Lord Nev

So, score involvement means the player has been involved in an unbroken chain of play that leads to a score. Goal assist is creating a goal by getting the ball to a teammate either via a disposal, knock-on, ground kick or hitout, or by winning a free kick before the advantage is paid to the goal scorer. TBH, neither is particularly telling IMO.

My elderly Mum, who is very high risk, had to wait 2 months for her first AZ shot from her local GP in suburban Melbourne. Which for me, also raises the point about why there doesn't seem to be a program to get nurses out to old folks homes and villages so vulnerable people aren't having to head out into public, let alone a GP clinic, to get their shots.

I would agree, except it's not 'score assists' it's 'goal assists' and the number is that low for them that it's not really worth bothering with. Using your same argument, someone could give a Joe the goose handball and get a 'goal assist' when in reality others have done the work. I prefer the 'kick inside 50 retention rate' stat for the sake of what we're talking about, but unfortunately it's not publicly available.

That's totals though. Viney's missed a bunch of games.

Petracca averages 0.47 per game, Oliver 0.53.

Sure, but for score involvements he's ahead of Melksham, Spargo, Langdon, Jackson, ANB, Brown, Harmes, Weid and a ton more... Goal assists isn't a great stat. Pickett is one of our best for that right? He averages 0.47 per game.

That's not what happened.

TBF that seems to be a trend this year - leading to the pockets - you're probably correct in your observation it's to prevent turnovers/rebound opportunities. I don't totally blame the players though, our forward structure has been a mess for a while and it would be compounded by the selection this year which has meant it's not only different players every week but also numerous different structures. TMac and Brown were back to being all over each other on the weekend. Plus, from what I've heard, quite often forward leads haven't been honoured when they should have so that would add to the mess.

Yeah 100%, no argument there. We seem to want to get it deep forward in one go rather than think through it. In this scenario, it looks like maybe going short to Brayshaw would have been a good option. Pretty disappointing.

Clearly more than 40m. Here's a 50m line on both pics, allowing for the slight change of perspective.

Yeah I prefer Viney playing the mid/forward role like he did at the start of the year. He played better, the midfield worked better, just made sense. For mine, when we have Gawn, Viney, Petracca and Oliver as our centre group we're very predictable, that's why I like us giving Pickett a run through there, Jackson rucking, even throw it around with Sparrow, Jordon, ANB etc.

I doubt either will come out anyway, both are Goody faves. Didn't think vB was bad, just more thinking about the balance of our midfield and I think having both of them in means we've tilted a bit too far away from skill and it's going to cost us with our delivery forward.

To clarify - Not meaning centre bounces, more meaning mid/forward. If you look at Gus and Jordon's heat maps it makes it pretty clear. Interestingly I noticed Goody switched it up and had Jordon at a few bounces late in the game. Still not sure why Pickett wasn't played through there like usual though. Personally I think Gus played better on the wing.

Fritsch is 60m away and calling for the kick to go even longer.

Look, I agree with the premise, especially about our delivery forward, but you're expecting a 60-70m kick here to get to one of them.

He already is. The last 2-3 weeks we've had Jordon more on the wing and Gus more in the middle/forward.

Yeah, it seemed an 'off' game for his leadership, if that makes sense? Has been great most of the year in that regard, but there was more than the usual umpire complaining, silly hitouts out of frustration etc.

Was strangely ironic given how often he burns team mates usually...

Our midfield functions better, and we play better, seemingly when Viney's role is more of a mid/forward as opposed to a pure inside mid. We didn't seem to mix up our centre bounce group enough last night, didn't look like Pickett was in any of the bounces? Here's Viney's heat map from the game last night: Conversely, here's his heat map from when we beat Geelong early in the year:

Would have to be either his hitout form is up and down, the centre group aren't all in sync or oppositions have worked him out. Could be a bit of all of the above too. He looked back to vintage Max last week with the hitouts so not sure what's happened. Whatever it is though, just wish we'd stick with what is working for a bit longer in games.

Yeah and we lost May during the game, had Jetta and Jones in the team. Plus, who knows where that game will actually end up being played too.

We've already beaten the Dogs and Cats this year, Optus is hardly a fortress in 2021. I mean really, more chance we lose to Suns and Crows and win the other 3 if you're actually going by our season so far. Also, there's probably a lot of things you don't see happening...

Did it. Picked favourites, had us losing to Dogs and Cats, we finish 3rd. Babow.

Yep, been saying for a while now there should be heat on Stafford. Been at the club for nearly ten years, maybe time to move on. It's not just the goal kicking, but the forward structure too. Once again tonight everyone just standing in packs.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/teams/afl/coaches/greg-stafford