Viney Vidi Vici

Can't say anything for his impact, but heck Byron Pickett was entertaining.

I'm fascinated by the change of focus statistically. there's some good points from posters here differing to how extreme the change is, but it'll remain a watch for me. TBH at the end of the day I'm happy to see change, it hasn't worked for the previous couple of years winning a bunch of contested balls and just assuming we'll squeeze enough goals out of it. I currently have no idea which markers are our best markers to go by, and that's kinda fun.

I liked this game because it didn't hold to the standard narrative. It wasn't one of Port letting one go, or us dominating certain statistics. First quarter they were outspreading us, the defence was rattled, and than we went into siege mode and just inched our way out of trouble. My read was the coaching at 1/4 time was- Make it a contested game and take our opportunities. We knew they'd hit us fast, but we'd just absorb and make contests where possible and than take advantage of moments. 3 votes- coaching staff.

I just can’t work out his position

Reading the tea leaves, goody generally goes with next best ranked if it kind of fits the system. Fullarton has been emergency every week, reckon it’ll be petty back and fullarton forward. No great hand-wringing for me, Petty will still effect games then will head back forward in a couple of weeks, maybe it’ll time well with BBB needing a break.

all the Ins played their parts

Totally a hunch, but I felt last year his midfield minutes were held back because of his defensive positioning around stoppages, and too many of that type. Currently I do wonder if we feel fragile in that space without Gus, with Viney playing a more defensive role at stoppages this week. Kozzie is maturing and this with it, but I just have that feeling this is a limiter to extended minutes and not getting caught out by oppos working him out. short bursts to catch them off guard and whatnot. Tl;dr he's learning, and getting there after development last year. is a weapon.

Judd McVee. The name is top notch. The play is even better.

Yep noticed we were getting done by it toward the end of the first. Shut down the corridor early than the wide kicks started to get us. I actually we did seem to restructure in the second and third but that Sydney camerawork did me no favours for trying to keep track… i wonder what a more dominant CHF does for shutting down opposition options. I feel like the good ones influence those wing high kicks and they would influence decision making.

The year of the schache-attack. maybe. hopefully. please.

I was shocked by the odds yesterday?! They're missing Adams, Parker and Mills from the midfield and were still tipped against us strongly... Feels like everyone has bought into the "melbourne is a dumpster fire" narrative this summer. Time to prove it wrong i guess!

New rule- If you or your manager use the word 'homesick' at any point, you can be dealt to any club in that state.

My guess is our top 2 picks go to players closer to 'ready' than 'development', and then we pick a depth ruck and mid from delisted players/rookie, whatever mechanism fits. Maybe Sam Hayes, not sure about the mid delistings out there, but I'm sure someone's around who could have a crack.

I must have missed it when Schulz made the A-grade. Good player, but heck he's been built up this trade period.

good cheap move you'd think. I wonder if we're looking to bring in a more A/B grade talent this year or next based off this move. it'll be interesting to see.

Talked to him earlier this year, and back then there was a definite sense he was ready for the next stage of life. It's got to be hard to be not quite there continually. Thanks Luke

Especially first half I felt the fwds had no leading patterns. Can’t remember how many kicks were squeezed down the pocket because there wasn’t anything decent and Smith and JVR weren’t providing much presence. T-Mac has got to come in, and I think smith would have been the man out before melkshams knee. I liked turners game, so hope he sticks around, though hibberd would be an upgrade. Wait and see around Bowie obviously.

in: Oliver, Grundy out: Harmes, Petty. Petty is out for the season minimum. Gotta try this Grundy action, otherwise we'd be trying to get Mcdonald or BBB back in I'd imagine. I think Smith is offering exactly what the coaches want in the def, so I think they'll hold fat there. Another potential out is JJ, as his inside mid time will drop with Oliver back I'd imagine. I think they like him in there over other roles, so might be a watch.

lis franc/mid-foot's are horrible. They need to get the diagnosis right otherwise it can be years. I'm a year on from my own and just starting to jog last month.

think it's time to confess. Me too. He's telling my story, an early Saturday morning and the two-hour drive home got me, so I had to ride the last quarter over the radio wondering what I had done.

I would think his skills are replaceable really, but the 2024 depth would be of concern to the dees. If that happens we'd likely have to find another depth player. After JJ I'm not sure what our next inside mid would be, James Harmes and who? Dunstan won't get a run and the other starting miss in the Vfl are scorpions players. Interesting one. but long and short, go get a game bud.

a 10th team getting in based off one game doesn't add up. play-ins in the US have some merit at least as it's a multi-game series so there's some credibility to a series win. a once-off game just isn't representative. There's so many examples of lower teams having one-off decent games and getting a win this season, and then haven't looked like finals contenders otherwise.

I didn't have great views of the other end of the ground on Friday, and it seems a lot of Judd action happened down there! I pretty surprised when I saw his highlights package, firstly his positioning smarts on Charlie, and then his cleanness to take it first time and charge out of traffic was remarkable

Regular listener of AFL Daily, generally appreciate it for the fact that I know Damo generally is pretty close to the mark when he's reporting on afl admin and bigger stories. I did find it funny over summer when the show went down to the training of every team besides Dees, but that's an aside. What's got me this week is that historically he's made it very clear that he leaves 'football opinions' to those who know better, but this week he's gone incredibly hard on how Grundy 'will not be a forward'. Fascinating how he has the ability to surmise the dees tactics and training plans better than Goodwin, Yze, Richardson et al combined. I'm thinking we need to offer him a coaching contract as he's seemed to have worked it all out.

The one thing agreed upon in all the comments so far is that there's not much consensus on what we do next. Which is fair, I've changed my mind 12 times since Saturday night. To the comments on Rivers and bowie, I don't remember the mistakes, but I do remember the quality chains out of defence from them. Their chemistry together is really something I hadn't realized till seeing it live. We need run as we're not clunking the contest marks like we have previously, I'd be surprised to see them dropped. maybe another defender in can help free them up to be more attacking and get their creativity in the front half? I do feel that our forward line movement is marginally better with BBB in it, and I would have said Grundy is shocking for movement. But then, he was getting frustrated as when he did lead they were hesitating and then bombing it on his head. In the rub, he's a better footballer at this stage than JVR/Schache so maybe it's the delivery that there's tweaks? Kozi is my real worry with his lack of confidence. But midfield is where I really think we'll be exposed. Grundy to viney connection is obvious, but beyond sparrow and Jordon is no sure thing, leaving a lot of pressure on viney. I'm even wondering about Dunstan in for pure clearance work. So in saying all that.... I've got no idea and with absolutely no conviction on anything. Except I think I've convinced myself Dunstan should be in there.