The Chazz

Just the same as a player's season isn't rated on his past 3 weeks. The simple story here is that Hogan has been shizen for the past 2 1/2 weeks (his last half last week was much better), but his season before that was very good. He has time to regain that AA form that he had in the first half of the year, but equally, he has as many games to remain shizen. It's up to him.

They are developing Baker. They are doing it the right way for a first year player. They are developing him in the reserves until such time as he demands to be picked on a regular basis. That's development. For me, I'm preferring a bloke that's played 300+ games and 4 premierships, at this stage of our (the Club's) development. Sure, he has lost a yard of pace, but I can tolerate that if he's adding value in other areas. When that consistently drops off, then we reassess where our development is at, and either move Jordan on and replace him with someone that's got a similar resume (but 2-3 years younger), or if have developed further as a club, THEN we can look at adding the finishing touches to a Baker, et al.

We can score better than anyone in the league, when we are playing teams that aren't strong and disciplined defensively. Unfortunately for the last 3 weeks, we haven't played such teams. What's even more frustrating is that it's not the most difficult of instruction for an opposition coach (push back to D50, block holes/space, and wait for the ball to come to you), hence why the likes of St Kilda were able to beat us. It's frustrating at the moment because we are giving them 2 loose players in our 50 to start the congestion. I haven't been to a game for a little while, so haven't seen how we set up. We could/could we possibly; - push the wings up (instead of the HFF) to come off HB/back of the square, and the HFF come off the wings. Push all forwards back to the goal square, and stay there until the clearance is won (one way or the other). Have the HFF start working toward our 40-50m range, so that if we win the centre clearance, they have a big space to lead in to, but if we lost the clearance, we've already got more even numbers in the middle. - push all forwards (except for one of TMc or Jesse) to start 50m out, creating a big space for our key forward to own. Neither of the above may work - I'm not an AFL coach! I do coach basketball though, and the best way to beat a strong defensive team is to maintain possession, and keep flicking the ball around the 3 point line, until one of the defenders loses their structure, then you attack hard. Maybe we need to slow down, and play more possession footy around the 50-70m range, go from one side of the ground to the other. Will test our skill levels, but might just get the defenders moving out of position and creating space.

Looking at all that, I am now starting to think that minimal changes should be made this weekend. Every player is on notice, the media are showing our opponents how to beat us (if they haven't worked that out for themselves already). Some pretty proud players that have been heavily challenged, some for the second/third week in a row. On paper our team is quite solid, and should be a finals playing team. The time for individual players to prove that they want to do that in 2018 starts this Saturday. Line-in-the-sand type stuff for me, and I feel that Goodwin was implying the same after Sunday's game.

No idea if this is going to make sense in writing, but I will see how I go...!!! I'm not 100% buying this "wasting I50" talk. Obviously the greater number the better, as it means that we are playing the game in our half. That said, I think on Sunday we had the first 6 x I50s of the game, but we really only had 1 or 2 genuine scoring opportunities. With the way we play the centre bounce, ie. having the extra player/s running off half back, if we get the centre clearance, we generally get an I50. If the ball is driven in to, say, 40m out, but to a contest (which happens on many occasions to most teams), that counts as 1 x I50. If the ball is then punched out of the 50, and we crumb it and kick it in again, then there's 2 entries that aren't necessarily solid scoring opportunities. What we are finding is that opposition teams are pushing a lot of numbers in to our F50, really clogging up our space. While they (opposition) might clear it out, if they don't hit a target going out, then we're sending it straight back in again (another I50 stat), but kicking it straight in to the congestion. Probably the most simplest way, and possibly the best way, to try and explain what I'm meaning, is that it's like we are playing a game of school yard kick-to-kick. I don't necessarily think it's the players not lowering their eyes, it's just near impossible to hit a target in clear space that isn't choked up from the congestion. Where top sides, like Richmond, will kill us is that they have the ability to consistently hit targets coming out of D50, meaning our I50 count won't be as high. What we need to do is somehow generate/create more space for our forwards. I have no idea how we can do this - perhaps we need to start by looking how we set up at a centre bounce. If we have 2 of our HFFs coming off the half back line, it means that their direct opponents (ie the opposition HBF), will drop back in to our forward 50, which starts the congestion straight away. Apologies if this makes no sense!

"Former Western Bulldogs coach Terry Wallace believes Melbourne is beating themselves as much as anything at the moment." If there's anyone that would know anything about beating themselves, I'd imagine Wallace would be well up there...

Clearly had the two the wrong way around. Have edited above.

In; Stretch, Garlett, Frost, Hannan Out; Tyson, Petracca, Petty, Spargo

I imagine this is the typical response to the "can I take a photo of your guns?" request...

While Lewis and Vince may lack in some areas on field (ie pace), they make up for in their games experience. He spoke very well last night on 360, and Jack Reiwoldt explained that if you took the likes of Vince and Lewis off the field (ie put them in Casey), then the knowledge would be lost, and our younger players would have little direction. Was an interesting way of looking at it, but I'm sure would frustrate some on here.

The only "decent" team that Collingwood have beaten is us. They have also struggled to solidly defeat poor sides. With Treloar out for the rest of the year, it will be interesting to see how they go. The $7 on offer for them to miss the 8 (via Sportsbet) is certainly appealing.

A lot of teams above us, below us and around us will be sweating on results this year. It's the most even year I can remember, which is great for football, but not for the apple cart, especially as we're in the thick of it for a change. What I will say is that I am quite confident that we will win at least 5 games on the way home. If we win just the 5, then we, like a few other teams, will be relying on other results. If we can snag that 6th win somewhere, then I think we will be firmly placed in the 8. The run home is going to be very intriguing.

Still baffles me why Garland was on the bench at the end. He pretty much won the game for us when moved forward, yet in the dying stages of a tight game, and the ball heavily planted in our forward 50, where was he? Standing on the bloody bench!

No amount of emotions would get Carlton up for a victory at the moment. They are very, very poor, and I think it's bloody brilliant.

You just needed to look at the team we played last Friday to realise just how young our team is, especially the ones we are going to rely on to get us to a flag. In the hour or so leading in to the match, I was concerned about the age demographic, especially in the top 5-10 of both teams. We've nearly got the right mix, but I think we are still 12 months away from winning games like the Port one (and Geelong earlier this year).

As a preamble, I don't like umpires. That said, they really do have one of the worst jobs going around. The pace of the game is so fast these days - we all see how quick Clarry can shoot a handball out, the split second it takes Dusty to do the don't argue (which often get opposition players in the face), that split second it takes for Selwood to raise his arm to get an over-the-shoulder free. The thing that hasn't kept up with this pace increase is the eye sight, so it makes it bloody hard for umpires to keep up with the general play. When we sit at home, or even at the game, and have the luxury of many replays from many angles and speeds, we can often clearly see things, but the maggots don't get the luxury of this. The instruction at umpire school is that a decision should never be guessed. It's because of this point, which is fact, that frustrates the hell out of me. I'm all for giving them some leniency if they miss a free here and there, but when they have clearly guessed a decision, that's when they need to be held far more accountable that what they currently are. The Selwood ones are the greatest example - it's not hard to know, even at top pace, when he has initiated high contact through raising his arm in a tackle. You can clearly see it, but the umpires guess that the contact was high in the first place. For what it's worth, I felt that we had the best of the umpires on Friday night for the first three quarters. It's more disappointing that we didn't make the most of it, as it rarely happens.

That's my point. The Cats' next 7 games are; Dogs (ES), Sydney (SCG), Adel (AO), Melb (KP), Bris (KP), Richmond (MCG), Hawthorn (MCG). I think they are locks for the Dogs and Brisbane. The Adelaide game they'd be 80/20. Sydney and Richmond would be favourites in those games. If we could roll them, and Hawthorn and Adelaide manage to get up, they will start relying on results of other games to go their way. That said, they are Geelong, and the bastards seem to find a way to win a game they should lose. But my word would it be amusing if they missed!

We need Hawthorn to end GWS' season this weekend. Hawthorn have a far easier run home than most teams, and GWS have a tricky run. If Hawk win this game, it will leave 9 teams playing for 8 spots. If Essendon can defeat North, which I think they have the potential of doing, then that will help plant some doubt in North's mind. We need to give the Saints a touch up, just to get that bit of confidence up, so that we can hopefully keep that momentum up for the next few weeks (we really should be winning out next 5 of our next 6, and to be honest, I'm not waving the white flag for the Cats game - I think we have a very good chance of rolling them). Looking at the rest of the draw, I think most of the top 8 is locked in, just a matter of finalising the order. I do think the most vulnerable to drop out is North, and they will be replaced by Hawthorn. The interesting one for mine is Geelong. Their run over the next 6 games is quite challenging - I can easily see them going 3 wins, 3 losses. Depending on other results in that time, they could find themselves out of the 8 going in to Round 21 when they play Hawthorn at the MCG. Our (Melb vs Geel) game in Round 18 could be crucial for both teams. That said, Geelong have an "easier" last 3 games, finishing with Hawthorn (50/50), Freo and Gold Coast (both at KP). If we can manage to win 5 of the next 6, then pick up another game out of Geelong, West Coast, Sydney or GWS, I think we could hit September in good shape. After that, like the last couple of years, a lot will come down to where finals are being played.

I'd be sacked by now...

Like most defenders, Oscar's effectiveness relies a lot on the pressure from the midfield.

Wow, you're questioning the inclusion of Tyson. Who would've thunk it? I think it's quite clear that Harmes will replace Spargo, and Tyson will replace Harmes (who has been playing a lot of minutes in the guts).

When was the last time Rehn got something right? How he gets airtime on SEN is beyond me. That said, he's not on his own.

Source? I think I heard "Melbourne offers" not "Melbourne's offer".

Wow, so does that mean there will be a lot of players pushed out of PA given how much they spent on their new players (ie Watts, Rocky, Motlop), with a 4 year deal to Wines added to this?

One positive with him staying is that it adds an extra year or two of them being down the bottom. It's bloody magnificent.