Go the Biff

Hoyne was really interesting. He also reeled off some impressive stats regarding Thomo and one on one contests. With regard to May I suspect it will all come down to match ups as to how far up the ground he plays. He's more versatile than Thomo as a defender and the FD will look at who they want him to play on rather than where.

Daisy hands over

Agree with your thoughts on Petty and would like to see him back at CHF perhaps after a week at Casey to road test his body. Down the track we may well have to deal with the likes of Allir Allir and Darcy Moore if we are to progress. They are keys to their team's defences and might need to be nullified. BBB can't do that. Additionally we might face Brisbane again. They're not likely to fall for the Melksham v Harris Andrews trick again so Petty is our best bet at CHF in my view. Both offensively and defensively.

He's certainly passing the audition so far

Usually the first thread I look for post match.

Whale oil beef hooked No idea how we won that

With our insistence on flooding our own forward line coupled with Ross the Boss and his plan of flooding opposition defences, this is gonna look more like a mosh pit than a footy game. Not expecting this match to be one for the ages

Nick Sautner was the incumbent full forward at Sandringham in those days. Good player but a development road block from a Melbourne perspective. That said, I don't think Juice did himself that many favours either.

Viney himself was tagged that night as referenced in Ollie Wine's post match interview

Thanks @layzie but I'm only good for one long post every 5 - 10 years

Beggars belief doesn't it. Can only think his manager is on a percentage of Brown's match payments

Good to see some getting on board the G-train. G for Greg. Stafford has been taking money under false pretences for years. Even when we won a flag we did it spite of our forward structure & methodology rather than because of it. I understand Stafford has to work withing the parameters of the overall game plan but his area of the ground is dysfunctional. And while I’m not a Goodwin basher by any means, he and his merry men on the coaching panel need to realise that “contest & clearance” are all very well but that only gets you the ball. The name of the game is to maximise the opportunities that “contest & clearance” create and get the bloody ball through the big sticks. The only appreciable shift from 2021 is that our tall forwards now clump together in the goal square rather than the left pocket. A direct result of this clumping is that it draws in opposition defenders en masse and leaves them having to defend an area roughly the size of a picnic blanket. We are an opposition Defensive coach’s dream. It’s like Stafford has drawn up a plan and showed it to Chaplin for approval. “Ooh yes I like that” says Chappy. Forgets to tell him why though. Supporters often wail about our “bombing into 50” but the reality is that often they have no other realistic option. And that’s on our forward structure and method. Further to this I’m often infuriated by Trac’s long mongrel punts into F50 from the midfield but I suspect this is under instruction. We are far more concerned with being out-marked inside F50 than we are with actually marking the ball ourselves. So we kick long floating mungs in the hope of bringing it to ground and causing a stoppage than we are with forwards marking the ball. Too often : We press up too high leaving the “over the top” play the only way of scoring We lead as a pack to the same spot or worse again, congregate at the same spot We fail to get any separation which gives our forwards a chance at a one on one contest We fail to have a small front & square of contests – and when we do they’re usually too close to the contest resulting them being tackled immediately on taking possession We fail to lead towards the ball carrier We try to take the back shoulder position on opposing defenders which allows them to control the contest. Rule 101 for forwards has always been play in front. So – to the players. I’m of the view that BBB is pretty much done. Not his fault but his body has packed it in. Watching him at Casey is almost sad. So barring a miracle knee regeneration, I’ve dismissed him from 2023 calculations. Likewise TMac. History shows that he takes a long time to find consistent form post injury & he’s no spring chicken either. JVR has a ton of upside but he desperately needs support from another key forward. Not a ruckman masquerading as a KPF. You can’t rely on pack marks in an area that looks like Myers front door at opening time on Boxing Day. It’s not sustainable. We will kill this kid if we don’t stop asking him to play like the second coming of Doug Wade. He needs to be able to rotate out to CHF and sometimes HFF to get some space and some easier possessions. He also needs to pick his moments and lead rather than being a one trick pony. Petty looks like he’s our best CHB but also our best CHF. He is rarely out marked and can take them as well. He was showing signs of understanding when to work up the ground as a connector before being injured. I’d persevere with he & JVR in the key posts. Max should not come inside 40 from goal unless it’s for a ruck contest. We become too Max-centric when he’s deep & continually dump it on his head. He takes the occasional goal square mark but not enough to justify him being there. He also draws in opposing rucks and defenders, adding further to the cluster…… ANB has his role but he’s heavily flawed. He needs to do the basics well and for most of this season, his skill level has been poor and this undoes all the good work he performs. While he’s important to the way we play, he’s regressing to his old ways of being a chain of possession breaker. His last quarter on KB was superb. We need more of that from him. Spargo had a bright start to the season but has been abysmal post concussion. Casey beckons Chandler is bereft of confidence. Takes an age to make a decision with ball in hand. He also gets lost a lot. I believe his role needs clarifying to assist his positioning and a decent forward coach should be able to do that. In form, there’s a place for him and he can be damaging Kozzie……has been out of form but showed some glimpses tonight. He’s another who needs his role clarified IMO. He’s trying to be too many things. I also think he needs to be released into the midfield when he’s “cold” down forward. He seems to lift the more he is around the ball and he’s one of our best users up the ground. Smith is not a KPF’s backside. Anyone who claims he is on the basis of that pre season game where he kicked 4 clearly has never watched the game, just looked at the stat sheet. Tom Stewart tore him to shreds tonight by exposing his lack of forward craft. That said, he does have some characteristics that could be more than useful if we dispense with the “Spargo” role. I’m one who believes we have too many small forwards. Smith could do worse than to study (can’t believe I’m typing this) Garry Rohan’s game tonight. Smith has some similar attributes that we could build into a role that makes him an aerial threat while making the most of his speed and tackling. Fritta while not without his flaws which many are quick to jump on has been a shining light. How he’s managed to maintain the level of productivity he has in this forward line is remarkable. Love to know what he’d be capable of in a decent set up. For a bloke who could sleep in the shade of a crowbar, he’s asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting. We’ve used a bit more of his delivery inside 50 this season which has been encouraging. I’d like to see him in a 3 way rotation system between the gaol square & the flank with JVR & perhaps Smith. All of our forward woes are fixable and fixable in season. But it’s a bit like having issues with gambling or drinking. You have to admit you have a problem before you can effectively face it and deal with it. We seem to still be in the denial stage. Apologies for the long-winded rant but it’s been bubbling for a few years now. Believe it or not I reduced this by about a third before posting. Don’t know how the likes of Binman & DeeSpencer etc keep pumping out those long posts. This has done me in ! Thought it might be cathartic but I’m probably more hacked off than I was when I started typing !

We can bring it back to Melbourne but it will end up at Marvel. We won't get another game at the G

Max is a fantastic captain but there have been times when he's needed to forget the umpires and man the hell up. This is one of them

Not favourites. Match ups and conditions. Embrace the squad mentality Bob.

There was some training vision early in the week and Clarrie was feeling the back of his hammy. Suspect it's still NQR. Missing rehabilitation while in hospital would not have helped

Suns have wound the clock back 10 years in this quarter 😒

I'm really interested in who McVee gets assigned to.

King was critical of Murphy, not Fritsch and said the free kick was there. Dunstall concurred. The diving comments initially came from Taylor on the Channel 7 telecast, supported by Watson. BT is so far past it that it's got beyond a joke. The day he's pensioned off will be a blessing for the entire footy community

Geelong advises cracked rib and partially collapsed lung. Returning by road rather than flying

Twice I think. One from a set shot first quarter. One from a snap in the last

Same could be said of Jayden Hunt who I suspect would have been selected ahead of JS. Anyway, I'm not advocating dropping him. Just moving him (on Petty's return) to a position where I think the two of them might give us a competitive advantage. I should have also mentioned in my post that this notion is also dependent on Smith not breaking various parts of himself or knocking himself out !!!

At the end of the sports report on Channel 7 news last night, Tim Watson said he'd been to loads of big games at the MCG but had never heard it louder than what it was yesterday. Deafening.

I agree with a fair bit of this but I'd be intrigued to see another tweak to our set-up forward of centre once Petty returns - unlikely as that is for the Geelong game. The main drivers behind this are 1) Spargo's best is great but he's been poor since he managed to get himself knocked out. 2) I don't have faith in Smith as a KPF, especially going into September. So, I'm wondering how it would look if we replaced Spargo with Smith. We lose a bit on footy smarts, ground ball gets & ball distribution (not losing a lot on Charlie's recent output) but we retain tackling pressure & speed with Smith. He can also push up to perform the connecting role from defence that Charlie sometimes does. Additionally he can give us an aerial option that Spargo can't. As well as that, he could be switched to a negating forward option should an opposing intercept defender (e.g. Tom Stewart) get off the chain so this gives us some strategic versatility as well. This obviously depends on a couple of other things going right. First, Petty has to continue to develop. He's our best CHB but I think he'll end up being our best CHF as well. Tomo also has to hold his form. The "two talls plus Hibbo" was trialled and in my view made our defence less effective. Old mate Tomo has gone from cast-off to critical in a matter of days !

Tidied it up for you