Demonated

I think Viney will be leading Gawn right now. His best games haven't been as good but his worst have been better, Watts and Jones also outside chances. Any of Tmac, Jetta, Tyson or Vince to round out the 5.

He complements our other mids so well. Has what we lack in very neat kicking skills and line breaking despite not being lightning quick. As soon as he kicked the ball in the 4th I knew it would be a goal, there are only 2 other players on the list (Watts, Salem) that I would have had the same confidence with right then. Has slipped under the radar a bit but has contributed just as much as our other young more fancied players. Also quite tough for such a slight player, should be very important going forward.

I know our defensive unit doesn't operate like this but is it possible that we could have our usual diamond/press and exclude Tmac from it? We play his as a traditional defending matchup on Riewoldt and let the others defend as usual. This may mean that we need to send a different player back, especially when Riewoldt works further up the ground, but giving Tmac that specific role, especially as he has the tank to do so, could really help us take care of our biggest problem with the saints. Could this work/happen or would it make the entire defensive system fall to pieces?

I feel like Jack has epitomised the club throughout his career. Young and underprepared, tentative, unsure and now more hardened and smarter. As Melbourne supporters we identified with Jones more as a warrior amongst duds, be he was the exception, not the norm. We as a club and he as a player still have development left but are getting towards where we want to be. Always was a favourite but like many others I had lost a lot of faith. Interestingly, friends of mine who play in the league have always rated him, even through his poor form. They were adamant that he would become not only good but a star. Makes me a little excited to see how much further he can actually go. He has always been the smartest and most skilled player on our list, but now is able to use these weapons effectively. He is such an important player going forward.

Yea good point. I haven't seen him clear 45m on his kicking since the injury. Also seems like he hasn't been able to maintain his manic intensity in that time. He should be back to full form in 1/2 weeks hopefully.

Watched the replay again last night. I thought we played one of our best games and as others have said, let ourselves down in the 10 minutes after half time. Quite frustrating really. A few things to take out of the game- Jack Watts was our best over 4 quarters. He was made to play a variety of roles, including ruck unfortunately, but was one of the few that created instead of handballing to team mates under pressure. Hunt's best game. Not only courageous in taking the game on, but is also fearless at the contest. Another preseason to build fitness and muscle and he will be a real weapon for us on a more consistent basis. Though T Mac and especially Jetta held down the fort quite well. Jetta was the only bloke who kicked alright deep in defence (Hunts kicks were more up the ground). Is there a less polished backline in the league by foot than us? I have serious doubts personally. Need Salem to get healthy and come on, Melksham will also need to lend a hand down there. Hogan played ok but why does he ALWAYS take so long to choose an option. If he has the ball 70m out, he doesn't move it in time to catch defenders off guard. Instead he takes 20 seconds to kick it into a crowded forwardline. He has done this consistently in his 2 years and I'd be shocked if the coaches haven't had a word about it. Viney's kicking has regressed since the hand injury. This could be because of the glove on his left hand impacting his ball drop? I'm confident he will return to form in the next few weeks though. Dawes just isn't up to it. Can't blame his endeavour but he just isn't able to impact contests. I'd like us to simply let his contract come off the books and use that money to recruit someone (Prestia/Hibberd/etc). As as has been the case for the last few years, we still lack good kicks. We have done well to address hardness in the team. We are tough and try to compete, but we have maybe 3/4 good kicks in our 22 most weeks. That isn't enough. Watts is our best kick by such a long way, our entries involving him are so different to when a Bugg, VDB, Kennedy, Kent, bring it in. Actually forgot Stretch, who is quite clean with the ball and faster than I first thought, he is also a reasonable kick.

I'm a big believer that he needs more time and it's great to see him back but He is really going to struggle at some aspects of the game. He was never quick we all know that, but he wasn't this slow. The injury undoubtedly caused this but I've never heard of an athlete in any code regaining explosive power after a 4? year dip. He gets done for pace by slower players too, McVeigh easily lead him in a foot race on Sunday. Bartel as someone brought up was also slow, but quick enough to keep up with the average player, which I don't think Trengove can do anymore. Add to that Jack can barely kick 50 metres while Bartel could clear the goal line from 55m out and I'm not sure what sort of matchup Jack can take advantage of anymore. I wish him all the best but I personally don't see him being best 22 in the side we hope to become. He deserves at least 1/2 more years though, the bloke has earned it.

Didn't get to see the game live but here are my thoughts on it after watching the replay. Trying not to repeat what has already been said in the thread already- Tmac was brilliant. If we are going to rag on him for his bad games we have to give credit for his good ones. Strength of opposition wasn't great but played with confidence and kicked well. Hogan really attacked the contest, one of his most aggressive games yet. Smashed some contests that led directly to goals on top of the 3 he kicked. Jones, Vince, Tyson all played very well. Tyson has returned to previous form and possibly (probably) is better than 2014. How good was that Jack Watts fly for the dropped mark that led to a goal? He never did that before this year. Gawn was a monster, nothing we didn't already know. Jetta wasn't his best but everyone is allowed to have off games. Hunt is much tougher than I first anticipated, really attacks contests with speed. Good win but we handballed way too much. Our pressure on the ball carrier was good though and we kept at it. I'm loving VDB back in the team. Didn't do a heap but he pursues the ball and the man with the ball relentlessly. You never see him in a jog when a player is in the vicinity. Really want to see him build to a strong second half of the year. More important than everything, you can see the bond between players now. They enjoy playing with each other.

Top 5 players? Of course not, but top 5 most important I would say he probably is. Certainly more important than Oliver this year. Would be top 3/4 in our b&f right now at a guess. Our weakness is our backline and he is the only consistent player we have down back unfortunately. He is 1 of only 3 we have deserving of the AA squad this year.

Are you suggesting one of our mids could stand Betts, Wingard and those types? I don't think they could. Nev is also good at leaving his man as 3rd man up and has good rebounding skills now. If any single of our mids go down we have others like them. Viney who is our best player missed and the slack was picked up by Tyson, Vince and Jones. Jetta goes down and we lose the only defender that we can count on beating his opponent week and week. He isn't our most important player, but he is top 5 at the moment.

What? Oliver will be a gun but McDonald and Jones are more important this season. McDonald goes down who is our #1 tall defender? His brother? Who's is our 2nd tall then, Dunn who we don't even want to pick. Oliver goes down we still have Viney, Vince, Jones etc doing the clearance work. We are good at stoppages, rubbish down back.

He isn't the sort of player that needs to be dropped for mine. Jeff just has off and on games, he is that type of player. Always has been and I assume always will be. Still an automatic selection because he is our only pure crumber and small forward. He will come good again in the 1's, no point having him play for Casey when he comes good. Strength of opponent isn't the issue, it's all internal with him. We lose out by not playing him, and gain very little IMO. As for the incident, looked like he either misjudged or was in two minds.

I think a big part of that actually comes down to the fact we have the coaching handover happening. Roos has been dubbed selfish by some externally but I believe he is giving the younger players a chance to gain some experience and develop so Goodwin has more to work with going forward. It may have hurt us in some games but I see it as a positive and shows we have an eye to the future. I know we all want to win right now but by the end of the year, we will have a much better idea what O Mac, Hunt, Wagner, Stretch, etc are capable of. We have about 15 starters locked in and are trying to build depth and see who are our fringe players or who is capable. Roos and the selection committee would be aware O Mac currently provides less than Dunn on any given week. However, it allows us to develop a tall that can be used going forward. If he can't show signs in a role, it also shows our recruiters what we need to look for at then end of the year. Taking a step back from week to week performance, it's actually astute selection. It confused/frustrated me earlier in the year but it is a logical process.

Seems a bit strange calling our best player and leader a [censored]. He got rubbed out by a bit of stupidity which doesn't even matter anymore. Geez we are going to struggle without him. He, Gawn, Hogan and Jetta are not replaceable in our team. I'm wishfully hoping VDB is fit enough to take some of his midfield minutes in the next month though.

Salem being dropped is a good thing. I see it as a motivational move. It's not that what he is doing isn't best 22 worthy, it's more that he isn't performing as good as he can, not relative to others. Coaches must strive to get the best out of every player and you would think they are hoping for Salem to be a top 10/12 contributor, not our 15th most valuable player. It may or may not weaken us in the short term but it makes he put in until he starts performing to the level we know that he can and when he comes back he should add more to the team than he has so far this year. Good non-selection. He has seemed either slightly off or his intensity is down and if this gives him a bit of a push, it will help us greatly in the 2nd half of the season.

I guess I initially thought of him as a soft player for a while after that incident vs Port in his first game for us. Happy to be wrong on that count. No Melbourne player has run back with the flight more than Pedersen in the last 2 years or so for us barring Crossy who was absolutely fearless. Pedersen is serviceable, tough and has a good mark/decent kick. Well ahead of Frost for me as although he may not have much improvement left in him, he has a skill set that is suited to being a marking option, either in defence or up forward. Good on him for making something of his career.

Poor Angus is really having the season from hell at the moment. Bloke can't catch a break. Between his knee and his 2nd? concussion already this year we are unlikely to see him show any decent form in the 1's until the second half of the year. Silver lining is that this should give ANB or Stretch a crack at it at some stage to see where they are currently at. As for changes, Matt Jones should play if he is available, he played his role adequately when he got picked and doesn't have an issue with consistent work rate in regards to running. Oliver should come in too. I'd like to see Hunt and Wagner get picked but one of them may be dropped this week. I guess selection depends on how we want to counter GCS leg speed through the middle and what exact plan we have on stopping Lynch.

Agree with the lack of effort being a disgrace but not in comparison to Riewoldt. He is the hardest running player I have ever seen in football, he may not cover as many kms as the fittest mids, but he does such high intensity efforts. Absolute champion that for some reason we though we could give space and freedom. How many times are we going to let him beat us before we tell McDonald, who should be a prefect matchup, to stick with him at all costs.

Agree with most besides Jetta. He was easily our best defender IMO.

Don't bother with the Petracca bet. He would have to be crazy good to win from here, would required him to be picked this week and barely have an off game for the rest of the season. That doesn't happen for debutants. It's also a decent class this year, he has some ground to make up so would have to be clearly above those who will play 20+ games. Just my opinion.

As much as I would love to see Petracca play this week, I'm happy to wait a week if it means Gartlett gets up. He is worth a few goals out of nothing each game either kicking them of creating them and we really need him playing. Nobody else in our team creates goals out of half chances like he does and that's worth its weight in gold.

I'm a little surprised at all the calls for Matt Jones to be omitted. He may not be best 22 going forward but I think he is certainly best 22 at this point. Has shown improvement in his game this season and has actually been cleaner with the ball than better players such as Nat Jones, Tyson, Kent and others. He obviously isn't the most talented player on the list but he spreads better than anyone else in our midfield and we sorely lack that right now. I would be very surprised if he was dropped on form.

I absolutely love that Gawn has taken full responsibility for his own game and set his own standards. He said he wanted to be the best ruckman in the game, had according to Roos the best preseason he has ever seen from a ruck and is now reaping the benefits. He may not quite be there as the #1 ruck in the league yet but he is making some very serious ground. He isn't afraid of failure or being conservative, he has publicly stated his desire and is doing everything he can to get there. Last year Goldy beat him easily and I reckon Gawn is measuring himself against Goldy. He played his best game ever against what he aspires to be, displaying his competitiveness and improvement. A somewhat unlikely leader of the club now, full credit goes to him (and of course Stafford and the club for their work/faith).

Just a random though/concern that doesn't deserve its own thread but I have continued to notice. All of us demon fans rate Salem extremely highly, as we should. He is tough, smart, composed and has a great kick. However, either he needs to find a way of getting more of the ball or we as a team need to find a way of getting the ball into his hands more often. He ideally should be getting the ball 22-25 times a game through the backline and pushing up onto the wing. I'm not sure how we/he can manage this? Put him on the least dangerous forward consistently? Run him through a wing with a license to roam? It's not a huge concern but him increasing his output would be great for the team. He does everything well, but I'd love to see him more involved. Im proud of Gawn. He got killed by Goldy last year, set himself to catch up to him as he has desires to be the best ruck in the league, and has done everything he can to get there. He may have lost the matchup depending on what we you choose to look at it but he beat him in the ruck and was still effective going forward. Goldy is just that good that he found a way to still impact the game. Congrats to Gawn for having the balls to say what he wants to be and the desire/drive to try and get there. That's professionalism and leadership right there. His improvement has been amazing in such a short period of time. Watts/Hogan work well in the same forwardline (Watts obviously should have taken that shot though). Oliver, Jetta, Viney, H all stood up and gave it a real crack. Loved Viney's pace and finish in the past quarter.

He went from uneducated opinions of Hogan, to constantly babbling about 'Fitzgerald' and how he has never played as a backman, to very obscure observations on most of our players. It really gave the impression that he hadn't watched us in a long time, which is fair enough I guess. I've noticed this is the case for him with quite a few teams. He may know 5/6 teams quite well, but he still has to commentate on others which can be a problem as he is completely ignorant on them. I don't hold anything against him, but I would approach a lot of his opinions with caution. Someone like Lloyd I believe actually puts in the effort of watching other games and learning about teams/players.