Vipercrunch

I had forgotten about Steele and he is a good player but I don’t think he has exceeded expectations that were on him when he came in from GWS where it was the extremely stacked midfield that was denying him opportunity. Howard’s trajectory was AA when at Port where he was in the leadership group (and captained once). Higgins while sometimes very good is very inconsistent, no different to when he was at Richmond. And looking at Wood’s averages for goals and disposals there is very little reason to say he is now a better player than at North (1.2 goals and 12.9 disposals at North, 0.6 goals and 14.5 disposals at Saints). No one will be writing articles about any of them when they retire saying how their move to the Saints was the making of their careers.

Two things I noticed from last night. However bad our MFCSS gets at times, we should all be thanking our lucky stars or deity of choice that we we aren’t Saint supporters. That is one tough gig. Unlike many clubs, StK don’t seem to be able to bring the best out of players they trade for. Very few playing last night seem to have improved since moving there. Higgins, Howard, Crouch, Hill, Jones, Wood all arguably played better before moving to the saints as did Hannebery and Ryder who didn’t play last night. Long term “good” teams improve players they trade for.

I’m blaming the Collingwood ferals at the game last Friday for my positive Covid test today. I’m sure it’s their fault.

Perhaps there is some truth to that, but until season is over, I find it very hard to conclude anything. Form, fitness and perhaps even 100% correct mindset can’t be maintained at the highest or “perfect” level for 6 months. There have to be fluctuations and perhaps the greatest trick to coaching a team looking to go back-to-back is to manipulate those fluctuations to ensure the team peaks at everything in September. To do so might mean some seemingly broken things get ignored for long periods, which frustrate us all, but with the aim to make the corrections at the right time to bring everything together at the desired time. 6 weeks to see if the coaches can deliver and get the team playing to its full potential, which I think most Demonlanders think is good enough to win it all.

It’s irrelevant to the outcome’s on the field. I thought that would be clear…..

Absolutley agree. Unlike many good players from other teams who act or play in a style that makes them extremely dislikable, I've never had anything else than repsct for JK. Wonderful career. WCE clearly won in the Judd trade in my opinion, which is amazing in itself given how good Judd was. 8 goals in his last game is a very fitting way to go out.

I think the "Melksham instead of a genuine tall forward" experiment is over. There were so many times that our small forwards and midfielders easily got to the fall of kicks into the F50 but instead of contesting the mark, took position front and centre expecting one of our talls to contest only for there to be an uncontested mark to Collingwood. We can't allow that to continue so need to bring in someone to support BBB. I think Weids is out of chances so has to be JVR or Joel SMith if he trains well. No more of Max starting at FF. Start him in the middle. Jackson made some costly errors early on Friday and is still a second ruck that can provide some great cameos as the game wears on. It's not pooular but I can see why we kick to the pocket. They went end to end on us after an intercept mark in the middle of our back 50 late on Friday. That doesn't happen if the intercept is deep in the pocket. They broke us down and scored by creating overlap at our half forward area. Too many bees to the honey pot was often the cause initially then they got the run through the corridor and took it forward at speed which is very hard to defend. Was it our system not working or was it someone (or several) not sticking to the system? Whatever it was, it needs work to combat Collingwood and Sydney's ball movement. Cold comfort, but we actually got a lot of things right. I went home thinking that 4 out of 5 times we'd probably win that game. We won most key stats, kicked for goal badly, watched them kick for goal unbelievably and didn't get the rub of the green with HTB frees in front of goals (the McCreey non call in our goal square soon followed by the red hot call against JJ quite soon after stand out). The expected score had us winning by 13 points. Fingers crossed it is 2018 repeating, with Collingwood playing the role of 2018's Melbourne side, who when playing an exciting brand of footy went to Perth late in the season to beat WCE. "The Dees played eye-catching footy, moving the ball with pace and putting West Coast's rock-solid defence under severe pressure." was how it was reported. We all remember how 2018 ended up.

Who is "we"? The fans, in which case it is utterly irrelavant if some of the fan base is arrogant and disrespectful, or is "we" the players and coaches, in whch case you have no idea of their attitude.

Spargo and Kozzy both do it but I’d argue it’s as bad. And the AFL should have stopped Selwood doing it 15 years ago but they fluffed it. However, JG took it to a new level by making winning the high free his first and only goal when confronting a tackler. Once the dust settles the game will be much better off. Whether Jack has enough other strengths in his game to remain affective at the highest level remains to be seen. Edit for clarification - I’ve never liked Spargo and Kozzy doing it, or any other Melbourne player. I loved Brad Green but disliked when he started throwing his head back late in his career. Playing for a free is totally against what I view as the mythical “spirit of the game”.

The poor bugger should stop dropping the knees. The one against Essendon that caused all the uproar was only a mistake because it lingered high and became overly agressive. AFL's call was contact was only high because JG lowered himself so intially the call of play on was correct but the "make him earn it" aspect that wasn't called a free was the error.

We're fine in the rain. Just makes for unpleasant viewing. It will be worth it at the final siren though.

Bring ya ponchos folks

I heard today the AFL were expecting a crowd of just over 60,000. Maybe this is a well thought out strategy to get that to close to 80,000 instead. Unfortunately if they attend hoping for a close one, they’re going to be disappointed. Melbourne by 50+.

He played forward at AFL level in late 2018 didn’t he? So this isn’t entirely new or unexpected is it?

Great promotional work by Lingers.

It's like they're preparing Melbourne supporters for his selection as a tall forward this week or next....

I’ve been pondering exactly this. You’ve put it with much more clarity than I could have.

Absolutely horrific while also being mind-numbingly stupid. The Australia Army walked away from this sort of nonsense decades ago for regulars. If I was a Adelaide supporter hearing this stuff, I would walk away from them forever.

It's a very interesting situation and without 2 fit and in-form big forwards, we may not find out what the coaches preferred forward balancee is. I don't mind the current balance, but it certainly worked well with two talls last year.

I wonder if anyone in the media will make the link to the contents of this article and Melbourne's (and others) midseason form slumps in premiership years. I won't be holding my breath. Edit: Just saw the date of the article - 19/04/2022. Obviously had very little traction or care factor in the wider AFL media.

Very true. He’s made many of us eat our words before so could very well do it again.

I’m of the same view unless he gets up for the VFL scratch game that Goodwin mentioned was going to occur the weekend before finals start and plays well. If not I think it’s too risky to bring him in for a PF or GF.

I thought that was the case until I read in their article from Fridays game this beauty - "I'd argue that Melbourne simply wanted this one more."

As I've asked before, if you or others have a better explanation for the unique shape of Melbournes 2021 season (9W's followed by a 9 game stretch of 4W-1D-4L, then 7W straight), as well as how closely their 2022 season mirrors 2021 so far, than what loading provides, I and I'm sure others, are ready to consider it. None of the other vocal doubters have so far even attempted an explanation.

I 'd prefer to deliberately sit it on Moore's head and let Kozzy, Melksham and anyone else that wants a turn crash into his back and take a few screamers.