Adam The God

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.

Unless they do what @GCDee suggested and bring in Tomlinson and play Petty forward.

Is that Gawny in the background saying 'Good one, Ooz'? 🤣 And you can't say we're careful with selection. This is a huge game to be debuting someone in.

Taj to debut. Fascinating. Wonder if this means Hunter or Bowey go forward... Just announced on the MFC Insta account that he'll debut this week.

Pity about Jake Rogers. Looks like he'd suit our mids beautifully.

To be clear, I'm reading between the lines here. When asked about JVR's VFL form, he said "we sent him back with some clear things that we wanted him to work on and he's started to implement them throughout his training and throughout his performance, so that was really pleasing..." He then continued with "...he's a good kid, he's gone back and he's gonna work on some things and when he comes back in, he's gonna come back in a better player." Goody was then asked whether ideally they'd give JVR more time in the VFL, with the questioner implying that if JVR has some things to work on at VFL level, would an ideal scenario be JVR playing at VFL level longer. Goody responded with "yeah, look, he's still 19, you know, he's still learning his craft, he's still learning his forward craft play at AFL standard, confidently every week. You know, in his first 12 games, he's kicked 17 goals. I'm sure in his next 12 he's gonna have even a bigger impact, not only on the scoreboard, but in how he plays the game. We're really confident that if we keep developing him the right way, that in the long term, we're gonna have an absolute beauty of a player for us. Ah, that's our plan for him. Is to develop him the right way and make sure that he's ready to play to really elite level of AFL footy throughout his whole career."

So going by Goody's presser, it seems like no JVR this weekend.

Was it a closed training session?

Ancient history with a different management team. The current team have overseen 2022 and 2023. And I don't have a particular problem with Clarry arguing his case on the training track...

It does seem like we stuffed up management last year and we're possibly stuffing it up again...

What's this nonsense on Twitter and AFL Central about Clarry?

You'd think having Petracca play 70/30% forward/midfield, that'd help our contested play in the forward half.

Not for a while. Smith played (at times) on Moore and Stewart (Henry was the guy that killed us, not Stewart). I'm with some who believe Smith doesn't have the nous to play regularly on clever interceptors, because he gets lost in the system. If he stays in, I hope he is hyperfocused on the best interceptor in the air and runs off them to provide pressure or win ground ball when the ball hits the ground.

Trac should play the Fritta role. Smith plays as a dummy/decoy forward almost and certainly plays a defensive role at times too. Fritta is the guy they're really going through. I'd be trying to go through Trac and he's hopefully involving BB and JVR with his elite assist game.

Great post. Completely agree.

I didn't know that abiut Hibbo. Then I'd just play Rivers in the back 6 there or bring in Gus to that spot, and move Laurie into the sub role to get another ball user and good decision maker into the team.

Won't happen, but here's what I'd go with: FB: McVee Petty Hibberd HB: Salem May Lever C: Langdon Oliver Spargo HF: Bowey Brown Hunter FF: Pickett JVR Petracca R: Gawn Viney Sparrow I: Grundy Chandler Rivers Howes Sub: Brayshaw So that gives us: * McVee, Salem, Howes and Rivers as half back kickers. Rivers isn't great by foot, but would likely roll through there. * Spargo, Hunter, Bowey, Kozzy, Chandler and Langdon as forward connectors. With the exception of Langdon, these are our better ball users. * Petracca plays the stay at home forward role, essentially taking Fritsch's spot for now, and makes us far more dangerous at ground level. I want to see how Brown and JVR play together again. Brayshaw is a good sub, because he can plug just about any hole. Again, won't happen, but I think we need to risk moving Bowey out of the back 7 (he was brilliant yesterday) and bringing in a low possession player like Spargo who's a good runner and also a good ball user. He, Hunter and Bowey would likely rotate on that non Langdon wing in my world. I'd also look at using Grundy as a pure midfielder and only as a ruckman in small bursts (say the final 5-10 mins of quarters, ala Jackson). So he'd have to spend some time forward too.

We had 20 scoring shots in the wet. That's not a connection issue... I don't love our forward set ups. I'd change them. I've posted at length over the last few weeks about what I believe is our ball movement shift during the middle parts of the season, three years running now. We change our ball movement during the middle winter months when fatigue becomes an issue, because we play the percentages and it keeps us within reach. We did it in 2021 as well. The difference is that year, we didn't drop the games we've dropped the last few weeks. So we need to be better. As I've mentioned in this thread, I'd be relaxing our press, shifting it to the middle of the ground (see our game against Collingwood) and trying to allow space in behind turnovers that we can create in the middle of the ground. And to be clear, I don't think May is anywhere near the player he was in 2021, neither is Lever. But particularly May, who is a liability when the ball hits the deck. If we can't win 1v1s or ground balls behind the ball, it doesn't matter what tweaks or adjustments we make to the game style. We need May and Lever to lift and hold their marks, and also get it done on the ground. Petty back helps this, but I want to see some continuity with that set up now. I hope we don't shift Petty forward again to cover Fritta. We need to go BB and JVR, play Smith if you want, but then Kozzy, Chandler and I think Spargo. I'd also play Grundy as a more permanent forward or try something unusual like playing him on the ball when Max rucks.