Wrecker45

Great post. It is worth mentioning we have spent big in the last 2 drafts on established backs who will, when on the park, be elite at repelling opposition inside 50’s. Hold tight we also have better forwards to come back in that can capitalise on the inside 50’s.

Our brand looked pretty good at the G at the 2 finals I went and watched.

And that is why I am not concerned at all. We’ve just got to transition the ball into the f50 more unpredictably and bring in players that put more pressure on when it hits the deck. Small adjustments not wholesale changes.

Talk about running both ways i was amazed at how often Oliver seemed to be the last bloke chasing them into their goals. WTF were everyone else?

If we win inside 50's and get over 100 tackles we just about always win. The fact they kicked a goal just about every time they went inside 50m, took the pressure right off them and put in squarely on us despite the stats that are usually barometres for us indicating we should have won. Stop leaking goals and the pressure switches to the opposition. We will make some adjustments down back and it will turn for us very quickly.

This is how I feel. Even at the beginning of last sesason, our best season in over a decade, we were conceding massive run ons to the opposition every week, particularly goals out the back. We made some adjustments and started winning more often than not. As soon as we stop leaking goals and we will fix this quickly all the pressure goes onto the opposition when we are constantly banging it into our 50m. We do AVD and someone else in the forward 50m who can kick a goal but also create constant pressure this used to be ANB but he is not playing good footy. We will turn it around this week.

Also early in the year and in the rain.

Won’t be many changes. When you win inside 50’s in a landslide and get thumped you need to look at structures and game plan. Petracca had a shocker and is on thin ice but while we’re so short on talent we bought in a kid who wasn’t on our list 15 days ago I can’t see us dropping him. I’ve been a critic of Weid but the conditions didn’t suit him tonight nor did the delivery except when KK hit him on the chest and the Geelong bloke still somehow marked it. Can’t drop Jones being captain and all. Frost for Petty. Hunt for Stretch. ANB for anyone. He will bounce back due to the ground he covers but while he is covering all that ground without creating pressure or causing damage he needs to go back to Casey.

Bit harsh on Brayshaw

Put him on the wing and tell him to play like dipper a fat Italian who could actually play.

Jetta has runs on the board. KK not setting the world on fire but conditions don’t suit him and it’s half time in his first game for a new club. Hunt I think he looks like he has his mojo back but I might be looking through my rose coloured headband.

Yep. It’s half time in round 2.

Maybe, but there are curses!

Measuring sleep patterns is an interesting one. We’ve recently had our share of talented players with party habits. Hard to maintain if the club is monitoring your sleep.

Rewarding form builds a good culture. Keilty has better form. Upside is important if developed correctly and i think we do that now but Keitly for mine he has earned his stripes, He can also take a contested mark.

I agree. If other teams like Richmond go small in the forward line, opposition backlines respond. If we play teams who go other way we expose them.You can't defend the best forward line with small backman and then when the trend changes you need have big gorillas to go with them..

DeeSpencer a very measured and thoughtful response. I would expect nothing less from you. Keilty has demonstrated to me time and time again he is a better contested mark than Weid. At VFL level only but until we have to give a game how do we know otherwise? Keilty is better in the ruck from what I have seen also. I am not blind or biased Wied is a much better player when the ball hits the ground but that is not what he is there to do. We have players to rove the football, this is not Weid's role, despite being good at it.

This is what I have been told by people within the club with much better football analysis skills than me. Apparently Weid can take a mark at the highest point and is a tall player with a leap. This, therefore, theoretically, makes him a unique forward who can break modern zones. I don't see it.

Just follow my punting and count the cash. Happy for you to check my history. I posted for everyone to take Oliver most bronwlow votes for any Melbourne player at 50-1 in his second season and got it. Posted it here and got banned from crownbet because I smashed it.

Take no prisoners. I am blaming everyone. In all seriousness I have had some outstanding bets on Melbourne in previous years that have seen me banned from crownbet and bet365. I smashed Brisbane at $4.50 to beat us in JLT. With TAB. We will probably lose next week and the week after that. Then load up everyone, because Richmond can't touch us without Rance, we have Geelong, Collingwood had one good year, and no one even rated West Coasts list a year ago.We are better and carry more weight for the premiership, particularly with Petracca.

How is Bedford going?

Gary Pert - Poor track record

I hope Pert isn't there. He has done enough damage to the club already.

I was about to start a thread on our "chaotic" gamestyle but given your chaotic post I'll give it a go here... (not an insult by the way I just think we are all feeling the same way.) We hadn't played finals in 10 years and so have had pre-seasons with better conditioning that start earlier This year we played with the big boys late into September and our better players had late season operations. Hibberd will bounce back he is an elite footballer. There is no reason to suggest he has slowed from August to March. On the chaotic game style we are trying to implement we are missing the obvious ingredient which is surprise. You can't have chaos with out an element of surprise. Why we kick straight down the line every single time is an embarrassment to the club. Switch it occasionally. We need someone like Travis Johnstone to run along the wing and then instead of slamming it into the forward line find an angle that absoluteltely confuses the opposition structure and increases our chances of kicking a goal.

Put a mirror up mate. You are what you perceive Keitly was promoted from the Casey list and has been in the system now for a couple of years. He was far more effective than Pruese in the ruck in the pre-season game I watched. We got smashed against Port on the weekend and part of the problem was when Weid went into the ruck. We needed a better option. Ohh that and he can actually take a contested mark over his head unlike Weid. Keilty in for mine.