Watson11

I rate Bugg. I think we have a strong list and he can't break back in because he is behind others but a few more injuries and we'll need him. But Buggs disposal efficiency overall (except this year) is pretty good but his goalkicking is average. Look at his career stats and he is consistently above 70% in DE (https://www.footywire.com/afl/footy/pc-melbourne-demons--tomas-bugg?advv=Y) Players can fix their goalkicking yips no matter their age. I don't have time to give you 10 but a few obvious players who have improved with age. Dane Swan butchered the ball early in his career. Pre 2010 (up to age 25) had 4 out of 6 seasons with <50% goal kicking conversion. Post 2010 only dropped below 50% once. Lindsay Thomas had a bad case of the goal-kicking yips early in his career. In 2011 when he was 23 he kicked 21.36. He kicked 51.23 in 2013 when he was 25. From 24 years of age on he fixed his issues and had really good conversion rates. Buddy Franklin. From age 20-25 his goal kicking conversion rate was only 60% or more once. Since age 26 it has only been below 60% once.

I somewhat agree. Viney's a brilliant player but we are so deep with inside mids that it shouldn't make or break this season. He is missed in last quarters when the game is on the line but we need others to learn to step up and lead as well. I'd rule a line through him for the season if there is any risk of re-injury. Make sure we have Viney, Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca etc together for next year and the years after. These guys are aged 24, 21, 22 and 22 so we want to make sure they are at their peaks for the next 6-7 years. No point in risking ruining Viney's foot in my opinion. Max is only 26, Hogan and McDonald 23 and 25, Lever is 22 and so we have the backbone of a superteam. I'd love to snag a flag ala baby bombers, hawthorn (2008), bulldogs (2016) this year, but not that the expense of risking long term problems.

I can’t wait until our mids consistently lower their eyes first going into 50 and hit up Tmac or Hoges if they are on the lead, with the long kick to a contest as the second option. If we learn to do that we’ll be the no 1 scoring team for the next 5 years and Tmac and Hoges will be all time greats!

Didn't Nic Nat and Lever both do their good knees?

He wasn't great against Port, but he contributed and he has been pretty good in some other big games. Against Port if our mids had lowered their eyes going inside 50 Hogan could have had a day out. He's our top 3 quickest according to AFL tracker and we don't hit him up on the lead enough. Our mids seem more comfortable kicking long to a contest and so he stays back too much.

http://www.afl.com.au/news/2018-04-20/improving-demon-just-keeps-on-running He runs hard both ways as well.

I was at the game, sitting high in the stand, but didn't notice the breeze, even in the last quarter when it rained. You could see the direction of the rain coming down pretty clearly and there was probably just a slight breeze favouring Adelaide. Great win though. Adelaide were 100% on and we seemed off and they beat us on most of the stats that count, so to get the win was huge.

100%. Mids/forwards need to learn how to defend in stoppages. Omac is off but up against it when the balls coming in that quick

I agree with the stoppages comment, and think this is the main issue we have. In general we haven't had workrate issues like we saw against the Saints. But in my opinion our stoppage work is really poor and has been most of the season, despite Max dominating. The big concern is whether the coaches think our stoppage style is a strength because we usually win the clearance count. Problem is most clearances we win are rushed and scrappy as there are several Melbourne players within a couple of metres of the ball. Opposition clearances tend to be cleaner with a good outlet handball and then exposing us in defense. For the Collingwood game we were obviously so hyped up for that game that we looked like Under 8's all chasing the ball, and Collingwood really hurt us from stoppages just through better structure. That's not lack of effort, but just structure and should be easy to fix.