titan_uranus

Lewis was probably our worst today. So many critical errors at critical times. But Jones was terrible, Gawn played his worst game for the year, Oliver was poor and possibly also played his worst game for the year, TMac was unsighted. Both Lewis and Jones are coming to the end and it's going to be interesting to see what we do with them in 2019.

Eagles, Chargers, Giants

There's a moment in the first quarter where Scott Selwood leads into someone's hip with his head, (rightly) doesn't get a free, then stops and looks at the umpire whilst the play carries on around him. He's worse than Joel. Absolute [censored].

What a night. Our pressure was as god as any side's has been all year. We were tackling hard and they knew it, some of their players were just avoiding contact all night (see, e.g., Ablett). The second quarter felt like the Port Adelaide or Sydney game again, wasting opportunities and then seeing our opponent take it down the other end and kick a goal. But we held them at bay largely, including through the third when they lifted, and we put them away in the fourth. Goodwin mentioned the belief we gained from the West Coast win, and I'm sure that includes how we fought back after they took the lead. I reckon the days of us not believing in ourselves are firmly disappearing. I thought Harmes was incredible last night. His development this year has been as important to our improvement as any other factor, IMO. He does defensive jobs but burns his opponent the other way. Weideman is going to be a star for this club. I didn't think we'd see that sort of performance from him this soon, but he clearly now belongs. His tackle on Dangerfield was delicious. Frost did well on Hawkins IMO. Hawkins got into it when we allowed him to lead up into space. His two marks in the third were both a failure by the defence to plug the hole in front of him. I've seen a few posts about VDB. At the game I thought he was our worst by a mile. Yes, he tackled a lot, but so did pretty much every other player and I thought he made more mistakes than anyone else. Might have just been me though. And finally, I've been to plenty of games with big crowds but whenever Melbourne is involved, we're usually dwarfed by Collingwood/Richmond/Essendon supporters. But to be at a 91,000+ crowd where 80% of us were Melbourne supporters was surreal.

I'll try to join this year - I regularly miss a week or two early and then fall behind/drop out, but I'll try to keep up this time! Titans, Steelers, Rams

Bit of debate in here about whether the top 6 or bottom 6 matter more. Across the home and away season, I think the bottom 6 are as important as anyone else. Teams who fall away and have a weak bottom 6 I think struggle to win enough games through 22 rounds. But when it comes to finals, I think the top 6 become more important. In one game, where everything is on the line, the teams with absolute stardom at the top tend to shine through. As for our bottom 6, assuming Hannan and Viney replace Tyson and Kent, I'd consider them to include JKH, Spargo, Weideman, Hannan, VDB and Frost. These are our fringe players, the ones who have been in and out of the side (VDB due to injury of course, and Spargo's been more in than out). They're good, and can be match-winning (e.g. Hannan vs West Coast, Frost vs GWS), and I think they stand up with most other sides' bottom 6. But there's always room for improvement and in players like JKH and Spargo, plenty of room.

We do this plenty. We usually kick it up and under, though, which isn't smart.

Should get 7. That way, even if West Coast play four finals, he can't get back this year.

He's looking straight at him before he does it. Spare me.

Who'd have thought one of the game's biggest on-field fl0gs would be a [censored] off the field too.

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.

The final against Fremantle in 2006 was played on a Friday night. Other than that, you're right, we haven't played an interstate Friday night game since that 2003 game.

I’d agree with the OP if the subject was Vince. Lewis is providing far more right now than Vince. Maybe that says more about Vince than Lewis.

@Demonland, @Nasher - help? This thread deserves an update!

Win this week and we’ll have won 5 in a row for the first time since 2006 (rounds 10-15).

Happy bump.

Quite an incredible thing to have happened. The team has had a "win at all costs" attitude for a while now and something bad (not necessarily this bad, though) was always going to happen. Possibly the most galling part about all this is Smith's reaction. He seemed to think that by fronting up to the media and apologising, that would make it all better. I suspect he genuinely thought at that press conference that it was something he could push behind him and people would forget about, hence his comment about not standing down (and the way he said it). Smith's career is over, I can't see how he can come back from this - will anyone look at him the same, captain or not, again? Warner breeds the "win at all costs" mentality and isn't any help to the side. Lyon, i think, is the same. CA needs to properly work out who was involved. Any player who was involved should be stood down and, possibly, sacked/never selected again. Lehmann should resign before he gets sacked (if he knew, then he knew. If he didn't know, he should have). For the fourth Test, Smith, Bancroft and Warner mustn't play, nor should Starc, Hazlewood or Lyon unless it can be determined they had no role to play. Fly over replacements, put up a competitive and legal fight, then once it is all over a proper assessment needs to take place. New captain, new coach, new leadership model.

Neither OMac nor Frost showed enough this year for any of us to be 100% convinced. I'm much more positive about OMac than, say, STMJ, but I still accept that he isn't anything certain. Bringing Lever in will likely make his job much, much easier. It also allows us to do one, and maybe both, of two things: play TMac forward (his best football in 2017 was, in my view undoubtedly, as a forward); and release Hibberd, who spent too much time this year being forced to play as the third tall. Until a quality midfielder becomes available, this is a nothing argument. There isn't currently a midfielder available who promises what Lever promises. Besides which, I think if we bring Lever in and can release Hibberd further up the ground that will assist with part of our current midfield problem. That said, I don't believe Lever is worth two first round draft picks. I think Adelaide is posturing, and fair enough too, but if that becomes the true asking price I wouldn't pay it.

I feel like this thread has reached the point where people don't want Lever because STMJ wants him.

Watching him closely tonight. Playing really, really well so far. Exciting.

This is the most interesting post on this thread.

Regardless of what you think of Lever (he's one of the competition's genuine stars) and of OMac (he's far, far better than STMJ claims and he's much improved on last year), if Lever wants to play for us then, provided we don't jeopardise our ability to retain our core talent over the next 5 years, we do that deal.

We're also +3 in the W-L record for the first time since 2006. We won 6 in a row in 2006. We won 7 in a row in 2000 (and 1998) if you include the two finals wins. Otherwise, we last won 7 home and away games in a row in 1990 (ended up 8 in a row with the first final win). I've just looked through this. Jones debuted in Round 17, 2006. He's missed 6 games since then, including last night. We'd lost them all until last night. That means until last night we hadn't won a game without Nathan Jones playing since before he debuted (which was Round 15, 2006 (we beat Richmond on a Friday night).

Yep. Snaps a 9-game losing streak vs West Coast, a 9-game losing streak vs West Coast at Domain, and a 17-game losing streak at Domain in general.

We won three in a row last year - Gold Coast, Hawthorn, Port Adelaide. That was clearly too much for us as we then proceeded to lose to Carlton.