Pickett2Jackson

And Fritsch was about to go to the next level and end up kicking 60, whats the bet this hand issue lingers all seasons.  We are [censored] cursed!  [censored]

Start 4-0,  immediately lose our two bookends.

[censored] [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored]

The dark day were over with that win.    We had not beaten them in a decade or more, and they were the reigning premiers.   Good times, good times.

57 minutes ago, dino rover said:

Loved this...https://howtheyplay.com/team-sports/Top-50-Stupid-Football-Quotes

Its not just AFL...

• "He's got a lot of self-belief in himself." —Graham Beecroft
• "They were numerically outnumbered." —Garry Birtles
• "Not to win is guttering." —Mark Noble
• "And with 4 minutes gone, the score is already 0-0." —Ian Dark

 

Jobe Watson has already outdone all those quotes.   Cant believe the stuff that comes out of his mouth.

14 hours ago, Jontee said:

Well I reckon what word should we use?

 

 

It wasnt so much the use of the word star I have issue with, its calling players like Dalhaus, Cuynnington,  Rowan M arshall, Zak Jones etc etc a star.

But seeing the word star in 95% of headlines is also absurd.

1 hour ago, IRW said:

I saw Jones having a long friendly exchange with Selwood post siren.

You guys need to grow up 

Good for them.

Selwood is still a diving, ducking cheat.

3 hours ago, Grapeviney said:

Even illiterate people know Mea Culpa isn't French.

 

Yeah everyone knows its Spanish

Meanwhile Jeff Kennett is outraged after literally everyone but him is labelled a star.

But sadly not everyone is a star.  This young Collingwood player who has never stepped on to the field is only a future star.   :(

I am a star.  You are a star.  Everyone is a star.  Hell even Zak Jones and Luke Dalhaus are stars.    

2 hours ago, Deemania since 56 said:

Healey was a true champion's champion, particularly just before he was tempted by Sydney to re-locate. He was doing magical things in the forward line - an immense talent at that point.

Would have been nice to have him in 87 and 88. 

Just now, Chelly said:

I don’t quite get the comment about the Weed and BBB getting through the VFL unscathed and then still having their names on the injured list with “1 week” and “1 to 2 weeks” respectively. If that applies, surely you’re not going to play either AFL or VFL?

They are both playing and therefore should not be on the injury list, not sure whats going on there.

8 minutes ago, Josh said:

Anyone see the exchange between Selwood and Kozy after he had him holding the ball in the middle of the ground?

I thought I seen another exchange between the 2 maybe at a end of quarter break?

Not sure who started it but I don't mind a bit of lip, especially 4-0. Reminds me of early 2000's Brisbane team.

 

The tackle then the trash talk has been posted on here and talked about a lot, but yes at the end of the half right after Trac kicks that goal Selwood goes after Kozzie and Oliver intervenes.

Sounds like they may have been at each other all game.   God bless Kozzie for showing no respect to that diving cheat.

Oliver has now played 90 games in a row, third longest streak in the AFL.

Trac has played 62 in a row good for 11th in the AFL, and Ed Langdon 61 which is 12th.

We have a few iron men in the engine room!

The next highest for Melbourne is 28 in a row for Jake Lever, and it isnt it amazing what some continuity can do for a player as Jake is in All Australian form.

The finals are less interesting these days thanks to the bye before week 1.   It really kills the momentum of the season.

A pre grand final bye is the biggest momentum killer imaginable.

10 minutes ago, I'va Worn Smith said:

Watch this space.  Strong mail that there is another major change in the wind.

We finally landed a big fish.  We landed Choco and now we got Eddie, you beauty!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

17 minutes ago, Dr.D said:

1 goal in 4 games. if he was 28 we'd be saying he needs to get dropped. Pedersen used to do this role but kicked his 2 goals a game at the same time. Just saying some truth bombs. 

I am starting to think you are not a real doctor.

The best midfielder in the AFL and arguably the best player, Christian Petracca, needs 1 goal for his 100th career goal.

20 hours ago, CHF said:

4-0

4-zero

4- nil

4-zip

4 – nada

I do like the look of that. The 4 is so important as is the figure 16 for the points we have thus far. I also like the number 8 which is the points break we have over a number of the pre-season ‘contenders’.

And there is 2 which is our position on the ladder.

4 rounds, 4 wins and 16 premiership points in the bank.

I watched it live via streaming and a few times I found myself thinking back to my childhood. As a young lad I just loved to go to the Saturday matinee that was on at the local cinema with my mates during the summer holidays. There was always a really good B grade adventure movie on. A western, a pirate saga or a good war story. All good, but my favourite was always the Musketeers. Damn they were good. Always having fun, Always getting into problem places only to be helped out by one of their other three mates. The backyard games after a Musketeers movie would find us with our sword sticks in hand giving a battle cry of “ALL FOR ONE – ONE FOR ALL!!” followed by a charge into Mum’s flowerbed to decapitate the hydrangeas. God, I got into trouble for that.

The Melbourne Musketeers out played the Geelong Flowerbeds in Round 4. We had a musketeer troop in each area of the ground. They supported each other, exerted the pressure needed, were well lead and looked good doing it.

It was another 4 points, but I find these points the sweetest of the season so far.

And so, to the Round 5 encounter with the Hawks at the G on Sunday afternoon. What to say about the Hawks? Well, they have not been great so far this season. In all truth, I have to admit that I have not followed them all that closely. Saw a little of their game yesterday and while they have a couple of handy performers, they also have a lot of ordinary performers. Clarkson did a great job as a rookie senior coach when he first went there but personally, I think he has run his course. I look at them and see a very ordinary list playing to expectations.

The facts:

We are coming off a win at the G against the Flowerbeds - Advantage us.

We still do not look to be playing to our potential – Advantage them

They had a loss over in WA and have the flights to contend with. - Advantage us

Howe injured for them and Lewis rubbed out, May out for us. - No advantage either way (maybe a bit for them with our loss of May)

Problem areas of the game for us (not sure that this is the right terminology given the wins we have had):

After four matches this season we are seeing a very different team performing in the red and blue than was running around last year. My observations are that the players seem to be very clear on their primary roles, playing them confidently and executing well. They also look to be responding to the on-field situation with more awareness. Well done to the coaching staff if this is the case as they look to have made the message simple and straightforward. A bit like the way we are playing at the moment.

Defence, I was a bit worried about in the first quarter when Lever dropped a couple of simple marks that he would normally snaffle. However, once May went off early in the second, Lever rose to the occasion and did not just cut out errors from his game but took the leadership role in that area of the ground and did a great job with his troop of Musketeers. Next week will test our structure down back with the introduction of a new tall defender into the system. Looks as if it will be Petty and I do not mind that. I know I am down on Jetta a bit but I think Clarkson is just the sort of opposition coach that will come up with a plan to exploit Jetta’s limitations. Loved the way that they adjusted to May’s absence. Hunt is in great form.

Hawks have a few good players in the middle but they will have a problem or three covering all of Oliver, Petracca and Viney and getting their own drive from the center. O’meara and Mitchell are the main threats in the middle and they will need to work hard to dictate terms. If we get the ascendancy there and put them on the back foot so they are reactive rather than proactive then that is the game right there. These three along with the support players are doing the job very well. Langdon is a great pickup for us and, as someone on this board observed, he and Hunt seem to feed off each other and I love the sight of the two of them running the wing.

Max and Luke sharing the ruck duties is working well. The fixtures could not have been better for us with the teams we have met so far having not a lot of ruck talent to go against us. This has allowed Max to move around the ground as required covering defence as required and also moving forward to give an extra dimension to the forward structure. It has also allowed Luke to get some good experience and time in the ruck.

If the mids keep to the Musketeer’s philosophy and play well and support each other, then we should dominate this area.

Now for the forwards……. We have to include discussion of them you know…..

The good; we kicked a winning score last week. Fristch with 4 (there is that number again… Fristch to get 5 this week?)

The bad; This is a tough one…… The bad (for Geelong and I hope for Hawks) our forward pressure across the forward 50.

The ugly; Fristch’s hair

Good to be in the situation where our two missing key forwards are back playing and we are in no rush to get them back in the team. What a luxury it is to be able to nurture them to full fitness via Casey.  I will be interested to see who the poor man’s Jayden hunt is sent to cover. Frost on TMac, Fristch? I just see our troop of forward Musketeer’s having too much flexibility for the Hawks defence. We have pressure forwards to tackle and harass, we have a lot of flexibility to rotate players through there to get the matchup we want to try and exploit and we are getting more accurate.

Last week I predicted a 3 goal win and later revised it upwards to 5 goals and we won by 4. This week I do not want to get ahead of myself so I am going conservative and predicting a win to the Dees by 5 goals.

The bandwagon is parked in the driveway, the red and blue livery polished to perfection and the bathwater steamer bubbling away. There are plenty of vacant seats on board at the moment but I am sure with 5-0 against our name the seats will fill fast.

 

“All for one and one for all!”

Weather update for Sunday  -  21 degrees and possible shower.

Dry deck =  Melbourne by 70 plus points

14 minutes ago, Lucifer's Hero said:

We are in the queue port-adelaide-eye-bombers-star-merrett

"Melbourne are another club to have shown strong interest in Merrett, who would add run and ball use to a formidable ball-winning midfield".

If we get him we must be planning to trade some reasonable players out to make sal cap space s I doubt the players that are likely to not have contracts renewed this year, will free up anywhere near enough $ after their replacements are recruited.  Not to mention our talent need to be rewarded.  Will be an interesting trade period.

We would be looking very attractive to him and any other FA's looking for success.

 

Almost too good to be true that we would get Merrett.   Our midfield would rival the 3peat Lions teams.

The man has been to the mountaintop before.  Ports first and only flag.

1 hour ago, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Are you sure? It's possibly there but perhaps you have to click through 17 different places to find it.

I no longer bother with the AFL's own website. It's just too hard to navigate. I get all the news I need right here.

Its definitely not on there.  Was about the only good thing on there so of course they got rid of it.

3 minutes ago, RedBlueandTrue said:

You'd think we might have a few shots at most disposals by two players named Christian 

 We would surely own that record already.  Even in the most recent game they had 59 combined.

7 minutes ago, ArtificialWisdom said:

This is spot on. At least half our goals came from contests that involved these 2 where they don't earn stats.

For others that hadn't noticed, check out these time stamps in the all the goals video:

0:00, 1:57, 3:08, 3:25, 3:50 for Jackson (admittedly 1:57 he doesn't impact much but he was the target)

1:34 and 2:45 For Tmac. And that's not counting the ones where he was in scoring chains.

 

 

Amazing how Pickett and Jackson were involved in almost every goal.