titan_uranus

Not just his marking but I reckon his fitness too. To me, he is more mobile and agile, covering the ground better than in 2021 (to be fair of course, he didn't exactly set a high bar on the mobility/agility front).

Yeah look thanks for sticking up for me @Deefiant but given the word "anus" is right there in my username, I don't think SWYL was really reverting to anything nasty by way of name calling. And FWIW agree, I am strongly of the view that we need TMac forward, or if not TMac then Weideman or another key forward alongside Brown and Gawn/Jackson.

I'm happy to open up a discussion on the standard of journalism in this country, particularly AFL journalism. But the case here of Morris reporting on team selection shouldn't fall foul of the issues above. The idea that a player being dropped shouldn't be reported on because of mental health issues is IMO ridiculous. Let's assume Hunter is going through a tough time in some way. His being dropped was always going to be reported on, whether before the team was announced or the moment the teams dropped. He was always going to be a focus of the media. Every week for the last few years journalists have reported on team selection issues hours or days prior to the official announcements. Just like they also report on injuries suffered, sometimes before the club formally announces it. There is in my view very little wrong with a journalist reporting on team selection early, and Beveridge's response to it was wholly disproportionate. If Beveridge was actually having a go at Morris for other issues (e.g. because of the way Morris handles himself generally, or maybe for the sorts of things the Whatsapp leak subsequently revealed), the way he did it was inappropriate.

I know you view Smith a bit like you viewed OMac, i.e. much more positively than most. But there's no way I'd characterise Smith as a good decision-maker or a good kick. We have worse players on both fronts, but he wouldn't rank at the top of the list on either front. And there's no way I'd put Smith above May on reliability of kicking (which is not to say May doesn't make the turnovers you've mentioned). Having said all that, it doesn't matter who we try to use to cover for Salem. We don't have an adequate replacement. We could mine the other 17 lists and struggle to find an adequate replacement for Salem.

From memory, and this might be wrong, Pert simply asked the AFL if we could have a home game vs the Dogs in Round 1 to unfurl the flag (e.g. see here). I'm not sure we asked for it to be a Wednesday night, and indeed I reckon if we'd been given the choice we'd have asked for a Friday night. As to Gil, he will do what Channel 7 want him to do, because the AFL needs Channel 7's money. 7 want more night games, so 7 will continue to get more night games.

I 100% subscribe to this. The AFL, and Channel 7, are going to cook the goose that laid the golden egg by repeatedly scheduling football on Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights. For now the ratings are probably good enough but if they keep doing it people are going to find better things to do with their lives than watch football on any night that isn't Friday/Saturday. If they want an example, they can look at how Channel 7 and Cricket Australia took a ratings machine in the BBL and turned it into a dud product. It's ridiculously unfair. Last year Hawthorn, Collingwood, Carlton and Richmond all missed the 8 whilst Essendon didn't win a final. Not a single one of those sides is being sent to Kardinia this year. Instead, the Victorian contingent is yet again made up of us, the Dogs, North and St Kilda. At the very least, Essendon played there in 2021 and Carlton played there in each of 2018, 2019 and 2020. Not a good argument here, @Sir Why You Little. In 2013 Hawthorn only played four interstate away games. The other 18 were either at the MCG, Marvel or their Tasmanian fortress. In 2014 and 2015 that figure rose to five, meaning 17 games were at the MCG, Marvel or Tasmania. They also faced less resistance from Sydney in the 2014 GF and West Coast in the 2015 GF than Richmond did against Adelaide in the 2017 GF. @dazzledavey36 the only part of your post I'd disagree with is that I think Fremantle put up a pretty strong show in the 2013 GF and if Fyfe had kicked straight in the first quarter that game I reckon could well have turned out very differently.

St Kilda's missing Ryder, Billings, Geary, Jones, Hannebery (but lol does he ever play?) and Clark. Collingwood is at full strength I believe. Makes a difference, but still, St Kilda don't look very good at all.

Assuming this is true, which it isn't, it doesn't mean we should all just say "well everyone does it so spare Tom Morris". Changing ingrained cultural sexism, racism and homophobia means changing these sorts of behaviours.

The bit where you said swinging TMac back made us go defensive again. You're suggesting that moving TMac back triggered a change in how we defended. I'm arguing that is complete rubbish. In this post you've said TMac went down back to cover for Salem and did a good job. I agree with that. But that doesn't mean him going back changed how we defended.

Unless he went into the game with chipped cartilege, sounds like a new injury?

This makes no sense. TMac went back as soon as Salem went off injured. There was no magical change from how we were defending before that compared to after. Indeed, TMac was back there in the second quarter when the Dogs piled on their 8 goals.

Good news that it's not an ACL or another sort of long-term injury. Still, albeit with no medical background at all, I'd imagine this is a 6-week injury at a minimum.

How ridiculous. They won three flags in four years. Let's revisit these posts after 2024.

Yeah I'm so over the calls for Smith to play forward. He's clearly a defender now. We've sunk so much time and training into him being a defender, he got into the side late last year as a defender, he played OK last year before injury, he played well in the pre-season in defence, and he's just played arguably his best ever AFL game in the backline. We just won a premiership with a Brown, TMac, Fritsch and Jackson/Gawn forward line, and we have Weideman as depth continuing to kick goals at VFL level. Smith's future at the club is in the backline, and right now he's neck-and-neck with Hibberd, if not in front of him, to be in our first-choice side.

On Channel 7 news last night, in addition to reporting on Salem getting his knee scan, they also mentioned Joel Smith went in for a scan on an injured thumb. Anyone know any more about that?

Totally re: the crowd. I was in the MCC which is always a high MFC proportion but the roar for us was enormous, whereas the Dogs' noise really only came from their cheer squad in the Ponsford. I'm sure the low(er) crowd was due to Dogs supporters not turning up. The 10 day break is nice but there's not a huge difference between 7 and 10 days, and at any rate it's Round 1 so we could probably deal with a shorter break better now than in Round 22, for example.

If Morris has been spreading rumours or revealing personal information about Dogs players, I'd understand the motivation for Beveridge's anger. But I reckon that would have come to light today, wouldn't it? With all the focus on him, and with the leaked audio getting out today straight away, I reckon if Morris had been digging around Dogs players we'd know by now. Not that it would surprise me if that was ultimately the case. Morris is a [censored].

I reckon let's reserve judgment until next week. Carlton plays the Dogs at Marvel. Richmond plays GWS at the G. Very easy to read a lot into Round 1. I'm not convinced Richmond showed up tonight. Let's see if Carlton reproduces that same form vs the Dogs. They do have a good draw this year though, with return games against Richmond, Fremantle, Adelaide, GWS and Collingwood (just the one 2021 finalist in that crop) and 16 out of their 22 games at either Marvel or the MCG.

I know that as it was our home game we want last night to have been a commercial success all round, but I honestly hope the ratings were soft and Channel 7 and the AFL realise Wednesday night games are a [censored] idea. We were robbed of at least 5,000-10,000 people who maybe could have gone on a Thursday night and another 5,000-10,000 who would have gone on a Friday night.

I can take most of what I need to know about this game from these stats: Richmond had 55 fewer possessions than Carlton but also had 10 fewer tackles, and only laid 32 tackles for the game. Non-existent pressure from Richmond. Carlton is clearly a better side than last year; mentally last year 20 down at the start of the 4th quarter they'd most likely have gone to water. But I don't think Richmond showed up tonight. Whether or not that's because they're too old and cooked for 2022 remains to be seen.

If you think TMac lost some form, the solution isn't necessarily to ditch the second tall forward altogether. It might be to swap him for Weideman, in that example. We are first and foremost a team of structure. We had no choice but to flip TMac back last night due to Salem's injury but we know Goodwin will want to set the team up the way we train to help with our predictability in moving the ball. The bolded argument is precisely the one I'm not convinced of long term - we also showed last year that we can apply elite defensive pressure and score heavily with Brown, TMac and Gawn/Jackson, so it cuts both ways.

Platforms 9 & 10 at Richmond station (lines to Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein and Glen Waverley) were so full after the game people couldn't actually get onto the platform. The trains all showed up at once, on one platform, whilst the other platform was empty. Metro has always struggled with clearing passengers after big football games. It shouldn't be as hard as it seems to be for them.

I thought he was probably our least impactful player. To me he fumbled every time he was in a position to take possession and didn't really demonstrate strong foot or hand skills. He does, though, have a good tank and leg speed, and he worked hard up and down the ground, which we know Goodwin will demand of a player in his role. Having said all that, in his post-match interview with the club he reminded us all that the second-tier players have had a really torrid time over the last two COVID years. Toby played twice in 2020 but didn't get a senior game in 2021. With the disruption to the VFL in that time, he said he'd only had 9 competitive games in those two years. It's so hard for him, and others like him, to establish themselves. I have no problem with him being given more time whilst we have injured best 22 players out, and I'll always have time for hard working players who need to bolster their skills (rather than the other way around), but IMO the jury remains out right now.

Doesn't look like there's a huge amount of defensive pressure being applied by either side in this game tonight. Halfway through the third quarter, the tackle count is Carlton 22, Richmond 15. That puts the sides on track for something like 35-25 for the game. Last night the final tackle tally was Melbourne 46, Dogs 53. Both sides seem to walk the ball from full back to half forward upon which they either score or turn it over.

Agree. Disagree (see above). If Beveridge had a crack at Morris because Morris is a sexist, homophobic, racist [censored], then unloading on him in a nationally televised press conference was not the way to go about it. But with Beveridge's track record of verbally abusing media pundits who say things he doesn't like about his own team, it's highly likely his attack was solely in relation to the reporting of Hunter being dropped. Which has zero justification, no matter what you think about Morris. Either way, Beveridge's actions were pitiful. Morris remains a [censored].