Adam The God

Absolutely. Some real clutch marks, but also clutch contests, and just takes the game on and runs through forwards to get ground balls and then clear them.

We did look really dangerous against Sydney with a 200cm giant standing in the goal square. I reckon you might be right.

And I just need to say it again. What a ripping game from Rivers. Star. He's even better on replay.

Brown and Weideman might not have got on the score sheet, but watching the replay at the moment, I reckon we can make this work with McDonald. It might take some time to get this to work and we might have to be a bit smarter about how we use each one, but it was a reasonable dress rehearsal. I liked how we utilised Weideman in the ruck and then higher up the ground and across half back. We also had him from the square on occasion too, so we kept them guessing and kept flipping the match ups to test the Carlton defence. 1v1 their guys are actually not too bad. It's their team defence that's ordinary, so it was good to see Brown and Weideman get a couple of looks each. They really could easily have had 2 or 3 each. And if Max doesn't take that off Brown's chest earlier in the game, there's another one. But that's the synergy that's not quite there yet. I also think we need to play Fritsch up the ground. Play him between the arcs. His ball use there is brilliant, particularly entering 50. The old Melksham role. Roll him back to our forward square when we can, but his ball use further up the ground will be very handy. He'll still get 2 or 3 looks a game, the same as he does now, but then exploit his ball use and allow others to get involved. Chandler should get another go in there as a small too, but I think in time it'd be nice to have Sparrow in there. He gives us an extra mid rotation and can play a defensive role inside forward 50. It might also be an idea to try Bedford for a game or two as well before the end of the season. We do need another zippy small like Kozzie though, but that's the for the draft, unless we've got our eyes on a small in the mid season draft. I'd utilise Brown at CHF, deep forward and as the secondary option with Max up the ground. I'd use McDonald deep, CHF, wing and the other secondary option with Max up the ground. Be fascinating to see what we do this week. I reckon we'll go unchanged, unless we bring Viney in for Chandler. It may also be a horses for courses thing against say the Bulldogs the following week, where we might want to go tall to try and target the Bulldogs' lack of quality KPDs. I'd love to see Jackson play as a genuine mid and second ruck too, but that might be a bridge too far. Interesting times.

Regarding our inside 50s and our inside 50 efficiency, I can't remember which poster it was that was complaining about our forward 50 entries and suggesting we change it up, but we are currently 1st for inside 50s and 5th for inside 50 efficiency. That's a monumental improvement for us. We're predictable when we go inside 50. If a player isn't free and the leading channels are clogged up, we'll go into the high forward pocket. It means every Melbourne player knows it. This makes us predictable in the same way Richmond were predictable going to the foot of the square and Riewoldt throughout 2017 and 2018, then getting their crumbers to pressure the foot of the contest. We don't have the same sort of dynamic smalls (outside of Kozzie), but our go is stoppages, so we look to get an inside 50 mark (say Gawn or McDonald) or get it out of bounds to reset and win the stoppage contest from there. This strategy won't change, as I think @binman said, nor should it. It's clearly working a treat.

This is nonsense. Clarry is my favourite MFC player of all time, but you didn't watch Mitchell closely. He was constantly on the bottom of packs and had brilliant hands. He was every bit the extractor. He was not an outside mid.

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.