Dr. Gonzo

Out Melksham, ANB In JVR, Harmes Hunt gets a reprieve, Chandler unlucky

My kingdom for a key forward. If only Weideman had have come on....

On the lead as well!

10 of our first 14 games were at the G. I don't think we can complain. Collingwood only played 5 of their first 10 there including having to play at home to West Coast at Docklands. You can't complain about "games against top 8" when the fixture came out no one knew Collingwood, Carlton, Freo would be top 8. Fact is we sold a home game which is the reason we didn't play at the G since the Lions game. If we had a run of games at the G now we would have had fewer games there earlier in the season. We wanted a season opener against the Dogs, we have Anzac eve and Queen's Bday, we play two of our last 3 at the G both home games against big Vic club's - I don't know what the complaint is here?

Why couldn't Jamarra kick like that against us??

Wrong thread

On one hand I'd love it. On the other hand it will never happen.

Mental fatigue due to not capitalising on our earlier dominance and hitting the scoreboard. It takes its toll when you've dominated a team but only lead by a few kicks and then they get belief, get on a roll (especially with crowd behind them) and it's hard to stifle that momentum. Scoreboard pressure is still the best form of pressure there is.

I don't get it - using those options forces the oppo defense to pay attention as well meaning they can't just double team Brown/Fritsch. Use those options and the forward line opens up.

May-Elliot Petty-Mihocek Lever-Johnson

May

Would rather JVR than Smith. Give the kid a go, he may surprise us.

Melksham was obviously playing a defensive role on Moore and it didn't work. Moore was far too big/good for him and when Melksham had a couple of opportunities he didn't make them pay. I'm coming round to one of Spargo or ANB having to go back to Casey. I love what they bring when they are on but if they're not defending/pressuring inside our forward 50 or hitting the scoreboard they're not offering enough. Kozzie can't be dropped because he is a potential matchwinner, ANB and Spargo are not.

It was a good game. I'm filthy. We should've belted them. Only a win against them in September will cleanse the palate.

Yep the only one I was filthy on was the Jordon one, no prior and ball spilled free. Cameron was paid a mark which looked like it hit the ground. The rest of the frees were there problem was we didn't get them paid our way 😡

Yes but our defense starts with forward 50 pressure which was missing. No pressure up the ground makes an impossible task for our defenders.

They have strength in numbers though, Richmond and Essendon are similar. They feed off each other and reinforce their own ignorance. And it ends up impacting the umpiring and the energy of their players. I wish we had that.

Last year we built our game on our defensive structure and forward half pressure. Where has the forward half pressure gone?

I was AFL members as well and it felt like it was me and about 10 other Melbourne supporters in a sea of scum and villainy. Which level were you guys sitting? Ground level felt like a sea of black and white It is demoralising as a supporter seeing us so heavily outnumbered at our own home ground I can't imagine how the players feel.

You are kidding yourself

Sparrow nailed one though

The reason is because we are not halving the contests in our forward line. We either get outmarked (Moore and Howe last night) or the ball cones to ground and the oppo small defenders are rebounding it out. Our plan is to create forward 50 stoppages and it's not happening. Quick transition from our forward line makes it harder to zone further upfield and our defenders get caught one-on-one and made accountable. Both our F50 entries and our small forwards/mids are letting us down.

Forward 50

And Pendlebury

What else is new? If people were scared off by the rain, it was perfect conditions, didn't rain once throughout the game.