Axis of Bob

I'm not making a judgement on anything except that using tackle stats is a terrible way to judge whether or not someone should be playing in defence. Although I will say that using third team midfielder tackle numbers is also a terrible way to judge whether or not a half forward should be played in defence. ? But half forward and half back are completely different roles. I think it's difficult to use half forward statistics as a predictor of success at half back, one way or another.

All Australian team 2020 Defenders: Luke Ryan: 20 tackles in 17 games. Harris Andrews: 16 tackles in 15 games. Brad Sheppard: 34 tackles in 18 games. Darcy Byrne-Jones: 32 tackles in 18 games. Darcy Moore: 14 tackles in 18 games. Nick Haynes: 23 tackles in 17 games.

Instead they combined it with others to get Gibbs. ?

This year Weideman took 1.31 contested marks a game. Hawkins took 1.68 and Dixon took 2.53 a game. But if you break it down, before Weideman became the number 1 forward (starting against the Bulldogs in round 13) he took 1.75 per game, whilst after that it was only 0.6 per game. His ability to jump at the ball and work one on one make him a very dangerous forward target, but he's not a wrestler at the moment and we suffer for it. Sure, he can do it, but we losing a lot of his ability as a player if you sacrifice him. In the end, I think the real elephant in the room is Fritsch, whose 'tallness' as a medium forward means that crafting a forward line with the pieces we have is very difficult. Without him you could play 3 talls (if one of them is Jackson) and let them all share the workload of contesting the long ball as a flexible trio who can all do it. But playing Fritsch forward means that you have to leave one of the 3 tall forwards out (because you can't play 3 talls plus Fritsch) and that means you probably need a single player to do most of the grunt work because they will draw a lot more of the footy against the heart of the defence. A forward line with Weid and Jackson is tall but also very mobile, but you lose that if you're asking for one of them to spend most of their game wrestling with 2 defenders. Personally, I'd have three talls (as long as Weid and Jackson were two of them) and three smalls up forward, and play Fritsch at half back. I think he's probably played his best footy at half back, even if he may think of himself as a forward.

In their respective age 23 seasons, Dixon kicked 24 goals from 14 games. Hawkins kicked 27 goals from 18 games, and Weideman (this year) kicked 19 goals in 13 games. You're right, he's just not big enough at the moment. Will he be? He's never been the power athlete Dixon and Hawkins are/were, but has the class that those two may not.

Shane Woewodin vs Melbourne (2003-2005): 3 games (1W-2L), 17 possessions per game, 0 goals, 0 Brownlow votes. His best game was the first game back, which was a behemoth 22 possession masterpiece in a game Collingwood won by 10 goals. Unluckily overshadowed for a Brownlow vote by approximately 9 other players, one of whom was Simon Godfrey. We were put to the sword.

And this is why we can't have nice things in the General Discussion forum.

Weideman has tricks and can win the ball if different ways, plus he actually finishes very well in general play, but he isn't physically big enough to wrestle with multiple defenders. He needs to run at the ball to mark in packs, or use his body one on one, but his lack of physical strength stops him being able to compete with multiple defenders when he can't run and jump at the ball. Mihocek also lacks this size and, whilst he is a clever player and good one on one, he still doesn't provide us with an option for the long kick against multiple defenders. You may have misgivings about Weideman as a player but you would be bringing in Mihocek to replace him, not complement him.

The problem is that he's not filling a role that we are missing. He's a good second forward, but we already have a few of those (Weid, Jackson, Fritsch), but not a number 1 bail out option. He just doesn't have the size it the presence. That's why Collingwood keep persisting with Cox despite his issues. As Buckley said in his post-game press conference, those number 1 forwards are pretty hard to find.

Biden is the candidate because of who he's running against. The Democratic primary was all about who was most likely to beat Trump and it's clearly Biden. Biden is the least offensive candidate to moderates and seniors who don't want a progressive reformist (like Sanders) but also can't stand Trump. Those on the left will vote for Biden anyway because the alternative is Trump, but the ones in the middle need to be motivated to vote. Plus old people vote a lot more reliably than young people, so a candidate that appeals to them is going to be really important (especially in places like Florida). It's also important when looking at the Senate races, which is probably where most of the Democrat resources will go now that Biden's strong lead looks stable.

Greg Stafford: 141 goals 66 behinds - Accuracy 68% Adem Yze: 234 goals 194 behinds - Accuracy 55%

The other thing to remember is that her background is almost all netball, where passes are only ever made in close (especially as a shooter). So she has been trained to only look for close targets and it'll take time for her to be able to naturally adjust to the idea that targets 30m away are viable.

Interestingly the players that played the were generally those that could play on the outside in their later career. Brent Harvey, Kevin Barlett, Michael Tuck, Shaun Burgoyne, Robert Harvey, Craig Bradley, Adam Goodes, Brad Johnson, John Blakey, Gary Ablett, Doug Hawkins, Kade Simpson ...... Some of those were inside players at their peak, but they got the longevity by being able to play outside. That's what we're seeing with Jones, Lewis and Vince, who didn't have great pace to start with so fell away one they slowed down from 'average' to 'slow'. Isaac Smith, provided he stays injury free, will not become 'slow', but he may move from 'fast' to 'average' whilst still remaining a great aerobic athlete. Even an averagely quick Isaac Smith is still a very good wingman and should continue be for a number of years (injury dependent).

Not true. Lake played his first game at Hawthorn as a 31 year old. https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/B/Brian_Lake.html

Seemed to work out OK for Brian Lake to squeeze out 3 Hawthorn premierships.

It is strange, if true. North are in a no win situation now. It's been hard for North to land free-agents because those free agents could see that the list was right at the end of its run, and they were that good anyway. We were like that, where substantial free agents and wantaways wouldn't come because we weren't attactive. The best way to start attracting players to your club is to build a core group of players that make others think that they have a successful future. After that it's self-fulfilling because the good players now attract good players which makes them successful which attracts good players etc. But they need to just eat the [censored] sandwich for a few years so that they can build a young group that can attract others. They have an extra first round pick, so it will be interesting to see how they attack the trade period. As for what they do with Polec, I suppose that's entirely dependent on whether they think the relationship is salvageable. If they think they can then the only downside is whatever compensation we'd be offering them, which may not be much.

Also, just looking at the stats on Draft Central, it looks like she's been playing a lone hand on a pretty dismal Gippsland team. Whilst Gippy has won just one game in the past 2 years, Fitsimon has been named in their top 3 players on all but 1 of the 11 games she's played with them. I think that's what the comment of 'will benefit from playing alongside some quality teammates' means!

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823379/nab-aflw-draft-mietta-kendall?videoId=823379&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601975948001 Looks competitive, strong and good pace. Doesn't quite look natural around the ball yet, which is probably why she's at half back at the moment. But looks to give it a real roost, which is actually a much more important trait in AFLW than the men's game and can set up a lot of scores if you win it at half back and go quickly.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823313/nab-aflw-draft-alyssa-bannan?videoId=823313&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601972755001 Seems to have a good, long kick too, which is especially important for a key forward in AFLW.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823367/nab-aflw-draft-megan-fitzsimon?videoId=823367&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601974679001 Looks to have some pace and class (and talent). There's a real need to have players that can win contests and hit the scoreboard in AFLW.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823336/nab-aflw-draft-maggie-caris?videoId=823336&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601974129001 The kicking action should have a NSFW label on it, but clearly very athletic and good spatial sense. Will need to work on the footy skills, being a recent convert, but there seems to be a lot to work with.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823328/nab-aflw-draft-elizabeth-mcnamara?videoId=823328&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601973555001 Not quite, we got her at pick 15 .... but that doesn't mean it's not a steal! The video looks impressive. Only looks fairly slight but seems an really natural footballer with obviously great athleticism. I think this is the sort of player that the coaching staff were talking about that have grown up playing football in a way that previous players haven't and possibly being able to have impact early. You can see in the way she moves with the football and takes on the game in a way that recent converts don't. Based on 46 seconds of footage (!!) she seems a very exciting talent.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/823387/nab-aflw-draft-isabella-simmons?videoId=823387&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1601977278001 Looks like a project, but moves very impressively for 186cm.

Apparently a seriously good junior netballer who will pursue the two sports together. Seems pretty switched on too so I imagine that there will be a lot of improvement in her over the years. Seems like more of a project at this point. As for the height, I'm not sure if she's the tallest, but Lauren Pearce is 184cm, Emma King is 187cm and Sharni Layton is 188cm. So if she isn't then she'd be pretty close!

I think the coaches will be pretty happy that the Bulldogs chose Fitzgerald at 2, leaving us with the chance to pick the best forward available. We have a stated weakness up forward and being able to bring in a tall forward that can win contests will be very pleasing. They gave up a lot to get into the first couple of picks and I imagine they'll be pretty excited at the result.