Adam The God

He was better yesterday with 3 tackles, mind you he was playing higher up the ground.

Greene played midfield in the last quarter. Our mids failed to track him. Maybe Rivers missed a hand over, but the bigger problem with Riv is his kicking. The rest of our backs went at 100% or in the 80s. He went at 63%. I called it in the second or third quarter, Greene was going to be the difference because we didn't have a match up for him.

I had no voice left after the game today. Don't tell me we're quiet. 😉 I've heard quieter Melbourne games. I thought when we got a few out the front clearances that led to scores, the crowd lifted.

Howes needs continuity IMO. Yoyoing in and out of the team doesn't help him or us. If May is fit, he goes to Larkey and Howes stays.

Spot on, we have very good DE. We let ourselves down in conversion in front of the goal though, as expected score shows.

TMac was terrific today, but he was playing on a beanpole 21 year old and should have outplayed him as he did on a number of occasions. Brave new world sans TMac if May is fit IMV mate. Not going to howl you down though 😄

In the back pocket? May as well try and unearth a player while we wait for McVee to come back, particularly given there's no option of AMW this year.

I think Kozzy into the midfield with out of the front stoppage take aways like today will see us hit up leading forwards more ofren. ie Kozzy is a beautiful field kick. The other guy who I wouldn't be against playing midfield very soon is Lindsay. He has the toughness and speed, but it's his cleanness and ball use that could transform our midfield, particularly alongside say a Kozzy and Clarry. And I'll say it again, vote 1 Jack Viney as defensive pressure forward. Add Spargo and Kolt into that forward pressure mix, and we're getting there.

If we had LJ filling in for Max's rests it'd give us so much flexibility with our forward line up. It'd mean Max could rest forward too.

I agree. And Kozzy's absence is huge, both through the midfield and in the forward half. It's hard to get a read on our future forward fortunes off today given the conditions. Even though Marvel is a funny shape, we'll get a better read next week or the week after.

I'm not sure I completely agree. I think he is certainly more dangerous deeper forward, but on a dryer day he'd be fine as a high half forward. Doesn't mean he doesn't ever go deep, but playing mostly high keeps the forwardline open.

I reckon it's between Fritta and Jeffo for that other forward spot. I disagree with the notion that we need to play 3 talls forward of the ball. Turner and JVR will be fine. The third tall/medium is either Jeffo or Fritta. If Fritta isn't kicking snags I don't think he offers enough. And to be clear, I think he's going through a rough patch and is definitely in our best 23. But he needs to start turning it on soon.

And this week's hyperbole award goes to...

Our forward set up at the start of the game saw us push all our smaller forwards up to CHF (Henderson, Chandler, Sparrow and maybe Fritta, whoever the other forward was), and left JVR in the goal square and Jeffo 20m in front of JVR. It meant when our mids won clearance out the front of the centre stoppage, our mids were kicking to two 1v1s, and each had separation. The resulting opening centre clearance was an entry to the two deepest forwards, with JVR making the contest and bringing it to ground, and Jeffo crumbing it and finishing. Our forwardline functioned so much better today. This will be an exciting watch this year. We just need to convert those very gettable shots.

Is Butters gettable?

We looked completely gassed in the last quarter. Combination of new faces and the extra week up the sleeve for GWS was a deciding factor IMV. AJ competed manfully in the last but was struggling to get to contests. Those he did attend, I loved his aggression. Was super impressed by Lindsay too, and all our debutants gave good accounts of themselves. Too many regulation set shots missed though. Gawn (20m out) and Sparrow (40m out) early on and Fritta's snap early second, we really should be nailing those. Even one of them goes through and we win. Was really happy with our centre clearance work, particularly early on. We really went for those pure, out the front clearances, and for the most part we converted them into scores. Play like we did today and we'll win more than we lose this year.

Green could be the difference. We've got no one who can play on him.

How good is Lindsay? 4 tackles and 14 from the first half. Playing wing and half back. Very clean in these conditions and when he burst off half back at one stage it was delicious. Long way to go, but if Lindsay can have a first season like Windsor did, and we play them both between half back and the wing, our ball use, cleanness and speed will go through the roof.

Geelong game we won last year was super slippery too.

Let's hope so mate. 🎉

Injuries permitting, we'll finish in the 8 this year. We could finish higher but it depends on that little bit of luck, and momentum. For me, it's really about how quickly we can master the new game style, and how straight we kick this year.

This thread is a cracker, thank you all for the updates and laughs. It's probably the last time for a few months we'll all be civil, jovial and vaguely happy. 🫠🤞

I still reckon he gave us a verbal prior to last year's draft. No intel, just a feeling.

I still tear up watching those 3 goals. Beautiful.

Haha, exactly what some said about LJ in 2022.