DistrACTION Jackson

Can't see Petty playing any time soon.... they just need to get his body right for the back half of the year.

So that means min 3 weeks?

Correct. Our midfield and Defence has been really strong, but our forward line has been stuck together with sticky tape since the end of the 2021 season. Compare that to the Lions forward line from 2001-2004 of Alastair Lynch, Daniel Bradshaw, Jonathan Brown, Jason Akermanis, Luke Power and Martin Pike. Pretty fair difference in quality!

Crack down on players having kids.... interesting. Where are our father/sons going to come from though?

Pretty strange we've not heard anything or seen any social media posts??

Sanders has a much more mature body than Windsor, so no doubt will perform better this year, at least possession wise. I think Windsor's ceiling is enormous though as he puts on a bit of size and works on his midfield craft.

From my understanding we tried to get up higher in the draft but no one was willing to trade. You can only work with what is available. Windsor will be a beauty so not too concerned.

Yes. It is becoming a lot more common and there will be a lot more players being retired. I would be very surprised if Nathan Murphy is allowed to play on.

End of the year we will have a serious war chest. Gus - approx $600k pa TMac - approx $400k pa Brown - approx $300-$400k pa Tomlinson - approx $300-$400k pa We could have almost $2m in salary cap to play with, noting some of this will probably go to existing players.

This type of 'reporting' or 'journalism' is absolute garbage. Would I be disappointed with 1 flag - yes. Does it make us terrible one hit wonders? No. Bombers 99/00/01 - arguably one of the most talented teams assembled and won one flag. Port 04 - finished on top multiple times and won one flag. Eagles 06 - had one of the best midfields ever assembled and won one flag. Brisbane lately - multiple top 4s with one grand final appearance and no wins. This media idea that we should be some unstoppable force that wins 3 straight flags is rubbish. Our team is talented, but nowhere near as talented as the Lions, Cats or Hawks teams that won multiple flags. I really hope we get another one, but end of the day they are hard to win.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but so awesome to see Clarry with Trac and Andy Moniz-Wakefield working with a stretching coach outside of the club. Trac posted this on his Instagram if anyone is wondering. He seems to be really putting in the extras to get himself fit and ready for the season.

We actually used Kozzie in the centre square at the start of last year and then just stopped for some reason. I love seeing him pinch hit in centre bounces, his speed and agility means he is almost impossible to tackle. I feel like maybe they stopped because they felt they needed him forward, but realistically if he starts at a centre bounce 2-3 times a quarter he won't be spending much time outside the forward line. It also gets him around the ball and builds confidence, which a small forward can lose if the ball isn't near them much during a game. I would like to see our centre square setups to have 2 of the 'bulls' in Viney, Trac, Oliver and Sparrow and then include one of our more silky players like Pickett, Salem, Rivers and maybe even Windsor in the future.

Agreed. Was his first hit-out with us so should get better as he understands his role better and gets the cohesion going with other players.

You want Verrall, a 2nd year ruckman to play as a key defender?

Port were shown up. We just F'd up. I want the media to continue piling on, hopefully just makes the players want it even more.

When compared with the 2 wins the year before I was somewhat happier....

It's funny that as Melbourne fans we've gone from being happy we got 4-5 wins in a season, to leaving games we win feeling underwhelmed. Very confusing times.

A mate and I were chatting about it Sunday at the game and he just seems to have lost something. I do question if he is working as hard back and forth as he did in 2021. But then maybe what they are asking of him has changed.

I think you would need to look at the dreaded predicted score to see if those teams performed better than expected. Doubt they would have it for the practice match, but definitely would be available for the others.

I agree with all of this. I also think we lack those elite pressure forwards that a team like Collingwood have. In the grand final the Pies had Hill, Mcreery, Ginnivan and Elliott as small forwards. Their key forwards were Mihocek and Cox! Not really a scary proposition, but they all work together well.

Their list is not too different age wise to us, so they should be able to back it up. I think the biggest thing people don't think about is the difficulty of fixture once you're a top 4-6 team. They will have more double up games against tough opposition so it is how they back up from that.

If someone had given me the choice at the end of 2020 to have Brown and Tmac on our list for 4 more years but we would get one flag I would've taken it in a heartbeat.

Even our elite kickers were off today. Rivers & McVee were missing targets. Billings was probably the most reliable with ball in hand.

My thoughts on the game is that Richmond were playing at a pretty high intensity and we had about 2-3 guys that got anywhere near that. They laid some massive tackles and bumps and I hardly saw us lay one. The bump on Lever was right in front of me and that was huge! - Trac was really there to get run into his legs and have a few touches. He looked very disinterested. - Most of our backline were lethargic and dropped simple marks (May being the worst of them). Bowey was probably the one shining light there. I will hold judgement on Thommo for now given after the first 20 minutes the ball was coming in at a rate of knots. - Obviously there are still concerns for our forward line, but if we can get McAdam and Petty on the park that could really change things. Even Fullarton as a big 200cm target would be handy. - I was super impressed with Windsor, even though his kicking was a bit off today. His speed is incredible to watch and he went hard a number of times, including getting crunched by Nathan Broad. The best thing is he came back on in the 2nd half and didn't take a backward step. He has so much potential it's great to see. - Really liked what I saw from Billings and started to work is way into the game in the second half with some nice link up play and elite footskills. He will be important for us. - I'm not super confident for our start to the season at the moment, though will hold on going hard early until I see how we play v Carlton. I am expecting them to be a lot sharper and increased pressure as the final game before the season starts. - I was also pretty happy with Will Verral and thought he showed a bit. He is obviously very raw still, but he's put on quite a bit of size and is really athletic. Also looks a reliable set shot kick. I could see him as our ruck/forward in future.

I find this talk of aging funny. Pendlebury just won a flag at 35. No reason Max and May can't do the same