titan_uranus

Quite a few comments querying how we're going to be able to cover St Kilda's pace and small forwards. We didn't have much trouble covering them the last time we played, which was just 7 months ago.

https://fixturedownload.com/sport/aussie-rules

Capacity at this and all games will be increased to 75%. For Marvel, that means 43,500. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/crowd-capacity-lifted-to-75-per-cent-for-round-two-20210323-p57d5c.html

I haven't read this entire thread but here are two comments in response to recent posts: Anyone who thinks Oliver isn't a matchwinner/influential player or that the club will be able to cope without him is absolutely, completely and utterly wrong; Does anyone have any actual source/information to suggest he hasn't re-signed yet because he's lost faith in the club, or similar?

Quite a lot. We didn't dominate time in forward half. We didn't dominate inside 50s. We didn't rely on clearances to generate momentum. We didn't bomb the ball as much as previously. We kicked far more than we handballed. We had a solid defensive half that was reliable. We generated scores from our defensive half, not relying solely on forward half turnovers. We won despite Gawn having a poor game overall. Neither passion nor desperation were lacking yesterday (55 tackles to 49, 15 inside 50 tackles to 7, 49 one percenters to 45) either.

Was a lack of outside run and pace really an issue for us yesterday? I'm not sure it was. I'd argue our skill level was a bigger issue than our outside run. Scrutiny for what? FWIW I thought he was quite good yesterday. He's much more accountable defensively than he used to be, leads repeatedly, created chances and kicked 2 goals. And all that against a side that is geared towards defence before anything else.

There’s something genuinely good about winning despite our woeful stoppage work yesterday. I haven’t seen the stats but I’d suggest we generated a fair few scores from the back half of the ground. For too long Goodwin has tried to make us a forward half only side, and we’ve struggled to turn intercepts into scoring chains. Yesterday we did that. There’s a defensive set up and system there that we were able to rely on when our clearance game was being blown apart yesterday that should, if maintained this year, keep us in good stead.

What injuries? The sub replaced Pearce so no loss of rotations there. Hamling went down with maybe 5 minutes to go. Both sides finished the game with 74 rotations. I don’t think what you’ve said here is true at all.

Fair comment re: Sparrow, but tackling can't be the only thing a player brings to the side, otherwise vandenBerg would be playing. I didn't feel Sparrow added much at all to the game, tackles notwithstanding. Ditto Jones. Harmes might not have been great, but I saw a lot more confidence in him as a mid/forward compared to what I saw last year. I'd be keeping Harmes over Jones or Sparrow.

His last quarter was exciting and he presented well all game. The marks he clunked will hopefully help get his confidence up. I suspect part of his fourth quarter cameo was Fremantle tiring and we being fitter than them. He just looked to be out-running every Docker around him, as did many of our guys. Having said that, he's still raw, wasn't involved enough in the first three quarters, and his goal-kicking was shocking. But if he can build on that performance, his athleticism can make him something really special.

What, so when it's 10 degrees and raining in July people line up to sit outdoors at the G? Today was great weather to enjoy watching your side play in front of you for the first time in 18 months. Plenty of people have genuine reasons they can't go, whether family, work, financial. But our club has a too-large subset of fans who "protest" against the club's performance by not going to games and/or not buying memberships. Those people are the ones who should be ashamed of themselves and shouldn't call themselves "supporters" of the club. You're doing the opposite of "supporting" us if you're withholding valuable membership and/or gate receipt funds by "protesting" against whatever it is you don't like about our on field performances.

Would you mind stating which of their players were missing through injury? And how that compared to our missing players?

Do people think that our players get inspired to perform better by looking up at empty stands? Or do you think they rest on their laurels and think "we don't need to do anything more, people are already watching us" if the stands were full? I am quite sure that, if it has any impact, it doesn't help our players. There is a reason the concept of a "home ground advantage" exists, and it doesn't come from empty stands. I agree with this. The MCC felt relatively well attended and AFAIK close to 100% of the seats available were taken on Monday/Tuesday. If my maths is right and the MCC was allowed 50% capacity, that would be around 11,000 total. I'd be confident that around 8,000 were there. That means 13,000 in the rest of the ground, which had room for around 40,000. If the MCC could have taken more, I'm confident it would have. Well he'll feel empowered to get on that high horse because our supporters don't help our club. The same supporters who don't go to games likely blame the club for not responding to these sorts of things in the media.

You see it on here though. So many "I'm not going until they play well" comments. Protests in that form don't help the club (nor does refraining from buying a membership when you can otherwise afford it).

Really disappointing. Surely more than 20,000 MFC fans could have made it today.

Sparrow, Jones and Hunt the clear three contenders to make room for any potential inclusions IMO. Harmes wasn't fantastic but I don't think he was anywhere near as bad as people are suggesting. If fit, I'd consider Viney and Melksham for Sparrow and Jones. Hibberd could maybe take Hunt's spot. Yes there's a speed loss there, but Hunt made so many mistakes today it might still be a net win. Jetta? You gotta be kidding.

6 - May 5 - Lever 4 - TMac 3 - Oliver 2 - Petracca 1 - Jordon

This thread is reaching new lows of Demonland pessmism. What's with the "it's only an injury ravaged Fremantle" stuff? It's not like we went in with a fresh first choice 22. AFAIK they were missing Walters, Lobb, Darcy, Acres and Hill (if he's best 22?). We were missing Viney, Brown, Weideman, Hibberd (plus Melksham and Lockhart, if you think they're best 22). They lost a player mid-game but the injury sub mitigates that impact. And it's not like Fremantle are a widely-tipped bottom 4 side. They're actually widely-tipped to be right around where we're likely finish. As to the match itself, we never really looked like being overrun after the first quarter. We won by 4 goals when not at our best, and but for some wayward fourth quarter kicking we'd have won by 6+ goals. We generated 25 scoring shots against a side whose foundation is its defence. There's no denying our skills at times were terrible (some of the kicking was just deplorable and almost everyone fumbled it at least once), and there's no denying we've got a number of weaknesses in the 22 we just fielded. But we also saw TMac's best game since 2018 (and probably Jetta's too), May and Lever were impenetrable, Oliver's workrate was better than it usually is, Harmes looked far more comfortable in the forward half of the ground rather than the back half, Jordon's debut was impressive, and Brayshaw found his touch as the game wore on. We were clearly fitter than them and ran the game out well, too. If that's all we've got for 2021 then we won't do much, but it's Round 1, it's our first game of 20 minute quarters on the MCG with new rules opening up the game, and by and large we were the better side for most of the match. The panic and disgust on here is ridiculously disproportionate.

Good luck to him. I like that we're backing in our read on him and his improvement over the whole pre-season, not just the Dogs game.

In relation to the (interesting) debate between @Lord Nev, @Axis of Bob and @JimmyGadson, I think it's fair to say the following: We are good at accruing "clearances" as that term is defined by the statisticians; We are generally better at accruing them than our opponents, and have been each year under Goodwin; We are not as good at turning those "clearances" into scores, or wins, as we could/should be. Part of this may be the way in which clearance is defined: it is "Credited to the player who has the first effective disposal in a chain that clears the stoppage area, or an ineffective kick or clanger kick that clears the stoppage area" The point being the "clearance" stat doesn't take into account success of those clearances. It literally includes turnover kicks out of the stoppage area. I think there is merit to Jimmy's argument that teams are content to let our inside mids grab the ball first and even take the first possession, because through Goodwin's era we have shown a tendency for that first disposal to not damage our opponent as much as it could/should. I don't know where to find it, but I'd love to see a stat for scores from stoppages, and particularly scores from centre clearances. That may show, relative to other clubs, how good we are at converting our wins in the stoppages to scores.

Yes but they sure as hell better not tell anyone that's what they're doing, lest they cop a spray from Demonland about "all talk, no action".

A week out from Round 1 and we have 9 (arguably) best 22 players on the injury list. Really, really not ideal.

I agree entirely. What he says may well be correct. But he doesn't know anything about our club. He's just a commentator using generalised statements because, as you say, it resonates with supporters. I haven't seen the example you've cited here with Oliver but if that's what happened, it's an unfortunate recurring trait with Oliver. He is a supremely good midfielder but his biggest weakness has always been the selfless side of football. Whether that's defensive running, sharing the ball around, taking the harder option to spread from a stoppage rather than just banging it on the boot, or in this instance shepherding, he can lift his game in those areas. The point you make about a senior player going to him is interesting though. I distinctly recall this board blowing up when May had words with Frost in a game against Brisbane in 2019.

I'm far from convinced in either Sparrow or Jordon but I'm not going to write them off based on yesterday. The entire side was flogged by the competition's best midfield. You mean who you would take if you knew what you knew now and could go back in time and do the draft again. Which is not how it works.

I agree with you that Goodwin has had issues working out where to play players. Hunt and Harmes are the two biggest examples. But I strongly disagree with the idea we should try May forward. The May-Lever combination down back is blossoming and is critical to us being any good. All good sides are set up well behind the ball. We literally cannot afford to play May forward. It's up to TMac, Jackson, M Brown and Gawn to hold the fort until B Brown and Weideman are back. Also disagree re: Fritsch, he'd get games for most sides and probably would be even better than he is with us if he had proper key forwards to take the heat.