At the break of Gawn

Two of Viney’s loose checking in the last qtr changed the margin from 4pts to 16pts. He showed the opposite of leadership when the game was in the balance. Also had a very quiet first half. Surprised anyone has him in their votes.

I called it earlier this morning in Gameday thread that Bevo would outsmart us. They certainly had our measure on clearances and Gawn’s dominance was null and void. Viney had a better game, but he was on Bont when he kicked that goal in the last (gave him a whole heap of space and didn’t even look to put his hand up on the mistake). He was then again on Bont again who got clear in the centre clearance after Viney got sucked into the contest. It was [censored] leadership and I hope the coaches make mention of it to him. Dogs free kick imbalance was ridiculous and it’s been like that all year. Gawn should have approached them at half time.

I’ve been a BB supporter, but If he can’t nail his set shots he is of no use to us. Might as well replace with Weid at least he crashes the pack better

The Dogs have also beaten top sides (Brisbane, Port) and lost to Geelong by a kick after the siren in Geelong. They are a predictable side, we are not. The fact that we haven’t lost to a top 8 side yet this year is very commendable, but until we start winning the games we’re expected to win, we won’t be taken seriously. If we win tonight, we then need to win our next 3 against two bottom 8 sides and a struggling Eagles side. There’s no excuse not to.

At least the Dogs haven’t had shock losses to bottom 4 teams which makes their supporters shake their head in frustration. I think we’ll lose tonight but then have some come to Jesus moment amongst the playing group and win the next 3.

Hate to be a wet blanket but I reckon we’ll lose tonight. Beveridge and his coaches will outsmart us this second time around.

Honestly perfect for us so we can bounce back and beat them again.

He gets very little to no momentum with his kicks. They pretty much always drop short. I'm not sure how fixable his kicking is.

Too many here with rose coloured glasses on. He has been a liability the last 4 weeks only plays well now as a tagger. I'm not sure if we should go all the way and trade him, but he's certainly not deserved of his spot at the moment. You just can't carry a player like that who turns the ball over like clock-work.

Need some big changes: In: Weid, Harmes Out: Jackson, Viney, Jackson just isn’t having the same effect anymore. Viney is a liability.

I’m really worried about Viney’s inclusion. Since returning, our midfield has been beaten 3 of the last 4 games. Our win against Port came when he had a clear role in tagging Wines. He offers us nothing. His tackles aren’t getting rewarded and his kicking is a weapon against us.

Only one who could possibly go is AnB. His fumbling was horrendous but he was a bit better in the second half.

AnB having a nightmare of a game. He is literally a detriment right now.

Haha that would be nice! But in all seriousness we were crying out after the Essendon game!

No, I’m talking about Brown’s form. He was in form after the Essendon VFL game, and ready to be picked. Goodwin has then realised his mistake of not picking him and corrected it. I applaud him for correcting it, but every week is 4pts.

B. Brown coming in this week compared to last week makes literally no sense from a form perspective. Goodwin says because of the 5 day break he was on limited minutes, so that means by Saturday evening, after the GWS loss, he had decided Brown would play the following week and hence gave him limited minutes. Sounds like Goodwin has made the decision based off how [censored] our forward line was on Saturday afternoon. He’s then pulled the trigger, and not even considered how well Brown’s latest VFL game went. So, why exactly didn’t he pick him for the Giants?

Have you ever done a long plank? For someone of Trac’s size it’d be torture. No one likes doing Planks… or Burpees for that matter.

I agree with your sentiments regarding Viney, but the poor entries is a bit of a chicken or the egg argument. A poor entry isn’t poor if a tall marking forward runs and grabs it, but it’s considered poor if you can’t pinpoint your kick to a smallish forward. I’m sure Geelong have plenty of poor entries that are made to look good by having Hawkins and Cameron down there. It makes it a whole lot harder to nail a forward 50 entry when there’s no tall forward target to kick to. If this wasn’t a problem there wouldn’t be a whole heap of media commentators out there also saying we lack forward presence.

Yes absolutely finishing top 4 gives you every opportunity, and finishing 2nd even better. If Melbourne could say displace the 2nd place team, say the lions, in rnd 23 by beating the Cats to then host a home final against the Lions at the MCG, it would be an absolute dream.

From the outset this may seem like a silly question, but sitting on top of the ladder certainly has some negative side-effects. Teams look at you as the grand prize and rile up all their energy to knock you over. Opposition coaches spend an inordinate amount of time analysing your weakness and you end up becoming the hunted. We’ve seen it twice in our losses and even a couple of times in our wins. Simon Goodwin says we want to be a club that “welcomes pressure” and to be able to perform where there are great expectations, but this group of players isn’t there yet. A couple of examples are: 1. Our first loss to Adelaide. There’s no doubt Adelaide threw everything at us. They played out of their skin and utilised corridor tactics they haven’t used as successfully since. Adelaide hasn’t played a game like that since and wont for the rest of the season. 2. Our second loss to the Pies. I know there was the Buckley factor, but the Pies played their best game of the season to knock us off. 3. North in Tassie. Built up as a David vs Goliath game, North put us on the back foot by playing their best game to date, but thankfully we corrected things late. Perhaps a small slide down the ladder might not be the worst thing in the world for us, as opposition teams look to focus on the Dogs, Lions and Cats instead. Winning a premiership is as hard as ever due to how close this competition is. It’s teams who catch the competition off guard and fire at the right time that can get it done. A lull for Melbourne may lower expectations of our competitors while we correct our forward line and our clearances to launch a fresh assault.

Second week in a row Lloyd has called this out. He’s not wrong.

If I had told you in 2018 that Melbourne’s two up and coming star forwards would be playing against each other in 2021 in the magoos because both can’t get a run in the seniors you’d tell me to go and get [censored].

Good in form side? They lost to the Hawks last week and drew with North recently. They are a backs to the wall side, but they were certainly not in form. It was two teams in bad form coming up against each other.

For those saying that Goodwin doesn’t see a problem with our forward line, I don’t see how that could be the case. He would know that for the last 3-4 weeks our points For is way below the average of a top 4 side. I think a bit of arrogance crept into his decision, and was probably thinking “BBB isn’t at out expected level, the Giants defence don’t worry me, so we should be fine to leave him out”. A game against a middle of the table side just needs to be won to solidify our top 2 position. If we don’t finish top 2 I can’t see us breaking our ‘64 drought. On another note, is Viney’s career at the cross roads? We’ve been carrying him the last two weeks, and he can’t get his foot right. If he doesn’t get it right over the off-season I can easily see him being the next Jack Trengove.