titan_uranus

So Petty takes Treacy, but who plays on Amiss? Are we expecting Adams to be a late in? Or Turner to play back, leaving Fullarton on MFC debut to lead our forward line with no JVR or Fritsch to help?

Geelong might have something to say about that. Already have wins over Fremantle and Adelaide, and if they beat Hawthorn on Monday that will probably be the best suite of defeated opponents anyone has. With their two losses by a combined 16 points.

I read this a lot. First of all, if you think the flag was "lousy", I can't help you - that's on you. It was, for me and I dare say the majority of Melbourne supporters, the complete opposite. But out of interest, how many of us do you think would have actually got a ticket to the G on Grand Final day?

I think the sub has to come from the bench, which is Oliver, Melksham, Rivers, Sharp and Sparrow.

Deserves his chance. Presumably will be doing the relief ruckwork when Gawn rests, too. Will be tough against Fremantle’s defence, but I hope he gets a few games in the seniors as reward for his hard work.

Just to be clear, I have no issue with Fullarton getting picked, but it should have happened last week. I would have had no issue with Fritsch being dropped, but it’s come after (mild) improvement. We’ve been burned by bringing guys back off long injuries without VFL game time already but we’re doing it again with Tholstrup. Meanwhile Sharp, Spargo, Melksham and Sparrow stay in.

I’d have thought it’s Turner for JVR, Fullarton for Fritsch and Tholstrup for Henderson.

Yeah, I think we actually largely agree on all this. I also think dropping 3 forwards but no mids in one week is unhelpful when a significant portion of our problem is in the midfield.

Yeah. Best game. Relative to the ones before. It’s surprising that it’s happened this week, when it didn’t happen for the last 3 weeks.

Yeah but we’re dropping Fritsch after his best game of the last month, bringing Turner back after one week and no Casey game (so why TF did we drop him last week) and Kolt comes back without a VFL game. It’s haphazard.

May and Pickett both named. The only defensive emergency cover is Howes. McVee, Kentfield and Jefferson all returning via VFL.

https://t.co/qmMiB8giE8 In: Fullarton, Tholstrup, Turner Out: Fritsch, Henderson, JVR (all dropped) My initial thought: WTF are we doing

This seems two weeks too late and not at all the right call, but let’s wait for the team sheet.

Agree, although not necessarily in relation to Fritsch. Spargo’s the one who comes to mind for me.

In addition to our 23 players who are under 24, we also have 13 players who are over 29. That leaves just 9 players aged 24, 25, 26, 27 or 28 on our list. I don’t know how that compares to other clubs but I’d guess it’s not similar to the contending clubs this year. PS two of the 9 players in that “prime” age bracket are Henderson and AJ, who only started playing AFL this year and have 7 games of experience combined.

I agree. He was very blunt yesterday when he said we’re too easy to play against. Which is true, and is being lost amongst the focus on our lack of scoring. If anything it means we have nowhere to hide on Saturday.

Some interesting tidbits from Daniel Hoyne on radio tonight. We are apparently the third fastest ball movement team in the competition, with the main reason being because we get it and go quickly (i.e. playing on), with short forward movements Our ability to move from one end of the ground to the other is the 5th best in the competition, but we're awful at scoring from these transitions - scoring from 1 in 4 of these chains, when AFL average is 1 in 2 We are apparently +26 in first possession across the first five games, but -36 in clearances - the 62 point swing is the biggest ever recorded after five games Gawn, Oliver and Viney are all bottom 5 in the competition for converting a first possession into a clearance I'd hazard a guess that no one is surprised about points 2-4, but point 1 will raise a few eyebrows on here. We've heard Goodwin talk about getting "good looks" but not converting them. Point 2 above backs that up. We've also heard Goodwin talk about our method at stoppage being bad. Points 3 and 4 back that up.

Have you ever seen a president do this before? Ever? If he did, the criticism would be that we’re infighting, lacking unity, drawing more attention to ourselves etc.

Insanity. The line should be north of 30. I suppose it just reflects on the market’s lack of faith in Fremantle on the road.

If he said nothing he’d avoid a meaningless response like today’s letter, but be criticised for being “asleep at the wheel” or similar. If he says what he said today it’s vice versa. Reality is, because we’re down in the dumps and/or in a crisis right now, he is going to be criticised no matter what he does.

I don’t think that is an accurate summary. I think the recent reporting is that our search is narrowing down and nearing conclusion, but not that we have one.

We’ve also only won 4 quarters of football, all year. 4 There was a time a few years ago we won something like 15 consecutive quarters or something. 1-3 in first quarters, 0-4 in fourth quarters. Starting poorly, finishing worse.

I find Gawn’s post-match comments about our players, including himself, dropping their heads truly fascinating. Is he dropping the filter and saying what he thinks but shouldn’t be saying? Or is this a planned way to try to stick it to teammates who are struggling? Or is it just a sign that he’s tired and his leadership is waning?