Adam The God

Let's hope so mate.

He is not a good ball user. Criminally slow now too, in both mind and body. He's done. Lewis on the other hand has another year left in him. Potentially two. We'll see. The end does come quickly sometimes. I have a feeling he could be in and out of the team in 2020 if he wants to play on. I reckon Pedersen will get another one year deal. I'd give Johnstone a one year deal or delist and re-rookie. I don't rate AVB, but reckon he'll go around again if he can stay fit for the rest of the year. Kent will move on. Pat McKenna has to be close to gone. Likewise, Maynard. Bugg will go too.

Quite a different player and how often does he get on the park these days? Good player, but I'd look elsewhere.

I don't think we turned up...

I'm sorry. That's a laughable call.

The inevitable post... how the [censored] did we lose to St Kilda? What a rabble they are. Their skills and decision making are appalling.

If Carlton aren't careful and lift themselves off the canvas in the next decade, I reckon they'll fold in 15-20 years. They have lost a lot of fans and I'd argue have probably compromised losing a generation of supporters.

Well, you are basing that assertion on 50+ year old stats. Not sure too many teams will win a flag with a top goal scorer only getting 35.

Providing Hunt is matchfit, I'd be going Hunt for Smith and Melksham for Vandenberg.

Kennedy, surely.

I think the thing we have going for us is being able to score big. Sydney simply don't score highly enough. Buddy kicked most of their score. Limit him to even 5 and make sure no one else bobs up and we should have them covered.

Yeah, we're talking set shots though. I found his 50% conversion rate, but that doesn't tell us what his set shots have been like. I think you'll find a lot of those misses were snaps.

I disagree. He's our second best set shot behind Tommy. Would love to see some stats on this - couldn't find any. Think of the Richmond game earlier in the year where Jesse couldn't hit the side of a barn and Jake kept us in it with his kicking.

I think it'd be hilarious if Collingwood missed the finals from here. They won't but I'd love it. As long as they don't get the double chance...

We'll be able to cover him this week. However, against the good teams, and make no mistake, Sydney are still a good team, his ability to hit targets inside 50 when no one else can is his major asset. Given our deplorable efficiency inside 50 at times this year, without Melksham's kicking, a side like Sydney will make us pay. And if I've gone the hyperbolic route, let me adjust it to say without Melksham against Sydney, it will be very tough to beat them.

Was that Judd's grandmother, mate? ?

Actually, if you look at the importance of the missing players at Collingwood and compare them with ours, our injury list is very comparable. Collingwood's injuries have been played up greatly for a few years now and yet whenever anyone else has injuries, they're pretty much overlooked. Collingwood are thought to have great courage and system despite all their injuries and yet we played stretches of 2017 without both captains (one of whom was the equivalent of Treloar in Viney), our AA ruckman, our gun CHF and still won many games and were competitive in all. This year we've lost our most important KPB (the week before playing Collingwood who have only beaten us in the top 8 - we didn't have time to adjust our system to cater for Cox); another AA defender from last year is injured in Hibberd; arguably our most important midfielder in Viney has barely played any of the season; despite his form, Hunt's injury has crippled our running stocks; and now our leading half forward and the leading assister in the league, is injured. But we're chokers who haven't beaten anyone in the top 8 and Collingwood are a premiership threat who have lost to Richmond by the same margin we did, but done it twice. Both times, Collingwood were lauded for the way they played in comfortable Richmond victories. Yet when we played Richmond, we were without Tom McDonald who incredibly could still win the Coleman despite missing a quarter of the season, and is as vital to our structure as Riewoldt is to Richmond's. I think it's [censored]. Don't get sucked in by the media love for Collingwood. Buckley's been there for years and is only just starting to beat teams in the bottom half of the ladder that they should be beating. They still haven't beaten anyone else in the top 8. End rant.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Melksham is our most important player. He connects the good work of Max, Clarry and Gus with the rest of the forwardline and for some time has been the best assister in our team. He is also arguably our best shot at goal too. I'm very concerned by his loss. If he doesn't play against Sydney, we'll lose.

Why would Hannebery leave Sydney for St Kilda? Far more likely to come to Melbourne if he were to leave Sydney. St Kilda makes no sense.

I think we're not dangerous enough at ground level, so defenders can afford to peal off and double/triple team Jesse. The way the Richmond smalls pressure the ground balls in their forwardline is really something to behold. It means that Riewoldt or Moore can get a jump at the footy, because the second or third defender is held accountable to another on the ground. I like your general thesis though. In general, we need to get better at making the right selection going inside 50 and if we have more pace on the ground, I think we'd find our efficiency going up. We rarely crumb goals (Jeffy's the other night being the exception), so it means defenders can gamble a bit more and they're really not that worried about what our smalls can do at ground level. Certainly, not in the same way you'd be fearful as a defender in Richmond's forwardline. They create goal scoring chances purely out of inferred pressure. If we can couple that manic implied pressure with our clearance dominance (consistently), we'll win a premiership.

He's been a completely different player across 2017-2018. People were right to knock him prior to that. He was a turnover merchant with ball in hand, but a very hard running and good 1v1 defender. As a forward, he is an absolute star and you're right. He probably hasn't received the accolades for that, that he deserves.

I don't know how to interpret these posts unless they're put in a best 22. Mind knocking up one for us? Just don't put Jesse at CHF.

Langdon gets it a bit but he continues to be an untidy player. Reminds me of Harmes in his first few years.

Yeah, I said to my old man last night in the third that our performance was really reminiscent of the old Sydney. Grind it out and slowly work your way on top, despite not playing your best footy. It was a really mature performance in the second half and it's exciting. Clarry really stood up too.

Yep, we're not going to catch West Coast and if North lose this, they pretty much can't make it. We want West Coast comfortable when we play them, so we can catch them off guard. An Eagles win is better for mine.