Adam The God

First goalless first quarter since 2008 by the way. Just yuck.

Trac, Lever and Lingers were great and May solid. ANB and Rivers probably worth mentioning too. Rivers' kick to Max for his goal at the end was brilliant play. Thought it was really impressive how we ran out the game. Carlton basically stopped after getting the first of the last, but even in the third quarter, Carlton were running out of legs. A big tick to our fitness team. When there are close games there is a tendency for us to point to lots of little 'what if' moments, and they tend to be moments towards the end of a game. The Kemp free kick that cost us a goal near the death for example, Kozzy's flying shot at a point shortly afterwards etc. But we had plenty of chances to win it, whereas they seemed to take all of their chances early, kicking them from everywhere. While we had Fritta's easy miss for him, Petty's easy miss and so on. Carlton probably deserved to win given our shocking start, but we should and could have snatched it multiple times. I think when we're on, we're the best team in the competition, but I must say we've had phases in three games this year in 9, where we've been dreadful. Fortunately, it was only for a quarter tonight, but a half against Sydney and the entire game against Brisbane. I know we've had a difficult fixture and this is the life of the modern game. You've got lots of 5 day turnarounds and you have to deal with them. I don't think the 5 day turnaround was a factor tonight. I think we were beaten in the contest early and we failed to adjust perhaps when the rain hit early. I would have liked to see us play more tempo and chip the ball around when they were dominating us early, but I can understand why we strategically went long with the wet weather. Just get it forward and maintain territory. The problem was many of these entries for probably 2.5 quarters were long and high, and to the advantage of the Carlton defender. Tommy Sparrow's inside 50s were constantly picked off. I don't want to bag our fantastic captain, but I thought his tap work was a liability at times. I know it's raining and Pinonett is holding you the entire time, but how often did he tap straight to Carlton's +1 at stoppage? I know ruckmen must make split second decisions about where they're going to hit, but too often Max doesn't seem on the same wave length as the other mids. Is it just me? I just hope this game doesn't cost us a top 4 spot, because that's my feeling at the moment.

I thought we were very ordinary at centre stoppage tonight, but our whole stoppage game against Richmond was passable. We lost stoppage tonight by -2. The biggest problem tonight was when we lost stoppage, what we allowed their mids to do. The lack of post clearance pressure a few times was very noticeable. For example, the first centre clearance of the last quarter that led to a goal, we allowed Cripps to win it out the front of the stoppage, then Clarry and others failed to track Cripps to CHF, where he won the next ground ball, and kicked inside 50. Now, our defenders should have killed that next ball out, but the damage was down from the poor concession of clearance. I don't think we allowed Richmond a single out the front of stoppage clearance. And I don't recall being smug, but okay.

That so called free kick against Roo on Kemp that ended up being a Melbourne goal with 5 mins to go...

Finally catching up on the podders now. Just a note for the boss, ground ball gets are really not a good indicator for us in 2024. I'd explain it as potentially resulting in the deeper lying defensive set up and less of an emphasis on winning clearance.

Last year...

Any reason this player isn't mentioned specifically? Very intriguing.

I agree with this, but they don't seem to have a great focus on developing defensive depth like we do. We've been actively developing replacements for Lever/May (in Adams and Turner), and have Petty who can swing backwards or forwards too. They seem all in on their forward half, which is mostly a result of them nailing the Curnow and McKay picks in that same draft. They have been unlucky with Jones, who has become a very good intercept marker. Put him next to Weitering, McGovern and even Marchbank and Kemp, and that's a good defensive line. So losing him back to the Dogs has hurt them, but they haven't really replaced him. Docherty's injury has hurt their half back drive too. Outside of Weitering in their current set up, all their defenders look vulnerable 1v1, and part of that is probably a lack of pressure from the rest of the team. When Carlton were on the up from the midway point of last year (after some Carlton fans wanted to sacked Voss), it was their all team defence that had clicked. They've lost that again, which suggests either they're not fit enough or it was a flash in the pan tactically, or both. I still think Voss has a Rolls Royce that he is driving like my Hyundai Tucson.

The most startling stat in that lot is Essendon...😳 And what a pity they aren't bottom 3.

I think the answer to 1 is also the answer to 2. I hope we use the chip around half back to control tempo, frustrate Carlton, and keep McKay and Curnow out of the game. We save some gas during this for the first half, and make sure we take our chances in the forward half, and then use bolder ball movement in the second half when the game opens up a bit. Going on the Adelaide experience, we may not even open things up in the second half, but I think we'll want to isolate Weitering and either Petty or Fritta get that job. We need more from Disco this week too. If Petty plays high half forward like the other night, the old CHF spot, ideally he drags Weitering with him, but I think it's more likely then Fritta or Turner vs Weitering inside 50. Carlton played the chip game from half back against us last year in the later game in the H&A, and they worked their way through our zone that way too. But, 1) our zone was nowhere near as deep and 2) Kozzy didn't play. Newman's ball movement is a key for them. I'm not sure how far away Saad is, but he's obviously another key. I think Carlton will probably edge us for stoppages, but it's about the quality of those possessions and a big part of this is how good our post clearance pressure is. In his post game interview, May made specific mention of how good our mid post pressure was. We need this again, because they often match it with us or beat us in the middle and they're probably the only team that can really match our mids on talent and depth. Carlton are great out of stoppage, and we're great at defending scores from stoppage, so again, a bit like last week, can our strength beat theirs?

I think without Salem in the team, we won't pull the trigger on a move like this, but I've been wrong before. The player needs to be good above their head and being able to float across in front of packs and intercept. Ideally they're explosive like Rivers, he's really a great player for that spot, but someone like Gus played it, and he wasn't explosive, neither is Salem. What's interesting is we did push Rivers into the midfield in the final quarter against Brisbane after losing Salem (and already being down Bowey), so it's possible, it'd definitely be a very bold move.

I don't disagree, good thoughts, but it would be one out of the box for us to take Rivers out of that +1 role at half back and put him in the midfield. We don't often make big structural changes in season unless there is injury. Who would you play as the quarterback that has licence to +1 and start our corridor offence, which is usually where Rivers goes?

It's also noticeable that the Cats played very tightly along the boundary a number of times, probanly bevause we denied them central areas often. If Rivers goes too corridor, it allows Geelong the space boundary side to potentially run and carry, and get a dangerous entry.

I don't think there's a poster who understands the game less than you, but you've always gone on feelings. If you don't have your culture war talking points you've got nothing.

Our ball movement was elite - so kicking. Our defensive structures were elite. The goalkicking was poor. Clarry had the equal most disposals on the ground, most pressure acts on the ground, along with 4 clearances. The two clearance leaders on the ground were Viney and Max, and we won stoppage. We dominated rebound 50s, a key stat for us this year. What on earth are you talking about?

But the idea that our defence occurs in a vacuum in the modern game is ridiculous. If the mids don't put on sufficient post pressure (watch the replay, we were superb all game), Geelong forwards would get it lace out and our defenders would have little chance.

I didn't hear any of that where we were in the MCC. We just had nuffy (mostly Melbourne) supporters who were getting up and down the whole time getting beers. They don't come up after a goal, they come back whenever they want. It's a joke. But in regards to boring football, we've basically adopted their game, but with more bang and crash, and with perhaps an even greater emphasis on defence.

Disagree about our attack. Particularly based off last night's game. People seem to only remember the finals series when we clicked. All the way through the H&A season we did what we needed to score wise, but weren't huge scorers. Our entires pretty much all night were superb. In the first half when the game had less fatigue in it, we shifted and moved rhe ball patiently inside 50 and really showed up their defence. Notwithstanding the mitigating factors of post finals exits, which has become a huge misnomer IMO - 2022 most of our guys were banged up, Trac played with a broken leg etc, 2022 we had a piecemeal forwardline due to constant injury, Petty, then Melksham, and missing Fritta for important games - we're not playing the same way at all as previous years. Not only do we play a much deeper zone, we've changed emphasis on clearance and ground ball, to rebound 50s and playing fast. And the way we played keepings off at half back last night for all of the first half until the game opened up with fatigue, is not even remotely Melbourne under Goodwin. We've been very much a long down the line team. We're not a finished product yet, but we're not even half way through the season yet. Having been at the game and then watching the replay when I got home, that is the best I've seen us move the ball. We're getting there, but it really is a significant change to the way we play the game.

Horrible analysis.

Yep, I admit I was wrong about TMac. Thought he was done, thought it was very hopeful we were trying him as a defender again, but I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about. He was been an undeniable revelation back there.

Bowser is good 1v1, particularly for his size, fast and our best kick. If he's fit, he's in. Woey was good, but suspect he drops back to the sub role.

The approach tonight that was noticeable was our keepings off game at half back. We only played it in the first half, but it was really good tempo footy, because it meant 1) they didn't have it and 2) we weren't dumping it long down the line to see it slingshot straight back at us. I was at the game, but hadn't clocked how often we used uncontested marks until getting home and watching the replay. What was interesting was hearing that we apparently have the most uncontested marks in the competition this season. Can anyone confirm this? I hadn't really noticed how heavily we were relying on this until watching the replay. We were also far more prepared to switch and go fast tonight than we have for the last few weeks.

Really great win. That last quarter was brilliant. I loved how we played keepings off in the first half. Which was quite old Geelong. Our patient entries inside were elite. I actually think Goodwin and co out coached Scott and co. They wanted to go fast and often we didn't let them, but if we did, our deep lying defence held them up. Playing the chip game, rather than kicking down the line, seemed to surprise Geelong and they failed to adjust. We should have been 3 or 4 goals ahead at 3/4 time, but fortunately managed to play a clutch 4th quarter. It'll be interesting to see if we change up the team at all against Carlton in 5 days time. I hope Bowser is back, meaning although he was good in defence again, Woey probably drops back to the sub role, and Laurie out altogether. In some ways it was a really good precursor to the Carlton game, because our defence has again held up against a potent team that moves the ball super quickly. Do we let Carlton play the game in their forward half and look to slingshot and/or do we play keepings off like we did tonight? I said we needed to go 2-1 or 3 zip between Richmond, Geelong and Carlton to solidify ourselves in the top 4. I think we're actually going to need to go 3 zip, so this Carlton game is huge. Win it, and this stretch will set up our season.

He is hitting the scoreboard, should have had 2 tonight, possibly 3, give the 3 points. He also beat (was it?) Cameron on the wing in a 1v1 at one point. A very good game again.

Apparently.