Adam The God

The other thing that seemed obvious tonight was the lack of midfield cohesion, which was undoubtedly thrown off by the return of Clarry. It's no one's fault, we just have to find better cohesion. Multiple players going for the same ground ball and lacking trust in team mates to win it. Happened at the back too. This was then exacerbated by Carlton's pressure.

We looked at sea behind the ball with Smith there. As soon as he moved forward, both ends of the ground looked better. I've changed my view based on Petty's injury and tonight's performance. I think we'll go two talls at the back (May and Lever) with Hibbo from now on. Smith into the sub role and Tmac or Brown in to support JVR, JVR into second ruck spot. If Tmac or BB aren't fit, Smith stays and bring in Harmes. He could not be any worse than JJ was. I can't recall a game in the last three years where we've been so comprehensively beaten as we were tonight. It's hard not to knee-jerk to a result like tonight. Carlton were awesome, but we were on the backfoot the entire night and were never able to properly sustain a counter punch or even offer one at all. I don't wanna say we're done, but I expected to win, we should have won, they had a lot out and they controlled the game, stifled us with pressure and held us off all night. The funny thing is season's can hinge on very small moments and you need the luck going your way. If that Trac goal at the end was an umpire's call of goal (if you watch the hands on the head's of Carlton defenders directly after the ball crosses the line - it didn't look touched to me), all of a sudden the narrative completely shifts. Melbourne have won 6 in a row, top 2 is pretty much secured, Carlton's 8 game streak is broken and everyone goes here come Melbourne. The response the next fortnight will be instructive, and I hope we use tonight (a finals like game) to make bold selection moves to give ourselves the best chance of winning our 14th flag.

I have no animosity towards Jackson, but I hope he doesn't go to the next level. He doesn't play for Melbourne. We move on and hope our guys are better than everyone else's.

I don't mind either, I just think it's bizarre. Particularly, with how guarded the AFL are in terms of other codes. It's a huge advertisement for football (⚽️).

It's bizarre that they've pushed the game time for AFL for another sport.

I love 80s synth pop and New Wave, basically my favourite genre, and pretty much anything by Jim Steinman from the 80s and 90s, but if we're talking 90s cheese, I'm surprised by the lack of awesome that is La Bouche and just generally Euro house. Then there's anything by ATB... Sorry.... gotta duck back to Binners' office.

Lot of bandwagon Blues that come out of the wood work when they start to show something.

The last few weeks for us have been huge (our own results and others going our way), but this week is just as big. Beat Carlton, Collingwood, Brisbane and Port lose and we'll just about guarantee top 2. 🤞

Because North might go for Curtin before Reid as well... they are likely to have a CHB need.

Wrong thread mate? I am aroused though.

Ah well, we all have different bodies (and views).

I never knew that's why he had waffles in his avatar! Haha, brilliant.

Ask Stevie Wonder.

It's not really apt to compare pre Clarry with post Clarry. Pre Clarry we were going -1 at stoppage, post Clarry we've levelled up numbers at the stoppage and given Rivers free reign to play the intercept role (Brayshaw's 2022 role). One of the more interesting aspects of Clarry's return is whether we'll revert to the -1 at stoppage, so we can generate a tall interceptor behind the play, or whether we'll stick with even numbers at contest. My feeling is we'll stick with even numbers and with Grundy in the side, it actually gives us the chance (as @Abyssal writes) to play Max behind ball, which will automatically free up interceptors, as the opposition will be drawn to Max. But at the same time, we also lose nothing from the stoppage with Grundy's ruckwork replacing Max's. A great privilege to have.

I agree, although Melksham will basically play tall, because he'll almost certainly spend a large portion of the night on Weitering. That'll free up Grundy/Gawn and give JVR a lesser opponent like Marchbank.

This is your best post ever. Agree completely.

And surely Trac plays midfield minutes at some point, otherwise, I agree with all of this.

Did you watch the King's Birthday game? They can work together. We just need to bring the ball to ground and create a contest forward of centre, so the likes of Kozzy, Trac, Chandler and even ANB can get on the end of a few. Grundy's ruckwork is far less predictable to the opposition than Max's and Max's tap work in D50 still leaves a lot to be desired. I think they're both really good ruckmen though. Gawn's elite because of his around the ground ability, Grundy is elite because of his follow up work. Different styles of ruckmen, but they can be weapons in the same team too. Watch this space...

I think you'll find Grundy will work, just like he and Max did vs Collingwood. They'll both get looks at goal I reckon and need to nail their shots. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks again. I think Smith will start back, but if we feel we've got structure behind the ball, I could see them throwing him forward. I really don't like us playing only two defensive talls and it seems to rarely work, but maybe I need to accept that's the direction the game is going in? If that's the case going into next year, I think we need to find a good medium interceptor to support them. That's not really Hibbo's go, even if he goes around another year. And I don't rate Smith as a permanent intercepting defender.

He's always been a good bloke has Aker! 😆

If you missed it, you missed it, mate. I've got it for a year now. Grammatical error and all...

You couldn't do it without me, Binners.

Alternatively, use picks to trade for ready made at other clubs.

I've said this before, but I would not be at all surprised to learn that we are one of the sources muddying the waters RE Reid not wanting to leave Victoria. It is in our best interest to throw that stuff out there as it provides us leverage.

As you know, I'm for the third one.