DeeSpencer

Some poor skills at times but I didn’t see hospital disposals as a huge issue. It’s AFL footy, it won’t always be clean. We had moments of not ideal midfield transition. Which will happen with the new rules particularly, it’s certainly room for improvement. We didn’t strictly get beaten on the outside. We had 104 marks to 69. Some of that is our talls having an advantage but our mids and half forwards all had marks out in space. 10 Freo players had 2 marks or less, compared with 2 demons.

We’re we killed? A midfield of Fyfe, Mundy, Brayshaw, Cerra and Serong is going to have their moments in the sun. Apart from the first 5 minutes and then a flat patch in the 3rd we were very close to even. Freo fans right now would be saying ‘how did we let Oliver and Petracca get so much space running forward’

Because he played a Casey game on the wing and was bloody ordinary. You can’t convert a school footy athlete to an AFL player overnight just because you want to.

The thing that I don’t understand is if someone is there to tweet the quarter by quarter scores couldn’t they at least manage goal kickers and best players? Would take all of 30 seconds to get that information. Maybe they’re holding off for the worlds best match report.

Nev was solid defensively but I reckon I could’ve handled Liam Henry in a one on one. Henry’s out of position as a deep forward. The issue with Nev is he just provides nothing once we’ve won the ball back. Given our game plan requires switching, run and carry and changing angles to move the ball it’s a big liability to have a one way player. There were times our defenders ran in trouble where Nev could’ve been there for a handball or lateral kick. I don’t think they can give him Dan Butler either. Rivers with a chop out from Hunt probably has to take that assignment. Jetta was better than Hunt. But I think Hunt has upside if he can sort out his ground ball fumbles and more than that I just don’t think we can go with Hibbo and Nev in the same side.

For what? 2 goals 1, 2nd most score involvements, 6 marks, his pressure and contest work was all improved if not decent, nailed a couple of tackles. All against a very strong Freo backline. The breeze at the city end made set shots incredible difficult too. If Luke Ryan dominated the game like Lever and May did then you might have a case but that didn’t happen.

Kozzie’s best attributes are hunting in to congestion to tackle then bursting out of congestion. We need him at centre bounces and on ball, he’s not a wingman. A lot of teams don’t have 2 great wing options. A Harmes/ Brayshaw combination is probably about league average for the 2nd wing. That said I hope we’re on the look out for a mid season draft pick up (then draft, trade, rookie etc - let’s throw multiple assets at this role).

I really liked 2 parts of his game. 1. He pops in to dangerous areas of space especially in the corridor. I don’t know if it’s smarts, work rate or both but it’s good to see. 2. Whilst I hate the pre tackling that is allowed it seems Jordon’s very good at it, he’ll lock on to an opponent and make sure he gets them His kicking is interesting, nice low trajectory but it worries me he seems to hit a bunch of them thin. Hopefully he keeps working on it and becomes reliable or even better than that.

Probably give Yze more than 1 game. He rotated half the size through the centre square so clearly there's a plan for more variety and surely more team work. Apart from some better coaching I'd be writing to the AFL every week about the ridiculous amount of holding Oliver is subjected to. Let him gather the ball without someone grabbing him and he'll be in and out of the contest in a flash.

We have an incredible retention rate of members. We've played finals once in over a decade and still putting up consistent membership numbers. Peter Jackson's aim for the club was to be a bespoke club that got a whole lot better at footy but didn't try to be bigger than it was. Pert's plan so far is to try to mcfranchise it like he and Eddie did at Collingwood. It's disappointing to get such a low crowd but for many Melbourne supporters the MCG and the way they go to the MCG is a decades old tradition. It is after all our home ground and always has been, we aren't tenants.

Anyone know why Rivers played such low time on ground? Dodgy backline rotations? Or maybe the plan was to use him and Hunt in spurts more than the other backs?

We had 22 more disposals, 30 more kicks, won the inside 50's and the centre clearances were pretty even with only 1 terrible stuff up that led to that late 3rd quarter goal. We could easily revert to Petracca, Oliver and Harmes all getting 30 but instead Jordon, Sparrow, Pickett and ANB all have double digits and are far more engaged in the game. Obviously we didn't get great value from Max, and the midfield skills are still ordinary but overall the depth of mids all getting a share is a great improvement over just 4 guys getting silly numbers and a quarter of the team not touching it.

These are the 2 I think. A lot of Melbourne supporters are not like other club supporters. They don't just go to the footy for the footy. They go to the footy for the social aspect and they like to sit where they like to sit - be that reserve seat or MCC. The reserve seats clearly aren't the reserve seats. The MCC absolutely isn't anything like the MCC. It's not a total excuse, we should've got 30k. But we're a different type of fans to other clubs.

Wait and see on the marking. It hasn’t been great so far. I loved some of his tackling and the way he was full of running in the last. Plus the way he can land from marking and keep moving is off the charts. We need to kick it where he can run and jump across a pack more than sit it high like we do for Gawn.

Gus got better than longer it went but isn’t the answer. He’s such a poor pressure player in general. Harmes to the wing please. Try Jordon there if we can. He’s a willing tackler. Chandler’s small but fit, skilled and smart, let’s give him a go on the wing at Casey. Still got good hopes for Jackson if we get our big forwards firing.

Nibbler and Fritsch both hit targets inside 50, Jordon was solid too. The mids were the worst offenders as usual. Kossie does some brilliant work with the ball and messes up. I think he’ll settle in. Spargo has come so far from his early days and still stuffs up plenty. Composure at half forward is really really hard. The best patch of play was Nibbler holding the ball and waiting for the forwards to all move before picking out Jackson on a dynamite lead. It was the ‘connection’ that everyone has been wanting.

Who’s moving to half back in that scenario? Melksham?

I only knew Fyfe was playing when he was giving away free kicks (paid or not paid)

Doubt you can play Jetta and Hibberd in the same side. Even if they both have more ability than Hunt. Melksham and Viney - both needed in the 22 at their best, both ordinary if they aren’t on. Sparrow and Jones the most likely outs I guess? Harmes had some stinking moments but I feel like our midfield covers the ground far better with him in there. Also want to give Chandler a chance sooner rather than later. He has some class. Can we play him on the wing?

Why haven't they gone back to Preston if they aren't with the Blues? Scrap this Northern business. The new Tassie basketball side is the Jack Jumpers. No idea why they don't call them jumping jacks but they are a bit different down there.

I literally said he’s always been a good accurate penetrating kick. He used to do the same kicks - when given time and space - for us.

There’s people in this thread like me not being overly complimentary of Oscar. Maybe we’re bad people, but I feel like we’re being honest. So are those honestly wishing him luck. Those who are using this thread to bash Goodwin are dead set kidding themselves.

They'd often run a spare man off the square at stoppages but I can't ever recall Adelaide playing 7 defenders. Their midfield worked really hard back then. Sloane particularly was a demon and they had great forward pressure with Betts and Cameron. Lever took the 3rd tall which was often a ruckman or some other ordinary player and zoned off, but it wasn't 7 down back. They also let the half forward go up to stoppages which is what most teams did, because the Crows had Richie Douglas as their high half forward coming up to stoppages and he was elite in that role. The biggest adjustment for Lever when coming to us was whether we played him as the 2nd or 3rd tall we liked to press really high up the ground. We've changed since last year to keep our backline deeper which is more like the Crows would do. That keeps the game in front of Lever more and lets come forward to mark rather than having him press really high and play in front.

Physical pressure. Tacklers coming at you, no time and space. He rolled off the mark as is allowed these days with plenty of time and space. I wasn't referring to the mental pressure but it was also a bit of a free hit from that far out, and he might've just been going for the square anyway.

He got a downfield free kick, another free for not much in it, then a Carlton player kicked an up and under that landed in his hands. One nice tackle but M Pickett's a pretty ordinary player outside of grand finals and ran right in to him. He could always strike a good penetrating drop punt when not under pressure and that's what he did twice. Good on him for a couple of nice finishes but there's nothing to worry about yet in terms of letting a useful player go. I still don't understand why we kept Mitch Brown and didn't keep another tall with position flexibility but I'm not sure that would've been Oscar.