titan_uranus

Brisbane's game was moved from the Gabba to Metricon, which helps St Kilda. Geelong often drop a rubbish game, although they already did in Round 1 to Adelaide. Still, I can see arguments for any of these three sides to pull of an upset. Any help us, but St Kilda helps us most - get Brisbane the [censored] away from top 2, please.

Of all the umpiring we've seen this year I didn't think last night's was anywhere near the worst. Yes they made some errors but if you're expecting flawless umpiring you're watching the wrong sport. The 50m penalty for Pickett against Jonas in the second quarter was a decision that, had the shoe been on the other foot, Demonland would have erupted over.

Fair point re: the behinds. Yes, it's only one game so it's too early to draw conclusions, but analysing each goal the way you have to conclude Brown had no impact in any of them is shallow. It's very easy to say we won because of our defence and a few players starring but we all know our defence isn't enough each week or we'd be 16-0. This week we looked better in our forward half than we did last week and whilst Brown clearly is not the one and only reason we looked better, it's equally too simplistic and shallow to conclude that because he wasn't in the video grabs you've watched that he had no positive impact. But only time can tell if he's going to make a long-term difference.

Straight away I know your analysis is incorrect because you've got Brown down for no involvement in any goal, but he had three score involvements. But it's a shallow analysis that doesn't dig deep enough. For example: This week: TMac 86% TOG (Brown 75%). Last week: TMac 97% TOG. Maybe TMac's ability to rest helped him star?

I noticed the palms/touches too. I'm sure he had a big message from the coaches to be mindful of getting it front and centre and the moment he felt he wasn't going to mark it, he did his best to make sure that's where it went. It's hard to tell whether the kicks over his head were bad kicks or bad judgment from Brown. It happened a lot. With our recent kicking woes I'm inclined to think it was the kicking more than anything, but not necessarily. You're absolutely right to distinguish between causation and correlation, but you're assuming Brown being in the side did not help TMac and Pickett star. It's only one sample size, so we need to see more, but against a side with Jonas, Aliir, Clurey, McKenzie and Burton, I'm inclined to accept that another marking forward helped take pressure of TMac. Also define "big impact" re: Sparrow vs Essendon - in that game Sparrow had 11 touches for 126 metres gained, 10 pressure acts, and 1 score involvement (presumably his own goal) from 50% TOG.

Yep. Both Viney and Harmes struggled offensively, but IMO Viney was superior defensively. Do we need both to be defensive? If not, then Harmes' position is in jeopardy to be replaced with someone else who offers something difference, given Harmes' mistakes (e.g. Sparrow/Melksham/Jones). I'm not necessarily in favour of a change but if we are going to make a change Harmes is the player whose role IMO can be switched around.

I only recall one Motlop one, but it was blatant AF, so blatant I reckon the players around the contest stopped waiting for a whistle. Here is the rule on "incorrect disposal" 18.6.3 Free Kicks - Holding the Ball: Incorrect Disposal. Where a Player in Possession of the Football has not had Prior Opportunity, a field Umpire shall award a Free Kick if that Player elects to Incorrectly Dispose of the football when Legally Tackled. For the avoidance of doubt, a Player does not elect to Incorrectly Dispose of the football when: (a) the Player genuinely attempts to Correctly Dispose of the football; (b) the Legal Tackle causes the football to be dislodged from the Player’s possession. If you haven't had prior opportunity, it's not a free kick if you "genuinely attempt to correctly dispose of the ball" or it it comes out as a result of the tackle. The grey area IMO is the "genuine attempt" - neither Boak nor Dixon had prior opportunity, but did they "genuinely attempt" to dispose of the ball? If not, then it was HTB. If so, then there was no HTB free and both were then correctly awarded a free for being held too long.

Pressure act stat is up on the AFL website. Viney our best again with 33 (Drew the overall leader on 34). Harmes 26, Oliver 25, Petracca 21 and Pickett 20 our top 5.

Langdon would have to put in about 6 bad games in a row to ever feature in the being dropped discussion, such are the credits he has in the bank. Fritsch was hardly bad - he was a factor in a far more dynamic forward line than last week.

Melbourne - we're not pretenders

Bulldogs and Brisbane yes, Swans no. Swans played well that night but this game was on hostile opposition territory and we won all four quarters and won by 6 goals. This is top 3, with Sydney and Richmond rounding out the top 5.

To be fair to Viney, Wines did have 33 but only 5 clearances (Oliver 11, Boak 8, Petracca 7 by comparison) and only 375 metres gained (we had six players with more than that).

Viney was better today than the last two weeks in getting and using the ball. Still missed some targets but he was at least lowering the eyes and looking to hit lead up targets. Harmes, though. Not a great game IMO.

Maybe the best part of the win is it means Dr D is 0-3 for his predictions of how the Essendon, GWS and Port games would play out.

Now's probably not the time for it but if anyone's in the gun IMO it's Harmes.

6 - Petracca 5 - Oliver 4 - TMac 3 - Gawn 2 - May 1 - Salem

Pickett 4 tackles inside 50, Brown, Jordon and McDonald all 3. Love that.

@A F Viney 88% TOG tonight.

Or this:

I believe so. We won three quarters and drew the fourth vs Carlton but I believe this is the first time we won all four quarters.

How good it feels to get back to our best. Let's get the negative out of the way - 4.10 in the second half. Could, and should, have won by 50+. But we won four quarters. IMO we won it most in the third quarter. They lifted but despite dominating time in forward half for the first 20 minutes, we only conceded two goals, and then scored two of our own, was huge. We kept them to their second lowest score for the season, their lowest score at home, and their fewest number of scoring shots for the season. For mine, Brown made us better. Didn't kick a goal but released TMac. Small forwards lifted too - Pickett 9 tackles to go with his 3 goals, Spargo I felt played better than he had for a month. Petracca's first 5 or so kicks were turnovers but he was otherwise incredible, Oliver's first half set us up, Gawn was dominant in the ruck, and again May and Lever were superb. Shout out too to James Jordon, I really loved his game tonight. Gut running, composure, felt like he was 5 years more senior than he actually is. We're now two games and 10% clear of Port Adelaide in 5th. We've beaten everyone in the 8 except West Coast who we haven't played. Now to sit back and enjoy the (long) weekend!

You struggled to see us as a serious threat when were 11-1 having just beaten the Dogs and Brisbane. You'll struggle to see us as a serious threat even if there's a minute to go in the GF and we're up by 200.

Far out, you two have already started criticising us for losing a game that hasn't been played yet!

No, your initial point was good sides don't lose to bad sides. Then your point was when Richmond struggled through 2017, they were a different kettle of fish to us, which they weren't in 2017. Now this is a new point, which is that we struggle when favourites. That's different, and I agree to an extent (I think we play better when we're the "hunter" rather than the "hunted").

At the time Richmond lost to Fremantle in 2017 they hadn't won a final for 16 years.