titan_uranus

Doesn't look like there's a huge amount of defensive pressure being applied by either side in this game tonight. Halfway through the third quarter, the tackle count is Carlton 22, Richmond 15. That puts the sides on track for something like 35-25 for the game. Last night the final tackle tally was Melbourne 46, Dogs 53. Both sides seem to walk the ball from full back to half forward upon which they either score or turn it over.

Agree. Disagree (see above). If Beveridge had a crack at Morris because Morris is a sexist, homophobic, racist [censored], then unloading on him in a nationally televised press conference was not the way to go about it. But with Beveridge's track record of verbally abusing media pundits who say things he doesn't like about his own team, it's highly likely his attack was solely in relation to the reporting of Hunter being dropped. Which has zero justification, no matter what you think about Morris. Either way, Beveridge's actions were pitiful. Morris remains a [censored].

This happened last year. We went 6-0 with just TMac, Fritsch and Gawn/Jackson. Then we started to struggle to score midway through the season and settled once we added Brown. If we take TMac out of the forward line, we are too short. We won the flag last year on the back of elite pressure and high scoring football. We did it with Brown and TMac. It's the right number of tall forwards.

This x 1000. You want to see actual muck raking gutter journalism? How about Mick Warner dredging up stuff that happened 2 years ago which has been resolved entirely, put behind us, and faded into complete irrelevance by the time he decided to write about it? I have to say, whilst I believe Beveridge's rant last night was wholly unjustifiable, I generally regard Morris as a [censored] and the grabs back my view up. Whilst he was right in his reporting on the Hunter issue and did not deserve Beveridge's onslaught last night, that doesn't mean he can continue to be a [censored].

I have to say, even I agree re: Smith, and I suspect after every previous game Smith has played I've thought about calling for him to be dropped.

He has form, Beveridge. He may be a great motivator of his players and a good tactical coach, but he seems to have an anger management issue and I hope he cops it far and wide. Morris did not a single thing wrong. It's not "gutter journalism" or "muck raking" for a journalist to report on team selection before teams are announced. Jon Ralph and Riley Beveridge have both reported on team selection today at other clubs whose teams are yet to be announced. Not only that, but we know Morris' mail was correct. It just reeks of someone who cannot contain his anger.

6 - Petracca 5 - Oliver 4 - ANB 3 - Brown 2 - Langdon 1 - Brayshaw

A few interesting decisions to make. If Lever's fit, does he Tomlinson's spot? If so, does TMac stay in the backline? Or does Lever come back, take TMac's spot, sending TMac back to the forward line? Alternatively, if Lever's not fit, do we leave TMac in the backline? If so, do we bring in Weideman as a second tall forward (when Brown was off the ground last night we had a real dearth of marking options forward of centre. Personally I think 2021 showed us that we need two tall forwards plus Gawn/Jackson, not one, and that we can make enough running power around them without needing to swap a tall out for a small. So, if TMac stays back, I'd be bringing Weideman in). Really? I saw nothing from Bedford last night to suggest this, and IMO he's the first one out if/when we start getting the missing premiership defenders back. Agree with the reasoning, but stats-wise his pressure acts last night were rather low. He had 12. Was our 12th-most (i.e. mid-table). ANB had our most with 29. Even Bedford, the sub, had 13. In other words, Pickett can do more from a pressure perspective IMO.

A very impressive win on a number of fronts. They kicked 8 goals in something like 15 minutes. For the rest of the game they kicked 3 goals. We held them to just 16 scoring shots despite having five first choice defenders out, including losing Salem mid-game which forced TMac to be thrown into defence despite not training there for 3 years. To do that against a side that is likely in 2022 to be a high scoring side is a testament to our structure and discipline. The 8-goal run highlighted, though, that with this weakened backline in particular we are going to concede goals if our midfield is not on song. For much of that run Petracca was in the forward line. We just couldn't get our hands on the ball. In saying that, if we'd kicked straighter at the start the game could have been over before the Dogs got going. Trac's game was phenomenal; no coincidence at all that when he was involved we were on top and when he wasn't involved we struggled more. Oliver was super but I thought ANB played one of his best ever games, his composure and field kicking are so much better now (pity he shanked his shot on goal late). Brown appears to me to be more agile/mobile than last year which only serves to make him even more of a headache for opposition defenders. Should have kicked 5 but his presence, particularly noting TMac wasn't playing forward, was huge for us. I ought to mention Joel Smith too. IMO, his best ever game. When the injured players start to get fit, the pressure will come on Bedford, Jordon and Sparrow, all of whom struggled last night IMO. Some interesting new things I saw last night: ANB took more centre bounces than I think he did in 2021, and did anyone else notice that late in the fourth quarter we put Fritsch on a wing for the centre bounces for him to line up at the back of the square and then become a loose defender? I wonder what the thinking was there - maybe we're looking at options if Lever continues to miss games? Or just some further positional flexibility? I must say I'm not a fan of Fritsch as a defender so I don't necessarily think it's a great idea but I'm interested in it all the same.

When the Dogs were on top in the GF, they weren't just dominating at stoppages. They were moving the ball too easily from the back half to their forward half. Remember that Caleb Daniel had something like 24 touches in the first half. We kept Naughton quiet in all three games last year, but he's always a threat and with a weakened backline there's always a risk that someone clunks a few marks and it could be him. I think too many here are seriously underrating the Dogs because of the GF blowout. Yet, we were incredible, but we can't expect to play like that every week, and for the 1.5 quarters leading up to the domination the Dogs were on top of us.

I also reckon anyone putting any stock in the Mick Warner hit job on Goodwin should just look at the genuineness of his relationships with the players, evident both during the game, as the siren approached and after the siren.

I'm honestly very surprised at this. We've lost three defenders (Petty, Rivers, Hibberd) and replaced them with two defenders (Smith and Hunt) and a midfielder (Jordon). To maintain the same system as 2021, we have to take a midfielder and rotate them through the minutes we'd otherwise be giving Hibberd/Rivers in the backline. 2020-21 showed us that Harmes is a forward half midfielder, not a half back flanker. 2021 showed us that Brayshaw is a vital part of our team on a wing. And I'm not aware of Jordon playing in the backline over the pre-season (please correct me if I'm wrong). It may be the case that Tomlinson isn't fit enough and that we don't have any other good enough defenders to bring in, but all the messaging coming out of the club was that Tomlinson was good to go so I'm not sure it's that. It can't be the Dogs' short forward line - they're running the same forward line as the GF in which we had the extra defender. Still, Jordon played every game last year, Hunt would have kept his spot if he hadn't been injured, and Smith's pre-season has deserved selection, so their inclusions all make sense. We will just see how we go with this many changes to our back line.

I reckon out of respect/fairness to him and the Dogs they chose not to show what was going on in their box. Just a focus on the winners and the positivity. Although I agree with you, I'd loved to have beard Beveridge respond to what we were doing in the middle after the Fritsch x 2 and Brown goals. Overall I loved the four videos because I am a sucker for this behind the scenes sort of stuff. I just want more!

If Jordon is one of your three ins (i.e. with Tomlinson and Hunt), who are you putting in the back seven rotation to make up for the three missing defenders? Jordon (not a defender)? Brayshaw (not a defender)? In 2021 we refrained from flipping players around the ground other than within games due to injury (e.g. when we had to send Brayshaw back to cover for May going off vs Geelong) or to try to spark us when behind (e.g. Hunt going forward when we were losing to GWS). I strongly suspect we're not about to throw Jordon or Brayshaw or another midfielder into defence to cover for Rivers/Hibberd. Instead, I strongly suspect we're going to pick a defender to play that role. Hence, I think both Hunt and Smith will play. Jordon only to play if he takes a midfield/forward spot.

Can anyone confirm the time for the unfurling of the flag and/or any other pre-match festivities? Has this stuff been communicated to members and I've just missed it? Edit: found it: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/1077849/afl-round-1-game-day-guide Unfurling at 6.40pm.

Three defenders out is not ideal. We saw vs Carlton what the impact is of an unsettled backline, particularly when compared to last year's stable back seven. You would expect Tomlinson, Smith and Hunt to be the replacements for Petty, Hibberd and Rivers; all three selections make sense. I am not a fan of Smith and Hunt being in the same backline though, adds too much unpredictability. At least they all got a run last week so they're not coming in from the cold. I suppose the only other question is whether Jordon pushes into the starting 22 and, if so, who he would displace? I would otherwise assume we won't see any other non-GF starters in the 23.

I base that on them being a very good side in 2021. They may well be the best side in 2022, which is a different year to 2021.

I'm sure they'd be commenting on overconfidence. There are too many posters who are describing this game as a "should win". We are going to lose games in 2022 and the first of those could easily be this Wednesday.

I've read this post and the subsequent discussion. As I understand it, your concern is that Jackson may have indicated to the club that he wants to go home, and that based on that indication we told Cerra's camp "don't worry about that" when they asked how we'd get the deal done. This makes no sense. If the club was of the view that Jackson wanted to go home, and Cerra was into us, why wouldn't we have made it clear to Cerra's camp that a deal was capable of being done because we'd offer Fremantle Jackson? Cerra ruled us out because we couldn't provide anything that they thought Fremantle would want. The only logical conclusion that can be drawn from that is that Jackson was never on the table. If he was, things wouldn't have played out like they did. In turn, that rules out your concern that Jackson might have indicated to the club that he wants to go home. An alternative explanation for the "don't worry about that" quote is that the club was trying to convince Cerra that he wanted to go nowhere other than Melbourne (i.e. don't worry about Fremantle, if you nominate us you'll get here for whatever we offer).

I don't think anyone should be surprised if we lose. How much of Demonland goes on about drinking bathwater, particularly after we lost to Carlton? We're coming up against arguably the best side in it other than us (if not the best side in it full stop), it's a new season in which 2021 doesn't stand for too much, and we'll be missing at least two best 22 players from our backline. We can be disappointed with a loss, but no one should be surprised if we drop a game to a fellow 2022 flag contender.

Agree with both posts. Libba's a pest and not in a good way, Hunter is a Selwood-level ducker (some will say Spargo is the same but whatever) and I reckon Beveridge has known for years that English is too soft to be a good ruckman as he gets bullied around far too easily. Otherwise, I think the Dogs get physicality right. Macrae, Dunkley, Bont, Daniel, Smith, Naughton - these are players who don't shy away from contact but don't go out of their way to be [censored] about it (unlike Libba).

Great video. I loved seeing the snippet of Goodwin's half time address. Would love to see more of it (and the QT and 3QT addresses, and indeed anything else from behind the scenes).

I saw this too. It might have been that Harmes was in red for a period where they mixed things up, but then again I didn't see anyone else surprising in red. Joel Smith was also in blue in that video, FWIW. If you take the grand final 22 and bring two of Tomlinson, Smith and Hunt in for Petty and Rivers, I'm not sure who else comes in for Harmes (unless you count Jordon coming in from the sub position).

Seems like the image has been taken down from the website. I have no idea why, but I'd guess maybe they missed a name and have to re-do it.

@The Mighty Demons - you are a Demonland legend.