titan_uranus

If Smith was surplus to our defensive needs this week then no point playing him next week, so I expect him to be dropped. Not sure who gets his spot, but I think a running player over a tall.

Positives and negatives to take from that. We absolutely dominated them for 95% of the game. We were clinical through the middle, we out-ran them, our press held up, and we clearly tried (although didn't always succeed) to lower our eyes going inside. Oliver was outstanding, Brayshaw great, Petracca improved, and both Stretch and Garlett were welcome additions (Stretch in particular, his side steps were excellent). And our percentage jumped nearly 3%. On the other hand, too many of the same problems were still there. We still press so high that our opponents score too easily in the space out the back. We still don't convert enough of our inside 50 dominance (+50 inside 50s should be a 154 point win, not a 54 point win). We still commit horrendous turnovers (Jetta to Mundy in the first quarter). Good to get the win and the percentage boost, and I think most of our selections worked out for the better, but clearly still plenty to work on. Did you watch the game Moonshadow, or are you just going from the stats? Fremantle's plan was to congest our forward line. There just wasn't room to move. It wasn't like we had oodles of space and Garlett wasn't able or willing to use it. He had little room to move. He ran, chased, tackled and pressured more than he was before he was dropped and certainly more than our forward line was doing the past three weeks. And he gave us another dimension to the forward line.

Agree that the AFL needs to be concerned with millennials and its younger fans in general, but not necessarily to the exclusion of all other demographics. I'm seeing equal proportions of older fans disengaging from the sport due to it not representing what they remember the sport looking like in the 70s, 80s and/or 90s. In fact, being a millennial myself, I have no problem with the state of the game currently and, moreover, I'm confident that the sport will right some of the less appealing modern traits (congestion, scrums) without the need for rule changes. As to the neutrals point, agree. But how does that tie into ratings? Neutrals are likely to only watch prime time games. The current trend in scheduling prime time games is to favour certain clubs over others and to preference big clubs over ideal match ups. We've had too many flops on Friday nights this year and so many of them were avoidable. We shouldn't be seeing Carlton or St Kilda next year and we should instead see more of us (provided we don't continue to fall into a giant hole), Port Adelaide, North Melbourne, GWS, Collingwood (yes, Collingwood) and other sides who showed in 2018 that they are capable of playing watchable football and winning games.

It's pretty much a lose-lose game. If we win, we'll either struggle (fail), or it'll be a ho-hum performance (fail), or we'll smash them, in which case it will be either "where was that last week" or "flat track bullies/pretenders" again.

I think 5 with our percentage should be enough. Still, for us to get those 5 requires us to beat at least two of Geelong (away), Adelaide (away), West Coast (away), Sydney and GWS. And that assumes we beat Fremantle and the Dogs in the next two weeks. Drop either of those and we have to find a third win from the five games above.

Geelong losing to the Dogs but then beating the Swans on a 6 day break is so...Geelong.

That was an absolute shocker. The protected zone 50 rule really needs to be overhauled/removed.

Daisy Pearce is hands down the best thing about this coverage. She actually does her job as a boundary rider by informing us of players coming off injured (idiots like Ling, Richardson and Watson just tell us what we've already seen). She also provides good insight and asks good questions in interviews. Agreed. Other than in games against us, of course, we need Richmond, Sydney, West Coast, Port and (vomit) Collingwood to win as many games as possible, taking wins off our rivals for the final three spots in the 8. Also need some more upsets from the bottom 6. Brisbane getting an upset win over Adelaide or North at home, or Fremantle beating Hawthorn at home, would be useful.

How is that our best case scenario? If we make it from here (and I'm with you that it's looking unlikely), we're almost certainly going to have to beat Geelong in Geelong, Adelaide in Adelaide, West Coast in Perth or Sydney. Get a win (or two) out of those in our run home and our form would have to be alright.

You opened yourself up for this. This was you after we beat Gold Coast in Alice Springs last year:

People lament a lot more than just his goal-kicking accuracy. He's hesitant with the ball, he makes critical mistakes, so when you add that inaccuracy in, you have a small forward who blows up our scoring chains either by turning it over or missing. I will say though that his strengths are in running, tackling and pressure, so if we continue to struggle with the defensive side of things then I wouldn't be surprised to see him get another chance soon. I'm not a fan of Frost, nor of Stretch. Frost will turn it over or get caught holding the ball, and Stretch may well struggle with the contested side of the game. But I'm content to accept that those things will happen and back them in to fix us up in areas we know we need to be fixed in (run, carry, pace). Agree re: Tyson - he plays as an inside midfielder playing a high proportion of his game time in the middle four, or he doesn't play at all.

Because they have to say something! We've been over this. The coaches and the players do not have a choice, they are required to speak to the media. Your ideal for "nothing or next to nothing" is unachievable. It cannot, and therefore will never, happen. So instead of complaining that it's "all talk" every time Goodwin or a player makes a comment, let's accept that they have no choice but to do it and get back to discussing our form and the side.

Good selections IMO. Obviously looked to add pace and running and made the right calls on Hannan, Petty and Tyson. I'd be surprised if Frost plays forward; if he does that will be four consecutive changes in four weeks (Pedersen, T Smith, Weideman, Frost) in that third tall/second ruck spot. Chopping and changing that spot as much as we are isn't going to help the forward line much I don't think. Stretch hasn't played a good AFL game in a long time. FIngers crossed with his recent VFL form that this is his chance. I question how easy it is for a small forward to dominate at VFL level. Regardless, he had 7 tackles last week and his defensive pressure was the reason he was dropped in the first place. Surely it will be Frost (if he's actually playing forward) or TMac otherwise? Agree that we need to learn to lower our eyes and have more purpose to our inside 50 kick, but having small forwards should, if we play well, spread the forward line out and not have 4 players leaping at the same ball, which might help indirectly (not to mention some crumbing from the less effective kicks inside to help us score anyway). We'll find something.

Here we go again, just like the thread about Lewis on AFL360. Every time some posts "I'm sick of all the talk" or "you don't see words on the scoreboard", I want to punch the computer screen. People post as if the coaches and players have a choice and call the press conference themselves, like they're inviting the media to their house or something. It's almost the complete opposite. They're speaking because they are required to.

No doubt about that. The stats are doing a good job of showing the pros and cons of the style Goodwin has us playing - when we are on, we score heavily and the ball hardly goes into our opponent's forward 50. But when we're off, teams use the space we deliberately leave out the back to their advantage and find it too easy to score when they do get it inside their 50. When we think about how to improve our defence overall, the debate has to be much broader than simply looking at the back six.

That's not an answer. Covering ground is one thing, and ANB absolutely excels at it. Having an impact wherever you go, though, is another. Right now, ANB's getting all over the ground but having little impact doing it. He's been picked all year on the back of his running and we get that from him every week, but to be a better side we can't carry players who can only do one or two things well. We need ANB to offer us more than just gut running.

Presumably our inside 50 count against is much lower than 2017 too, @Skuit?

FFS. What exactly do you expect of him? He was asked the question, he answered it, and thankfully enough he answered it honestly. Do you think anyone in the club genuinely believes that by saying things, they happen, without having to actually do something about it?

We should 100% be getting out of Darwin, even if it means a home game at Etihad. The Etihad home game thing will disappear eventually, either when the current contractual requirement for a minimum number of games there ends, or when the interstate clubs pressure the AFL into getting more games at the G given the GF deal that's been done.

Genuine question: why? How is he impacting games at the moment? When was the last time he played well in a game we lost or didn't win by a massive margin?

I know you think it would be some sort of important statement but not only is there no chance at all that we will trade our captain, it would also be a shocking move. Trading out one of the few players who bleeds for this club, with the positive media he brings (look at how the media/public reacted to his 250th), would break both the players' spirits and create unnecessary tension, pressure and negativity around the club. We can, and should, internally challenge Jones to improve his game. Some have suggested a move to the half-back flank and that might be the right call. But trading him is just complete nonsense. I agree with the bolded line, but my concern is that we're not willing and/or not able to fix the problem. It's been evident since the start of last year but in particular manifested grossly against Geelong in Round 1. 14 weeks later and we haven't made any improvements in that area. Good post. I think a small example of the problem you've identified is the continued sight we see of too many Melbourne players going to the ball carrier and opposition players sitting off the contest waiting for the handball receive. I think if we encourage the players to be slightly less concerned with getting to the ball carrier and tackling, and more concerned with watching running patterns through our zone, we'll slow down the transition against us. The other thing we need to do is work on improving how we move the ball going forward. We're A-grade at getting the ball but at the moment the way we're trying to move it from the middle to the goals is pretty poor. IMO it starts with how we set up forward of the ball. I think all 5-6 of our forwards start at bounces too high up the ground, meaning our kicks routinely are to their heads or to a pack, and there's no one leading up at the kicker. We have Hogan and TMac in our side, two forwards who excel at leading up and taking contested marks. I'd like to see us start at the centre bounce with one of them in the goal square. If we win the clearance, and we need a quick release kick inside, one of them is then able to lead up to the ball. We also need to continue to work on our mids/half-forwards lowering their eyes, and I think we need one or two small forwards to put extra pressure on the opposition when they are trying to run through our zone coming out.

Or worse, the dreaded “apologist”. Good post. Definitely agree with point 2. As to point 1, I would have disagreed pre-Queen’s Birthday. In the 6 wins we looked good with Hogan and TMac running riot in the fowars line and up the ground, with a third tall taking the ruck duties off them. However, as we continue to struggle with our inside 50s and forward pressure, I think we have to bite the bullet and go smaller, and use TMac as the second ruck. Have to agree with point 3 - Frost isn’t very good but Petty is clearly worse. As to 4, I wouldn’t be rushing Vince back. But Lewis’ disposal is getting worse and without good kicking, his value plummets towards zero. It’s a problem, that’s for sure.

Rubbish. The interstate sides play here no more than twice per year. We played at the Gabba twice per year but that doesn't give us familiarity or negate the fact that it's an away ground. Richmond are showing that the G can provide a side with a proper home ground advantage. The crowd today was 70-30 in our favour. We can, and should, have an advantage in playing 10+ games at the G per year, with only Richmond, Collingwood and maybe Hawthorn playing that many. Geelong, Carlton, Essendon play 5-7, the rest play 2.

Harmes certainly improved late, but is generally part of the problem. Spends too long failing to impact games when we're losing. Agree with Tyson, he has to go.

GWS just jumped 4 spots on the ladder (passing us, Geelong, North and Hawthorn). Essendon and Adelaide in 11th and 12th are only one win out of the 8 (and only one win behind us). This is an incredibly even season and our losses to Geelong, Port and St Kilda will cost us our finals spot.