Greendale

I think people's expectations are a bit too high for a first year player who went pick 12. Kossie has shown glimpses of special talent this year, but he obviously needs to be far more consistent in influencing forward contests. Whether that's by timing his crumbing, being more physical in marking contests, or getting to more tackles. He hasn't been very good over the past month, but we really should have older players performing better, pushing him out of the team.

Clarkson is the dream, but realistically I think Ross would be a very smart choice. Twice he has gone to underachieving clubs and immediately shot them up to premiership contenders. Our young midfield will be around for some time, but the likes of Gawn and May don't have forever. We can't hire a new coach and wait multiple years to become contenders. We need someone who can maximise this current group now.

Goodwin apparently thinks it's a good experience to lose a must win game. Has he forgotten the end to the 2016 and 2017 seasons?

Looking forward to so many learnings...

Agree with almost every criticism here but I have one more to add. We have one of the best taggers in the comp James Harmes, who has wasted away at half back every game without tagging once this year. The week he comes out injured we decide that tagging is actually a viable tactic, and throw a ball using half forward onto one of the biggest and best contested mids in the game. Fyfe 22 touches and 7 clearances. Melksham 9 touches and 2 clearances. Beyond a joke at this point.

Oliver just cannot kick sometimes

I'm glad that Melbourne have a gin sponsor, but I don't think it's enough. I need Melbourne branded hard drugs to get me through this crap.

We have no method of moving the ball. This has not changed in two entire seasons. Time to give someone else a chance to coach this team.

Credit to Goodwin, at least it only took him a half of football to realise he'd made an awful mistake in picking OMac.

Needed to win it that quarter. No way we are kicking 4 goals against a defensive Sydney with the breeze.

It wouldn't surprise me if Tomlinson is pushed up to the wing to replace Vanders, while Harmes does actually play on the half back line. I say this because the article on the dees website references Tomlinson on the wing, and also the fact that OMac hasn't been replaced when our backline looks overly tall for Sydney's forwards. Overall I'm happy with the ins and outs but, would have preferred OMac out as well.

Jones -> Harmes Pickett -> ANB/Bedford/Hunt Hannan -> Fritsch OMac -> Lockhart Pickett just needs to freshen up a little for me. Give him two weeks off and get some of his energy and confidence back. OMac not needed against Sydney's forwardline, and he was poor. Jones and Hannan out for lack of form, replaced by better players. Can't say I'd be bothered if Vanders was dropped too, but his role can be a hard one to judge from the TV, and it appears the coaches are happy with him.

Strongly agree here. In most games you'd just have him in the sort of role Jones and Sparrow have been playing. But on nights like tonight he would have been very helpful for Steele.

Take out one bad quarter against the dogs, and I think our defensive system has been excellent for the past 5 weeks. Something really needs to change with our stoppage work though, especially at centre bounces. Feels like we are consistently hitting the ball down the opposition's throat, and when we give up the centre clearance it's tough to properly set up our defensive zone. If we could get back to somewhere near our 2018 contested work I think we could actually be a threat come finals. Also I just want to mention Jack Steele who was a collosus tonight. Almost singlehandedly got the Saints over the line.

We're lucky that the saints are butchering at much as us. Either team could clean up a little and start dominating.

He needs to run out to the right. It's a huge penalty for a nothing incident, but Tomlinson should have known better.

We have the best tap ruckman in the comp, play with three pure inside mids at every stoppage, yet we still consistently lose the clearances. Our stoppage coach is stealing a living.

I'm optimistic for Josh Wagner. I could really see him playing a good defensive forward role on either Coffield or Clark. Both are important ball users, neither are exceptionally fast, and I doubt either of them have too much experience being targetted by the opposition. Overall I'm happy enough with the team structure. I think on paper our midfield is far superior to the Saints, and if we can keep the ball in tight and under pressure I'll give us a decent chance of getting the win. However If we drop off the pressure at any stage, I could easily see the Saints tearing us apart on the outside like the dogs did in the third quarter last week.

Some people have been way too harsh on Hibbo for this game. He wasn't even on Wallis for the first two goals, the third goal he had to come off Wallis because otherwise Bruce would've ran onto the ball and kicked a goal, and the fourth goal was an unpressured entry and perfect kick from Bontempelli. Also people need to respect the fact that Wallis is actually a good player and has been the Dog's best forward all year.

Don't want to be too critical as there were many worse players, but Lever didn't do much for me. Had multiple dropped marks where he had clean hands on the ball, one of which cost us a goal. As an intercepting defender it's his job to take these marks and I feel he crumbles under physical pressure.

Positives: Steven May absolutely superb Negatives: Shallow chaotic forward entries Terrible forward pressure Mids getting sucked into the contest. Has been better in recent weeks but came back against a good midfield. No breakaway from Oliver. Completely different to his last 5 weeks. I still don't like Harmes down back

If the dogs have extras down back you either have to kick it deep to the pockets or hit up short targets. So many of the dogs attacks began from kicks to the danger zone, 30 metres out dead infront.

Stupid and bloody obvious from Melksham

Preuss' hitouts have got progressively better throughout the game. Good work on changing up the hits and tactics.

Just had to check the AFL rules to make sure I wasn't mistaken. They say the free kick can be awarded where the incident take place or where the ball is. Considering they were both the same spot it shows that the umpire literally didn't know the rule. For me that's worse than most regular mistakes