Adam The God

Never rated Moloney, but some Melbourne fans loved him. Perhaps, it was because he 'looked' like a footballer, but played dumb footy. Incredibly overrated. He had one move. Get ball kick high and long (with no sense or direction). He also let his ego get the better of him and instead doing what was best for the club, he sooked it up.

In his first game against GWS in Round 1 last year, Oliver had 7 clearances and 22 disposals from 58% game time. How on earth could you have thought Oliver was anything like Toumpas after that debut? Sounds like MFCSS still pervades that mind of yours, mate.

I was saying last week, OD, that the sky wasn't falling and I was confident that we'd click at some stage this season and make the finals. I've also said since the Adelaide game that I still expect ups and downs this year. We'll win games we don't expect to win and lose games we expect to win. But I think overall, we've closed the gap between our best and worst (as evidenced by being level or in front in every last quarter this year) and we just need to learn how to win consistently. 2018 will be top 4 time. That should be our aim. I would be deeply disappointed and surprised if we didn't make the finals this year. But, I don't expect that to be the case. In terms of realism, I think I'm far more realistic. I acknowledge the lows and highs and expect more of that, but also note that our consistency within games has improved markedly this season. I wouldn't call being overly negative (which you do tend to be) realistic, because being negative on this season's output is not taking into account the entire picture.

It's not relevant that we were VFL standard during a lot of those attempts? Rubbish. You've had a bad week LT. Just settle down.

You won't know what to do if we make finals, OD. I guess you'll be negative when we don't win the flag.

I see where you're coming from, but top 4 teams find ways to win those close ones that we've let slip this year. Even with injuries. I think we're a top 8 team and will prove as much by the end of 2017.

How did you get this picture to 10kb? I couldn't figure it out, but then maybe I'm a little technologically challenged.

None of those years were decent years. In fact, they were all shockers.

I can't recall Wagner hitting a target again the other night. I really rate him. He gets to great spots, provides a really nice outlet and is good 1v1. But his kicking needs to improve. I think he's just struggling to get the pace of games at times. Hopefully that improves against the Roos. Wagner, Hunt, Frost and Hibberd. That is a seriously strong defensive unit that attacks and line breaks in a similar way to Adelaide's half backs. This is why Frost is such a rare beast and if he can get his contested marking under control, he could be anything. There aren't many KPDs with his toe (none in fact), which enables him to take on the game like Rance. But unlike Rance, he actually takes the opposition's most dangerous tall as well. Would you look at that? I just went on another Frost rant.

Completely agree, mate. It's a great sign. He's leading The Age Player of the Year I believe. 6 votes ahead of Sloane.

I wonder if we'll use the tagging option if Gawn is playing. I suspect we'll back our mids in. But for the moment, I love the idea of Vince tagging most weeks. I'd get him to play a slightly more offensive, but also defensive role on Higgins or Ziebell. And we were a lot tougher around the ball. Our manic tackling pressure meant that the Crows mids had no outlets and once you take away the Crows half backs (ie. their outlets), you completely restrict that fluid ball movement that we saw from them across the first 6 rounds. Laird got a lot of it, but so many of those disposals were rushed and hurried handballs and kicks. This had very little to do with the 'defensive unit' per say, and more to do with our mids completely dropping away in intensity and tackling pressure. It seems the 'defence' is usually blamed if scores are kicked against us and equally lauded if scores aren't kicked, but if ever there was an example of why football 'defence' is a team game, then it was last night's effort. Our mids rarely let them have clean disposal and shut down space, which meant they panicked with the ball and often we were able to cause a stoppage from there. The commentators noted our lack of tackling pressure early in the second quarter. What I found so impressive was our ability to wrestle back the momentum after we handed it to them in a 15 minute patch of lower intensity.

Watching the replay, I noted that Hibberd was actually on Betts a number of times or at the very least zoned off onto him and beat him. He too should be given a lot of credit for restricting Betts.

Just watching the replay again. Have a look at this for an aggressive stoppage set up that I noticed (sorry can't resize this anymore). Wagner is pushing up just outside the stoppage in front of Betts and Jetta provides cover behind him (Adelaide are attacking to the left of screen). As you can see, Adelaide have a number on the outside at the other side of the contest, but if they won the stoppage forward of the play, Jetta would provide cover for the kick over the top of the stoppage. Or if that outside Adelaide player won possession off the back of the stoppage, he'd have to use it really well, as a Melbourne midfielder charges at him to close down space. Pretty unlikely. What's more likely is if we lose the clearance, it would result in a dump kick inside 50, where we should be able to neutralise. This is worst case scenario for us as long as we don't make errors around the ball and stick our tackles. As it happens, Wagner and Betts got sucked into the contest and Jetta ended up getting it out the back and making a really good decision as he had time and options across half back on his side. This is just one example of many that show how well drilled and coached we are as a team nowadays. Everyone knows their role. The other thing about this aggressive stoppage set up is that it makes the opposition have to play around you so brilliantly, merely just to get an inside 50.

Yeah, one down moment in 2 hours of football. It didn't cost us. Thought he was AA-like (as usual).

And I counted two right foot kicks last night from Jack. It's interesting. We seemed to be emphasising using either foot a lot during the pre season and we used this to our advantage really well in the St Kilda game. Since then, we've gone away from it. Need to start being more unpredictable and it more importantly enables us to move the ball quicker.

Hannan might be unlucky. If Kent hadn't got some junk time goals, I would have proffered him, but Hannan needs to do a little more. So Hannan for Hogan, otherwise unchanged. Although, it might depend on how a few pull up too. I suspect that would have been a taxing game for a young side and we don't want them coming out flat next week. Billy Stretch come in if that's the case and maybe even Harmes.

Absolutely, OD. We have Gawn back next week and we win. Simple as that. But without him, we have to be switched on totally in the midfield, because it's all about sharking and ensuring the opposition mids don't have clean disposal out of the stoppages.

I still think this season will continue to see us win games we aren't expected to and lose games we expect to win. Similar to last season, although there's no doubt we've narrowed the gap between our best and worst, we're still too inconsistent. I still think we'll do enough to make finals, but it's going to be a close thing though.

Be interesting to hear if he's still as arrogant on AFL360 this week. When they'd lost two in a row he said something like (paraphrasing): 'well, we're still 5 wins and going pretty well pfffh'. They'll be out of the 8 next week. As will Geelong or Bulldogs (more likely Geelong though). Meanwhile, St Kilda will struggle to beat Sydney, although their pace may trouble the slower Swans midfield. The moral is, win next week and we'll be back in the 8.

The Sydney midfield is killing the Roos midfield despite Goldstein. Their contested work against the Roos is promising for us. Shows even with Goldstein, we can smack their midfield. Just need to keep Brown quiet. Frost to Brown for mine. Tommy Mac up forward alongside Hogan.

The questions of the co-captaincy have gone to ground for a bit. Funny that. Jack has been brilliant the last few weeks and serviceable in the first few weeks, despite struggling to get as much of the ball. His tackling and pressure work all season has been first class. Now he's got his offensive game back and it makes our midfield A grade when Oliver, Tyson and Jones are playing well, supported by Lewis and Salem.

Love Trac and think he will be a star, but Oliver is something else. A genius at 19 years of age. I love that we have both of them. I wish Brayshaw could get through games without concussing himself, because he, along with Salem, Viney and Tyson form a massively talented group of young mids.

Scoreboard pressure is what has killed us in a number of games this year. I'm glad it didn't last night. Makes the goals even better I reckon. Haha.

And one of those two goals was on Hibberd when he went to ground. One of the rare times Nev wasn't with him. I thought at the time, Nev wouldn't have lost his feet like that.

And he can run them off their feet with his aerobic capacity.