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I noticed in R1 (fwiw) that our forwards regularly led up, only for the kick coming in to go over their head and into the arms of an Eagles defended. Even the TV commentators were onto it. Surely it can't be rocket surgery to practice leading patterns at training over and over and over and over with kicks coming in that hit them flush? Footy is a pretty simple game, when it's all boiled down. We overcomplicate it and then panic when going i50, have been for the last few years

Best match I’ve ever attended was the ‘Merger Match’ against Hawthorn Round 22 1996. Hawthorn by a point, Dunstall kicks 10 (including 100th), Neitz kick 6, Farmer 4. Hawthorn needed a win to play finals, a Melbourne win could mean it was the last time either team played in the AFL. Incredibly vocal, passionate and emotional crowd.

Steven Icke gave us wonderful service and even won a B & F I think.

Some people are handling this isolation better than others. My missus is becoming hysterical, running around the house and banging on windows and doors. Tomorrow, I might let her in.

Love Dennis Commetti

Corrie Gardner. 1900 premiership player, but gains his obscurity because he was the only person to represent Australia at the 1904 St Louis Olympics, thereby ensuring that Australia is one of a very small number of countries to have had a competitor representing it at every summer Games. I reckon that’s on the podium in the obscurity stakes.

Does James Cook qualify? Only the two and a bit games due to injury. A bit of a what if. He looked like an absolute bargain pickup for us in season 2000 if his goal tally was anything to go by in the first 2 rounds.

A big game of Marker's Up with the kicker bombing it long from 80 into a forward line huddle of 30 players

Last round 1987 vs Footscray - symbolised that crazy last round. What more could you want?

Sadly for us the 87 prelim is definitely a top 50. It was an outstanding game of finals footy and it is rare that a team can lead an entire game and still not be the winner. A genuine last man standing affair and I'll make sure I'm not watching when it gets replayed. Once was enough and I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Who remembers Paul Prymke? Gun CHB who won best first year player in 94 then did his back before reaching 50 games. Could have been a famous name...

We get some great training reports from a few track watchers. After poor delivery of the ball into the forward line against the Weagles, I’m interested to know what they do at training to improve this aspect of our game, and does it look like it’s working when they practice it? If we improve this one aspect 10-20 percent we should increase number of goals kicked per game by 2.5 - 6 plus, if we’re averaging 50-60 entries, that’s 5-6 extra shots at 10% and 10-12 shots at 20%.

Yeah nah, that article is cherry picking at it's finest. Opinion is one thing, facts are another. Can we please stop comparing it to the flu? We don't know the case/ fatality rate, but no-one is pretending that we do. What we do know with absolute certainty is that allowing the virus to spread unchecked will result in a lot of preventable deaths. Yes the mortality rate is low for young, healthy people. But if you're talking about millions of potential infections, a low mortality rate is still a disturbingly high number of deaths. That's not hysteria, that's just maths. Right now, we've really got 2 choices. Option 1: stay in lockdown and hope for the best. Option 2: relax restrictions, watch the number of cases increase exponentially, then say "Oh [censored], we shouldn't have done that!", and then go back to lockdown, now with overflowing hospitals and morgues. If we get to choose between the New York and South Korea options, why on earth would you choose New York?

Give it another few weeks and people will not tolerate the destruction of everything to 'save lives'. If this goes on for even 3 months then there will mass civil disobedience. First to mass will be football fans united to demand the government call off the collective social suicide for our own good plan which is working a treat. I'm elderly...over 60 ....I would rather die than see my club go under.

No 25, wedged between Dillon and Parke. A very average kick.

It'd help if our midfielders kicked more goals themselves. Throws a cat among the pigeons if they storm to fifty and bang it through a few times.

I just watched a Saturday night replay of the round 7 1988 game Melbourne vs Hawthorn. Albeit a condensed version that game would crap on anything from the last 10 years. There were hardly any ballups around the ground and the skills on display were quite good. No chipping the ball around, no flooding, no scrums, great marks, great tackles, great goals, one on one play around the ground and players on their last legs in the last quarter.

Sounds strange to say but one of my all time favorite games was round 9;1971. We beat St Kilda, who were runners up that year , by 3 points to go 8-1 in the season. It was my first year barracking ( 11) and I was crazily waving my crepe paper flogger . I Sat with my friend 2nd story up behind the goals leaning over the railings and, in our rocking and shouting etc, I remember the people behind us were worried we were going to fall off! I was strangely disappointed this game didn’t make it to the top 100. Wells, Parke, Hardeman, Alves , Keenan , Barry Bourke , Biffen etc. The names of that era still remain my favorite even after all this time. The dees went on a big and gruelling pre season camp that year ( ahead of the times at that point) players took time off work and at the start of 71we were fitter than everyone else. But critically and unfortunately only 22 or so went , or could afford to go , on that camp . Mid season we got hit hard by injuries and, with poor depth as well as the new players coming into the team not having the same conditioning base, we went from 8-1 to finish with only 3 wins from the next 13 games. Still, round 9 1971 sits high in my all time favorite game memories .

Stephen Powell played 2 fantastic seasons for us (2000 and 2002) and is the exact type of midfielder we lack today - a midfielder that kicks goals. Kicked 32 goals in 2000 including 7 over the prelim and GF fortnight. Left the club at the end of 2002 over a finance dispute I believe, which was poor management by us. Can’t make the list due to his brief tenure, but he was fantastic player that was picked up on the cheap (both for us and then St Kilda).

And thank Christ for that Moon. Even embraced by ScoMo and his mates. Even The Donald. Not a peep from the usual media bottom lickers. Funny how we have half the population who now think that welfare is well.....fair, now they are in the queue or may be. Suddenly free trade can be seen for what it is and protectionism does not look so bad. Economic growth is one thing but humanity is another. If we do not have a society that cares for one another, we do not have a society. Great to hear the AFL and clubs talking as one and supporting the unchanged state of the Clubs.

this is the bad news message before they announce that the afl will be going 'full bernie' and taking all revenue in the game, distributing it evenly between 18 clubs in order for them to survive about time the afl went full socialist rather than the half-measures of salary cap, soft cap, and other some restrictive measures

Will his kids also ask him why he left North Melbourne to play for Adelaide? Not sure I'd be listening to Wayne Carey if I were Gil.

Ingo was not obscure. Dead set gun! As a replacement, I nominate Paul Payne.

"Healy off, Ellingworth on."

The players up the ground need to lower their eyes and only 'bomb' it when under extreme pressure or no one leading. We can't have the likes of TMac leading into a good position for him to see the ball continually going over his head. Lower your eyes Backs and Mids please. I would also add that if they do lower their eyes and pass to someone leading even if the pass is crap and runs along ground at least it gives the forwards a 50/50 chance. No chance sailing over their heads

I knocked on the doors of a couple of our players, but they wouldn't let me in as they said they are social distancing and isolating. I did however manage to find out that depending on the layout of the house, goal kicking from the pocket is being improved by taking the kick in the hallway from near the front door and attempting to get it into different rooms leading off either side of said hallway, without touching the woodwork. Hope that helps.

One of the gutsiest players I’ve ever seen. Same with Clint Bizzell.

While it sounds simple in practice, defensive structures are now set up as a zone. One on one football is a rarity these days, especially in the defensive area. So a player with the ball cannot kick to space for a leading forward to run into. There should always be a defender within range, to turn it into a contest. The other problem with the Eagles games was that WCE had 3 tall defenders. We only had 2 tall forwards. As well most teams, like them, drop the extra man in defence. We did the same to them with Darling and Kennedy only getting a solitary goal between them.

An absolutely great post and I agree with all comments

Entertaining match, especially the second half. Coming into that round 7 match we haven’t had a win but you look at the side it is not that bad. Rivers, Garland, Frawley, Warnock and Bartram down back( Whelan injured), Robbo, Miller, Green, Flash and Wonna up forward. White and Jamar rucking with Brock McClean, Jones, Junior Mac, Maloney with support from Bruce, Wheatley etc. Not a great side but not horrible either. Of course other agendas may have been in play of course.

I don't know how they actually do this or even can practice it at training. So let's see if I can get this right... If we have T.Mac, Weid, Fritsch, Melksham, Kossie, and Bedford playing as forwards, then to get maximum match simulation we would place May, Lever, Hibberd, Jetta, Salem and Harmes on them. Trouble is that we are now playing "half-court" ...i.e. it is all at one end of the ground. And we know that the players don't stick in positions during the game. So to overcome this at training , the forwards and backs get distributed to various other positions around the ground, not where they would normally play. If we have essentially a full list training you can get 36 on the ground. ( last year this never happened) But they are playing and kicking to players that they wouldn't normally be playing with and kicking to. So I would imagine the only way that we can actually get as close to match simulation is by using various players at FF, CHF, FP etc and then rotating others into the same roles. It probably gets even harder, when you have new players come to the club e.g. Tomlinson and Langdon. They don't know instinctively where T.Mac or Weid or Fritsch will lead to . They can be told this at briefing, but until you actually do it multiple times in real-life, it won't click. I remember someone who had moved clubs, saying it took at least a year until they knew exactly what others would do and where they would go. It applies to the backs as well, and it is no surprise that the best functioning teams have played together as a team for a long time. Richmond have had virtually no injuries for the past 2 years and that shows in their team efforts. Very similar to the Hawthorn teams of the 80's and 90's. They just knew where to go and what would happen before it actually did. Back to the original question....I don't know the answer. I don't know how the coaches teach it, if they can, other than telling players to do it.

No love for Alan Jarrott?

From an early post worth putting back up for this topic. Best recycled players that had to have played at least one game for another VFL/AFL team before being traded to the Dees since our last Premiership.

Craig Turley

Technically the original game was scheduled for tomorrow with a forecast of 16 with strong winds subsiding; turning cloudy and cool with afternoon showers.

Was thinking about this weekend's game that isn't. My belief is that we would have lost to GWS and would be going into this game 0-2. With a possibly wet MCG the Freo game would be a slog. Do we win and if so what is the margin I say we win by 14 points and limp on.

Just saw a very sweet slice of quarantine life. Two young lovers in jogging gear in Royal Park, clearly pretending to be doing their exercise for the day so they could steal a moment together. Not ashamed to say I had a slight catch in my throat as I called the police.

You normally come in here to grandstand, but I think this is a solid point that is worth thinking about for the players. I certainly agree about the "parasites" part.

Mergers here we come....

Basil Onyons is the correct spelling. 1905-1908. He also played first class cricket for Victoria after WW1. Met him once in the mid 60s when he was quite old.

if there was a game next week then I would of gone with; out- Spargo, Brown, OMac, ANB, in- Jones, Weideman, Salem, Jackson B- Jetta May Hibberd HB- Harmes Lever Salem C- Langdon Brayshaw Tomlinson HF- Petracca TMac Melksham F- Fritsch Weideman Pickett R- Gawn Oliver Viney I- Jones, Jackson, Lockhart, Bedford EM- Sparrow, Rivers, Hore, ANB i agree with DeeSpencer, Hibberd needs to stay deep and even play taller if he has too, he has the strength to body spoil a bigger opponent. we cant have him pushing up the ground and kicking inside F50, he sucks at it. if he cant do the job for us anymore then he's of limited value and Hore, Rivers or Smith should probably replace him. Lever and May have to be the 2 main tall defenders. we pay them both good money, key defender money, so make them bloody earn it. I've seen the 3 tall defence before and I've never been a fan of it. it makes us too slow and we get hurt by the smaller players instead. we have Tomlinson as an option up our sleeve who can go back and help out if needed. we should be utilizing that sort of flexibility instead. Brown is depth only, and he's not a key forward either. bring back Weideman and play him out of the goal square and let him run and jump at the ball. make it simple for him and just tell him to fly for everything that he can. Let Tmac roam up the ground more from CHF, he cant seem to jump since he did his foot anyway. Jackson needs to play as a utility. he can back up the ruck if needed and can give us a different look on ball and forward at times, or even throw him out on the wing. the team lacks options atm. Salem and Jones should also help with the ball use problem a tad as well. put Oliver and Brayshaw under notice to lift their game and start running hard. i'm not against us pushing either of them out of the centre square, or even dropping them if it teaches them a lesson. hopefully if this season ever gets going again, we can then have guys like Petty, Rivers, Sparrow, Baker and Hannan pushing others for spots. and Goodwin needs a forward line specialist coach. i'm afraid the whirlpool aint getting the job done.

If they're practicing it 'Earl' then I don't know what to say. A big part of it has to be confidence then...either that or they have no belief in the coach. Also, I know we're all being hard...but it was so disappointing to see more of the same, particularly in the current climate where we could all do with a lift. The players must have felt it. Imagine being so far from home and being told the competition is off, you've got the last game then you can go home. After such a big, big preseason...all for nothing and stuck over the other side of the country. ...but apart from that. Looking at what was in front of us today and the last year and a bit... They need to sort out the ball use in the middle, if they worked better with blocks and positioning rather than ring around the handball they could get the ball forward much quicker. They f... around with it, it drives me nuts. You can't have a bunch of defensive forwards who can't do much else...ANB, Spargo, Bedford. One will do and that's more likely to be Jones. Tommy Mac isn't a number one forward that's one thing, Fritsch is a floater and shouldn't have to carry the load he carried because of a poor selection in Brown who gives us nothing. He didn't want to keep his feet and provide a contest, I get why EFC let him go. Midfield again reverted to being one way runners...apart from Langdon who tried his guts out. Pity about his disposal, hopefully he can sort this. Part of it's his decision making and lot of it's his teammates letting him down. Probably rambling a bit now, much on the mind besides this. Take care 'Earl'...