The Taciturn Demon

I don't think there's any getting around this. Kozzie suddenly seems like the most important player in the team. I'd expect Langford to be back in the side very quickly now.

I agree. The manic intensity doesn't seem to be there anymore and the kicking is a huge problem. Not a convincing combination, but I thought Chandler into the middle was well worth a try. I thought persisting with Langdon for so long was truly bizarre. I have absolutely no idea why anyone at the club thinks he's a CBA midfielder.

Very Chris Scott.

Good call. Although, in fairness to the Lions, they played some really nice precision-kicking footy in that GF... and the one before it.

...Then they came for the Demonland website. And I did not speak out. Because I am not a Melbourne supporter.

I agree. It was a bit of fun and the crowd got into it as it went on. On the whole, I like Melbourne going for daggy entertainment rather than doing the cringeworthy "let's speak to the kids" straight-from-America garbage (the word "activation" brings bile to my throat) you see St Kilda and the Dogs do at Marvel. But as a celebration of Ireland it was one step away from leprauchans and people saying "twiddly diddly dee". As a celebration of Stynes it was an absolute mile off. I will say, I think the way Max Gawn talks about Jim Stynes (especially stories about Jim encouraging young Max to defy convention and certain expectations as a reflection of how he spoke with young people in general) is underrated. That short presentation from Max on the screen at half time (?) was really good. Yes, I've heard it before, but I think it's a story worth repeating. I'd have liked to see more of that - how Jim's words and deeds affected others (or changed their lives for the better). Alongside a fun celebration of Ireland? Sure - but as you said, Ghostwriter, with a bit more thought and effort.

*sigh* Sadly, entirely true.

If you buy a GA ticket to The [censored], can you sit on the top level?

Forwards needs to be able to bend down. I'm going with no.

I'm not a big fan of using stats to make solid determinations about gamea, but if I was going to mention one it would be Max yet again absolutely dominating the taps and Melbourne once again getting comfortably beaten in clearances. I thought the centre square stuff was mostly good - better than a lot of last year from what I saw. The rest wasn't.

Booo! I wanted him to go full Jayson Daniels.

Yep. Thought the same. Worth a try as a final roll of the dice. (If I'm being really harsh, I think Caleb Windsor would have been a better choice than Ed Langdon, who in his 11th season of AFL football is finding a way to get comprehensively outmarked by Darcy Jones.)

He was so good, wasn't he? I still think Ricky Petterd's is the best debut game I've seen from a Melbourne player, but Lindsay's was very close.

This is me when people talk about Billings and Melksham.

I agree. It was fun to watch us go forward with hands in a way we really haven't for a long while. I'd have loved to see Windsor get onto the end of a couple more chains. I honestly expected them to beat us comfortably and probably carve us up in the same way they went past Collingwood last week (I know this is precisely how they kicked the winning goal, but we seemed knackered). Kicking 11 was pretty good. Keeping them to 11 was excellent.

How many were you expecting?

Kozzy is obviously a major out, and it seemed like AMW was having a good pre-season, but who else? I like these inclusions, but I think they're a clear sign that our existing depth wasn't cutting it.

The forward handball absolutely tore Carlton apart.

Nah, nothing woo woo about the law of attraction.

Good LORD! I had no idea he was that high.

Got away with being nasty West Coast's inoffensive cousin for too long. They're unbearable.

Has he improved as a forward? I remember being astounded by how good he was in the ruck and how skilful he was around the ground but underwhelmed by much of what I saw of him as a forward.

The moment Fremantle signs anyone during trade period, the Curb Your Enthusiasm Music should play as a matter of course.

Wonderful explanation. Thanks so much. Interesting. I've shared a very similar frustration, but have never realised it was a problem of deliberate tactics. For quite a while now I've been perplexed by how often I watch Melbourne on a Friday and on a Saturday watch an objectively worse team consistently kick FAR easier goals than us, even in bad losses. The best example is exactly the one you've mentioned - even the teams that finish 17th or 18th seem to take advantage of really bad opposition turnovers. We seem not to - or not as often as we could. I've always put it down to us being a good (sometimes a very good) team that happens to be mostly poor by foot. Your explanation makes more sense but is possibly even more depressing.

This is super interesting. I never realised the whole wide entry thing was very deliberate. It explains a lot from the past few years, namely how boring we are to watch (which is fine by me as long as we're winning) and how often we seem to squander inside 50s (which is not fine by me, because the 2023 Carlton semi final still fuels my nightmares). I think it was you mentioning in the Fremantle game thread that one of the reasons the Dockers (on the weekend and multiple times previously), seem to walk through us and kick shockingly easy goals with one, two or three blokes free inside 50, is because we press very high, which makes us helpless when a team gets a quick turnover and moves the ball fast. It sounds like hugging the boundary inside 50 is directly related to that. I was frustrated on the weekend by how the way we move the ball has obviously changed but the inside 50 squandering hasn't. Do you think Goodwin is keen for us to change how we get the ball from deep in the backline to 70-odd metres out but will still stick to wide entries and a high press?