Breggsy

Nice thread idea. Injury List I think we have benefited from a much smaller injury compared to other years. From the weekend maybe only Harmes? missing from our best 22. Not sure how long this can continue but the important thing is we can bank as many wins now so that if we do end up having a patch where we are missing a few key players, we aren't in the position where we need to keep winning to play finals. Confidence and letting players play to their strengths I feel like sometimes coaches can shift players around too much to fill a gap somewhere on the field and somewhere along the way they can lose touch. I remember Richmond having similar issues back in 2016, trying to play small forwards out of position, back flankers in centre bounces and I firmly believe Carlton are going through it now. All these players are drafted for a reason and will have some quality or skill to set them apart from your local footballer. I find it no surprise that players like Neal-Bullen, Spargo, Hunt are all playing good roles for the team. Neal Bullen is a great example. He has always been a great runner and great pressure player. He's not going to have 30 and kick 5 but as long as he's playing to his strengths then it's going to be a pro for the team. Game style and pressure I heard on Purefooty about round 3 where they described the difference in our game plan compared to previous years. We are playing a more uncontested brand where in other years there was a real mentality to just win the hard ball and force it forward. We have now had more centre clearances against us than we have won despite having gawn/trac/oliver in there. This was our whole game only a few years ago and while we are still ahead in overall contested possession, we are currently ranked 5th for uncontested possession diff, 2nd for marks inside 50 differential, 1st for inside 50s and amazingly 18th for turnovers diff per game (something I would never have thought possible with some of our kicks). This game plan is either really flourishing due to the new stand rule, or was we adopted it because of the new rule? Win the ball back and rather than just surging it forward with ala 2018, keep the ball out of the other teams hands, hit up lower risk kicks and then once we are in that wing to half forward space being able to find a player inside 50. My only knock on this would be where these shots are coming from. Is it that we are able to generate set shots in poorer positions because we are happier to find options there or are we unable to generate targets in high look spots. This is our set shots until round 5 leading to an overall conversion under 50%

Agreed. The player rating system is different from fantasy points. SuperCoach measures possession and is scaled by things like effectiveness whereas player ratings try to apply chains to evaluate a players importance to a game Over the past few years world wide there has been a push in sports statistics to move away from traditional 'static' statistics (in afl terms kicks marks handball etc) and towards a more dynamic statistics in the form of chains (possession chains). The idea is that these together these chains describe a match better than just kicks, marks etc and I agree this is the way to go. unfortunately for cd, they are stuck halfway between, providing misleading stats like differentials and their plater ratings needs work. It is far too favourable for players in a position who's game is unconventional think nicnac getting a lot of ground ball or rance getting a lot of possessions in d50.

Yeah we are a special breed i wouldn't worry about any article based on the afl player rankings. It's a flawed system and the afl and champion data are really pushing hard for the public to show interest in it

I actually rate Rockliff. Play him as a mid resting forward in a real team and he could kick 30 for a season

Don't really have much sympathy for the club but jees I feel for the supporters. Losing him after two years would be heartbreaking

Can't stand that [censored]. When the hibberd news came out that he wanted to leave Watson said he wasn't even sure hibberd was in their best 22 but then went on to say he was worth a first rounder a few sentences later

Good job mate - and good work just read whites been elevated

No worries here I love what he's about

Didn't mind his game yesterday. 5 clearances, 8 tackles and 10 CP is a great return for a 9 gamer. Not sure on his Centre bounce attendances but it seemed every time there was a goal kicked he would be coming off the bench straight into the centre. Stats might show we are most potent with him in there

Spot on. Project player taken with a late pick who plays a handful of underwhelming vfl matches due to form and injury. Probably 100 players have had the same story and after their two years are up they're delisted and never heard of again Very happy for him

Love watching him play. Not only is he a tackling clearance machine but he's also quite agile and is great above his head I remember being impressed with Tyson in his first year how he would get the ball and then get separation using his hips but this guy just knows where he's going to dish it before he even gains possession

Which seating will a Melb membership/GA get you into today

Reckon watts is benefitting from quicker ball movement. Would rather us move it down the ground and have him one out rather than chipping is down slowly and watts having to take a pack mark

Seems like every Essendon game has special comments by tim Watson

On top of which we had only used 80 interchange compared to their 90