The Chazz

At the start of the week I called for a straight swap of May for Frost. Now the teams are out, I can see some logic in playing the 3 tall backs. Firstly, if either Hawkins or Ratugolea get a hold of their opponent, it gives us a chance to change things around. Secondly, I fast forward to the return of Lever, and reality is, when he's back, we will play him, May and one other tall. So with that in mind, I wonder if Oscar will play on Rohan, then zone off and be the intercept like what Lever will be. I had zero confidence last week. The closer that game time gets this week, the more confident I am getting.

Thanks for the link. Only other name that would be considered a promising young key forward is McStay, but he's at Brisbane, not a Melbourne-Based club. Like you, it doesn't worry me. I can't see Weid going anywhere, and I can't see it costing us anywhere near that number to keep him.

Mods, how can this thread remain open? There is no indication that this "whisper" is about Weideman, and is only going to cause unnecessary arguments what the player is worth. It's also showed that people will take personal potshots at the kid. This thread will get out of control even more than what it is presently.

Parking can be tricky. Might be best to try and park in Fyans St somewhere (possibly around where The Good Guys is - there's a carpark there, as well as plenty of street parking), then walk to the ground from there. Any of the streets that run between Pakington Street and Latrobe Terrace will be hard to find a park. Pubs - don't go to the Barwon Club. My preference would be Lord of the Isles as it has a beer garden (I'd probably avoid that on a Geelong game day though), but also has a pokies area with a TAB machine. If you can put up with the pokies sounds (they don't faze me at all), there is a good little bar in there that would be fairly quiet. Other options would be Valley Inn (especially if you park in Fyans Street), or Sawyers Arms, which would be good if you parked in one of the streets that run between Pako and Latrobe Tce. You're welcome.

This game will be won, or lost, in the midfield. Geelong's backs are poor. Stewart is the only one that I rate to some capacity, but you beat him by isolating him deep. Weed and TMc should be too good for Taylor and Blicavs. Their forward line isn't much better. If we can stop Hawkins from dominating, then it puts pressure on their smaller forwards to play well. Their smaller forwards (ie Dahlhaus and Rohan) have proven throughout their careers that they are inconsistent. The concern will be that their midfield get on top and bring their forwards in to the game by providing them great service, which will then in turn starve our forwards of decent opportunities as we will be making our play from the half back line, which isn't great against Geelong. Never thought I'd say this, but I am going to miss AVB this week.

Doubt they'd be playing both Ablett and Danger in the forward line at the same time. Danger might be down there, but he's probably following the ball from the midfield rather than starting forward next to GAJ.

Something that some of the kids we brought in were incapable of doing on Saturday too. Interestingly, you're keen to hang Jones for dropping a mark. He took 6 others for the day, kicked a goal with his 19 possessions in what we are calling a poor performance by our skipper. Compare that to two of our kids, Sparrow (14 possessions, 1 mark, 1 goal) and Wagner (14, 4 and none). Nah, let's keep blooding the youth at the expense of the Jones types. ?

You would imagine that he would be either Wagner, Sparrow or Hore that could make way, unless there's an unknown injury to someone else.

There is absolutely no reason why we shouldn't be thinking about winning a premiership this year. It's absolutely possible that we can do it, and I would expect Jones to be part of the group that collect their medals on the day. If he isn't, then I want it to be because someone has banged the door down at Casey, created their opportunity, then run with it all the way until the end of September. 2020 is a different story, but I'm happy to trade in a player that can come straight in and impact until, again, a younger player bangs that door down again. The interesting tidbit is this week's inclusion of Lockhart. Is it at Jones' expense? Will it be due to injury or form? Time will tell.

Congrats, Jay, on living the dream of many, especially posters on here. The next question then falls to who he will be replacing.

Like who? We should be serious flag threat this year, and players like Jones generally perform consistently well. Yes they have their "off" moments/games, but they are generally reliable. Trying to blood a kid will see far greater inconsistencies, and will impact our ability to win a premiership this year. The more simpler way of saying it - we have a greater chance of winning a flag this year with Jones in our side, as opposed to the kid that you are wanting to replace him with, unless that kid is banging the door down at Casey, which at this stage isn't happening.

The thing about any potential changes this week will really depend a lot on our opponent. Geelong are quite tall and mobile (not necessarily quick) all around the ground; Forwards; Hawkins, Rata-whatever (who relieves in the ruck) Mids; Their Kolo, Menegola Backs; Taylor, Blicavs, Henry Ruck; Stanley Their forwards v our backs; We won't be taking all three of May, Oscar and Frost in to this game. And given previous selections, I'm certain Frost will be the one that makes way. I actually prefer the Frost vs Rata matchup (as opposed to Oscar), but I just can't see Goody dropping Oscar. The biggest challenge will be keeping Ablett, Rohan and Dahlhaus (who traditionally plays well against us) under control. We do that, we go a long way to winning this game. We need big games from Jetta and Hibberd, as one of them will be on Rohan and the other Ablett. Their mids v our mids; Obviously we need to be better this week. There won't be any changes to our midfield (providing they are all fit). Their backs vs our forwards; TMc and Weed will attract Taylor and Blicavs, so I think this is where we can get them. I'd be starting Melksham on Stewart, and dragging him straight to the goal square at the start of every contest. He's our best one-on-one marker, and Stewart is poor under pressure. I'd play Fritsch on Henry and get him playing a high half forward role. With all that in mind, and the fact that our depth isn't great, I can see the one change of May for Frost. The only other option could be to bring Stretch in for Hore, then move Hunt back to negate Dahlhaus.

Is that because Kent would generally keep him company during rehab? My issue with Goodwin is that he continually picks his project players. Last year it was the likes of Maynard and Joel Smith getting picked, this year it already seems that it could be the likes of Hore and Wagner that will get games even though they perform quite poorly. There are absolutely times where we can carry a couple of those types of players, so their individual performance goes unnoticed, but on the weekend, just like Round 1 last year vs Geelong, I just felt he (Goody) puts too much faith in to players that he has brought in to the club. I mentioned it on Thursday night when the teams were released that our 19-22 players were poor, and when Lewis was a late out, it meant we were carrying 4 or 5 players that I don't think really justified a senior selection. Add to that the likes of Jones, Viney and Melksham being underdone, it had all the ingredients for a disaster, which is what duly eventuated. I do acknowledge that the cupboard would've been quite bare when names of available players were thrown around during Match Committee meeting.

I'll go one step further, if you think this side is 2 players off full strength, then I don't think we have any chance of winning the premiership this year.

Really? Go your hardest. To save you a bit of time, the bench for the Round 23 game 3 years ago was Salem, Stretch, Harmes and Matt Jones. That was a team that lost by 100+ points. I would take that bench (even at that stage of their careers) any day over the one we have named for tomorrow.

One of the weakest 19-22 players I've seen selected in a Melbourne team for 3 years. For us to win easy, Port need to be terrible (possibly what the situation is). But I think more realistically, we should win by 2 goals, but I'm not as confident as I was.

Would love to know what the brief conversation was that he had with Harmes. Clearly a strong bond between the two.

"I can assure you..."? Source? You regularly make these calls that imply you know "stuff", when I'm certain you are making your own assumptions from what you read/hear in the media.

"Tay" always reminds me of the brother in 50 First Dates, the one on the 'roids.

I see this as him predicting that we wont change those things he has said. He's saying that if we do, we can win the flag, but he's predicting that we wont. Given our record over the past 3+ decades, I dont blame him for thinking that way. We dont know what success is, and we often think we've done enough before the real hard work starts.

Like what Hawthorn made sure of with Mitchell and Lewis? If it's in the club's best interest to win a premiership, they will make the appropriate decision. That said, I don't expect Jones to be going anywhere.

Let's not forget, we totally dominated them for the 1st quarter when they had their best players on. Did we take the foot off the pedal so that we didn't show all our secrets? Did we allow the scoreline to flatter Richmond? So many "what ifs" that really won't be answered until Round 1.

Geelong are almost certain to play finals, but it's false hope in my view. They have a serious home ground advantage, especially against to poorer interstate teams, so they chalk up around 7 wins just from that. They will then have away games against some of those poorer sides, so they are almost good for that 12 win season that generally sees you sneak in to 8th. As soon as they are playing on big grounds against better opposition, especially in September, they are useless. I'd prefer them not to make it at all, rather than be embarrassed in the first final.

Sounds like a bit of a [censored] to be honest. That said, I don't care what he is like offield, as long as he has the drive to get the best out of himself, that's all that matters.

I heard something along the lines of "Ready for Round 1, likely in the VFL". Round 1 of the AFL is earlier than Round 1 of the VFL, so if they are meaning Round 1 AFL, then there must be VFL practice games that they expect him to play in.