titan_uranus

Lol yeah because they’ve beaten Hawthorn, Sydney (an interchange infringement away from losing to North) and Geelong missing 8 best 22 players? If that was our formline you’d be arguing the jury is out.

The Hunter one sucks but was the likely outcome. The AFL hate head high contact no matter how unreasonable Rozee’a decision to lead with the head was. It’s an absolute farce though that Jonas has just been suspended for something for which he was awarded a free kick. Broken. Absolutely broken.

Turner can play Petty’s role from 2021-22. Hibberd then plays the role he played in 2021-22, as does Lever.

You’ve undone your own argument by referring to Collingwood. Collingwood get beaten in key areas for 1-3 quarters many weeks. But they win because of their system and belief. They often only need one quarter (often the fourth) to get the job done. That was nearly us last night. Our system is such that we held up well enough defensively despite the ball living in our back half, and whilst they missed some shots, 8 of their behinds were from 45+ metres out. They were taking low-ish percentage shots. Like the GC game, the general vibe amongst non-Melbourne supporters is that last night’s game was a good game of intense, finals-like footy. Many of us on here have set their expectations so high that seeing us in an arm wrestle and struggling to dominate equates to non-competitive or incapable of winning the flag. I don’t agree with that argument.

He was stunned enough to be low. The “potential for injury” lottery will see it go up to medium/high.

I would like to see Rivers play more midfield. He has pace, a good kick and core strength. We have Salem in now to help cover the backline.

The fact that Brisbane don’t have an ANB type player in their forward line is one major reason they have been found wanting in recent years. They lack role players. ANB in form is a critical role player for us. His lack of impact last night is part of the reason we struggled. Not enough forward half pressure, not enough of his link up play. Who exactly do you think in our 23 last night could have run with Butters? And don’t tell me we should have picked Harmes. How many times this year have you said Harmes is cooked?

I think he was reasonably contesting the ball but I suspect he‘ll be given 1-2 weeks (depending on whether the MRO gives him medium or high impact, as to which it’s a random lottery) and we won’t challenge as it’s too hard to overturn.

It’s depth, IMO. We have Trac and Oliver, then Viney, then not enough. The strong sides this year have more: - Port - Butters, Rozee, JHF, Wines, Boak, Drew - Brisbane - Neale, Dunkley, McCluggage, Ashcroft, Zorko, Bailey - Collingwood - De Goey, Mitchell, Adams, Pendlebury, N Daicos, Crisp - Geelong - Dangerfield, Atkins, Holmes, Blicavs, Guthrie - Bulldogs - Bont, Libba, Treloar, Macrae, Smith When Trac and Oliver dominate, they are so good that we as a side are too good. But when they can’t or don’t dominate, there just isn’t enough to work with. Sparrow, Jordon, ANB, Brayshaw, Harmes - they just don’t stack up with our competitors’ 4th, 5th and 6th mids.

I personally never liked the Petty forward move, in part because I didn’t want to disrupt what I thought was a reliable area for us (the May, Lever, Petty trio). I don’t think Lever’s form is as bad as others are suggesting but it’s certainly not as good as it was in the first few weeks where he was in AA conversations. I’m not sure whether a third tall will help with that but I’d suspect it would. Turner struggled in his only game so far but I wouldn’t be opposed to giving him another go.

I agree that of late we have been coming up short against quality sides and that ideally we’d be winning more of these top 4 contests, but in most of the recent losses (I think Brisbane and Essendon this year are the only outliers) we’ve led for long parts of the game. It’s relatively fine margins, hardly a suggestion we’re toast. They have a very good midfield and slaughtered us for time in forward half, yet our system and structure helped keep us in it and when we turned the midfield tide in the third we scored at will. The crowd, some crucial free kicks, and our fumbles helped get them the momentum back but despite being well beaten in the middle for three quarters and despite Butters playing an all time elite game we lost by just 4 points. As I said, it’s fine margins sometimes. JVR was undisciplined and TMac was slow, it’s not their lack of marking that got to me.

One of JVR and TMac needs to go IMO, can’t play them both in the same side. Maybe time to give Brown another go. Sparrow will come straight back, one of the defenders will go - Bowey if injured. If not maybe McVee. I like him but he’s been quiet recently and the balance of the side is out.

6 - May 5 - Rivers 4 - Oliver 3 - Petracca 2 - Hibberd 1 - Hunter

I get people are emotional after a loss but for [censored]’s sake there is some absolutely ridiculous stuff in here. We lost by 4 points on the road to a top 4 side in extreme pressure in the wet. Only Melbourne supporters with wildly misguided expectations interpret that to mean we’re done for the year, or that Goodwin can’t coach, or that our side has lost its hunger, or worst of the lot, the classic “we fluked the 2021 flag” rot. I’m gutted that we didn’t hold on but we got the wrong end of the umpiring stick when the game was on the line and we couldn’t shake the fumbles when we needed to. Our unbalanced side (Salem for Sparrow didn’t work) couldn’t stay with Port when the crowd and momentum lifted. The third quarter showed how good we can be but we started too far behind and needed to kick the first of the last to steady the ship. JVR’s free kicks late capped off a really ordinary night. I thought TMac was terrible too and I’d prefer not to play them as our two talls next week.

If we lose we’ll be 1-2 against the top 8. I get the sentiment but with limited opportunities to test our game against the top 8, I don’t know if a loss will mean our gameplan has to come under question. If we lose, Port will have beaten us, Brisbane and the Dogs. They may well deserve to be in the same conversation as Brisbane (no one currently is in the same conversation as Collingwood IMO).

To be fair, their midfield is full strength. Butters, Rozee, Horne-Francis, Boak, Wines. With Lycett back they’re now also playing a proper ruckman so that’s our big challenge, although when Lycett’s off they have to run Finlayson against Gawn/Grundy. I’m also worried about Aliir doing as he pleases against TMac/JVR and setting up their scoring chains from the backline.

No Dixon, Marshall, Georgiades, Rioli or Fantasia. They’re good, but this is an opportunity.

Pretty predictable fixturing in the end. We deserve more prime time games but I honestly reckon the club will be happy with the Sunday/day games. I just feel our crowds are poor at night and better at day. Sunday 3.20pm is becoming a marquee slot. It gets clean air (Saturday 1.45pm and 2.10pm overlap), it's on FTA, it's often the last game people think about of the weekend (the Sunday twilight game is often ignored). Look at the Sunday 3.20pm games that don't feature us in that same period - Essendon v Adelaide, St Kilda v Carlton, St Kilda v Richmond. Games involving big and/or finals contending sides. It's not a timeslot reserved for random games or smaller clubs. Collingwood has 5 Sunday games out of 6 in the Round 6-11 period.

It's pretty quick to be going with this but he's right. It's why I, and many others, were so against the simplistic "we sucked at drafting" argument that pervaded on here in 2007-14. How were Cale Morton, Jack Watts, Jack Trengove, Jack Grimes, even Jimmy Toumpas, supposed to reach their best in the mess that was 2007-14 Melbourne? It's precisely why someone like Sheezel or Larkey or LDU would look around and think "what would my career/life be like if I was playing for [insert probably any other club except Hawthorn or West Coast]".

So we're replacing Sparrow's midfield minutes with Rivers/Brayshaw (either split between them or just one of them moves into the middle), and then Salem replacing the Rivers/Brayshaw minutes. Given Sparrow's been a mainstay of the side for a while now, once his suspension is over and assuming no other injuries, there is a lot of pressure on for selection now. As for TMac getting Petty's spot - I'm very "meh" on this. I personally think Brown's Round 1-2 form was strong enough to have him back but the FD clearly want him to work on something (you'd imagine it's something to do with his defence/pressure) and don't seem to be interested in picking him until that's sorted out. TMac gets a chance, I hope he takes it. Getting something like 2021 TMac would be such a win. 2022/23 TMac though...

I think "selection integrity" is a bit OTT. Gawn didn't play VFL after a month out, and no one complained (there was a query about him being fit enough to play at any level by Round 6, not "he should play VFL" queries though). Hibberd and May missed the first few games this year and came straight back into the AFL. So we know that some players don't come back through the VFL. Salem's best is elite. We know he's been back at fitness for a few weeks, so he's at least been training at full tilt. I think we can be OK with bringing him back into the AFL rather than the VFL.

Disastrous for North. As for Clarkson, what he's going through is incredibly tough, either way (i.e. whether the accusations against him are fully true, partly true or fully false). AFL coaching is hard at the best of times. Craig McRae is probably the only current AFL coach who hasn't had the heat of the media, fans and/or industry turned on him at some point, and for some coaches it's been far worse than others (e.g. Goodwin, Fagan, Hinkley, Hardwick, Dew, Longmuir, before them Cameron, Buckley, Ratten, the list goes on).

For those wondering this article says that Lycett trained in their captain's run today but Teakle didn't, therefore suggesting Lycett is going to be brought back to replace Teakle as their ruck. It also says Dixon trained but wasn't moving freely.

Channel 7 want better games in the Sunday 3.20pm slot, which is I think why Sat arvo is no longer premium.

No Georgiades either - I feel like he plays well against us every time we play them. They have Finlayson and a 21-year old called Ollie Lord (197cm). But they are currently using both of them to chop out their inexperienced ruck, Teakle (last week Teakle took 26 centre bounces, Finlayson 5 and Lord 2). I don't know if they can play Lycett and Teakle in the same side but Essendon had success with two rucks against us (albeit we didn't have Gawn) so I wonder whether they will bring Lycett back, which will allow Finlayson to be a permanent forward. Assumes of course that Dixon isn't fit; if he's fit, he comes back and they will have Dixon, Lord and Finlayson up forward (with Finlayson in the ruck half the game). I think with Gawn floating back if needed, May/Lever/Hibberd is enough to cover their forward line, but if they do bring Dixon back we might be a bit short. Personally though, I'd rather back our system and defence in and pick the best forward than pick TMac just for his flexibility if he otherwise wouldn't be first choice.