Adam The God

Lever took his eyes off the ball before he got the elbow in the face. That free kick was there for mine.

This is the big one for me too, DA. This was the main reason for my mind that the Geelong game was close at all. Had we locked down this chipping out of our offensive zone early on, I believe we would have won comfortably. But we let it happen. We set our zone deeper, almost to encourage the opposition to empty their defence, so that our next entry wouldn't be to a crowded forward line. This is very much a soccer/football tactic. Press in the middle and across half forward, but not at the goal line. I don't think we can afford to play this way with Hawthorn's foot skills and pacey smalls. Their ball movement will be too slick for this.

I dunno. There's not much substance to this article and it completely glosses over the fact that Gawn was injured most of last year and the rest of the list was plagued by injuries. That is the reason we failed to make finals last year. So all I take from the article is the bleeding obvious - that there is a stark difference between St Kilda and Melbourne. No [censored].

Agree with the first bits, but your bias towards Oscar belies the truth here, Steve. Ben Brown did not get ahold of Oscar at all. I think he beat him twice one out. That's all.

Lol. Did we lose?

You don't need a second tall. Richmond proved this last year and continue to do so. It's all about ball use and getting it in quickly. We're kicking to the advantage of our forwards well enough and until we do, it doesn't matter who's down there. I'd prefer guys you create pressure though and can get it on the deck. Pedersen rarely offers this.

Roughead looks fine now...

This is the kick that we continually allow. It's the kick that Geelong utilised every time out of their defence.

Was sore going into the game and just suffered a head knock.

This is laughable, mate. I don't mind Pedersen. He can get on the scoreboard, but at the end of the day, he doesn't do enough defensively. We can't have that in our forward half in 2018 and beyond.

O'Brien killed us last year. From memory, he took a game high 10 marks. I'd play Lever on him and he'll be able to sag off him and intercept as well. Oscar goes to Roughead, providing he plays. Jetta, Hibberd and Hunt or Frost to take Rioli, Breust and Impey. Isaac Smith's speed and ball use is a worry in midfield and off half back. I'd play Harmes in a defensive role on him. (play Melksham as second ruck) I'd also consider trying Vince for a quarter in a tagging role on Mitchell or allow Clarry to go head to head with him.

Be interesting to see how we employ Lever next week. Rance is dominating Hawthorn with his intercepting.

Thanks for this, Nash. I sometimes forget about Jonesy's loyalty, so it's important that I'm reminded of it. Jonesy IMO is a limited player, but he's got the most out of himself and the thing that I really value is loyalty. None of us should forget his loyalty to the club. I can't see him winning another BnF as he has some decent competition now, but if we win a flag, he should be spoken in the same terms as Robbie and the greats from our premiership era.

Agree with all this. And it's only a matter of time before Bugg's untidiness costs us a game. I don't want him anywhere near the 22 come the back end of the season or finals.

Viney goes in for Wagner (stiff) or ANB and Tmac comes in for one of our small forwards. Goodwin and co are only experimenting with the smaller forwardline at the moment out of necessity. With those two guys available you'll basically see our best 22 and our 'ideal set up.

Pretty much my sentiments too. There were a couple of moments after the first quarter where our midfield completely switched off and it became a training drill in ball movement for North. The top sides don't switch off like this, however, I see enough room for improvement and with a bit of luck with injuries, we could still be a top 4 team if things click at the back end of the year. Probably because Clarry was still winning clearances. But I agree, I would have tried it earlier too.

I hope not, because that's the sort of body language that they've tried to erase from Jesse's game. But you could well be right.

I'm glad we got the win and 6 and a bit goals felt like a fair margin. I felt the umpiring was incredibly soft both ways today. However, many of the free kicks were technically there. Someone asked why Fritsch was penalised after marking in the goal square late on. Kent pulled down the North player. Soft, but there. Some general comments from today... We still have a real problem with pressure acts in our offensive 50. Today we laid a lot more tackles inside 50 than the opposition, which was good, but this aspect of our game was noticeably absent in the first quarter yet again. North waltzed out of there far too easily. Fritsch did some lovely things. He's so clean and a beautiful user, but he was one that failed to lay a tackle. Simply not good enough for a half forward in the modern game. Melksham managed 1 tackle. As did Kent. As did Hogan (who rarely ever lays tackles). Petracca managed 2. That's slightly insane. 5 of our 8-10 forwards laid a total of 5 tackles between them. We are going to get crucified against decent opposition if we fail to keep the ball inside our forward 50. North were pretty much scoring with every second inside 50 and they're not the first team to do that against us. It's the one glaring area of our game at the moment and it's an area that Geelong exploited heavily. I expect Hawthorn will try to do the same next week. I'm no fan of Bugg and believe he's close to the level of a VFA player at times, but at least he managed 3 tackles. On that alone, he'll get picked again next week. His goals were a bonus, but like Brown's, came mostly from free kicks. That missed set shot from 15 metres out directly in front was not good enough. Meanwhile, Kent played the sort of game we've seen from him quite often over the journey. He got the ball in dangerous areas quite a bit, but his kicking prevented him from being a really damaging player - he really should have had 4 or 5. However, his biggest weakness is his lack of tackle pressure. This has to change if he's going to keep guys like Hannan out of the team. I almost wonder whether it'd be worth giving him a run on the ball more often, to ensure that he has to be physical. In the ruck, I thought Gawn killed Goldstein, but gee, he plays some dumb footy at times. His tapping to the outside at certain stoppages (where our players weren't and were much slower) was mindboggling and his free kick(s) against were all there IMO. Our ability to generate inside 50s continues to be really positive though. Our ball use lets us down on occasion, but there were signs today that things might be on the improve with forward entries. Basically, we started to kick the ball to the advantage of our forwards. This is a building block. I hope we can build on this next week. Salem's first quarter and a bit was really impressive. He won a bunch of clearances, won a lot of the ball and used it well. This was important early, as Oliver was receiving the tight tag. Salem faded out of the game and I couldn't work out whether it was due to his work rate or whether they paid him more respect (or both). Either way, building blocks for Salo too. Jesse is getting midfield numbers and now looks comfortable playing anywhere. It was an interesting game from him, because playing him through the midfield (at times) meant we were playing a very small and mobile forwardline. Anyway, a really good game from Jesse and pity he couldn't get on the scoreboard a little more. As for our leadership, I still have large question marks over Lewis, Jones and Vince. Jones directly gave away two goals in the second half, but fortunately today, each time he was able to atone for his errors (once in setting up Jeffy and then kicking one of his own). Lewis rarely keeps his feet anymore and this will cost us. And Vince is still too fancy with his dinky little kicks in defensive 50 that threaten to halt or swing momentum at critical moments. This is something that we must monitor and I think Viney's inclusion can't come quickly enough. Finally, the biggest plus for us today was being able to kick 18 goals with a small, mobile set up and without Oliver dominating the game (although his two goals were all class - his second was just as good as any A grade midfield gun in the league could produce when resting forward). And Gawn was the most influential player on the ground and having him near the top of his game makes us very dangerous. So there's still a heap of improvement left in this team, which is exciting. Hawthorn are going to be a massive test and we'll need to play our absolute best footy to take care of them. If we play four quarters for the first time this year, we'll beat them. I couldn't think of anything better as I continue my press to convert my wife from Hawthorn to Melbourne.

Grew into the game today. He struggled in the first half. It looked like nerves, but I'd say it's just about still getting used to the new system he's playing and playing with his new team mates. By the end of the game, he was solid and provided good rebound.

The most interesting subplot for me today is how our leadership responds to momentum swings. Late in the second after North kick only their second for the term, Lewis has the ball at half forward. He looks into the middle of the ground and dribbles the ball off his foot. Bernie Vince slips over and Nathan Jones fumbles. North take it up the other end and goal. And later in the quarter, Max Gawn gives a stupid free kick away to Ben Brown and that results in a goal. These are our leaders and they're not up to scratch when it comes to crucial moments in the game. I'm expecting a lot more in the second half. (Yes, I am aware Lewis has the equal most touches on the ground)

No match up for Tarrant. Whereas, Daw can go into the ruck and up forward.

The MC have shown that they will very rarely bring someone in, only to drop them the following week. Maynard is the only example I can think of. I reckon Bugg will go if he doesn't lay tackles and kicks goals this week.

Terrible if true. But doubt the big Vic clubs would let it happen.

People seemed to have forgotten that until 4 or so years ago, Rance was a laughable turnover merchant too. The memory of your average football fan is pathetic. Needless to say, I concur on Weideman. We were spoilt by Jesse coming in and impacting the way he did. And many of us on Demonland said the same at the time. Sam clearly has elements of his game to improve upon (leading patterns, physical strength and endurance), but he's a reliable kick and a lovely mark. Give him some confidence and we could well see a very different player very quickly.

Good post. Completely agree on Petty. Reads the flight of the ball magnificently. Will be a dangerous intercept marker in time. Can't wait to see him in 12-18 months time. He, Oscar McDonald and Lever are going to be deadly. Tom McDonald simply had to be reinvented as a forward. And kudos to him, he was terrific last year - his goal kicking was incredible. Likewise, I haven't written off Weideman yet either, but I reckon he's at least 12 months away from really impacting games. In the meantime, Tom gives us a great option.