Swooper1987

He's a premiership coach - the only Melbourne premiership coach in my lifetime and he deserves to be respected as such. I think his footy acumen is desperately underrated. Last night was an interesting one. I watched from mu usual spot on the second tier right on the members wing. Petty was uncompetitive in the ruck as I expected and Draper did as he liked. 9 disposals, three clearances, 3 marks and 9 hitouts v Petty 1 handball and 3 hitouts. It looked an Essendon game. But JVR stood up in the second and absolutely turned it around. 5 disposals, 3 marks and 4 hitouts v Draper 4 disposals, no marks and 7 hitouts effectively neutralised what was the biggest advantage Essendon had. Our gut runners went to work - Langdon, Windsor and ANB. Oliver, after a horrid first quarter showed glimpses of the 3 time AA, 4 time B&F Clayton and Melksham led the front half magnificently. So overall, Simon had a good night. Petty is not a centre bounce ruck and he has proven that a few times. But as Draper tired her became more competitive in short bursts later in the game. Goody's faith in Petty was misplaced but as a good coach does, he righted the ship. Kudos to him.

It was a great night to be at the footy. A lot of vote worthy players but from my vantage point here were the 6 most influential 6. Ed Langdon - as Scott pointed out post game it was our peripheral players rather than the inside mids who did most of the damage and Ed was chief among them. 5. Windsor - another example of what Scott was talking about. This boy is a seriously good player. Proves that wet weather actually accentuates a skilful player. 4.McVee - another balanced and poised game from the new Corey Enright. 3. Melksham - his forward half leadership makes such a difference. In fact his injury at the end of last season cost us at least one final win and potentially a premiership. 2. Rivers - another very good game from a very good footballer. 1. Oliver - not his usual style, more of a linkman last night but used the ball well mostly, considering the conditions. It was great to see his improved ball handling. Honourable mentions to JVR who is a competitor of the highest order and to ANB who did a great job containing an absolute champion of the game. Merrett was still effective but nowhere near what he has been.

Grundy isn't in great form. He has been beaten (quite badly) in his last two games against Darcy/Jackson and then on the weekend by Marshall, who completely took him apart. And in case you've forgotten, he got flogged last year by Draper and Phillips. It was embarrassing watching his lack of ability to defend as the Bomber rucks kicked 5 on him. I get the angst about the Schache selection as sub in last years finals, but don't make Grundy out to be something he wasn't.

Over his career Heeney has shown himself to be a very fair player. That in all probability it costs him a Brownlow seems an incredibly high price to pay for what is really incidental contact. If Webster's nose didn't bleed there was absolutely nothing to see there. I'd be surprised is this was the intended outcome of the rule change. I hope they challenge this and bring in the Carlton lawyers.

He is a quick healer. His knee was supposed to keep him out for 5 or 6 last season and he only missed three. First game back was a good one against the Tigers, 8 marks, 17 disposals and a goal. I'll back him in to miss only one or two.

Yep, all clear for Melk. Only Yeo got a fine for umpire contact in our game.

Looking on the bright side, we did cover Oliver's absence well last year and we have found a great sub for Trac with Rivers so maybe we can pull another bunny out of the hat. It'll be a different experience for the midfield. And also for our defence not having the champ giving them a chop out. But just maybe it'll throw Essendon out a bit too.

The ruck position is important in so far as you don't want to be dominated in that spot. An ability to at least negate is important. However, I agree with Binmans PA that Petty could be an adequate replacement around the ground with his marking ability. He's absolutely useless at centre bounce, as demonstrated by his efforts in the Alice against Freo, but he can take a mark and he moves reasonably well. He's no Gawn, but he's probably the best option we have. Also, re Draper specifically - he loves to get forward - remember how he torched Grundy last year. At least Petty could defend him when he runs inside 50. He might also be able to hurt him the other way.

Only the last three games. He was in the coaches votes against Collingwood and very clearly our best player. That was the game immediately before the bye. So since the bye the three games we've played he's been below his best but not lowered his colours to a couple of very good ruckmen. I agree that a more even team performance has seen us improve, but the reality is Gawn not at his best is still pretty much unbeatable in the sense that the opposition ruck is at least negated. That all goes out the window with him not there. Draper, Darcy/Jackson and Briggs in the next three weeks. That could get very messy if the champ isn't out there.

Exactly. For those who think Gawn has been a down a little since the bye, he's played against Xerri and McInerney before this week and beaten or at least broken even with them both. They are two of the inform rucks in the competition. And that's max not in his best form. The opposition will have a field day in his absence.

He played a terrific game today. Great attack on the ball and the man. Reminded me of Colin Sylvia at his best - aggressive and explosive. The sort of guy you'd love to play alongside. He'll only get better the more exposure he gets.

Probably the best individual hour of play by any Melbourne player I've ever seen.

Absolutely. 8-7 means we are still in the season. 8 games left and need to win 5 of them. It's not over.

The Age: Davie-Uniacke 8 May 8 Gawn 7 Rivers 7 Zurhaar 7 Gawn is in 9th place.

A game and percentage off 5th. A long way to go. Form fluctuating by the week for most sides. Realistically, we are still well in it, for a finals spot at least. From there, who knows?

This old chestnut. Gawn is having a brilliant season by any measure. We are not. Grundy's arrival in Sydney has coincided with brilliant seasons from pretty much the entire Swans team, but especially their mids. There's a very good chance a couple of them will be on the podium for the Brownlow. Grundy was going ok in the media's eyes up until the last two rounds, where he statistically dominated nobody from Geelong and a 6 gamer from Adelaide. His disposal efficiency in both games hovered around the 40% mark. He wins contested footy but more often than not it doesn't actually advantage his team. With a midfield as good as his he should just get out of the way. Chris Scott saw through it and Longmire only rated him the Swans 4th best player against Geelong and I doubt he'll be rated much higher than that for his most recent outing. Grundy is a good ruck, Gawn is a better ruck, a better mark, a better goal kicker and a better player and leader. These are all statistical facts. If Grundy makes the AA team this year it'll be behind Gawn, unless some other disaster befalls him (and us). In Gawn's most recent game, he blitzed Darcy Cameron. In round 1, Darcy Cameron made a mess of Grundy (8 disposals and zero impact). Grundy has Briggs, Darcy/Jackson, Marshall and Xerri in his next 4 games. Let's see how they go.

Don't overrate Grundy's game. He played against a bloke with half a dozen games and didn't do a lot of damage. 61% of his disposals were inefficient. He got 13 disposals in the last quarter when the game was over and only 38% of those were efficient. There is a reason why ruckman need to stay out of the mids way. Especially when you have mids like Warner, Heeney and Gulden. Grundy is useful in so far is own hit zone. Once again zero contested marks and only 180 m gained for 31 disposals. The media will love it and keep talking him up, while oppo coaches will keep being happy if he gets big numbers and keeps giving it back. The swans are playing amazing footy at the moment and everything is papered over by winning. I can recall the 2019 prelim when Grundy's 73 hitouts won the Giants the game! He has a bad habit of creating scores for the opposition through poor ruck work or poor disposal. The goal to Lachie Sholl the perfect example last night. Defensively, he is poor one on one. I look forward to seeing how he fares over the next few games. Briggs; Darcy/Jackson; Marshall then Xerri. All quite a bit better than Strachan. Grundy is in the right place now, but in fairness to both Collingwood and Melbourne, he had been poor since he signed the big contract. Collingwood have proven they are better without him and Melbourne never really found a useful purpose for him and he certainly wasn't demanding selection. And Collingwood are still paying a fair bit for him too!

I'm in the RoCo camp. The season isn't over and we are not a bad team. We are a good team that isn't playing well at the moment. This season, that fluctuates from week to week. Petracca is a loss, no doubt, but plenty of teams have made finals (and won flags) with great players missing. Adelaide's first flag was won with Mark Riccuito; North won in 1977 without Keith Greig; in the last game before the 1987 finals Garry Lyon broke his leg; Bob Murphy missed the 2016 flag. History is littered with great players copping untimely injuries. We still have plenty of terrific players. Viney and Oliver are the potential difference makers here. They have given nothing so far this season. They need to lift. With Lever back, our defence is still among the best in the comp. Melksham is a matter of weeks away. That will help the forward line immeasurably. If we get to 9-7 we are right in it. The next three weeks will tell us plenty. We have a fixture that means we get to play mostly sides with similar win-loss rates to us. It's all in our hands.

Great effort by the Dogs. Bont is an absolute star. No Naughton, no Darcy, no problem. Fremantle looking every bit the ordinary side most of us believed them to be before they massacred us.

Clearly neither coach agreed with you.

Votes look pretty fair to me. Gawn was easily our best and both coaches agreed. Well done to Nibs - his game was certainly vote worthy even if it was only from our coach. Fly was always going to vote for the bovver boy. Crisp, J Daicos and Howe were all very good.

Top 3 in the Bluey I reckon, behind Gawn and Trac, and quite possibly ahead of Trac.

Goodwin did mention centre clearance in the context of us getting first hands on the ball and the losing it. This has been a frustration all season, even in our wins, and largely the responsibility of Viney and Oliver. Goodwin refused to name names, but the press did it for him. Our biggest concern really is the massive drop off of those two. 1 clearance for Viney and 3 for Oliver . Only 3 contested possessions for Viney. At least Oliver his 15. By comparison, Gawn had 6 clearances and 14 contested. Viney is definitely not the player in our side you want getting uncontested ball. Tracc had 0 clearances in the half that he played - understandable today. Stoppage clearance was about even (them 25-23) but centre 14-6 is just too big a gap. That's our biggest issue right now and it sits largely with Viney and Oliver.

6. Gawn 5. ANB 4. JVR 3. Pickett 2. Windsor 1.Salem

I have been a defender of Petty's but I was particularly disappointed in his pea hearted effort in the ruck. The aim was to give Max a chop out, but all he did was enable Darcy and Jackson to increase confidence and influence. Did anyone else notice Max did the entire last quarter on ball? A shocking effort by Petty given how little influence he'd had in any other spot. Hopefully JVR is back next week. His contest work is underrated and a template for blokes like Petty.