Dr. Gonzo

By the late 80s I'd be surprised if any players outside the VFL were good enough to qualify! VFL was far and away the premier competition by the early 80s

It's great that these kids can just work on developing their games without being thrown to the wolves if senior footy before they're ready. Such a change from where we've been for a long time

He should take a look at Darren Bennett's technique - hold the ball down as close to his boot as possible in the run up to allow for as little deviation as possible when releasing the ball from hand to boot.

Wasn't it the Hawks who had the "GT" sign?

Yep I've found I get far better info/discussion/banter listening to some podcasts and watching replays of games I missed over the weekend instead of listening to the radio and watching the TV panel shows.

Especially everything the club has done to support him through his medical issues (particularly his thyroid problems). Now he finally starts putting some consistent footy together you'd hope he'll do the right thing by the club.

Whitfield would be worth targeting as well (no idea of his contract situation).

That was in 2000 but when he first came on the scene in 1990 his tackling was a key feature of his game.

If you take out the 3 losses against us our oppo are 2-4 then if you remove the games they've played against each other they're 0-2. Hardly a large enough sample size to draw anything from.

"Nibbler's dribbler" was a great way to get things started a minute into the game.

Weed doesn't get in at the moment. Brown in for TMac, Weid will only get a look in if Jackson or Fritsch have form/injury problems.

Kozzie ??? This kid is a gem, equal parts Davey, Cyril and, when he finally lands a screamer, Farmer. Dermie was right about one thing he also has a bit if Michael Long about him the way he runs through the middle and tackles.

Agreed although I actually think we settled our defensive structure about 15-20 minutes into the 1st quarter. We left about 5 goals on the table again by my count, really need to start nailing those chances (Oliver x2, Gawn x2, Spargo) but we are performing far better from a structural standpoint than any time in recent memory. Will be very interested to see how we perform over the next 3 weeks, will be telling as far as as our aspirations this season go. Won't it be great to see Jones notch his 300th on Anzac eve, fingers crossed he gets through the next two games unscathed.

https://imgur.com/ObTz8eg

You have to snuff these types of games out early. The longer it goes with GWS in the game the more confident they'll get of notching their first win for the season. If we are fair dinkum this should be a clinical win by 8+ goals with us putting the sword to them by midway through the 2nd quarter.

He either needs to start slotting the goals or looking to pass to a player in a better position. Letting teams off the hook with behinds will come back to hurt us against good sides.

The longer the weeks gone the less confident I've become. Will this be a new Melbourne or will we revert to type and lose the game we should win? Very interested to see how we follow up last week's game (which suddenly doesn't look as impressive as it did a week ago).

Saints were playing bruise free footy, 1 tackle in the first 20 minutes of the game, 1 tackle in the first 10 or 15 minutes of the 2nd q. Essendons kids were able to run rings around them, was like a training drill. Something not right down at Moorabbin..

The footy has been great this year. Kudos to the rules committee and the coaches for getting back to what we love about the game. Long may it last.

Wasn't just the Saints

There is only one Melbourne

Isn't he set to play a VFL praccy game next week?

I'm glad we have the Sun's and I'm glad North are still in Melbourne. Anyone wishing death or relocation on other teams should have a good hard look at themselves. What happened to Fitzroy (and almost us and Hawthorn) should never happen again. Remember North and Fitzroy wanted to merge but were blocked by the AFL and the other clubs.

Depends how they're used. Have a look at the great post earlier in the thread by I think @Axis of Bob a great example of how we might now be utilising Max's hitout dominance to our advantage to put the ball away from their +1 around the stoppage and maximising our midfielders strength to win contested possessions. This allows us an extra behind the ball in case we lose the stoppage or to have one on ones in our forward line if we win.

Unless you have someone like Max who utilises his strength to mark around the ground both intercept marks deep in defense and for get out kicks aroubd the centre. One stat I found fascinating was that Nic Nat averaged less than a mark a game in 2020 (0.8 compared to Gawn 4.5), I don't know why more rucks don't model themselves on what Maxy does.