Stu

Full credit to Collingwood for how they mentally approach every moment of every game. But I have doubts that they can play with this intensity for 26/27 games. They strain every muscle and sinew to pressure, smother, spoil any contest, and it took that level of commitment from most of their players - as well as Adelaide kicking atrociously - for them to win this game. It's such a long season, and I just can't see how they can play such a high tempo / high risk style AND seemingly play in so many close, long games AND stay fresh. If I am wrong, it'll go down as one of the best seasons of footy from a team in the modern era.

I think I've realised that my loathing of Collingwood is almost as high as my love for the Dees. I was feeling sick with anxiety watching the game because I want them to lose so bad. I turned it off because I don't need that on a Sunday night :D

I wonder if this part was to reiterate the strategy for how they will setup for D50 ground balls? Clarkson may well look to utilise low, scrubby kicks to generate the success the Tigers had on Monday.

I imagine some time back Stevie made a slightly positive comment about Essendon, and another Dees fan said “if you love Essendon so much, why don’t you marry it?”… and so he proposed and Essendon said yes 😂

Spot on! You’re ready for a career as an AFL commentator.

I also loved the fan who could be heard screaming “you filthy cheats”, a few moments after the game was confirmed to be over with no score review 😂

It bothers me how she really tries to force these clever little quips or play on words all the time. They’re terrible and it massively detracts from the game. Instead of trying to be comedians, can they just try to add insight beyond what we see on the screen?

The last two seasons Jordan has had late season injuries that ruled him out of finals and meant he was sub for the grand final in ‘21. The FD may be being cautious with him and letting him work into the season. That’s the only reason I can see why they’d drop him after his game last week.

The AFL has just gone back to how it was pre-Covid. Games played Friday and Saturday have the starting team announced on Thursday night. Sunday and Monday games submit their teams 48 hours before the game.

A good insight into Clayton’s mindset as well as how cruel the AFL industry can be for young players looking to get drafted. Also some good insights on life inside the club.

That was a precession! We could have won by 150 but kicked really inaccurately (18.20 to 4.6). We kicked 1.6 in the final quarter.

Seeing the tactical and personnel changes the coaches made before and during the game, do you think we will see this tactical flexibility continue throughout the season? Or will we revert to being predictable when Max returns from injury? I imagine the coaches will see what and who works during the first half of the year, and then rotate through those options depending on the opponent and in-game situations later in the season.

Wrong thread

I think having Petty play as a defensive forward was a great move by Goodwin. It meant that when we Brown was subbed for Melksham we weren't undersized, leaving JVR to battle against either or both of the McCartin's. With the danger of Petty drawing one of their three talls away, it meant Melksham could be influential and do little things like in the link below... look for his bump on Paddy McCartin just as McCartin is about to jump to mark and spoil out to the pocket... https://app.screencast.com/WpHJunqcvKFf9

Given we’re playing Sunday, tonight’s team will likely include 4 ins and 1 out (Max). We know JVR is playing, so I think the other three will be May, Hibberd, and Jordan.

There was only three players over 30 that started the game (and only three that finished as Melksham replaced Gawn). We have six players in the 50-100 game category that are 21-23 years old, so 'experienced' doesn't necessarily mean old.

This is especially important against the Swans because Paddy McCartin is a great interceptor. JVR might not mark everything but he generally doesn't lose a marking contest. He often looks like he's out of the contest but somehow manages to force his way to spoiling or knocking his opponent off balance enough to effect a spillage.

Against the Hawks, the Swans used Ladham's as primary ruck and McLean as the chop out. I know this can be a useless stat but Ladham's (17) lost the hitout count to Meek (19) for the Hawks and McLean had five. Hickey and Reid are both out for a few more weeks with injury. Grundy managed to get 45 hit outs compared to the Lions 42 (25 for McInerney and 17 for Fort), so the stats at least imply that he should win against Ladhams. It will be up for our mids to make use of that advantage. Given that McLean is a forward first and a ruck second, bringing in JVR for his debut seems like it offers a few additional opportunities with minimal risks (to team structure). He and TMac can be used to give Grundy a rest, so both only spend 5-10% of the game as the primary ruck on the ground. They can also rotate their own rests, so that one of them is available to ruck inside our F50 when Grundy is back on the ground (to allow him to sit a kick behind the play). It also gives the Swans an unknown player to consider and the additional forward pressure JVR brings will change the dynamic of our forward line while he is in there. Having TMac in the side allows us to swing him into defence if we're trying to close out a quarter, slow momentum, or a KPD goes down during the game, without losing too much from our attack. If we don't bring in another tall, we will need to use Brown for our F50 ruck contests when TMac is off the ground, which means we lose him as an additional forward threat (and his goals from open play have been great in both games). Alternatively, we have Grundy come up into the F50 and we lose him from competing for a contested ball down the line. We'd also be down a tall forward when Grundy is having a rest and TMac goes into the ruck. This will allow Paddy M to intercept more easily.

When I look at the odds for the Swans game after we played so poorly, I did think there was a chance a stomach bug or something energy sapping went through the team the day of or day before, and the bookies got wind of this. I have zero evidence to support this, other than the incredibly unusual lack of effort/strength at contests across the ground. Which is also evidence of many other explanations, including just playing poorly 🙃

Just to add one more record: Melbourne have won 12 consecutive games interstate, when you include against neutral opposition like the 2021 finals series and the Alice Springs game last year. The last lost was when we played Collingwood in Sydney in Round 13, 2021 (that loss still cuts deep). If you want to count only away games played against interstate teams, we have won eight in a row, the last one being against Adelaide in Round 9, 2021 when we lost by a point. That's some fantastic away form.

I watch this at least twice a month! Love it.

A couple of records to watch if Fritsch and McDonald play on Friday: Bayley has kicked at least one goal in 29 consecutive games - he kicked one in the last 5 games of 2021, and he kicked a goal in every one of our 24 games last season. Tom has played in 15 consecutive wins - playing in the Round 20 win against Gold Coast in 2021, (missing Round 21 and 22 with a sore back) and coming back for the great win in Geelong, and the finals series. He then played in the first 9 rounds last year, all wins, and returned for the win in Round 1.

Max's mark and goal at the top of the square was able to happen because Tom did a great job of keeping his body between the contest and Sam Darcy. It doesn't look like much, but it takes a lot of strength and skill to do that and not give away a blocking free kick. If that's Weideman or another forward they probably try to fly for the contest and the mark and goal doesn't occur.

Out of all AFL teams we have one of the lists that will cause the Dogs headaches with their new approach. They will likely never use all 4 talls at once for various reasons already stated. We have 3 quality KPDs plus Gus who is a great mark for a medium sized defender. Max can float into defence if they’re getting on top offensively. There is also only so much space in the F50 available so it’s likely that a lot of contests will be large packs, and marks within them are rare. On the flip side, the dogs need to counter our dual AA rucks, and the 3 tall forwards when one of them rests forward with BBB and Tmac. That will mean Lobb giving English a break from the ruck, pulling one of their talls from attack, and possibly even requiring English or Lobb to float back to cover our resting ruck. The solution to their strategy is simply give them their own headaches to deal with. I believe we have the players and structure to do that.

Two things I loved today: Players taking time to assess their options, and not always handballing to the open player. Last year teams learnt to roll off their opponent to cover our outnumber. Today several players feigned to handball and then turned to open up the field. It was great to see. Pressuring ball carrier - last year we folded back a lot and let teams run the ball downfield. Today the team made sure to pressure whoever had or was about to take possession. The perfect example being when May made that huge tackle on the wing to halt a rebound by the Tiges. It was the result of 5 other players rolling off their man to pressure the next in line to receive possession. if was so good to see these adjustments 😁