stevethemanjordan

It’s unbelievable. And what’s more unbelievable is that there are posters who believe he seems to have ‘Pendlebury-like’ time with ball in hand. He gets caught in that scenario so often. The ball either bobbles out to the opposition or he is pinged holding the ball. The fact he is so one-sided only makes matters worse as he never wants to dispose of the ball with his right foot or right hand in those situations.

I still thinking we're missing a couple of elite runners who can use the ball, but with the cattle we've got I'd like this to be our starting, fully fit side : B Jetta O Mac Lewis HB Hibberd Lever Hunt C Harmes Viney Salem HF Petracca Hogan Spargo FF Garlett T-Mac/Weed Fritsch Foll Gawn Oliver Jones Int Brayshaw Vince Melksham Hannan

There's merit to both sides of the argument. In the past, Oscar was rightly criticised for some bog ordinary efforts and performances. But that's going to come when a club decides to play a 20 year old bean pole as a key defender at AFL level rather than trade for a stop-gap in order to let Oscar develop for a couple of years at VFL level. Turns out we didn't opt to go down that path and maybe the MFC knew there'd be some bumps along the way, but he'd develop quicker at AFL lever. To date, it's clearly worked. He's been super solid so far this year, not without the odd-brain fade. I think part of why posters like Binman and others become enamoured with pieces of play that one would term 'elementary' is because there was a period of time where he was not only getting beaten easily one-on-one, but he was missing spoils completely, getting caught holding the ball, getting out-positioned too easily and making really dumb decisions whether in the contest or not. When a player is doing all of those things on a regular basis, he is going to cop criticism. It's fair. Now that he's not doing that, we're hearing that he's "improved out of sight", when really, it's just that he's eradicated so many brain fades from his game. He is now competing strongly and is more reliable and consistent in the contest as a key defender. He is good with ball in hand and he is playing with more confidence. All positives. Against Roughhead, I thought that's when we saw the best of him this year with his ability to take intercept marks and out-position Roughie thanks to dodgy kicks on a few occasions. That's now his next stage of development. Turn some of those one-on-ones into genuine wins by using his body and either taking strong intercept marks or killing the ball with conviction. That's when we'll really see the signs of a high quality key defender. I'm not convinced yet, but the signs are positive so far. Oscar has been a positive in a disappointing start to the season for the MFC.

Ahh. True, although I thought that was quite effective. He competed so strongly in the air, even out of position. When he wasn't playing, those contests would usually turn into opposition marks.

Well it's happened before so I'm not so confident but we'll see. I also saw him stretching hammies and understand he was sore. But there was one moment during the game where I saw him nursing one foot and limp off.

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic? Tom McDonald was a forward in his junior years. I don't want them played at all, stat. Look at what we're doing well and look at what teams are doing too easily against us. We clearly have no issue entering our forward 50. We are super strong around the ball which is the hall-mark of our game and we're up in contested possession. What we're not doing well at all is converting inside 50's into scoring opportunities and the number one contributing factor is our lack of quality ball users. Goodwin is playing inside mids as wingmen and half-forwards. Dom Tyson, Nathan Jones and ANB should not be playing those positions, ever. I'm vehemently opposed to that philosophy. Nathan Jones was almost our best on the weekend, why? Because he was playing his natural position. Angus Brayshaw was enormous in the second half, why? Because he moved from half-back to the guts. His natural position. Has Goodwin finally realised that due to our inefficiency going forward, it might be smart to play three tall forwards with a ruck rotation so we can compete better in the air? Look at how it worked on the weekend. Posters may think that it's easy to say this in retrospect, but I've been complaining about it all year. You simply can't carry so many of the same type of player who share the same weakness in the one team, especially when they're down on form. We have no need for Dom Tyson or ANB right now given the way they're playing. Anytime that Essendon caught us on the fly on the weekend, Dom Tyson was nearly always caught out with his man running rings around him. If he is not damaging opposition himself, of what use to the team is he when it comes to defending? If ANB cannot pick the ball up cleanly or use the ball going forward, his pressuring acts mean very little. There are a handful of positional changes I'd make to our side at the moment. One would be Harmes to take Tyson's position on the wing. He is quicker than Tyson, has more versatility to his game and uses the ball better. In the future, I'd want to target a hard running wingman to play that position. At half-forward, I'd have a number of players ahead of ANB. For one, I'd bring Garlett back in and push Spargo up to a half-forward. In one game, he showed he has more ability than ANB has for the entirety of his career. ANB and Tyson should be depth midfielders who play if any of our starting mids get injured. Right now, Brayshaw, Oliver and Nathan Jones should be starting in the guts with Gawn. With a rotation of Petracca, Salem, Harmes, Lewis and even Garlett to get him into the game.

I'm so tempted to make long-winded post but I just cbf'd.

Yes.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned in this thread, but he was limping noticeably during the game on the weekend. He came off at one stage during the second half and ended up coming back on, but he was definitely nursing his foot. Obviously I have no idea if it’s toe related but if it is, I can’t see him playing this week. Didn’t look great.

No probs, just letting you know that those fundamentals won’t change as long as the game of AFL exists.

What, an ability fly for marks, compete in the air strongly, kick for goal beautifully and hit targets by foot? Nah, no future in the game for that..

Is quite possibly the most overrated player amongst many demonlanders. Goodwin’s refusal to move him from a wing only highlights his weaknesses. Maybe Goody is waking up to the fact that if you play individuals in positions they’re suited to, you’ll get the best out of them. Moving Brayshaw into the guts in the second half from a back flank was evidence. And Hogan spending more time forward is also. Goodwin has been frustratingly stubborn this year with Tyson and ANB being two players who he continues to play in positions they shouldn’t be playing in. Both have been extremely underwhelming and have contributed very little this year yet Goodwin continues to play them. We are so slow through the middle of the ground. Tyson is utterly useless on a wing.

Collingwood have a plethora of injuries and were down two men before the last quarter even started. They did a lot better than us given we had almost a full squad to choose from and we had another quarter where we decided not to show up which has been the case for how long now? Pretty obvious to me as to why we were criticised and Collingwood were praised.

Lol. I’m a pretty critical supporter. But this thread is just farkin ridiculous.

CHB? No. Reiwoldt is Richmond’s only tall forward. Frost was dropped because of this and form. Hopefully doesn’t ever come back in. Hogan needs to play his roaming game and all Weed needs to do is make a genuine contest at every opportunity. If he doesn’t mark it, bring it to ground.

Yeh. But you you called out a single piece of play. Which was undone by an awful kick and then followed on by saying Weideman better perform in the senior side. So to that point of the game, it was a strange comment.

One ripping mark followed by a shank kick = zilch.

No, it was me.

Good to see Casey replicate the MFC's game from last week. At least the msg was clear this week.

And for the record, I agree he showed great improvement in certain areas in the first half of the Hawthorn game. He was genuinely making a positive impact in contests and turning them into wins rather than floating about in an insignificant way. His kicking is usually very good. His defending needs improving along with his general intensity, body positioning, reflexes and awareness. Hopefully he can go on with it on Tuesday night.

And for the record, I agree he showed great improvement in certain areas in the first half of the Hawthorn game. He was genuinely making a positive impact in contests and turning them into wins rather than floating about in an insignificant way. His kicking is usually very good. His defending needs improving along with his general intensity, body positioning, reflexes and awareness. Hopefully he can go on with it on Tuesday night.

Given we're all Melbourne supporters, explain to me the incentive we get in pointing out obvious weaknesses in an individual's game aside from wanting to see the best from our club? The only reason that a player becomes a 'whipping boy' is because of an obvious flaw/flaws in an individual's game that a majority can see. That includes supporters, expert opinion, media etc. You can argue that a player may be unfairly criticised, but you can't argue that the issue isn't there.

This game televised?

Word.

Ground-breaking stuff.