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Looks like we have no choice but to delist Spargo as a result.

Is anyone suggesting that Jones, Salem & Bennell wouldn't have been in the round 1 team if fit at the time? So really, we're looking at four new 'ins', Hunt, Rivers, Jackson & Smith. Considering Hunt played all but one game in 2019, his inclusion can hardly be classified unexpected. So the reality is, we have given Rivers a try ahead of Hibberd, we have opted for Smith ahead of O Mac and gone for Jackson ahead of Weideman or Brown. I don't see these changes as revolutionary!

Nerds.

Did anyone else breathe a massive sigh of relief that one of the players was Spargo?

Lots of complaints about the defence's structure. But the structure is much more inline with the rest of the competition's top sides. Take last night, Collingwood, who's defence held up incredibly well for 3 qtrs of punishment. They only have 1 key defender Roughhead, 2 intercept players Howe and Moore, a solid role player Maynard an under 10 gamer in Madgen and rebound defender, Crisp and it appeared as Mayne spend a fair bit as the 7th defender/mid On the other side we saw Richmond with again with just 1 Key defender Astbury, 2 interceptors in Grimes and Vlaustin, maybe even a 3rd if you count Broad 2 rebounders in Houli and Short add Baker as a small role player/rebounder. Richmond's line up is more aggressive and relies on their forwards and mids protecting their defenders as they can be exposed when there isn't much pressure up the ground (hmmm, this sounds familiar) A side note on the Eagles. The only reason their defence looks like it has more keys is because they have Barrass and McGovern is abnormally large for the Intercept defender role around the comp. Looking at some of the best and you get Howe, Lever, Haynes, Sicily all too undersized to be "Key Defenders". Not many clubs have the luxury to play 2 Key Defenders like the Eagles. May, Lever, Smith, Jetta, Rivers, Salem and Harmes I'm not saying our lineup is 'better' than the most effective defences in the comp, we have a long way to go before we even put our hand up to join the discussion. But as a structure It's not a lot different.

Footy is finally back, and this is what we're discussing?

At least on the bright side we can’t bring in spargo

Let me get this straight. Paragraph 1 says he should just cop the racism because he's had a pretty good life otherwise (especially for a non-white guy, hey?). Paragraph 2 suggests the racism at CFC was pre-emptive karma for his poor efforts at the MFC (because we all know that racism is not as bad as someone not doing their job properly....). And paragraph 3 blames H for it all anyway - he could have stopped it if he really tried. In conclusion, it's his own fault, because it's up to the victims of racist abuse to make sure they aren't racially abused. Yuk.

Thank god for the ignore function!

I think there is a fair amount of overreacting here. This was only the second serious game the sides have played in 9 months. That's like one and a half full pre-seasons and without the usual build up that teams get with a number of pre-season practice matches. Little wonder the skills and ball handling were down and that players were probably quite fatigued in the second half. Both sides set up extremely well behind the ball and made scoring difficult and it looked like the teams didn't have their usual skill level and energy to break those defensive structures down. Quite understandable given the above. There were some really good performances in Round 1 - Tigers' first half against the Blues, Pies against the Dogs, Giants against the Cats, etc. - that suggest that there is still going to be plenty of quality football. Just because one game is a defensive slog doesn't mean the whole season is going to be the same. It was scappy but I enjoyed the contest and intensity, the closeness of the game and the brilliant defending. I've seen better games and I've seen worse games. Part of the beauty of sport is that games are going to look different. The last thing we want to see is 9 homogeneous games per week.

Has anyone that is teeing off about our rd1 match actually watched the replay? I’ve watched it twice and if you reckon we were putrid, you have rocks in ya head, with all due respect. we flew over at 11:30pm the night before, had no preparation on the ground as we normally would. We were dominating the game for the first twelve minutes and completely blew our chances by wasting shots on goal. That is putrid goal kicking, but not a putrid performance. the eagles had a stellar 5 minutes before quarter time, which we never recovered from. We had a moment in the 3rd, but poor inside 50 entries cost us again. Trying to use Fritta as a lead up forward was a big factor and I expect the addition of Jackson will allow us to compete. the main offenders of the poor entries and costly turnovers have been omitted - Hibberd and Spargo. cool ya jets and see what unfolds on Saturday

The outrage on here from my fellow Dees supporters is outrageous. The protocols have been put in place to keep all of us safe for all of society’s good, and we have hugely benefited from this having one of the lowest infection rates in the world. This goes way beyond our parochial AFL interests, this is for the benefit of our whole society and we should be all immensely grateful that our governments have stepped up to the mark in a way the governments of the US and UK have not. The self interest of our football team is minuscule by comparison, but we should all be proud that our club has done the responsible thing and self reported, in spite of several moronic comments on here along the lines “here we go again the MFC being insipid compared to the hard heads of the competition”. Social media is so incredibly stupid sometimes. Our supporters should be proud of our values, but sadly some are not.

Hmm, not sure about that. Most of the weather patterns roll in from the left.

It's probably time for him to step up 'dazz'...some of the great zone off, intercept defenders cut their teeth on being good one on one. The likes of Scarlett, Fletcher & Rance. It's a luxury to be just an intercept defender, you have to be accountable some time.

Boo to short quarters and low scoring games. Hooray to a draw. A loss for both sides.

Yes and no. Had no problems shutting the bigger a s experienced Darling down in round 1.

Gotta hand it to Spargo. Puts in a round 1 performance at a level not seen since Isaac Weetra circa 2008. Then coerced our premier albeit young small forward into attending a house party via an Uber during pandemic - hence robbing us a key piece of the puzzle in somehow jagging our first win in 11 months. I don’t think we’ll be seeing young Charles for a number of weeks.

Bring in Lockhart

It has to be done. Given no social distancing at training or games is possible, all it takes is one positive test to shut down the entire competition. Say Pickett gets infected by the friend he visited. He tests positive and therefore everyone at the club and the opposition side we played have to be tested and quarantine. That means two teams at a minimum are out of the competition for up to two weeks, which means virtually the entire AFL has to close for two weeks. It’s a disastrous situation and I agree with the AFL’s hard line.

Sorry I haven't replied earlier dc; I've been out in the garden pulling weeds in this lovely sunshine. Survey after survey shows that the ABC is the most trusted news source for Australians. Personally, I don't find them biased like those of a Conservative nature seem to think. That's just my opinion. Others have a different opinion and I'm fine with that, I just don't agree with them.

BOM.gov.au

Stop talking sense.

“Demons are putting a lot of faith in Lever and May down back and Jackson up front. Hope rain isn't forecast.” Lol Yeah, a lot of faith to play our two best, highest-paid defenders. Pretty sure rain won’t be a factor anyway playing at Marvel with roof closed

As we start our return to football, what better than a touch of Robbie?

Picked it up at daycare is what I heard.

Has to isolate for 2 weeks with a certain track watcher.

Meanwhile back on topic......... But Lumumba accused the club of “shifting the narrative” in its claim of trying to reach out to him. “Let me very clear: I have no intention of sitting down with anyone until they publicly acknowledge some fundamental facts,” he wrote in a thread on Twitter. “Why a public acknowledgement? Because I have been discredited publicly. I don’t want a private handshake. I want justice for how I was treated. That includes correcting public denials about my account of the racism and isolation I faced.” Lumumba called on Collingwood to acknowledge “they did not have the cultural competence and organisational literacy to deal with a real culture of racism at the club, of which I was a victim for a number of years”. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/jun/12/collingwoods-nathan-buckley-keen-to-talk-with-heritier-lumumba-over-club-racism-allegations Collingwood are spinning this

If he has another kid, then the name could be Mel Bennel - pronunced Melbourne 'ell!

why is that relevant ds? he claims the abc is decidedly and systemically biased, which i agree with. you seem to disagree the argument is not whether other media are biased or to what extent. The abc is unique being government (tax-payer) funded

100% correct WYL. From The Age today: "The Australian Medical Association has reiterated its advice for people who attended Black Lives Matter protests last weekend to self-isolate for two weeks. In the wake of a protester in his 30s testing positive for COVID-19 after attending a Melbourne rally last Saturday, federal president Dr Tony Bartone said "in the spirit of the abundance of caution" all protesters should be self-isolating."

Yes i know the terms. In March i self Isolated for 14 days after flying back to Australia YOU should be doing the same it’s that simple

On the back of playing one of the worst, most unbalanced sides we have ever seen in round 1, here might be one that is even worse. We are clearly missing a genuine key defender, a genuine key forward and a crumbing forward. If seven unforced changes isn't a clear admission by the selectors that they got it completely wrong in round 1, I don't know what is. The disconnect between the side that is being selected each week and the game plan that Goodwin wants to use is hugely concerning. Is he not getting the side he wants, or does he simply have no idea how to construct a football side? Neither Lever or Smith is a key position defender, and Lever rarely wants to be in the same postcode as his opponent at the best of times. Any opposition coach worth is his pay packet will use May's opponent to drag him out of the play (as Kennedy did in round 1), and use other targets. McKay will have a field day with Cripps slamming the ball down his throat all day. Hopefully Goodwin puts Harmes back in the midfield, because a half back line with both he and Salem ball watching will be a disaster. The forward line looks more of the same. Nobody who can take a contested mark. No big bodies to bring the ball to ground. Just a bunch of mid-sized leading players who will all get in each other's way. Why you would go from having 4 crumbers to 1 crumber in the space of a week is mind boggling. Good luck to Jackson having to provide an entire forward line's worth of physical presence in his first game. If our midfield doesn't dominate we will lose this game, and comfortably. The likes of Langdon and Oliver have to lower their eyes and find a target, because more indiscriminate bombing into the forward line will not end well, even against poor opposition.

My favourite part was the fake cheering after the siren. Don’t think I’ve ever heard a crowd cheer after a drawn game. Everyone usually sits there confused.

Great stuff. I've been saying this all along in a few threads and couldn't agree more.

Up there as one of the worst games I've watched since our 2009 game against Adelaide on a cold Sunday night at the G. Interestingly Jamie Elliot who we chased really hard in the off season had just 5 disposals for the game.

folks complaining about the fwd line selection, is there someone waiting in the wings you would have selected?? we are clearly low on tall forwards. I personally think with the below fwd line we can score sufficiently Bennell T Mac Melksham Kozzi Jackson Fritsch Add in Petracca, Jones and Hunt. I reckon that is pretty dynamic and hard to match up on. all can mark strongly. Jackson debut so we cant expect much. Before Milkshake got injured he was looking great and T Mac kicked 6 I think and then got injured. Have faith!!

Don't like the shortened quarters. ...but then again, I'm not liking the game all that much.

A pink 'chewy on your boot' button? Also a 'he's been doing it all day button'.

For me it’s definitely starting to feel like that is the way to go, less players, harder running/more fatigue should hopefully open up play. The start of this season has been a hard to watch game and risk mitigation and scoring on the counter zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The sooner we go to 16 players a side, a three player interchange with a cap of 30 interchanges per game, the better the spectacle with become.

Agree mate. For him to actually take the next step he needs to show more then just playing as a loose defender. With his current body size I do worry though. Still looks like a take.

Please AFL 25 min quarters 60 interchange a game(15 a quarter) War of attrition freeing up space

Great post. Objectively reviewing a game seems to be akin to appeasement for some Melbourne supporters.

I think Lockhart had a slight injury scare.i'm guessing Precautionary. It makes sense to bring in Hunt. We have a few bulls who just win the footy. We now have serious pace around the ground to exploit that. In my 30+ years watching the dees I've never seen so much pace in a side.

The speed in our forward line is greater than Richmond's. Hunt, Bennell and Kozzi are all lightning. We also now have run and speed on the wings. It might not click this week but we have the right team now for our chaos footy.

Relax Robbocop will break it down on AFL 360 so we can all get our heads around it.

We've struggled with "connection", and I wonder if that is part of the driver being the "mid sized" forward line? Round 1 we went short. ANB, Bedford, Spargo and Kozi together didn't work. All too small which makes it a bit one dimensional. This time it looks like the focus is TMac as the tall, Kozi the small, and the rest as medium forwards: Melksham, Fritsch, Jones, Petracca, Bennell, Jackson. (I've added Jackson here because even though he is tall he won't play like a KPF given his mobility and lack of strength). This makes us more flexible. There is a bit of marking ability, and skills and speed when the ball hits the deck. We'll be a bit more flexible in the forward 50, which may help if the connection isn't working.

It seems the FD have totally lost confidence in the Weid, they have replaced him with a kid who has not played a game since playing last year in the under 18’s. Only a miracle will see the kid play a good game as a key forward. It looks like Watts all over again.

This post is spot on. FFS some git even posted after round one that one of the reasons we were flat is because we might have been worried about how we were getting home....un*********believable.

The seven new players are close to like for like replacements: Bennell/Bedford, Rivers/Hibberd, Jackson/Brown (thank you), Salem/Lockhart, Jones/Spargo, Hunt/ANB and Smith/OMac. I like the look of this side and reckon we'll have a win. Welcome back footy!