NeveroddoreveN

I think the midfielders as well as Gawn are responsible to get it right. It seems to me that quite simply the oppositions midfield work harder/smarter than ours, particularly at centre bounces. We are slightly better at stoppages around the ground, as we have more players around the contest,so we are not always outnumbered on the outside. In the midfield though you got generally Clayton/Gawn then take your pick out of Harmes/Brayshaw/Viney/Sparrow. Clayton is doing his job and some. Gawn is not thinking where to tap to advantage....he hits to the outside often enough and nobody is even there. We basically need our other onballers at least negating that by one of them always being on the outside, if not both. It is really upto Harmes/Viney/Brayshaw/Sparrow and even Petracca to work harder to get to the outside and balance out the contests. They need to be far more disciplined and trust Clayton to win the ball if tapped to him in close and have options on the outside. They all get sucked into the contest way too easily and is one of the reasons we win the taps but lose clearances so often. There is no balance, and none of them are sacrificing their natural games so we can actually get the ball out with some type of regularity.

Said similar before myself. Max wins his tap then does nothing to help the midfielders clear the congestion. He is a liability almost when the ball hits the ground. He needs to start throwing his weight around, he is a huge unit but Spargo plays with more tenacity around the contests. Max needs to start playing with lot more aggression, clearing paths for our onballers by blocks/screens or just throwing himself at a contest and make things happen. Complaining to the umpires shows the weak mindset he actually has during games. Seeing him being bullied by comparative midgets says a lot about us. He is our Captain and if he does not lead by example and fly the flag occasionally, who will? Love Max as a "character" and apparently he trains like a dedicated footballer should, but it is time to show a hardened edge to his game to not make him so easy to play against. I don't think Max gets angry though, or he never shows it by his actions. Every match is a virtual war, he needs to start playing accordingly. ATM a player like Mumford would do a lot more for our esteemed midfield. FFS get angry and SHOW it Max!

I will have a crack. In a better team like Geelong or Richmond he would be less likely to get tagged. With better players around him and better coached team he would have others screening/blocking for him more often. Atm he has to do things the hard way because he is every week tagged. We need players like Harmes/Viney/Brayshaw to do a lot more blocking for him....or getting out into space to receive his handballs. Those 3 players i mention do not require teams to put any thought into us....Tag Clarry and Petracca, let the others do whatever. Our midfield does not scare any of the other teams right now. Viney/Brayshaw/Harmes all need to hurt the opposition in some way. Currently they really don't. All are overpaid for their output and consistency/value to the team. Would be paying Oliver whatever he wants....i would go as far to say that would not swap him for all of those 3 put together. He is THAT valuable to us. Without him we drop off a cliff.

They have a few speedsters. Who would Jetta play on? Can he keep up with any of them? I think you could play Hunt on Butler, Langdon on Hill and after that am struggling to find good match ups for the others. Jetta played much better than expected vs Freo but i am not sure he has any easy matchups this week and is likely to get exposed. I would have Bowey in there for the extra pace that is going to be needed against their mosquito fleet. Will be interesting selecting team for this week! If we go too slow against Saints they will tear us to shreds at times.

I actually thought our forward line functioned quite well against a good Freo defence. The tackling by all players in that area seemed to really step up. If all our forwards continue that type of pressure they will all chime in with goals at various times. Not worried about Spargo/Kossie lack of goals as they set others up with their disposal + pressure. Fritsch looks like on any given day he could bag 5-6 goals. He needs to nail a few more from tight angles but from what i noticed he is only ever few degrees off in accuracy, it will come. Tmac is the best game i seen from him in nearly 2 years, hope he continues to build on form/confidence. Majak is probably the only other forward bashing the door down atm....would love to see what he can do, surely he is in the frame to get picked this week....even if just as emergency sub!

See him having much more upside that Harmes atm. He does not get sucked into every contest, has quick hands and structurally is smart with his positioning. He will get better the more he plays. Much more worried about Harmes output for the time he spends around the ball. If he is not tagging he is getting lost wherever that me be on the field. Honestly both deserve another week, allowing Viney to get in more match practice and his fitness closer to 100%.

Did you even watch the game lmao? Membrey was really good for the Saints, marked nearly everything that came his way, also his kicking was good. So dismissive of a player who had a great game, and usually kicks at least a few against us at the least.

Really surprised so many are picking Melksham in the team. He has done little in the last 2 years, does not tackle, does not work hard enough, has had no preseason games/form....GET HIM IN. I am presuming those selecting Melksham really want Goodwin to lose his job. Melksham needs to be absolutely banging the door down with form in the reserves. He is so far from an automatic inclusion i really wonder about some of our supporters sanity thinking he is even in the conversation for a place in the team.

Great podcast will definitely be listening to this on a regular basis. The flow of it is so easy to listen to, amazing job guys!!

100% agree he can become an incredible player for us. His work rate has gone up a few notches and he did wheel out of some contests and into space which is something we have seen rarely over last few years. I too rate rate some of our guns pretty highly and likewise expect more from them. Like Salem ...yesterday had a good solid game but went missing for large chunks of it. Petracca had a good/average game but was still quite effective. All 3 of these players can improve quite a bit. If and when they do, we have the nucleus of a very dangerous team with May/Lever/Gawn. Seeing Tmac rediscover some form is also really exciting for us. He needed that confidence boost more than anyone i can think of on our list!

Bit harsh on Oliver. He could not touch the ball in the first 10 minutes of the game and at that stage Freo were 8-0 in clearances. Clayton was getting held so often at stoppages. Freo never really let him do as he pleased there. The bigger issue was Harmes playing on the outside....He got pushed into the contest so many times it was ridiculous, it just kept happening and it freed up the outside for them nearly every time. Oliver did not win a heap of clearances but his work rate all over the ground was exceptional. 35 disposals at 80% efficiency and 9 score involvements says he really was an influencial player. He was pretty much tagged all over the ground but still managed handballs that put team mates into space. If he won more at the clearances /stoppages like he normally does he would have had 50+ possessions. Was watching him very closely as i had $ on him to get most possessions....If he continues to play in such a manner, he will be firmly in Brownlow contention. His work rate was off the chart and he was bobbing up all over the place and i believe he will only get better if he continues to work so hard. He hardly deserves criticism for such a game anyway....If it were Jones or Hunt i could understand.

Laid a nice multi for Clayton Oliver and Melbourne to win by 1-39 points. Happy with the win, and just getting the 4 points. I think will leave it til bit later to review our performance. That game was a lot to digest, good and bad!

Who has actually kicked goals so far? This thread is so confusing as to wtf is actually happening!

Agreed he does not have the same pace. He does have elite kicking skills though but "chooses' to take safer options way too often. Salem can be so much better and have a much higher impact than what he currently does though. I have expected Salem to really step up for few years now...imo he just seems complacent and not pushing hard enough to go to the next level/s. Hopefully this year!

I reckon Salem is much better than your average AFL player but not quite in the elite category as yet. Watching Saad play in the same position last night is where Christian should be aiming. He needs to run and carry, as well as taking on the tough kick inboard a lot more often before coming elite imho.

He took his chance i guess in a half of footy. One thing i did notice is he was playing with an intensity that he rarely showed with us. Generally he just looked lethargic for most of his games with us and was often 2nd to the ball or having little effect in nullifying a contest. Happy for him also. He badly needed a fresh start. We put a lot of games into him. Hope it all comes to fruition at Carlton for him. Keep up the intensity Oscar, it is required in the AFL.

That would be the safe thing to do..... Bowey in a year or two would be ridiculous, he should be playing plenty this year. Jetta unless he has resurgence should be down at Casey helping our kids develop imo. Jetta is a lock down defender and if he does have a small to guard he struggles to keep up with them.. Would not be picking him back pocket purely for the sake of him filling the only role he can play. He also offers very little on the rebound out of defence. His best is well behind him. Hope i am wrong and he kills it though, loved him as player for long time.

Not sure of Jetta in the team, he showed he was bit slow and got hammered few times also. I would really like to see Bowey take his spot, has pace and skills. We can only have so many of our 30+ players in the team at same time before we make other teams look quick. Jones off the bench or whatever, but i would not be playing VDB and Jetta on top of that with what they showed in the preseason games.

I am more thinking from Williams side of it. I am sure Richmond/Hardwick did the right thing but could not blame Williams for being salty one iota. Pretty crappy place to hear that type of news regardless of whether it was done it the right manner or not anyway.

Definitely not but after 4 years service, would you expect more that that? I would.

Told on the phone while attending a funeral, after 4 years. That is pretty poor. Especially considering the glowing endorsements he still gets from the Richmond players!

Yeah one of them starting with W....not 100% sure but definitely from that league!

We picked him up from Williamstown....few years out of the AFL for no real good reason imo!

I would argue if you are not being real, you are being fake. Show some passion ffs Simon. Has he ever tried being honest at a post game presser? Not sure he has as yet! Anything negative seems to be either "learnings" or " fugazi" depending on how whether the "noise" is coming directly at him from reporters or the general media. Some honesty would be so refreshing. He talks of a disconnect quite often when it comes to his team, i think it starts from the coaches mouth, what he says often disconnects the supporters and so often he is just repeating the same BS. He needs to get much better at the whole caper.

Just happy they are trying things a bit outside the box. A few of Kossies runs through the backline and midfield were some of his most scintillating pieces of play last year. You get the sense he is going to be much more valuable than a forward pocket in the long run. With his skillset he may well end up the Liam Ryan type, creating nightmares for opposition up and down the ground. Only his 2nd year, we got a ripper here i reckon!