titan_uranus

1 hour ago, Dee Zephyr said:

Mentioned on radio a short while ago TDK came into the game with a virus.

Not sure how true that is, but poor guy might’ve caught one after the game with all that chasing.

37 minutes ago, Mickey said:

Does anyone know why the changed races? And someone mentioned they may have changed benches too? Is it just an 'everything new' thing or something else?

Seems to have been suggested that the new race is bigger with more screens to give us more “vibe” running onto the ground.

I hated it, as I prefer to see us emerge from within the MCC heartland, but the X post dazzle quoted gives a better justification for it - change the rooms, leave the old Melbourne behind, including our old rooms.

22 minutes ago, Little Goffy said:

I suspect I'm not the only one who has watched that goal a couple of times. What I've loved on close inspection is how deliberate it was. Not a simple case of 'I go fast, I go sideways too, watch me go!' but a genuine anticipation of what the defenders were going to do, and a dash into space that actually didn't exist until the defenders kept going to where Latrelle suddenly wasn't.

This is the sort of thing that tells me he can be damaging at AFL level once he adjusts to the pace and gets fitter (which admittedly are 1-3 years off).

At the moment he's too slight and likely aerobically won't be able to hold his spot in the side for long periods at a time, but the way he finds space, and uses it, is a stand out (except yesterday when Koz was leading into the goal square and he got caught in two minds as to whether to kick it, which he should have, or pass it to Koz).

I'm very optimistic about Steele, as I think he is going to be one of the recruits of the year across the league, simply because he fills a gaping hole in our midfield.

He shouldered a huge load yesterday and, with no Viney, is going to have to keep doing that until we get more midfield experience into the likes of Langford and Rivers.

If he just plays that role every week, we win, and win big, from the trade to bring him in.

56 minutes ago, Fat Tony said:

I thought our team selection was good.

The decision to play with Petty as the second ruck gave us an extra runner and Max's amazing effort in the last quarter won us the game.

Apart from JVR, I thought our better players had mixed games. Kossie was great in the centre bounce but fairly well held around the ground. Max fumbled a bit early on. Lever made poor decisions.

I am still not sold on Rivers in the midfield long term. He is a weapon off half back and just average in the midfield.

Lindsay is not a great defender but Bowey is still months off returning, so we will need to persever.

I thought CJ was pretty good. Not sure why he is geeting criticism.

JVR looked fantastic being 4kg lighter. He is a fantastic set shot and just needs to keep holding his marks.

Culley playing as a forward was a good move.

Good start for Latrelle. I think he is going to be in and out of the side this year and he is probably not in our best side, but he showed enough signs and kicked a great goal. Good effort to go from SANFL seconds to the AFL.

Langford had a quiet day. We need to feed his left foot more.

Mihocek looks the same as he did at the Pies.

The fact that we had a number of players who were down is a positive IMO. 120 points with Koz kicking 1 goal, for example. Personally I think Lever was fine and nowhere near as bad as he’s copping on here, other than the two awful kick turnovers (he has to learn to stop trying those kicks, he routinely misses them).

Agree re Latrelle. How many times did he find himself in space and with the ability to impact? He was behind the pace of AFL level, and not fit or strong enough, but the sign is there IMO that he can be damaging once he adjusts.

2 hours ago, Tarax Club said:

Steven spoke very well at the press conference. Described the game as 'less than perfect' but praised the team resilience and desire to win. After the sales pitch since taking the reins he was obviously gratified with the team performance.

Interestingly he mentioned the AFL hoodoo word 'equity' and the potential advantages, teams may have playing the opening round or coming of fresh off byes. Hallelujah 'learnings' was not spoken of, even as a a rapidly, receding faintest of echoes.

When he was talking about the unfairness of playing a side coming off Opening Round, he also noted that in the next few weeks we have consecutive games against sides coming off a bye (Round 3 vs Carlton, then Round 4 vs Gold Coast).

This sort of stuff is fixable - the easiest way of course is to remove the byes by removing Opening Round altogether and having everyone start on the same weekend, in Round 1. Just have the four northern clubs get home games in prime time slots.

2 hours ago, Nasher said:

Not just Petty relief rucking - Petty relief rucking from a key defensive post. Conventional wisdom said that’s impossible and the second ruck must be a forward.

I’ve always wondered why nobody ever did that, but as a footy fan I’m pretty good at gaslighting myself in to believing that if it were possible, coaches who live, eat and breathe footy would give it a crack.

I'd always thought there was logic behind having a key defender follow an opponent's key forward up into the ruck.

It's clearly an option for us now with Petty.

1 hour ago, Fromgotowoewodin said:

Didn’t realise until watching the kayo mini but Latrelle’s goal came from the Kolt running off the $2m forward pocket, one of his 8 score involvements and probably about 45 of his 359m gained.. cracking game.

The members didn't miss this.

Great atmosphere today in the members, actually. Loud, vocal, got stuck into NWM and TDK when they stuffed up. Good stuff.

Honestly, I'd rather pay Clarry $700k to play for someone else than pay TDK $1.8M to drop chest marks for my club...

9 (non ruck) players had CBAs today.

Surely that's an increase on our average under Goodwin?

IMO the only change we should be considering is getting in another tall, which by virtue of injuries has to be Heath, to help Gawn combat Darcy/Jackson, and/or to avoid Petty having to ruck when we have to cover Treacy, Voss and Amiss.

Obviously will disrupt our balance but there's a chance we went the extra runner today because Marshall was out and we wanted to up our run as they'd played last week. We went into the Richmond game with Kentfield in the side so our plan may well have always been to have another tall.

2 hours ago, seventyfour said:

Ask any Hawthorn supporter and they'll tell you that Jiath is a lemon. He was very poor today, ran around defending ghosts and did nothing to hurt the Saints offensively.

I'd be happy to go with no change but I would prefer McDonald.

325 metres gained plus 10 defensive half pressure acts (third behind Petty and Turner).

He was gassed late but was far, far better than this.

2 hours ago, DeeSpencer said:

We’ll stick with Jake. But geez he has to stop making so many disposal mistakes and he had probably 5 more chances to mark and 5 more chances to punch in contests where he did neither.

I suspect we stick with CJ too. It’s a new zone that will take even our smarter defenders time to sort out.

I actually think our problems were more with midfield transition, midfield defensive pressure and despite the improvements still a heap of room with forward cohesion/ball movement.

Kolt tagging took CBA’s from Sparrow who’s been our best defensive mid.

Culley played the second half as the 3rd tall forward tagging Wilkie.

Culley, Langford, Sparrow, Rivers all looked a step off the pace. As did Sharp before his crazy last quarter.

There’s a reasonable argument to just play Melk as the 3rd tall forward given that’s what he does best then trimming a spare mid. Although I’m not sure we do that off a win.

Those players looking "a step off the pace" weren't all that bad though, but regardless, how much was that caused by St Kilda having played last week?

2 minutes ago, stinga said:

A great win

Not negatives but some things to consider

Tholstrup staying with W/M when he went forward unbalanced the defence. Lever had to play deep instead of high and found himself many times on small forwards.

Lindsay is a much better player when he is up the ground, and is not suited to a more defensive role.

Would have liked to see Langford swap roles with Culley forward in play, as it would cause opposition defence problems with trying to choose who to pick up.

Sparrow had 72% TOG but I couldn't work out what role he was playing. He wasn't deep forward, wasn't used at centre bounces and wasn't close checking anyone. Wasn't playing a linking player role. Maybe it was just one of those days, but I hope he gets a specific job to do.

I think we may be stuck with Lindsay in the backline until Bowey's fit, or AMW is ready for senior football.

Sparrow went to a few centre bounces but agree, still don't really feel like he's a true midfielder.

6 - Gawn

5 - JVR

4 - Steele

3 - Windsor

2 - Petty

1 - Tholstrup

Such a great win.

Yes, there are clearly weaknesses. But the bravery to stand up and defend in the fourth when we were clearly gassed was remarkable.

So much to like about how we move the ball.

King had a brilliant day - Tholstrup tagging, tick. Petty relief rucking, tick. Sharp held back to be relatively fresh late, tick.

30 scoring shots with Koz well held is a great sign.

We will get belted some weeks, but to all those who thought we were going to be pox this year, drop the pessimism and get around us. Buy a membership. Get to the games. Invest in this season. It is exciting.

5 hours ago, dazzledavey36 said:

What is the song that the players are running out too?

Highway to Hell?

43 minutes ago, biggestred said:

Annoyed at changing the race we come out of. Now we come out next to the opposition cheer squad instead of in the middle of the mcc which is mostly us. Silly

Yes. The one we’re running out of as I type is wider and has more signage. But I’d prefer we were emerging from within the heart of the MCC like we used to.

2 minutes ago, Supermercado said:

Is there any evidence this nonsense attracts and retains fans? Otherwise we're just doing it on the vibe that kids want to hear 30 year old Robbie Williams songs.

I don’t know that I’ve ever seen it.

I suspect attendances are up for other clubs/sports where they do this. But I also suspect those other clubs are playing attractive football/sport and winning.

IMO, if we played 2025 football this year, no amount of “activations” would bring people to the ground. If we play exciting, top 4 level football, I suspect people would come watch even if we had borderline silence on match days outside of the actual game.

15 minutes ago, Bring-Back-Powell said:

Has the round 0 club actually had that much of an advantage over the team that didn’t play?

1) Richmond objectively outplayed Carlton in the second half which is completely at odds with what people are concerned about - the rested team being out gassed towards the end.

2) does anyone actually think Essendon would’ve beaten or come very close to beating Hawthorn had they also played last week?

3) Adelaide completely debunked the theory by knocking off the match hardened Collingwood in a statement win. Whilst the Pies came back in the last quarter, the Crows were able to get that second wave of energy and kick a couple of late sealers.

4) the one game that may support this theory is Freo fading against Geelong. However, if Longmuir can’t defend a 35 point lead, he has bigger problems than AFL fixturing.

Furthermore, we played GWS in round 1 last year in the same scenario and took them all the way to the finish line in a fine performance, albeit a loss.

GWS last year ran all over us late. It was IMO the single biggest reason they won the match. We just slowed to a walk when they kept running.

Genuinely excited. I’ve got a lot of optimism about this season, at least relative to expectation, but even if we’re a bottom 6-8 side this year I’m still excited to see our new players, our new coach, our new game plan and our new club (but not our new game day “activations”).

Guerra sheds light on this, and other “game day activations”, here:

https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/nba-style-how-the-demons-plan-to-amp-up-their-home-games-to-get-crowds-back-at-the-g-20260313-p5oa86.html

1. Moving to the other, bigger, race to make use of more/bigger screens

2. More use of LED signage

3. Songs after goals (Let Me Entertain you after the first goal of the match, then players’ choices)

4. More in-game information from announcers (eg as to injuries)

34 minutes ago, DubDee said:

Pies and Lions not looking good

I thought playing round 0 was a huge advantage??

*slightly tongue in cheek to provoke response

Brisbane is playing Sydney, who also played last week. No advantage.

Collingwood’s already taken the lead but let’s see how the game pans out.

1 hour ago, binman said:

And above all he is an aerobic beast with good wheels. Slow coaches need not apply under King methinks

Whilst it’s clearly a sign from the selectors, we just have to be careful IMO to not pick athletes for the sake of athleticism.

Sharp, to date, has been in that category at AFL level. Obviously a new year/system so we’ll see what it looks like in 2026 but aerobic capacity can’t override the ability to find the ball and use it.

Confirmed side on AFL website.

Melksham, TMac and Heath are the emergencies.

20 minutes ago, Dannyz said:

Heard it’s now 50k, and should bounce to 51-52 after Sunday

Great news - according to the OP we didn’t hit 50k last year until the end of April/start of May.

Insightful piece.

I like this quote from King: “The issue isn’t teaching them the new game plan, it’s giving them the freedom to unlearn the old one. It’s removing components and letting them play instinctively”

He adds that the question remains - when challenged, “will we revert to the past or have the courage to keep moving forward together?”.

Pretty sure the three debut announcements today are just for the three who are confirmed in the starting 18.

Latrelle and Heath could still be picked when the squad is narrowed tomorrow.

FWIW I reckon TMac, Heath and Sharp miss from the extended bench, so I reckon we get a Latrelle debut announcement tomorrow.

2 hours ago, layzie said:

The social aspect of the game is diminishing and it feels more like an interactive video game machine you step into at Timezone when you walk through the gates. Can't even have a conversation at half time because something is blaring or they're doing one of those stupid 'are you paying attention' things.

Agree 100%.

Again, I would love the AFL or the MFC to point us to research or empirical data which shows us that the majority of fans enjoy this sort of stuff.

I'm quite confident it doesn't exist.

Instead, there is a pervasive thought that to attract new fans to the sport, this is what is required.

Put aside whether it works, it completely disregards the rest of us. As usual, rusted-on fans are taken for granted while the AFL panders to those who don't care.