Pickett2Jackson

Main thing for  today is Port destroys the Eagles.

And as much as I hate Essendon I wouldnt mind seeing them upset the Saints.

Massive respect to Rocket Rod Owen

1 minute ago, FarNorthernD said:

I had to Google but you are bang on DZ. 41.20 over his career which is very handy accuracy wise. I’ll swap my vote to Hunt

So Hunt is a better kick for goal than Fritsch.

2 hours ago, gaelicfootballfan said:

An Irish Gaelic football fan here who has enjoyed watching the 3 Dublin girls with the Dees & other Irish girls in this years AFLW.
 

Glad to see the opinion of Goldrick is as high on here as it is here at home. She is a phenomenally consistent player, 8 all stars in the last 9 years (All-Australian equivalent I believe?). Will go down as one of the greats of Ladies Football and is a household name now which is fantastic. There is no player in the country that can match or track her for 60 minutes. Shame about her injury and it puts her at risk of competing here at home when they return and she’ll be a huge loss. 
 

I thought the Lions game was Magees best showing and hopefully she builds on that for the Freo game. She’s another big talent, less flashy than Goldrick but is physical and gets through a mountain of work. She could be a real asset if she returns next year after this year under her belt and a proper pre season. 
 

Shame McEvoy hasn’t got much of a run, she’s a different type of player here at home than Magee and Goldrick and the game probably dosent suit her as much. She gave an interview not long ago indicating she wouldn’t return for 22 which is no surprise however I could see the other two give it a crack especially Magee and might possibly bring another teammate or two. The connection between Dublin LGFA and Melbourne has now been built which will encourage more girls to follow the same path these 3 have. 
 

Fingers crossed the Dees get through the Freo test. 

Just curious if you know much about Jimmy Stynes?

2 hours ago, picket fence said:

Those advocating Melksham or anyone else must have forgotten his abysmal 2020 season where he should have been dropped but wasnt. Hunt, Jones and Nev all doing enough and I m backing Gus to improve. For mine Vanderburg is cooked and cannot give consistency given his injury concerns. Hibbo maybe but again needs to force himself into a winning side. Jordon and Sparrow are the future and should be perservered with at all costs. With Ben Brown and Weeds to come back competition for places willbe hotly contested. This game would in the past be a typical Melbourne fail, however with Choco and Yze now having a large say, lets hope that we dont revertback to old typical Dees. One thing ill be watching is Fritsch kicking for goal coz unless he converts his place may be in jeopardy! NO CHANGE THIS WEEK

 

If we get done by this garbage GWS team everyone will want Melk and Hibbo back in.

6 minutes ago, Clint Bizkit said:

Richmond versus Sydney will be a belter, I rate the Swans very highly (that’s what happens when you can cherry pick talent through an academy).

Yeah they lose the COLA to supposedly even things up and then they get gifted all the best NSW talent which is a way bigger advantage than the COLA.   

Nothing compares to her.

All the Crows have to do next week is not lose to the lowly North and they will be 3-1

Ben King has 4 goals already.  Tex doing well again. Bruce kicking 10.

Its the year for big forwards....  Benny Brown would have kicked 80 this year if he played a full season.. we need him and Weid back!

3 hours ago, 58er said:

Sparrow also P2J

Yes , Sparrow too.  He loves a goal that kid.

Tex Walker off to another great start.  Did he spend any time with Dank and The Weapon over the summer?  Hes playing like hes 25 again

Most entertaining moment of the game

27 minutes ago, chookrat said:

North's percentage after 3 rounds is 37.3%. outside of Essendon I cannot think of a side they would be a chance to beat. It is quite likely they will go all season without a win and less than 50%.

Same thing was said about Adelaide last season and they ended up getting some wins.  North will win 2-3 games.

20 minutes ago, Better days ahead said:

There's a long hard road ahead for North. We've been through ourselves so i feel for them.

They used to destroy us when we were a basket case.  Didnt they beat us by 130  something points around 2012?   Their supporters loved it, openly mocked us.

Hope they're even worse than what they have shown today the next decade.  Thought they will be in Tassie long before that could happen.

And of course the Dogs play Kangaroos twice this season.  We only get them once.  Shocker hey?

Bruce will be the worst ever player to kick 10 if he does it

Check out the Dogs draw.  Made the finals last year, got gifted the #1 pick in the draft and then on top of it get the easiest draw you will ever see.

On 3/31/2021 at 8:23 PM, Meggs said:

Congratulations to our girls named in the 2021 All Australian squad (40 named):

Melbourne
Kate Hore
Karen Paxman
Tyla Hanks
Lauren Pearce

The final team of 21 – including a vice-captain and skipper – to be announced at the W Awards on Tuesday, April 20.

Is Lauren Pearce related to Daisy Pearce?

1 hour ago, A F said:

Ed doesn't tend to play centre bounces but  if he's included, Gus should certainly be in there. Sparrow occasionally takes forward stoppages and Harmes will when he's fit again too. 

Should have mentioned I wasn't putting the players in any positional order there.

If I was it would be Oliver-Petracca-Pickett at the opening bounces.... love that mix.

On 8/3/2020 at 11:33 AM, A F said:

Hi all. If one of the mods thinks this might be better in one of the other threads, feel free to merge. It feels like it needs its own thread though to me.

I want to discuss what people's preferred midfield mix is given IMV, we haven't been able to get the balance right now for at least 3 years or longer.

Everyone talks about the need for outside pace and delivery, better ball users, better structures or whatever.

But I want to talk purely about personnel here, because if we think back to the only time our midfield has truly clicked under Goodwin (outside of a patch in 2017 when we didn't have Gawn and became less predictable in a good way...), and we saw exponential growth in a number of players, was the middle of 2018.

The starting mids at that time were a mixture of Oliver, Gus and Harmes. Jones had moved to the half back flank by then. So had Lewis. Viney was out injured and we saw Harmes' growth as a run with mid. Gus worked nicely as an inside/outside mid that would often receive handballs from Oliver and then clear with reasonable accuracy and distance. It was a predictable mixture for our forwards too.

By the time the finals series came, Viney was back and played midfield minutes and was brilliant in the finals series, I thought. Our pressure was the highest it's been from the forwards and the mids, and the system was implementable for two weeks IMV.

There are a multitude of factors as to why 2019 was an unacceptable shambles, however we began the reset this year and let alone the forward delivery being a carbon copy of the issues experienced in 2019, it's pretty clear we haven't got the midfield mix right this year either. Even in the 3.5 quarters that we played against Hawthorn, easily our best match, we wasted, IMV, Gus and Harmes, who were probably easily in the bottom 5 for me in that game.

The other element that has thrown out our midfield mix is the rise of Petracca this year in particular. Last year the stats said he was playing 30/70% mid/forward, this year, those stats are reversed and rightly so. He's an impact player in the mould of Dustin Martin.

So how to get the best of out of our midfield? I've read multiple posts calling for Oliver to move forward, because Viney can't play anywhere else, because Petracca is so dominant you need him in the middle etc, and I've argued you fix the systems to better utilise the talents you have, not move the magnets.

However, IMV, our most balanced and damaging midfield combination is Oliver, Petracca and Gus, with Harmes filling in their midfield minutes when off or forward. Langdon has been a good recruit, despite what some think, and will become a very important player for us. Particularly, on the expanses of the MCG in years to come. He needs to fix up his disposal, but he'll get there. I'd also be playing Tomlinson on the other wing. Use his aerobic power and abilities to stretch the opposition and their zones.

So where does that leave Viney? Someone posted the other day, I can't remember who (sorry), that Viney throws out our midfield mix. I think it was you @rjay? I tend to agree. And whilst he loves the club and is a bull, he's too see ball get ball, but if he doesn't win the ball, often it's going down the other end.

This isn't a case of Viney improving his defensive accountability. He's not necessarily bad in that department, it's just his style bashes and crashes the midfield mix to a point where he upsets Oliver and Petracca's cleaner clearances and the makes our midfield less predictable to our forwards. This impacts on forward connection IMO.

At the end of last year, I wrote here that I'd be trading either Gus or Viney, because both players have difficulty slotting in anywhere else. And despite Jack having a very solid season, he's the one I'd be trading. Not to mention, we'd probably be well compensated for him (and could look to trade it for Ben King), I think we had an A grade midfield for the majority of 2018 and we've never recaptured that since Viney has returned to the mix.

In the meantime, I'd be playing Viney at half forward in AVB's pressure role, but I'd take the majority of his midfield minutes away from him. A tough, bold call, but we need to need recapture the 2018 form and the common denominator of success that season was the midfield mix I've described above. It's quite possible that the circuit-breaker of a new coach is needed to implement this, otherwise Goodwin, in order to save his job, must reshuffle.

Discuss.

Gawn/LJ
Oliver
Petracca
Jordon
Langdon
Viney
Pickett
 

I love our new midfield!    Just looking for Angus to kick it up a notch now before I add his name in there.  

9 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The bloke that started this thread. Already started it last year.

Was actually quiet pathetic. 

Imagine writing off an 18 year old rookie in the garbage dump that was the covid 2020 season.  You wouldnt even write one off in a normal season unless you were a total [censored].

12 minutes ago, Pinball Wizard said:

This is from a Collingwood fan on their Extreme Black 'n' White: EBnW BULLET IN BOARD site -

END OF EMPIRE

There is a saying in the stock market world - 'The trend is your friend'. For those not acquainted with the stock market it basically implies when you can clearly see a trend developing it becomes easier to predict the future.

Sadly, at Collingwood, the trend is not our friend. But it is, nonetheless, just as predictable.

This is clearly a side in its death roll.
Regardless of last night's result, we are no closer to winning a flag than we were last year. If anything we are further away.

What we are currently witnessing is a coach who probably knows he is marking time. What little coaching daring there was is gone. At this stage of the trend we find ourselves in self preservation mode. Hence, the reason the current side is still filled with players we know are just not good enough - JT, the Browns, Mayne, Hoskin -Elliott. You will never win a flag in 2021 with those guys. I'm sure Buckley knows it. But at this stage of the trend he has not conceded defeat and is still trying to scrape together wins rather than a better future for a new coach by playing kids.

The trend usually sees clinging to game winning hope continuing until it becomes blatantly obvious that a proper rebuild is more important than hanging on to the dream of playing finals.

It is also why we currently cling steadfastly to a game plan and structure week in week out. 

Case in point - Brisbane constantly flooded our forward 50 filling up space leaving Collingwood players free to build a defensive wall across the centre of the ground. Yet only ONCE did Collingwood try to go over the top (Howe). Instead, we kept chipping away in the belief that our sub standard forwards and wingers would do the job only to eventually turn the ball over & see Brisbane score on the counter attack time after time by running in to an open forward 50.

It was classic Rope-A-Dope.

Yet Howe, Crisp & Maynard can all tonk goals from just outside 50. Isn't that why we employ a team of coaches?

All Empires have a lifespan and this one is clearly coming to a slow and possibly ugly end.

The good news is so far Cox, Quayner and Daicos continue to improve. But we are still 6 good players + depth short of being a good team.

Love it.   They gave away Jaydn Stephenson for nothing.. he had 33 possessions and 7 tackles in Round 1.

8 goals for A.Jakovich

Thats gotta hurt Pies fans      ?  ? ??

Must say I do enjoy that Brisbane were stuck in Melbourne this week and could be 0-3...  they got to play at home all last season so [censored] them.