Red and Blue realist

Think we need a number of changes. On Form both Wagners, Spargo and tmac need to go. I'd bring in stretch, keilty, garlett and either omac or petty.

That's spot on, Frost needs to keep it simple, but he also needs a job. He has to play 1 on 1 because he just doesn't have the footy smarts to play a zone. He was good last night because he only went near the ball because Buddy was after it. Next week he needs to go to Bruce and that's it. I thought the zone actually worked well last night, with OMac dropping deepest (his best role) and Hore, Fritsch and Wagner being more mobile. Having Buddy isolated on Frost allowed that to work. When May and Lever are back I don't think it's a case of OMac or Frost, I think it'll depend on what roles there are to play, if we need a direct role on a mobile tall then Frost is in, if it;s a general zone then maybe a smaller guy gets the nod.

Yeah, I'd hold off on Lewis for the Tigs game, and also bring in one or both of Garlett and Lockhart to give us some real spark for that game.

Plus the aggressive tackles, at one point I thought it Viney going for the ball but it was Weid bent over. The goals will come, but efforts like those will turn him into a really good player.

Got to remember with the changes that after the Saints we play the Tigs 4 days later, so while we have the bigger break now I wouldn't be expecting anyone who's had an injuries (Lewis, Jetta and May) to play both. So it might just be forced changes then look at bringing them and guys like Lockart, Garlett etc. in fresh for the Tigs.

They said last night it was just the 3rd time Jones had played at the SCG, in 268 games, that seems very low. 268 games equates to around 13 seasons, so you'd think it's be closer to 6 or 7.

While they might have been forced into these in some ways, I really hope the coaches keep doing the following: - a one out deep tall forward, who doesn't go much further than 50 out even when we are defending. Helps straighten us up. - give Frost an assignment, he plays much better 1 on 1 then in a zone. Put him on the forward most likely to roam. Leave omac playing the zone as the deepest tall defender, with hore, Hibberd etc doing the same zone. - make sure Viney starts with aggression, it really rubbed off on a number of others, weids tackles were impressive but I think he (and others) need someone to inspire them.

The only incident I can remember was the collision with buddy and he played a fair bit after that, so with the extra break I'd be guessing he'll be ok. Think they'll save may for Anzac Eve even if he is ok, just to save him coming back to a very short turn around

Did you see Reid at all? The majority of the last term was played on our terms so none of the backs were really seen, although I didn't notice him in the last 10 mins or so, but I just assumed he'd be back last line and it didn't go down there.

C'mon, Oscar got done by Henney in a marking contest and scrubbed 1 kick but besides that had a good full backs game. He did his job really well and unless injured his spot in the team won't be in question for next week

Did notice it during the game, but he then played out the rest and actually was a lot better in the second half I thought. I'd say it's precautionary which is good given his history.

I blame Oliver and Brayshaw for this, I think Max has done the right thing and directed the tap where Oliver and Brayshaw should have been. However, Oliver in particular was too busy engaging in a push and shove with his opponent to get anywhere near the tap, which made it too easy for Essendon to walk it out. Both Oliver and Brayshaw have to focus on being our attacking mids, but at times we more like defending mids, roles that Harmes and Viney do much better.

Not disagreeing, and I don't think they are our biggest issue but we can't also think they haven't got areas of improvement that won't help the whole team. The more pressure they put on the opposition makes it harder and sloppier when the ball goes into our defense so it's easier for our defenders to either kill the ball or intercept, while if they are working harder when we don't have the ball when it is turned over hopefully it means they can get cleaner ball into our forwards.

So you didn't notice how easy it was for Essendon to waltz out of the center last week? Max won the taps and it was too easy for them too often, now that's not our only problem. And I'm not suggesting for 1 second that Brayshaw and Oliver haven't been our best players so far, but while they've still be getting the same amount of possessions as last year, clearly the midfield is not working as well as last year, which does lay partially on their shoulders. It's when they don't have the ball that's been the issue. I still think it's the easiest thing to fix, and will helps us massively, but it all starts in the center on Thursday.

Just because it's pointing out some truths about our best players, doesn't mean it's wrong. At least one area we should be able to clean up our stoppage leakage pretty quickly, but that's put too much pressure on the defense which is getting a hiding from everyone on here. This has been mentioned in the midfield thread but the article gets it 100% right and is backed up with the stats: Talented with the ball in hand and tough inside the contest, opponents have begun to realise that Clayton Oliver, Angus Brayshaw, James Harmes and Jack Viney don't seem to want to work as hard this season as they did at the end of last year to help out a defence that has begun to leak like a colander held under a waterfall. Melbourne are the worst team in the competition in relation to scores from stoppages so far this season having conceded 25 more points from stoppages than they have scored in the first three rounds.

Yes we have, we might have matched the clearance numbers but that includes those we win which go virtually no where, I want us winning ones which go directly deep into our forward 50 like port, Geelong and Essendon have done so easily and so often. Ours went to about 65-75 out and caused another stoppage. My point is that Oliver and Brayshaw are more than capable but only when trying to get the ball rather than playing the man, which they have been getting caught up doing.

Frost was horrible last night, multiple times he left his man to run towards the player with the ball and ended up nowhere near the ball or his man, that's basic understanding of the game which he doesn't have. He also dropped multiple marks and got out marked by a guy 20kgs lighter and 10cm shorter, while having the front position. Both are horribly out of form, when may and lever are back Frost will be the first out of the team. Hope petty or keilty get a run this week

Sure it will be, but so many times Oliver in particular went for niggle rather than concentrating on the ball, max then got a good knock down which was sharked by an Essendon player who waltzed out of the centre with our guys trailing behind. I'm just saying that if he's going for the ball rather than the man we'd be so much better. Getting flogged in the centre needs to be fixed

We're pointing out that he should play to his strength, see ball get ball win ball. Not waste a heap of energy doing unnecessary niggle. A big reason why Essendon flogged at centre bounces was because we forgot about the ball and wasted the opportunities max provided. Yes we need better outside run, but that's not what I was pointing out

Said in the changes thread but one thing we need to fix is with Oliver and Brayshaw. They both try to go to a player at centre bounces, bumping etc, like their playing a negating role. They are the stars, let harmes and Viney play this roles, and get them to just concentrate on getting the ball. They got sucked in too many times last night, so Gawn would win the tap but Essendon won it too easy while those guys were trailing behind. That should be a very easy fix. The bigger worry is what happens when they don't have the ball, of our on ballers it's only really harmes who runs and chases hard, the others all seem to lose a gear when it goes past them

Oliver and Brayshaw need to realise they are our offensive centre square mids, to often they are unnecessarily engaging opponents at the bounce as opposed to directly hunting the ball, leave harmes and Viney to do that. Change that and it'll make us a lot better

I read somewhere that's a change they've made competition wide, so all AFL listed players keep the same numbers in both comps. I wonder if we'll really restrict the playing minutes of some players. The Sydney game is on the Thursday night, so it'll be a very short turn around for anyone who might come up to the 1sts.

Clearly our biggest issues this year have been with our mid-fwd connection, not our key backs. The hoff got a hold of them rd 1 (mainly on Frost btw) but against Geelong their biggest threat were their goalkicking mids and small forwards. Had we been better and cleaner going forward we still would have got beaten but no where near as badly. To say were having a pathetic backline emergency is only to justify your position on OMac, which no matter what happens won't change. You can go straight to the changes for round 4 thread and just put the same old reasons up, won;t matter what the actual issues with the team/game plan are, you are just just blaming 1 guy.

Wow, never thought about it like this. Whenever anyone plays badly, just blame OMac. Viney's lack of run in the Port game, clearly because OMac put his socks on the wrong feet first, Jones's dropped mark - OMac sneezed in grade 2, Petracca dropped marks against the Cats - OMac was on the same ground at the time. I get it now, drop OMac and we win every game by at least 300 points!! Seriously Jetta and Hibberd are horribly out of form and we need them to get the spark back quickly. Hibberd's run has been ok, but every kick is higher than it is long, not sure if there's been 1 mark from his kicking this year. And Jetta has been beaten so many times 1 on 1 this year, which is not like him.

Agree with most of this, in particular about Trac, I think he's working pretty hard at the moment, hence his tackle numbers but is just trying too hard. It will all click very soon and then his natural skill will take over. A little harsh on Harmes, he still leading the tackle count while coming back from a pretty ordinary finger issue. He's one who really needs a set job though, and against Port they let him run free then swapped and changed him against the cats. Sit him on Merrett this week. The fumbles are a massive killer this year, as you pointed out it's impacting a lot of players, hoping this is something that can be fixed at training, otherwise we'll continue to give up big runs of goals during games.