titan_uranus

Crowd apparently was 20,522. We've only drawn a lower crowd at a Melbourne home game against Fremantle once in the last 12 years, and that was in 2019, when we got 20,211 (so just a few hundred less). None of our home games have been a prime time slot though.

Impressive? They played against a side who turned in one of the all time awful performances. Says more about Fremantle than St Kilda IMO. They lost their last two games by a combined 116 points.

It’s ok to have an opinion that JVR hasn’t developed well, but go ahead and show us the “data” you speak of.

Is May out confirmed?

I’m far from sold on the changes. Yet another different look forward of the ball. The worst second-ruck option yet, whoever it is. Have we all forgotten how awful Petty was at that last year? And why would we subject him to that when he seems to be building form as a forward? Meanwhile Turner plays back, right? Given his form down there against Freo was good? Or does he get put forward, where he’s been as underwhelming this year as JVR but JVR at least kicked 5 last week. And yeah I don’t know if our forward half really needs both Fritsch and Melksham in it. Fully support the Clarry decision though. It’s a sign of maturity from both the club and Clarry, IMO.

Nothing given away by Goodwin in his presser

The debate around resting Max and some of the kids late on Thursday was valid (although a few other sides seemed to get good leads and ease off, including the Dogs and Fremantle). But it's worth remembering how brutal our next 10 weeks is, as until recently I'd forgotten just how tough this stretch is: Round 8 - West Coast in Perth Round 9 - Hawthorn at the MCG Round 10 - Brisbane at the Gabba Round 11 - Sydney at the MCG Round 12 - St Kilda at Alice Springs Round 13 - Collingwood at the MCG Round 14 - Port Adelaide in Adelaide (6-day break vs Port on an 8-day break) Round 15 - bye Round 16 - Gold Coast on the Gold Coast Round 17 - Adelaide in Adelaide That's 6 out of 10 weeks on the road, with travel at least every second week. It also features games against the sides currently sitting 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th on the ladder (plus Sydney, who are 14th but we never play well against them). Of course, the trade off is that our first 7 games featured just a trip down the highway and a neutral Gather Round game, whilst our final 7 games are all in Melbourne. And yes, non-Victorian clubs do this for all 24 weeks, not just 10. Regardless, if we want to achieve anything in 2025, we have to navigate this 10 week block well. So it doesn't surprise me that we looked to give Gawn a break, nor will it surprise me if we see Campbell getting games as soon as this week.

Yeah he really brings the show down a few notches. It’s supposed to be analysis, which he doesn’t offer. Instead, he chimes in with “that’s damning footage” every time they show any footage of anyone stuffing anything up in an attempt to make it sound like a massive story. It of course then gets a run on the Fox or Herald Sun website the next day, so it works, but it annoys me.

They’ve won 2 quarters in 7 matches. It’s an equal record low. Your definition of “alright” is a loose one and I dare say no one on Demonland would use that word to describe us if we had won 2 of 28 quarters. We need to be switched on, because we’re nowhere near good enough to just bank a routine win, but West Coast are really not a good side so it will be close enough to disastrous if we lose, IMO.

He played Round 3 vs Gold Coast too though, so isn’t his average less than a goal a game?

I think we did, but only late. For the first 20 mins of the last, the sting was out of the game but it was still played more or less on our terms. We should have kicked 3-4 goals, not just 1.

I think it came afterwards. Trac, probably rightly, went to Gawn for releasing the handball to someone with more time and space rather than kicking it himself under pressure. Consistent with what I’m sure we’ve been drilling into the players the last 2 weeks. I’m confident I saw them then get around Chandler, although I might be mistaken.

I’m not sure about that, which is no real disagreement with the overall point that we’re still an average side. When we were 0-5, West Coast were statistically worse than us pretty much everywhere that matters. IIRC they’ve only won 2 of 3 quarters in their 6 matches. We can’t get complacent at all but even last night’s football should be enough. West Coast have so far this year been incredibly bad. Beyond that though…

Nope. Next test is next week vs West Coast. This team needs to play consistent pressure football to avoid flaming out to a bottom 4 finish. We don’t get to skip a week. If we lose to West Coast, the commentary on here during the 0-5 run will look tame by comparison to what we see next week.

Are you familiar with correlation vs causation?

One benefit of AJ over JVR is the ruckwork. A lot of what ifs for AJ if he had kicked better than 3.5 yesterdsy. As @dazzledavey36 has said, West Coast have a tall forward line so we may have no choice, but I reckon Rivers has found serious form the last two weeks in the backline so I’m not sure we now want to mess with that too much.

That’s the spirit!

I agree with most of this, having already posted to this effect. I was more taking issue with the significance you’ve attributed to our load management and 5 day break given Richmond had the same (even shorter) break with a younger squad. The last para is utter rubbish. The fourth quarter was frustrating but not even close to the tripe we served up in rounds 2-5. I reckon this was more about Langdon doing what he thought was the right thing (centring it), rather than ignoring the lead because it waa Fritsch. Langdon does it a lot. But yeah, the 0 tackles and 4 pressure acts can’t be good for Fritsch.

Isn't this overplaying things a bit given the respective breaks, and noting that they are playing a bunch of kids and we're playing a comparatively older/more seasoned team?

6 - Gawn 5 - Bowey 4 - Petracca 3 - Rivers 2 - Chandler 1 - Langdon

I'm far from a Spargo fan but he's been pretty good the last two games. Sharp offers very little other than pace and an aerobic tank, but the latter is redundant if he's only playing a quarter as sub. His skills are too poor to do much else. I like Culley and if we continue to struggle in the middle when we start playing better sides, I'd like to see him get a crack.

JVr for Fullarton would appear likely. Turner's been in and out of the team, but his best game for the year was in the backline last week. If he comes back, it's into the backline, surely. Not sure we need him plus May and TMac though. Might depend on May's ankle. If anyone else gets a game, it should be at Sharp's expense.

The last 10 minutes was disappointing, to say the least. But before firing off, we only lost 3% (we were at 77% before their last 4 goals, then slid to 74%). I get that our percentage is rubbish right now but when you start 0-5, the wins are far, far more important than the percentage. We also kicked 1.4 to their 4.1. Pickett's goal probably shouldn't have been overturned, Fritsch missed one he should have kicked then burnt Spargo late, and we made a couple of mistakes late that led to goals against. It was about the maximum damage we could feasibly have conceded from how the quarter played out. We also need to be smart about our next three weeks - trip to Perth, then Hawthorn, then a trip to Brisbane. So having Gawn off the last 15 minutes makes sense too. We'd all prefer wins tonight and next week over a thumping tonight and a loss next week. In the meantime, out-tackling them each quarter (28-9 in the third!) whilst also having more of the ball each quarter is a very promising sign. We lifted the forward half pressure in the third and got just reward for it. We probably learnt what we needed to learn about Fullarton, and I remain thoroughly unconvinced in Harry Sharp.

Randomly-timed piece from Peter Ryan, who generally likes sticking the boot into us. https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/petracca-helped-melbourne-realise-a-need-for-change-can-they-keep-it-going-20250422-p5ltfv.html "Petracca married Bella Beischer in front of friends and teammates in December and changed management groups. His approach in 2025 is uncomplicated, with playing and training at the centre of his existence. “Any time you have trauma from an injury perspective that Christian has had, it can take time. He’s had a pre-season. He’s had five games or six games to get himself going. His game’s in good shape, and it’s only going to get better. We’re actually really enjoying what he’s doing,” Goodwin said on Tuesday. They aren’t just empty words from the club. Two sources, who preferred to remain anonymous so they could speak freely about the issue, verified that Petracca’s commitment is genuine. They think the focus on Petracca has been unfair, and he copped unnecessary heat at a time when his only objective has been to help Melbourne become an environment where everyone can flourish. His professionalism and ambition have never been questioned, although he has never been one to spend more time than needed at a football club. His on-the-go personality makes him as hard to pin down as a mosquito inside a tent. The athlete, who is well known for his love of cooking, is still entertaining his 528,000 Instagram followers with his recipes. But this season, according to a club source, Petracca has made a noticeable effort to stay engaged as the club delved into the emotional as much as the technical to bring about change."

You could easily argue that his scoring means it was a stellar tagging game.