titan_uranus

He doesn't deserve to get suspended. It wasn't a strike, it was nothing more than a clumsy block. No real impact, Rance was stunned for, what, 30 seconds? However, even at the lowest possible points (negligent, high contact, low impact), his carry over points will force him to miss a week, and knowing the MRP, he'll get something. If it's two I'll be livid.

Also loved Vince's fourth quarter goal (brought the house down) and Viney's third quarter goal (sidestepping Astbury as if he was a witches hat).

Agreed. Martin, and Cotchin in the fourth, aside, none of their players seemed able to get into space or to break clear. Which is another point - we're spreading a lot more than we used to. It's still not perfect, but we have more players willing to push themselves to clear out when we have the ball. Richmond couldn't, or wouldn't, do that.

Was being held at many contests and/or pushed in the back as well.

I can't remember the last time we had a young midfielder who combines talent with hardness, smarts and composure. I don't ever worry when he has the ball.

More disgusting umpiring today. The holding the ball call on Salem (or Toumpas maybe, can't remember) on the flank where he had no prior and was clearly trying to handpass it was as bad a call as I have ever seen.

Good call on McDonald. He's still got a lot of problems offensively, but I thought he beat Riewoldt today one on one. Our work ethic is now translating into statistical wins - the clearances were one example of that. We hit the contests so much harder (Richmond have some real softc*cks, I tell you what. Morris - wow).

His intensity is well up, but he's also now being smarter at the contest, using his body to his advantage and then using his athleticism to destroy anyone else his height. It's coming together now, and he's beginning to impact games regularly. His improvement is huge for us.

6 - N Jones 5 - Vince 4 - Viney 3 - Tyson 2 - Watts 1 - Howe

Oh yes. Beating Richmond. The best. Tyson, Viney, Vince, N Jones all fantastic through the middle, Howe played the best game probably of his career across half-back, Jamar and Gawn in the ruck obliterated Hampson and Vickery (spudtastic though they may be). And then there's Pedersen, who is surely odds on for most improved this year, and Watts, who is now beginning to string some consistency together. Much more intensity and using his body a lot more.

The games against Richmond, Collingwood, Essendon and North (plus the later games against North and West Coast) stand out for me. Whilst I don't want to see big 100 point beltings, I'm not going to be too fussed if we're soundly beaten by Hawthorn, Geelong, Fremantle or Port Adelaide. They're all a lot better than us. But those other clubs I mentioned (maybe being harsh on Collingwood here) are more middle of the road style sides, and we should be able to hang with them for most of the game.

If we can generate as many inside 50s as we did last week, I think we'll be well on our way to victory. Richmond's backline is weak, weaker even than the Dogs', and with Gawn and hopefully Dunn up there today we might do a better job of helping Dawes and getting some more shots. At the other end, with Grimes and hopefully Pedersen down there, and Garland being better for his run last week, I'm confident we'll put in a better defensive effort than last week. McDonald has a big job on Riewoldt but if the six of them work together like they did in Adelaide, we can team up on their forwards and cut off their scores.

'As Adelaide learnt the heard way, you can't just rock up against Melbourne anymore. They're an awkward opponent with the capacity to frustrate and a willingness to persist that bridges the talent differential' That's a pretty decent description, I reckon, and one that Roos and the side would, you'd think, be happy with.

There's a thread on BigFooty about his identity. Someone's gone through the facts he's provided through his articles and you can rule out a bunch of clubs, Melbourne being one of them (he says his club's tide's turned and they're now a regularly winning side). Someone has suggested Kane Cornes, who seems to fit all the 'clues'.

I'm hoping that Riley in the middle helps us push Grimes into the backline again. If that means Riley tags, then so be it. I'd rather that than Grimes tagging again.

I think his role is threefold. One is to provide another tall forward target (a lot more important with Frawley out). Another is to assist Jamar in the ruck (Pedersen's done a fantastic job of that of late, but that can't be our long term plan I don't think). A third is a byproduct of the second, which is to free up Pedersen to play in defence, to ensure we don't have to use Dunn as a key defender again.

I've done a Gob Bluth here - I was talking about Tapscott. Saw the reference to Tapscott at the end and misread the earlier reference to Terlich, who right now is definitely starting 18.

I'm sure too that there are plenty of stats we don't see in the papers, drilled down versions of things. There is no stat, though, that says Blease should be getting a game right now.

Agreed. I was thinking that Georgiou might be recalled to bolster the defence but Gawn forward means we can now play Pedersen back, which solves that problem.

I agree, you can't just cut everyone. The list is 44, not 22. That in mind, I still don't think Tapscott has done enough to warrant being anywhere other than in the firing line when it comes to delistings this year.

I may have gone early on Byrnes, probably should be in the latter category, but I feel confident in Kent taking his spot and I also feel confident in not needing him to play that role next year. But you're right, probably ahead of the others. Starting 18? Based on what? Right now, putting his injury to one side, he's not best 18, or best 22. And I'm not sure he's shown enough to warrant the faith you're putting in him.

Tapscott, Blease, Strauss, Byrnes, Nicholson - players who are right now as certain as you can be at round 8 to go. They need huge changes in their fortunes IMO, and I don't see it happening for any of them. Spencer, Barry, Terlich - aren't as certain right now, but I'm not convinced yet. Barry is the kind of player who could be re-rookied, given he seems to have been something of a project player. Of course, we can't delist everyone, so not all these players are going to go. Hopefully some of them surprise us all in the months to come, too.

On Grimes, I thought his defensive job was great. Griffen did nothing offensively. However, in doing this job we suffered two significant negatives which outweighed the positive. The first negative was not having Grimes in the backline. We lost one of our best players from the Adelaide game. We lacked his presence in defence. The second negative was having Grimes in the middle. We all know he's not a midfielder. Whilst Griffen gave them nothing offensively, Grimes also gave us nothing, and our depth is worse than every other side's. We can't afford to carry midfielders who do nothing but tag (McKenzie being exhibit A). Has to return to half-back for mine. I hope you reflect on this post at some point. If nothing else, to understand why people find some of your posts abysmal. I really do not like this bit. We've had this debate on here already, so no need to have it again, but I don't like the drafting-oriented thought process that we have at Melbourne and I'd much rather we acknowledge what you said at the end regarding wins building culture. That must now trump drafting the next big thing. We're not going to end up much higher than about 12th anyway, and that's being ridiculously optimistic given our draw. We should be hoping to win every game we can from here. If that means pick 10 instead of 2, then so be it. We'll do fine with pick 10.

No, we had this game. We lost it, rather than the Bulldogs winning it. This was our game to win, but we're Melbourne, and we can't just pretend that 2008-2013 didn't happen. We'll get there, but I fear this won't be the last time we have a game and don't win it.

Great to see Toumpas getting involved with the tackling. Needed to lift in that area. Obviously one game isn't definitive of anything, but it's at least a start. Same for Blease. One game of getting involved isn't much to write home about, but it could be the spark that he needs to get some confidence back. If he can get some consistent form going at Casey, he'll get his shot in the back half of the year.