Adam The God

It's on your list though, isn't it? And why else would you change your ball movement mid season after being the highest scoring team to Round 10, using a direct central and corridor approach? Be interested to hear. Goody clearly plays the percentages, so if fatigue is a problem/a factor, he and the coaches are likely to encourage more conservative ball movement...

Yep, totally. And how many times have we seen Port smash the H&A season and look like winners, only to collapse in the finals series. Still, it's a new season and who knows, but I reckon you're spot on.

Ma'am 👍👌

Yeah, I wonder why they would have changed their ball movement strategy during the middle of the year, just as they did in 2021 and 2022...? I wonder what it could be...

Similarly, how long can Port keep their momentum up? I wouldn't mind betting their strategy is based around getting a top 4 spot and hoping their home ground advantage puts them in a GF, but they don't appear to have fatigued like us, Brisbane and Collingwood, which leads me to conclude that they've got a different program to us, so I'm betting their form will drop away. But top 2 is looking good for them.

Well, yeah, if we'd kicked straighter the last 5 games, we'd be equal top, having beaten Port, Freo, Geelong and GWS, and very likely on top with a percentage advantage given the number of scoring shots we've been able to generate. If this turns, we'll be very difficult to beat. Let's hope it starts tomorrow.

I'll still back Kozzy kick his 40 goals again this year. 22 goals so far. He is an excellent small forward for his age.

Well, we went to the pockets against Geelong too, but more often than not, we seemed to go to the 25m hot spot. I'd love it if someone was actually able to back that up statistically. Is this data something you have access to @WheeloRatings?

This is overblown too. Against Geelong, we went centrally extremely often and it didn't impact on our scoring accuracy...

Did people actually watch the Geelong game? Stewart was okay against us, but I keep reading how Stewart dominated us. He only had 8 intercept possessions for the entire night, Henry had 9, and IMV was more influential that Stewart. But far and away the most influential interceptor and defensive player on the ground that night was Lever with a game high 14 intercepts and then Rivers with 12, yet it was apparently Geelong's interceptors that dominated us. How about we didn't kick straight and that's where the game was lost? 23 scoring shots each. Kick straight against the Saints and we win.

Whilst it's potentially the weakest forwardline on paper in 3 years, we generate a lot of scoring shots from our mids. It'd be nice if our half backs pushed up a little more and hit the scoreboard too. Last week we had Trac kick 0.4, Langdon 1.0, Hunter 0.2, Sparrow 0.2 and Viney 0.1. That's potentially 10 goals from midfield in ridiculously wet and difficult conditions. Under the roof at Marvel, I expect us to be able to generate 20+ shots at goal. We just need to kick straighter. St Kilda over the last 5 games have managed 18 scoring shots against Hawthorn (a loss), 20 scoring shots against Sydney (a win), 15 scoring shots against Richmond (a loss), 16 scoring shots against Brisbane (a loss), 25 scoring shots against the Eagles (a win). In each game, their opponent has had more scoring shots against than St Kilda, except against the Eagles, where St Kilda managed 8 more scoring shots. We should get the chocolates here, particularly, if May can blunt King and keep him to a goal or two. Just kick the [censored] thing straight and finish off your hard work, Melbourne.

Kozzy is also playing significantly more TOG. As an example, he played 93% TOG against GWS. An insane number for a small forward, and clearly it's robbing him of creativity and energy. I just hope that strategy pays off in the end and we can use him in CBs again like we did in the first 9-10 Rounds.

So that's a no, you won't be attending on Saturday?

Agree that's very likely.

Not with King and Caminiti forward. Goody intermated they won't be tweaking the defensive 7 anymore too.

Melksham gets to 100 games with the club this week doesn't he?

Fascinating selections. So Smith or Chandler the sub? We seem to have gone away from the three tall forward set up, and will go with Brown and Gawn/Grundy. Melksham is near the end, if not done, and I don't like his chances of impacting this week. Aside from Kozzy and maybe Brown, there's not much to get excited about in the forward half. We're going to have to get a few goals out of Trac and our mids too.

But also the fact we took our chance in 2021 relieves the pressure moving forward. I just hope we can keep the rest of the list fit and keep our top 4 spot. If we do, we're still a huge chance this year. Just need to start converting our chances in front of goal.

Maybe 3.5 hours 😉. But I deliberately aim to arrive 10 mins before the bounce.

I also have an MCC/MFC membership and have a two year old son. I prioritise the footy for 3 hours on a weekend, but each to their own. I know not everyone is like that.

I don't have a problem with Marvel at all. Parking is just as easy as the G (since there's barely any parking at the G anymore) and you're much closer to the game at Marvel. I find the atmosphere to be brilliant. The Bulldogs game last year was extremely loud. Reckon people might be snobs. 😉

I give up with you, East Bentleigh.

Are you going this week, Steve? The team really needs your help with their arousal levels.

If you can't hit difficult kicks, you're hardly going to change the angle. And you shouldn't. You should play the percentages. This is why getting better users forward of centre has merit.

It's interesting, because Marvel is a very fast deck, you don't wanna carry too many big guys, it'll ping out quickly on slingshot if the exits are vulnerable.