5 hours ago, Demon Dynasty said:

Campbell or AJ?

Even Turner might be an option once he's recovered.

Absolutely....i get the feeling he is also being ignored on the lead at times.

Take a look at the Lingers mad angled kick to Kolt in the third. Fritta was leading straight up at him, with oodles of space on his opponent.

Hitting Fritta directly in front with a 15 meter kick or so was by far the easiest of the two options.

There's no way Lingers could have missed him but instead chose to deliberately hack the ball at right angles, about 25 meters across traffic for a tricky mark to Kolt.

That's just one example. There was another from last week as well.

Fritta then burns Spargo in the last AND misses the goal also.

Strange days indeed. Most peculiar mama

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.

Edited Thursday at 22:102 days by dazzledavey36

7 hours ago, jnrmac said:

Fritsch as selfish as ever

“Every man looks out for himself, and he has the happiest life who manages to hoodwink himself best of all.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

Here is the Stats Files post for the game:

Edited Thursday at 21:262 days by WheeloRatings

8 hours ago, Nasher said:

Has to be in the conversation for best Melbourne player ever. Definitely the best in my Millenial lifetime.

My partner asked me tonight what Melbourne would do when Gawn finishes up. I changed the topic - honestly I can’t and don’t want to ponder that.

I saw Flower live a few times, I was 10 when he retired so prob never really appreciated how good he was.

The Ox would have been the best, of that I have no doubt. That man if he never did his knee would have been better than Carey.

Gawn is a different beast, Stynes was a great, White was so athletic and if the rules didn’t get changed would have dominated for longer, but Gawn is next level.

Best ruck I’ve seen and as King was saying on the commentary he is the most disruptive player in the league. He forces teams to plan around him and how they play.

Part two of your statement needs to be stricken from the records your honour 😂

9 hours ago, Salems Lot said:

5 day break was always going to be a factor. Reflect on that before criticising the last 10 too much

Bravo

Really disappointed with how we closed out that game and our last quarters remain a massive problem.

Should be able to pile on the pain against a fledgling Richmond side. We visibly put the cue in the rack. Had no right to do that after our first five weeks.

8 hours ago, binman said:

No, I don't think so.

We won after all. And apparently our pressure rating in the third quarter was 237. That's nuts.

After that we were never going to lose that game in the last quarter.

How many games have we all seen where a team where has the game wrapped up with 20 minutes on the clock only to give up easy goals late

As a punter who often backs the over 39 Line ne for value I can tell you it happens ALOT - for me most recently the port hawks game (I backed port for the win and over 39)

Could we have gone up a gear in the last if needed - I think so.

Did we need to?

That's another discussion - but as frustrating as it was I understand why we might have put the cue in the rack.

Taking Gawn off was the right thing to doing my opinion.

And besides but for some inaccuracy and poor decisions we would have equalled their score in the last.

And whilst I take your point about young players its not as if we didn't have our fair share of first and second year players too (four).

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.

8 hours ago, Abyssal said:

As I have already ask you, does resting players justify the those remaining on the ground to 1. Put the que in the rack and 2. Butcher the ball and hitting their opponents on the chest with 25m kicks?

Also, what example does it set Lindsay, Langford, Windsor, Tholstrup ?

BTW, Richmond had less of a break than we did.

What we served up in the last quarter was no better than that in our 4 straight losses this year and numerous losses late last year.

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.

36 minutes 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 Bower get interested after 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 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.

Our fwd line looked and was very competitive for almost 3 quarters.

It folded in the last.

Maybe fatigue but Tigers played last Saturday as well.

Great to see Fritta kick two valuable goals but he laid a total of zero tackles.

Is this STA correct?

And if so why? Viney amassed 15.

Is Fritta under instructions not to tackle?

I doubt it but so I'll simply state that stat is pretty poor and has been an issue for some time.

Last week and early in yesterday's game our pressure was way up everywhere.

Fritta please pick it up. Well done with the goal kicking

9 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.

This

Would be peak Melbourne to miss the finals on percentage attributable in part to this game

Good to win though !

9 hours ago, Oxdee said:

Richmond had a shorter break and were full of running

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!!!

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

1 hour ago, picket fence said:

I dont believe Fritsch will be at Dees next year, ya all can bookmark it!

Comment please Gwriter????

43 minutes ago, Gorgoroth said:

I saw Flower live a few times, I was 10 when he retired so prob never really appreciated how good he was.

The Ox would have been the best, of that I have no doubt. That man if he never did his knee would have been better than Carey.

Gawn is a different beast, Stynes was a great, White was so athletic and if the rules didn’t get changed would have dominated for longer, but Gawn is next level.

Best ruck I’ve seen and as King was saying on the commentary he is the most disruptive player in the league. He forces teams to plan around him and how they play.

Part two of your statement needs to be stricken from the records your honour 😂

Thst statement is so true. Ox would have been a better all round player than the North great. Maybe we might have broken our drought sst in 98 or 2000 ( not really Dons a generational team for ONE year).

So much ability a class.

8 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.

Agree I am worried about him too. Maybe it’s to do with having his first child and his mind and attitude is elsewhere. Either way he should be in the seconds until he is back in form on all accounts.

1 hour ago, WheeloRatings said:

Here is the Stats Files post for the game:

Interesting that Oliver had such a high player rating and Langdon, Salem and Viney had such poor ratings.

Watching live, I felt Viney and Windsor were poor with their skills and the noticeable weak links.

Max Gawn

9 hours ago, Abyssal said:

Nank, IMO, had bugger all to do with it.

Solely to do with our own easing off.

I’m happy we won.

But that last quarter was at best, concerning and at worst, pathetic.

Considering our very poor record in Final quarters this season as well as being 2nd last on the ladder I would have thought it would have somewhat redeeming if we put our foot on their throats in the last quarter.

And to those who have issue with us easing up in the last qtr and cruising to a win, what do you say about the example being set to Lindsay, Windsor, Tholstrup and Langford by senior players putting the que in the rack?

26 minutes ago, 58er said:

Thst statement is so true. Ox would have been a better all round player than the North great. Maybe we might have broken our drought sst in 98 or 2000 ( not really Dons a generational team for ONE year).

So much ability a class.

That's a bit like saying Melbourne wouldn't have won their five premierships (in the '50s) because John Coleman would have dominated the Dees. PS The Tardis is a useful vessel, but only if Rose is aboard...

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

I dont believe Fritsch will be at Dees next year, ya all can bookmark it!

Where’s he going and what will we get in return PF.

I haven't read any of this thread, but i'm a few beers deep and I wanna say, take a listen to Goody's post match presser. He talks about how he's not interested in who's playing for the team, but about how the team is playing. He's talking about dropping big name players or starting them on the bench. He's definitely sounding more ruthless than before. Also he name dropped Tom Sparrow, who most here would say hasn't been good this year, for his huge number of tackles. It really sounds like the team is starting to play the way he wants them to. If you wanna not be sad, try drinking the kool-aid for a few weeks and see how it goes. I would be rapt if we start playing well. I'm not convinced, but I hope i'm wrong. If we're not gonna sack him, may as well hope for the best. I'm torn. Go Dees.

I thought we played OK without being all that impressive against a young team…the classic do enough to get the 4 points without over exertion….lot of mucking about with the ball well over 400 possessions for 12 goals.

Hopefully Goodwin is right and the form is still building

8 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.

We took our skipper and our key defender off to rest them. For the first time in the game 33 was rucking against Nankervis. It totally impacted the flow of play.

10 hours ago, Abyssal said:

  11 hours ago, Salems Lot said:

5 day break was always going to be a factor. Reflect on that before criticising the last 10 too much

Yes, ran out of legs but also rested max and may for the second half of the quarter. We managed our important players which you can do when you are 45 points up.

I'm fine with the last quarter.

Some opportunities missed in the thirdn quarter are frustrating. We could've been 3-4 goals further in front.

Viney stuffed an easy easy opportunity straight in front early on. Oliver stuffed one with heaps of space from 50m out later in the quarter. Pickett used the ball poorly from a centre clearance after the Lynch goal, should've hit a lead.

And speaking of the Lynch goal, it only happened because May had just been taken off after rolling his ankle.

10 hours ago, Oxdee said:

Richmond had a shorter break and were full of running

We took our captain and key defender off to manage them which you can do when you are 45 points up

10 hours ago, KLV said:

Richmond also of a 5 day break

By being 45 points up we had the luxury of being able to rest Max and May.