At the break of Gawn

Max Gawn penned a good article today in the Herald Sun. Pretty sure it’s behind a pay wall though. He basically said that being unfit is a myth and a lot of the players hit PBs in pre-season time trials. The team knew there were no guarantees about playing finals again and knew they had to go again (so it’s not a bath water thing) Basically said we haven’t improved our defence as a team while other teams have over the off season.

He definitely tried to take it on. 99% of players in the league would have side stepped it which was the smart thing to do and would have been beneficial for the team. Almost feel sometimes Viney is just out there to show how tough he is rather than actually play football and help his side win. We don’t need courageous acts that amount to nothing. We need match winners and that’s what a captain should do.

I just want to see more midfield rotation during the game. Collingwood are the best at cycling through their midfield and we need to do it better too. It’s how we are going to overcome our two way running issue. Midfield: Cycle Brayshaw, Oliver, Viney, Harmes, AnB, Melksham, Petracca, Salem, Jones, Garlett. Wings: Cycle through Stretch, Hunt, Brayshaw, Fritsch. Forwards: core players being Tmac, Weid or Smith (whoever is selected), Lockhart. Preuss when not rucking. Defence: Core being Frost, Hore, Omac, Lewis. Hibberd on Breust Hore on Gunston Frost on Roughead Omac on Mitchell Lewis If Preuss plays, they’ll put Ceglar on him.

Pendlebury is the best captain in the AFL. Never makes a bad decision with ball in hand and directs the Pies midfield extremely well.

Being the masochist that I am, I watched the replay this morning. A few more observations: a) Gawn or the coaching staff mistimed his break during the 3rd qtr. While Gawn was on the bench, Nankervis went forward so Frost had to match up on him. This left Hore on Riewoldt and led to Riewoldt kicking two relatively easy goals beating Hore in the air. Once Gawn came back onto the ground he went behind the ball and took some much needed contested marks back there. b) Despite his ball in hand errors, Tmac was actually pretty good. I still think he needs to play forward a long with Preuss. Preuss playing would have changed Richmond's defence completely I feel. Forward line next week has to be Tmac, Preuss and one of Smith of Weideman.I think oMac has to come back or play Keilty or Petty. Gawn will have to play behind the ball again if Mitchell Lewis plays for them given that would equal 3 tall players for them. c) Stack gave Hunt a bath. d) Jones was actually pretty good across half back. He got to every contest in his vicinity that I saw. He's much more suited there rather than on the wing. e) Viney easily could have side-stepped the Stack hit. It's almost like Viney wanted the contact. Just typical of him trying to take players on and failing. f) Stretch was good. Definitely earns a couple more weeks. g) I can't work out what role Harmes was playing either that or he just had a really poor game I felt.

Perhaps Goody’s tenure as coach will mirror that of Nathan Buckley’s? Years 1-2 (2012-13) - afterglow of taking over a good list from a good coach. Played a prelim in those years and made finals the other. Years 3-6 (2014-2017) Actually learns how to coach but fails to make finals for 4 years in a row in the process. Year 7 - Now coaches well and makes a grand final.

Goodwin lauded Viney on SEN before the game saying he personified our brand last week. He was similar last night. The issue is Viney needs to give it off to someone with better foot skills on more occasions. Need Salem in the middle.

This thought has crossed my mind a few times and could seriously keep me up all night if I thought about it more.

The depth issue is killing us. He’s probably equally bitter about Tyson since how he staunchly defended his decision to bring him and Salem in for pick 2 aka Josh Kelly.

Yeah that does seem very grim actually. Part of it might be development though. We don't have a smidgen of the development prowess of a Hawthorn.

Was horribly fumbly though. Think he cost at least 2 in the first qtr.

Fritsch panics with it a bit. We need a good decision maker and a great ball user. Salem normally is both. I'd stick with it for Melksham as well as normally he doesn't turn it over. Although his goal output will definitely drop.

I was listening to SEN on the way in and they interviewed their assistant Adam Kingsley. He mentioned that Hardwick is an amazing presenter, communicator and really knows how to motivate his players. Goody seems very robotic at times, but hopefully he's improving his communication skills a long the way.

We worked on that transition from defensive side to an attacking side over 3 years though... 2014-2016

Couple of observations: a) I respect Goody for making a few changes, but there's a fine line between sticking to your guns (and the plan you have laid out all summer) vs looking desperate. Some of the changes he made tonight smelt of desperation. Notably Brayshaw didn't attend one centre bounce. Not one. And he is our best centre bounce player. Tmac going back made our forward line as impotent as a 95yo man in a nursing home. b) Goodwin keeps on banging on about "Connection". The reason we can't connect with our forward line all comes down to the very last possession going into the 50. We have guys like Oliver who slams it on the boot and bombs it in high, Brayshaw blindly kicking around corners, Viney who rarely makes a good decision with ball in hand. We need that last possession to go to someone with class who can dispose of it. The only people I can think of is Salem and Melksham otherwise the ball is going to keep on bouncing back out of there. Tom Lynch (Ade) is a great example of a connector, Watts was also pretty decent at it as well (he was ranked 1 for kicks that get retained inside the F50 in 2017). c) Richmond's pressure is elite. This makes their back 6 look amazing (although they are good in their own right) as every kick forward from the opposition is under pressure. Collingwood's game plan of keeping off is the only way to beat them. Unfortunately our skill level across the board is so below the Pies we could never execute that game plan d) Richmond home games are horrible for anyone with a GA membership. Since how they have 98k members there's barely any GA seats left because they've farmed out any decent seats as reserved.

Download the MFC app. You can access your membership there with barcode. It’s in the tickets session.

We beat Essendon convincingly last year (albeit at Etihad).

It’s a reciprocal game for members so it might be slightly better. Watch out for QBD to be one sided. Collingwood home game and not reciprocal.

Fall into a false sense of optimism again. To counter this, after tonight’s game, regardless of result, I’m not going to another game this year unless we have won our previous 2 going into it.

Going tonight with zero expectations. Would just like to see a good game of football and some resemblance of a Melbourne brand.

I think Jack Riewoldt coming off a 3 week wrist and knee injury is an ideal time to play them. He’ll probably be quite underdone. If my memory serves me correctly, Riewoldt used to have a horrible time playing against TMac back in the day. He had one good game in 2017 where he played most of it on Frost.

I think the 4-6 basically means they are still sore and they are hoping the soreness disappears in the next 2 or so weeks, and then they need a month of training to build up heir fitness base again to be match fit. It’s the only reasonable conclusion I could come up with.

Frost on Lynch, Tmac on Jack.

What’s with Preuss? Played a full game on the w/e. Is it his shoulder?

We didn’t have a defensive coach last year and our defence was better. This could be a result of overcoaching going on here. Looking at other club sites, there’s no “defensive” coach. Just a backline coach. Although Richmond does have an offensive coach. FD needs to put McCartney back into his old role I feel.