Adam The God

How Petracca can get the full 10 votes for that game is beyond me. He made bizarre decisions repeatedly that cost us goals. He played well, but Oliver was far superior. Poor Clarry, constantly underrated when he's been at Trac's level for 5 years. Then in the Bulldogs game you've got a guy who didn't lay a single tackle in the midfield polling 7 votes. Are you serious?

If either are playing, it's due to injury. I'm on record with my views on both Jones and Vanders, so I don't feel the need to say anymore.

They won't drop him, but when he doesn't kick goals or even connect forward of centre, he offers close to nothing.

Mate, just stop. Lockdown 6 is doing some strange things to normally rational people.

Yep, he actually knows how to guard space defensively, and not run at every opposition player mindlessly... #playvineyforward 😉

Hope you got to the game mate and enjoyed it. 👌

I thought we were in trouble early without another tall target, because Brown was marking everything, but up the ground. He had little to kick to. We needed a bit more chaos and wet weather football going to exploit their weakness at ground level. Once we got chaos and the ball on the deck, our forward half game looked really dangerous. There's still a bit to tidy up around stoppages. Wowee, Kozzy was poor. Zero tackles and that Yeo clearance at the start of the 2nd or 3rd was woefully defended. You could see it coming a mile away. The very next centre bounce, Harmes set up perfectly to defend. I don't think Kozzy was in there again after that. Some really big positives in the game though... Brown continues to develop in our system. Bowey looks great and will be better for that turnover that cost us a goal. He'll learn. His ball use and pace is brilliant and if Hunt is out, we've got a ready made replacement that we can use there and bring Hibberd back. Aside from an early turn over, I thought Harmes played just about his best game for the year. Again, as soon as Viney comes out, he just looks like a different player to me. They can't get in each other's way if Viney isn't playing. #playvineyforward ANB in his 100th was incredible. I can't remember him making an error and his pressure and ball use was super. Well done, Alex. Clarry. That's all. Max seemed to have better connection with his mids tonight. Not a heap of hit outs to advantage, but those he got were pure and we got some good looks from centre bounce. Petty's first three quarters were really solid. I think he was outmarked once by Kennedy in that time. In the last quarter after the resumption, he was outmarked a few times. A young player though whose focus may have drifted and to be fair, they were having to defend repeat entries. I thought the Melksham selection was a very good one. It helped that Hurn went down, because it meant Melksham could play essentially a negating role on McGovern. He gave away a few free kicks doing this, but McGovern didn't have his usual influence and he kicked his two goals. I'd be tempted to drop Fritsch for McDonald next week. I thought his game was horrible and how Vanders gets a game I'll never know. Other than that, I'll take the 4 points and run. We owe Adelaide a smashing next week....

It will be interesting to see how we play tonight. Our scoring power has been questioned this year and given our defence is so solid and often impregnable, do we start to take more risks offensively and move the ball quicker? If we can compliment our defensive game with more scoring power and offence, we'll be incredibly tough to beat come finals. I think in the past we may have been worried that we'd sacrifice a bit defensively if we were to add in the offensive layer to our play, but now that we have 22 guys that transition both ways, I think it might well be worth trying a more run and gun style. It may also be a horses for courses thing. For example, against West Coast, Geelong and Brisbane who aren't overly quick, we might look to play on more and slice through their zone off half back with handballs (see the Richmond and Brisbane wins earlier in the year) and expose their lack of leg speed to get 1v1s forward of centre. Whereas, against the Bulldogs, it seems if you take away their clearance game or even match them, they can't win games. Pressure and sit on their half backs and they basically can't get out of their defensive 50. In a game like that, I'd be happier playing a slower brand that enables us to intercept and then play a forward half game. Against someone like Port, I think you probably need a mixture of both fast and slow play to break them down, but I'm confident our set up behind the ball will make it tough for their tall forwards. In short, I think scoring power and accuracy are the focus for the club. If we move the ball quicker, our forwards get better looks in more dangerous positions, which in turns improves accuracy.

Wow. Massive, massive end to the game.

It was the way they won centre clearance though. They basically walked out the front of stoppage over and over again. Bulldogs can't defend.

Schache is a comedian of a defender by the way. Has the reaction time of a corpse.

I don't care what anyone says, he's brilliant on the outside, but has no defensive game at all does Bontempelli. 0 tackles. If he gets votes in that game it's a joke. How bloody wonderful was it to see that mob beaten? Another test, another failure. If the Bulldogs aren't winning clearance, they can't win games. They can't even generate inside 50s. Their style won't hold up in finals unless they pull 2 or 3 performances out of their arses. Can't see it. The flag is ours to lose from here.

Unless Martin can eradicate the softness from his game and his inability to win contested footy, he won't be anywhere near elite IMO. Charlie Cameron is a very good contested player. Martin is average. I just don't see it. I'm glad Carlton sunk more coin into more average, just like Williams and Saad.

Tomlinson was a FA, not a second rounder, but I agree with the rest. We were also very close to getting Isaac Smith at the end of last year, which would have helped our run and carry, and ball use further. I completely trust Taylor, Lamb and the wider FD when it comes to our list build. I'm looking forward to seeing who we target for 2022 and if Pert's words on the Demonland podcast were more than merely a sales pitch, it sounds like we might even be able to land a player or two that approaches us via their agent. This is surely a bit of a new position for us to be in. But winning a flag will ensure we get good players wanting to jump on board from other clubs.

Of course, but West Coast in particular are great at hiding talent they're really interested in. Bit hard if your brother is Paddy Cripps though, I'll admit. It's funny, when I saw you'd quoted me mate, I figured there was a grammatical error somewhere. 😂

Thanks for that mate. Jeepers, Paddy has a brother coming through now? So there's like an 8 or 9 year age gap? What's he like? Cripps is one of my favourite non MFC players, despite going down hill a bit the last few years. Would love to get his brother if they're at all similar. Carlton would be in prime position to lure him... or even West Coast I suppose.

Haha, I can see what you mean by honesty, but I'd call a side honest if they get it done in pressure matches. We've done that all year (with the exception of the most recent Bulldogs game). Port have stumbled at every hurdle. The Bulldogs have stumbled a few times when challenged too, as have Geelong. I'd argue we're the most honest side. The games we've lost didn't highlight mental vulnerabilities that will hurt us in finals. They've simply showed a side can't be up all year.

Not sure I agree. Our game is based off intercept. We rely on marking just as much as their bigs do. Fortunately, they don't have a lot at ground level, except Cripps.

Reckon he'll be top 5 KPFs in the game in 3 years time. He's already close to that now. He needs to work harder and he'll be a star.

It was a Showdown though where prior to the game, Port had won 25 times and Adelaide 24. This was to level it up. I turned it back to the Swans game as soon as the two Crows collided and Port kicked a goal from it. It seemed like a pivotal moment in the game, of which I'd watched very little. Too busy enjoying Sydney losing. Figured Port would run away with it after that. I was surprised to turn it back after the Sydney game to see Lynch kick a goal for Adelaide and with 3 and a bit minutes to go, Adelaide be within a kick. Port are deadset ordinary IMO.

I reckon he did 2 or 3 times and just beat Hawkins hands down. It was quite an incredible display, but I agree on playing Petty on Hawkins and trying to play off him by 5m, so there's little engagement in a strength battle. I think it was FIRST CRACK that talked about this about 5-7 weeks ago. The way you play Hawkins is you zone off him a bit and try and arrive slightly behind the play, but close enough to intercept or spoil. Easier said than done of course, but if the pressure up the field means the delivery to Hawkins is rushed, this strategy becomes much easier.

St Kilda have modelled themselves on Melbourne in the second half of the year, I reckon. They've nicked our set up behind the ball and place a greater emphasis on post clearance pressure and around the ground clearances, and ground ball gets. It was a similar sort of match tonight to our game against Sydney, in that the Swans were monstering the centre clearances, but St Kilda were intercepting those shallow rushed kicks that barely penetrated 50. Parker is a major offender at those rushed, nothing clearances that get intercepted. He was an offender against us too. For me he's a vastly overrated player. He's good, but not clever or particularly skilled. Certainly wouldn't provide us anything different to what we already have if we were to go after him. It also makes you wonder if Sydney are simply happy to take territory off winning the centre clearances, rather than have quality of clearance first and foremost. We're the opposite. We'd much prefer to get the most damaging centre clearance possible or put enough pressure on the opposition with their clearance so we can intercept. It's a different story with our approach to around the ground clearances of course, where we're quite happy to take territory. I thought St Kilda also exposed their lack of pressure forwards by rebounding with extreme pace off half back. They cut Sydney to ribbons, and stretched them out of shape with angled, wide, excellent ball use, and looked for thst corridor kick almost every time. They're a good team to watch, St Kilda, when they get going.

I'd prefer Weideman than some speculative KPF, yes.

We won't be sending Petty forward, so unless we can effectively replace Sam with another KPF under 25, it does potentially destabilise our long term list build. It also undercuts any forward depth we've had this year, which has been handy. I think we hold onto him unless we can win the flag and attract a Ben King type.

On the flip side of Taylor's brilliant game, Kreuger played one of the worst games of footy you'll see. That game would have made Isaac Weetra blush. He's a key defender in a top 4 team?