9 hours ago, binman said:

'Get on a roll, who knows, but I'm less concerned with percentage than I am with game style.'

Yep, and get games into Windsor, Kolt, Lindsay, Langford and Mcvee - individually and as a collective.

That's the future right there.

Good call.

At this point I'm much more interested in developing a consistent game style and where the majority of our score sources come from.

Once that's honed I'll want to see some beltings again

9 hours ago, Where Demons Dare said:

Richmond had a 5 day break as well, and blew us away in the last quarter. I wanted to see a commanding Melbourne victory, but all we got was a mediocre one.

I get what you wanted to see and I too was disappointed but it was great to be so far ahead that we could rest two really important players for the last 10 minutes. In that time their scores came from mismatches in the ruck and up forward.

9 hours ago, Pottsydee said:

I worry about Fritta, I really do. I was ground level tonight and watched him closely. He lacks hunger and the desperation that makes forwards dangerous. He really looks like he isn't invested. We know he has the ability and his forward craft is first class, just looks sluggish and disinterested.

I wonder if it’s due to him being a new father - lack of sleep?

1 hour ago, titan_uranus said:

I agree with most of this, having already posted to this effect. I was more taking issue with the significance you’ve attributed to our load management and 5 day break given Richmond had the same (even shorter) break with a younger squad.

The last para is utter rubbish. The fourth quarter was frustrating but not even close to the tripe we served up in rounds 2-5.

I reckon this was more about Langdon doing what he thought was the right thing (centring it), rather than ignoring the lead because it waa Fritsch. Langdon does it a lot. But yeah, the 0 tackles and 4 pressure acts can’t be good for Fritsch.

I agree. I doubt that in the heat of the moment Langdon would be saying to himself "I won't kick it to Fritsch because <Insert reason I don't like him here>".

1 minute ago, Dingo said:

I wonder if it’s due to him being a new father - lack of sleep?

I am genuinely surprised that people forget what this is like... (or maybe I am not)...

1 hour ago, 58er said:

Shorter break????

We played on 28 deg heat in middle of day.

Tigers played under roof which may have been very humid and were goaless in last quarter.

Prey please tell

Me which team was affected by both playing on same day.

Please check facts before parroting other posters.

Oxdee you of similar style name to Old Dee.

Please don’t get his negativity as a basis for posting He has already written about half our team off and we play with about a dozen players each week. No one is allowed more than ONE game before he writes them off.

Watch out Culley Sesto Pup Brown Adams Mentha I say!!!

Fair call.

I think we just put the pool stick back in the rack.

Almost dangerously too.

I'm not complaining about the win.

Loved it.

Big occasion too.

But we had almost 100 possessions more and our final quarter forced open a bottle of bourbon.

12 minutes ago, Dingo said:

I wonder if it’s due to him being a new father - lack of sleep?

Yeah no-one really talks about that. Can't be easy

9 hours ago, deegirl said:

Sadly my relationship with the club is more like this - quote Cathy in Wuthering Heights

‘My love for Heathcliff (Melbourne FC) resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary…He's (Melbourne) always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being

😂😂😂

Brilliant

I had to give it a bump

15 minutes ago, Salems Lot said:

I get what you wanted to see and I too was disappointed but it was great to be so far ahead that we could rest two really important players for the last 10 minutes. In that time their scores came from mismatches in the ruck and up forward.

As mentioned previously, 2 schools of thought on this. Neither is wrong and neither opinion can be deemed wrong at this point. We will see how good this idea is next week.

Will we be full of run and fresher than ever? Do we capitulate and let bad habits creep in due to flirting with form? Hate to be fence guy but it's definitely a big picture thing.

9 hours ago, Devil In Disguise said:

Viney’s kicking into the F50 tonight was shocking. What’s the story with that?

That was a really poor moment.

11 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Arrogant coaching by Goodwin for taking Gawn off.

Awful finish and now only few positives to come out after what was heading towards a really strong win.

Meh.

4 day break …we’re looking after Max ..I reckon we were all pretty cooked. Your comments were ..Meh

11 hours ago, Oxdee said:

Richmond had a shorter break and were full of running

Played on the same day ..we played in 28 plus deg in the middle of the day ..they played under the roof at Marvel.

11 hours ago, spirit of norm smith said:

Realistic

We beat a young Tiger team with rookies

Tigers missed Prestia, Gibcus and BALTA

Dees missed Lever and … full strength team

Terrible for 3 quarters

Played ONE QUARTER

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Gawn

💩💩💩💩💩Fullarton - so disappointed tonight Gave zero physical at contest … Casey and then delist

👏👏👏👏Rivers Langdon Tmcd Bowey Sparrow Chandler Viney Salem

Fritsch 💩🤣👺👍🏻☠️🌦️💔 he’s just a heartbreaker … defensively gives nothing

Wow …so how good are we with all the above negatives to win in just one quarter & we even get 4 points for it . Have a look at all the teams ..on average most win with one exceptional quarter.

11 hours ago, Gorgoroth said:

Habits matter, % matters and we let a bad habit creep in and we lost valuable %.

Happy we won of course, but as the players and coaches always say every moment matters.

Reminiscent of 2022 where we would switch on for a quarter to win and cruise for the rest of the game.

Not going to hack it against good sides.

Really was keen for Fullerton but can’t see him getting another game for a while after that, not while AJ was so dominant in VFL. We must have some sort of plan for when Max retires because it isn’t that far away. He is awesome!!

1 hour ago, dazzledavey36 said:

In comparison, Tom Sparrow laid 10 tackles and 29 pressure acts playing purely as a forward last night.

11 tackles according to the AFL ap (it was 12 tackles when we left the ground, so they've amended that), and Tom also kicked a goal.

So Fritta managed 1 extra goal and 11 less tackles and 25 less pressure acts...

And Fritta played from behind most of the night.

Sorry, he needs to be dropped.

12 hours ago, Demon Jack said:

Gee we have a knack of picking up tall forwards who have no physical presence whatsoever. Fullerton, Schache, Weideman to name a few.

And JVR.

While waiting at the airport to board the plane, and having just re-watched most the match again, considering the humid like weather (22 degrees) I would just take this win and move on. Skills were off, but was partly by the product of the condition imo, and effort was there.

5 day break in addition, but this was a match we should win and did win. Should beat West Coast too, but the true indicator for where we’re at will be against the Hawks and Brisbane in back to back weeks thereafter.

Preserving Gawn and May in tough conditions was the common sense thing to do.

Richmond and West Coast prove there are no easy matches. West Coast, with luck could have beaten Brisbane. Just bank this and move on. We beat Richmond because we are a good side, not because Richmond are necessarily [censored].

Edited April 25Apr 25 by VNightCityLegend

Next test is Hawthorn in a fortnight. Need a good win against WC. Tempting to take Campbell across and rest Max as much as possible to have him cherry ripe for Meek. No VFL game again is poor timing. Fritsch is miles off it and I’d be trading him on current output. JVR or AJ, Turner and Melksham back in, Fullerton, Sharp and Fritsch out.

14 minutes ago, Deestar9 said:

Wow …so how good are we with all the above negatives to win in just one quarter & we even get 4 points for it . Have a look at all the teams ..on average most win with one exceptional quarter.

That quarter is going straight to the pool room with the 3rd quarter against Essendon.

3 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

Yeah I thought this was pretty telling. I still don't think that was the correct option by Langdon and he's lucky it came off.

Fritsch had a pretty decent gap between the defender behind him and the fact it would have suited his left side as well was why I thought it was a strange decision. They are the perfect lead up targets we've been screaming for.

Interestingly I thought Goodwin was a bit guarded in his response to Fritta in his press conference. It's pretty evident that simply kicking goals isn't the only thing that will keep him in the side.

Someone mentioned before the 0 tackles and 4 pressure acts. Think I heard May and Bowey get interviewedafter the game and they emphasised that pre game the biggest thing coming into last night's game was that our pressure had to be right up it certainly showed from a team perspective, but unfortunately for Fritsch, his lack of pressure is pretty concerning.

I tend to agree.

I still wonder if there's space for AJ if thats what they're aiming at.

He should come in for Fullerton as our second ruck / forward.

His aggression and second efforts are just fantastic.

Not the classiest player but the forward50 pressure was what got us over the line.

As for Fritta, I just think JVR offers more.

Great to be there last night but getting home at 1pm after a night game always sucks.

Great to get a win.

Possibly the most boring game of AFL footy I have seen live in a long time. So few high moments, riddled with errors from both teams and umpires, little crowd excitement. And it was badly over-umpired.

May, Kolt and McVee are really underdone. May's experience showed out and he was able to contribute well.

The 2 defences were on top all night.

Gawn, Bowey, Salem & Trac were outstanding.

Loved the grunt work from Viney, Oliver, Sparrow and Chandler.

Having Tom Lynch miss so many was very satisfying.

We look good and clean when we get on handball chains.

So, not a great game but WE WON!! So feeling good this morning.

1 minute ago, Roost it far said:

Next test is Hawthorn in a fortnight. Need a good win against WC. Tempting to take Campbell across and rest Max as much as possible to have him cherry ripe for Meek. No VFL game again is poor timing. Fritsch is miles off it and I’d be trading him on current output. JVR or AJ, Turner and Melksham back in, Fullerton, Sharp and Fritsch out.

Nope. Next test is next week vs West Coast.

This team needs to play consistent pressure football to avoid flaming out to a bottom 4 finish. We don’t get to skip a week. If we lose to West Coast, the commentary on here during the 0-5 run will look tame by comparison to what we see next week.

20 minutes ago, KozzyCan said:

Reminiscent of 2022 where we would switch on for a quarter to win and cruise for the rest of the game.

Not going to hack it against good sides.

So let's analyse those games where we lose. As they say in the EPL, just get the win and move on.

The most important thing to see us continue to get better at is the game style. The switching, the sharing by hand, the overlap running, the quick playing on, the uncontested control game.

The style being played is very Arne Slot, who is about to win the Premier League in his first season.

If the opposition defence is set, share the ball uncontested at the back, switch and get the best angles to make incisive passes in the final third. Get the ball into a dangerous spot in the middle third of the ground and flick the switch and go quickly.

It's not the same game, but it's a very similar strategy.

Edited April 25Apr 25 by Adam The God