drdrake

One thing that was extremely evident last night was all our players standing behind their opponent, especially wings and half forwards. It looked like they were just looking for the easy handball over the top but unfortunately Port won the ball at the contest and their wings and Half backs just charged forward with us 4-5 metres off them. I'm not critical of the 3 talls up forward, our ball movement was terrible you can't point the finger at these guys, our mids just got smashed. Salem is interesting, he isn't that run and carry half back , the only time we look dangerous coming off half back is when Hibbard gets the ball, Salem is almost a loose play and doesn't carry the football. Olivers game was summed up when he had 2 players Gawn and someone else alone 30m in front of him, and he decided to go wide and kicked it directly to 2 Port Players with no Melbourne player with in 5m. Hate to say it the ball for him is like a hot potato he just wants to flick it out to anyone, just get it away so he doesn't need to kick. Brayshaw/Jones: As soon as he is on a wing they loses interest, put in the middle different players. There is something going on here with these 2 and the coach it isn't healthy. The work rate was really bad. Work rate is a mind set, the game goes against us we don't increase our work rate, we get lazy and look for easy touches sitting back. Port did want every team has done against us for 12 years, just put numbers behind the ball and wait for us to turn it over then spread. Clubs know we can't kick the footy and they know we push to lock the ball in so once they get it there is a lot of space to attack.

We had enough of the ball and went inside our forward 50 enough in the first quarter to kick goals, our entries gave us no chance of scoring. Pressure is great but if you turn it over 50 percent of the time you cant be competitive

People blaming forward line are way off, after quarter time we rarely went inside 50, the first quarter we kick to Port. We keep saying this over and over again our skills and ability to hit targets is at local footy level not afl. Bloody disgrace that blokes making big coin cant hit targets

You start with Harmes and Brayshaw, then fritsch and Hannan, work your way to tmac and Jones. Some pretty bad body language on the bench Jones Brayshaw and Goodwin there is something going on there Bring in Bedford, Jordan, Bennell, Rivers, tomlinson. I'm sick of seeing same names producing the same crap

The ball was coming in that quick they had no chance. Front and square everytime every contest we were out numbered at the marking contest, as soon as the ball hit the ground it was a massive out number that is work rate this outside our lack of skill is a massive issue We only have a few that are prepared to work hard

alright boys runners on the bus is empty we are running back to our hotel

I actually think Sparrow is going OK. Lever is our best, no point pointing finger at forward line that last passage was the only clean ball inside 50 tonight

Cant blame umps we are just turnover kings, our half forwards playing from behind.

Nothing to do with the forwards we are just kicking to them

Just when you thing our disposal couldn't get any worse Thank God for lockhart the only one having a crack

I love the idea of playing 3 talls, lets face it talls aren't the same as the were 10 years ago the big lump of a man that ran straight lines and once the ball hit the ground they were terrible. We know Tmac has a massive tank, best runner at the club, looks like Jackson also has a big running capacity, not sure about Weiderman but he looks like a more stay at home deep forward. The fact they are tall is a bonus, if Jackson and Tmac run draw out defenders with them creates space behind them. It can work as long as the team don't go back into that bomb it forward mindset. They are hit up forwards we got to hit them on a lead rather that dropping the ball to a contested spot. Harmes goes back into our backline rotations Sparrow goes into our Midfield forward mix.

Pretty easy answer, the bloke hasn't played for so long playing him off a 4 days break is a massive risk. He might get a couple of games off and then back for North in a week

We need to stop thinking the Tmac and Jackson will play on a wing. The wings role is to fill space behind the football and once we have it run hard to be an option. If we play the three talls which I'm a fan off you basically set them up in a line, Tmac as an old school hit up CHF that plays basically between the arcs and is the an option hitting up out of defense. Jackson slots in behind Tmac and Weiderman deep. These roles can be changed but that's how it works. Jackson is a Baby Giraffe he is doing well in the role he has, you keep him doing this role until he is ready.

It will be the same this week, Port know that we will dominate the hit outs, there intention will be to pre-tackle or push our mids under the ball given then access to the tap. Can't remember the stat but we had a massive hit outs to advantage against Brisbane were we got first touch after the tap, Brisbane just didn't allow us to make it a clean possession and in effect causing a turnover at the clearance that lead to them winning the clearance. Whether legal or not that was their plan and they executed it perfectly. Why don't we mix it up more a big whack toward CHF, instead of basically hit the ball down inside the circle or close to it, every now and then open the back of the square and circle up and hit it 5-10m towards our goals. The other concern was the constant chopping of Gawns arms when he went for a mark, it was happening all night. What was frustrating, we knew we would kick the ball to Max, Brisbane knew we would kick the ball to Max but we were always out numbered when the ball hit the ground.

Didn't the AFL give clubs a get out of Jail free card back in the 90's if you self reported you got let off with no fines, no action just lose a few draft picks. It was everywhere in the old VFL clubs and the administration at the time I reckon turned a blind eye as they knew West Coast and Adelaide had the potential to dominate the competition if it was an even playing field.

Get him out kicking 100 shots 10m out aiming for a target behind the goals, same routine each time Kicking through the football. Best thing for him is we have a change of grounds. His first shot yesterday was the same spot he missed his last shot V hawthorn and tried to guide the kick rather that kick through the goals. Same with his last shot, tried to guide the kick rather than hit a target behind the goals. Look at Kennedy from WCE, IMO the best set shot for goals in the league. He has the same routine every kick outside the snaps, his little stutter steps are more for his timing and focus than the actual kick but it gets everything moving forward through the kick.

It is going to be an interesting selection. Changed opinion since last night Jetta has always been slow but was able to use his body and read the ball just seems to be a mile off at the moment. Bennell or Pickett(it might be Pickett to pay in Adelaide the following week)will miss, we want both cherry ripe for North and Collingwood. Our last 6 games are all winnable games V dogs, Freo, Essendon, St Kilda, Sydney, GWS we need to hopefully come out of the current 5 game block with 3 wins leaving as at 6 wins then win 4 out of our last 6. One off Brayshaw or Harmes will be dropped. Still think Tmac comes in and we play 3 talls. Out Jetta, Pickett, Brayshaw In Tmac, Sparrow, Tomlinson Give Harmes a job on Robbie Gray, Harmes needs a job it keeps him focused and the good players lead him to the ball, I reckon he gets lost trying to find the right spot.

Out Brayshaw, Jetta, Harmes In Rivers, Tmac, Tomlinson Jones got better as the game went on

Weiderman A fine line He kicks 2 or 3 goals and its a great game, absolutely shanked all 3 shots

6 Viney 5 May 4 Lever 3 Oliver 2 Petracca 1 Langdon

The last 30 seconds sums our game up, just smarts, the smarts to man up with a minute to go, the smarts to hit the top of the square instead of kicking out on the full, the smarts not to give away 50m. Angus needs a spell, harmes the same. Jones built into the game. We need to play Tmac we need another tall option ad a hit up outside of Gawn. Jackson and weiderman are playing well deep but we need another marking tall to present for that kick outside defensive 50

Bad kicking, story of all our loses

With the forecast of rain Id bring in Tomlinson, keep Tmac fresh for next Thursday. It is heavy rain forecast all week end the oval will be chopped up badly. Bring in a big runner that can play big minutes so we can ease workload on others

I think our 1998 team was the best team I've seen play for Melbourne, that forward line that contained Neitz, Schwarz, Lyon, Farmer, Yze then add in Smith or Robertson. You had Stynes and White as your rucks a great balance of experience and new mids and backline was good. We smashed the premier in the finals, we just struggled against North Melbourne. Sliding door moment, we beat North in the prelim we would have beaten Adelaide in the GF, I wonder what our club looks like now

The big one for us is how we manage Max Gawn, most other areas we can cover. Preuss hasn't played this year, not sure if he has even had a run in the scratch matches. All other clubs will also have a bye after this block of games we don't so we need to manage our players.