deanox

To be clear this is "contesting at the tribunal" not "appealing" which was the second JVR hearing.

Oliver out means we will be a lesser side for those weeks, sure. But it is also a really good opportunity to practice an extended period of alternative set ups. It's been great that Oliver and Petracca and Gawn have played almost every game together for 4-5 years, but that also leads to lack of alternative set ups. This year we have really focussed on mixing this up a bit vs the last couple of years where we played best players in each positions permanently. It has seen Kossi, Rivers, Jordan, Sparrow all rotate through the midfield in significant minutes. With Max out, Grundy had a long period of time to gel with the midfielders. If Clarry is out, it will give more game time minutes to set ups without Oliver, helping us find tune the team and develop those synergies. It might hurt our top 2 chances, but if we are good enough we should be able to still win enough games to finish top 4. Peaking in September is what we want. Not May.

I think it's a single top knot in those photos, but occasionally the pigtails come into play!

I suspect this is one of the parts of the game that we deliberately targeted two top tier ruckman for.

Meet Teddy. Loves watching footy on TV (that is the 2021 GF he is watching). Very good corralling defence work. Can be selfish with the ball, doesn't share it around.

To add to this: I absolutely love the ****housery. I just think it needs to be against the rules.

Any ideas for dog friendly pubs in the south east of Melbourne that show the footy? Unusually head to the Great Northern, but looking to meet up with some Bayside mates.

If he was already warming up around the boundary line, I reckon a heckle is ok. But running at the player like this doesn't sit right to me, as it makes it "feel" like there is an extra defender. I don't think it's appropriate. But as said above, exposing another player on the field should be a more significant penalty than this!

It's sexual assault and should have been suspended. No player should have their underwear removed by an opponent, exposing them to supporters and tv cameras. This can't even be justified as "a joke between mates" as they were opposition players.

I think this is what I was trying to describe about "different pools". I might not be technically correct in my description but they are effectively playing other punters not the house. You and I can always lay bets at the TAB, but they block the pros, and only accept their bets if another pro is willing to take that bet.

If the slinging action alone gets a week, then Sicily needs to be looked at.

I'm not an expert, but I think there are actually different pools. The average punter is betting with fixed odds against the house. The house adjusts odds to try to balance their books, and take their margin. Once you punt enough (often enough, enough money, or even just win enough) they move you off the normal accounts and into other pools where you are effectively betting against other punters (with the house still taking a margin, albeit much slimmer margin as they are now winning off volume). Basically at this point they ban you from betting at fixed odds: they know you are able to predict the market better than them, so why would they let you bet? There might be some other situations/arrangements/products as well.

It's been a pretty useful metric used for the last 5+ years at least. If you haven't seen it, it might be worth brushing up on some of the currently used statistical measures. While metres gained has its limitations, it shows his disposals aren't all backwards passes, short chips sideways or handball.

Interesting considering one of my concerns this year is how we have been carved up on transition a few times.

Thanks for your efforts as usual guys. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about Clarry's game, and if you think there have been changes this year. He is averaging 5.2 marks this year. The last few years he has been around the 3.5 mark. This has seen him pick up a few more uncontested possessions. He has pushed his kick/handball ratio a bit higher as well. Do we see this as a deliberate change in his game? Is it about trying to break the tag/attention he gets when at the coalface? Or just a result of sharing on-ball minutes with a few more players Rivers, Kozzy etc. (resulting in him being a bit more outside)?

I watched him a bit today and his competitiveness was really good. Kept working hard and eventually it paid off with a couple of marks.

Earlier this year, I thought that maybe he had lost a touch of pace. It might just have been part of working his way back into match fitness. It might be that he has lost a touch of pace, but it is only going to be apparent playing on the Cameron's of the world. But if he has lost a touch of pace, it hasn't affected his performance tonight whatsoever. Was fantastic, and you're right his ability and positioning in the contest was great.

When Petty lined upon front for his goal, Clarry called all the players downfield to get close, and when he kicked it they all mobbed him. There was a real team celebration of Petty kicking that, and I wondered if it was a behind the scenes confidence thing (you've been doing everything right and even though you haven't hit the scoreboard we know you will soon). After he kicked the goal he started clunking some good marks around the ground too.

Joeboy - on the ball Your three words for McVee were very well crafted.

6 Trac - explosive power and strength in the contest 5 Oliver - becoming a complete midfielder, adding intercept possessions and link up marks to his repertoire along with being the best inside player I've seen 4 Rivers - arguably our best long kick, and used it as a weapon tonight 3 Viney - just wills himself into contest after contest, smart body use, constantly creating space for everyone else too 2 Hibberd - Benjamin Button 1 May - got his marking mojo back. Impenetrable down back.

I think generalist is the right word. Lots of clubs would love to have him, and in 95% of my time watching Melbourne he would have been amongst the first picked. You're right about his endurance being a strength, maybe I haven't seen it on display as much because of how often he is sub?

It's a good point, but Viney has only just turned 29. You'd think he has 2-3 good years left before age becomes a factor. Lachy Hunter will be 29 at the end of the year and should have a few years left too. Meanwhile Jordan will be 23 at the end of this year. Does he really want to wait until he is 25-26 to own his own spot? I'd think his best chance of winning a flag is with us, and that would be the carrot to dangle, not Vineys age. He has actually had a pretty good run. From debut in R1 2021 to R23 2022, he played every game. He was an unused sub only 3 times, including the GF (where I think we did the wrong thing by him). He wasn't selected for the finals last year (probably a mistake in hindsight) and didn't play R1-2 this year. I expect he'll be sub again this week. He is probably a victim of us not having many injuries to our midfield in that time. Oliver, Petracca, Viney, Langdon, Brayshaw, Sparrow, Pickett, Spargo, ANB, have all had very good runs. With just one of them down at went time and Jordan would have had even more game time.

One thing that hurts Jordan is that he is a really solid all round midfielder without having an xfactor in any area. Doesn't have super endurance to make him a top tier winger, explosive pace or brutal strength, he isn't a silky kick, not an especially creative handballer, he isn't particularly tall and strong overhead for a midfielder. Probably one thing he does significantly above average is tackle. He doesn't have major deficiencies and does everything well, better than most players, so fills gaps perfectly. But in almost every position, a specialist gets the nod ahead of him at Melbourne at the moment. I think he has 200 game foot soldier written all over him, if we can somehow keep him. But I think that he will be attracted to the certainty of getting a go somewhere.

I'd like to see them clarify something like this: "Swinging arms and fists that connect directly with the head or face in an attempt to spoil is not incidental contact. Straight arm spoils where there is no contact between the first and head, will be considered incidental contact, where the sole objective is spoiling or contesting the mark." Overhead marking contests means high contact will occur. As it does in netball. But swinging fist style spoils probably void the duty of care to the other player, where that swinging fist is aimed at the head and not the ball.

Yup. If no prior, you must make a legitimate attempt to dispose of it. I thought that due to the great tackle, he wasn't able to make an attempt, therefore it should have been holding the ball. Also another suns player ran in and took it off him. That's incorrect disposal, you can't hand it to a team mate