Adam The God

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.

Agreed. Very worried about this game.

We beat Richmond and Sydney in the rain. I reckon our guys love it now when it rains. They've said as much in the press. Previously, 2018 MFC would wilt in the rain, but 2021 MFC doesn't.

When is it worth it? Cripps is 26 already and has never played a final.

Interesting listening to Yze discuss the mentality of the midfield group and the philosophy and approach to our midfield work in this week's The Talking Points on the MFC website. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/934386/the-talking-points-adem-yze?videoId=934386&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1620721799001 In reference to maximising Max's influence, Yze said: "... because we don't want to be a team that just rolls the dice and when we win it, we look great and when they win it, they look great. So we want to be really measured in the way that we play." I think this greater focus on defence comes from the Clarkson school of thought. I could be reading into that bit, but I think it's clear Yze is a terrific asset to our coaching group and football club. I love that he has that strong connection to the club too. I liked his honesty and humbleness in this interview, around ensuring the plan he gives Max is realistic and sustainable. I wonder if Yze is also the ruck coach now that Stafford is forward coach? I had thought Greg was taking the forwards and the ruck, but maybe everything midfield is Yze now? My main impression from Adem is he's just a really humble guy as a coach. That has to rub off on our mids given the guy was not only a star as a player, but is close to our games record holder and has been there and done that with Hawthorn. Give it a watch, it's really interesting hearing him talk. Look forward to hearing from him more often. Another little side note is his son Noah is killing it down at Ashburton, so maybe Noah will be in the red and blue when his father eventually takes over the reins some day. ;)

I'd argue McDonald still suffers from this. He's been up for a few weeks now, but after starting well in 2021, he had that really poor game against GWS, and to me at least, his head seemed to really drop. But to be fair, he's looked a million dollars since. Let's just hope we keep winning a while longer and the players almost forget what losing feels like.

Good post as usual mate. The one thing I'd debate you on is this idea that Petracca runs kamikze-like through stoppages. I don't think that's what's happening. It's certainly not what happened versus Sydney anyway. I think Christian has a role to play, that, sure, is power-based and can be offensive, but he is also expected to defend. In the instance of those three centre clearances his opponent won against him in a row, he wasn't cheating and running forward of the play like some of the St Kilda players have been accused of this year. He was simply too slow to react to the situation unfolding in front of him and adhere to his defensive duties. I think kamikaze is implying he's given free reign to go for broke offensively and I don't think that's the case. I don't think that's how we play anymore. We're more defensive nowadays and that's the expectation. If you don't win it, make sure the opposition, as you say above, gets rushed ineffective clearances.

It doesn't really matter what we think. As @Yokozuna said, it'll be Jackson for Weideman. As for Daw as a solution, didn't someone at the club say Daw still has to build match fitness? I wouldn't want him rucking. It's much better to try and get Weideman into the side and see how it works, and then worry about where Jackson fits when he's fit again. I think Jackson might as a genuine mid if Weideman, Brown, McDonald and Fritsch work. Jackson had that mammoth aerobic game against GWS (?) earlier this year where he covered more kms than practically anyone on the ground. He has the tank to play permanent midfield and it also gives us a look at that dynamic.

I'd much prefer to have Casey as a summer training base and have our permanent base closer to the heartland.

Yep, never doubted it. Yoko is always on the money. Weideman in for Jackson. I wonder if we'll make any other changes. I'd say not.

Our Casey facilities are world class and match it with any of the big European football club training bases. As a stopgap, AAMI is fine.

That wasn't the suggestion. If he has another poor game, Weideman could well be the guy that replaces him. I don't think Fritsch will have another poor game this week though. He'll get his 2 or 3 goals. Hope you're right mate. This is the game I've had pencilled in for a while as the concern. I think they match up very well on us. Historically, Gawn has struggled in this game, Cripps has got ahold of us and they've got us on the outside. I don't think they'll get us on the outside unless we're 'off', but our lack of midfield connection, Gawn struggling, Walsh, Cripps and McKay, and I think it'll be closer. But I'd love nothing more than to smash Carlton and grind them into the dirt this weekend.

Longmire said in his press conference yesterday that he thinks statistically, it was the highest pressure game for the year. I'm so proud that our football team is involved in a heated contest like that. I think we probably should have won by a bit more. Gawn and Kozzie kick those goals near each other and I think we build a bit of steam up and Sydney potentially fold. We kept them in it and their pressure probably ramped up going into the last. We struggled in the first few minutes of the 4th, but got the game going back our way with that important Spargo goal. This year we have a knack of being able to answer with important goals later in games. I think he can play a role and really add an extra attacking dimension to our forwardline as a high half forward that plays between the arcs and then rotates deep occasionally. The only problem is I don't think we can have two of similar types, in Fritsch and Melksham, both playing high half forward if we want to maintain our frenetic forward defensive pressure that is so vital to stifling the opposition transition out of our forward half.

Could be. Interesting idea. It's not like Fritsch brings great ground level intensity. In fact, I'd argue that when Weideman is really switched on, he's actually a pretty ferocious tackler. It may well be Weideman for Fritsch if he has another down game. Fritsch could then get back in the side if a Melksham struggles in the high half forward role. That said, Melksham had limited midfield minutes, but did bring some reasonable ground level pressure that Fritsch couldn't, so Fritsch really needs to ensure his offence is so strong that it papers over his defensive and contested deficiencies. I'm enjoying your sass in this thread, Nash.

It wasn't. I counted it on the replay. I counted 11 steps. Was he though? Watching live, Rampe certainly didn't go to him or double team him and watching the replay, I didn't notice it either.