Leaderboard

I am sensing this game is similar to the Melb v Geelong game last year. Geelong were traumatised by Melbourne in 2021 and set about revamping their game plan to combat Melbourne. Everything about the changes was designed to combat melbourne who Chris Scott thought had changed the game and that Geelong would inevitably play in a finals game. So they went about putting huge pressure on Gawn when May kicked to the left hand side of the ground. They made Lever accountable and chip kicked their way through our defence. They revealed their plan to have Stanley take the ruck contest and then drop back to support their defence. The had Blix tag Petracca and take the ruck contests in the middle of the ground with Hawkins taking the ruck in the fwd half. They then parked that combination until finals and the rest is history. Goodwin has set us up for this game. He knows they are the benchmark and they have had the wood on us (although last year's game was more a case of our injuries mid-game costing us big time). As visually poor as our game was against Carlton, Our defensive work and stoppage work was first class. It was a whole of team performance and goes a long way to how we are planning to beat the Pies. The Pies swarm the contest and then run and carry the ball. We won't allow that to happen. they will be put under pressure and will have to kick sideways and backwards in order to maintain possession. But they are not used to having to backtrack and will be out of position everywhere. And if we can get the ball out of the congestion or turn the ball over, they will be way out of position and outnumbered down back. I think this will be a very tactical game and the Dees will come out on top. We have let Oliver rest up and even rested Hibberd to be cherry ripe. Grundy will be fired up. I am excited for this one and starting to get very positive about our chances.

We need to get in the face of that big American. I'm sick of him getting a free run at our guys it's about time we made him a bit uncomfortable.

Act two of the season Act two of the season is rounds 11-12, through the bye and up to aprox round 16. And as important as the first two months are in terms of laying our fitness foundation, you could argue this period is almost as important in terms of giving the contenders the best chance of winning a flag. As I noted in the Act one of the season post, Selwyn Griffiths said on the DL interview that in season games only provide 70% of the capacity to maintain aerobic levels and between games it is not really possible to build aerobic capacity. And said that to be in optimal shape come finals they need to use the bye period to do a heavy block of aerobic and power conditioning, but also give players time off to physically and mentally recharge. So, lots to juggle and consider. He didn’t mention fatigue in this context but said an impact of this increased training load is a greater risk of injury in games. Logic suggests extra running and weights sessions will also cause fatigue (as is the case in the preseason), which will impact our performance in games (in much the same way accumulative fatigue does). I hesitate to call this a loading phase because it became so emotive on DL last year and in 2021 and 2022. And to be perfectly honest I can’t be bothered relitigating the debate (that said, to be clear, i have never suggested fatigue is an excuse for poor performance, but rather a factor, a reason - one of many factors that can impact performance, but a very important one and one that is almost uniformly overlooked in the media). But for anyone reading this who has not participated in the great loading debate, Selwyn Griffith explains the process here (and there are hundreds of posts on the topic last year and in 2021): 15:45 mins to 19:30: Selwyn discusses the full year’s training program 19:30 to 21:48: Selwyn discusses the impact of accumulative fatigue, and the phase where they are increasing loads etc From his comments there is no question they do a block of heavy training at this point in the season. The question is how long it goes for. He doesn’t directly answer that question, though references the round 12-15 period. Which makes sense given the goal for the real contenders is to be cherry ripe in mid-September (round 16 is usually early July). My take from these comments, and pretty extensive research in previous years, is that it is about a three-week period they go extra hard. There's no question it had a significant impact on our performance in a block of aprox 3-4 rounds in the last two seasons because of the related fatigue (ie they do additional running and power sessions on top of recovering from games). In 2021, in round 13 we got rolled by the then lowly Pies in a listless performance (we scored 63 points), had our bye, only beat the lowly bombers by 11 points in another scrappy performance (scoring 68 points), got rolled by the Giants on the G, only managing 55 points on a dry day, went to Port and played great to win (scoring 86 points) but then drew with Hawks (79 points) and got beaten in round 19 by the dogs, scoring only 65 points. From that point we didn’t lose another game for the season, averaging aprox 108 points a game, inclusive of our three finals wins. Last season, we lost in rounds 11, 12 and 13, only breaking 60 points once when the Swans beat us 76-61. Then after our bye we scored 16.21 117 and poleaxed the Lions by 61 points in round 15. The pattern has started to repeat itself so far this year, with a loss to Freo in round 11 and a scrappy, low quality match against the blues (but thankfully a win). By the by, on the blues game, if you are someone who thinks hibbo is best 22 (as I am), then the logical extension of him being managed is that they did not give the team the best chance of winning this game. This is what I mean by prioritising winning the war not the battles, which Goody has touched on multiple times when he talks about the goal being in our best shape and playing our best footy come finals. Again, this is not a scenario limited to Melbourne. Burgess took the tigers' fitness template, added his philosophy and then others have followed – most notably Geelong last year. Given how running based the Pies are, they are almost certainly following a similar regime. Why? Because they can’t win a flag if they are not as fit as they were in the first third of the season come grand final day – or as fit as us for that matter (it’s worth nothing Sanderson has said a number of times the Pies are the fittest side atm by some margin – hard to prove, but their ability to run out games is used as the key evidence. We have lost only two final quarters for the year, so by that logic we must be pretty fit too). As previously noted, I make a distinction between flag contenders and non-contenders. I assume non contenders would still follow a similar training program, but their focus is on making finals, not winning a flag. So they might not go quite as hard around the bye as they can less afford to lose games because of fatigue. And they need to peak at the start of September, not the end. You don’t need to be sport scientist to see the impact of fatigue on performance. Just watch any game in the last two rounds and you can clearly see its impact. In round 11, top 8 teams in the Lions, Dees, Dogs, Cats and Saints all lost to teams well below them on the ladder and the pies gave up six last quarter goals to the roos to only win by 6 goals after leading by nearly 10 goals. There have been less anomalous results in round 12, but the quality of the games and skill execution was uniformly very poor. And the dogs and Crows (where Burgess now works) both got out to big leads before completely running out of gas and getting easily rolled. Leaving aside how the games looked, there are tonnes of AFL wide metrics that evidence the impact of accumative faitgue on perfomance. So, the timing of the heavy training block will have a big impact on which games we are most impacted by fatigue in, and which games we might therefore be at risk of losing going in as favourite. The big question then is when does the heavy training block commence for us this year? There are some variables that are worth factoring in when considering that question: Our training program has changed quite a bit this year, and it appears we are following the Cats lead in terms of managing players, using more players through the middle, using more players full stop, and key players spending more time on the bench than in 2021 and 2022 There is an extra round this year Selwyn talked about how tough the first half of our season was in terms of the challenges of travel combined with multiple short breaks between games For the second year in a row, we essentially don't get a bye because we only have 9 days between the pies game and our post bye game (by way of comparison, most other teams get a full two-week break, meaning players can get away from the club and there is still time for a good block of heavy training without worrying too much about the impact on the post bye match) Griffith noted these factors made planning when to do additional blocks of training a real challenge – and I wonder if the timing of breaks means they have to split the 3-week block of heavy training into smaller blocks of say 7-9 days But he also noted that post bye, it is a better fixture in terms of travel and breaks between the games It is also an easier run home than last year, which as was the case for the Cats last year, means greater opportunity to manage players (if the cats had as many must win, finals like, high pressure games as us in the last 5 or 6 games of last season they would not have had the luxury of managing players) So, back to the key question - when does the heavy training block commence for us this year? Short answer is I don’t know. But my best guess is that it started after the Freo game, which just about marries up with the aprox rounds 12-15 window SG talked about. I fully admit this guess is influenced by the hope that we plan to be in the best possible shape for the Kings' birthday game, which we weren’t last season. But I think this year the stakes, and timing, are different. This is one battle that will help us win the war. And it is also one of the most eagerly anticipated game in years. I'm hoping we want to do everything we can to win (like resting Hibbo against the blues). That said, even factoring in yet another six-day break, I think the blues game provided pretty good evidence of a team that was fatigued beyond accumulative fatigue – ie they went hard on the track in the lead up. For the first time all season we played tempo footy and looked to control the momentum and speed of the game just as we so often did in 2021 and in the first half of 2022. Great way to conserve energy. And it was by far our lowest pressure ratings for the season, and we went into cruise mode in the last q (keeping in mind 180 is considered league average and 200 elite pressure – dees in first column): Q1: 179 - 195 Q2: 172 - 161 Q3: 179 - 166 Q4: 148 - 153 Tot: 170 - 170 So, we train hard in the lead up to the blues and go hard for the first half of this week? And then taper into the Kings Birthday game. We have our bye, players have a 3 or 4 day break and then go hard again in the lead up to the Cats game – which of course we want to win but are prepared to risk losing because of fatigue (if I’m right we will see a the same sort of scrappy, low quality game as we did at aprox the same time as our game against the cats at taxpayer park last season). We then have a nine day break ahead of our round 16 Alice Spring game against the Giants, so we do our last heavy training block (resulting in another scrappy game) to get our aerobic and power closer to the optimal level as we roll into the third act of the season, rounds 16 to 24.

Having watched the game again I think JVR’s game was arguably his best to date His efforts particularly in the last quarter taking contested marks and gut running was really very impressive Hopefully he can continue to build on this - very promising effort

All excellent points. And i agree with them. I'm not suggesting there should be media pile on the umpires. The media should be piling on the AFL. I don't blame the umpires for being poor collectively. I blame the AFL. Umpires are a vital element of the game and their performance has a huge impact on how games play out. Each game should have at least one (but ideally three) full time professional umpire (and keep the current set up for boundary and goal umpires). These umpires should have a strong base salary and the ability to earn significant bonuses based on their performance. Provide a legitimate pathway for young umpires to progress through the ranks to be professional umpires at the elite level. Or young guns who are terrific players but won’t make the grade but want to get involved in AFL football. Give them a range of other responsibilities (because they are full time professionals) other than match day and training – umpire AFLW finals, mentoring AFLW and VFL umpires, community outreach to local clubs and local league umpires etc etc. SB, you are 100% right, it is an incredibly hard game to umpire full of grey areas and subjectivity. Invest time and resources time to help them deal with these challenges. Enhance their decision making skills under pressure and ability to ignore the crowd. Have them work in teams so they build synergy. All this is possible if they are full time professional. Or at least some are. Because I have had this debate for years and years, I have heard all the arguments about why the current model of well-paid amateurs works. None stack up for mine. The most common argument aginst professional umpires is that it is prohibitively expensive. Please – it is a multibillion dollar industry and we have accountants and physiotherapists making decisions that can change the fortune of a club. Think of Grand Final day. The very best umpires get selected and almost always do a great job. We know that because we don’t notice them. Every AFL game should be like that. The stakes are high. How long ago was it that Hawkins was awarded a goal in a grand final that actually hit the post? Maybe the Cats won because of that mistake? Well, apparently this was way, way too big a risk and hang the expense we have to make sure a grand final can never be decided by a ‘howler’ again. Here we are some 15 years later and despite the millions spent on the VAR system and the non officating umpre, they still haven’t got the system right. But few argue we don't need such a system. Because apparently getting scores right is critical. Meanwhile we are seemingly ok with 15 howlers a round and multiple games a year where the result is unduly influenced by sub par umpiring performances because the AFL has decided not to invest the resources required to make the standard of umpiring elite for a supposedly elite competition. The AFL tamp down criticism of individual umpiring performances - and fair enough too. But it is disingenuous because the implication is any criticism of the standard of umpiring is an attack on umpires themselves - which i agree is not ok. But the brilliant part of the strategy is there is no questioning of the AFL and its clear responsibility to ensure the game is officiated to the highest possible standards. And in every other part of the game striving to achieve the highest standard involves increased professionalism. But apparently not for one of the most critical elements - umpiring. And I'd go further. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but the AFL have long run on the theory that dominating media attention helps crowd out other sports. The any news is good news principle. Every single year there is a new rules related controversy and a slew of 'interpretation' changes in season. Who is impacted most by this? Who cop it the most? The umpires, amateurs all. Leaving aside whether this is deliberate, if the AFL is so concerned about the umpires how about sorting out the rules of the game and taking out as much subjectivity and grey areas as possible and stop making interpretation changes in season so it is not so damn difficult to do the job.

David Schwarz?

Are we letting Lingers near a microphone this week? I would 😂

Also posted this in the Contenders/Pretenders thread . Recently I posted about remaining 8-pt games and a teams opportunity to gain % boosts ie most likely vs the bottom 6 teams. Summary below. Right hand column shows total 8pt games. Not very scientific but gives a good picture of the Run Home. The rationale of the commentators saying we have the hardest draw is flawed imv!! I reckon we have the easiest draw of contending teams. Setting aside that any team can win on any given day, The 'easiest' draw is Demons, Saints and Bulldogs with six 8pt games only two of which are vs top 4 teams. The 'hardest' draw is Geelong with 10 of the last 11 being 8pt games, 5 of which are vs top 4 teams. They may not even make the 8 if Sydney and Freo get on a roll. Pies will have to fight out the season with games vs Cats, Lions and Bombers in last 3 rounds. Similarly Lions have a challenging last 4 games. Cats will have to fight in every game; no resting of players this year. Top 4 locked in. Other contenders not convincing of late. Dees will probably be top 2. We play 5 of the bottom 6 sides to see out the season. (6 of the bottom 7 if we count Sydney). Suns are the team to watch. They won't make the 8 but they will have a very big say in who does!! A very different run home for us than 2022. We will have the chance to manage injured players enabling us to be one of the 'freshest' contenders going into the finals.

pickett's game on Friday is underrated for this reason.

Votes: 10 Christian Petracca (MELB) 8 Steven May (MELB) 5 Jake Lever (MELB) 4 Ed Langdon (MELB) 2 Harry McKay (CARL) 1 Jacob Weitering (CARL) Coaches Split" 5/5 Petracca 4/4 May 3/2 Lever 3/1 Langdon 2/0 McKay 1/0 Weitering Good to see Langdon get votes from both coaches. A good time to hit form. Looks like Goodwin gave at least one of McKay or Weitering votes. Leaderboard (top 10) 63 Zak Butters PORT 63 Nick Daicos COLL 61 Christian Petracca MELB 52 Zach Merrett ESS 47 Jordan De Goey COLL 45 Matt Rowell GCFC 44 Noah Anderson GCFC 44 Marcus Bontempelli WB 43 Connor Rozee PORT 43 Tim Taranto RICH Petracca closing in on the leaders. All top 10 played this week so the top 3 should stay the same despite the bye.

No they didn’t, it wasn’t even close. 50k was perfectly acceptable on a cold Friday night with two teams in [censored] form. (12k above our average against Carlton since 1997) Our fan base is very quiet as always but the entire northern stand was red, it just doesn’t seem that way on tv.

Just watching AFL 360, it was seriously fantastic what the club did for the young boy Charlie. Life is just not fair sometimes.

We wouldn’t lose too many games when May and Lever are both in the votes.

What's happening in December, besides Xmas? Is he dressing up as Santa?

100% agree and i think this is perhaps their biggest vulnerability. In some ways this is similar to the dog's vulnerability in 2021 and 2022 (i think they have addressed it better this year) where they relied on handball chains out from the contest and then in transition. Each handball is link in the chain that is at risk of breaking under pressure. The pies also use handballs to chain out from contests. The difference is they are more looking to get it to one of their elite kicks in space than keeping the handball chains going (which they'll still do if necessary). And then their elite kick takes on high risk, high reward kicks that, when they come off, set up gilt edged scoring opportunities. That kick is a critical part of their method, but even for the best kick super intense pressure make them much harder to make. And for all the, justifiable, talk of the pies' brilliant last quarters, skill and exciting method, the fact remains they went two losses, one win in last year's finals, losing to the Cats and Swans in high pressure games - and turning the ball over in key moments in both games. Sidebottom out is huge i think because he is one of their four truly elite kicks (Daicos x 2, Sidebottom and Pendles). De Goey is huge out because of his power, ability to tun the game and his brilliance at stoppages and in the contest. But he is also an excellent field kick, so that's two better than average kicks out of their side, which will make their high-risk kicking game all the more susceptible to pressure.

It doesn't take much for him to get stirred up as well. I think we should be highlighting his treatment of Max ie knees in the back, belting the back of his head and bombarding media with talking ooints so that some of it has to get passed the umpiring fraternity. Maybe just maybe we can get some equal treatment for Max from the umpires. Just of JVR, he has a short fuse (only because he hasn't learnt to deal with the attention he is now attracting) so other players need to be aware that they have to be close to him if and when he is set upon and get him out of any situation where he might retaliate.

I cannot see us losing another game this season. Will beat Pies on Monday in a game for the ages and not look back.

Recently I posted about remaining 8-pt games and a teams opportunity to gain % boosts ie most likely vs the bottom 6 teams. Summary below. Right hand column shows total 8pt games. The rationale of the commentators saying we have the hardest draw is flawed imv!! I reckon we have the easiest draw of contending teams. Setting aside that any team can win on any given day, The 'easiest' draw is Demons, Saints and Bulldogs with six 8pt games only two of which are vs top 4 teams. The 'hardest' draw is Geelong with 10 of the last 11 being 8pt games, 5 of which are vs top 4 teams. They may not even make the 8 if Sydney and Freo get on a roll. Pies will have to fight out the season with games vs Cats, Lions and Bombers in last 3 rounds. Similarly Lions have a challenging last 4 games. Cats will have to fight in every game; no resting of players this year. Top 4 locked in. Other contenders not convincing of late. Dees will probably be top 2. We play 5 of the bottom 6 sides to see out the season. (6 of the bottom 7 if we count Sydney). Suns are the team to watch. They won't make the 8 but they will have a very big say in who does!! A very different run home for us than 2022. We will have the chance to manage injured players enabling us to be one of the 'freshest' contenders going into the finals.

Very good footage of Lever on First Crack tonight essentially denying Curnow the ball all game on Friday night. The big takeaway was that while all the talk will be about our lack of scoring the bigger story should be the way we defended as a team. Had some great footage of Chandler taking the initiative to set everyone up too.

Where the Premiers were placed after Rd11 in the last 10 years: 2022 6th 2021 1st 2020 6th 2019 6th 2018 1st 2017 5th 2016 4th 2015 6th 2014 2nd 2013 2nd Only us in 2021 and WCE in 2018 were top of the ladder at Rd 11 and 4 of the premiers were placed 6th.

Completely agree. We've tweaked our game style to beat Collingwood. We've become the scores from turnover kings, which is Collingwood's kryptonite, because as you say, they commit so many numbers to the contest and forward of centre, that they concede on slingshot if you can pressure them and/or win the initial stoppage contest. On resting Hibberd and having a fresh Oliver, they also clearly managed Grundy in game last week, playing only 67% TOG.

I am cautiously optimistic and will tip us Maybe I'm in the minority but thought the game against Carlton was somewhat reminiscent of a 2021 version of us - where we won ugly by strangling the opposition through excellent defence It felt like we got our mojo back a bit. Or maybe Carlton are just really bad?

And to all the previous posters who said he was no hope …maybe you can understand why more “positive “ posters get so sick of the negativity. Well deserved JVR ..

I was speaking to a colleague who is a WAFL umpire about the professional vs part time debate for umpiring. He said most people were against it because they want to have other careers alongside umpiring. He additionally wasn't keen on it since focusing on umpiring all week would probably lead to overthinking, he prefers to have the change of focus. Apparently they now have two umpiring apps to lead to more consistent umpiring outcomes and better umpiring training / development. One app provides individualised feedback about performance on the weekend, and the other app has footage from the games with snippets based on the umpiring decisions being made. Don't know how long this has been in play, but maybe it will help things in the long run?

Never in doubt. 😉 Now he just needs a quick 40 goals in the second half of the season and we'll have our fourth Rising Star winner. All talls, which is odd. Does this help his brother's draft prospects?

Thx @binman. Always enjoy reading your thoughts. I like that you've put yourself on the line by using your hypothesis to generate some predictions and given us specific means of testing those predictions (i.e. a better performance against the Pies and scrappy, low quality games against Cats and Giants). Like most watching the Blues game, I was pleased to see our whole-of-team defensive system again taking shape but frustrated by our inefficient ball use. Watching "Roaming Brian" (it's like a car crash - awful but hard to look away), I was surprised by the immediate reactions of Yze, Richardson and Goodwin. Each seemed disproportionately pleased with the performance (i.e. a scrappy 17 point win over a struggling team). Perhaps they're appraising the performance in a context unknown to outsiders (e.g. player fatigue levels due to training loads). (Apologies for tarnishing this thread with such low quality speculation 😬)

The most important ex Dee at another club is Darren Burgess.

The problem we have had against Collingwood in the past is that most of level 1 ends up being reserved seating and for whatever reason the sound from level 1 sounds best at the ground and is also closest to the broadcasters microphones, so it has always sounded far more pro Collingwood. this year we have an additional 4 bays of Melbourne only reserved seating on level 1 and these seats were snapped up within three days of being put on sale. There is this misconception by pessimist like Old Dee that there are going to be 70,000 Collingwood supporters on Monday and 15,000 of us. This is [censored]. We have approx 13k reserved seating areas which will be full, the MCC will be 75% Melbourne (approx 16k) plus around 30% of reserved seating will be bought by us (aligned with Anzac eve). This excludes the minimal support we have in the afl reserve and the small amount of GA areas that people have purchased tickets to. by my reckoning there will be at least 35k Melbourne support on the day hopefully judging 40k. Yes there will still be more of them and they are a hell of a lot louder, but we will still turn up. We haven’t had a QB home game at the g for 5 years too.

These clowns are the only bad thing about the site in reality. We have a club that won a flag 2 years ago, has the best 3 players of the last 30 years in the team, and has a crack every week. I enjoy this footy parallel universe to the previous 50 years and the incessant negativity / baiting is moronic, low brow and juvenile. Always the same posters and I have neither the will nor inclination to engage but it is almost always a frustration.

I saw young Ox - uncanny resemblance in his movement and his swaggering body language. Very disciplined set shot actin - maybe he could join Mr Williams in a workshop.

After his first few games, I saw a strong likeness to Schwarta in the way Roo plays, and I still see it! Long may it continue, sans knee recos of course! Future star of the comp.

He also said we are not in his top 4 contenders this week…. Instead he put in Freo The man is a walking yo-yo

Impressive contribution from young Joey Stayed in the moments, some great work higher up the ground in traffic and only saw him beaten once in a 1 v 1 vs very credible oppo in Weitering Another small hop

Thank you. It is the simplest Excel Table possible. Takes no time at all. Just a reordering of the AFL Fixture in Ladder order, using the 'copy/paste' function. Then add red and blue and some random colours for highlights. Same approach for the 'Contracts' Table.

AS much a I agree with you "all games are worth 4 point" Win on Monday and we are 8 points behind Collingwood Lose and we are 16 points behind them.

Moore is no dummy. If Smith is playing decoy he will recognise that in seconds and peel off to create out numbers. Will only work if Smith runs hard to make space, in dangerous positions and we actually kick the ball to him. Melksham would be a risk but he may actually be a better option as a decoy because he knows where to run and can bullet the ball 55m.

Ugly win, but we were by far the better side. I have been increasingly worried that some of our wins earlier in the season came more from moments of individual brilliance rather than our system, so I was particular pleased to see a system based win. We now have to work on our polish otherwise we won't get past Collingwood on Monday. Good chance it's been posted already, but expected scores had us winning very easily.

No way they drop Smith. Goodwin is primed for Collingwood and bringing Smith in as a defensive fwd on Moore is what will happen. It's the same role he has used Petty for previously. And they won't let Daicos take the kick ins and run and receive the hand off either.

You would think Collingwood's style would be very susceptible to turnover if the opposition can apply enough pressure.

tmac 426 The Demons will miss swingman Tom McDonald for four to six weeks despite successful surgery to remove some floating bone in his ankle.

I’m excited to see Clarry dominate. He’d be so mad he missed two games when they could have easily cut off his leg and he would have been fine 😂

Tomlinson - facilitated backtall balance

I don't know what people were expecting from Tomlinson, he was playing on a Coleman medal winner conceding height and weight. Give him time to settle back in , backline was so much better with the third tall.Also fully expect Petty to play forward when he returns, he's the only one with the marking ability and mobility to play the position, there is no one else.

When you become a good club, you lose lots of fringe players.. when you are a poor club, you lose lots of key players.. glad we are not in the latter anymore.

No ! I'd quite enjoy kicking the [censored] out of them while they're down.

My first live game since Carlton 2018, flew in Friday morning after a 31hr trip from West Africa arriving at 5.30am, (must admit was hoping for a replay of that game), so anyway I’m officially not a jinx. Rewatched the game at 5am this morning as still jet lagged and a few things stood out. Goodwin is not wrong about getting our contested game back, there was a small period in the middle of the first where Carlton had a run on, but apart from that our structure held up well, and some areas of the defense where we had been lacking this year had clearly been addressed. Carlton was forced into kick/mark because our defense was set and was kept well all game. Extraordinary fitness to keep our zone going a whole game, the running efforts of the team are much more apparent live, and it takes a truckload of work, we didn’t win this because Carlton was bad, but because our guys played a perfect Melbourne game. For sure I would have loved better accuracy, but we owned the game. I think Goodwin deserves some praise for selection integrity and game plan. My take aways: That was a massive game from May, really rejoiced to see him play so well. Hard to split him and Trac for BOG. Really good time for he and Lever to find form together. Petracca was tagging/standing Cripps in the 1st, Carlton tried to break this, putting a 2nd on Trac to try and give Cripps space (didn’t work) but while Cripps was Trac’s mark, he remained dedicated to the task, that clearly demonstrated a team first attitude and willingness to set a standard that I think had a positive affect across the group. Trac’s defensive presence in the first stopped Carlton’s early midfield drive into their forward 50, and over all that was a very Melbourne defensive game from him. McVee is a jet and deserves a rising star, clinical in some big moments. Poorest 1st half have seen from Gawn since 2014, loved that he kept fighting and he did exactly what I wanted with his bomb from 50, instead of laying it off. Huge heart to keep trying when clearly he is hampered by something ATM. Best Captain in the league right now. My voice is just recovering. Hunter’s best game this year, very promising for me was his connection to team mates, it’s getting better each week. His value over Gus, is the speed of his decision making, it is elite and he seems to be able to create a sliver more of time for the receiving player than Gus does. That said Gus, is crazy brave and good at getting the ball out and heroic defensive efforts. Best game so far from JVR, didn’t kick a bag of goals but played a nice hybrid role CHF and showed great decision making with his connection to others, loved his game. Have been able to observe growth in his games already, seems willing to learn. Bailey did some great things and laid a couple of good tackles. He is a leopard in the f50, runs into space so well, so he didn’t shoot the lights out, not really worried, was happy with his improved defensive efforts. Gus worked really bloody hard, Likewise Viney, thought he was a bit subdued compared to the last few weeks but then watching replay realized he was playing a role. Smith, initially underwhelmed but then realized how mobile he was and definitely contributed to forward half defensive pressure, and upon reflection would keep him over TMac al least until Petty returns as a forward. Tomlinson fought hard, wasn’t disgraced, played his role on an absolute Gorilla in McKay. I would say 4 goals from Curnow/McKay was par, if not a small win for us. Rivers played his usual gut busting game, was sad he didn’t convert as been hoping he could be more of a defensive forward but didn’t seem likely on the day. Grundy was running hard and definitely connects better with our midfielders than Max ATM. Umpiring was evenly bad they maybe got 4 that were not there, but neither was Spargo’s free in front of goal. Comedy gold was Pickett facing off against Jacob Weitering (have changed my love to Sam Taylor from Jacob) But most exciting for me is Salem’s game, he’s back in a big way, has found his step inside traffic and our second half of the season will be much better with him in the side, really very happy he is back. Spargo has come back well, no lingering concussion effects observable. Got to see Kozzie live, so special I think he will light Collingwood up next week. The Melbourne defensive wall will be back in full force, bring on Collingwood.

I would prefer to play them with both teams at full strength. That's where the real lessons are to be learned. Looks like De Goey will be having a well earned mid season break so there goes that idea. It's still going to be a great challenge and should set us up well for the 2nd half of the season.

I agree with all of those points. But I support a red card, in very clearly defined scenarios (which by their nature are relatively rare), when it results in the opposition losing a player. That hit happened near the end of the second quarter. The kid was playing well. And then knocked out, and can't come back on. Dog act. They lost hurn and West and with hewiit off, were down to two on the bench for a big chunk of that game. Losing hewiit was a huge disadvantage for the Eagles. Unlikely to have been a difference between winning and losing, but there's plenty of examples where it has. And I'm persuaded by the argument, what if that happened 5 minutes in to a grand final - let's say de Goey knocks tracc out cold. Play on?

He who stays fittest wins. A fit Melbourne wins the 2022 flag. A fit Melbourne could win the 2023 flag.