deanox

He was penalised twice with kicks for "dangerous tackles". Both ridiculous.

This is a great thread and topic and I how the AFL deals with this correctly. Firstly: I love their current "hot" approach to holding the ball. The intention is great because it will speed the play up. The umpiring execution is poor because it is inconsistent and ignores when the ball is held to a player who really didn't have a chance. (They need to pay it more often and quicker, not occasionally and drawn out). But to address the next step, the umpires need to prioritise holding the man free kicks. Lots of them. Make it painful and risky to grab a player before they get the ball. Reward the ball player first, reward the tackler second. This will open space. The best players will get another half a second which is all they need to clear it. It will mean that coaches need to try to win the ball not catch the man, unless they deploy a specialist stopper. And opening up these contests will open up the ground to faster movement and thus scoring. The worst thing they can do is relax the htb frees. It'll close the game again.

Are Brayshaw and Harmes out of form because of low TOG% or are they playing a low TOG% because they are out of form?

I thought that last night, rather than the problem being "Brisbane sharked Max", our problem was "Despite our mids often have first hands on the ball, we struggled to take clean possession in the greasy conditions and fumbled quite often, at which point Brisbane won the clearance".

Weid and Pickett missed 4 gettable shots between them, any one would have won the game (in theory) and would have bumped that bottom 6 score. Also it was a very low scoring game, so will weight away from forwards.

I was also interested to see how much ground Jackson was covering: against the Hawks he was our second highest.

Crazy post binman. Cameron is very quick and was on the burst the fact that Oliver stayed with him and perhaps even gained a bit on him was evidence of his pace. For context, see these screen shots of top speed and distance run yesterday.

Pickett was in our top couple for effort today, with more recorded sprints than any player on field apart from Langdon and our highest average speed when we were in possession. Unless he is buggered from todays effort, he doesn't need a rest. We need to manage Bennell and I think a 4 day break may be too much for him right now. Jetta is struggling, both performance and physically, and I think he is due for a break. Jackson does good things and looks promising but isn't imposing himself on the game just yet. The wet today wasn't the best conditions for him, so he might get another go, but it might not have been enough to keep TMac out this week, especially with the short break. I'm not sure whether this will out weigh the chop out he is giving Max or not. Brayshaw and Harmes have been in our worst performers but they are also on low minutes so probably don't need a rest for fatigue purposes, and that low minutes might mean we want to carry them the next few weeks instead of dropping them. Both are best 22 so even though they are out of form they are better options than the alternatives at the moment. If anything they might get more game time which might help them find momentum. My thoughts: Out: Jetta, Bennell, (Jackson) In: Rivers, ANB, (TMac)

Its actually very clearly definined: - A handball to a teammate that hits the intended target; - A kick of more than 40 metres to a 50/50 contest or better for the team; or - A kick of less than 40 metres that results in the intended target retaining possession. So to 75% of his disposals met that criteria. 7 didn't. This doesn't tell whether his long kicks were to advantage, or not but it does imply he kicked long. He was 4th in our "meters gained" stat despite only 12 kicks, indicating he kicked longer rather than shorter.

He had a couple of shockers, but he had 28 disposals at 75%DE (the 5th highest on the field for players above 10 disposals), which means 21 effective disposals and only 4 clangers (not many given those disposal numbers). He also laid 10 tackles (highest on ground).

Oliver surprised because he's never had a holding the man free kick

You know this is Melbourne when it isn't a reportable bump against Jetta, its "he led with the head".

Now that we've added Lewis Jetta to the squad!

Oh look, a straw man.

Embarrassing wasn't it?

Ok. Hannan "created" a contested ball situation. But Oliver won the loose ground ball then "created" our launch towards goal with a handball that cut through the crowd to a player (Petracca) who was able to burst away.

Oliver's handball created that goal by finding space.

I might change my tune in 5 hours, but Brisbane have had a pretty easy run so far, beating Adelaide and Freo, out of form GWS and WCE (we got them at the wrong time!) and being smashed by Geelong. All of their wins have been at the Gabba (except GWS ALat Giants Stadium). They did beat the 2nd place PA which sounds good, until you realise PA have basically beaten the same teams: GCS, Freo, Adelaide, Eagles and GWS (and stuck in against Carlton). It week be interesting see how they go against us, Collingwood, Richmond, saints and dogs.

I think Vanders is an enigma. In some ways similar to Viney in that his most valuable contribution is intangible and not quantifiable. Toughness, leadership (by physical example), persistent effort, aggression, perceived pressure. Heart and soul? These things matter to the way that everyone else around them plays. Few players have these qualities in abundance. And I think that they only lose their spot when a) someone more skilled knocks on the door and b) the rest of the team has developed / can bring these traits in sufficient quantaties that they are looked upon foldly but not missed. So I agree he struggles and will be replaced eventually, but we are a while away from that yet.

Just a little joke Saty

How dare you actually talk about football in this thread.

Sorry, the quote marks were me putting emphasise on the idea of "just an accumulator" not meaning to only that was your words. I think my post was in two halves: the first responding to the accumulator discussion, and stating that I beliebr be is much more creative and damaging than that, the second discussing his stats with respect to the claims that he gone backwards. I think we just set high standards for him.

Is Goody happy that you've told everyone he is unhappy? Or should that have been kept quiet as well?

I think we see this in the lack of free kicks he gets despite being scragged and held constantly, and how fast they are to pay very soft frees against him for illegal contact or holding. When they talk about protecting the ball players, he is exactly the type that should be protected, because talk away the holding and he would single handedly open the game up.

It might mean a player like Tomlinson is actually more valuable at the MCG, because his strengths outweigh his deficiencies.