Adam The God

Not in my opinion. It will happen because removing Jack from stoppages where he regularly fights over the same ball as his team mates, fails to take the first option and tries to barrel the ball forward at whatever cost, means there will be a predictability to our ball movement from stoppage, but an unpredictability on what happens in stoppage (ie Jack won't fight over the ball and then get tackled). The midfield needs to work far better together. Oliver and Petracca have shown they can do this. Harmes, Brayshaw and Oliver have shown they can play together as a cohesive and balanced midfield that can defend and strongly attack. I don't think we need Jack and we don't need to replace what he brings to our midfield.

Interesting mate. Do you mean he's gettable because you've heard or you're putting it out there as an idea? Would love Tom. Not sure how we'll go with that.

I don't rate his approach and I don't rate his intelligence. I think we have two of the best midfielders we've had in my 33 years in Oliver and Petracca, and we shouldn't be worried IMV about who runs through there with them. I also think Harmes and Brayshaw are legitimate and complimenting mids to Clarry and Trac. I think we need to sort out defensive transition, ball use out of the middle, add an extra runner to compliment Langdon and work out what the hell we're doing with our forwardline. Having Jackson alongside Weideman will give us more mobility and having Petty fit gives us a swing man that either goes forward or goes back, enabling Tomlinson to shift up onto a wing if needed. I think our stoppage set ups have become worse as the year has gone on. I think we need a new midfield coach to get some fresh eyes on these set ups and identify the best midfield mix. I reckon we've offered him a contract, but he doesn't like the figure, but I can only speculate. I reckon we've offered him what we think is reasonable for a player of his limited abilities and are resigned to the fact that if he thinks he's better than our offer, we need to let him go.

I think we've shown in the last 2-3 games we want a different mix in there with ANB and Melksham in there as well. I'd say Oliver and/or Petracca are the first possession mid. Harmes or Melksham as the defensive mid. Brayshaw and ANB as outside mids, if we want to be crude about it, although I think ANB would play a more defensive role too. AVB is probably in there, yeah. I think we need to look at how the likes of Geelong set up. They have Dangerfield and Selwood as the Oliver and Petracca comparison and then a defensive minded player and often another runner in there like an ANB. I don't rate Sparrow, but he'll certainly be played there, as will Jordon. It's clear to me this is all about getting a different mix, so we can still defend, but our offence isn't hampered by 2 or 3 guys going for the same ball. Oliver and Petracca have a really good understanding between them and are both clean below their knees. They rarely get in each other's way, whereas Jack gets in both of their ways. If Jack ends up staying we'll definitely find a spot for him, but we'll manage without him and have a greater chance IMV to develop a bit more controlled (from our end) unpredictability to our stoppage set ups.

I've been surprised by his goal sense over the last two years. He's one of our only forwards with genuine goal sense. I suspect it's forward or bust.

Greater efficiency and balance from stoppage and contest.

Just have to keep them together mate. Number one priority. Add Harmes and Brayshaw and there's a bit of diversity in that mix, alongside Langdon's gut-running.

He continuously failed to provide a contest against Sydney and Fremantle. The team defence against him in the Freo game was not as good as it was against Sydney and he still failed to bring the ball to ground. I think he's had a good year for a young key position forward, but he's been very poor and a deadset liability the last three games IMV. If we're to beat Essendon, he needs to be a lot stronger. For a guy his size, with a few pre seasons under his belt now, he gets outmuscled far too easily.

I thought we played the more aggressive territory press tonight, but their goals in transition were so simple. If you look at the goals they actually score, most of them I felt were weak goals to give up. Either from our completely unforced errors or a lack of two way running. Was this because they moved the ball to fast for our defensive mechanisms to have a chance to react or were our forwards and mids too slow to get back and cover? I think we got some quite easy goals going back the other way, because I felt GWS didn't defend particularly well either. Shoot outs are often about leaky, poor defensive, one-way running teams. I'd characterise both teams' performance tonight as that. I didn't feel like GWS came in to try and stop us from playing how we wanted to play. They were happy for us to play that way and felt they'd eventually come over the top as they did. When Weideman's not marking the ball or bringing it to ground we desperately struggle. We did manage to stop them from slingshotting back the other way when he failed to compete, but he didn't look like marking it all night. Our forward structure breaks down when he's not providing an adequate contest. I think Essendon will let us play the way we want to next week and we'll probably let them play the way they want to, so we'll probably have another shoot out. St Kilda could still fall out of the 8, which would be fascinating.

So impressed by this kid. A real Jason Taylor special. Well done, Melbourne. He reminds me quite a bit of Zac Williams, which is ironic given some want us to go after Williams.

What a strange way of putting it. It's very rare a quote sounds awkward and avoidant, but he's nailed it with that one. He's gone I'd say. Question is are we pushing him or has he made his own decision?

Salem losing another crucial 1v1. Utterly hopeless game.

Terrible kick again from Max inside 50. Our guys don't think.

The stoppage that lead to that goal was everything that is our midfield. Viney trying to break a tackle and almost being pinged. Next ball up, Oliver is clean to Salem, to Spargo. Goal.

Weideman is killing us.

Apparently, although our guys seem content to play it all on their terms. They're fine with running forward, but no defensive running our structure set up behind the ball. When May was intercepting earlier in the night, it was less about our defensive structure and more about their poor ball use. They haven't kicked it to him since.

I agree. I don't think we can carry Fritsch even when he's kicking goals. His non defensive efforts kill us.

lol the last 4 or 5 games?

No defenaive system whatsoever tonight. Their goals have come so easily.

Put your body on the line Fritsch!!!!

Your goal Jake Lever. Been very good except for giving up two goals. Our defence has been so loose.

Salem. Hasn't won a 1v1 all night. Having a shocker.

Mumford has literally just spent the night whacking people.

Lever has been solid in 1v1s. His spoiling has been particularly good. His turn over kick before was horrendous and turned the play. But for the rest of the game, I'd agree that he's been one of our better contributors.

That's fair.