Adam The God

Because Frost can apply pressure in our high forward press and then has the legspeed to get out the back as he showed a couple of times on Sunday night. I like Pedersen. For me he's a better option than Dawes in this team, but he doesn't have the legspeed for the game we're playing. I don't find that Supercoach is effective at all in measuring a player's worth, but each to their own. Given our depth, I'd be swapping Petracca for Pedersen, who will play just as tall as Pedersen, but will get it done when the ball hits the ground.

I reckon teams are waiting for him to come OOC, so they can pick him up for free on a small contract of their choosing.

Oliver for Brayshaw. Petracca for Pedersen. Another tough one this week.

Interesting. Missed tonight's episode. I usually watch Monday nights. I wonder if they got some heat on social media...

I think the issue for the last season and a bit is that they didn't believe in themselves. I think they've believed in Roos since he walked through the door.

What the uncontested possession differential said to me was that we were working harder to get into space, getting lots of it by ourselves, but then wasting our opportunities with overuse and poor disposal. This is why we were 7-0 in centre clearances in the first quarter and were smashing them in uncontested and contested possessions, yet were only a couple of goals up. As I think it was Vince who said post-game, we played 'okay'. The effort was there for the majority of the match, but we still had lapses in concentrate and threw away a number of good opportunities to score. Not to mention handing momentum to the opposition a number of times from silly, unneeded turn overs. In modern footy, momentum is such an important thing to have. You want to ride it for as long as you can. Having said all that, I really enjoyed watching us play. It's so frustrating at times and in the heat of the moment I lose my temper, but when I step back from it all, I love that we're now prepared to take risks and when we do, 7/10 we're scoring and scoring well. With this, we now know that we have to suffer the consequences of a few goals going the other way, as we play this bold, attacking brand. And that's exactly the attitude Geelong had. Our ball movement at times is certainly reminiscent of Geelong circa 2007-2011, but our brainfades across half back in particular, are positively un-Geelong. We need to eradicate these from our game either by getting better ball users back there or learning the best time to pull the trigger and which risk is ultimately the one worth taking to open the game up. I don't think we've found this balance yet, but it's early days. And it sounds like you wouldn't be able to sit next to me. I'm loud, obnoxious and almost every week royally [censored] off and taunt opposition supporters. I too sit in the MCC (and yes, I am a paid up MFC member), so it's not just Richmond supporters.

I really don't want to get into an argument about this, because I know we disagree politically, but... let me say this. Goodes was certainly capable of doggery on the field. I didn't particularly like him as a player, but acknowledged his footballing brilliance. However... the 'person x is divisive' line is usually code for 'this challenges my status as the majority'. The booing of Adam Goodes had something else at play here and I know from having read your previous posts for the last 7 or 8 years that you're aware of this. I hope I'm not jumping down the rabbit-hole here...

I'd hope that Melksham will allow Salem to play on a wing, so then what you're doing is putting pressure on the mids and half forwards to keep their form up. Whilst I've never rated him, if Goodwin and McCartney can turn Melksham around, he is definitely a goal kicker, no matter where he plays. More goal-scoring power once again. I've gotta be honest and paraphrase that oft re-quoted Mark Neeldism and say I really didn't see our turn in form coming. We haven't beaten really strong teams yet, but I now believe we can. The leap in just four weeks from a psychological perspective is almost staggering. It's a credit to the players and to the FD. Not only should we beat St Kilda, I think we will beat St Kilda. Exciting times.

Watching Casey the other night, it was like watching Grimes at AFL level. His disposal is just not good enough to play our new game plan or the older defensive style either.

I see JKH as a winger, but as you rightly point out, he lacks speed. He's not an elite kick, he's not a ball winner at this stage, or really tough at the contest, so I'm trying to figure out what he brings to the team.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone took a punt on Garland. It'd be a small contract and it'd only be a one year deal by that stage. Thanks for that info, mate. It'd be very interesting to hear what Goodwin thinks of JKH. It'll only take a year to find out. I've never minded Spencer. I seem to be one of the only ones around here. He hasn't got the same talent as Max, but he's not a horrible back up, IMO. I would be looking for other ruck options though. Gawn and Spencer aren't going to be enough going forward. We need a third for depth and to push the others.

This will be Grimes' last season at Melbourne, IMO. He might play at another club next year. I had thought we might rookie him, but with the emergence of Hunt and Wagner, I reckon we need to give Taylor more spots on the list to find some more prospects to keep building depth back there. We have to become ruthless. We thank Grimes for his terrific service, mostly off field, but we move on. With Grimes to go, this list offers the next five (possibly six) delistings/trades. * Terlich - will be the first to go. * Newton - hasn't worked, despite an ability to hit the scoreboard. To my eye he's not great defensively and he doesn't stay in the game long enough. Is that inexperience at AFL level or is he just not good enough? I'm inclined to think the latter. * JKH - I saw JKH at Casey the other night standing around watching. Have I missed something here? Is he injured? He's a pretty neat kick, but as others have stated I question whether he has the tools or the weapons to make it at this level. So probably another one to go. * Garland - I wonder if they'll look for a trade for Col? I think Omac has taken his spot, but they might hold onto him for a little while as depth. Unfortunately, he doesn't play the new 'Melbourne way'. * Michie - I watched him at Casey the other night. A hard worker. A good trier, but once again, I don't think he has a weapon to be a genuine AFL mid. * Dawes - the second half of 2016 will tell the story. He may become the seventh to go. If he does go down again that will be it for him. If he makes it back, it'll be interesting to see how he adjusts to the new 'Melbourne way'. Right now, I'd have Frost ahead of him. I'd probably have Pedo ahead of him too, who certainly hits the scoreboard more than Dawes.

It's an opinion, mate. No need to be a smartarse. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see where it's coming from.

I've seen him attack the contest and man hard. When he first came in there are a number contests that I watched and thought 'fantastic, we've drafted a guy that's hard at it and a beautiful kick' (a marked difference from our drafting at the time). What I don't think he's quite good at yet is body work and body positioning. He gets caught out a lot here. Obviously, there's a big difference between body work in the midfield and body work one-on-one inside defensive 50. He's learning on the job here and he's 26 games into his career. Still very early. I think he needs to keep his feet more often and I think ultimately he'll move into the midfield when we have a Melksham or a better kick across half back (not just he and Vince).

Interesting. So Hogan has 8 kgs on Rance. I think most of Rance's power is across the chest, so he has small legs, which means his centre of gravity is in danger when a guy like Viney gets a hold of him.

I'm most excited by our midfield and big Max, but we certainly have goal-scoring power all of a sudden. I reckon the impending debut of Petracca is keeping everyone in the forwardline really hungry. No one wants to lose their spot. The importance of Tyson finding his 2014 form cannot be underestimated. That means a bloke who wins his fair share of clearances and hits the scoreboard. Add him to Vince, Gawn and Jones and we have some mids that lessen the pressure on our forwards to kick a winning score. Now we just need Jones to lift a fraction and return to his goal-kicking ways and we'll be seriously tough to beat. I hope when one or two of these other guys have down days, others pick up the slack. We have kicked 56 goals for the last three weeks. Hogan has kicked 5 of these. Imagine the scores we'll be kicking when he does start to find some goal scoring form.

Lol. Jack's too focused for that. The few times I have seen him in person, he just seems to be a total professional and I imagine him living and breathing football 24/7. I thought the commentary watching the replay was pathetic on this. They said something like they feel sorry for Rance for being bombarded for so many years. [censored] off. That shouldn't condone his cowardly act.

I reckon beating the Hawks in one of those games will go towards making up for that Essendon loss. Beating St Kilda is what we should go and do, which is precisely what we should have done to Essendon. But more than anything else, I want to see some consistently from us. We've strung three weeks in a row together now. May it continue.

I just watched the replay online. There was very little of value in the commentary, but they sounded reasonably balanced to me.

We didn't turn up. If we played them next week we'd beat them easily.

Gee, Howe is a lazy footballer. That wouldn't be tolerated at Melbourne anymore. His effort and follow up on Gwilt then was pathetic.

That's the endeavour I can't fault. His pressure around the ball is terrific. His deficiencies appear when he has ball in hand.

I still think we'll win between 10-12 games. We will win games we expect us not to and lose games we expect us to win. But 12 games may get us there in such an even season. It's pretty early for this conversation though. In two to three weeks I'd be happy to have it again. If we have two from two, I might start to believe it's possible. The top eight will consist (in no particular order) of: Hawthorn, Sydney, Geelong, Bulldogs, Kangaroos and Adelaide on current form. I'm not a big wrap for West Coast and I think they could crumble as the season progresses, but I think they probably have too much quality to miss out altogether. Gold Coast and GWS are the other two you'd expect to make it, so they're really our major competition for that last spot. The next two rounds will really tell us something. If we can knock off St Kilda (who we should beat) and then go up to QLD and beat the GCS, I think we're a chance, because it's about who we take games off too. That's one less win that GCS have on us. The next fortnight will be fascinating.

I can never question his endeavour or his attack on the ball, but he's such an untidy player. He drops marks he should take when the pressure's on and misses team mates too often. He's good depth though.

It just shows you what sort of trouble their list is in. Absolutely no depth whatsoever. They have to make a call on Hardwick this season. I'd be saying thanks very much, but we need to get a new bloke in because we want to play 2017 footy next year. They almost seem gun-shy towards sacking a coach due to their history, but ultimately I think they have to make the call.