old55

Smashed in the clearances 48-24, by 51 in contested possessions and that resulted in 64-41 i50s - it's a long time since that's happened to us and it's hard to win when it does. Adem Yze moved from the speed ball and the bag to the ring against an opponent two weight divisons above and found out the hard way. James Jordon head-to-head with the Bont, OK - a pre-season game is a good place for a man to find his limitations I guess. Macrae, Bont, Dunkley, Liberatore, Hunter racking up the numbers. Apparently Adem is replacing Simon Goodwin when we're 1-4 - but it's very hard work when you're missing Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw up against that midfield. Baker is not up to finals-level football and I'm hoping we play Melksham on that wing when he comes in. I saw him and Jones put in a heavy running pre-season at TBO and I think he'll be ready to go. The backline held up very well - May and Lever really enhanced their reputations, Salem and Hibberd will make good additions and Bowey warmed to the task and showed he has the tools with some good decisions and execution by hand and foot. The forward line has been maligned in most of the commentary, but they made equal conversion rate of the less effective entries they received. We took just as many marks inside 50 as the Dogs and Fritsch was clearly the most dangerous marking forward in the match. I actually thought TMac and Jackson were OK - generally providing a contest. Yes it would be a cause for concern in the long run if we didn't have B.Brown, Weid and Pickett to return. Someone does need to play a defensive role on Caleb Daniel. I can't recall anyone hitting targets like he does. That one-two on the kick-out and handball receive is going to be hard to stop with the new rule. Stefan Martin is a very handy addition to the Dogs arsenal. ANB really enhanced his reputation and was very good, Jones was pretty effective too with good disposals and stuck his tackles and will make 300 if he keeps that form up. On the other side of the ledger AVB was terrible. Before I turned the commentary off, because I couldn't stand another second of the insufferable Gaddy, I did hear them say that their inside man at the Dogs said they had set themselves for an all out assault on this game and it looked like it.

I think it's safe to swap TMac and Baker. Not sure why they bother naming it like that. Then it looks fine to me. Sure it will be better with B.Brown and Pickett in but it's OK.

So what's your plan? Shut up shop and concede those matches?

What's your plan if Max gets injured while Ben Brown and Weid are out and TMac and Jackson are covering for them in the forward line? Are we going with Austin Bradtke in the first ruck?

To be honest - this surprised me.

Tim Lamb: "“Instead he showed he is fully committed to Melbourne and understands what we are trying to achieve in retaining our talent – this deal reflects that. " Maybe it's Tim Lamb's 4yrs @$750k vs your 2yrs @$1M

In 2019 the last full season - the small forwards for the Premiers Richmond: Castagna 27 goals / 24 games Rioli 17 goals / 22 games Bolton 15 goals / 19 games Higgins 9 goals / 13 games

Rowell is at $1.30! on Sportsbet There are 14 players between him and Jackson and IMO none of them will have a better year than Jackson. Injury to Rowell again and it's money for jam :)

Will the pre-season match vs the Dogs be available on Kayo?

Luke Jackson $26 for the Rising Star is attractive

Which 2 seasons did ANB play mostly as a midfielder?

But have you ever seen a benefit in any single thing?

I like Spargo's understated celebration when he does well. I saw it at the end of last year when he was playing well too. He just keeps his game face on like "we haven't achieved anything yet". He looks pretty determined to silence his doubters including me who said he was too small and without any tricks. I think he has the trick that he knows how to play and has really improved his power.

WWSW, I think at this stage we need to pick the best 22 in search of that mythical unicorn - cohesion.

Poor man's Luke Jackson.

Didn't you get the 2020 Member pin?

Great story, well done ANB!

How's your man Preuss looking for you now champ?

Players 200cm+ and the same age or older than Bradtke with 0 games: Colina, Samson, S.DeKoning, Sweet, Meek, Reeves, Hayes, Jamieson, Briggs, Alabakis.

Yeah you can flip those two names in my Daw argument and it still comes out the same. I realise you're not saying it does come out any different. TMac vs M.Brown is another issue and will be decided in the fullness of the season.

The strategy is sound. We're down our 2 first choice KPFs so we're going to use our back-ups Jackson and TMac. They also happen to be a big part of ruck back-up plan too. I could name a workable 22 with just B.Brown and Weid out, but if Jackson, TMac or Max get injured too, then we're M.Brown away from playing short. Coverage for the first 6 weeks also makes sense - we need to get off to a solid start in a season we are aiming to go deep into finals. We've got 3 list vacancies so we can afford to use one. We've got Weid, Petty, Jackson and Bradtke as developing talls - we don't need to add another one, we need someone ready to go Round 1 in any one of multiple roles. Daw makes perfect sense because he can play ruck, forward or back at a reasonable level and is ready to go Round 1.

Yeah OK while we're at it maybe we can get Tim Lamb and Alan Richardson down to advise you how to do your job.

No, go right ahead. I thought you just might have some idea of a better alternative and that's how you decided it's a "bad call". Have a listen to the Alan Richardson SEN interview, he said they looked at many options and decided Majak is the most suitable one for our needs.

How about - the club's talent scouts who watch the lower leagues have decided that Majak Daw is the best all round solution? It seems logical that they would have looked into it.

Like who?