Leaderboard

New bub is healthy and well, and even visited dad at work today, as per MFC twitter. Unfortunately, Jack Viney's little one was also there, and the Viney family don't play well with others, which led to this.

Being known for going to the snow > Being known as drug cheats

MELBOURNE What it does well The Demons’ defensive improvement this year has been stark. The players have got a greater understanding of roles within their team and the structure and expectation that comes with them. The selflessness and trust that is needed for these roles to be played out is a reason as to why Melbourne can win this year’s premiership. Wingers Angus Brayshaw and Ed Langdon are perfect examples of this. They’re getting up and down the ground and pushing back hard to help the defence. It is evident these two players are understanding their roles and the defensive support they must bring. The Dees are the hardest team to score against this year. It’s like defend and support is their mantra. They’re keeping opposition points from turnovers under control, as they’re ranked No.2 in the league for this important facet of the game. They were 11th last year. What it must improve As dominant as you’d think Max Gawn, Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca would be at the centre bounce, the numbers are not stacking up. Melbourne’s total centre bounce clearance differential is -17 for the year, which is ranked 15th in the competition. That means there is plenty of upside in that area. We know all three are super competitive, and are great players, but if they continue to work on better hitouts-to-advantage, they can get better mid-to-forward connections and more territory on the back of having a good centre bounce differential in their favour. If they do that against the best teams, it’ll give their forwards better opportunities to hit the scoreboard. It’s just another layer that can make the Demons more complete. Surprise packet Harrison Petty and James Jordon. Petty has really helped Melbourne’s defensive structure because he’s allowed Steven May and Jake Lever to play their intercept roles really well. The season-ending injury to Adam Tomlinson has given Petty his opportunity and he’s taken it. The 2017 draftee as added stability and cohesion - and that’s so important back there. With his size and mobility, he’s become an integral part of their success to this point. While Jordon is a midfielder who has given the Dees great balance. We know Petracca and Oliver are great ball winners, but Jordon plays inside and outside and is a good pressure and tackling player. He brings a good competitive edge to the side, and is improving and feeling more comfortable every week he plays. Under the pump Sam Weideman. It’s hard to be critical of Ben Brown because he hasn’t been out there a lot, but it’s important that Weideman steps up because the Demons are screaming out for another key forward. They badly need one to step up and own that position. The Demons are a strong territory team so Weideman will get plenty of opportunities - but he needs to take it. A firing Weideman would be another avenue to goal and would take the pressure off Bayley Fritsch, as an undersized forward, to be their leading goalkicker. Tom McDonald is a better player as a second fiddle, and, while we know Kysaiah Pickett has great attributes, he’s not a tall. Weideman must steel his mind when kicking for goal. His set shot goalkicking lacks confidence and he looks jittery at the moment. It must be corrected quickly as it could be the difference between him being a premiership player and not.

James Brayshaw may well have the worst voice in Australian sport. I cannot be alone on this.

A reminder to all of the lucky ticket holders if you even the slightest sniffle or vague symptom on Saturday you need to stay home. And if you do feel a bit off, even a tiny bit, i can help you out and take your seats to make sure we have good representation at the game. The slightest symptom, do the right thing for Victoria and stay home. And i'll volunteer to take the you seat to do the right thing for the Dees.

In the context of the season we need Richmond to lose. Nobody wants them in the top 4.

That team alone would beat Mark Neeld 2013 side.

He was playing full time ruck from the Casey games I watched. I think he is a break glass in case of emergency for if Max goes down or needs a rest.

Well done Dimma on not wearing a mask for a second of this game. Leading by example as a complete [censored] canoe, as per usual.

Looks like we'll be spending the next couple of weeks playing whack-a-mole with teams trying to bob up into the top 8. Time for the Demons to turn some other fans dreams to dust for a change! :D

Team selection ~

I think T Mac’s mind was elsewhere against Collingwood which was understandable. Lets hope for a far better showing from him this week.

I couldn’t give AF about the bombers or giants being motivated to win. if we are a proper good team, our motivation and quality will be greater

I don’t normally take too much notice of games, mostly because I get distracted and bored easily but I’ve noticed a few things tonight: Riewoldt falls over a lot and Cotchin is Selwood level dirty.

Sorry, Dazzler, objectively that is simply not true. Max has been incredible this season. Sure he seems to have flagged a bit in the las few games but even in them he has been extremely influential nd the amount of work he does is crazy. One indicator of his level this year is that he is number one in the AFL by a mile in contested marks, which is particularly impressive given how much [censored] illegal spoils and blocks he has to fight though. But better evidence of his level this year is that he is 7th in the coaches award, the best measure of performance in my opinion. Coaches don't give votes to players who have been poor. Here is the top 15 as it stands atm. Some bloody good players in this list, and all in top form: 68 Clayton Oliver MELB 66 Marcus Bontempelli WB 60 Ollie Wines PORT 55 Hugh McCluggage BL 55 Darcy Parish ESS 52 Touk Miller GCFC 49 Max Gawn MELB 48 Zach Merrett ESS 48 Samuel Walsh CARL 44 David Mundy FRE 43 Rory Laird ADEL 42 Dustin Martin RICH 42 Nic Naitanui WCE 42 Christian Petracca MELB 42 Jack Steele STK

Richmond just don’t seem as hungry this year or as fit. A Saints win would be good for us. If we can win and Bulldogs lose to Weagles over there which is highly likely we can go two games clear of anybody

It really is a load of crap. How Marvel and the MCG have the same capacity is beyond me. We could easily get 35,000 people at the G and have it be a far lesser risk than Marvel. MCG has multiple transportation avenues, so the load on public transport is far lower than at Marvel. Not to mention it is a true outdoor venue and 3 times larger. Insanity with no common sense as per usual.

Sam's copped his fair whack around here lately, but just because he's in terrible form doesn't make him an experimental player. We know exactly what he is capable of and how that fits into the team. Form is the issue, not Sam being an unknown quantity.

When he’s killing it in the VFL and knocking down the daw.

W if BB is in need of more fitness after supposedly putting in a pre-season type block of late then i doubt he will ever be ready from a fitness perspective. Form for someone of his experience can be found at VFL for sure but you never find genuine AFL form until you've played a few or more games at AFL level and hit some form. The Weid is a great example of someone looking cherry ripe and hitting form, at VFL level, then failing to find it after pushing up to the big league. If his fitness is up to par (as judged by Burgess/FD KPIs etc) then surely the only genuine trial / test of form is the form BB might find at senior level.

Richmond look like a tired side. It happens to all sides who have been up and about. So Richmond it is now time to say to thanks for the memories but you can now go and get stuffed. You owe us 54 years rent for denigrating the MCG as your home ground so pay up or pizz of to Punt Road.

What an appalling deliberate OOB ruling. Then immediately after no 50 against Cotchin who biffed a saint in the neck face. Petulant [censored].

Waiting patiently for 12pm.... I hope they left at least a few tickets for us home and away Melbourne members with reserved MCG seating. I only need 2 tickets this week, so fingers crossed I can get something.

Well that was the least amount of time I've spent trying to get tickets. Which is strange given the reduced capacity. In and out by 9:03am. AFL Members, level 1 undercover.

Big onus on TMac this week, we'll struggle if he doesn't have a good game.

Yep Scott will complain that people are booing Selwood, that they have to play away from Geelong and that quarters are just too long to get the best out of a team of players eligible for the AZ.

Cats will put the 16 min quarters back on the agenda this week

Would dearly love to smash the dons.

Forget all that. We, MFC, just need to be concerned about OUR games. Keep winning and the rest doesn’t matter.

My thoughts on the matter are exemplified by some of Stock Aitken Waterman's finest post script: Iv'e been waiting months to drop this little gag in.

Don’t delude yourself guys. Richmond will play for 10 minutes in the last quarter and win by 87.

Viney is a force of nature and Ben Brown is a sideshow, bub.

be wary of Stringer during contract negotiations. He'll be on until he signs and then he can put in another 3 crap years

As long as, unlike them, we win them!

Keep trading forward next year's first until we look like sinking back down the ladder in the 2030s rebuild

I reckon this is where stats can be misleading. I suspect that the key reason only half of the hit outs he wins are going to advantage is a function of how we are set up at stoppages and our clearance systems. If they wanted to increase that ration they could choose to do so easily enough. In around the ground stoppages, most other teams bring an extra to the stoppages to try and negate our mid filed and ruck strengths (like the blues did) or becuase that is what they always do (eg the lions and dogs). So it makes sense that less taps would go to one of our players. And in the center square set up, we are looking to be more aggressive with our clearances, so any win we get gives us a clean inside 50 entry. So the objective is quality taps to a moving player rather than simply winning it, for winnings sake. And both in the center and around the ground, if Max can't get a clean tap to moving player, he usually avoids hitting it to space and instead drops it close to the ruck contest (if possible to the opposition's defensive side of the contest), where there is a greater chance of it going to the opposition, because often that is where their extra is. If he chose to hit the ball forward to space more often he might increase his hit outs to advantage, but hit outs that go to an opposition player out in space create a big rebounding risk. Its all about playing the percentages. The real stat to worry about is not hit outs to advantage, but what happens after we get a hit out to advantage. Nice clean inside 50's or exits from stoppages is the goal. Tap outs to advantage that result in a pressured hack kick that gets picked off up the ground is what they are tying to minimise. As noted in the thread about Petty, we are keeping opposition points from turnovers under control and are ranked No.2 in this stat, where we were 11th last year. I reckon a big factor why this is the case is that whilst hit outs to advantage are down, so are the number of times a mid has to jam it on the boot under pressure and in dong so turning the ball over. Conversely a big reason we are miles ahead at the op of the intercept table is when the opposition win a hit out or shark one of ours, more often than not it is in tight and under intense pressure. So a Max hit out that isn't initially to advantage, often ends up creating a post clearance win because we pressure the ball carrier, force a rubbish kick, intercept it and rebound brilliantly from our back 50 (we are 4th in the AFL in rebound 50s). Sure they are no doubt continually trying to perfect their set up etc but our intercepts, rebounding and much improved inside 50 to scoring ratio are all evidence the current model is working pretty effectively. And being 11-2 is pretty good evidence too i might add.

Yep I got mine. Was in at 12:00:01. Got 2 tickets in M35. There seem to only be 2 bays allocated to Melbourne members which is M34 and M35. I'll take what I can get at this stage. Super happy we got tickets!

Just got my ticket as a standard home and away member so don't think they're sold out yet. It changed from saying no tickets available at about 12.01. M35 anyone?

Viney will not play as if he’s underdone, ultimate professional

In a prelim final to play an enforcer role and smack around anyone who tries to hurt our star players. Gets us into a grand final, gets suspended for 10 games, goes out a hero!

This is good. I want WC as far away as the top 4 as possible and KP is the last venue they'd want to play Sydney at who have a fantastic record down there.

I suspect it's a horses for courses selection. Essendon's backline isn't that tall but has plenty of run. If we had Weideman or Brown (either of them) playing, we could be exposed when the ball hits the ground. An extra smaller forward might help block Essendon's run off the backline. On the other hand, if one of Weideman, Brown or Brown were dominating with consistent mark-taking, they would probably be selected. But as they are not doing so, they become too much of a liability when the ball hits the ground.

Jones is done. And if he's getting a game we are done. Too old, too slow. And all this BS about subbing him on for the last few mins of the GF. Pretty sure even he'd find that insulting. There's a hell of a alot of water to pass under the bridge yet before we're thinking of any bloody GFs anyway. Let's just concentrate on getting over Essendon this week.

Yep restrictions ease midnight tonight. Should be allowed a crowd. Not sure of capacity. Probably 26.5% if you’re standing upside down with 3 masks on.

Is that the worst looking forward line on paper of any injury-free mid-season ladder-leading team in the history of football?

Good changes and well done once again for nailing it @Yokozuna

The same people who were kicking them for the first 6 rounds maybe?

I don't really understand why Brown was dropped in the first place & a bit disappointed to not see him in, Game 1: 2 goals Game 2: 3 goals Game 3: 0 goals, with Brown, Weid, McDonald, Fristch all in the same forward line I understand the fitness perspective but surely his output while underdone was more than good enough to persist?

To be fair we have only lost to bad teams this year. This is a danger game! (Hello to anyone from Bomberblitz reading this, I hate your club!)