old55

Young is looking like 3rd best half back at best in that draft behind Ash and Rivers.

No Dusty = No Richmond. It's that simple. They are a group of very good to ordinary players who have realised if they play a very consistent and disciplined brand then Dusty will drag them over the line to flags. There's no reason he can't play for another 4-5 years and do it again, by which time I predict he'll be cemented at the GOAT. Dusty's 2017 year was the greatest ever by a player IMO. In 2018 Dusty goes into the PF vs Collingwood with corkie and what happens? In 2019 back half of the season he dragged them from 9-6 to 13-6 in four consecutive 3 Brownlow vote games to put them in the top 4 and in contention. Geelong wins the 2020 GF if there's no Dusty. None of their other players are great, their best player coming through is Shai Bolton. Their next best are Cotchin, Prestia, Edwards, Lambert, Lynch, Riewoldt, Rance, Grimes, Houli and Vlastuin - better players in better teams have been denied flags. Richmond fans can take this either way - they've got the flags in the bag.

https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/920748/vfl-round-2-report-casey-continues-winning-ways "Round three sees the [Casey] Demons head to Marvel Stadium for a Thursday night feature game against North Melbourne." Changes for MFC vs North should be telegraphed by who lines up in this match on Thursday night ...

I'm a Bayside-living, charcuterie-plate eating, Pinot-drinking, ski-loving Demon fanatic!

I agree with @Hannibal Inc. - B.Brown for Jones - we need to try to find a way for the extra tall to work in our structure and now is the time to start. Ideally we'll settle with 4 of B.Brown, Jackson, Fritsch, TMac and Weid in the team - I can't see us going with all 5 and I accept that we may ultimately find we need to revert to 3, but we need to try to make 4 work. Jones can be sub if we're worried about "the look" - others already in the 22 will need to fulfill his role

Do you drown kittens for sport? Seriously get in front of a mirror!

I'm cautious of canning Jones. Goodwin said Jones is playing a very specific role - we don't know what that is. It might be: try to get inboard, 20m defensive side of every stoppage, opposition mark and free kick and prevent the corridor outlet and so force them either to go down the line or kick over your head to a waiting Lever. In that case, if he does his job properly, he won't be getting much of it and he may not even be laying tackles if they don't take him on. I'm making that role up but in modern football structures it could easily be something like that and we have no insight. We're winning and maybe we're preventing the opposition from taking advantage of the new rule with our positioning. I think we'll find out a lot this week. I'm too much of a ball watcher at matches to see this type of strategy and I suspect 99% of fans are too. It take great discipline to consistently watch players off the ball, sometimes I try to but I find find my eyes magnet back to the contest eventually, and you can't see structures like that on the zoomed in replay. I'll give you the hot tip - the more you think you know what's going on out there the less you actually do ...

Agree. I definitely this we can win, particularly if May plays - I think he's one of the very few players who could possibly go with Dusty forward and I hope he takes this match-up a la vs Toby Green. Dusty is a very smart player - he goes the "don't argue" on ANB - I'd love to see him try it on May, Viney or Oliver - but he won't, he'll dish it off beautifully when he sees them coming. For me, he's in the frame for GOAT. I think Prestia and Vlastuin out hurts them. Even a close loss is not a bad outcome psychologically - they'll think they have us covered and we'll recognise that we need to continue to work hard to improve to get them..

I'd go with the combo that got us here - Fritsch for M.Brown and May for Petty. If Fritsch doesn't get up I'd go for B.Brown over Weid, it's career achievement vs last week and I'm a big Weid fan. Prestia and Vlastuin out does hurt the Tigers in both areas. It will be great if May can play, he is important for Dusty when he's forward - no-one else could really go with him. I really think this could be the difference between winning and losing. I'm firmly in the No Dusty = No Flags camp.

I have complete confidence he will win one-on-one

Q3 22:20 onwards "Hibberd - diving, saving, lunging smother was superb"

The MFC Football Department know but Demonland punters don't. I don't think you understand how complex modern football structures are. The best analysts here like @Axis of Bob are smart enough to realise that they are only scratching the surface. I'm will to bet you've called out "just kick the bloody thing!"

The coach said he has a very specific role and he's performing it - none of us here know what that is - but our 5-0 results speak for themselves. You may be one of those people who believes they understand how AFL football works under the hood. I realised that I don't really know anything about that quite a few years ago.

Jones must play and it's great that Goodwin has confirmed he will. The coach said he has a very specific role and he's performing it - none of us here know what that is - but our 5-0 results speak for themselves. I'd be fine with "no change" but I'd also be OK if one of Fritsch, BB or Weid came in for Mitch Brown. I'd love to see May take on Dusty in the forward line but maybe we can save that for the PF.

Clarko-myths Hawthorn's "young side": Average Attributes Hawthorn Attribute Melbourne 186.9cm Height 187.4cm 85.3kg Weight 86.3kg 26yr 2mth Age 25yr 6mth 108.5 Games 100.1 Total Players By Games Hawthorn Games Melbourne 7 Less than 50 6 5 50 to 99 6 5 100 to 149 5 5 150 or more 5 Notwithstanding Burgoyne distorting their averages - but Clarko selected him in the side ... We broke even in the first quarter, were well on top in Q2 and Q3 5.5 to 2.3 and totally smashed them in the last. My rational mind said we had them covered at 3qtr time but my emotional mind had seen those horrible colours punish us before so - so yeah ... We we're ahead on every important measure except clearances and in reality McEvoy, Mitchell, O'Meara, Wingard, Breust, Worpel and Shiels is a solid midfield. Another very good win.

Thanks Jack. Looks like Sparrow AFL sub. No Laurie?

Is Brett Ratten the right guy?

Maybe we can get a "Clarrie, Clarrie ..." chant going on Sunday and give Petracca and Salem some encouragement.

Agree, I dislike C.Scott and Selwood intensely but if I was a Geelong supporter I'd love them. Scott's press conference after last weekend's match was very good.

YEAH BABY!!!

Good coaching has recognized his potential with the man on the mark rule change. He's playing a lot better than I expected and it's very exciting when he gets the ball but as others have noted he's great in the contest now too.

Christian Petracca 36 + Christian Salem 23 = 59 last weekend.

This is going to come back to bite you on the derriere just like your Kossie criticisms and that Goodwin will be gone by Round 8.

Is there a bigger 'cat going round than Jordan Clark?

5 premiership players will cover them both put together :)