Adam The God

That's not the plan. They just want the safety net of being able to lock down an additional two weeks. Once you force the community transmission to zero, hopefully in 2-3 weeks time, you then look for two weeks of no community transmission and then you can open things back up to stage 3, otherwise the whole thing is for nought. I get that it's frustrating, I'm trying to operate a business too, but for the sake of my parents, their friends and other vulnerable people over 70 or otherwise, it's a sacrifice worth making. Mind you, I doubt it'll pass parliament.

Great post mate. It makes no sense to me that we continue to play Viney in our midfield (crowding out the better, cleaner users) and Harmes at half back, when both could be put to great use up forward. St Kilda will do exactly what the Bulldogs did unless we do something about our tackling...

Couple of things about this. 1) Ball use makes conversion from forwards easier. 2) Do you know the pressure point stat differential between Melbourne and Collingwood? I know the tackling tackling stat differential. Collingwood were +2. We were +3 for 1%ers. Hardly a team who couldn't apply any pressure. There was nothing good about the Port game and the Dogs game, our ball use wasn't much worse than theirs. 4% difference between DE and we went at 70%, which is 1% lower than our average. We're 9th in the league for ball use by the way. Was ball use our problem in those games or was the bigger problem our lack of work rate? The ball use stat is hyperbolised on Demonland. Our ball use could get better from stoppage and entering forward 50, absolutely, but that's not where either of those games were lost.

Didn't like our ball use in the previous game, mate? 16.4 was pretty bloody good.

Haha, being a Melbourne supporter is character-building, mate.

Jeepers. Your partner cares what happens with the second tier comp in the AFL? Or was she just going 'yes, Action Jackson, darling, I'm listening'. My wife doesn't even care when her Hawks are playing. She knows more about Demonland internal politics than football. And that's the way I like it. Very easy to convince her who our son in the womb should support.

This is massive. I'm just thinking the additional expenditure to fly VFL teams around the country... frankly I find it baffling. This bit struck me too: "The Victorian clubs as well as Sydney, GWS, Brisbane and Gold Coast will be allowed to either field their own teams in the new VFL, align with an existing team or spread their players across multiple clubs." So the current alignments are void or? I'm trying to work out how the AFL saves money here. Another thing: "while Northern Club Academies (Sydney Swans, GWS GIANTS, Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast SUNS) will be provided with greater responsibility and investment." So more investment for the Northern clubs. And interesting to see that the AFL Talent Committee is pretty much Clarkson and most of his former associates. • AFL Talent Committee – Alastair Clarkson, Luke Beveridge, Chris Fagan, Damien Hardwick, Stephen Wells, Jason McCartney and Ned Guy

Out: Sparrow, Hannan, McDonald, Preuss In: Rivers, Bennell, Jones, Gawn Melksham very lucky. I'd play Harmes, Jones and Viney as pressure forwards. Demand that Kozzie and Spargo bring the heat too for 4 quarters. Rivers takes Harmes' half back possie and Bennell plays between forward and centre wing. Fritsch takes the second tall role, with a licence to play higher up the ground. Preuss for Gawn. If Jones doesn't get up, Hannan is lucky too.

Absolutely. They're interesting stats, because it's like clockwork that you look down at the stat sheet and see almost all our forwards or at least a number of our players registering zero tackles. Against Collingwood, when our pressure was high, we laid less tackles than against the Bulldogs and the following players from our forward or mid system had zero or one tackle each: Melksham, Vandenberg, Fritsch, Weideman, Petracca, Pickett. It's not like the rest of the forwards laid a stack either. Jones, Spargo and McDonald only laid two tackles each. Successful tackling pressure isn't necessarily the best measurement, clearly. How do these stack up against pressure acts? Whatever the result, it's clear that we're not getting the most out of all of our forwards. Another thing that has been noticeable over the last few weeks is our want to keep our forward structure and always keep one or two forwards deep. "Currently the balance of the forward line doesn't seem quite right, IMHO, because our highest quality forwards are of a different style to the midfield and defence." - This is great. Agreed. That's why I'd be playing Viney, Harmes and Jones, the same style as our mids, as forwards. They don't have to be defensive forwards necessarily either. Each can hit the scoreboard and I'd argue Viney and Harmes are quite quick.

This is outstanding analysis, Bob. I'd be up for reverting to the one key tall as I've discussed elsewhere. Our forward entries have been markedly better than they were during the West Coast, Geelong and Richmond games. When Weideman's been switched on in the early part of his career, he's often tackled well playing up the ground. I think he has the capacity to evolve his defensive game to a Lynch level. I think when Jackson's fit again, I don't think there'd a question about whether we'd play two talls, he'd be straight in for mine. But until he returns, I'd look at mixing it up too. Fritsch, for whatever reason, is a turnover merchant at half back, but in the forward half of the ground, he's far more accurate. Maybe this is something he can improve on, having already played down there? I like Melksham as the defensive forward, but it means we need another connector, leading up half forward, otherwise the chances the second defender drops off and isolates Weideman in a two on one is very high. That lead up forward at this stage (if Melksham is playing defensive forward) is probably Fritsch IMV. I'd then play mids around this. All great for food thought though.

Bennell?

Great post @Axis of Bob. Agree with that too. So what would you do with our forward make up this year?

No one is saying Robert should get a pass. But it's far too easy to right off his experiences with, 'well, he did himself no favours'. Do we talk about Leigh Matthews or Dermie that way? No. Why is that? It's exactly the sort of problem our society continues to have, at both sides of the political spectrum. Some people assume our experiences must be everyone else's. Well, no. They're not.

Great post @3183 Dee and @titan_uranus. This is partly why I've been disappointed with Salem's conservative play from the back. He may not have the leg-speed of a Trent Alexander-Arnold or Andrew Robertson, but he's no slouch and has beautiful delivery, as those two do. I completely agree on Rivers. Could Rivers and Salem be our 'wing backs'? I'd also play Harmes forward, with Viney and Jones. That's three guys you know are going to more consistently than not, give you a contest and tough tackling pressure. I'd play Weideman, Melksham, Fritsch, Kozzie and Spargo as the other five rotating through there. And I'd use Fritsch as the lead up player across half forward and the wing. I agree that McDonald is a liability with his foot. However, I think we'll get murdered by St Kilda if we play two ruckman. They'll use this weak link to waltz off half back. It's an idea dipped in poison IMV. As for our defence, I think it's slightly more complex than Liverpool's set up, in that our game involves more players and moving parts, but it is certainly true that as soon as Liverpool shored up their central defence with the acquisition VVD, the rest of the defence flowed. I think in our game, May and Lever are both great acquisitions because they not only defend (spoil or intercept) well, they help us set up the rest of our defence and the mids in front of them. This is very VVD and what he brings to Liverpool. I think we have the players on our list to implement the system Goodwin wants to play, but I think we're being a bit stubborn in hoping others can fill the need. Harmes, Jones and Viney should play forward, not rest forward. They are all capable of hitting the scoreboard too. And as TU says, the question remaining is around consistency. Those three hardened mids bring consistency. It's logical IMO.

Such a shallow analysis. Try and put yourself in his shoes. If you'd been beaten by your father, if you'd suffered racism in your day-to-day life, if you were regularly abused for trying to go about your job... how would you react? I don't think you could know without experiencing it.

Great, insightful and thoughtful post.

I think the key here is that everyone is different and everyone's situation's different. To just blanket everyone with the same brush is frankly absurd. We all have different experiences that help or hinder our development as people. Just look at Jesse Hogan. He's clearly been through the emotional and psychological ringer, imagine if you added the racial element to it. Now more than ever, rather than division, our society needs social cohesion, empathy and compassion. Reconciliation with the traditional owners of the land we live on should not be a difficult thing for white people. No one's saying you are directly responsible for the atrocities committed and the intergenerational trauma that has unleashed, but recognising that these events have occurred and being open to the different experiences of Indigenous people is a good start.

I've been on record since just about Joel's first game as been one of his detractors. He has great athleticism, we all know that and poor IQ etc, but we may need someone to play foil for Weideman at the expense of Tom, who can barely run right now. Would we prefer Smith or Brown? Brown can get out the back for a cheapie, but can he play second ruck? It's dangerous to mix the midfield set up too much, given the lack of connectivity and understanding between Preuss and the on ballers yesterday, but perhaps that was a misnomer? I think we're going to be forced to make a move on McDonald sooner or later though.

Hang on a second. Are you really suggesting that Indigenous footballers were treated as royalty? You've got to be kidding.

Perhaps, the club can use his downtime to extend his contract, ala Pickett?

Fair enough. Let's wait and see what happens.

I agree, but this was also clearly a societal and competition-wide thing. It's very hard not to be cynical isn't it? It feels a very corporate, brand-saving sort of move to me. But at least they've done it and shows why it's important this story was written. I hope Robert gets some solace from it and I hope it causes those to reflect in football circles and the wider community. I got the sense this article is the most likely to create change. Given it's not in a tabloid, I'm sure there would have been an element of consultation in the editorial, something you couldn't necessarily control in book form or in the Murdoch and Costello press.

Well said, mate. As for the bolded bit, this is why a story like this, covered the way it has been, is so important. It makes some of us in more privileged positions reflect on the damage this sort of structural racism can have on people.

This is a devastating, challenging and extraordinary piece of journalism. I cried most of the way through it. It's been shared quite a bit through Facebook too. It shows that the AFL's corporate platitudes are just that.

I'd play Bedford, Harmes and Jones all forward of centre next week. We need ferocious tackling as you say. Stop St Kilda's run and gun off half back and convert our own opportunities and I think we win.