Adam The God

I'm pretty sure Robbo failed to mention Gus' 100th at the top of the game. Is that right or did I miss it?

Gee, those highlights remind you what a good goal kicking midfielder he is. Well done, Gussy. Loving the sacrifice you're making playing on a wing for us. The way he's been getting back defensively, but then getting into space on the outside to provide offensive drive has been really impressive.

I said in another thread that I thought Melbourne supporters would be humble if we went on a Richmond-like run. Well, I was probably a bit naive looking at the arrogance of a few of these posts. FFS, after where we've been, you'd think we'd always respect every opposition we play. Apparently not.

Be interesting to see how our defensive system holds up if it is wet. Richmond will be very dangerous in the rain in their forward half. It also means whoever can be cleaner off half back might just win it.

Great mixture of intercept marking and ability to line break. Even though he struggled at times last week, Rivers is usually an excellent decision maker to go with Salem and May's kicking. There's great balance back there. The forwardline looks pretty balanced to me too. It's all about work rate, bringing the tackle pressure and nailing our chances when they come. Do that and we're a chance.

Interesting. He goes on fair walks then. My sister regularly sees him walking the streets near Central Park. I guess he's a fit guy, so loves a reasonable walk.

You're probably right. And fatherhood is going well mate. I might appear a bit cranky on this thread, but the boy is sleeping well and his Demons have won 5 in 5. Chef's kiss. ?

If this is directed at me, I've never said he's no good 1v1, just that I don't expect him to win it every time. Whereas, I expect Petracca or Oliver to win it every time. I think most would admit he's improved his 1v1 work this year. I've never said he hasn't done it this year. My point was we've played 5 games, it's not like we've played a season. He does look strong 1v1 this year, particularly so against St Kilda. The Salem winner with a minute to go was at the G. That picture is from Etihad.

Great interview. Love what he says here. Win a flag, win finals. Obvious, but I like the frame.

At half forward/wing in Jones' role... has a great tank, can hit the scoreboard and has better defensive accountability than we've had until this year.

Yes. I'm fine with it. You have absolutely no idea of the terms of Harmes' deal except for the length. James will bounce back and I doubt he's on big money anyway.

I said "his 1v1 game has improved, but I don't have the same confidence in him to win those that others do just yet, but hope I'll soon be on board." I also said "having met Salem before, he seems like a really genuine guy". Just because I don't have the same confidence in him as you to win 1v1s does not mean I don't like Christian or that I don't watch him properly. I also said "Salem is an important role player and ball user for us though." So next time you want to interpret my posts, actually read what I'm writing or don't bother responding, because what you've written here is nonsense. Again. As for him signing for 5 years, I'm very happy.

Yoko has runs on the board in this department...

I would suggest it might rain too, so having a more mobile forward set up will likely cause greater headaches for Richmond's defence. I'm happy with this selection decision.

If Fritsch comes in, Melksham goes out. I'm not convinced both can play in the same team. Particularly, not a team that bases its game on forward half pressure. And Fritsch gets it more and has improved his defensive game.

He's got a holiday joint at Rye, as does Gawn. And yes, Goody lives in East Malvern.

So one less tackler? That leaves Kozzie, ANB and Viney for stints forward, with moments from Jordon. Sorry, not enough. Not many of our guys have Spargo's nous either. What exactly has he done wrong to warrant being dropped? He averages the same amount of tackles as Kozzie (3.6) and is 6th at Melbourne for score involvements (5.6) behind Petracca, Oliver, Kozzie, McDonald and Gawn (he'd be behind Fritsch if he'd played all games too).

Are you guys the same person? And no, Spargo should not be under pressure. He's the one that brings the pressure.

I disagree with this. I'd say they constantly kicked it in Max's direction. So much so that one of my mates, his cousin is a Hawthorn defender, and his mother was mocking him for a turnover that resulted in a Melbourne goal and he said "at least I didn't kick it to Gawn like half the team!" It just means we set our zone deeper to prevent it getting out the back. We've done a pretty good job of keeping the ball front and centre this year for our defensive mids to crumb, or for someone like Salem to sweep up behind the pack and redistribute. It's very Bulldogs 2016 actually. Teams have gone shorter against us a few times, but as long as we don't let them run and carry off that first short kick, which we don't, they can't kick over the zone. We simply shift it further towards centre wing. And we're no longer as aggressive with our defensive set up as we were in 2018 or 2019, so we don't necessarily get caught out even if it does get out the back. It's a bit like combining Richmond's pressure game with West Coast's aerial threat. If we can get the balance right with talls and pressure smalls at ground level, we will be very tough to beat given our ability to win clearance with one less at the around the ground stoppage. True, although due to Max's marking power, we have tried this one occasionally. The corridor kick is definitely more risky though. Does anyone have access to stats that show where our behinds have come from this year? Although we go to the pockets regularly, we get a lot of extremely gettable shots directly in front that we miss. It then heightens what appears to be our preference for pocket kicks, because we miss the easier ones and often kick the harder ones. A lot of our pocket kicks result in resets though.

If we go deep and start next year well, we'll get 55,000 easily IMO. We've probably got 100-150,000 supporters across the country and signed up almost 50,000 of them. Start winning flags/genuinely challenging and we'll start to convert more. It might take a flag for many of those still unsigned though.

It's another 7k given we just hit 45k.

I'd be happy with 52,000ish this season. If we can go deep and go on with the job next year we should be able to push for 55,000-60,000 in 2022.

Great news if true.

That's not what I said at all. I said I don't watch him in every contest and expect him to win it. For an outside player, he's reasonable on the inside, and he has improved his 1v1, but I've also watched him for 8 years and I wouldn't say he's infallible in 1v1 situations.

He'll be good, but I don't want him in against this Richmond team.