Nasher

In: Petty, Harmes Out: Tomlinson, Baker Jones to be the sub again.

Did you vote in the second round of votes, or the 50th?

They were lenient on him then.

Same. Dinner may also get burnt. Oh well, sucks to be my family.

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Just taking a deep breath here. We had a scare against a lowly team, we now have a couple of important injuries, and there’s a long way to go yet. There’s bound to be a few bumps and blips on the road to come. I’m really enjoying footy at the moment, but I’ll be burnt out by the end of the year if I stay excited the whole time.

I started out preferring to swing TMac back and bring Weideman in, but as time goes on I'm coming around to this view as well. There is a need for a KPD for the rest of the season; we would want Petty to be established and settled by the time finals rolls around - and if it turns out he's not up to it, we've got plenty of time to adjust. It also means more continuity for the forward line as well, especially now that it looks like Fritsch is out.

I think we paid the price for having an inexperienced winger in the side. We proved that you need more than speed. Angus doesn't have a lot of speed but he reads the play and defends well, be it out of our on 50 or going in to theirs; he gets there and contributes. I lost count of the number of times I saw North go out on Sunday through Baker's flank, and the only time I saw him roll back, he missed the tackle on Cunnington and he kicked their only goal for the last quarter. I know your argument wasn't pro-Baker, but my point is if we're to move Brayshaw out of the wing, we want to be REALLY sure whoever takes his spot has the nous to play it so we don't shoot ourselves in the foot. As an experienced player I have more faith in TMac than I do Baker, but my main preference would be to keep the player who has proven capability in the role to keep doing it, even if he's not a natural per se.

We missed Brayshaw on the wing terribly on Sunday. He might not be a natural winger in terms of skills or speed, but he’s intelligent and he’s had continuity in the role. Baker did a few nice things, but he didn’t know when or how to defend the way Brayshaw does and I think it hurt us. We’ve got plenty of other options on the inside to cover Viney such as Jones, Harmes or Sparrow. Leave Brayshaw playing in the role he’s now used to, where we need him and where we’re skinniest for options - the wing.

The bitter irony is that reducing the panel down to a single person was supposed to *increase* consistency. That’s the line the AFL sold us. I don’t know who the genius was who thought that would work, because it clearly doesn’t.

Are we going by the dictionary definition of “strike”? If so, it was very clearly a strike.

I had Trac ahead of Oliver in my D’land votes. So me, Goody and Nobes are on the same page, you nuffies can please yourselves.

Look I could be wrong, but my gut feeling is WE ARE DEMONS AND ON TOP OF THE LADDER is not likely to be a very compelling argument for the tribunal.

Demonland was on the Aimoo platform.

Out: Tomlinson, Baker, (Jones) In: Petty, Sparrow If Viney is good then he plays instead of Sparrow. No doubt for me we need another tall to cover Tommo, and Petty is obviously next in line. I’d be just as happy to move TMac back now and bring Weid in, I’m just nervous about moving too far away from what’s been working. Oskar Baker a way off I think. His tackles don’t stick, his defensive efforts are lacking and his ball use doesn’t have the hurt factor to compensate. I’ve got much more trust in Sparrow to deliver in that regard.

To be fair to the good Doc, it must be really tough being the only intellectual on a forum full of footy fans.

Now that everyone has decided they hate Melksham it won’t matter what he does. They will scrutinise every action he does, confirmation bias will mean they see everything not quite up to scratch (but overlook it in his teammates) and conveniently miss his positive contribution. Best just ignore it.

6. Fritsch 5. Jackson 4. Salem 3. Langdon 2. Pickett 1. Petracca

I was hoping to see what I’d learn by watching Melksham live today that might make me understand why everyone bags him so much and I’m none the wiser. He’s definitely only just going and hanging on to his spot by a thread, but he wasn’t “terrible”. He wasn’t even the worst in the team - that prize goes to ANB who really struggled today, but has a few credits in the bank.

Random thoughts: Thought Gawn really struggled today. We looked better when LJ was in the ruck. Structure down back looked broken without Tomlinson, and better when TMac went back to play on Larkey. Definitely need another tall now with Tommo out, just a question of TMac (Weid in) or Petty. This version of North might suck but nobody told Ben Cun*ington that we’re not their punching bag anymore. He had us over a barrel again today. More Dees fans at Blundstone than North, or at least we were louder. Had a middle aged guy with French visitors sitting behind me who was clearly only a part time Dees watcher. By the end he was calling me The Authority because I kept correcting him every time he said the wrong player. All in good fun though. Fritsch was the only forward who looked genuinely dangerous today. Outstanding game, looked a class above. Kozzy looks better in the flesh than on TV. Gun.

Sorry, hadn’t been paying attention to who had been posting what. Guess I should have said he’s making a fool of himself- impossible to be embarrassed when you’re blissfully unaware of how you others are seeing you.

If we have a percentage of 150% and we win the next game 60-40, we will still have a percentage of 150%, irrespective of whether it’s round 2 or round 22.

Mate, you’re embarrassing yourself. Double check the your maths before you post.

Indeed. In Gus and Max’s podcast with Harmes, they talked about players all having a second position/role. Guess we might find out today whose second position is “inside mid”. I suspect Viney will just be covered by half forwards such as Melksham and Kozzy spending more time in the middle.

Was it? It’s a surprise to me and I was gobbling up any MFC related media I could find. I obviously need to do better at keeping my ear to the ground!