Nasher

Pedersen for me is a hot standby forward for if Weideman struggles or tires. I'd prefer him to have VFL form as a forward than play position ping pong with him in the seniors. I really don't think the medium defender we have lost creates a vacancy that urgently needs filling. It's not like ruck or a KP whereby anyone semi-capable is better than no one - we proved this week that we can get by with improvising in that space.

Possibly harsh assessment of Keilty who by all reports had a strong season in the VFL last year, but otherwise agree that it was an absurd suggestion.

I'm a Kent fan, but I'm unsure the mix is right with him in. With he, Garlett, ANB, Hannan and maybe Petracca in the side, we've got too many half forwards in the side who can't (or coaches won't allow) yet do much else. You could argue they could rotate through the middle more and that gets suggested a lot, but I haven't seen a lot of evidence that this actually happens much. I think it more likely we'll add two mids, with Lewis and Jones increasing their responsibilities on halfback to cover Vince. I think it will be Tyson and Bugg in for Vince and Smith.

Not a phenomenon unique to Melbourne supporters.

You have Gawn in there twice in your Goodwin votes. Think the second one (for 2 points) is meant to be Hogan? Thanks for the breakdown.

Boooooo. I want all the goals!

Vast improvement on the avatar old son.

Ah, the old "mongrel" trait. The most easy way to identify when a poster grew up watching footy in the 70s and 80s.

Thought this would be a thread about picking Oliver. I love that they've been able to find gems late in the draft like Hunt, Hannan etc, but it's nailing those early picks that the previous bunch muffed that will project us towards the top 4. It looks so far that all of Oliver, Brayshaw, Petracca and Salem will at least be very good, with Oliver almost certainly going to be in the top echelon if not already. There's always misses in the top 20 but we seem to have gone from one extreme to the other. It's just such a relief knowing our key picks are in such good hands.

Even when there was another Jones on the list, 95% of the time there was still no need to differentiate.

Goodwin clearly fancies himself as a better coach than Goodwin. Happy to be wrong, just called it as I saw it.

Tyson in for Smith. Not a like for like exchange obviously but unless they plan on throwing Keilty to the wolves, we're fresh out of medium defenders. No other change. Kent is the only player realistically under consideration I'd have thought, but I'm happy enough for Garlett, ANB and Hannan for the time being.

We still doing this?

I noticed - TOG% is my favourite stat :-) He won't ever play the whole game though - 85% is what first string midfielders see usually, so that is the target. 75% is big compared to what he did in the past, so his tank is obviously vastly improved. That's not to detract from the effort though. Today the only players to have spent less time on the ground were Smith and Melksham.

Same. Having Jordan Lewis contribute to a carve-up for us is just icing on the cake - they could definitely have used him today. A lot of the narrative from Hawthorn supporters gave an attitude of nonchalance about the whole thing, but I thought at the time they should have been filthy about the way he and Mitchell were moved on - I sure would have been. I think they will be soon enough.

I finally just start to decide I'd definitely prefer Essendon to win because watching Hawthorn get done is just so enjoyable, but then the commentators start again with the "oh poor Essendon" shieet and it makes me want to chuck. I'd forgotten how good a player Dyson Heppell was though.

Plan B: "start playing good"? Hard to tell on TV of course, but I didn't see any amazing tactical or structural changes. We just turned up the dial.

Garlett Hogan 3 Hannan Petracca 2 Watts Weideman Stretch Vince Brayshaw Jones Neal-Bullen 1 Weideman struggled to get in the game early, worked in later. Showed some good use of the ball when he had it - gets in to position to mark, needs to start plucking them. Hannan was electric. Fantastic debut.

What was important for mine was that during the first quarter where we were struggling a bit, Vince, Lewis and especially Jones were still able to lead the way. It was the pups that lifted their game later during the 2nd and 3rd quarter blitz, but for mine that may not have happened if our top 3 senior players weren't leading the way. All three were outstanding for mine. Oliver though. Wow. That performance came as a surprise to exactly zero MFC supporters, of course, but gee it's good to see it starting to happen. The only players who spent less time on the ground than Oliver were Smith and Melksham, for the record.

I'll be up on the MFC website before too long, usually it's fairly timely / within a few hours of the end.

He was white hot during our run in the second and third and was involved in everything. I'd love to see a breakdown of when he got the majority of his disposals, because I'd guess it was through that period. I thought at selection that he was warming the seat for Kent, but has now added some serious competition for that part of the ground.

Just opened this thread for the first time since qtr time and this was the first post I saw. loooooooooooooool

"Blose"

Come on, the game has gone past him? He's a 27 year old who missed one year, and he was flying as a player before the suspension. You make him sound like he's a 35 year old who hasn't played in 5 years. I watched his "road to round one" interview and he's obviously a fairly flat and straight sort of bloke. Who cares if he's not bouncing around the boys like Melksham is. It amazes me the conclusions some will reach on such little information. How about we await his injury recovery before deciding he won't make it?

Yes for mine. Now competing with Pedersen who played 0 JLT games. Wouldn't put my house on it, but that's my reading of the tea leaves.