titan_uranus

First two changes I can get around. Not sure about Hunt for Melksham (I'm in favour of dropping Melksham though). I accept St Kilda is fast but is Hunt reliable enough to use his pace to our advantage?

It was the equivalent of 1 first rounder, and he's giving us exactly what we need. Our two best players today were May and Lever. They've been consistently good for two months. ROI is right there in front of you. I suspect you just don't like Lever and refuse to accept it.

As is too often the case, you're wrong. His efforts are fine. His ability is the problem.

Tomlinson was one of our best rebounders today. What we'd get from Smith in rebound we'd lose in countless other areas. However, the general point you make is sound. Harmes is neither a lock-down defender nor a rebounder. So what is he doing there? Sure, the players needed to work harder, but again, it's not coaching OR players, it's coaching AND players. It's both. As to the ruck issue, I disagree entirely, as you know. Beveridge doesn't think the ruck is a "junk position". Indeed, he identified at HT that they were losing because of "one position": the ruck. So he made a change, bringing Bruce in, and that made a change to their midfield in the third.

Look, TMac's struggling, but the answer isn't OMac, and it may well not be Smith.

Rubbish, he's a midfielder and a competent forward. He is not, though, a defender. He shouldn't be playing there. Good call to those who suggest he could take Sparrow's spot with Rivers coming into the backline. Like Fritsch last year, Goodwin is stubbornly persisting with this but like with Fritsch last year, I'm utterly convinced it's not the right call. If Harmes is squeezed out of the middle, which is a fair call to make, Harmes is a forward, not a defender.

A few changes here and there isn't the priority. A lift from our midfield is what's really needed. But there are a few changes to be made. Looks like Sparrow's going to be out for a while. Will Jones get his spot back? Fingers crossed Gawn's fit and can come back in. Should be for Preuss. However, I'm not a fan of TMac's current form and I think we need to consider dropping him. But we may be reaching too many changes. And finally, Melksham. We know Goodwin/the FD rate him given he was captain vs North. But this is probably the 8th game he's played this year which simply isn't good enough. Another 50m conceded, another weak defensive game, and to top it all off a set shot kicked into the man on the mark. IMO, those sorts of performances should result in being dropped, particularly when they're on the back of a year of largely poor performances. Bennell could be a replacement. I'd keep Pickett in because there's no better option out of the side and he did lay 5 tackles to his credit, but he keeps being close without actually converting that into a solid performance. Maybe he needs to kick an early goal to get into it, and he had two chances today.

Yeah I don't agree with those who think Preuss played well. He's like Smith and vandenBerg on Demonland, gets praised for physical attributes and some old-school tendencies regardless of actual output. We have some real issues in our entire midfield. We have to be able to compete when there is pressure in the middle. The difference in Oliver's play between the last three weeks and today was so stark. Gone was the burst from the stoppages, back was the immediate handball release. The Harmes thing just frustrates me. He's not a defender and wasn't impacting the game in the backline, whilst our midfield was being beaten. I don't need radical changes, but sometimes just one player moving around maybe can spark us.

Jeepers, Lever, Tomlinson and Weideman were all decent today.

Agree with a lot of this, particularly Viney, but what's conspicuously absent is that Brayshaw was poor as well. Brayshaw hasn't just had his poor form forced upon him by being played out of position. What frustrates me is that our four mids were being belted in the third, whilst Harmes was having no impact in the backline. Surely that was the time to try throwing Harmes into the middle?

Yep, the worst. The bolded bit is on coaching. Beveridge's tactical decision to switch repeatedly was a good coaching move, with no counter offered by Goodwin. We didn't slow it down in the third when we needed to. Also on the coaching. We keep kicking to the pockets and boundary. Another coaching issue. This isn't to excuse the players. Again, it's not either/or, it's both.

Let's get the glass half full bit out of the way. We were never any good but never really out of the contest, even in the fourth quarter we were challenging at various times. The Dogs were also wildly accurate in the third quarter. I reckon we got really unlucky with the wind: they were slotting them dead straight on the angle, but look at what the wind did to Fritsch's kick in the fourth. IMO that's not technique, that's the wind picking up. They only had 3 more scoring shots but their accuracy hurt us. OK. Now for the glass half empty bit. How predictable was that. The Dogs are a level above our previous three teams and brought the pressure, and we crumbled. They out ran us and they carved us up on transition. Petracca, Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw all had poor games under that pressure, with their old habits coming back again (dinky handballs, lack of two-way running, missed kicks). We had the same number of inside 50s. But our small/mid forwards, Fritsch aside, put in shockers. I said in the Game Day thread that every week Pickett feels like he's close to dominating, but never actually does. We can't keep carrying small forwards who neither impact the game nor pressure. Goodwin blatantly outcoached. We've had a strong defensive zone that was broken to pieces today, largely through the Dogs switching repeatedly. They've played a lot of footy at Metricon (we've only played once there before today), so maybe they knew it well, but it was clear from the start that they had a plan and it worked. Preuss was beaten by Bruce. Can we end the whole "we're good without Max" thing? We're not. We only get one let off in this run home. It was today. If we want to be a finals side, we need to bounce back next week. Given the opportunity we had today to solidify our top 8 spot, today was horrendously disappointing.

6 - May 5 - Langdon 4 - Tomlinson 3 - Lever 2 - Weideman 1 - Hibberd This was pretty much impossible to do. Far too many disappointing players rather than impressive ones.

We don't need radical changes, we need a lift from our A-graders and we need our forwards to tighten up.

We had more inside 50s that quarter. 10-12. They scored 6.1 from 10 inside 50s. I think 5 of those 6 goals were from their defensive half. Their stars continue to get too much of it: Macrae, Smith, Hunter, Bontempelli, Dunkley and Libba are their six leading possession getters. Oliver has only had 10 touches, Viney turns it over too much, Brayshaw's regressed back to closer to his prior 2020 form, Petracca's off. Our A-graders can't get into it and theirs are finding it too easy. If you had to imagine how we were going to lose this game, that quarter was precisely it. Beveridge's coaching has been on point. The switches have hurt us. Swapping English for Bruce worked for them too. The Dogs are a genuine top 8 side with their best 22 playing. This was our test. That quarter was a massive fail.

ANOTHER one. Another chain of possession from full back to full forward. It doesn't help that they've kicked 6 straight and we've kicked 3 points.

Inside 50 count is 6-10. In OUR favour. They've kicked 5 goals. Two reasons: midfield being thrashed by theirs, and Beveridge coaching smartly with the switches.

This game is almost over now. We need a goal, quickly, or it probably is over.

Horrendous start. They're back on top in the middle, we're slow in transition. Fritsch's miss was a shocker and could really hurt.

Is it as simple as the wind favours the left of screen? The grandstand at the right end should be reducing the wind disturbance? A bit like Collingwood last week. But we looked better in the second quarter as we got more of the ball inside our forward half.

If he's struggling to make it work at Freo (which seems to be rumours at worst), there's probably a bit too much going on in his life for him to be able to make it work back in Melbourne.

He was very close to two crumbing goals in the first quarter. I feel like so much of Pickett is "very close". Every game he looks like he might erupt but never seems to happen. Not sure Bennell can play that role. Speed and defensive pressure regrettably not Bennell's strong suits so far this year.

Clear improvement that quarter. The ball spent far more time in our forward half and we were developing more scoring chains. But we're still not playing all that well. Missing kicks, tackles not sticking, and their best players are getting too much of the ball. Beveridge in his HT interview was scathing of English. They've clearly put a lot of effort into the ruck and stoppages, whether it's the tactic of using Dunkley or how they shark Preuss.

We're playing poorly but winning. Wow. To be fair, we're getting it in our forward half a bit more.

Unforgivable mistake from Melksham.