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15 minutes ago, rjay said:

Trouble is he's playing sore so wouldn't be the best time to try this...

Very good point. 
 

46 minutes ago, SPC said:

I know that there has been a few discussions in similar threads, but wanted to know who we can roll through the middle as the 3rd midfielder.

Both Trac and Oliver compliment each other, but I feel we just don’t have a third who can carry the weight and free these guys a little. 
 

For a while now I have been banging on about Salem or Rivers as an option, along with ANB. With Bowey playing back and looking at home in defence, might be time to complete the most powerful midfield in the comp.

 

Keen to hear people’s thoughts on who they think could offer some class, cleanness and defensive pressure. 

Have to try Salem in the middle one of the next 2 weeks. :-  is a low risk move - if it turns out he is more effective as a half-back flank, then back he goes in time for finals 

15 hours ago, Rusty Nails said:

Bumping this post AM.

Once we add Viney in with Harmes we are talking 2 semi-heavy inside mids here plus the two big bulls in Tracc & Clarry.  Add to these Gawn at no.4 in clearance averages this season (ahead of Harmes in 5th) then we have this area well covered IMV.

Is this why we often look to throw Kozzie into the mix early to get some mobility / agility happening?  We also often hear the cry for Melk as well but alas, he does show glimpses of some lovely work on the receive out of the middle, but just not consistent enough to hold his place.  Nor does he offer the defensive capability to contain opponents.

I have to concur that Viney and Harmes both need to recognise they are not Pendles et al and just look for the unseflish hand off or find someone short in most cases.  Ok, if they're both coming off an injury free pre-season i think both have the capability of a little more evasiveness / agility and, in the case of Harmes, the fend off on the burst early on in the season.  But when they don't and or playing sore as the season wears on it's a very diff scenario with a change up required as you say.

Still think we are short one silky mostly outside mid at this point.  Casey doesn't seem to offer anyone of this ilk from what i've seen to this point either.  Hopefully this is on our agenda of our recruiting team for 2022.  And someone who is already up and about as the window won't remain open for long.

Finding/trading in this option also frees up Viney to play more time as a defensive forward which i believe he is more suited to from here (somewhere around 65/35 HF/Middle for mine)

If Bowey continues to step up and play the Salem role, can Salem become the “silky mostly outside mid” we desperately need??

Let’s hope Jack’s reaction is as follows

”I don’t want to distract the club or team, so I will accept the decision without appeal. I will use the 2 weeks to work on my fitness, kicking and taking the first option” 

gives the club a chance to compare the difference of Jordon (or equivalent) playing Viney’s role. Then making an informed decision on best line-up for R23 game against Geel. 
 

2 weeks 

1 minute ago, titan_uranus said:

Again, what Gleeson says isn't determinative of anything! He's arguing for the AFL, not setting the charge or defining it.

Gleeson submitted to the Tribunal what they should find. It turns out they've agreed with him, but when Gleeson gets up and says "this was contact to the throat", Viney was entitled to deny it.

There's no "spin" here and for you to suggest Anderson didn't "check" something is in my view seriously misplaced.

Hard to follow your point here. 

the charge was for serious misconduct including “contact to the throat/neck”, the plea was changed from guilty to not guilty because they didn’t realise they were admitting to contact to neck/throat. 

highly unlikely that “contact to neck/throat” wasn’t included on initial documentation 

Best guess is 3 weeks (because he changed to not guilty)

would have got 2 weeks if maintained guilty plea, and admitted he was on the throat 

16 minutes ago, McQueen said:

This could backfire badly here....

Agree. Fair chance they will upgrade the 2 weeks to 3 weeks if found to be to the throat. 
 

Regarding the Harmes & Viney debate, the other point to consider is the effect of having 2 of them! 

to have 2 of your key ball-getters both horrible by foot, poor decision-makers, ie holding the ball, fending off, when there was an easy first option:- potentially amplifies the negatives of each individual player..  ie if it was just 1 of them, they probably wouldn’t get the same degree of negative feedback. 

I have got my head around Viney playing as a defensive forward with a 5 mins run in the middle each qtr. Also acknowledge Harmes is an effective tagger when there is a match-up....but how do we stop them from thinking they are Dusty Martin and doing too much? If they could just accept that there is a role for them as defensive pressure players who get 10-15 possessions (taking first option, quick handballs etc) then there wouldn’t be a problem. 

Are the coaches encouraging them to try and get somewhere closer to trac/Oliver, or are they being told to just play their role? (which would be valued if they simplified things) 

1 week for every second he un-necessarily has his forearm on the throat.

5 week holiday. 

Coaches votes

9. Petracca

9. Oliver 

6. Max Gawn

3. Luke Jackson

3. Jake Lever

no Viney or Harmes 

28 minutes ago, binman said:

I have zero doubt Jordon will be in our finals team.

Smart use of him as a medical sub I reckon. Kept him around the team. Gave him a much needed rest and allowed them to give sparrow a deserved run after being the go to medi sub for much of the season.

I reckon they will do the same thing this week too.

So, no change.

I tgought viney played well. Harmes not so much. But for those potting those two, it is instructive in the club's match report, both were listed in tbe best players (with harmes listed third). 

BEST  
Melbourne: Oliver, Petracca, Harmes, May, Jackson, Brown, Viney   

I think ultimately they will want melksham in our finals team. But he can bide his time and come in for the cats game.

The best found on the MFC site, is simply picked up from the AFL app best every week - a similar standard of just looking at stats (similar to HS + the age).......Got absolutely nothing to do with the club’s view of who was best. 
 

1 hour ago, Red and Blue realist said:

Funny how preconceived ideas form the basis of a lot of people's changes, although I haven't seen 1 call for ANB to be dropped this week (so far), so that's refreshing. Both the HS and Age had Harmes in the best, yet around half the calls on here have been for him to be axed. No way will he go out, yes cleaning up some disposal and taking the first option would make him a better player, but his defensive skills/efforts (5 tackles in the 1st quarter when it was still actually a game!) go overlooked on here but I'm sure will be noted by the coaches.

No change for mine, unless TMac's back is still sore today, then no point putting him on the plane - take and plan for Weid to play, hours on the plane on Saturday and then hours more today could lead to a longer term back issue, so unless he's right today, I hope they take no risks. 

All that tells you is that the age and HS reporters read the stats, rather than watching games to determine the best. 

only best Harmes and Viney were in was for GC! 

Out:  Harmes

In:  Jordon

** well played today Jacko - grateful that the selection committee didn’t think like the demonland jacko bashers. 

13 minutes ago, hardtack said:

Aye, when I were a lad, we lived in shoebox in middle of road, with nowt but a handful of gravel for dinner. ???

Funny you all have this view knowing they will play.

Be interesting to see the reactions on news of “out Lever and McDonald” for 2 x losses against GC and WCE. 
 

1 minute ago, Lord Nev said:

It would clearly be more than 1 week given the time between games, traveling, quarantine periods and potential for worse.

Nothing 'soft' about putting your family ahead of your job.

Even if 2 weeks, same view. 

If it was to do with being there for the birth, sure that takes priority. But it’s not. 

if the team was bottom 4, and not much to play for, then sure.

Opportunities like this year, don’t come around all that often - who knows it may be the best opportunity both players have for a flag. 
 

3 hours ago, Lord Nev said:

They may prefer to do the right thing by their families. Personally, I wouldn't blame them.

Is this a joke?

1 week away from family for 2 must win games, to get a spot in the top 4!  Yes, I am aware of the strain from new-borns, but it’s 1 week, not 6 months.

the world has become soft! 

5 hours ago, Pates said:

I’d hate us to be whiners like Scott but if we did a flyflo situation into Darwin and back that up with Perth that will completely destroy the players bodies coming to the end of the season. I hope the club is pushing for a Victorian game or at worst game on the Gold Coast. 

Will it though?

Darwin to Perth roughly 4 hours, the same as Darwin to Melb. 

Could see Darwin to Melb, then Melb to Perth being an issue - but cutting a leg out by going straight from Darwin to Perth for quarantine could actually work for us. 

1 hour ago, old dee said:

We are not going to agree on this one binman. Blaming the umpire is the perennial excuse for not playing well enough . 

Agree. There is nothing worse than supporters blaming umpires for a loss!

beaten by the better team on the night. Full stop! 
 

3 hours ago, Jaded said:

Drugs are bad kids. 

Alternatively, drugs are good if can do that kind of maths in your sleep.

50 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

To be honest since the bye, Jackson has been down in majority of those games since. 

Since the bye Jackson has come in from $15 to clear second fav for the rising star - so clearly some people think he has been playing ok. 

1 hour ago, binman said:

Must be a morning for being argumentative. Maybe lock down is getting to me.

Jackson was poor last week. And is yet another ayer who has been down for a few weeks.

Again I reckon extra training loads is likely to be a big factor. Particularly for a young fella in only his second year of afl. And he plays a pretty tough role.

Like Gus, super important to our structure and tactical flexibility in terms of how we utilise Max and create match up problems for opposition coaches.

Luke ain't going out of this team. 

what is your view on the timing of these extra training loads? 

ie loads done, and now ease back trying to peak for this last month + finals? 

or more weeks of higher loads? 

our ladder position, our fitness boss’ history, and our fixture all lead to the conclusion that the past month or so would have been a pretty ideal time to increase the loads (and I am sure they accept that you likely have to sacrifice a loss or two for the benefit of peaking at finals time) 

On 7/21/2021 at 1:08 PM, Yung Blood said:

I get what you're saying re Brown. Give him a few more weeks to find some continuity with the team. Hopefully some consistency can be found in how we deliver the ball to him.

But not sure if I would go as far as to say he's more critical to our structure then ANB, Kossie and Fritta will ever be. Apart from kicking 72 goals between them they are crucial to our forward line structure especially defensively which is how we have generated most of our scoring this season. Definitely need to see more from Brown to warrant a spot come finals. Some signs starting to show the last few weeks that might come to fruition. Fingers crossed!

Brown is a lock for the rest of the year. 

we need a key forward to play that role, and Weid has proven beyond all doubt that he can’t be trusted for this year at least. 

4 hours ago, Demon17 said:

Dees are 1.84 on sportsbet. Dogs 2.00.

I'm not a gambler so how on earth can this be explained? 

Pretty simple.

- which team is undefeated against top 8, and which team has struggled in most of their big contender games this year

- who convincingly won the last game the 2 teams played in a strong 4 qtr performance 

- Who has no injuries, and who lost one of their best players to a Covid isolation this week 

- who has responded very strongly after their 3 losses this year, and who just got over the line to a weak bottom 8 team, that they very easily could have lost 

the odds are pretty spot on IMO

3 minutes ago, dazzledavey36 said:

The VFL was up and running when Jack returned against the Don's.

 

Goody has a weakness for tough inside midfielders that torch the footy. We know they are his fav’s :-  hopefully Chocko + oooze are helping him get over his obsession.