Nasher

The thing that sticks in my head is a post match interview is Gawn saying “Lynden Dunn kicked a torp to the middle. Unfortunately he forgot to tell us he was going to do it.” I saw another quote from a player (didn’t hear it first hand) which might have been ANB, saying their forward connection has improved because they’ve had years of learning where each of the forwards wants the ball kicked, and that they haven’t developed that with BBB yet. What that tells me is that players want predictability from their teammates. Rather than being a negative, it’s a must have. The players receiving the kick-in have to know how and where to set up. It doesn’t necessarily mean he has to kick in exactly the same way every time, but the playbook can only really have a couple of items in it, otherwise it will be too complicated and hard to get right. The way the opposition set up from one of our kick-ins is going to be largely determined by how we set up anyway. Their backs will position their wall wherever they want, but their mids and forwards are just going to go wherever our mids and defenders go, because they know that’s where the ball will go, irrespective of whether they knew it in advance or not.

I think our indigenous players and supporters would have found it a lot more meaningful to wear it this week, though, given the nature of the week - that’s what I infer from listening to interviews like May did on Yokayi Footy, and that a celebration opportunity that is important to them was robbed from them as a result. I’m not indigenous so I don’t know where that actually sits on the big deal scale for them (I would like to know, though - any indigenous Australian Demonlanders want to comment?) and even within the community there would be a range of views, but it’s why I felt annoyed about it.

Who are you to bring these pesky “facts” in to the discussion?

Interesting choice. On gut feel I like it. Does he have the tank? @big_red_fire_enginemade the point about the team being based on roles and that Langdon’s replacement will come out of the wing role pool. It’s spot on but I disagree with his conclusion that it has to be someone from the VFL team. Brayshaw has said on the podcast that all players have a second role that they train and practice in, even if they don’t necessarily use it in AFL matches. I wonder whose second role is “wing”? The pool of players available to replace Langdon are players currently in the side who are nominated as capable wingers, and the full time wingers in the VFL. We don’t know who is in the former group, but what I’m absolutely certain about is that they won’t play a player in there who hasn’t previously trained for it, which may exclude the likes of Rivers, but who knows?

Any thoughts on Hunt to the wing and bringing in another half-back instead?

You must be new here.

Tricky problem. Langdon is tough to replace. Don’t know the answer but I don’t think it’s Baker. Whoever it is though has to be a “can run all day” type. I think I’m choosing between Sparrow coming in and Neal-Bullen to the wing, or Jones coming in as direct replacement. Either way it’s an obvious step backwards, but anything is going to be. Not too many spare Langdons sitting on the shelf. No changes other than the forced one.

It's a conversation starter. Cornes' job is to start conversations. It really beats me why people get so uptight about this kind of thing.

It's a pretty good tactic though. I'd employ it too if it were an option.

Exactly. We will find out in due course whether or not he's available and if not, how long he's out for. I don't see why it's pressingly urgent for the entire membership to know the gory details of his injury, on a Tuesday afternoon.

Will join the 3 Brownlow votes in a losing side club.

I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. Although to be honest, I’m not even that disappointed. It was a hot contest, we were below our best, and it was bound to happen sooner or later. Bring on the Dogs.

To be fair hardtack, the form line is WWWWW vs LLLLL. I don’t reckon they’re any good. We haven’t yet shown the capacity for giving teams a hiding, so that might not be on the cards, but I give Adelaide absolutely no chance whatsoever of beating us. The boys will be preparing for Adelaide’s best though, and rightfully so. Goodwin talks about how they’ve reset after every win. It’s self evident and they’ve earned my trust that they will do that, and take this challenge completely seriously. If they do, they’re a vastly superior side to Adelaide. That’s why I’m so confident about the result. The only way we can lose is if we’re complacent, but that’s not this version of the Melbourne Football Club.

I’m experiencing this odd feeling about this game. I’ve never felt it before. A strange sort of... relaxation. Like I’m not worried, at all. There’s no incoming calamity. I’m even a little excited. Is this the elusive... “confidence”?

I loved the way Cornes scoffed every time Brown opened his mouth and more rubbish escaped. I listened to Cornes interview ANB this morning too. He’s articulate, asks good questions and knows what he’s talking about. It’s a real pity he plays the role of hysteria-generator so much; he has the potential to be a legitimately good footy journalist if he cuts that out, in my opinion.

It’s a dangerous thing to assume supporters of any club know what they’re talking about though. You only have to look at some of the garbage that gets posted on here. For example, you might actually work with the Geelong equivalent of Dr.D.

We don’t know what the basis was for Melksham being left out in the first place. Everyone’s assumed it’s for this, that and the other behavioural type stuff, but it could have just been a horses for courses change. Perhaps with the different mix of talls, we thought we also needed a different mix of mediums and smalls; now that the tall mix is more like before, we put the medium-small mix back to how it was. If that’s the case, the message to Bedford and whoever else is plugging away at Casey is that Goodwin and team will pick the team that suits whatever we’re trying to deliver, so make sure you’re putting your best foot forward. We can only guess the reasoning, but if this change is mystifying in the context of your guess, then maybe the assumptions around why he was left out in the first place need revisiting.

I was going to suggest bringing Melksham for Chandler in but was legit afraid of the Demonland lynch mob. There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind Melksham would have offered a lot more than Chandler on the weekend. Didn’t see the Brown change coming though, but I’m pleasantly surprised. Thought they’d prefer him over Weideman, but I’m stoked to see the young bloke get another look at it. Can’t wait for this game now. Both changes make the side stronger.

My son’s basketball team (second on the ladder) played their arch rivals (top of the ladder) on Tuesday. Having lost both recent clashes narrowly, they found said rival team had turned up without their best player. My son’s team we went on to deliver one of the biggest beltings they’ve ever been part of. Obviously u12s basketball isn’t AFL football but I think the principle still stands. For all we bang on about depth, top players are completely irreplaceable. Our 23rd best player can’t cover Petracca. Majak Daw can’t cover Max Gawn. Richmond are much weaker without Dusty. Best players are irreplaceable. Depth is an illusion. A couple of key injuries to crucial players and we will be right back to mid pack. Any premiership coach will tell you that one of the key ingredients to a premiership is luck. It’s been on our side so far this year. Let’s hope it continues.

I'm not really either to be honest. rpfc's take on this is my favourite so far; to paraphrase: how about we support the umpires to officiate the game better, and the coaches mind their own business?

Goodwin. We don't call him Goody - he wasn't our mate back then. Just watched the vid again. Leoncelli was just casually walking in to position when he realised he was all on his own in space, then suddenly turned around with some urgency. Great tap forward by Schwarz. Awesome stuff.

As above - the players would still prefer to have the ball than have their opponent have it. If I pull up in a contest and let you gather it, there’s no guarantee the tackle I lay will stop you from getting it away to your teammate, or that I’ll even be able to lay one. Coach will be super pissed with me if I pull up in a contest and let you get away with it. If I’m that worried our contest would be too close and I might get tackled, I’ll just boot or paddle it away until I or my teammate can find a cleaner possession.

I get what you’re saying and I think it’s got merit, but is that what would happen in practice? Picture two players competing for a loose ball, and they arrive at the ball at the same time. Are they both going to stop and say “you get it”, “no you get it”? It’s a silly example but the point is, in the heat of the moment and only having a quick second to decide what to do, I think most players would still choose to try and beat their opponent to the ball, even if there’s an increased risk of getting caught holding the ball. It will also increase prevalence of padding the ball away and soccer kicking instead of trying to gather in congestion, which I don’t think is a bad thing. I don’t see players electing to be second to the ball as a plausible outcome in a game where territory (current buzzword) is king. The opposing risk is the player who does get the ball gets away because you gave way to him in the contest. I doubt the coach would be real happy with that in the match review.

Fairly handy goal from the coach to nearly snatch it, too. Easy to forget how much of a gun Goodwin was as a player. Not good enough on that day though!

I think it’ll just be Weideman back out for Jackson. Chandler was the clear 22nd best player, however I don’t think Jackson for Chandler being a realistic exchange, it’s way too tall. In Goody’s presser today he was at pains to say the talls all knew the situation and were clear on where things stood; I read between the lines that he’s getting ready to tell one of them they’re back out. Weideman played the role Jackson would so it makes sense to me.