Fat Tony

Bring the heat Demons!

VFL play Sunday, so the sub could get a flight back on Saturday night or Sunday morning and play at Casey if they don’t get a run.

I think Weideman is a marginally better option than Brown at the moment and Tmac and Jackson are automatic selections. Weideman is a bit more mobile and offers more flexibility than Brown. And Fritsch will get a bit more space inside 50 without Brown. That said, it’s a long year and Brown will get more opportunities. Melksham is our best kick inside 50 and our offensive play can still improve. We will be a better side if he can return to form. I like Chandler but I can’t complain with either change. Sparrow will be sub to see his family.

It depends how far out we are. If Petracca gets injured in a prelim we can win it. If he gets injured next round it will be much more difficult.

Football is a team game and there are 36 players on the field at any point in time. The Kangaroos had a great record without Carey. The Bombers should have won the flag in 1999 without Hird and Lucas. How many great footballers have never won a flag? And unlike basketball or even soccer, you cannot easily just give the ball to the star player. Even in basketball, the NBA is almost always won by teams with at least two stars. Lebron and Jordon both needed other stars to compete.

Am I reading this right? 1. Eddie is forced to resign by the Collingwood Board after the findings of systemic racism and the list management debacle. 2. Eddie's mate (Brown) is seeking to overthrow the Collingwood Board under the guise of the systemic racism findings and the list management debacle but it really is just pay pack for the Board members being disloyal to Eddie. 3. Eddie is behind the whole thing. Where is the media calling this out?

There is a picture of him kicking at training. Looks fit. https://m.facebook.com/pg/MELBOURNEfc/photos/?ref=page_internal&mt_nav=0#!/MELBOURNEfc/photos/a.10151939167012317/10159230472302317/?type=3&source=54&ref=page_internal

The Casey vs Tigers game was streamed on the Richmond website and was not on Kayo. Even if it is tied up in broadcast rights, the rights are worthless and they should buy them back.

Brayshaw did not even get an invitation to the count.

Good post. Although I think a big part of the Chandler for Melksham swap was that Weideman was coming in for Jackson. My guess is that they wanted another crumber to work below the three key marking players. (Jackson being more of a hybrid than Weideman.) Ironically, Chandler spoiled Weideman in the first quarter.

Viney and Jackson are automatic ins if fit. Chandler was our 22nd player yesterday and a swap for Viney makes the most sense IMO. Harmes has been good the last two weeks and Jordon is playing well also. Brayshaw was great yesterday in the contest but very poor by foot. I think he is playing his role really well and is a key to our defensive structure, so I would be reluctant to drop him. Weideman and Brown are competing for a spot IMO. Both have different strengths and I favour Weideman because he is more mobile and better at competing when the delivery is not good. I think Weideman was better than Brown yesterday but neither was great. Melksham will need to go back to the VFL to earn his spot back. He cannot be sub twice in a row.

The best thing about our game at the moment is our defensive running. By slowing the ball movement of the opposition and running hard to deny the switch to the Langdon wing, it means they have to inevitably kick to a contest involving Max Gawn. And if it get through the Gawn contest, they have to beat Lever and May. No team we have played has been able to break this down. When we have the ball the system also has a fast and slow sides of the ground and the team knows to play either ultra conservatively or aggressively depending on the side.

Will the game be on Kayo or the MFC website?

I think we were beating them by a point last week.

North finished 17th last year and are now 0-8 with a percentage of 52%. The AFL needs to either give them priority pick(s) or they may as well wind up the club. Right or wrong, the AFL denied us in 2013/2014 due to tanking. As an aside, we don't have any early picks this year so any priority picks this year won't dilute us.

Call me sceptical, but I find it hard to believe that neither player was under the influence of alcohol as reported. I think there is a good chance that more comes out here. https://www.news.com.au/sport/afl/richmond-star-shai-bolton-and-daniel-rioli-embroiled-in-nightclub-fight/news-story/63ef86829c6e93b553a5cc63ddd3372c

Nobody deserves to be dropped. Jones has had a rest and could come back. He was lucky 300 came when it did but then stiff to be dropped after playing well versus Richmond and North. Weideman is incredibly unlucky to be on the outer. He could be our best forward. I like Chandler but ANB, Kossie and Spargo are going well.

We should be aiming for a top 2 finish and the danger is a Preliminary Final in Adelaide vs Port. In saying that, we need to keep healthy and should only be fielding 22 fully fit players at this stage. The sub is a way to give players a mini rest.

Obviously we need to maintain good health to be a shot, but there are also reasons to be optimistic. We are winning convincingly every week and only running in second gear. And there is still plenty of improvement in our game. For example: Petracca starts hitting more targets by foot and kicking straight. Oliver starts kicking straight. Gawn starts kicking straight. We manage to win the centre clearances. Viney comes back and makes the opposition cry. Petty finds his feet. Jackson goes from talented youngster to super star. Kossie gets stronger and learns how to take a mark. Ben Brown gets more mobility back.

Jordon was prolific but made a few errors in the first quarter which were unlucky/costly. He was then was more efficient with the ball. 8 tackles was an equal team high. He will need to keep his form to hold his spot with Viney to come back.

Telecast?

Brown is elite when the ball is put to his advantage and a great finisher. But he is not great at bringing the ball to ground when out of position, doesn't provide much pressure and isn't great on the deck. I think he needs to kick a lot of goals to make us better than other combinations because we have a lot of very good forward options to choose from. I think he moved pretty well and better than last year or this year. We have been using Max at full forward and he has similar strengths in the air (not as good a kick for goal).

I watched the game live and on replay and I am not understanding the criticism of Harmes. He was tough, fast, good pressure and prolific.

I have been concerned about Ben Brown and his fit in the side so I was encouraged with his game. Brown looked to move better on Saturday than the previous weeks and he looked better on the bigger MCG. That said, he has pushed Fritsch further up the ground and he is keeping a very good player (Weideman) out of the side, so he needs to keep kicking goals.

Sparrow's best game ever is 17 possessions and he had just 4 in his last game. Harmes had 20 in Round 1 (with a broken wrist) and averaged 24.5 in 2019. Possessions aren't everything I know, but they are not nothing. Sparrow had a good game last week against witches hats but lets not go overboard about his year.