Adam The God

The commentators and many Demonlanders too. You watch.

I agree. The quietness of Melbourne crowds do my head in. They're not always quiet, but often they're quiet at the wrong times. I remember going to a game against Port at the G in the early 2000s. There was something like 12k there. It sounded like 50k, so we can make noise (think Geelong and Hawthorn 2018 finals as well), but we don't do it consistently. And I have to say, sitting in the MCC, there are so many Melbourne people that just simply don't understand the rules or have a decent feel for the game. But all clubs have nuffies.

FMD, Steve, fancy complaining others aren't turning up when you're swanning around in Europe.

Spot on. I think the point stands though. They're managing him in game, it would seem likely to have him ready to go against his former team. Or maybe they'll continue doing this to balance out our reliance on him during the Gawn injury weeks.

Completely agree. We've tweaked our game style to beat Collingwood. We've become the scores from turnover kings, which is Collingwood's kryptonite, because as you say, they commit so many numbers to the contest and forward of centre, that they concede on slingshot if you can pressure them and/or win the initial stoppage contest. On resting Hibberd and having a fresh Oliver, they also clearly managed Grundy in game last week, playing only 67% TOG.

As I said in my previous post, if you're fatigued, it makes sense that you would tend to go wider and to the easier options. If we time our fitness program again like we did in 2021, so that we're running on top of the ground in the those final rounds and into finals, you'll see more central ball movement and therefore the stronger likelihood of greater accuracy. It's all interlinked. You can't maintain that sort of ball movement for 23 weeks. You go through ebbs and flows with fitness. As you acknowledge, our ball movement earlier in the season was very different to our last few weeks. It'll return at the back half of the season. Let's hope we have the personnel on the park to ensure the scores are big.

If you think about the forward structure during the H&A season in 2021 and then the last few rounds into the finals, it was chalk and cheese, and we went far more centrally.

That was me I think. I noticed it on the MCC side, where I sit. When we were defending in the 2nd or 3rd. It's not something we kept up all game, it's a bit like the Richmond 2nd or 3rd quarter where I noticed it. I'd be intrigued to know whether anyone else is spotting this too. And as I said in that post, we didn't stick to it on transition. We played a zone when Carlton switched the ball to the other side of the ground.

I'm not sure if it's supported by data, but to my eye at least, we seem to have varied our ball movement as fatigue has set in too. Earlier in the season, we were going very centrally to the central 20m out hotspot, and the last 2-3 weeks we've reverted to the pockets, and it's seen accuracy decrease. I wonder if it's a deliberate thing. Like, the coaches have said, look, fatigue will hit you earlier in games/you'll carry it in with you to games, and so take the easier options when they present. And that means not having to defend corridor/central slingshot, so entries become wider and safer towards the boundary. But with this, comes greater inaccuracy.

I agree OD. We need to kick straight. It's less about field kicking for me, obviously that's important, but it's about trying to replicate our early season accuracy.

And sorry, I've missed this. How are the team ratings calculated?

Disagree. He's still involved at ground level for the most part. But each to their own.

Nah, it's not hard to win a flag. Because Hawthorn, Richmond and Geelong managed three each, it's easy to win flags. The hot takes around here have been getting hotter. 👌

Agreed. I'm fine with the occasional hanger. As long as he stays in the contest afterwards/brings the ball to ground.

Were you happy 10 and zip last year? I bet you weren't. I bet you had a good old whinge. Our first 10 games last year were far superior to Collingwood's first 10 this year.

Showed really great leadership the other night, did our Trac. Was often pointing (not in a Brent Moloney sort of way though) and telling others when to slow the game down. Loved his game.

We were essentially playing 1v1 20m from stationary situations, and a zone behind that and then 1v1s. That's how you beat Collingwood. You take territory like we did against Carlton and do against most sides, and their only response is to try and slingshot out of there. We're very good at slowing sides down and making them go wide or short. Once they do that, if we play 1v1 20m from the stationary ball user, there's no way their short chipping and handball receive game gets very far. With the best contested player in the comp to come back into our midfield (Collingwood don't have a player in the top 10, we have 2), the evolution of our system is set up to beat Collingwood. If we bring close to our A game, I expect us to win comfortably.

De Goey clearly leaves the ground. He should get 3 minimum. What a [censored].

If we had the ball more often and held it up (played kick to kick), there'd be less need to pressure our opponent though, right?

Can I just say on our pressure rating for the last quarter, it's a little misleading, because we held onto the ball and killed the clock a lot. So there's no need for pressure when you've got the ball from a mark.

No, Smith will play a defensive role on Moore. Bookmark it.

And conversely, let's see how the Collywobbles deal with being the hunted for the next 11-12 weeks.

No wucks. Round 1 - conceded 50 against Bulldogs Round 2 - conceded 59 against Lions Round 3 - conceded 52 against Sydney Round 4 - conceded 38 against West Coast Round 5 - conceded 57 against Essendon Round 6 - conceded 61 against Richmond Round 7 - conceded 51 against North Round 8 - conceded 45 against Gold Coast Round 9 - conceded 41 against Hawthorn Round 10 - conceded 61 against Port Round 11 - conceded 52 against Freo Given how we play on turnover, being most dangerous on counter attack, I would disregard the West Coast result, which was a total shellacking. We really should have beaten Freo on those numbers.

Cripps used to be a much better player than his modern incarnation. I agree, HTF did he win a Brownlow last year? Well, we know it took at least a pretty incredible tribunal result to even allow that. But it's the fact that who's taking votes off him out of that midfield? He was at a point my favourite non Melbourne player, but I reckon he's been past his best for two years. That trajectory has not been helped by playing in a rubbish team with coaching.

Conversely, we only gave up 39 inside 50s. This is far lower than any result for Carlton this year. For context, Carlton had: * 59 last week against Sydney (Round 11) * 51 against Collingwood (Round 10) * 50 against Western Bulldogs (Round 9) * 47 against Brisbane (Round 8) * 56 against West Coast (Round 7) * 52 against St Kilda (Round 6) * 53 against Adelaide (Round 5) * 52 against North (Round 4) * 61 against GWS (Round 3) * 48 against Geelong (Round 2) * 45 against Richmond (Round 1)