Adam The God

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.

Clarry was the best man on the ground for me, but I'm probably biased. And Petracca kicked two brilliant goals when no one else, from either side, could hit the side of a barn.

Yep, it was pretty loud. And every time we had a set shot they booed. I knew when they were booing Trac's second set shot he'd kick it. He feeds off that stuff. Incidentally, Trac's two goals were absolutely clutch. Big time player. And I called Sparrow's goal too. He's a nice penetrating kick, and when the rest of the players on the ground struggled to kick the distance from 50, he made it easily. Ripper!

Our delivery into the forward 50 was atrocious in the first half. The worst I can recall. It improved in the third, but we couldn't nail our shots. McDonald, Fritsch and Kozzy were very ordinary though. But had Fritsch and McDonald nailed those shots in the third, this is probably a different conversation.

System, baby. We'll keep winning with this system. We strangle sides and absorb pressure like a top team, even when we're not playing well. Sign of a very good team. We're still the best team in the comp. Essendon were playing for a finals spot and they couldn't have played any better and we still beat them.

Another thing, all those Demonlanders that bang on about our midfielders' ball use, Dusty Martin is a very 50-50 kick. He can kick it beautifully, but he's never been consistent at it. Just remember though, without Martin's heroics, there'd be no Tigers flags at all. They've also had a dream run with injuries. Didn't have a single injury to a key player in 2017 and that'll take you places.

I'll take being on top of the ladder, thanks. St Kilda won't be playing finals and more than halfway through the season, we're in the hunt for the minor premiership.

You can already tell Rankine is a lazy player, but if we think his attitude would turn in our environment, then he'd add an extra exciting dimension to our forwardline. Really not sure he'd fit into our pressure set up though. I'd definitely target Ben King though.

We got 4 tickets in the MCC as well. Great stuff.

We selected Jackson with pick 3, who was mostly a ruckman, had played a little bit forward in the second half of his draft year, who we thought could develop his forward craft at the top level. If the attributes are tantalising enough, clubs will pull the trigger almost anywhere in the first round. As others have said, it remains to be seen whether Andrews has those attributes.