Nasher

The ironic thing about the diving thing is that Vince did one of the lamest, most blatant stages I've ever seen, in a period of the game where there was actually something to gain by doing it, and I literally have not seen or heard it mentioned anywhere. I suppose nobody actually punched him in the face, so there's no actual crime we can blame him for. That's why I can understand the view of others who would like to see the club publicly back Oliver at some stage. His poor reputation is being allowed to snowball out of control, over stupid things, It's getting ridiculous.

I had to Google who she was, if that helps.

Sometimes players turn out better than players taken before them in the draft. Sometimes players take longer to develop than others. It's a freakin' lottery. You're purchasing a 10% complete product. This is a seriously tedious topic. I honestly thought Melbourne supporters would be sick of beating ourselves up over who was selected where, but it would seem our self flagellation knows no bounds.

They would not have put him in front of the media to answer questions if he wasn't comfortable with it. Likely it was his idea.

Last year we got a "thumbs up" from Jarrad Waite when he kicked a goal after my wife yelled out something rather unbecoming (and unexpected since she's not normally in to footy at all) at Bellerive. Players interact with hecklers in the crowd all the time, and absolutely nothing gets said - sometimes it's all part of the fun.

The weak c bit?

Just another comment from just another peanut who doesn't know what happened, Dazz. Doesn't matter if he shares a surname or parents with a player on our list, he's as clueless as the rest. Don't stress.

Another victim of "did one really awful thing syndrome" I think (turnover when we were in control of the ball going forward).

Will reserve judgement until I know what was said. Amazing how many people are prepared to pass judgement when, as Goodwin said, the facts aren't on the table yet.

Alternate the two. McDonald's strength other than marking and the recently discovered goal kicking is his tank. That said, that can probably be utilised in the ruck.

I'll pay that if you can demonstrate that it was your view before this hot streak ?

Apparently Kent lead the team for distance sprinted and repeat sprints according to the "Telstra tracker". I don't think effort is the issue with Kent, I just think it's an issue of quality and I'm doubtful Kennedy is that much of an improvement. I think if there's no returning AFL grade player (ie Watts), we might as well persevere with Kent rather than swapping one NQR for another.

What's the point in dropping Kent for Kennedy? They might as well be the same player. No interest in Watts?

It wasn't Malthouse.

It took the heat off ANB as well. If he'd had the shot and missed it could well have cost us the game. I was crapping myself watching ANB line up. Everyone I was watching with just started laughing when he passed off to Lewis. The relief of the pressure dissipating was palpable. Where were the Carlton defenders? In their shoes I'd be filthy that they didn't force ANB to take the shot.

Yep - entry in to the top 4 would have been nice, but ultimately I think it's good that the teams below us keep losing and we open the gap. We can claw back the games we are behind the teams above, especially considering we play 3 of the 4 of them. Just gotta keep winning!

6. McDonald T 5. Oliver 4. Jetta 3. Neal-Bullen 2. Petracca 1. Lewis

I was one of those gooses (geese?) who thought he'd struggle to hold his place in the side. Stuffed if I can remember what the logic was now but I'm sure it made sense at the time

Today he put forward his case for forward line permanency. He is as good a contested mark as anyone in our side, and he's become a very reliable set shot for goal for someone whose field kicking looked not too dissimilar to my 5 year old's ball drop at Friday evening AusKick. He made the comment with Burgs post-match that simplifying his technique has been the main focus of his work (with Troy Chaplin) and getting everything straight is the key. His last four games have netted 2, 5, 2 and now 4 goals. Cam Pedersen, who gets a lot of love on this forum, and has been outstanding in key moments this year, has never kicked any more than 3, in a 70 match career predominantly as a forward. This is not intended to be a knock on Pedersen, just a matter of context. Players don't kick 4 or 5 goals often and McDonald has now done that twice in three weeks. Simon Goodwin had this to say when asked post-match against Carlton: "He looks likely to [stay forward], if he keeps marking the ball and kicking straight. They're hard to come by. He's done it again Tom, I think every time the ball comes in his area, he looks likely. He's looked likely since the time we put him down there, but now he's starting to turn that in to goals. In current form, he'll definitely stay down there. In some ways it was an experiment, but then we did some training with a couple of marking exercises. Our coaches are very good at developing some exercises for them to do their contested marking, and he just kept marking the ball." I read with interest @binmanand @ProDee's discussion on this during the week. I took the view (with no conviction) that this was temporary and treated the 5 goals against West Coast as something of a novelty, but his form down there is getting increasingly difficult to ignore. He wouldn't be the key defender in our history to go on to have an outstanding career as a forward, initially out of necessity. Interested in others' thoughts.

Stretch for Tyson and Kent for Watts. I'd like to see Smith get another week.

It's as open as ever IMO. Possible Watts and Tyson will return next week - if that happens, Kent is one of the most vulnerable.

Was probably the right call, but jeez that was a disappointing moment. Was great to see him really using the jets in the last quarter though. Such an exciting player.

Not sure why everyone's so down about Lewis' performance too. He made one notable cockup in the heat of the moment in the first quarter (the kick that fell short of Melksham at HF) but other than that, I thought he stepped up as support for Oliver in the way we needed him to. He was a battering ram in the middle of the field and won his share of contested ball. His play at the end, which had the double benefit of running down the clock and taking the heat off a junior player was a critical example of using experience to the betterment of the team. I thought he was great and in our top couple. I still think too many people see a player do one or two poor things and let it colour their view of the match as a whole.

I didn't see it that way at all. No doubt the match was a grind and about as far away from aesthetically pleasing as we've seen, but there were some bloody epic moments in it, borne out of a game that was a genuine contest. Lots of character and guts were required to win, and the team delivered. There's been a few of those "we were shit, they were worse" games in the last few years, but I don't rank this as one of them myself.

If Lewis and Vince can wind back the clock a bit, our midfield still looks strong. I hope Lewis spends time playing an inside role as Oliver needs some support in the absence of the skippers. I told myself during the week that our injuries might bring us undone, but I've moved past that somewhat. All the players we added are AFL quality including our best two forwards. Carlton have done their best impersonation of a decent AFL team recently, but they're 16th on 5 wins. We have to get this done if we want to be taken seriously.