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How many one finger salutes can you spot after Fritta put us in front?

Hibberd absolutely smashed Mihocek

I have vowed not to get into back and forth on DL this season. And resist the urge to repeat the same thing over and over. Resist the urge to rebut is my self talk. But I have felt my will break in the last few weeks. So, i'll make one more post on this topic and leave it. There is actually a statistical measure of what is considered elite kicks. I can't be bothered looking it up, but i'll bet London to a brick that Salem, Fritter, Hunter, Bowey and Mcvee are all rated elite for disposal efficiency. Leaving that aside, your definition of an elite kick is informed by the list of players you consider to be elite: Rich, Tom Stewart, Darcy Moore, N Daicos, Hayden Young, Sicily, Bailey Dale, Jake Lloyd, Jayden Short, Tuohy, Bont, Jordan Dawson, J Daicos, Z Merrett, Pendles, Sidebottom, JHF, Jezza, Hawkins (field kicking), Tex, Gryan and Larkey. By the by, i don't disagree with any of those players being elite kicks, but i honestly can't see how if you think those players are elite you could seriously argue that none of Salem, Fritter, Hunter, Bowey and Mcvee are elite kicks. By way of comparison, few would argue Nick Daicos would be close to the best kick in the AFL. Daicos has a career average DE of 77% - a figure that is padded by the fact he takes most kick outs and gets tonnes of cheapies down back. Here is the career average of the five elite kicks in our team (and please, don't worry about potting DE as a measure of kicking skills - it is the only objective stat out there and it would be disingenuous to argue it is not at least a pretty good guide). Bolded indicates a better DE than Daicos: Bowey (who plays a very comparable role to daicos) 79.5% McVee 77.3% Salem 74.9% Hunter 73.8% Fritter 69.3% Anyway, i disagree with your assessment and you disagree with mine. That is not going to change, so let's draw a line under it here. (note to self here: don't react to the completely whacko assessment of Hunter's kicking skills - wow he turned it over twice, barely an average kick? Ye gads that is nutso - quiet bin, calm down, you don't have to convince everyone you're right, relax, go to your happy place - bang, bang, bang)

Brayshaw doesn't get enough credit for all the terrific work that he does. Often handballing off to a player in a better position. Deft touches on a constant basis. Competes hard and always puts his body on the line. Excellent spoiler as well His number of errors are often greatly exaggerated and his good work is played down and often ignored 24 touches at 83% Petracca went at 50% but there's no thought of throwing him down to the 2nds Viney went at 68% ... that means that a 3rd of his disposals were not effective Yet he was B.O.G So he (Brayshaw) had a great deal more than a couple of important clearances. That evaluation is utter nonsense He was fantastic after a dodgy first 15 minutes But all our players can turn the ball over such is the nature of the sport. It lends itself to forced errors and unforced errors At ground level (as opposed to up in the stands) it's very difficult to hit targets at distance. So players have to take risks delivering into crowded areas when kicking over 30 metres We need to allow players to make a few mistakes. You want perfection, you're watching the wrong sport The game is full of errors. And excellent disposals. You get both, that's the sport Collingwood made a stack of errors today and that was uncharacteristic ... but they all just didn't lose their skill levels overnight! We pressured them into errors. Again, that's the sport Take the good with the bad I say It would be different if we were talking about a player with low possession numbers making errors half the time That's a whole other argument

What a great day to be at the G arrived early to soak up the atmosphere rugged up for a cold June day blue sky sun shining through jackets coming off in droves. Big Freeze entertaining, ground looked pristine, pie was hot, crowd was building nicely bit of crowd noise, all the regulars were seated around us a bit like an odd family, feeling anxious and edgy. Siren goes we are off the roller coaster continued to gather speed as we began to dominate the game without putting them way, exhilarating we were so good in every way but score board pressure, the Pies crowd were subdued because they knew as we knew we were the better side today. When they Booed Grundy we all clapped and cheered like our lives depended on it and when the final siren sounded we all erupted like mad things clapping and singing our lungs out. Two huge crowds this year and we have won them both. Our team stood up, some brilliantly but all assisted and stuck to the game plan, well done Players, Coaches, Demon Army the Big Freeze No.9 and the wonderful brilliant Melbourne Supporters you all did us proud.❤️💙!!

Brayshaw will not be going anywhere As you said, as a pure utility he is extremely valuable. Can play in a variety of positions His knockers are clueless and they focus on a couple of errors way too much. Theirs is unintelligent analysis He'd be close to top 5 in our B & F ... even in the Demonland award he's sitting 5th and that's with many of the easily influenced not game enough to award him votes The smart thinkers know his value

Just a fun little photo from tonight's game, from the MFC gallery 😊🙏

Seriously? All of those players meet your definition of elite kicks? And you don't rate Salem, bowey, hunter, fritter and mcvee as elite kicks? Not even one of them? No, I mean seriously, are you serious?

Today was a major validation of Goody's footy philosophy. Build a list and game style that stands up in September. Get super fit. Back your junkyard dogs to get it done when it's white hot in the last quarter. ANB, Viney, May: you were brilliant when it countered. Hand-to-hand combat, war of attrition, contest-by-contest, wins grannies. Defend, neutralize, mitigate.

Viney’s blind turn away from the tackle and pinpoint delivery to JVR was just outrageous, cos he just doesn’t do that stuff, Robbie Flower did that stuff, NOT Jack Viney. Almost wet myself (having almost done the same after the Lachie Hunter Jonah Lomu-like run through on Hoskin-Elliot)! Having the season of his life is Jack, just stamping his already Dees diamond credentials.

I honestly cannot tell if people are serious or joking anymore when I read stuff like this. I’d like to phone a friend please.

Said this one would be worth revisiting. Thanks for the laughs :)

Four quarters of gut running to space to create an attacking option, or to block the corridor or whatever outlet the opposition are looking for. Often first to ball and if not always goes for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th efforts. Attacks and harasses the opposition into errors. Creates the 'perceived pressure' leading to further unforced errors. Sure, lets drop ANB 🙄

What I have been most impressed with this year about Jack is his field kicking. Improved out of sight. Technically better, but also very few of his dump turnover kicks. I think a big factor is related to your field webbs. The medical staff at the dees have been dealing with jack's feet issues for years. The amount of physio and rehab he has had to do would be insane. I'm pretty sure the last preseason was his first that was 100% uninterrupted. Didn't miss sessions and trained with footy boots on from the get go. The kms he has to run he must put a strain on his feet, but i imagine the way he so often powers though tackles an contests must put massive stress through his feet. Kudos to all the medical professionals who have helped him get his feet right.

We are a much better team when Salo is up and going. It's one of the reasons we bombed last year. This time round he looks fit. I've said it before but he is as important as Clarry, Trac, May and Gawn.

Lots of great posts in this thread but this one is my favourite. Convincingly beat the premiership favourites and this is the first post in the postgame thread! Timing is everything in comedy!

Shhhh

Petracca called Cox 4 eyes.

I’m going to save us all a lot of time by letting you know that ANB will not be dropped this week. Carry on.

Apparently information will only be given out on a ‘knees’ to know basis.

As someone said earlier, 16 points up with less than 2 minutes to go and us with ball in hand at a kick-in should mean that the opposition doesn't touch the ball again. Chip kicks and switches galore should have been the order of the day. We got there in the end, but heart palpitations should have been unnecessary!

Viney was amazing. McVee so clean. The defence has clicked with Tomlinson back and May and Lever playing freely. The question is, where does Petty go when he returns? Gawn on his Instagram posted a single picture of Tomlinson without a caption. I’d say it’s going to be very hard to omit him. Smith added tenacity and aggression to our forward line. Can we play Smith, JVR, and Petty together? I feel the writing is probably on the wall with Spargo being subbed. I’ve felt for a while Spargo, Chandler, and Pickett is playing too many smalls. A note on Trac. The commentators went on about his disposal efficiency today, but he did some great work in close and as usual seemed a class above. His finishing was clearly off and it’s really only his goal kicking that is preventing him from being regarded in the same way as Dustin Martin. Final note. I’ve always had a soft spot for the international players but I’ve had enough of Cox. Not just the stuff after the siren but after he kicked his goal, it looked like he screamed at Gawn as he ran past (like fast bowlers do to batsman). The arrogance to think you’re anywhere near the class of Max Gawn. A very important win.

Finally a birthday not ruined by yesterday's game.

Then he is a star! It sounded great and showed that, when we’re all on the same page, our support is as good as anyone’s. My English team (Sunderland) has a bitter rivalry with Newcastle, the Magpies. We delight in the acronym FTM. It’s why my Dad chose the Demons back in the 60’s because they were, at the time, Collingwood’s natural rival. He hated all things black and white. I’m celebrating in style over here and the warm pommie beer is tasting like absolute nectar. We owned them today. FTM.

Also notable I think that he mentioned the crowd noise and its importance. When was the last time we matched/outdid Collingwood supporters for noise? Surely the players noticed. The roar as they ran out onto the ground must have given them positive energy. Petracca's mentioned it before. The more we get to the ground and make noise like that, the better it is for our chances.

Just a tin foil hat and a crack pipe

Could Bowey play Spargos role in the forward line? He is similar in that he is elite by foot and cool under pressure. Can kick it further than spargo and is more likely to convert his opportunities

So a year ago it was 'All duck or no dinner' and Ed gets crunched for it. He was on the money then, and MFC showed yesterday that if the corridor is denied to the Pies they are just another good team with problems when their first choice strategy is addressed by the opposition. The talk now primarily will be how the Dees unlocked the Pies game plan. Good coaches elsewhere will be taking notice. The trick will be having the talent to execute. Well done Ed.

Thank you so much for this. 🤗 Minus two or three short periods at the start, we were literally flat out for just under five hours. I’ve yet to hear how much we made for FreezeMND but we’d bought extra of everything and were left with almost no leftovers. It was a huge success. Also, this year was better than ever, ending the day with a win. Makes all the hard work all the more worth it.

Shoutout to the supporters at the game yesterday, we went toe to toe with the pies on the noise levels... Made a huge difference imo. Special mention to Tommo and Joel Smith, both played their role superbly. Salem... Seriously missed this guy. A complete match winner. McVee, fast becoming one of my favorite players. Never looks flustered, even in front of 83k roaring fans. Balanced, poised, skillful. So happy with him.

I just saw this on BF. I swear I have to check if I'm in the middle of some bad episode of Twilight Zone...🤣 "Well I was thinking it might end up with me setting up a GoFundMe page, if only I was taller and stronger. Had this terrible Melbourne supporter (4 of them but one was really a nutcase) in front of me who was already half under the weather before the game and after 6 cans was getting worse. Turning around really in my face and although none of you know me I hardly yell at the footy, too involved in who is playing where and the tactics of the game. Would stand up and yell things like, the premiership is not played in June, colliwobbles (sigh), losers, we are the champions and more that I can't remember. I was so ready to respond but only to told him to sit down as I couldn't see and also my grand-daughter told me not to respond. I so hate Melbourne, have never been to a game against them when I haven't had those type of supporters around me."

Happy birthday 🎂 Layzie.

Passage of play at the around the 10 m mark in the last, where a running Mcvee and Viney combine in the middle to Jvr who marks and goals was superb . Critical play and goal.

I wasn't sure where to put this, so I'll put it here. Gus started the game horribly, including being responsible for Crisp at the stoppage in D50 when Crisp goalled. Gus then worked himself into the game and had a couple of important clearances. The final Collingwood goal from a D50 stoppage though, Gus is again responsible for Daicos. And like the Crisp D50 stoppage goal, Gus was left ball-watching or simply too slow. I worry about Gus, because I'm not sure there's a position for him when we have both wings covered, Salem back in the team and Oliver back in the team. He's a good reader of the play, but he's not quick and he's not a good user by foot either. He's wonderfully courageous, but I do wonder where he fits when/if we're at full strength. Is it just me?

A couple of statistical shout-outs: Petracca had a game high 37 pressure acts, 20 of which were in the back half. Like last week, in Oliver's absence he has stepped up defensively. Incredible work for someone who is dominant in the forward half After Viney's 4, our next best forward 50 ground ball get player was JVR (along with Fritsch). He was also our 6th highest pressure act player. This is why he keeps playing. He is doing defensive things that TMac and Brown can't do

Has Geelong released our allocated 10 seats yet?

Easy to say this after a big win but... Absolute masterclass by Goody! I've heard knocks on him based on his inability to change up the game plan during a game but tinkering would come at the expense of the players knowing a tried and tested finals-winning defensive system instinctively. We have to believe Goody when he and the club say they are building a squad which will consistently win finals over a number of years. There was a stat going round toward the end of May that we'd lost almost half our games since round 11 2022 (having won our first 10 games straight that year). With alarming (though arbitrary) stats like these getting attention, it can be easy to forget the following: In 2021 we finished first and won all our finals (including the GF) by an average of 63 points. In 2022 we finished 2nd on the ladder. we were "bundled out in straight sets" but were ahead deep into both our finals matches In 2023 we currently sit comfortably in 3rd position having hit nowhere near our best form and continuing to experiment with our forward setup while BBB gets "cherry ripe" in the twos. Finally, I still sense that a large part of our fan base thinks the quality of our list belies the performance of our head coach and indeed places a higher expectation on Goodwin because of some kind of 'head start' he's got having this list at his disposal. But that is flawed thinking as Goodwin and his coaching staff are interconnected with the list managers and the development of players. That is, Melbourne's list managers are rightly praised continually while Goodwin is often criticised but the list managers surely work with Goody to bring in the right player to fit the PROVEN system Goody employs and continues to deploy. Rant Over. Sorry and thanks. GO DEES!

Then he'll get dropped then won't he. Not. Coz a premiership coach understands footy and knows just how hard he works and the incredible amount of ground he covers. Were you at the game? if you were you would have seen a player push himself to the limit and beyond. He is almost always completely spent. But sure let's knock his skilll errors under intense fatigue. How many other dees players would have had the aerobic capacity and speed late in the game to mark that high kick from kozzie. Not one. He won us the game and you want him droppe. I edited my comment because it was unnecessarily snarky. Snarky, maybe. Accurate, absolutely.

Me:

It reminded me of this:

He grew up in an AFL mad house. His dad ran Auskick out at Waverley Park. He has photos as a kid with every Hawthorn great you can think, and personalised signed jumpers. He lost his love for the game as a teen, and never had any strong affiliation to any club because everyone in his family barracks for someone different (all terrible choices too). Then he met me and understood that the only way to survive is to join in. He is genuinely a Melbourne supporter these days and he has a great understanding of the game. His favourite Melbourne player is ANB and he thinks Fritsch is a top 5 forward in the AFL. So he does really know his stuff. He just doesn't love going to game because it takes us a while to get to and from the ground, and I am very unpleasant to sit with 🙄😅

Replay was a great watch. Actually felt like a completely different game the second time around once the stress of all the missed opportunities and final outcome was removed. Take out the first 15 mins and we absolutely dominated.

I reckon we actually matched them in terms of volume. What started it was when they began to boo Brodie. Something snapped and almost immediately we’re drowning them out with cheering, that sound ringing around the stadium was amazing. They must’ve been shocked because that’s something they’re not used to.

Just had a roam around BF myself - wow! You can really go off the deep end over there if you’re that way inclined - see below:

You mean the guy who gut ran in the last quarter to mark in front of goal and kicked a goal when everyone else was kicking points. That guy?

You beaut, juicy fruit! Just about the perfect result, because we haven't completely shown our hand. What do I mean by that? We have a few more gears to go to yet IMO. Not only if we kick straight do we win by 8+ goals, but if we moved the ball quicker still, we'd be getting out the back against them more often. This ball movement is still not totally instinctive and it robs us of points. I'm hoping we can use the back half of the season to fine tune that and find that killer instinct with ball movement. As for our defensive system, it completely strangled and panicked Collingwood after half time. There was a heap of inferred pressure and Collingwood skill errors, fumbles etc as the game wore on and I thought in the 3rd, we lifted our intensity around the ball and pressure rating even more. I'd love to know what our pressure rating in the 3rd was. Loved that we started manning up the spare (often Daicos) in the last quarter. Will watch the replay tonight, but I don't think we started 1v1 at all stoppages until last quarter. We essentially let them have +1 at contest and sat our +1 a 20m kick behind play, so mostly just in front of the next 1v1. That very first goal of the match was textbook Collingwood though and we failed to get the job done there defensively. Daicos kicks out. Kicks short, gets the handball receive, hits a target on defensive wing and bang, it's up the other end for a goal. But after the first 15 minutes, we settled and tidied up across our half forwardline, and we no longer allowed that ease of ball movement from back to centre wing. One of Viney's best games ever. For a guy whose disposal I often lament, I thought he was A+++ today. He was clean, tough and showed excellent disposal all day. One of his greatest games IMO. Despite what I just read in the match day thread, I thought our tall forwards were excellent. Max played his best game for the season. He, along with JVR, Smith and at times Grundy, were brilliant at bringing the ball to ground (often against -2 or in Max's case -3). Our small forwards applied great pressure, but struggled with their cleanness, which cost us further scoring opportunities. That Quaynor is a bloody good player 1v1 and he saved them 3 or 4 goals. So the next time we meet them, either his opponent (likely Kozzy) has to get the job done or we avoid kicking it near he and Moore. As the game wore on though, our forward and midfield pressure pushed them wider and wider and they couldn't handle our press. They dump kicked into the corridor a number of times, and gave us great looks on turnover. We need to utilise those opportunities better next time. Our defenders held up really well. After giving up 2 early goals, May played a superb half of football, and then started to drop simple uncontested marks again, that opened the door for them. But I thought Tomlinson was really good, McVee is a beauty, love his composure and ball use. Salem is back to his elite 2021 form. He's found his feet quickly this season, and his cleanness and disposal makes our backline soooooooo much better. I've been really impressed with our midfield the last two weeks, minus the best contested player in the game. If you'd said earlier in the year that we'd beat Collingwood without Clarry, I'd have been rubbing my hands together. But Petracca stepped up last week, Viney this week and Sparrow is giving them superb back up, loving his season. Despite his iffy disposal, I thought Rivers was decent too, moving inside more and took some important intercept marks too. Overall, we've shown that we can suffocate their ball movement and turn the ball over in the corridor, as well as force them wide. Kick straighter and we're looking at 15+ goals, and I'd say from where we want to (and can) get to, we were running out about a 6 or 7 out of 10. It will be interesting to see what the competition learns from Goody today.

How insane is it that Geelong have 75,000 members, Melbourne have 65,000, and they'll play at a stadium in front of 21,000 people next week? How the AFL signed off on this is ridiculous. It's bad for the sport. All this garbage about growing the game and you have at least 30,000 people who can't get in to see 2 top 8 sides play each other. I hope someone points it out to the media. It's an absolute own goal by the AFL. Move it to Marvel if you want, but move it. I struggle to think of another game where they are wilfully locking out so many people - Geelong fans included.

Totally disagree on JVR. He was very good. Rarely lost an aerial contest and nailed the most crucial kick for goal of the match. He is a baby. This was a very good game from him playing near and sometimes on one of the best FBs in the game.