Adam The God

Close. Bulldogs, Eagles, Hawthorn, Geelong and North lead the DE team stat. It's interesting to note the two bottom teams are in the top 5. I think you must be spot on and it's about the tactical way we play.

For many years I have viewed the DE stat with some scepticism, but it is interesting to note that we are dead last for disposal efficiency. This despite all the talk of the Williams effect. It would be interesting to read why Demonlanders think this might be the case, particularly as we are trying to be much more careful from stoppages and we seem to be much cleaner than previous years. In our effort to create the perfect clearance with use of handball, is this impacting on our DE efficiency?

Love it mate, but I'm going to disagree with you here. I think the Goodwinpressing was absolutely a feature of our games across 2017-2019, even early parts of 2020, but I think our defensive set up is now far closer to Clarko's cluster from yesteryear. We protect the corridor and are quick to close any switching exits. We've even started to block the 'play on' space from a standstill defensive position on the wings and flanks. When Carlton had it and looked to kick it long down the line, Kozzie would man the 15m space that the kicker would normally move into to get extra distance with the new rule. I haven't worked out yet whether this was something Kozzie was smart enough to do himself or whether it was a directive. Sidebottom did the same in the Sydney game. In Kozzie's situation, it meant that someone with pace could close down the kicker once they tried to play on, but without giving the 50m away by encroaching on the 15m zone. It's quite evident in games that we zonally mark space rather than press (Langdon and Gus are vital components here) and, sure, if an opposition player tries to break lines we're in a position to tackle and defend, but what happens mostly is that an opposition defender will look up and see a sea of Melbourne jumpers ahead. I think the instinct of a modern player is not to run and carry through that and undermine their own defensive positioning, particularly if their own disposal slingshots back at them. Instead, I think they look for a shorter option or more often a long kick up the line to a contest (and right into our hands). The Goodwinpress was far too aggressive and naturally left space out the back as the opposition could draw tacklers and utilise the space created to continue their attack. We used to see a lot of goals out the back. Carlton's first on the weekend was a very rare sight, where we all went up and it went out the back. Usually, our team plays with the ball in front of them. Petty, May and Lever all took turns at playing the goalkeeper role. May and Lever played it a little higher, but Petty was often 50m behind the play. As shown in the Sydney analysis by King. This happened again on the weekend. At one stage, Carlton dump kicked it over our initial wall and a completely free Petty marked in 30-50m of space. It was less obvious on the replay, but at the ground he was ridiculously deep. I loved it. And as King said, the deepness of this sweeper allows Lever and May to really play a more aggressive intercept game, knowing they've got cover out the back and quickness of defensive transition with the wingers helping out Hunt and Rivers to get back and cover Petty if the ball gets through May and Lever. It's a pretty impregnable set up. I think the first signs of this system started in the Collingwood game last year and were honed and really delivered in that St Kilda game. Like the Goodwinpressing, our current system still requires massive work rate to constantly shift and reposition the zone. Of course, there is definitely some pressing inside 50, but usually 3 or 4 players, not an 18 man press with mids pushing up like in Klopp's teams. We don't usually add an extra or two to stoppages anymore either. We're happy to have that extra behind ball. In some ways, it's been a monumental shift in philosophy. The boys mentioned it on the podcast last night, the ability to give up centre clearences for example and still be dominant around the ground. They mentioned Richmond and Hawthorn. I'd add Chris Scott's teams to this too. They're fine losing clearance, because they're well set up behind the ball. I think the other reason we've gone away from Klopp's aggressive style is our local game is far too quick. It's also much tougher to press exits on an AFL ground as opposed to a football pitch. This new system will get found out soon enough, but I'm hoping not within this year. It might take playing a 1v1 set up in the forward half, but even then, we're forcing teams to go against their own philosophies just to deal with our defensive set up. It'll be fascinating to see how this unfolds.

Way too easy to counter. Just have sweepers on either flank and the centre square. Depending how many of your players go into the huddle, you also leave yourself very vulnerable to the defensive 50 space with a turnover or intercept.

Jordon currently shares the wing with Gus. I'd shift JJ to half forward when not in the middle.

Jackson's tank seems elite going by his early season numbers. I'd try him on a wing if we think he's up to it defensively. Think Cox at Essendon.

A consistently elite performer. If you look at his clearance numbers, ground ball gets, tackles and handballs for most of his years, he's elite in all areas. His ability to get first hands on the ball and accelerate into and out of the contest is a very rare trait and his hands are the best I've ever seen in a Melbourne jumper. I reckon he's top 3 best handballers of the 21st century. He might be one of the greatest handballers of all time.

Yep, this is what I'd do. I'd play Viney majority forward with only a few centre bounce stoppages, to keep him fresh for the Bulldogs, but also to give our centre stoppages a bit of extra zip and improve our inside 50 tackles.

Absolutely. Some real clutch marks, but also clutch contests, and just takes the game on and runs through forwards to get ground balls and then clear them.

We did look really dangerous against Sydney with a 200cm giant standing in the goal square. I reckon you might be right.

And I just need to say it again. What a ripping game from Rivers. Star. He's even better on replay.

Brown and Weideman might not have got on the score sheet, but watching the replay at the moment, I reckon we can make this work with McDonald. It might take some time to get this to work and we might have to be a bit smarter about how we use each one, but it was a reasonable dress rehearsal. I liked how we utilised Weideman in the ruck and then higher up the ground and across half back. We also had him from the square on occasion too, so we kept them guessing and kept flipping the match ups to test the Carlton defence. 1v1 their guys are actually not too bad. It's their team defence that's ordinary, so it was good to see Brown and Weideman get a couple of looks each. They really could easily have had 2 or 3 each. And if Max doesn't take that off Brown's chest earlier in the game, there's another one. But that's the synergy that's not quite there yet. I also think we need to play Fritsch up the ground. Play him between the arcs. His ball use there is brilliant, particularly entering 50. The old Melksham role. Roll him back to our forward square when we can, but his ball use further up the ground will be very handy. He'll still get 2 or 3 looks a game, the same as he does now, but then exploit his ball use and allow others to get involved. Chandler should get another go in there as a small too, but I think in time it'd be nice to have Sparrow in there. He gives us an extra mid rotation and can play a defensive role inside forward 50. It might also be an idea to try Bedford for a game or two as well before the end of the season. We do need another zippy small like Kozzie though, but that's the for the draft, unless we've got our eyes on a small in the mid season draft. I'd utilise Brown at CHF, deep forward and as the secondary option with Max up the ground. I'd use McDonald deep, CHF, wing and the other secondary option with Max up the ground. Be fascinating to see what we do this week. I reckon we'll go unchanged, unless we bring Viney in for Chandler. It may also be a horses for courses thing against say the Bulldogs the following week, where we might want to go tall to try and target the Bulldogs' lack of quality KPDs. I'd love to see Jackson play as a genuine mid and second ruck too, but that might be a bridge too far. Interesting times.

Regarding our inside 50s and our inside 50 efficiency, I can't remember which poster it was that was complaining about our forward 50 entries and suggesting we change it up, but we are currently 1st for inside 50s and 5th for inside 50 efficiency. That's a monumental improvement for us. We're predictable when we go inside 50. If a player isn't free and the leading channels are clogged up, we'll go into the high forward pocket. It means every Melbourne player knows it. This makes us predictable in the same way Richmond were predictable going to the foot of the square and Riewoldt throughout 2017 and 2018, then getting their crumbers to pressure the foot of the contest. We don't have the same sort of dynamic smalls (outside of Kozzie), but our go is stoppages, so we look to get an inside 50 mark (say Gawn or McDonald) or get it out of bounds to reset and win the stoppage contest from there. This strategy won't change, as I think @binman said, nor should it. It's clearly working a treat.

This is nonsense. Clarry is my favourite MFC player of all time, but you didn't watch Mitchell closely. He was constantly on the bottom of packs and had brilliant hands. He was every bit the extractor. He was not an outside mid.

I was at both matches. 186 is a real struggle for me, but I've moved on from the 148 loss because I knew Neeld had no idea what he was doing, even if it was Round 2 and that he'd be gone soon. We'd also had all of 2012 under Neeld by then. The 2008-2009 beatings we took from teams like Hawthorn were easier to take given my mentality was play for draft picks (I know, I know), but by 2011 I was thinking we needed to rise and in 2010 we'd shown we were on the way. Or so I thought...

He was superb yesterday. I thought he started the season slowly, but his last month has been excellent. One of my favourites. How often does he take a clean, sliding defensive mark in the wet? So cool. He did it against Richmond, Sydney and Carlton. Star. Another Jason Taylor special. All well and good watching from TV mate, but if you're not at the games, you really have little idea how well Gus is defending and how important that is. Sure, he needs to tidy up his disposals, but his defending is top shelf at the minute.

Of course they can. What, Gary Ablett Snr wasn't a star because he never won a flag? Plenty of superstar A+ graders that have never won a flag.

Thought exactly the same thing. Well done, Christian. We kick wide because we're kicking to a 208cm giant and usually another one of our talls too. Richmond's game has been predictable for a long now too. It's all well and good that something is predictable but you've got to be able to stop it if you're the opposition. That's called playing the percentages. When we need to, we still look for the switch, which is something we haven't had the courage to continually do in past years. He still managed to outmark Max at one stage, so I reckon Petty did a great job a a rule. And I agree. Intercepting and ball use are his strengths. IMV, he's a bit of a Lever clone, but further behind in his development.

It really depends on the cleanness of the clearance. I'm sorry but you can't just look at the stats. Hurried, unclean clearances play straight into our defensive hands. Do we want to lose stoppage, of course not, but provided the opposition midfield can't waltz out of stoppage with the ball, we'll be in the game. Sydney was a perfect example of this. That was the highest pressure game for the season. For any game played thus far. Yet, we soaked up the pressure, forced rushed clearances and forced them wide. I think the more dangerous stat against a team like the Dogs is our dwindling inside 50 tackles. If Weideman and Brown aren't kicking goals, they could cost us.

I'd like it to be Geelong down in Geelong please. Exercise those 186 demons for the supporters. ;)

Agree with all of this mate, but I felt hollow leaving the ground because I wanted 100 points and our last goal was 3 minutes into the last quarter. We really should have put those scores on the board in the last quarter. 1 goal 7 behinds. Still, happy to get the win in what I felt going into the game was a real danger game. As soon as I saw we were bringing our work rate 10 mins into the game, I knew it was very unlikely they'd be able to kick a winning score. Or more that I felt if they couldn't score, their inability to defend would lose them the match. But we were very good in front of goal for the first three quarters. Our set shot kicking over the last few weeks has gone through the roof. There is huge scope for improvement in this team though. That's what's so exciting. We're winning games without our clearance work and forwardline that has not quite gelled yet. I think we'll sort out our best forwardline come round 15 or so. I just hope we can get our clearance game going at some stage. The kid is fast becoming one of my favourites. Such a hard worker and usually super clean. 13 tackles was a mile ahead of anyone else. I've been thinking he'd need a rest in the next few weeks, but you can't rest him when he's bringing that sort of tackling pressure nearly every week. Poor old Sparrow will have to wait. It's a great problem to have.

Yep, where are all the comments on Lever's game? Easily in our top 4 or 5 for mine. May was good and got all the accolades, but did have 3 kicked on him despite blanketing McKay early. However, Lever was in his 2017 Adelaide form. Those spoils are becoming so confident. He's seeing it so well. I've never loved a backline so much. Along with May and Lever, Petty is playing his role really well. Rivers was outstanding, Salem has become such a beautiful reader of the play. I now expect him to win his 1v1s, which is a great feeling. Hunt provided a bit more dash this week and I'm glad he got that goal back after coughing one up earlier. I thought Hibbo was a bit patchy this week, but still did some good things. Gus and Langdon defended brilliantly all day too, as well as provided a great outlet to break onto the wings. The best defence in the league. Keep it going. The mids transitioned pretty well for most of the day but coughed up a few cheap stoppage scores. Our defensive mechanism, structure and organisation is so strong that it continues to win us games when our offensive game is a bit off and our stoppage game is struggling.

ANB has kicked some real clutch goals this year.

My grudge if you want to call it that stems from the [censored] off Melksham gave Melbourne supporters in Sydney last year. Selection wise though this is the most sensible decision. It gives us three talls in Brown, Weideman and Tom. Tom's tackling has been better this year, but I don't expect much at ground level from these three. So they need to be complimented by a host of smalls who are now Kozzie, Spargo, ANB Chandler with Harmes, Jordon and Petracca rotating through there to add additional forward pressure. Good selection.

I think this is where my concern is coming from.