Adam The God

I think JVR is clearly better than Fullarton, but make JVR earn his recall with some better VFL form. You just need a second ruck to chop out for Max and provide a contest in the air, ideally on the ground and kick a goal a game. JVR can do that.

It was Rivers, who he probably fended off too high on, but had Bolton not slipped he would have been past Rivers who fell to ground...

We backed out of Houston. We didn't want to pay a top 5 pick for him when we realised it was going to land top 5.

It'll be interesting to see what Richmond does to stifle our ball movement if we're as aggressive and run in waves as much as yesterday. Will that handball game be able to stand up to manic Richmond pressure? And if we make a few errors and a team really brings the heat, will we go back into our shells or keep going for it? This will determine how sustainable this game plan is with this group.

He's got leader written all over him for mine. He's not the most gregarious individual, but you can tell he's a pro, and you can never have enough of those. Love his left foot and has good agility for a guy whose knock is pace.

Collingwood and Geelong are the oldest lists in the league. Consistency is to be expected.

Really?

No, it's decision making mostly. As evidenced by yesterday.

Who for though? Our back half is starting to really ping and is a key reason our ball movement is improving. Ollie is a good kick, but I wouldn't be tinker8ngmwith the back half. Injuries will come, Ollie will get his turn if he keeps improving.

And who plays second ruck if it's Fritta? If May doesn't get up, I hope it's finally Adams' turn. Adams is a good name. Better as a Christian name, but with a surname like that he deserves a game.

What did you think of the game today mate? Did it look like the pre season ball movement that some have said? Thought we were so exciting. And of course Goody and Chaplin have been there before playing that way with earlier iterations of this team. Bassett's attacking defensive set up during his time at Port will be an interesting watch for the rest of the season. Hopefully having May, Lever and McVee back in the back 7, we'll manage to win more 1v1s back there, but it felt like the easy scores against were a midfield problem. Either from too aggressive set ups or poor set ups or poor defensive transition. I also hope having May and Lever back doesn't slow or [censored] our bounce off half back.

Lord Edward Is God saw his first full game win today. He was singing the song loudly with his nuffy dad. Thank you, Demons.

Play like that and 2018 again more often and we'll be getting 30k+ to that game. Which given the number of supporters we actually have, would be a bloody brilliant effort.

I've never been TMac's biggest fan, particularly as a defender, but he has been bloody brilliant this year, and proved me wrong. As dazzle said, give him another contract. Is showing tremendous leadership.

Pity he doesn't kick it like JVR.

Probably yes. At least Koz will make Freo pay up to get him.

He well and truly had Amiss' measure and then he went off and Howes had to play tall on Amiss, which is when he got into the game. Turner's first involvement in the game was a strong contested mark at CHB. Great stuff. The future could well be at one end: McVee Adams Lever Windsor Turner Bowey And at the other end: Kolt JVR Chandler ??? Petty Trac

That play Max has used for years of taking it out of the ruck is so dangerous if instead of kicking it long and high to a contest, he forward handballs to a mid on the move out the front of stoppage. It's practically undefendable. Because it forces the half back to press up, leaving our half forward free to bang, bang, bang.

We kill the clock correctly in Round 1 and we're 2-4. The strange thing is it was a very similar game to the GWS game. Though today our bounce off half back was scintillating. Bowey BOG for mine. Set up so much of our play. There's a sample size of 2 really clear examples of the game plan we're trying to play and so much starts from at stoppage, which we finally got mostly right today. But the biggest change was that final kick inside. It was superb today. I could count on one hand how many poor entries we had. A very welcome change, and you can see when we get that kick right, it doesn't matter too much who's down there, but as long as we get a contest, we look super dangerous. We also looked to use the corridor and a short chipping game again that was more attacking than just possession maintenance that we saw in Round 1. Amazing how we look when the players put in and the forwards lead at the ball carrier. The game, even more so than Round 1, felt like the 2018 Goodwin team. To paraphrase thegreat Roger Moore in For Your Eyes Only, "we're not dead yet, Goody".

Goody and the coaches did a terrific job winning a flag despite the mess off field. It wasn't sustainable because the FD has the wrong mix IMV (with soft cap constraints). That's on the board and the current president for his lack of oversight or decision making acumen. Green was responsible for the football side and we had Clarry doing his thing and Trac throwing us under a bus because our FD couldn't communicate properly with player. Our problems are far bigger than Goody. That doesn't mean I think he will or should coach beyond 2025, but look at the midfield coaches he's got to work with...

And Sam Frost, that said they overrated Frosty when he was on the list too.

Lol, now Jordon is a loss. The bloke wasa role player who was shown up for pace in 2022 and struggled to stay in games post Round 10. Would he be a handy role player? Sure. But the way we speak of former MFC players or opposition players, they're suddenly B+ or A graders. But in a Melbourne jumper they are constantly criticised. Jordon was a fringe player for a reason. Incidentally, this happens in all good teams. Role players fall out. Sometimes they become stars at their second club (think Josh Kennedy post Hawthorn at Sydney), but most of the time, they demonstrate the same limitations at their next club.

You know both things could be true, you lot. Goody and co have made poor decisions and communication appears poor, and the players are failing to make the system work, whilst missing easy targets by hand and foot.

We'll get some picks and players this year that we can add to this mix. I'd also take Jackson back if that became an option.

Jayden Hunt is the missing piece. Just like Sam Frost.