Adam The God

Not sure I agree with you, Bin RE ANB not going out all year. If he plays another game or two like the North game soon, he'll be out. If you look back at his career to date, Goodwin definitely backs him in, but you can have all the pressure acts in the world, but he didn't lay a tackle. His KPIs would definitely include tackle count. He stays in this week IMO because he has credits in the bank this season. We need ANB of Rounds 1-6 though, because he's been a real asset and kicked some clutch goals.

Great ep so far. Still listening. I'm going to disagree with @binman RE KPFs and pressure. I'd be happy with 2 or 3 tackles from Brown and Weideman, providing they're kicking 2-3 goals a game and bringing the ball to ground. Weideman was ordinary in the Casey game at applying defensive pressure, but when on song in the big time, his tackling is just as tough as Lynch or Riewoldt for Richmond. Brown just needs to match that. McDonald is a bit different given he hasn't been kicking big bags. His value is pressure and providing a focal target up the ground when we need it from defence.

Currently listening to the podcast and it sounds like you're covering my question here. Edit. Sounds like we're on the same page @binman vis a vis McDonald and Petty.

I know this may seem a strange thing to write given we are such a system based team, but I wonder if Tomlinson's injury will force us to change our system slightly. And will we utilise Max differently or is it simply a case of plug and play? A slight reshuffle could see May take the lockdown defender role (leaving him less creativity and freedom) and see Petty take May's role as an interceptor and stopper, while Lever still takes the third best/tallest forward. The most important thing is obviously just having two guys that can lock down their opponent and allow Lever to intercept and direct traffic. Petty started shakily a few weeks ago, but given a bit of time and continuity (a block of 3 or 4 games), I believe he'll be a solid contributor back there. He's got great hands and he's a very good reader of the play. The make up of the back 6 might also be a week by week proposition, which I feel like I've heard Goodwin mention once or twice before in terms of picking the best team each week, may mean a different mix depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. What do Demonlanders think we'll do here? My feeling is we'll see some experimentation over the next block of 3 or 4 games. If we can strike the right balance coming into the back end of the season, that's the aim. I see McDonald as a distant backup option, which I really hope we don't have to go to.

Hickey has an excellent record against Max. Used to really kill him when Hickey was at St Kilda. Yep, I like this. Good idea. Our MC aren't afraid to try some interesting moves either, so it'll be intriguing to see what tweaks we make now that a few important cogs (Viney, Tomlinson and Fritsch) are out.

I don't mind your side above, so maybe you're right. Rampe is that organiser though. He might not have a great match up, but he'll straighten up their defence no end. I hope he doesn't get up for it. They're a very different side with him in it.

It was pretty clear to me that it was a major midfield problem (work rate and intensity) and our smalls like ANB and Spargo weren't bringing enough frontal pressure either. Brown's ground level pressure was reasonable.

Leslie ;) and it was Robert Hays who said that. Leslie's line was 'I am serious... and don't call me Shirley'. See, I think you're right that they probably wouldn't have tried Brown, Weid, Tmac and Jackson all forward in one go, but now that Fritsch is out, I think they will and it's an excellent time to try it and see if we can stretch the Sydney defence. We need more frontal pressure across half forward, ANB and Spargo need to lift. I'd bring Petty in for Tomlinson, Weideman for Fritsch, Sparrow for Baker and Harmes for Jones. I'd look at Harmes tagging Kennedy and playing a really defensive run with role all night on him. I'd expect Gawn to push back into defence more like he did prior to the North game, particularly with Buddy likely to return. For the record, I think we're very likely to lose our next two games. If not, we have to ramp up the intensity next week. It needs to be at the level it was against Richmond. Pickett, ANB, Spargo, Sparrow, Jordon are our pressure forwards and Pickett, Sparrow and Jordon should add to the midfield rotation too. Then there's Harmes, who at his best could kick goals on Kennedy and force him to defend outside of stoppage, to go with Oliver and Petracca. Melksham will keep his spot and play both high half forward as a connector and rotate deep forward. If Buddy plays, I'd use May on him. If he doesn't, it gives us an option for Papley if Hibberd doesn't work. I'd set our forwardline up like this: Pickett Brown Jackson Spargo Weideman McDonald With Melksham, ANB, Sparrow and Jordon as those guys off the edge of the square. Jackson and Kozzy at ground level next to Brown could be very dangerous deep for us. If we bring our work rate like the first few rounds we'll be a handful.

Was always going to get rubbed out for that. Stupid IMO. I reckon this will force the MCs hand and we'll play Weideman now.

Such incredible intellect. I really feel like I'm reading greatness.

I reckon I've had enough maths on this thread to last me a lifetime mate. And despite having cost reports and bookeeping due tomorrow, I'm still none the wiser after approximately 8 of 13 pages dedicated to SWYL and his band of mathematicians.

Haha, indeed. *Sparrow. Derps.

David King said the same thing on First Crack. I reckon the players have to be mentally tough enough to maintain focus despite this, but each to their own.

He always avoids contact. For me, it was that he turned over scoring opportunities with ball in hand. Usually that's why he keeps his place in the team, but he didn't even do that right today. He's an interesting case, Melksham. He's the sort that can win you a game of football with a clutch moment or two out of nowhere. I think this is why we persist with him and will continue to do so. Glad they finally won for you mate. Yep, that snap when he had a team mate on for the handball was textbook selfishness. If you burn a team mate like that, you'd better kick the goal. He kicked it on the full. Shocking stuff.

I'm not convinced Bedford is good enough. Sparrow should be in before Bedford.

Look at you sticking up for Ben Brown, mate. After all those years haha. FWIW, I completely agree with you.

Agreed, although this presents a really good opportunity for Harmes to step up. When Viney was out in 2018, Harmes played the lockdown midfield role beautifully and hit the scoreboard too. He wasn't great for Casey, but we know what he's capable of. I'd get him into that midfield. There's room for Sparrow too. Disagree with you on Carlton. Their spine is enviable, plus they have Cripps and Walsh in the middle. It's their effort and system that's nonsense. They'll go close to beating us in a fortnight. Reckon he had a quiet week or two and was on the cusp of the 22 going in to today, but today's game was excellent. Was in our top 5 easily. Uses the ball well and love his tackling.

You might want to watch the game mate. We were off by a lot more than 2% in that first half. Try 50% or so.

Let's hope it's not as bad as it appears. He will.

I'm glad we got it done. The first half was very very Melbourne of old. I thought we were past getting ahead of ourselves, but clearly we still have a lot of work to do above the shoulders. Still, we would have lost it completely in the past, so at least we got the chocolates. Easily Gawn's worst match for the season. Thank goodness for Jackson in the ruck and around the ground. This kid is going to be a star of the competition. Having him in centre bounces made us far more dangerous. Goldstein regularly kills Max, but Max just didn't get it done around the ground today either. Needs to lift big time for next week, because he's got another opponent who has owned him historically in Hickey. Tomlinson going down is a massive blow, but I think the coaches were very smart sending Tom back to try it out. I wouldn't have, but Tom showed he could get it done. That said, I think we should bring Petty in and keep McDonald forward, but I wonder if the coaching panel will decide to bring Weideman in and send Tom back. Problem with Tom is he's not a lock down defender like Tomlinson. Our lack of forward pressure and midfield pressure showed that even our defensive system won't stand up to even the worst side in the competition if our mids and forwards don't work hard enough to apply pressure. Kozzie however was a great spark, Fritsch kicked straight, we weren't too Brown focused and he'll be better for the run, and JJ brought great pressure, used the ball well and kicked an important goal when it mattered. I know Baker had 15 touches, but I wouldn't have him in my team. He's incredibly soft and doesn't hurt on the outside. At least 3 half hearted efforts to tackle cost us. Throw Brayshaw back to the wing and bring in Harmes or Swallow to the midfield rotation. I'm very glad we got over the line, but we'll have to reset psychologically and structurally/personnel wise with Tomlinson out next week and potentially Fritsch. 7 zip is brilliant though, but we've got an emerging Swans to take care of next week. Step up, boys.

Our midfield didn't turn up until the second half. It was obvious we weren't switched on and Viney does probably change that dynamic further by being out, but it's not good enough from Petracca (had a stinker) and Oliver (was very ordinary early on). These two guys are our elite mids. If they don't turn up, already missing Viney, we look ordinary. I'd bring in Harmes to play the Viney role and providing Fritsch doesn't get rubbed out, I'd bring in Sparrow for Melksham. The latter uses the ball well usually, but today he made so many mistakes over and over again. He was already on the fringe, I think he has to go and earn a recall. He's lucky and keeps his place in Fritsch's role, if Fritsch gets rubbed out.

6 seconds. It's likely he wouldn't have kicked it in time. That might have been even funnier.

24k at the MCG in perfect weather on a Saturday. I know they're at the bottom, but their fans really have dropped off something shocking. In the same position, it's roughly what we'd get to a game like that. They have maby more fans than us though. [censored] poor from them.

Yes, that's the spirit. I hope that's how the media portray their lack of system and willingness to bring adequate workrate. It might just get Buckley another contract. Collingwood were decimated with injuries for much of 2018 and because their system was working, they made a GF. Buckley will be gone by 2022.

Funnily enough, Mitchell was also very lippy and a bit hated by opposition fans. He used to kill us and I wished that he played for us. A few years later we got Oliver and he almost immediately started winning clearances like Mitchell.