titan_uranus

Yes we do - McDonald, Weideman, Preuss, Petracca are in the former group, and Spargo, Garlett, Hunt, Petracca and Melksham are in the latter group. The ability is there, the form is not.

Agree. The OP says games are "harder to watch" because there are fewer instances of a team scoring 100 points. The Melbourne v Essendon game had lots of goals but no skill, turnovers galore, and no defence from either side. I don't accept that made the game enjoyable. The scoring debate is taking over from the real debate, which should be about what we are actually watching. Goals do not make the game enjoyable in all circumstances.

Did he? I read that he first went off in the third quarter, but the break happened in the fourth quarter. A 15-player injury list is sizeable. On the AFL's website (which is not up to date), St Kilda has 14 players listed but most other clubs are 10-12, and some are much less (e.g. Brisbane has three). More importantly, of the 15, 8 are first choice 22 (Lewis, Lever, Melksham, Hannan, May, Hibberd, AVB, Jetta) and a further 4 (Weideman, JKH, J Smith, KK) who are on the fringe, if not actually best 22. It's tough going for us on this front at the moment.

Haven't seen anything other than the last two minutes. But I know that we had three injuries, including to Melksham who appears to have been one of our better players in the first half. And I know that GC are a better side than in 2018 (seems many don't realise that). And I know that GC haven't been involved in a high-quality football match all year, bringing most of their opponents down to their level (I think only Adelaide has looked strong against them, even West Coast at home last week struggled to get out of second gear). And from the sweat levels I saw on the players in the final two minutes, I wouldn't be surprised if humidity/dew played a role in the fumbling. And the tackle stats, particularly tackles inside 50, were at an elite level. And then on Sunday they side we beat last week dominated GWS. I'll take the win in those circumstances. Let's see if we can build on this.

Really surprised that ANB got dropped. I suppose it's a positional/rotational thing, maybe Petracca/Melksham will play more minutes in the forward line to compensate and Viney takes their midfield minutes, but I thought ANB's running and pressure were good last week and that's what we want from him. Viney has declared himself fit multiple times in the past and proved on game day to have been wrong. I hope this time he's got the call right.

Interesting stuff. Roos' explanation in the linked article for why the stat is important makes sense and ties into our form - we're probably still doing very well with CPs in the clearances, but we all feel like too often we lose one-on-ones at either end of the ground and rarely win those 50/50 contests outside of stoppages.

Yes but you were an advocate for getting rid of Hogan. You're appalling. Where did the club do this?

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-05-07/injury-update-preuss-a-test-to-return- Promising news for Lever and Hannan. May's position seems unclear. J Smith going nowhere, unfortunately.

I can't stand Barrett but I'm closer to his opinion than the opposite. If it had been Joel Smith having the beer, not May, this story and thread wouldn't exist.

Keilty was OK, nothing special. Happy for him to get another game as I'd prefer us to give new players more than just one game before sending them back to Casey, but if Preuss or Weideman need to come back in then Keilty's had his taste and knows what's required. Other than that one potential change I don't think we'll see any others. Surely Viney needs more than one week with his history of injuries and we have a six-day break into a second consecutive road trip after this week, so I don't want to see half-baked players running around on the GC and then trying to back that up in Perth.

In Hore's case, might be a good reminder not to write players off after one or two games, @dazzledavey36? Hore's kicking needs work but he reads the play as well as any defender at our club since Jared Rivers. He looks to me to understand defending really well.

Disgraceful attitude. Men in this country think punching is OK. If the Melbourne supporter couldn't deal with someone (whether disabled or not) knocking his beer out of his hand without resorting to violence, he's an embodiment of a cultural problem we have. If your response is "who cares", you're not helping.

At the time I thought the umpire might have called him to play on before his 30 had expired, arguing he and Lockhart were wasting time. The umpire would have been right to do that I reckon, I’m not sure you can take the 30 then kick sideways and expect to say “oh no this time I’m actually going to take the shot”. Well if you also say things like Harmes was terrible yesterday because of his two 50s then don’t be surprised if people don’t listen to you.

That was mainly Oscar’s fault. Just waited for the ball to come to him, allowed O’Brien to cut it off.

6 - Harmes 5 - Salem 4 - Gawn 3 - Oliver 2 - Hunt 1 - Lockhart

Much stronger performance in many ways. Their accuracy in the second half is the only reason they stayed in it (plus some bad 50m penalties - the second one to Harmes shouldn't have been paid IMO but if that was 50 then they missed one on ANB late in the third, plus there were two in the fourth that should have been paid to us). We've definitely relaxed the forward press and we're better for it. We kept defenders deeper, playing a sweeper like Richmond did last week. We also kept forwards deeper in our forward line (@Clint Bizkit would have liked that I reckon) and had someone to aim at. As a result, we defended the ground so much better. We weren't getting cut up on the switch and we didn't have as many bursts out the back of our zone. Harmes was incredible, the two 50s notwithstanding. O'Meara was dominant early but he took him out of the game, got 31 of his own and kicked an important goal. Gawn played much better (despite a few bad errors), Oliver's defensive running was notable, and TMac worked his way into a bit of form. Hore does so much right, he just needs to improve his kicking. Lockhart has talent too - a really good runner and not as fumbly as previously. Still plenty to work on but we were clearly the better side after half time and hopefully can develop some confidence from this.

I agree with @Moonshadow - I expect to see the Hawks switching across half-back, opening up the fat side of the ground, and trying to move the ball down the wings with pace. Three things I really want to see today (other than a win of course) - the forward press not being as high (which we saw steps towards vs Richmond), some marks inside 50 (or at least contests which bring the ball to ground), and more forward pressure from the mid/small forwards (Garlett, Hunt, Melksham, Petracca).

I only liked Dunn once he left the club. We might have been crap during most of his time here, and he didn't choose to be drafted by us, but he spent much of his time here playing selfish football. Maybe he's learnt how to drop that part of his game by moving to Collingwood, and if so then credit to him. Some players just need a different environment to get the best out of themselves.

I reckon the nadir was vs St Kilda. I saw some improvement in key structural areas vs Richmond. Still, point taken, we can only afford to improve from here or we're in dire straits.

There is an almighty level of rubbish in this thread (@Skuit's post is not part of that).

Agree. I'm hopeful we're just using Tom in the backline to get him more involved in the play and to fill a need until either Oscar changes his form around at the VFL or we get May/Lever back. We won't go anywhere without Tom as an in-form leading/marking key forward so we simply have to get him back there at some point soon. Smith's a limited footballer who might work as a third tall in place of Hannan but isn't skilled enough to be a second tall. Preuss is a nice bit of fun down there but as a number one target without Tom or Weideman, I can't see him doing anywhere near enough. We're playing our depth. Kolodjashnij, J Smith, vandenBerg, Hannan, Lever, Jetta, May and now Viney are all forced outs and all (except maybe Kolodjashnij are best 22). That puts 6-7 players into the side who ordinarily wouldn't be there.

Essendon hasn't won a final since 2004. Why not both? Within Richmond's 98,000 members there will be their solid core of, say, 50,000 that they would get if they won the spoon. Adding onto the top helps cashflow, no matter what membership level they're buying, and outwardly sells a message of positivity to fans and sponsors. But I agree with you that we need to ensure we have a core who show up to games. Hawthorn has 70,000 members but regularly draws terrible crowds. The regular attendances are equally important to whatever revenue we can get from pushing our total membership count upwards.

What's that got to do with our gameplan, fitness, kicking or marking?

Wow this thread is incredible. What the actual f**k. Do you have any idea about shoulders, medicine, or surgery? We should just send players in for surgery because it sounds like a good idea? I don't put a huge amount of stock into what Tom Browne says but his use of the phrase "avoided surgery" surely means something along the lines of "there's no need for surgery to this injury". It's like if he rolled his ankle. A minor sprain doesn't need surgery, but damaged ligaments/bones might. If he had just a minor sprain, you'd be advocating to just chuck him under the knife for no reason? I often don't find myself agreeing with you, TGR, but on this I do. I have no idea what poita and At the break of Gawn are on about. He copped a hospital handpass, Stack was able to line him up, and Viney had no option but to wear it. What I can't stand about Demonland is when people have ample material to constructively criticise someone but take something completely innocent and rant about that instead. If you're unhappy with Viney, let's talk about his poor kicking or his too frequent tendency to try to take a tackler on only to get caught, instead of this hit.

Someone's got to do it.