Adam The God

Petracca ran through the square. As for Max's game I thought he struggled for the most part. His game last week was ordinary and if he's not marking around the ground, his tap work is too predictable to cause the opposition too many headaches. Last night he was playing his loose man in defence role and if you watch the tape, he falls over multiple times or fails to kill the contest and St Kilda get scores. He needs to lift. That is a great stat. Our efficiency felt better, so it's good to have it backed up. What I found interesting was that the majority of our players were practicing shots from 30m directly in front before the game as if we were looking to hit that area, but Fritsch and others constantly lead to the pockets.

Clayton Oliver easily best afield. Getting closer and closer to A+ grade. I thought it should have been a 10+ goal victory, but happy enough to start 2 zip. The connection between the mids was far better this week. Was this down to the inclusion of Viney or coincidence? Sitting up high on level 3, an unusual position for me, it was obvious that we set up beautifully behind the ball against the Saints and without silly unforced they'd have struggled to kick goals all night. Marvel really suits our zone as we can blanket space a lot more easily, but on the flip side our uncontested work the first two weeks has been outstanding. A real weak area of our game historically. Our delivery inside 50 and connection from back to front has really improved since last year. Another historical weakness of ours. Our forwards need to get the job done though. Fritsch has become a liability. He gets it so often, but couldn't hit the side of a barn half the time. Surely that's mental. Banking the win against GWS is an absolute must next week. Confidence must be high heading into the Geelong game.

Sure, tackles aren't the only indicator of defence, but you said Oliver just chases stats.

See, this is nonsense mate. Oliver was 6th highest tackler in the league last year. I swear people don't actually watch Oliver play the game...

I had some nufty try to tell me on Facebook that Oliver was nowhere near best on ground. I'd have Oliver and Lever ahead of May personally, but clearly the three best players on the ground. The nufty has similar company on here who constantly pick Oliver's game apart. It's like they've never seen a Melbourne team play prior to Oliver's debut. I've been banging on for years on Demonland that he's the best I've seen in my 33 years. That remains. As for Oliver being replaceable... what world are you living in?

This. Our most important player. He runs our midfield. Midfields win games and premierships.

Harmes just needs to get his touch back. First time getting back in the midfield for a while. He stays. I'd be looking at Viney for Jones and Hibberd for Hunt, and that ought to do it for the week.

I thought our midfield really lacked cohesion. As an elite player, Max has next to no influence in clearances anymore, except for the occasional flash (see the Langdon goal). Oliver constantly flies under the radar though. Thought his kicking was strong, two beautiful piercing 50m passes that I recall resulted in scores. 35 possessions, most contested possessions on the ground, at 80% efficiency. He completely runs our midfield. Without him we're stuffed. Lever, May and Tomlinson, against pretty ordinary opposition, were excellent in tandem. I think it was the best 3 KPD effort I've seen at Melbourne. Big call, but all three were excellent at intercepting and May's kicking is becoming such a weapon out of defence. I like our set play long kick to the centre square for Max and Jackson. It does something interesting. Because we used it so often, the opposition tried to predict it, which then left easy shorter exits, which we usually took. That was Tom McDonald's best game since the 2019 flash in the pan performance against Carlton. Thought he led and presented strongly. He missed two he'd normally nail, but kicked the harder one. Was impressed with Spargo's game again. He needs to keep working on staying in the game longer, but just about everything he touches results in a score. That's partly system and partly his game smarts. The young guys in Kozzie, Jordon and Sparrow provided some good tackling support with ANB, Harmes and even Spargo. Felt our forward pressure was really solid, we got the ball inside and got great looks at goal, but our goal kicking was woeful. Our defensive structures strangled Freo, particularly as they had little to kick to in terms of tall targets, especially after Pearce went down. The big issue for me is our midfield. I know we've had some issues with continuity and injuries in there across pre season and the early part of the year, but if Yze's having much influence there it isn't good so far. I'd love to see Rivers tried on a wing and Hibberd off half back, but I suspect Trent doesn't have the tank for it yet. Brayshaw and Jones on the wing signals to me that we don't really have a new plan for addressing our lack of run to support Langdon either. I'll take the win, but most teams would have pantsed us for our poor set shot kicking and lack of accountability at stoppages. Our midfield set ups were truly horrendous for much of the game and we were clearly murdered in the middle. We were fortunate they rested Fyfe forward for so much of the second half, because we just let him run free in the middle. Andrew Brayshaw was allowed to roam similarly free too. Hoping for a much better performance next week. And even though he's only a few days old, my son has 1 win from 1 game. Let's hope he's a good luck charm. I'd be happy to celebrate a flag in 2021 for him, even if he won't remember it.

That's good. Is it like a probationary period for soon to be three time premiers?

Yeah, fair enough.

Hang on. So did the Casey Demons twitter feed cover the men's VFL game too? It seems like they did. Not really sure why people are having a go at the club... Having read the whole thread now, I guess if enough supporters are upset about it then it's a problem, but it doesn't bother me much.

Most of your words are gold, Bob, but I disagree with this. I find myself often agreeing with Gary. You might say that says a lot about me, but he points out the moments that are simply not good enough from our perspective. He's hard on Melbourne, but if the game play isn't good enough, it isn't good enough. As for your comment @Pollyanna about playing a defensive player on Daniels, 100% concur. To me that's a very obvious move. One you'd make very early in your plan to stifle the Bulldogs movement. The other would be ensuring that Bontempelli is marked at stoppages and isn't allowed to run around by himself. His scoring shots were embarrassingly easy. Okay, so we're playing Jordon in the midfield, but it simply wasn't VFL standard the amount of room we constantly gave Bontempelli. Yes, smart player and all that, but come on. It'll be interesting to see if we inject any adventure to our game style in Round 1. I'm also over the 'back our guys to win it' approach. We need to plan for the opposition and very deliberately try to curb dangerous influences on the game.

Spot on mate. Oliver is our best player by such a big margin, it's laughable how some Melbourne supporters talk about him. Sure, he can still improve, but his average game is an A+ game for anyone else, outside of probably May, Petracca and on their days Viney or Brayshaw. I hope Lever gets a proper run at it this year, because if he can play 22 games alongside Steven May again, I'll have less concerns about our backline. Tomlinson doesn't have to do much but keep his player quiet and allow May and Lever to intercept. Our backline needs much better run and dash though, so that appears to have been identified again and that's why Hunt looks to be playing off half back. That's where he should stay IMO. I'd love Beveridge as a coach, but alas we have Goodwin. It'll be interesting to see for how long. Our forwardline is an absolute disaster if we don't get first use or surprise a side on the counter, but it's an unsustainable plan. Hopefully with Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw back in there we'll be able to increase supply to a winnable level.

If there was ever a clear sign that Oliver runs our midfield it was today. Take him out and we don't get first use. There were a lot of really ordinary performances. Outside of May and Lever, I'm not sure there was anyone to write home about. That said, Chandler showed some good signs early, ANB tried hard, Jones was relatively clean except for that brain fade off the ground and Fritsch had 6 scoring shots again. Our forwardline hasn't improved at all though, nor has our delivery to it. I know it's difficult because they would have planned for Weideman and Brown, but our forward entries are high, long and hopeful (like 2019-2020). McDonald and Jackson aren't natural forwards and aren't particularly good marks. I'd have Chandler in the forwardline with Kozzie though. I liked that they've given Hunt a licence to run off half back, but I felt Hunt and Langdon delivered the ball inside too many times. Both of them are classic, high up and under kickers. Langdon probably had his worst game for the club too, which didn't help. Oliver, Viney and Brayshaw walk into that team. I wouldn't have Sparrow near by best 22. What is it he offers this group? He doesn't break away from packs, he's not a good kick and he's not a great blanket player either. Jordon has a bit to work on too, if he's going to get a game consistently. It'll be interesting to see how we respond in Round 1. I know it's just one practice game, but I think we're in big trouble here.

Glad he's committed long term. The big signature is Clarry. Put pen to paper already.

A few too many with interrupted pre seasons. Not a good sign.

We had the blazers. They had the 'They know what's coming'. I'm very glad they're a hopeless club these days. Long may it stay that way. Hopefully Hawthorn and Collingwood can join them.

I've noted this before, but we're viewed as grovelers that just take our grant from the MCC Foundation and toddle off. There isn't a great sense of trying to work too closely with the MCC. Maybe that's fine, but that's what I've heard. I also can't speak for the entire board, but the sentiment is certainly within the board room.

This is definitely a step further than the MFC putting together a doco for their own website. Going out to Prime is just very Carlton. Arrogant and in the modern era, no record to show for that arrogance. Utterly cringe. It's not like they were even close to the 8 last year.

Thanks for the insight BB. I have no inside info with regards to the MFC board, but I do know that it isn't particularly applauded within the walls of the MCC boardroom. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come.

Nonsense. One played on the outside and one drives our midfield and has done since his second season.

Interesting. I definitely have an email and was sent stuff to my email as well as my postal address.

Interesting. I definitely have an email and was sent stuff to my email as well as my postal address.

Emotional economics as in behavioural economics? Yeah, behavioural is much more real than the fantasyland that the mainstream presents. I much prefer hard economics rather than soft economics.

Have any MCC/MFC members not received their membership packs yet? I'm still awaiting mine, despite paying for it in August...