Watson11

One week at a time. Warm and sunny predicted for this Friday. If we make it, a nice dry Perth September day would be ideal. We seem to kick straight when it is warm and dry, but can be a bit all over the place when wet and dewy!

Maybe I should have been clearer. We didn’t play well offensively for large parts of the game. 4 qtr defensive effort though.

Yep. Even last time we dominated inside 50s in the first half but couldn’t convert and couldn’t hold the ball in, and every time it went down their end they kicked a goal. We should have been 10 goals in front at half time! Our mids are so much better both ways at the moment. Stop the defensive transition and I think we can win by 10 goals.

Agree. It is on our terms. The only test for us is can we continue to pressure inside 50, and shut down the transition out. If we do that like the last few weeks we will win no matter what our goal kicking accuracy is, and win easily if we are better around goals. That was what was so good against Geelong. We didn’t play that well for a large part of the game, but unlike earlier in the season our bad quarters we pretty much halved.

Gawn can tap it anywhere and our contested ball is so clean that every team needs to look at ways to counteract us. The predictable thing is for Geelong to drop one or more players back into our forward 50 to counter our centre clearances. From Geelongs perspective they would be backing that they can crowd our i50 and kick their way out of defense. If Scott does that then the game is totally on our terms and if our f50 stoppages are good and pressure is on and we run hard to close down rebound out of our f50 (like we did with GWS), then we would win. The last quarter last time against Geelong was a shootout. I suspect Geelong will not want to risk a shoot out unless they find themselves behind. But if I was Scott, I think that is probably the best chance they would have to win. I don't think he'll risk it though.

"The origins of Melbourne's long-awaited finals return stem from Jim Stynes becoming the club's president a decade ago, according to his successor Don McLardy" Stynes loved the club, was a great man, and did great things re debt reduction but the reality is when he became president the debt was $5m before being wiped, but by 2013 the debt was $8.1m, and we finished second bottom with a percentage of 54%. If PJ/Roos/Bartlett had not been put in place in 2013 no one from the pre 2013 would be able to take any credit for the origins of anything. I think that says it all really.

I’ve seen enough games where his leads are ignored. The Port game was the worst. And if the instruction was to get the ball 0-30m and central then that would explain why he stays home too much and ends up competing for pack marks which is not his game (unless one on one).

I can't remember which thread it was on but our forward structure and entries according to the poster was based on statistics on goalkicking etc, and that the goalkicking efficiency was really good from 0-30m and central, but statistically drops off further out and on the angles. The implication was that the players had been coached to aim to get the ball to players in a better position, hence were probably ignoring the leads that were further out so as to kick to the hot spot, not taking shots from 45-50m and trying to pass off quickly etc. This seems to have been fixed and modified the last couple of weeks. Kind of like basketball, it's like Goodwin etc was always trying to get the high percentage layup, whereas now we are hitting the leads and making some 3 pointers which makes the layups harder to defend as well. I'm really confident that if we continue to play how we have the last 2 weeks with our inside 50s we will be really hard to beat. So onto Hogan with the more recent game style, we will be even better if we have really quick players in our forward 50 who can get 5m on a lead. Hogan is ideally made for this style because of his speed, endurance, strength etc I wouldn't trade him for mids, draft picks etc and am really keen to see us use him better next year.

That is true but we have also been good at lowering the eyes for the last 2 weeks. If we had done that all season we would have finished top of the ladder.

I thought he was in our top 3, not fastest in the afl. But either way he is super quick and unique in the afl being 100kg, good one on one, good skills (very few changers). I’ll say it again that we don’t use his speed yet. The number of times he has 5m on his direct opponent and we kick long was embarrassing for most of this year. Probably leads to his frustration at times that he needs to work on. I wouldn’t trade him even for Cerra and 2 first round picks unless he wants to go.

....and the brilliant little chip kick to AVB?

Agree. Freo and Lyon are career suicide for any key forward.

OK. Reminds me of Riewoldt in attitude at the same age and Josh Kennedy in kicking style. Out of Hogan, Riewoldt, and Kennedy who would have the best accuracy stats? ... Hogan 65.2%, Kennedy 64.7%, Riewoldt 62.8%

Tmac would also be fair. I think Hogan has more upside. He reminds me of Jack Riewoldt at the same age in attitude but a better athlete.

If the question is for the next 5 years then my list is Gawn, Oliver, Viney, Lever, and Hogan. They are what clubs build a list around (if we can keep them all fit and on the park). But the club imo has buolt a list that can still be really, really good if one or more of the above players are injured, as has been the case for 4 of them for large parts of 2017 and 2018

Port have been a joke and underachieving footy club ever since Hinkley let Cornes get to 300 games and then retire mid 2015 season to become a fireman! Clueless commentator.

I hope the players get social media training and are told to stay a long way away from demonland. If any of them naively come here looking for ego boosts they'll end up on the psychologists couch. I'm in the no way trade Hogan camp unless he wants out. 100kg power forwards, who can run at 34km/hr and do a 2km time trial in 6mins, along with his natural skills are unique. His lower output against the better teams has been largely due to us butchering the ball going inside 50. We are improving our inside 50 delivery and he'll be a superstar for us.

I'd like Harmes to go to Ablett. He'd nullify him and slaughter him when we win the ball.

Garlett isn't coming back after 0 tackles against Sydney.

To nullify a superstar like Josh Kelly and impact the way he did was just insane. He shaded Max for BOG imo.

Adelaide may be looking for a coach if they have another bad season. Goody, Riccuito best mates. Let’s lock Goody up for an extra 2. Roos knows a thing or two more than the posters on the other thread about what makes a good afl coach.

Oldest and greatest football club in Australia instrumental in inventing the game that has an amazing history. Only club to win 5 flags in 6 years. Only club to win three in a row twice. We’ve just had 5 bad decades that’s all.

He's one of the quickest on our list according to champion data. We don't use his strengths at FF. We don't use him enough on the lead. If we hit him up on the lead, he'd be less vulnerable to having to beat 2 gorilla's on the long balls when he stayed back.

Exactly. The balance just needs to be right and we don't always get it right at the moment. The most repeat maximum effort sprints in a game is shared by Sculley and Robertson at 36, which is only 9 per quarter and that is the elite level. We spend too many of our maximum efforts spreading. Hence we are the highest scoring team but we leak goals at times, and need to learn to balance the effort and slow it down when needed. As supporters we all want every player to put in 60 repeat maximum effort sprints per game but it will never happen, and we call them lazy when we see them running defensively at 85% effort. The lazy tag is used far too loosely.

How tough is he? And still only 22 and had a broken hand just a few weeks ago. Geez our midfield is exciting. Should be together for next 7 or more years.