Adam The God

Great podcast as always guys. You did say a couple of times May didn't play last time against GWS. He did and got 20 touches. I'd still be happy to have Hibbo go to TG so May can zone off and he can be the plan B for TG if needed. If he can take Dusty, he can take TG.

I figure it's the merger

He hates us more. As does Dunstall.

Yep, Tim Wilson, MP for Goldstein. He and his partner have shares in the company that make AZ. The most corrupt government we've had since the Rum Rebellion.

You realise Fairfax is Channel 9, ie Peter Costello? They ran a multi million dollar Liberal Party fund-raiser in 2019. Are you trying to tell me Fairfax/Nine is 'leftie'? I suppose Andrew Bolt is a raging leftie too? Murray is a professional provocateur, just like Bolt and Credlin. They've no interest in facts, they just go on feelings. It's about stirring the pot and getting people riled up. Who are the 'leftie' provocateurs? And don't give me that egocentric centrist Waleed. The Overton Window has Malcolm Turnbull as a 'raging leftie'.

3 million per home game? The ground holds 50k odd doesn't it? Those numbers don't compute.

Given the AFL have got their SA teams on planes and into Victoria, the SA Government clearly expects the possibility of another SA lockdown or breach of their hotel quarantine set up again. It has to increase the chances that our Port game is played at Geelong or in Tassie.

Hang on, so we were a younger side than Essendon on Saturday?

As an East Bentleigh boy, not sure the Bentleigh Club is in the McKinnon zone. It's more likely to be in the Bentleigh Secondary College zone.

More like it'll be bought by ALH Group. They seem to own every pub in the land these days, which is good, because their menu is a classic and I find myself at one of their pubs at least once or twice a week.

I think our forwardline problems are being overplayed here. Our goalkicking is definitely a problem, but in that third quarter, we should have been 4 or 5 goals up at three quarter time. We lowered the eyes really well going inside and cut them up. But Harmes, Fritsch and McDonald, off the top of my head, all missed or failed to get the distance on regulation kicks at goal from 40-45m. Kick those goals and the umpiring fades into the background and everyone's talking about how well our smaller forwardline functioned after half time. It was the forwardline after all that had us undefeated earlier in the season. Instead, we kept them in the game. McDonald kicks those almost every week, so that was unlike him. Harmes kicked one from a slightly closer spot earlier in the game and Fritsch should be nailing his as well. If we go 4 or 5 goals up at three quarter time, who knows what Essendon do. Maybe we get a couple of easy ones that blows out the lead or we simply lock the game down and win it by 4 or 5 goals. I went into the match saying if we brought our work rate and focus, we'd win by 4 or 5 goals. We bought the work rate, that was clear from our all field defensive set up without the ball, but we didn't bring the focus with ball use (in the first half), getting sucked in to too many contests in the midfield and getting done on the outside, and we didn't kick straight. Otherwise, it's a regulation Melbourne 2021 win. That said, I'm happy to try Brown in the side and I'd be content for it to be at the expense of Fritsch.

Hibbo went to him at the stoppages after quarter time. And from Goodwin's press conference it's pretty clear our coaching staff were happy after quarter time. I'm not sure he had him at every stoppage, but he certainly had him at a few. Particularly the around the ground stoppages.

Great post. Thanks mate. That's why the coaches love him. He knows no other way. But I still think he could play a lot smarter.

He's in big trouble I reckon.

One of my favourite non MFC players is Weitering. McKay gets all the accolades, but Weitering is just as good, if not better. I know he signed a contract extension relatively recently, but I'd love him in our back 6 one day.

I felt Viney was very ordinary at the ground and the replay is backing that up. He's still a poor decision maker and tries to do too much. His defensive positioning on multiple occasions was terrible, often trailing opponents into our D50. I hope that's just a blowing out of the cob webs. Needs to be much better next week.

Watching the first half replay now and I underestimated how good May was. At the ground I felt he ran under the ball too often, but his second quarter was elite.

We certainly struggled to keep a forward deep and as a result, Essendon often played their anchor as deep as we do behind the ball. No doubt Brown would help keep that anchor accountable. And just like the Adelaide game, if our defensive transition is off and our forward pressure, it allows teams to move the ball through the corridor. That's not some special plan. We didn't defend that well enough and any team that is allowed to play the corridor will be dangerous. Agree we need to rectify it.

In the first half we murdered them in centre clearances. They fought back in the second half, but their clearances were rushed kicks straight to our defenders. They played straight into our hands in the second half. Parish in particular.

I'm not convinced we need Ben Brown after tonight. If McDonald plays better, he takes heat off Fritsch, who can then hit the scoreboard himself. I'm not sure our forward half had high pressure acts tonight either. Happy to be corrected, but aside from moments in the first, third and last, I thought Essendon were able to rebound too easily and we let them waltz off half back too many times. Ben Brown would have been a liability tonight IMO. I'm not against us bringing in Brown next week, but I don't think we missed him with Essendon's run and gun half backs. It was the right selection call to go smaller.

See, I reckon their stoppage set ups weren't aggressive at all. They held their outside width a lot better than us and we found our mids often going for the same ball and not trusting their team mates. Old Melbourne if you like. And we're better than the Eagles and Geelong. Port have beaten Sydney and no one else. They should not even be in the conversation.

I thought their two games were far less influential than Oliver's or Petracca's. All of Parish's touches were on the outside and his delivery inside 50 was ordinary IMO. Parret weren't quite Joel Bowden level high possession, low influence, but they were pretty close.

It was lopsided. It was something like 8 to 2 our way at the time. We got the rub of the green tonight.

Not sure I agree with this. Essendon tried to run and gun off half back at every opportunity. IMO we let them do it too often, but when we choked them up and made them go long down the line, they had no real answer and struggled to score. In the final term, we really covered the corridor well from slower play. But they killed us on the outside tonight and yet we still beat them. Such brilliant signs.

I'm just about to watch the replay to enjoy the salty melts. Hate that club and very happy to beat them.