Adam The God

We could probably level that at most of our team this year and particularly last night. Fritsch, Hannan, Petracca, Kozzie, Weideman all missed simple shots at goal. Langdon showed last year at the Dockers that he can be a goal kicking wingman. He's still settling in and I wonder if he's being asked to do more defensive work to cover our offensive midfield, than he did at the Dockers. Not only does he gut run to sweep (see @Lucifer's Hero's comments), but he's usually an unmanned outlet on the wing, half forward or half back for our mids to give to, as well as providing overlap off half back and the wing. He's been a brilliant pick up and getting better by the week. Strange call by Richo if that's what's been said. For mine, Melksham is clearly our best set shot. Think this is completely unfair mate. Spargo is 20 years old. Wouldn't have thought Jetta was particularly strong in the core in his early days either. I also agree with @titan_uranus about your height comment. If Spargo can run games out, tackle, get to the right spots and use the ball efficiently, he'll make it. Consistent showings like last night, which I think he delivered relatively often in 2018, will see him make it. And to be fair to our group and coaches, our defensive zone has looked very good for the majority of the year and has kept teams to consistently lower scores.

I'd give him the security of two personally. Maybe slightly reduced wage, but even when he invariably slows down soon enough, I reckon it's important to look after a guy in his position. I think he's proved he'll give us at the very least another year of good footy and it's fair to say if he continues on this trajectory for the rest of the year, he should get a two year deal IMO.

Which is a great effort considering what he's been through personally this year.

I think you're being myopic here. Take a look at the majority of 2018 without Viney. It's clear Brayshaw can perform like that against a stronger midfield than North's. He did it most of 2018. Great point this mate. If you give Viney a tagging role, it limits his see ball, get ball, ball up. I just think we need to try things as @Patches O’houlihan says, instead of just sticking with the same old rubbish roles that we've had until the last two games. You don't have to change your system, just try giving players different roles within your system. We don't do this anywhere near enough for mine and the times we do (Fritsch back, Harmes back, Gus on a wing) it so clearly does not work, but we persist with it for way too long.

Absolutely, and because he's usually so clean from ground balls or loose balls, he's able to accelerate through stoppage and out. Great post. Noticed this happening more when Viney was going for the first contest as well.

I think Oliver v Viney is the better comparison, but Viney rarely gives hands as you say and tries to run through people. So he doesn't bring his team mates into it. I just think Oliver is a once in a generation talent with his ability to find the ball. He has a rare mix of good decision-making, speed and ball reading ability. Petracca is a bull whose intensity goes through the roof around contest now. It goes up and down that intensity, that allows him to make good decisions. To me, Oliver and Petracca have switches to go to in their play, mostly around intensity and acceleration into and out of the contest, whereas Jack has less tools in his kit IMO. If Oliver and Petracca have 2 or 3 gears, Jack has one. Unless Jack changes his game, I think he gets in the way of Oliver and Petracca (happened a few times even in the Adelaise game), so if he's playing midfield, he probably needs to be in there without Oliver and possibly even Trac. What does Viney, Gus and Harmes look like as a rotational 3? At the end of the day, I don't think it'll be as strong as any combination involving Oliver. All of this is academic and hypothetical, because I don’t see the coaches playing Jack as a pressure forward. Even though, it's plain as day that he'd be decent in the role and would enable Gus to gel with Oliver and Petracca and exploit each other's strengths to the maximum. I'd love to be a part of the Melbourne coaching team because there are so many options and solutions to try and yet we stick with positional rigidity throughout our system.

I've said he should play three roles. Tagger/most defensive mid, pressure marking forward and winger. That's plenty of options, but as to whether we have enough midfield minutes to give, there's a player you haven't mentioned above and that's Sparrow who is getting midfield minutes and to me looks quite lost in transition. And I'd play Viney as pressure forward too.

Fair enough mate. Each to their own. I think that could hurt confidence. Instead, I'd keep him in and say, we're gonna back you, Harmesy, but we're going to give you a midfield or forward role, because we think you can add a lot to our offensive game.

Absolutely agree that he's been horrendous, but I reckon playing him out of position is smashing his confidence. I mean, I don't know how many players we have to do this to before Goodwin realises that maybe we should try a different role for them. As for the tagging thing, a lock down role with a focus more on stopping his opponent is the perfect way to build confidence. It's not based on you winning the football, it's a defensive role. And as you have simpler KPIs, you can meet them and your confidence can grow. It's a bit like what we've seen with Weideman whose KPIs are get to as many contests as possible. He's built from that low base and slowly developed confidence. Now he's looking like he could break out this year. I think this is the best way to coach personally, and I'll back Harmes to clean up his disposal and become damaging again if he's played in a more suitable position, like a tagging midfield role either in the guts or on the wing. I'd give him a task and say you're playing on the opposition's best or most valuable player and shut them down. Don't worry too much about your offensive game, but if you get it, absolutely try to hurt them going the other way. Come 3 or 4 games in that position, a couple of small wins, maybe a big win in there and he starts to get some touch back. Maybe it's even a defensive forward role on the opposition's most dangerous half back? We know Harmes can be a weapon from midfield-forward when his confidence is up. Let's hope he's given the chance by the coaching group.

I'd be dropping Sparrow next week if Viney comes back in. Young player, give him a rest so that we can bring him back in fresher when required. Viney plays forward, takes forward stoppages and occasional midfield bursts. Harmes plays midfield minutes and wing, taking Sparrow's role from tonight. I feel like we're getting close to finding the right mix. If Sparrow gets up again, take out Jones. We have to get proper bang for our buck with Gus and Harmes. Viney's a leader, he'll take to a forward role with stoppages minutes.

You watch. The coach will eventually move him forward and put him on the wing and he'll be markedly better. It's a bit like the Bailey Fritsch experiment down back. Or the Gus Brayshaw wing thing.

There's a difference between what will happen and what should, mate. I'd like to see how our mids go again without Max. Goldstein was probably the best ruck in the competition coming in to tonight and he had little to no influence.

There should be if his inclusion makes us a less effective team. Viney should take forward stoppages and that's about it. Forwardline the rest of the time or when Gus is resting on the bench. Our midfield destroyed them in effective clearances and then our mids got involved around the crowd. Is there really much more to say? 2017 and 2018 without Viney, Gus is A grade, with him, he's nowhere. I think Gus is a better, more damaging player than Jack. There's three and a half seasons of evidence really...

Rubbish. Gave us a lot of penetration and went backwards and retained possession where appropriate. We're rubbish when we go consistently long down the line. We tried to use the angles from half back to free up players who could rebound through the corridor. Langdon played his role.

Disagree. Thought we were sloppy and careless in the first half and with the exception of the Harmes punch to the guys hand, all the frees were there for mine. Yep, don't know what people are talking about RE: Langdon's disposal tonight. Thought he was really solid and continued to get to great positions. Gus so much more damaging than Viney IMO...

Agree, but he really needs to become more consistent if he's going to make it. He's not a young fella, but inexperienced in games played. Would elevate us so much if he could put together 4 quarters of football.

One of them is still right...

Btw, that stat about 2017 when we went on our run without Gawn that was brought up at the start of the game, I knew we'd gone on a run that year, but that stat was even more impressive than I remembered it being. Just a little bit of food for thought...

This call is just as early as Malthouse's. We're still not in the 8 and we're 5-5. Let's see how the rest plays out.

We look so much better without Viney and Gawn in the middle. People will disagree, but it's so much harder to stop three mids, than just curve one dominant ruckman. Gawn's too good to leave out, so if he's fit, he should come back. But I reckon we need to do a lot more of what North did tonight and that is mix up our rucking. If Viney is going to play again, he needs to play pressure forward. Oliver, Gus and Petracca were brilliant as a combo and were able to defend and attack in equal measure. Oliver is an out and out star, and that ability to accelerate out of the contest is absolutely elite. Actually really liking the combo of Oliver, Gus, Petracca and Jackson. Super mobile, all have a great understanding between each other and are able to win the ball in tight and get it out on the outside. Love that we started targeting Petracca 1 out a bit, and Trac's body use is starting to really show. He's got a Martin-like ceiling. Keep going, mate. Goodwin naming Melksham as captain is pretty rich and shows a clear bias IMV. Melksham in 2018 was super important for our midfield-forward connection, but we now function without him touching it equally well. Tonight he didn't really get near it enough, nor did he bring enough forward pressure IMO. So he'll predictably stay in, but he needs to show a lot more intensity and hardness across half forward. Really liked Rivers' game. Thought Sparrow brought very little and looked lost. Jackson continues to excite. His ability to compete in the air and excel when the ball hits the ground is really promising. Spargo showed why I think he'll make it. He gets involved and is tidy and efficient with his disposal, usually connecting really well with the mids and the deeper forwards. Weideman should have had a night out. He must improve his kicking. He'll know that. He wasn't alone though, but he is the focal point and if he continually misses, he's not converting our hard work up the ground. I still want him to be consistently stronger in the contest, but he's starting to bring the ball to the ground most times, which is a big tick. I just want to see him clunk those big contested marks that he gets to, but grasses, and then convert those easy chances. Jones struggled, but there will still be those that champion his inclusion and disposal, and hardness and whatever else they allege he brings, but we can't carry him. We need to play proper wingers against Collingwood or they'll cut us up on the outside, so I hope we go with Tomlinson and Langdon on the wings. Langdon's run was again important all night. He's always there on the outside when one of our mids is in trouble. It's becoming second nature that the likes of Oliver looks for him too. Lever's game was excellent. One mistake early on gifted North a goal, otherwise he was always spot on, even when May was caught out of position a few times, Lever's cover was great. I agree with some. That was probably his most dominant game for the club. We'll need to be a lot better if we're going to beat Collingwood or anyone of note really, but a win's a win and it was a good percentage boost.

Completely unfair. Which game were you watching mate? Spargo was involved in pretty much every Melbourne scoring chain for the match. Just wow.

Clarry's pocket

Another shocker for Fritsch.

Fritsch has to be dropped. He's as soft as they come and if he's not kicking goals, we can't carry him. What a shocking kick that was.

This score can be directly attributed to Jones.