Adam The God

I think when you really know your brand and every player understands what is expected of them and what they have to do to complete their role for the team, weaknesses are a lot easier to counter and work on. If a player like Harmes can improved his DE (a statistic that I'm not fond of, but I think says something in the case of Harmes and Tyson), he becomes an invaluable contributor and another Jason Taylor genius pluck from nowhere. If we can get our 'system' up and running, I'll back Taylor's ability to give us 4 or 5 plug and plays almost every year. With the coaching team we currently have, I'm confident our guys are receiving the right advice to continually improve on their game. Just back on Harmes too. I suspect his ability to know his body is what's holding him back just at the minute. When he turned it over at one stage against Freo, that was after he'd covered a lot of ground running hard to get involved. Get his fitness right and an ability to know when to steady and ensure he hits his target (ie. experience), will make him a much, much better player. We will see and it's one of the reasons I'm finding the 2017 season so exciting. We're seeing incremental development across our entire list. So much so that when a player seems to be struggling, they stick out like a sore thumb (Tyson's DE% and Brayshaw's inability to find the footy).

I think we judge young players incredibly harshly these days. Especially, when you think of some of the greats of the game. Blokes like Judd and Ablett weren't tearing it up in their first seasons. It took them 5 and 6 years respectively before they reached even a good, consistent player status. KPPs take even longer, as we've seen on countless occasions and yet people get frustrated that these young guys aren't immediately delivering. Jesse Hogan is not the norm. Clayton Oliver is not the norm. I understand it's frustrating when you see Sam running around and struggling to impact on the game and I share your sentiments, but it doesn't necessarily mean he's due time down at Casey or that he'll never make it. He needs time at AFL level and a base level for Weed should be his Round 1 performance. As PD has said a few times, he averaged acceptable numbers alongside Hogan in the first two weeks. This is the base level that Sam must achieve each week, but we've seen how much a talent like Darcy Moore has struggled without the foil of Cloke beside him. The same could be said of Weideman minus Hogan over the past fortnight. Let's keep things in perspective here. And that goes for the knocks on Brayshaw as well.

Far be it for me to be an apologist, but the corkie was clearly hampering him, Red.

I'd rather a decent KPF than a small forward. Sorry.

For me, our ideal future midfield is Oliver, Salem, Petracca, with Brayshaw on a half back flank and rotating into the middle, as Petracca goes forward. That is some serious talent, good ball use and x-factor. They could be our Mitchell, Lewis and Hodge. If we can get another A grade mid from elsewhere that takes the pressure of these guys as they develop, we are going to have a seriously A grade midfield in 2-3 seasons.

It's also the system the Bulldogs use, who had McCartney for a couple of years, as we have had AND Roos, and then implemented it in Beveridge's first season. I don't have a problem with the system. The groundwork has been laid correctly, I just wonder whether the younger players should be exempt from this until they find their feet. I think you have to be a little flexible with younger players, particularly, as you imply, before the system becomes wildly known and believed in as a 'Melbourne thing'. I think a lot of our players are trying to find their role and tellingly struggling. They're interestingly all midfielders too: Viney, Tyson and Brayshaw.

I think the 'system' is you come in and play your role and the FD and the MC's expectation is even if it's not your preferred or even best position, while others are ahead of you, you play your role. It's a good idea, but I'm not sure we should be doing it with our younger blokes. I know they have to learn the system, but they also need to find their feet at AFL level. If you're not playing to their strengths, they may never find their feet.

So you're suggesting, LH, that Roosy would be playing Brayshaw in the middle right now and would have played him there more, had it not been for Goody? Seems logical I suppose. What doesn't seem logical is why Goody would continue with this, despite Brayshaw clearly struggling, unless it goes back to that 'system' discussion again? Maybe Goody doesn't rate Brayshaw as highly as Viney, Petracca or Jones, who have all had more midfield minutes than Brayshaw.

My favourite one of those break aways was the intercept from the Selwood turn over down at Geelong. He burst through the middle and kicked it straight down Spencer's throat, who later goaled. One of the most exciting passages of play that year. Got a Gus and Jetta high five after that game too as one of the 12 Melbourne supporters at the ground. I'm not actually sure how far behind Jones or Viney he is as a mid. Jones has been playing large portions at half back and racking up possessions there. Viney has been down on clearances. Depending on how he goes over the next few weeks, I'd get him back in and rotating between the middle and half back. Perhaps, even against Richmond.

If that's the case, and I don't disagree, why was Gus played on flanks and pockets under Roos? Was it a case of protecting him from the crash and bash of the midfield after his injury interrupted start to 2016? If not, Gus should have been playing more midfield minutes last year. I know he had more midfield minutes towards the end of 2016, but he was still playing the majority of his footy outside of the centre square. Goody has also opted to play him off a forward flank. I don't understand it. Get him in the guts if that's where we think he'll play his best footy. Otherwise, stick him on the back flank, like his first year.

Well, this potentially answers my assumption.

There's certainly a similarity in form that cannot be denied, but personally, I think both will be very good players. As you say though, the diabetes condition would worry me as a Saints fan. This comes from a bit of an ignorant place though. I'd just assume diabetes and elite sportsperson wouldn't mix, but I could be entirely wrong.

He's still playing too much hero footy for mine. He doesn't have the same sharp footy brain that tells him when to give off instinctively like Oliver does (players rarely do - Clarry is a special talent). Jack reminds me more of a young Jones. But we've gotta be better than that hero footy stuff - Moloney was another terrible proponent of it. I've noticed Jack get caught a lot with the ball this season (as was the case pre-2016). Whereas, I felt last year he was keeping things simpler. The other thing about Viney is he's seen as potentially damaging by opposition teams, so they're putting more work into him this year. I can't imagine there's an instruction for Viney to hold back from the contest and having a designated primary extractor seems to go against Goody's philosophy too, which is back in our guys. I'd say we'd be all for Viney seeing ball and getting ball, although there may well be an increased focus on defensive efforts either during the contest or once the stoppage is completed. It might be this process that is leaving Viney second-guessing? The dominance of Oliver and Jones this year is enough to put our midfield on top most weeks. If Viney can find some early 2016 form this year, we'd be pushing for the top 4. He averaged 26 disposals last year as a 21-22 year old. The difference between Oliver and Jones is that unlike Viney and Tyson, their disposal is fantastic. Jones continues to improve his disposal. His kicking on either side is terrific as of late. So there may well be an increased focus for Jack on purity of disposal too, which might lead him to second-guess his instincts. If Jack can continue to improve his disposal and keep it simple, much like his co-captain has learnt over the journey, he'll be a much better player for it. And if we have a midfield that rarely makes mistakes by hand or foot and is brilliant has gaining possession regularly, we'll be sitting pretty near the top of the ladder.

7th in the Coaches Association running too.

Please remove Sam Rowe from that list. Sincerely, A F.

Interesting post and I wonder if the one club that ironically would have picked Heeney at #1, was us. Given we did select him first from memory.

Yeah, probably dreaming. And now he's off the market. Ah well.

Haha, just announced on AFL360 that Shiel has recommitted to GWS for $750k. Robbo reckons he might be on a little more than that, but interesting. I'd say he could well have been on $500k at the last contract.

I understand they have a larger salary cap than the rest of the competition, but you can only pay so many blokes $500k+.

We had a potentially game-changing trade and draft period there (7 out of 8 are almost best 22), but the rest of the top 10 aren't too bad. - Marchbank looks like he'll be a good player. - If Moore was in our side he'd be a star. - Cockatoo looks decent. - Wright could be anything and is an exciting prospect. - And Pickett is looking okay at Carlton. - Lever is a gun. - Heeney is a gun and will be star. - Daniel was an important player in a premiership side. The list goes on. Pretty strong draft really. We did well with Petracca. Brayshaw hasn't developed as we would have liked, but I'm still confident he'll get there if he can stay on the park.

Yeah, I get that, DA, but until we're right in a premiership window and FA comes into it, we have to go for needs. We might get lucky and have another Lewis fall into our laps, but most of the time we need to target biggest needs first. For mine, we have more pressing needs than Jake Lever.

21 disposals is bloody good for a player who is effectively a second year player. Some comparisons: - Chris Judd achieved this in his third year. - Gary Ablett Jnr achieved below this for his first 5 seasons. - Josh P Kennedy achieved below this for his first 3 seasons. - Patrick Dangerfield achieved below this for his first 4 seasons. Not only is he finding the footy in the midfield, he's finding it up forward and being instrumental with his scoring involvements. This is inconsistent Christian Petracca. Cannot wait for consistent Christian Petracca. Will be a star of the competition.

He's not a starting mid. He's nowhere near as slick in the heat of the midfield. Turns it over and panics. Has a real swagger going now in the forwardline though.

We've pursued business very quietly over the last few years. Not all of it has come off, but we're very good at keeping our heads down, but putting feelers and deals out there. The upside to Melbourne is extraordinary and the media and the football world are starting to wake up to this. If we make the eight this year and even win a final, we'll be hot property for trade targets and Victorians looking to come home. We're not in the North basket - a list of pretenders that never had the list to take them all the way. Reminded me of Melbourne under Daniher.

This would be my biggest concern. Would Shiel be on $500k at GWS? They have a lot of talent to pay to keep them up in that hellhole. I just wonder if that would get it done. It may not. I might be dreaming, but doesn't mean I wouldn't try. And Toby Greene isn't a midfielder. He's a very, very good half forward. One of the best in the league for the last year, hence the AA wraps, but he isn't a mid.