deanox

10 disposals, 5 contested, at 90% efficiency in the last quarter was massive.

I think when we are 8-0 we only make changes on two basis: 1) Injured/forced change (includes overly cautious resting of sore players who are walk up starts) 2) "it's your spot to lose". Once a player is in, and we're winning, you need to play pretty poorly to lose the spot. We didn't get enough from Fritsch or Hunt but neither were dreadful enough to cancel out re ent good form. Others could improve, but not enough to get dropped from someone who didn't play in the VFL. No change unless forced for me.

Salem TMac May Jordon Oliver Langdon Apologies to Spargo.

I think they will, but I reckon they might not want to do that while TMac is on fire up forward. Let him have an average game then swing him to the wing and bring Weid in.

And the same commentators who bang on about the head being sacrosanct and duty of care in bumps also give it a "ho ho ho that's a bit of a tickle on the ear to make him earn it ho ho ho.". It's really strange.

The difference in speed and quality between VFL and AFL is so great that it takes time to adjust. Mitch Brown took 3 quarters to find the pace. It took Baker a while as well. I'm not sure he will make it, but I think where possible players coming in should get a few games to find their spot (unless a best 22 player dislodges them).

6 Fritsch 5 Pickett 4 Oliver 3 Jackson 2 Langdon 1 Salem Apologies to May, Jordon and Rivers who I could have stuck in, and perhaps Petracca.

How is that not in the back to Lever?

Melksham is having a shocker. Unless he drastically changes his game, no chance he plays next week. TMac is giving us nothing.

Agree about how underrated he is. Does not get enough credit for what he does. Most of it is too quick to see. He has worked on his kicking, and started to extend his vision from in close to long range. I know disposal count isn't the most accurate stat for how good someone is but he has averaged the following number of disposals per game since his debut year: 19.2 (in 2016), 30.0, 29.4, 30.0, 25.1 (2020, equivalent to 31.4 pro rata for shorter quarters). For context, no other Melbourne player has ever averaged 30 disposals per game over a season. If he hit the scoreboard directly a little more often (ie kicked those goals against GWS when he went forward) I think the media conversation would be a bit different. Also he has a bit of lip on him, and I think he is one of those players that opposition supporters love to hate. Which probably adds to the downplaying of how good he actually is.

Carlton took Lachie O'Brien (pick 10) and Liam Stocker (pick 19) after Adelaide handed them off as part of the Bryce Gibbs trade. We got Petty (pick 35), and traded the 47 (with a pick 36) for 27, which got us Sparrow. So it's almost: Lever, Petty, Sparrow For Bryce Gibbs, pick 35, pick 67!

I actually think that Lever is an outstanding reader of the play. Sitting up high at the G, it is amazing how many times Lever leaves his man well before it is kicked, to run 35 m, and end up making the spoil. He also directs a lot of the traffic and positioning down back.

We really only paid equivalent of pick 8. 2017 pick 10, 2018 picks 19 and 67 For Jake Lever, 2017 pick 35 and 2018 pick 47. Or think of it like "pick 19 for pick 35 and 67, and Lever for pick 10".

Sorry mate, autocorrected to another great, but slightly better known, sportsman's name.

I feel like with Oliver, Petracca and Viney plus Jordan, Brayshaw and Pickett, add Sparrow to the mix too, there probably aren't too many opportunities for Spargo to step into the midfield. Buy I would expect him to rotate through there as one of the high half forward adjacent midfielders, like ANB does.

From Useles AFL stats

I also wonder if it's something to do with the leading patterns Fritsch has been training? If we are planning on playing Fritsch with Weid/Brown or both, you'd expect the main leads up the middle would be Brown. Fritsch is likely to be the decoy to the pocket or flank. We may have told him to keep that structure.

I wonder what the longest days between AFL losses is.

I know he doesn't hold the marks, but gee it looks like he "drops" them into the lap of a crumbing player with enough consistenty and control that you'd think it was on purpose.

See this is where I wish we got more than just the top 5 on the telstra tracker!

I thought Melksham was average. He made really good use of it when he had it, but I felt he was lucky to get it, if that makes sense. He didn't appear to work really hard to get to those positions, he didn't win his own ball, etc. I didn't watch him purposely all game, so maybe he was working really hard and that's why he ended up in those spots, but I didn't see it.

Mitch struggled with leading patterns/angles. More than once I saw him lead to a dead spot on the wrong foot of the player trying to kick into 50 and get angrily waved/pointed at where he should be going. They weren't decoy leads, they were the main ones. Did better in the last but, we all did and Hawthorn really fell away.