Adam The God

It's very Sam Mitchell. He's always reminded me of Mitchell in the way that he plays and for years, Mitchell was overlooked until he started winning premierships. I hope the same thing will happen with Clarry at Melbourne.

Yep, my thinking also mate.

I noticed Oliver was the one often starting 5m wider with his opponent. It's brilliant, because his acceleration through the contest is elite. Not only does it give him greater separation at the stoppage (5m off the ball there'll be less tugging of jumpers), it allows him to enter it or stay on the outside and receive.

Jordon played off half back for CGS/Oakleigh, so not surprised he's being used in a similar outside role. But it shows the potential evolution of an outside player in the modern game with his tackle numbers. It's not just about cheap possessions. It's about defending and then peeling off when your ball winners win it at stoppage.

This is an absolute ripper of a post, but without sounding like a sycophant, I expect it now from you, Bob. If this analysis is right, we've completely reversed our 2018 formula, which was to have an extra at the stoppage (the sliders) and sometimes even two extras off the back stoppages ala 2017. Given the elite contested talent we have in there, it's a genius move, particularly as it gives us 1 v 1s forward of the contest.

Good post mate. I think the biggest change has finally been in the uncontested possession area. It's long hamstrung us when we've come up against good outside teams, but I suspect a combination of mental maturity, fitness and experience is starting to shift the dial on this part of our game. Given we have multiple guys that can rack up possessions in a contested situation, complimenting this with a greater uncontested focus I think makes us much harder to beat. And as you say, less of this bees to the honeypot stuff means we can defend territory and stoppage better. I hope Yze really continues to work hard on this area of our game. As for Gus, I think there'll be injuries this year that open the door for him as a pure mid, but in the meantime, I'm comfortable with where he is at and what he can offer on the outside. He's also had a year of playing wing, albeit a bit of a struggle last year. Good players learn though and I like the positions he takes up off the back of stoppages. They provide both cover and offence. My premiership favourite is the Bulldogs. Their midfield is simply awesome. It bats deeper than ours but I think we have a stronger potential list across the rest of the ground with at least two A grade midfielders too. The Eagles and Port might be thereabouts again, but the Bulldogs and Richmond are the teams to beat IMO. On our day I think we could beat any of them. It'll be interesting to see whether we can get everything to click this year, if we do, I think we'll wipe a few sides off the park.

Oliver is a rare 'at any price' player IMO. I don't think he's missed a game since his second season. He has shoulder recos every season, but it doesn't impact on his ball winning ability at all. He's a natural. We'll agree to disagree mate.

I'd say name your price, but if you go too high, just know you may compromise list management decisions in the future and the club's ability to improve. If he'd sign a long term deal, I'd comfortably give him 10 x $1 mill a year. He's incredibly durable and IMV will have a long future (playing well past 30) in the game.

5 years ago. He's 30 now. Someone of his age should be in his prime, but he's clearly not the player he was. He's faded.

You're not being told how to think. No one's forcing you to deal with your emotions if you refuse to. You can take or leave the message. Your precious rights are not being impinged. And this is classic corporate liberalism/centrism. None of these organisations particularly care about any of the social issues they support, but they can talk about them at functions and be seen to be a reputable community 'brand', meanwhile often the toxicity that these organisations are said to be fighting remains completely unchecked. In the AFLs case it's also a way of promoting the event. It is what it is. Engage with it or don't.

ANB taking better options IMO. There was a distinct moment in the game last night where he wove through the traffic off half back, looked wide, it wasn't on, carried the ball and then made the straighter kick and we scored. It was a very notable moment, because it's the sort of moment he's historically struggled with as you imply. Jackson is doing what Weideman was doing in his first season - he's basically leading himself under the ball, making it far too easy for his opponent. Weideman has fixed it, so in time, with the right coaching, Jackson will too. If Brown or Weideman were free next week it'd be an interesting conversation at the selection table. I feel Jackson's struggled both weeks, but perhaps touch will come with continuity for him, and anyway, Brown or Weideman are weeks off. Jackson provides that little bit of brilliance as second ruck that will probably see him keep his place no matter what this season. While we wait for Brown and Weideman, Jackson must bring the ball to ground. For a guy his height, with his leap, he didn't do it enough last night. Things to work on.

Sure, the ruckmen would help, but it's not like we smashed them in the clearances. As for Hannebery and Crouch, you can't be serious mate? Harmes is equal to, if not better, than both, and Brown and Weideman would have been our starting forwards this year had it not been for injury. I think their injuries are being massively overplayed by a media machine that is providing itself cover for pumping up their tyres, only to see their predictions quite a way off. St Kilda could very easily be 0-2 and there's certainly no top 4 contender.

Glad to see Charlie get some wraps. I've long stuck up for him on here and at games - my sister isn't a fan. His thing - that will come (is coming) with maturity - is staying in games long enough and ideally getting it more. Most of his possessions are in scoring chains. He's a very rare player in that regard. Doesn't get it lot, but when he does it usually results in a score, due to that decision making you mention, and also probably the role he plays. His pressure has gone to another level now though, which means he's staying in games longer. Well done, Charlie. Keep it up.

Bang on this. He set up constantly in dangerous positions off the back of stoppages, always there to release. Completely agree with this. Top post. I think he compliments Langdon nicely on the wing too, because Langdon can cover the ground so much better, but Gus has a knack of putting himself in dangerous positions at stoppages, whereas Langdon tends to get it on the rebound. I questioned whether Yze's influence on the midfield was a good thing last week given we struggled for midfield connection, but this week it has to be said, the mix in there is looking really solid. Some much better signs structurally this week too.

Petracca ran through the square. As for Max's game I thought he struggled for the most part. His game last week was ordinary and if he's not marking around the ground, his tap work is too predictable to cause the opposition too many headaches. Last night he was playing his loose man in defence role and if you watch the tape, he falls over multiple times or fails to kill the contest and St Kilda get scores. He needs to lift. That is a great stat. Our efficiency felt better, so it's good to have it backed up. What I found interesting was that the majority of our players were practicing shots from 30m directly in front before the game as if we were looking to hit that area, but Fritsch and others constantly lead to the pockets.

Clayton Oliver easily best afield. Getting closer and closer to A+ grade. I thought it should have been a 10+ goal victory, but happy enough to start 2 zip. The connection between the mids was far better this week. Was this down to the inclusion of Viney or coincidence? Sitting up high on level 3, an unusual position for me, it was obvious that we set up beautifully behind the ball against the Saints and without silly unforced they'd have struggled to kick goals all night. Marvel really suits our zone as we can blanket space a lot more easily, but on the flip side our uncontested work the first two weeks has been outstanding. A real weak area of our game historically. Our delivery inside 50 and connection from back to front has really improved since last year. Another historical weakness of ours. Our forwards need to get the job done though. Fritsch has become a liability. He gets it so often, but couldn't hit the side of a barn half the time. Surely that's mental. Banking the win against GWS is an absolute must next week. Confidence must be high heading into the Geelong game.

Sure, tackles aren't the only indicator of defence, but you said Oliver just chases stats.

See, this is nonsense mate. Oliver was 6th highest tackler in the league last year. I swear people don't actually watch Oliver play the game...

I had some nufty try to tell me on Facebook that Oliver was nowhere near best on ground. I'd have Oliver and Lever ahead of May personally, but clearly the three best players on the ground. The nufty has similar company on here who constantly pick Oliver's game apart. It's like they've never seen a Melbourne team play prior to Oliver's debut. I've been banging on for years on Demonland that he's the best I've seen in my 33 years. That remains. As for Oliver being replaceable... what world are you living in?

This. Our most important player. He runs our midfield. Midfields win games and premierships.

Harmes just needs to get his touch back. First time getting back in the midfield for a while. He stays. I'd be looking at Viney for Jones and Hibberd for Hunt, and that ought to do it for the week.

I thought our midfield really lacked cohesion. As an elite player, Max has next to no influence in clearances anymore, except for the occasional flash (see the Langdon goal). Oliver constantly flies under the radar though. Thought his kicking was strong, two beautiful piercing 50m passes that I recall resulted in scores. 35 possessions, most contested possessions on the ground, at 80% efficiency. He completely runs our midfield. Without him we're stuffed. Lever, May and Tomlinson, against pretty ordinary opposition, were excellent in tandem. I think it was the best 3 KPD effort I've seen at Melbourne. Big call, but all three were excellent at intercepting and May's kicking is becoming such a weapon out of defence. I like our set play long kick to the centre square for Max and Jackson. It does something interesting. Because we used it so often, the opposition tried to predict it, which then left easy shorter exits, which we usually took. That was Tom McDonald's best game since the 2019 flash in the pan performance against Carlton. Thought he led and presented strongly. He missed two he'd normally nail, but kicked the harder one. Was impressed with Spargo's game again. He needs to keep working on staying in the game longer, but just about everything he touches results in a score. That's partly system and partly his game smarts. The young guys in Kozzie, Jordon and Sparrow provided some good tackling support with ANB, Harmes and even Spargo. Felt our forward pressure was really solid, we got the ball inside and got great looks at goal, but our goal kicking was woeful. Our defensive structures strangled Freo, particularly as they had little to kick to in terms of tall targets, especially after Pearce went down. The big issue for me is our midfield. I know we've had some issues with continuity and injuries in there across pre season and the early part of the year, but if Yze's having much influence there it isn't good so far. I'd love to see Rivers tried on a wing and Hibberd off half back, but I suspect Trent doesn't have the tank for it yet. Brayshaw and Jones on the wing signals to me that we don't really have a new plan for addressing our lack of run to support Langdon either. I'll take the win, but most teams would have pantsed us for our poor set shot kicking and lack of accountability at stoppages. Our midfield set ups were truly horrendous for much of the game and we were clearly murdered in the middle. We were fortunate they rested Fyfe forward for so much of the second half, because we just let him run free in the middle. Andrew Brayshaw was allowed to roam similarly free too. Hoping for a much better performance next week. And even though he's only a few days old, my son has 1 win from 1 game. Let's hope he's a good luck charm. I'd be happy to celebrate a flag in 2021 for him, even if he won't remember it.

That's good. Is it like a probationary period for soon to be three time premiers?

Yeah, fair enough.

Hang on. So did the Casey Demons twitter feed cover the men's VFL game too? It seems like they did. Not really sure why people are having a go at the club... Having read the whole thread now, I guess if enough supporters are upset about it then it's a problem, but it doesn't bother me much.