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I'm going out on a limb and say his game was good not terrible. Squibbing the mark in 4th qtr was awful but then Max squibbed a contest with Ryder last week. Pertacca dropped an easy mark but so did Jones last week. Sh-t happens. I know stats aren't everything but they warrant consideration: 16 possessions (@ 81.3% efficiency) of which 11 were contested, 3 clearances, 7 tackles (4th highest) and 7 inside 50 (also 4th highest). That describes someone who was aggressive, worked hard and was relatively clean with the ball. Folks notice the 3 clangers but they don't undo his good work. He played on the ball where he did a serviceable job as his statistics show. He played deep in a forward line that hasn't a clue what it is doing and the ball rarely got far enough in fwd 50 so he didn't score. The club needs to decide if he is an on-baller or a forward. This 'hybrid' role isn't working for him or the team. He won't be nor should he be dropped.

Still shaking head at the end margin. I witnessed a lot of effort from most on the night. I look at efforts like Melksham’s in the third and wonder why. The Cats were rebounding broadcast side halfback/wing in the third, our defenders all push to that side to block options leaving Parfitt alone on the outer wing and pushing in behind our defence for an easy out the back option. The Milkshake spots this and sprints 100 meters from our forward 50 to man him up. How can you knock that? The game was alive I thought 10 minutes into the third when 20 points down and playing the game on our terms. Couldn’t buy a goal when it mattered and you could sense once they went forward they would score. I lost count as to how many Geelong goals came within 25m of goal. Big problem but can be fixed hopefully. Also, we’ve allowed goals in our defensive 50 from stoppages too easily so far. Hope the coaches work overtime this week and rectify these issues quickly. All it takes is one ugly win to get back on track, please let it be Friday night.

The end score is obviously unkind and forgettable, but take a deep breath everyone. We won inside 50s and clearances. That is an improvement. Guys like Clarry and Max and Viney are responding and getting back to their normal outputs. Now we just need T Mac to rediscover some form and we should start resembling ourselves again. There are probably a few more to mention but I reckon t macs current form is hurting us the most right now as we rely on him for a lot in the forward 50. Most here conceded that we had a very interrupted pre season with many surgeries, and far shorter than we’ve been used to in over a decade to boot. Well it’s only round 2 and this is still obviously a huge factor from what I’m seeing. Again, take a deep breath. I think we’ll be fine and the panic stations some have arrived at already mostly reflects your lack of mental resilience more than anything else. Many here comment on how the boys will handle the expectation that’s been put on us this year, well most of you are failing that same test right now by throwing your toys out of the cot after 2 games.

Finally an intelligent and considered observation. And to all you armchair personal trainers commenting on his weight, try to understand that manipulating ones body mass can be incredibly more difficult for some. Conversely, look at Jeffy - he spends just as much time in the gym as anyone else in the team and has arms like toothpicks. Petracca wasn’t even our worst and some of you ought to be ashamed for the way you are talking about a fellow human right now. Bunch of bloody keyboard warriors, love to see you lot go down to training this week and share these comments with him in person.

I wonder how many of you had the same reactions after the Hawks beat us by a similar margin in Round 4 last year? We already had a couple of wins on the board by then too, so that result was even less expected. Things are never as bad as they seem. We had roughly 55 inside 50s in that Hawks game for just six goals, yet we quickly righted the ship and the rest was history. We might have some injuries and fitness issues to deal with at the minute, but we have the talent and the competitiveness to turn things around.

Well, that was a filthy night at the office. Felt like we had worked our way back into the game in the second quarter, but the writing was on the wall for us when guys like T Mac, Melksham and Freitch miss relatively straight forward goals they would gobble up 80% of the time. Doesn't help when Geelong ended up with 25 free kicks to 12, including a very dubious 50m penalty to them. I really don't feel like the scoreboard reflected our performance tonight. It wasn't a great performance by us, but we weren't that bad either. Positives for me were our midfeild was dominant and most of our backs were ok. I thought Frosty put in a pretty decient game today. Forward line with the exception of Melksham was pretty bloody ordanary though to say the least. I don't think Sparrow is quite ready yet and needs to go back down to Casey for a bit. Nibbler has been practicality non existent, Weid and Tommy have been struggling big time. Pattraca had a stinker. I don't think we can drop too many at once, because all of a sudden, our forward stocks are pretty slim pickings through injury and form. From the Casey report, it sounds like Stretch deserves a game, so I'd like him back in the side, perhaps for Sparrow or Nibbler and then shuffle a few around. Our forward line looks very stagnant and is missing good delivery. I'd like to see one or both of Freitch and Hunt down their. Would also like Salem to push forward more, but don't think we can afford to loose his delivery out of our back half. Honestly, this game felt a lot like the Hawthorn loss of last year. It was a bad loss in it's own right, but I don't think we are that far off the pace. Just need to chalk up a few wins for some confidence and to stay in the Hunt.

My team Brisbane is up near the top.

Spot on Luci - I've wondered about this for years. Much of a presser is useless because meaning is lost due to not hearing the question.

I'm surprised how calm I am after that result. The effort was there from 90% of the team for the whole match. We smashed them in the clearances, but we failed to score and capitalise, whilst they scored with ease. I realise we are underdone due to post season surgeries and the shorter preseason that is foreign to us but I'm not sure how much we can use that as an excuse. Clarrie had arguably the most debilitating of surgeries and he was back to his best last night, Viney too was looking more like what we expect of him. It's clearly the game plan that is the issue here. At one stage we had 32 inside 50s without a goal, while they had 4 goals from 4 entries. Has any team in the history of the game had 25 more inside 50s and lost by 80 points? Game plan needs a royal commission this week.

Predicted the Port and Geelong losses weeks ago, and said we would have a big win in Round 3 vs the Druggos to get things rolling. The bad part of the season is done with. Its all sunshine from here.

It's two things. You can pin it on specific players all you like, but individuals aren't really the problem for us right now. It's how quickly we move the ball, and the poor use of the ball going forward. Both are related. We get it, we bomb it and we generally turn it over at the moment. Our gameplan is to kick it in there, keep it in there and get a goal. Every now and then we might hit a lead, or get someone out the back, but it's a rarity. Teams have pretty much worked us out when we go forward. A prime example for me was the first foray forward in the last term. Melksham marks, turns and kicks... to basically a three on one, as the Cats all went straight to the hot spot. When the ball hits the deck they have the numbers, because we usually don't move it quick enough, and then they run it down the other end as they've set up to do so, while we have sent numbers forward to lock the ball in. They have acres of space to hit targets and we can't defend it. I'm an optimist, but this isn't working. We need to look closely at it. What's the fix? Weideman and Tom McDonald can't get near it, so we get stuck into them, but what chance to they have when the ball is kicked long to a contest all the time? What are they supposed to do? I know we have players down on form, but the way we go about things doesn't help. Shifting a few out for others won't change a whole lot at this stage. I thought our efforts around the ball were much, much better. We had a dip pretty much all night and worked hard to match them in all areas. Our ball use was poor, though, while they took every chance they got. Think about the third term. We kicked a few points - one of them being a goal might have changed our mindset, changed our outlook. But we missed them all, they scored one from one entry and it was pretty much all over. I mean, getting it forward isn't the problem for us. Using it properly and/or keeping it in there, is. Positives? Our mids worked hard all night. I like the look of young Sparrow and what he can bring to the side. KK will be better for the run. Outside of that, there isn't a whole lot else. Individuals aren't the problem, here. As I said, we have players down on form, but they aren't the core issues right now. The game plan is the major issue. We need to fix it and quick. It's not panic stations for me yet. We can easily still make finals. But we need to change it up to do it. Chin up, people. Let's do our best to stick by the club and hope we bring the same intent, and better usage forward of the ball, on Friday night. If we do then we win and get our season back on track.

Hore will come in for May as he was the carryover. And for those saying Keilty to play back, he has trained as a Key Forward all preseason and that’s where he’s played the last 4 games. There’s Hore and Petty in front of him so there’s no chance of him playing as a defender. Hes had 2 strong games in the VFL and Goody gave Keilty a mention in his presser so hopefully Friday night at the G will finally be his debut.

Yep. The trade is a bust because we haven’t had much value in the first two games.

Trust Melbourne to have a Preliminary Final hangover. Seriously though, these are all the same issues we've seen before. Bombing forward. Extreme defensive leakage. Forward inefficiency. Can't take a contested mark to save ourselves. And we've overcome them all before with limited tweaking. We have a difficult game-style to execute. High contested intensity, fast ball-movement, a forward defense. We believe that that level of difficulty will deliver a premiership edge when we get it down as second nature. I've said all along that the game-plan is a roll of the dice, designed to break open such a tight comp. But it needs to click before we can judge. 17 blokes under the knife during the off-season isn't ideal in this respect. Despite the score, we showed some signs of heading in the right direction today.

Funny you know, i thought they collectively showed more than last week. Even though the scoreboard showed differently. Which brings me to the point of post. They to me have been, dare i say it, purposely underdone and are gradually switching on. I'm game to say it. If i'm wrong it's going to be a long learning curve for this young group.

Tracc had a mare. That's how big his hips are.

Casey defeated Geelong 12-7-79 to 7-9-51 Carryover emergency : Hore Goal scorers : 2 Stretch, T.Smith, Keilty, Gent 1 Preuss, Chandler, C.Wagner, Munro TEAM B: WHITE, HUTCHINS, TYNAN HB: J.WAGNER, PETTY, MUNRO C : BAKER, MAYNARD, MCCAFFERY HF: C.WAGNER, T.SMITH, GENT F: BEDFORD, KEILTY, CHANDLER FOLL: PREUSS, STRETCH, SPARGO IC: STOCKDALE, STEPHENSON, D.COLLIS, W.COLLIS, M.LEWIS, WALE-BUXTON, D.FRITSCH, GAHAN SPARGO: Disappointing, slow start got into it a little bit but is a long way from a senior recall. BEDFORD: Quiet done a few good defensive things finds it hard to find the ball. STRETCH: Had a blinder he was everywhere and kicked 2 goals very close to senior selection. MAYNARD: Nothing to write home about really a few good inside things but he isn't playing near his best like he did a few years ago. PREUSS: Beat his opponent in Zac Smith but needs to do more around the ground. BAKER: Just a game done a few good runs but that was about it. PETTY: A class above Oscar should be in the side. Done everything right. CHANDLER: A work in progress but showed some good signs. T.SMITH: After a slow start worked into it Pretty well, missed a few shots but kicked 2. C.WAGNER: Fantastic game but let's himself down by foot sometimes. J.WAGNER: Really good second half a solid backman. KEILTY: After a good start realitively quiet took some good marks. McCaffery spent the second half on the bench not sure if injured. Good to see Hutchins at full back as solid as ever don't play him forward again.

Agree with this. If there is one thing we Melbourne supporters are exerts in, it's experiencing pathetic performances and enormous losses. This was not one of them. Yes, it was an 80-point loss on the scoreboard but it was far from an 80-point loss on the performance and balance of play. Make no mistake, we were nothing flash, but we weren't nearly 15-goal losers. A nice little statistic I look at after games is the expected score vs actual score (based on teams' usual goal-kicking accuracy probabilities). The expected score was a 44-point loss to Geelong. As usual against us, they could barely miss on their home turf, kicking snaps and goals from the boundary in the wet. We, as usual against Geelong down there, missed a number of easy chances. So ignoring any other factor, on just goal-kicking accuracy probability alone, the deficit would've been halved and would've IMO more accurately reflected the state of the game. That period in the third quarter summed up the game. We dominated the early parts and should've been back to within 2 goals - instead, we don't score, the Cats go bang, bang, bang from 3 entries and all of a sudden it's 7 goals the difference and game over. We crumbled too easily at the end but it's human nature to drop off when you put so much effort in for no reward and you see the game slipping away. Despite all this, we clearly have key issues to address at both ends of the ground. Structurally we were an absolute mess up forward - probably the best indication of this was the number of times we kicked it inside 50m and the next player to touch the ball was a Cats player (it seemed to happen all the time). The mids just hacking it in without looking certainly didn't help, but it almost looked like they were told just get it in at all costs given our desire to play a forward-half game. Problem was we showed absolutely no ability to lock it in there and Geelong are probably the best team at setting up a defensive structure to deal with hacked kicks forward. We currently look stodgy up forward, predictable and devoid of X-factor and flair. And defensively we are almost in as bad a shape as up forward. Geelong's forward line is hardly imposing, especially when their best forward Hawkins is nullified by the weather. But they scored 20 goals from 48 entries - a quite ridiculous statistic in the wet. Port the same. Richmond the same in JLT 1. Brisbane the same in JLT 2. Essendon have really struggled with their inside 50 efficiency so far this year so if we can't improve in that area next week we are in a fair bit of trouble.

Yes.. we traded a guy who didn't want to be at our club for a proven full back, KK & Tom Sparrow.

Some on here really need to look at what they wrote in similar circumstances last year. “Where are we going to find x goals from”, “we should drop x y and z to teach them a lesson”, “ we should sack the coach” etc etc. Then go back and see what Goodwin said in the press conferences after those games, I think you will find that just about everything he said they were going to do, they did. Sure there were hiccups along the way, but that’s life and that’s sport. Now watch the press conference from last night, listen carefully and you will see the same. He basically lays down the plan for you. I’m as passionate as everyone on here, but I can see that despite that being an 80 point loss on the scoreboard, it’s not reflective of where we are overall. We were worse last week and lost by much less. Geelong were at their absolute peak efficiency last night. We were at our worst, and in areas of the ground that really matter to the scoreboard. That can turn around very quickly. Pruess will come in next week I reckon to act as a foil for Weid and Tmac, Trac will be able to crumb rather than act at as a key position forward, May will be out injured and I imagine there would be one other change. Probs a smaller type (Spargo?) or a replacement defender, Kolo will be better for the run, Lockhart has some X factor and I reckon by round 6 we will be wondering what all the fuss was about. Enjoy your Sunday all and I look forward to seeing you at the game next week ?

Who wants to short-sell their guaranteed Grand Final ticket now? I'll take it for the right offer. I hope no-one is getting sucked in by this 0-2 statistical BS. What are the odds of making finals if we win the next three games, and sit at 3-2? Or even just the next one, for 1-2? Fugazi.

Sure we had numerous i50 and lost by 13 goals but that isn't the major worry for me. What is most frightening is we had 100 tackles but lost by 13 goals. Let that sink in... Its not often a team has 100 tackles and loses, let alone be thrashed. Especially when you also easily win the hitouts, clearances and be not far behind on contested possessions. Those things are the very essence of 'our brand'. What is frightening is that we executed 'our brand' very well and we won on nearly every one of its criteria yet we lose by 13 goals. If 'our brand', the 'Melbourne Way' is failing that badly, i just don't know where we go. Its hard to see how 100 tackles can be improved upon. After last year's Hawthorn game PJ said the players trashed our brand. Last night they didn't; they executed it quite well. It wasn't lack of effort, nor 'drinking bathwater'. Something deeper and much more insidious is at play. It must be really demoralising for the players to know they did pretty much what the coaches ask of them re 'our brand' and have that result. The coaches have some serious thinking to do.

I'll weigh in with some things that baffle me. ANB had 8 possessions at 44% efficiency last night. Came out of the draft as an inside mid who was known for throwing it on the boot. Tom Sparrow is an inside mid whose weakness is his ball use and is playing his second game. Both of those guys were our half-forwards. Compare to Geelong's half-forwards. Miers, Rohan and Dalhaus. Dynamic and skillful players who are true forwards. That's one example of where Goodwin is failing. Backline - Why would he bring Steven May in to play a Jake Lever role? He is a one-on-one specialist and should have been on Hawkins from start to finish. How many times do Melbourne defenders fly for the same spoil? At one time, I saw four in the air with some leaving their opponents on the ground to pick-up loose ball. How long are we going to continue leaking such easy goals? Why do they all try to be superman and then look at each other in such a confused way when the ball bobbles only to result in a goal? Goodwin needs to change our defensive system, that is one thing I'm sure of. This rotating on players, guarding of space carp is becoming ridiculous. We continue to leak goals and cannot seem to stop runs of goals. We're far too aggressive as a backline. Mids - We've drafted for contested players. Naturally, they gravitate to the contest and this is a massive issue for when we try and win the ball but don't. It means all of our mids are in the same small area and oppo teams will just hand-ball out of traffic to a man in space. We see ball, get ball and bang ball forward without a care. This system will not always work and is not always necessary when there's space and time to look to where the best option is. I am so so sick of seeing players kick as quickly as possible forward without a care. There must be a change to this. West Coast and now the first two rounds. Signs are not good.

You can’t just single him out. We are collectively woeful right now and Goodwin needs to start earning his money.

AFL have nailed the Friday night fixturing once again. A 17th vs 18th blockbuster.

That Don Tyson bloke from Norf would be very handy depth at the moment.

Petracca is not the problem. He can and will be great when the other 4 forwards excluding Melk pull their weight and we also learn how to deliver the ball into our forward 50. It is hard to win when you have 2 on you, because 4 of your other forwards are so pathetic that their opponents don't bother with them and help out on Trac and Melk. How ANB is preferred to Billy or even Corey is beyond me. This BS about his pressure is just that. Go watch the 3rd quarter last night for example and see him beaten in every contest and then fall over and let his opponent start off another play that ends with a Cats goal. 8 possies at 44% is actually next to useless. That is at best 3 effective possies. When he then gets in the way of other players it just compounds. I did more for the Dees last night by simply going to that sh-thole of a ground and sitting there in the rain.

Just get rid of Neal Bullen please. His involvements last night were bizarre to say the least and the kid manages to kill momentum like nobody’s business. Frustrates the absolute [censored] out of me.

Jesse Hogan doesn't have mongrel but he will be a bloody good forward for many years to come. I genuinely believe Weideman has the potential to emulate the same way Josh Kennedy career has. I love the way Kennedy goes about his business. He's not the mongrel forward like a Carey or Brereton, but it doesn't stop him crashing into packs and using his solid frame to his advantage. Something Weideman will start to realise once he fills out.

Not sure if you realised but it rained the whole game... everyone fumbled, Viney, Gawn Jones and Brayshaw all had the fumbles at some stage throughout the game. Unfair to single him out individually. This × 10

Good post. My worry is our game plan is purely contested footy. There's no balance. If hacking the ball forward with no structure, leading patterns or skill / efficiency is our game plan and brand then there's a reason we are getting pumped. I've been concerned about the forward 50 efficiency for over a year now. It's dumb football to put a whole heap of effort into getting the ball inside 50 only for it to come straight back out again or without a hope of hitting up a target. Our forward 50 entries are bomb and hope, that's amateurish at a professional level. Our scoring opportunities are easy to defend against and Geelong just sat behind the ball and counter attacked us last night. We conceded 14 goals from turnovers against Geelong. The other worry is that a team like Hawthorn is moving away from a contested brand of footy and trying to utilise space and skill to setup more efficient opportunities at goal. We have drafted players that are predominantly ball winners but without much polish. We are going to keep getting found out against teams who are willing to sit back and soak up pressure and who have clean skills and speed going the other way. The games being won on the counter attack from turnovers and we don't have wings or forwards to implement that ball movement at the moment or to use the space on the ground to cut a team up and utilise easy scoring opportunities.

Me too. Trac had an off season injury and surgery I believe and is therefore needing a bit of time to find his best. If not for his set shot kicking last year, you would say he had a very good season last year. He will get back to that form. ANB on the other hand offers us nothing and in fact often gets in the way and costs us.

No way will he be dropped. If he gets drop and ANB is still in the side then i will stop supporting Melbourne and AFL in general. Out of form and somehow needs a game to rediscover that. Could next friday be that match? Hope so, i am backing him.

Today's game was very similar to what happened v Hawthorn last year. We got smashed bombing it into our forward 50 and Geelong rebounding and getting us out the back. Im confident we will sort out the problem, like we did last year and went on to win 20+ quarters in a row, but need to win at least two of Peptides, Sydney and Saints to keep in touch. Positives for me were our engine room starting to work, Oliver, Brayshaw, Gawn and Harmes, along with Viney and Melksham working back into form, a game into May and KK, and that we are fielding one of the youngest sides. Our system is clearly not working at the moment, bombing into our forward 50, losing crucial contests resulting in opposition goals and not applying enough pressure to create defensive stoppages. Next few weeks will be important.

BEST 22 TEAMS WERRIDEE CAN SUPPORT INSTEAD: B: RICHMOND, FREMANTLE, COLLINGWOOD HB: NORTH BALLARAT, FRANKSTON, RINGWOOD C CARLTON, FOOTSCRAY, UNIVERSITY HF: NORF, MARYBOROUGH, BELL PARK FF: CORIO, SHEPPARTON, BRISBAND RUCK: GEELONG, GEELONG, GEELONG BENCH: CASEY, SANDRINGHAM, WILLIAMSTOWN, OLD COLLEGIANS

Bingo. Trac aint the problem. He is out of form for sure, as evidence by some of his errors tonight, but the issue is so much more around how we are playing at the moment in terms of our game style. Chris Scott out coached us big time tonight.

A couple of things I keep thinking about: Last year we were the league leaders in quarters won. At one stage we won 20 straight. This year we're 1-7 and we've lost 7 in a row. Last year we were the highest scoring side in the league, averaging 104.5 points in the home/away season. This year it's taken us two games to score 107 points and that's less than Fremantle, one of the league's lowest-scoring sides in 2018, scored in Round 1 alone. We've already lost the contested possession count this year the same number of times we lost it in the entire 2018 season.

I haven't seen the game but it's not hard to imagine what it would have looked like. I can see it now - midfield getting enough of the ball at stoppages but when they get their hands on it there's no link-up of handpasses to break into space and deliver a measured ball inside 50. It's grab it and then kick it straight away. Geelong have one of the best defences in the league but we went into the game with no small forwards and three key forwards who are all out of form, and then we continued to play non-forwards as half-forwards. That all means we get the ball inside 50 a stack but we have no ability to mark it or to crumb it. So it comes back out again. But we've set up to keep it in our forward half so we often get it back off Geelong and repeat our attempt to score. Eventually, though, Geelong get through our press and they have an acre of space in their forward half to work with. They take shots from in front, they make the most of them, and they isolate weak defenders. We looked liked this in the Hawthorn and Richmond losses last year, when we slumped to 2-3. We had threads like this. We had calls for Goodwin's head. We had questions over our gameplan. Then we won 6 straight. This is the only thing which is keeping me from thinking the season is shot already. But things need to change. We need to do something to shake up the stagnation of our mid-level players - we can't keep carrying OMac, Frost, Hunt, Petracca and ANB in the form they are in and just hope they improve. They're not improving. We need to think about our forward line and the way we try to target TMac and Weideman. They need to work harder on how they operate as the two talls. We need to do something about Petracca. Drop him, change his role, something. We need to stop giving games to players who aren't ready for AFL football (Hore and Sparrow last week, KK and Lockhart this week). And we desperately need to win on Friday. Essendon is probably the only side in the league so far to play football as bad, or worse, than what we've displayed. There is a glimmer of hope in the next month - Essendon, Sydney (0-2, out of form), St Kilda (the worst 2-0 side in AFL history?), Richmond (out of form, possibly no Riewoldt). A confidence-boosting win on Friday, in prime time, could do us wonders. A loss might just destroy us.

Let’s drop Jones and replace him with Corey Wagner ? We have at least two players who don’t look AFL ready in Sparrow and Lockhart and another who looks way off AFL pace in Kolodjashnij. May also might need covering if he’s injured. However, I can’t see any magic panacea waiting in the wings at Casey. Stretch might be a minor upgrade on Sparrow, but by and large we’re stuck with what we’ve got until the glut of injured half-forwards we have come good. I think there will be fewer changes than people think, and what changes there are won’t involve senior/experienced players. They will be backed in to come good.

Bravo Luci, we watched him closely last night as we had a decent view from the ground. He tried his guts out last night, Trac was outnumbered numerous times and still we kicked to him. The guy never gave in even when the oppo were jabbing and shoving him behind the play. Geelong realised early Trac was a threat and reacted accordingly by throwing an extra or two around him. A spell at Casey? Please, give us a spell.

Here: https://www.afl.com.au/match-centre/2019/2/geel-v-melb

Agree that I hope it’s not a 4-6 week injury to May, he will need a run of 2-3 weeks in the team for it to gel for us. Who cares if Hogan kicks a 100 goals or none, he doesn’t play for us so it’s irrelevant.

Very hard to expect much of Sparrow and Lockhart given their experience at this level and stage of career, KK also underdone so prepared to forgive. Have been very disappointed however with the likes of Hunt, Weideman, McDonald, Jetta, Petracca, (l still reckon he can play, but what is the matter?) Jones and ANB. These blokes have been well beaten by their opponents both weeks and clear passengers. Was happier with Viney as l was beginning to wonder if the game had passed him by. Quite a positive for us if he can build on it. Fortunately we know Oliver, Brayshaw, Gawn, Salem, Hibberd, Viney, Melk can all play. Feel also that the opposition know if they simply nullify McDonald and Petracca up forward, other than Melk, the others have absolutely no idea how to kick a goal or apply forward pressure. Jones and ANB haven’t impacted the scoreboard yet and their opponents have so little regard for them that they elect to become offensive players.

We just couldn't buy a goal and they kicked one every time they went forward. We actually dominated the game from midway through the 2nd until midway through the 3rd but only kicked one goal. We had something like 20 inside 50s in a row! They then take it down and kick 4 goals from 4 inside 50s and the games done. The result is disappointing but it's not the end of the world. We get a chance to reset against the Bombers on Friday who have enough problems of their own. People need to have some faith, far too many just want to get stuck in and jump off the minute things look too hard.

if we’re being honest, Petracca’s stagnation is going to hurt going forward. Individual brilliance matters. Forget about taking a game by the scruff of the neck. He barely looks capable of taking a game by the hand and asking it out for a coffee.

I think the problem is both mental and physical. Mentally Petracca is trying 'too hard', and he is playing outside of himself. He wants to have a real impact - you can see that. The kid tries his heart out. Physically, as has been mentioned on this site all pre-season, Petracca is carrying too much weight. Everyone outside of our fitness department can see that, and its obviously having an effect on Petracca's game. The solution: Lose weight, build endurance, and run full time on the ball. Put down the basketball and start training for distance. I am still very impressed with Petracca, he is just not being served well by our fitness department.

Our depth is so bad..we have given up 3 first rounders for May and Lever... let that sink in. Geelong go and pluck a defender from the bush and already he is an All Australian defender by the name of Tom Stewart. We have overrated our list big time.

Yep. The changes will be meaningless, really. For example, what difference would it do to drop someone like Weideman for Keilty? It's not a knock on what Dec is doing, but our structure forward of the ball is so poor that it doesn't matter who is down there right now. Only minimal changes for me. Big changes to the structure and gameplan will be welcome.

Put him on the wing and tell him to play like dipper a fat Italian who could actually play.