourne's side the better,just need some senior players to play to there strengths,hand ball to the guys that can kick

On 19/04/2025 at 18:10, roy11 said:

Spargo, not the when quickest but was solid today. 19 disposals, 3 tackles in f50, 7 score involvements, 14 pressure acts etc, only knock on his game was his miss

Tried his guts out all day

3 hours ago, 640MD said:

Not as good at 33-34 as st 28-29

Not as good as I once was, but good once as ever I was.

So he plays when he is right to go.

Perhaps May, Petty and Adam’s rotate this spot. Defence does not win many but saves games.

Petty kicked well yesterday strength and aggression, I would like JvR to play that way, don’t think I have seen him get angry.

It makes a nice weekend when we win, Go Dee’s

Jvr does get angry. In fact it's cost him several weeks off

It just doesn't help his game .

And winning or at least playing well sure makes for a sunnier weekend.

Edited Monday at 02:275 days by leave it to deever

I am informed by the stark contrast in the way the forward line players worked on Saturday compared to the last several games. I was at the game watching their running patterns closely, which is something you can do from the stands that is not possible watching on TV.

Tom Fullerton displayed solid running patterns - getting to where the ball was or was coming and using height to advantage the smaller players. He can also actually take a mark, a capacity that JVR seems to be unable to demonstrate.

JVR’s running patterns are also poor and he cannot be considered now for whatever reason (form and confidence, or, alternatively, that he is simply not good enough per se - I am in the latter camp).

If it is poor coaching causing his lack of development then how does that actually work given he has been exhibiting these poor patterns for the whole of this 45 game career to date?

Further, Fritsch is a selfish player who does not defend much.

Dropping both immediately introduced players who elevated the pressure that was brought to bear and gave us higher probabilities of scoring after an inside 50 attack. We all could see that on Saturday and the causality was undeniable.

Hanging on to the ‘JVR superstar in the making’ narrative or the ‘Fritsch is a gun’ narrative has cost of us games.

Last Saturday demonstrated in rather clear terms the flawed nature of both narratives.

They should stay in the reserves team.

Every game counts now if we are to improve our ladder position by the end of the season.

We don’t have the luxury of carrying those two players.

5 minutes ago, William said:

I am informed by the stark contrast in the way the forward line players worked on Saturday compared to the last several games. I was at the game watching their running patterns closely, which is something you can do from the stands that is not possible watching on TV.

Sorry to go off topic, but your mention of that is what makes me so mad about the way they do the TV broadcasts. I'd like to see a wide shot as soon as someone marks the ball or gets a free. Instead we get a close up of the player with the ball. I don't care if he shaved that morning, I want to see what's ahead of him FCS!

4 hours ago, hank said:

I had Spargo in our bottom 3, not top 10. Too slow for a small with no skills.

If they are the metrics for assessing Spargo's performance, i'd respectfully suggest your assessment of his impact in the game is well and truly off base.

All week Goody talked about our need to improve our intensity and pressure, particularly up forward. He subsequently dropped two forwards, i suspect in large part because they were not applying enough pressure.

I went to the game, but have since watched the Fox replay, including the pre-game analysis, during which they banged on about Goody promising we would come out with more intensity and fire.

My point is that the coaching staff's starting point for assessing a player's performance, particularly forwards, would be whether they brought the heat and applied pressure

And on THAT metric, Charlie was outstanding - in addition to being part of a forward line that had season high inside 50 tackle count he had the:

• 5th most pressure acts (of the forwards only Sparrow had more 15-14)

• 6th most pressure points (of the forwards, again only Sparrow had more 37-33)

• Equal 4th most tackles (of the forwards, equal most with Sparrow and Kolt)

(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/ )

Leaving aside his terrific pressure, given he is a forward it's reasonable to judge him on his contribution to the scoreline.

On that front, whilst he only scored a point, he did have the equal fourth most score involvements (Max had 12, Koz 10, Trac 8 and Charlie had 7, as did Viney and Melksham).

Of the forwards, only Koz had more score involvements. But seven of Koz's score involvements were the 5.2 he kicked, meaning outside that he only had three other score involvements, whereas as Spargs had six (he kicked a point).

Edited Monday at 04:135 days by binman

Changes ?

Turner & Sharp or Milkshake are outs.

Howes to the sub role.

McVee and May/Adams in.

Like to see McVee in as it releases Riv to play more mid or running back in an aggressive style.

If May doesn’t come up, happy to give Adams a debut. He can play in a young Tiger forward such as Armstrong or Faull. McDonald plays on Lynch.

** the two keys to stop the Tigers

1) Vlastin. Can’t allow him to play unmanned as a loose defender. He’s too good. This is Goodys priority. No loose defenders

2) Contested footy. Taranto and Hopper were the winners and distribution machines to outside runners like Ross and Short. That’s the big focus to stop.

11 minutes ago, sue said:

Sorry to go off topic, but your mention of that is what makes me so mad about the way they do the TV broadcasts. I'd like to see a wide shot as soon as someone marks the ball or gets a free. Instead we get a close up of the player with the ball. I don't care if he shaved that morning, I want to see what's ahead of him FCS!

Agreed! When I watch at home (which is most games since I live in Sydney and can't travel down as much because of work), I'm always asking the TV "who are you aiming for? Who's there??"

1 minute ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Like to see McVee in as it releases Riv to play more mid or running back in an aggressive style.

Rivers played a very aggressive "running back" role without McVee in the team. IMV, he needs to stay at half back with the footy in front of him.

He's always been super dynamic in that role. His disposal can be iffy, but if we have more movement ahead of us, he looks A+ (only 3 turnovers from 26 touches on the weekend).

Without AMW, McVee should be locking down on the best opposition small and rebounding off them.