titan_uranus

It's the Tasmanian State election on Saturday. Politics may end up being the dominant factor in any decision (i.e. is the government going to make an exception for a football club to enter the State when no on else has been allowed to in the face of state lockdowns?).

Tonight's not the time for the debate, but the question is whether we're getting what we need from Melksham. Another option is to push TMac up the ground (e.g. replacing Jones) and bring Brown into TMac's forward 50 spot. These are good, but tough, issues to have to address.

Great game. One thing I noticed tonight was his positioning at stoppages. He holds his position, doesn't get sucked up into the contest. Offers a release at the back or out the side. He's getting better every week. The marking was better tonight but can still improve. His mobility and aerobic capacity make him a terror of a match up. We've got a special one here.

6 - Salem 5 - Petracca 4 - Lever 3 - TMac 2 - Jackson 1 - ANB

I'd be surprised if we don't have a sore player or two after today. No point carrying injuries into any game this year. If no injuries and a clean bill of health, the only change to consider IMO is bringing in one of Brown or Weid for one of Melksham or Jones.

A couple of stats: We've won 18 of the 24 quarters we've played this year. The Dogs are next on 16. We haven't been behind at any stage of a fourth quarter this year. We've beaten the sides sitting 4th, 6th and 7th on the ladder, including both of last year's Grand Finalists. We've only conceded 1 point more than the Dogs through six games, having played 4th, 6th, 7th whilst they've played North and haven't played anyone higher than 8th on the ladder so far.

Yeah that was epic. They threw everything at us in the first 15 minutes. Most other sides in the comp would have folded. In any other year we probably would have folded. The way we steadied, didn't lose focus, and then turned the game completely around and bullied them for 3.5 quarters was remarkable. Our forward half pressure was immense. They had a stack of inside 50s but they were repeatedly delivering it under our pressure, and with no structure forward of centre because they were sucked up the ground trying to move the ball through our defence. Some will criticise by saying Richmond had two injuries. Reality is we were dominant when they had a full squad. Salem was BOG and deserved the medal. Petracca was great though, Lever gave up that one goal in the fourth but was otherwise fantastic. ANB lifted on last week, TMac started slow but became a force as the game went on. Jackson's getting better every week. Special mention to Hibberd for his incredible tagging job on Dusty and Tomlinson for being the rock that lets Lever and May do what they do. And finally, congrats to Nathan Jones. Played a reasonably good game. Really wish Oliver had passed to him late in the fourth, but he got chaired off after one of our best wins since he started.

Opinion or source-based? Not sure about Harmes getting Jones' spot. We may find that we need to roll TMac or Jackson up the ground to fit B Brown/Weideman into the forward line. Sparrow was the sub and we haven't made anyone the sub in consecutive weeks when they didn't play (Sparrow was the sub vs Geelong as well as Hawthorn, but played 60%-odd after May went down). So you'd therefore think that Sparrow will either get into the 22 or play for Casey this week.

I'm really rapt with how this all sits. Having Gawn, Oliver, Viney, Lever, May, Salem, Langdon, B Brown, Pickett, Rivers and Tomlinson all signed up to at least the end of 2023 is really good work IMO. Now to work on Petracca, Fritsch and Jackson.

Fantastic news. On the back of his form, 5 years is spot on for Salem. Yes, we gave 5 to Harmes and he's subsequently struggled to recapture the form that got him that contract. But that doesn't mean we should avoid long contracts altogether. For core players, and Salem is one of them, long contracts are critical to sustaining success.

If @Yokozuna's mail is good (and IIRC it usually is), big call bringing in neither of Weideman or B Brown. Maybe after his 300th Jones might find himself in the sub role to free up a spot in the 22 for Weid/Brown?

Sunday games by Round 10: Fremantle - 7 Hawthorn - 6 West Coast - 6 Melbourne - 5 North Melbourne - 5 Carlton - 4 Adelaide - 4 Essendon - 4 (one is ANZAC Day) GWS - 4 Geelong - 3 Port Adelaide - 3 Collingwood - 2 (one is ANZAC Day) St Kilda - 2 Bulldogs - 2 Gold Coast - 1 Richmond - 1 Brisbane - 0 Sydney - 0

Yeah at first glance this sucks. We're 5-0 but get given a Saturday twilight game and our fifth(!) Sunday game. St Kilda are rubbish and Geelong play boring football but they get a Friday night game. These are largely the AFL's prior problems though. They had to put a Marvel game on the Friday for Round 9 because there are three that week, and whilst Richmond v GWS would be the better game, that would mean Richmond has four straight Friday nights (because the AFL, in its infinite wisdom, previously gave Richmond consecutive Friday nights in Rounds 7 and 8). At least our Carlton game will be on FTA, which is better than Foxtel. We're also at least on the Saturday in Round 10 which makes it easier for the AFL to give us potentially the Friday night game in Round 11 vs the Dogs (albeit that's an away game unfortunately). The Adelaide game won't be: Saturday twilight, not night, so that will be Foxtel.

Who are you and what have you done with the old @praha? Absolutely no way Tomlinson gets dropped on his current form. He's in great form and playing his role really well. We've worked hard on the Lever-May-Tomlinson combo and it's working. I like Petty but right now he's cover for those three. Fritsch's forward half game this year means he has to play forward, not wing.

100% we lose on Saturday now. (I do love the stat though. When was the last time Melbourne had the longest gap to its most recent loss?)

The best bit about the Richmond board is their comments that we haven't beaten anyone good. Richmond's beaten Carlton, Hawthorn and St Kilda. We've also beaten Hawthorn and St Kilda, but instead of Carlton (11th) we've beaten Geelong (8th), Fremantle (9th) and GWS (12th). So yeah. So are you saying if we win this weekend you'll think this is different to 2018?

Just looking over our fixture again helps to reaffirm how important these early season wins are. Our final seven weeks is brutal: Port away, Hawthorn, Gold Coast away, the Dogs, West Coast away, Adelaide, Geelong in Geelong. Every second week is interstate/in Geelong, and one of the home games is against the Dogs. It's going to be a tough run into the finals. We won't want to be relying on late-season wins for a finals berth.

I'd like to think we're beyond the point of picking super athletes who make skill errors.

It's a special moment. Thoroughly deserved by one of our club's genuine legends.

It's far too many inside 50 at the same time. I could see Brown, Weideman and Fritsch, with Jackson/Gawn resting down there after rucking, leaving the other spots for Spargo, Pickett and ANB. Requires TMac to play higher up the ground though.

There is 100% no way we are moving Tomlinson back up to the wing after the way our back half has started this year. Reliability and predictability are critical to why we've conceded the fewest scoring shots of any side so far this year. Tomlinson's playing good football as a defender and he stays there now. Brayshaw's doing well on the wing. He's not at Langdon's level but he's not being asked to be, either. He's defending well and pushing back into defence to help out. He's playing a role, and playing it well.

Gawn didn't poll a vote in Round 1 either, which means he's polled 32 out of a possible 40 since then.

Yep as many have said, his midfield/ruck work is improving by the week, but his forward work isn't all that great. Really needs to hold his marks inside 50. But the talent is otherwise clear to see and it's becoming increasingly obvious by the week that the amount of time he can spend in the ruck is benefiting Gawn. Does anyone else feel like Jackson's running gait looks identical to Naitanui's? They both seem to glide as they run.

There's very little chance we go in unchanged in the forward line. If any of Weideman, B Brown or Fritsch are ready for AFL football, they all replace M Brown. Mitch wasn't terrible yesterday but he wasn't that good. Agree, this is a fair issue to raise. When we're in form and winning, is the right play to bring players back after one good game in the VFL? I know 7 goals is a super performance, and I'm not suggesting Weid isn't necessarily ready, but I think we need to be careful about picking players off one good VFL game. Same goes for Bedford, who I've seen popping up in some posters' ins for this week. There's no way he gets a game over Spargo or ANB until he strings consistent performances together at Casey whilst Spargo/ANB put repeated sub-standard games together. Whilst I'm 100% in favour of Jones playing and accept he's likely contributing in ways we as spectators can't know, the bolded bit is an argument I can't accept. It is not a fait accompli that because we're winning, all 22 each week are ticking the boxes being set for them by the FD. After a win, it is possible to make our 22 better, and right now with the depth not in the side (B Brown, Weid, May, Fritsch), pressure is on the 22 who played yesterday.

We have conceded 47.31, so that's 78 scoring shots against. For comparison with the rest of the top 10: Bulldogs - 42.43 (85) Brisbane - 58.48 (106) Richmond - 53.55 (108) Geelong - 54.55 (109) West Coast - 59.53 (112) Fremantle - 57.56 (113) Port Adelaide - 54.59 (113) Adelaide - 65.59 (124) Sydney - 56.69 (125)