Adam The God

Disagree. He's still involved at ground level for the most part. But each to their own.

Nah, it's not hard to win a flag. Because Hawthorn, Richmond and Geelong managed three each, it's easy to win flags. The hot takes around here have been getting hotter. 👌

Agreed. I'm fine with the occasional hanger. As long as he stays in the contest afterwards/brings the ball to ground.

Were you happy 10 and zip last year? I bet you weren't. I bet you had a good old whinge. Our first 10 games last year were far superior to Collingwood's first 10 this year.

Showed really great leadership the other night, did our Trac. Was often pointing (not in a Brent Moloney sort of way though) and telling others when to slow the game down. Loved his game.

We were essentially playing 1v1 20m from stationary situations, and a zone behind that and then 1v1s. That's how you beat Collingwood. You take territory like we did against Carlton and do against most sides, and their only response is to try and slingshot out of there. We're very good at slowing sides down and making them go wide or short. Once they do that, if we play 1v1 20m from the stationary ball user, there's no way their short chipping and handball receive game gets very far. With the best contested player in the comp to come back into our midfield (Collingwood don't have a player in the top 10, we have 2), the evolution of our system is set up to beat Collingwood. If we bring close to our A game, I expect us to win comfortably.

De Goey clearly leaves the ground. He should get 3 minimum. What a [censored].

If we had the ball more often and held it up (played kick to kick), there'd be less need to pressure our opponent though, right?

Can I just say on our pressure rating for the last quarter, it's a little misleading, because we held onto the ball and killed the clock a lot. So there's no need for pressure when you've got the ball from a mark.

No, Smith will play a defensive role on Moore. Bookmark it.

And conversely, let's see how the Collywobbles deal with being the hunted for the next 11-12 weeks.

No wucks. Round 1 - conceded 50 against Bulldogs Round 2 - conceded 59 against Lions Round 3 - conceded 52 against Sydney Round 4 - conceded 38 against West Coast Round 5 - conceded 57 against Essendon Round 6 - conceded 61 against Richmond Round 7 - conceded 51 against North Round 8 - conceded 45 against Gold Coast Round 9 - conceded 41 against Hawthorn Round 10 - conceded 61 against Port Round 11 - conceded 52 against Freo Given how we play on turnover, being most dangerous on counter attack, I would disregard the West Coast result, which was a total shellacking. We really should have beaten Freo on those numbers.

Cripps used to be a much better player than his modern incarnation. I agree, HTF did he win a Brownlow last year? Well, we know it took at least a pretty incredible tribunal result to even allow that. But it's the fact that who's taking votes off him out of that midfield? He was at a point my favourite non Melbourne player, but I reckon he's been past his best for two years. That trajectory has not been helped by playing in a rubbish team with coaching.

Conversely, we only gave up 39 inside 50s. This is far lower than any result for Carlton this year. For context, Carlton had: * 59 last week against Sydney (Round 11) * 51 against Collingwood (Round 10) * 50 against Western Bulldogs (Round 9) * 47 against Brisbane (Round 8) * 56 against West Coast (Round 7) * 52 against St Kilda (Round 6) * 53 against Adelaide (Round 5) * 52 against North (Round 4) * 61 against GWS (Round 3) * 48 against Geelong (Round 2) * 45 against Richmond (Round 1)

That would be amazing. Because as structures change given where the ball is (teams may set up in a more attacking fashion for a stoppage clearance inside their own forward half or more defensively in the defensive 50), this would give us a lot better read on the game. Thanks for all your posts and hard work. 🙏

Dunno if you're an EPL fan, mate, but the trajectory of our season is very Man City 2022/2023. And I can see Collingwood's being Arsenal's 2022/2023 campaign. Arsenal leapt out of the blocks, but Man City's rule was stay close enough, make sure you're in the race still and pressure eventually built on Arsenal. The same will build on Collingwood as the season progresses. They are the hunted now and haven't won a flag with their group. We have. As you say, in it up to our necks.

I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no feel for the modern game. We won every stat. We won that comprehensively, just didn't nail our set shots, and yet were still never headed.

With an engine that picks and chooses when to go.

Nope. I'd be staggered if Smith doesn't play again next week. I think Petty moves back and BB forward post bye though.

I'm going to retract my previous comments about Carlton's list. Their elite, top end talent is excellent and they have a very good spine, but the talent drops away dramatically after this and it's exacerbated by a coach who has no feel for the modern game or a robust defensive system that is needed in 2023. And... I'm loving it.

Yeah, I know I'm in the minority, but I've been calling it each week and now my family have picked up on it as well, and felt tonight he really butchered it. But his marking and courage has always been really impressive. That was a hallmark of his game in our flag year IMV. And don't get me wrong. He's developing nicely and I think he's a beauty, I'd just like him to take the easier options by foot, not the Christian Salem options, because Salem can hit them. So can McVee. Rivers, not so much.

To be fair to Kozzy, he's often front and square, but he also tries to go for the spectacular at least once every game. I don't mind this, because I'd rather him flying for the ball, than allowing his opponent to intercept. When Kozzy flies for the ball, he can usually spring straight back up, ready to compete for the ground ball. Sure, he's out of the play for an initial crumb, but bringing the ball to ground is more vital IMO.

Good call. Maybe I judged his last few weeks too harshly. In other news, Grundy only played 67% ruck time. I presume that's in preparation for a big game KB or simply managing his loads. We looked better at stoppages with Max tonight IMO.

And how good is it to see May back on song? Al dente.

Very likely correct. I guess was thinking more what I'd do, rather than what will happen there.