Red and Blue realist

No change, but I anticipate there'll be 2 or 3 the week after regardless of the result. All of Tyson, Garlett, Hunt, Weid (if fit), Peds and even Frost would be a chance to come back in. We've got a 6 day break coming back from Alice against the doggies.

If he stayed on at a minimal price that's still likely to be closer to $250k, compared to a draftee/rookie who might be $100k all up. So depends if we've got the ability to pay that or if it needs to be spent elsewhere. He's the most replaceable in our current 22, which probably means he won't go again, in my opinion.

This is exactly what Tyson has been doing the last few weeks, he's been nearly playing wing/back flank and been involved in a lot of movement away from the back 50. He was very prominent early in the game against GC, but in the second half the ball barely got down there so he wasn't involved as much. Another thing that annoys me is trying to define a permanent set role for a player, we know OMac, Hibberd, Lever and Jetta will be defenders but just about every other position is flexible and fluid during the game, even big Maxy positions himself as a forward multiple times during a game. We've seen Hogan attend center bounces, TMac start on the wing, Harmes at full forward, Spargo/Hannan/Melky run off the back of the square just for examples of players who are thought of as one particular type of player. Players will spend more time in one area than another, but to say someone is directly taking another players role is like expecting the team to line up in the exact position they are named on Thursday nights.

The umpire seemed to be barking instructions to the players, so it would be hard to argue he was just making space and didn't know who it was. Pity the vision doesn't show his face to see if he had a glance or not. The umpire was very surprised to have someone make contract with him.

No malice in either, but what a stupid week to do it after the attention Hawkins got. Both will get a week, Ed maybe 2.

Tyson hasn't been playing as an inside mid though, he played more as a defensive sweeper/mid today and I thought he was in our best half dozen in the first half, was much quieter in the second half but the ball barely went down there.

Can't see them switching a tall for a mid, Weid has allowed TMac and Hogan to roam while keeping some structure in the forward line. I think it's really helped with some of the mismatches that occurred in the last. I'm in the Vince out for a rest, Viney in camp.

Lots of reasons to keep him, structure, allows TMac and Hogan to roam which was a massive part of the win today and also gives Gawn a chop out better than either Pedo or Harmes has so far this year.

Really hard to see who might come out for Viney, thought ANB showed why he's so important and why he's been backed in so far. Harmes was great. Tyson played a role that was more mid/defensive sweeper, so wouldn't be a direct swap for Viney unless they moved Brayshaw back to that role, but there's no way you'd do that at the moment. Maybe Vince has a rest and Salem and Tyson spend all their time back, with Viney easing back into the centre.

He was very good in the first half, but played as a mid sweeper type role, so in the last quarter and a half the ball rarely went into our back half so there was little to do. Most of the time it went back it was straight into the arms of one of our guys anyway.

It'd be an interesting exercise to see how many quarters have been lost by say 20+ points, given that around 55% of games finish within 30 points (don't quote me on that I found it online somewhere), so a loss of that size would go a long way in the contest. Just be interesting to compare what we've done compared to the better sides, I think this is something that we're still working on fixing and will go a long way to getting us back to finals. If I get time later I'll look at that, unless anyone knows of a quick resource for that info?

Remember it was only a few years ago that the only positive commentators or those on here could find was that we won more quarters than we had the year before.

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-chief-executive-peter-jackson-stepping-down-20180509-p4zeax.html He's leaving in a similar manner to the Roos/Goody handover. He's done a simply brilliant job.

Another article on Clarry https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/clayton-olivers-sensational-skill-shows-why-the-demons-arent-fazed-by-his-high-handball-numbers/news-story/41f7546b5f45374e26f18d22db0c98d8 I often wonder if the umps get pulled up every time they call him for throwing, then look at the tape and realise he's just too quick for them.

Don't think the dew really comes in for night games up there closer to the second half, so being an earlier game it should nearly take that out of consideration? Just thinking along the lines of player a taller squad (with Weid) or looking smaller (maybe Garlett)?

I did hear that in his final draft year there were a lot of question marks around Trac's tank, so he went out of his way to build his fitness so he could play through the midfield not just as a high half forward. I suspect that as he builds this even more (big difference between under age and AFL) that he'll demand more time in there, but very happy with what he's doing at the moment, just needs to not try too hard. Hard to seem them being a danger/selwood or martin/cotchin combo, because you've got to get Oliver and Viney in there too!

You said we're trying but lack the polish at the last moment, what I was saying is that Richmond are the leaders in this area and they completely lack any polish, they just rely on moving it forward and having enough people there to then continue to move it forward until they get a score.

Given it's a 4:30pm game, does that make a difference? When will the dew come in, I imagine the game will be finished around half 6?

I disagree with some of this, because i think Richmond are one of the teams with the least amount of 'polish', what they do better as a team better than any is all spread together at pace. So when they get a run on and they spray a kick or send it down the line, it always happens to land with 3 or 4 of their players around, rather than to someone who is one out, or 2 against 2 or 3. They move in packs and the packs get to the right spots. I think we can do that rather than rely on an outside 'line-breaker', in the back line for instance Hibberd, Lewis, Hunt and then the more defensive oriented mids such as Jones and Tyson, should be forming these packs to move the ball forward trying to connect to something similar up forward (say Hannan, Fritsch, ANB, Oliver, Salem etc.) before either getting a clear shot off or passing to Hogan/Weid/TMac.

Early forecast is 22 and sunny, no reason not to run with the tall forward line again and see if we can't stretch the suns defence, in particular if May doesn't get up

I don't think you can really say we play 3 talls in the forward line, yes Hogan, TMac and Weid are 3 tall who mainly play forward, but with TMac and Hogan wandering so far and Weid doing the chop out in the ruck it'd be very rare that they ever are in there at the same time. Others have said it, but Weid gives those 2 the chance to use their tanks and get up around the ball or be the distributors between the 50s, while keeping our structure right within the forward 50. I can see a game or 2 this year where Weid could kick 3/4/5 goals in the same mode Jenkins does with Adelaide, getting a massive mismatch with the best defenders trying to take Hogan and TMac - not sure he'll get the same over the top easy ones that Jenkins gets.

It kind of felt like the commentators were told to talk up St Kilda today, maybe they thought if they did that they'd be entitled to an easier whack when the wheels fell off? Although in general how bad was BT, didn't know about Tracc's finger, said numerous times that Webster caused the 50 meter penalty which went to the saints (even argued with the others when they pointed out it couldn't have been a teammate the ran through the protected area. Was the guy drunk, or is he just that stupid?

He seemed to cramp up in the goal square in the last, but this was in the hamstrings/lower leg, which is pretty normal for most guys playing their first game for the season. Hopefully that was the reason behind the soreness. With his flexibility and Hoges running wild this season, I think it makes us much much more dangerous going forward, swinging capable guys around who need direct opponents must be a nightmare for oppositions to match up on.

Might explain some of the mistakes and lack of effort on Sunday. Still has a valuable role to play, but wouldn't mind at all if we got to the end of the season and he'd only played 15/16 games.

This deserves more recognition, means he's not just running around headless, his impacting the play without needed possessions (the opposite of what many of our players looked like yesterday).