Adam The God

Melksham has to come out for Sparrow. I think that'll be the move too.

Stevey boy just likes to have a bit of a whinge.

I think Clarry can be better in the long run than Mitchell because he's got that elite burst, but Mitchell is a legend of the game.

I'd be going tall against the Bulldogs. I think we should risk it for the biscuits this week and try and play Weideman, Brown, McDonald and Jackson. I'd play Jackson through the midfield more though, because he's so clean below his knees and is a decent tackler. I worry Weideman is not going to make it, but I reckon we have to find out this year whether he will. The only thing I haven't worked out yet is who comes out for Brown. If it's Melksham then Jackson has to take Melksham's 2 or 3 midfield stoppages as a pure mid and maybe Fritsch plays higher as the midfield/forward connector, that role Melksham plays between the arcs and high half forward. Play Brown and Weideman deep and try and expose their talls. With Kozzie, Spargo and ANB bringing the pressure at ground level with the other mids. Petracca rotating deep forward as well. With that team, that'd leave our midfield as Oliver, Petracca, Harmes, JJ, Jackson, ANB and even Brayshaw (if we utilise McDonald higher up the ground as a wing chop out too). Oliver, Petracca and Jackson as the offensive mids and Harmes, JJ, ANB and Gus as the defensive mids. I think they'll feel this line up is too unbalanced, but I reckon if we can match them in the contest, prevent them spreading against us on the outside and get enough supply with our pressure up, I reckon it's a side that could expose them.

I disagree with this mate, but each to their own. I think he's actually a nice kick. He's just missed a few he should/would normally hit.

Agreed. My assumption was they want him to get more games in the MFC system before playing him in the big time. I like your suggestions RE Sparrow and JJ too, although JJs tackling around the ball is the closest thing we've got to Viney.

Agreed, but I'd be bringing Lockhart in for Nev if Salem is still a week away.

No, you questioned our wingers and our height in defence.

Too many, IMO, view him as purely an inside mid and it is our propensity as fans to look at the disposal counts at the end of games and judge based on this poor metric. It was clearly one of his better games for the year and I think he's really building into the role. This week I don't recall any poor turnovers, so if he can rid those occasional errors from his game, he'll be doing everything right. 22 disposals is a Langdon type game and we rightly laud his contribution.

I reckon some mark him harshly. He isn't at the level that he can get to obviously, but he's playing the lockdown role to allow others to intercept. When his KPD mates in May and Lever struggled, particularly May, it brings more pressure on the back 6. I don't think it's a case of Salem out, Melbourne defensively hopeless. I think we just had a poor night, where we gave Adelaide sniff, they were up for it, they'd clearly set themselves for the game (resting Walker the week before) and one of three umpiring decisions goes our way in the last 2 minutes and we're all having a different conversation on here. May and Lever need to be better. In his young career, it's up to Petty to just play his role until he's confident enough to take on the intercept game a bit more. I reckon they'll be saying to Harry we need to have more composure coming out of the back 50 and just keep things simple. Use May's kicking and ideally Salem's to unlock that tricky kick in the middle. But at the end of the day, when we've turned it over by foot in the middle of the ground, usually our defensive shape prevents us giving up a score. Not to be on the weekend. It's up to our leaders like Max, May, Lever and Petracca to step up. It'd be good to get Hunt in the game a bit more too. Already having Salem out hurt our rebound, but Hunt playing a shocker only compounded the problem. Next week we have to step up as a collective.

Love it mate.

Are you serious? Gus played one of his better matches on Saturday. His defensive positioning was elite. He also got some inside ball as well. I was very happy with his game. 22 touches at 73%, 10 CPs, 3 tackles and stopped multiple Adelaide switches and entries via his positioning. Is he as damaging offensively as 2018, no, but he's being played as the defensive winger. Langdon is the offensive winger. People need to watch the game more closely.

Haha, like clockwork. Lose one game and all of a sudden we can't win the flag and we have problems across all lines. I wonder what you would have been saying about the multiple chokes from Richmond across 2017, let alone the three 8th finishes prior to it. This is a laughable kneejerk reaction, but as I say, like clockwork after a loss.

Yeah, completely disagree. I think he turned it over once by foot, otherwise was clean.

He had 6 turnovers from 11 possessions. Was unusually poor by foot, but still lead the tackle count with Oliver (the most on the ground with 9). JJ is and will be safe. That said, they may look to give him a rest soon.

Petty????

He was great in the first half. Was okay in the second half, but made some pretty crucial errors. And yes, that fumble cost us the game, but you could say so many other moments cost us, but we were away and a couple of goals up. That was it. I love Trac, I just think Clarry is a different, but better player.

Our midfield runs on Clarry. Without him we're nowhere. With Viney a likely in next week, Oliver and Petracca can hopefully go to the next level. There probably isn't another level available for Clarry, given his 10/10 Adelaide performance. Maybe his mate with the seven year contract can come with him next week though. Looking forward to seeing us bounce back.

Yep, probably true.

Fritsch has to be in the gun again. What a dreadful, selfish game he played. Not only did he try the me me me kick at goal twice instead of passing to players essentially in the goalsquare, he failed to lay a single tackle. Every time he looked to get the cheap one out the back and jogged around when manic pressure on the ball carrier was required. Melksham will be out before him, mostly probably due to the injury. He started okay, but again failed to lay a tackle either. We can't carry two of this kind, let alone one. Especially when Melksham is/was part of the midfield rotation. The signs have been there the previous two weeks with our drop off in inside 50 tackles. We let the ball come out way too easily and as a result, we struggled to get our system going all day. Oliver was simply superb. One of his great games. Petracca is the flashy one, but Oliver has always been the better player IMV. I'd be surprised if Trac outpolls Clarry in the Brownlow this year. I felt the turning point in the match was Clarry bursting out of the stoppage off half back, handballing to Trac who spilled the ball and Adelaide eventually pinged it back for a score their way. If Christian had been clean and we'd scored a goal from that play, the game was ours. Christian kicked a game lifting goal and his first half out of centre stoppages was incredible, but after this, he often tried to do too much and was pinged at vital times. Our defensive group looked shaky from the outset. I thought May was terrible aside from one terrific contested mark at half back. Hunt equally dreadful. Poor positioning, lack of cleanness and inability to win contests. Lever did a lot of good, but was often shaky back there too. I'd say Jake was probably in our top 5 or 6 though, which IMO says a lot about the overall team performance. While as others have said, we missed Salem's coolness and ball use behind the footy. Nev is probably too slow to play anymore. I thought his pace was exposed one too many times. I wonder how far off Bowey is from a debut? We look a little short for good ball users when you take Salem out. However, I thought Petty was solid enough and was incredibly unlucky to have that free paid against him when he simply outbodied Fogarty. I do have a question about midfield accountability. Who was playing on Keays? It seemed that Harmes was trying to tag him early in the game and then he seemed to go head to head with Petracca. Keays killed us and like many Crows, got the ball out by hand or foot when he shouldn't have far too many times due to our poor tackling. Did we let our minds drift to the Bulldogs game next week? Maybe. But whatever it was, we were a bit off forward of the ball (that lack of tackling pressure and cohesion with the mids), and our defence constantly looked nervous. Like they didn't really trust each other. Our lack of tackling pressure at half forward and then their quick play on game through the corridor opened us up and again showed us what will happen to our system if we don't bring half forward tackling pressure. The forward structure was also a mess this week IMO. Weideman's tackling was a lot better, but we can't play Melksham and Fritsch in the same forwardline. Both play like millionaires. Particularly, Fritsch. Loves an easy one out the back, but isn't prepared to play a defensive role. Does my head in. McDonald couldn't seem to get into the game after the first half. We didn't really move the ball to the advantage of our forwards enough either. After this week, I'm even more confused about what our ideal forward set up is though. Weideman doesn't look particularly dangerous to me. Fritsch looks great on the downward slopes. I think I'd have Brown in my team next week. But if so, who comes out? I don't think we should throw the baby out with the bathwater, but there were some worrying signs from our leaders after such promising signs this year in terms of leadership. I've already talked about May and Lever's shakiness, but after starting well, how many goals did Max give up? 2 at least from dropped uncontested marks and 1 at least from stoppage. If we want to get near the Bulldogs, we'll need to play better than we have all season. I can't it see it happening. So disappointing to drop this game against an ordinary but enthusiastic Adelaide side.

As someone lucky enough to have a hyphenated surname, can we make sure there's a hypen in there if we're spelling Alex's whole name. ?

Any idea the location for Cerra? I assume it could be a three way deal?

Lol sorry mate. I should really read your posts first. Spot on. Agreed.

I'd say it's less about the possessions and more about the tackles and pressure acts. He wasn't good enough last week.

I would have been fine giving Chandler another crack, but we could also say this is the MC placing the bar higher than a handful of mostly ineffective disposals and not enough tackles. His game was definitely droppable, but is the yoyo the best way to get the best out players? Only the coaches will know how Chandler is likely to react and how best to motivate him. I mostly agree with you, but we don't know why Melksham was dropped. It may have simply been a horses for courses scenario and our desire to get Weid in the side meant that a mid sized had to give way for a small pressure forward.