Webber

First time we’ve had to play the crowd this year, and all that comes with it - umpiring, oppo getting hero cheers, no love from the crowd when you do good stuff. That’s when our slow starts are a problem - if you don’t shut ‘em up early, crowds like this are worth 1-2 goals a quarter. Unless our fitness late becomes a positive, it’s hard to imagine us winning. That they’re just cutting us up with short, fast possessions is also very worrying. High risk + crowd = high reward I guess.

Remember that too. Was sufficiently surprised to start hoping. The sustain factor has so often been the problem though.

Fascinating range of opinions. Two things of which I’m confident - humans crave certainty (and are seduced by those who peddle it - hence Trump), and humans also love simple answers, particularly to conundrums. Two things of which I’m even more confident - certainty ain’t so certain, and nothing’s ever so simple as it appears or we want it to be. There is however a simple answer to the Dees 8-0 start - it’s multifactorial!

Was just reading Titus O’Reily’s Round 8 wrap, and a poster in the comments was recalling North Melbourne’s start to 2016. They went 9-0, top of the ladder, but won only 3 more games to September, finished 8th and were eliminated straight up. Didn’t remember that, and now wish I hadn’t been reminded. Form and wins are fickle. How likely for the Dees?

Brilliant work again, Nasher. Do you think the difference in Geelong game, given the directional tap superiority you quote, was Max facing less competitive opposing ruckman?

Given your commitment Nasher, I’d hate to think it wasn’t useful. Beats going to church, either way. Top job!

All of that’s true binman, but (and it’s a great position to be in - seeking to improve an already winning formula) as Goody pointed out, getting smashed in the centre clearances is effectively a free hit to the opposition. Squaring it up would be an excellent outcome.

I saw that, and am still struggling to believe it. Worst bit of umpiring I’ve seen in living memory. I’d love to know what he was actually thinking....maybe he forget which team was going which way.

Tmac was NOT playing injured. He’s not saying it, the club’s not saying it, nobody is saying he was playing injured, nor would they have any reason to deny it if he was. At all. He was struggling for form, because form, particularly for forwards, is horribly fickle. It happens, as does the way so many on here jumped all over him for it.

Max’s taps have great variety, which is a quality, mostly. We’ve all seen him put it beautifully down Oliver or Trac’s throat, but those instances have become less frequent. He’ll mostly now go the big forward thump, the ‘behind his head’ or the backhand-outside, but rarely now bring the ball to the feet and protect it with his size - almost like that plan is for lesser ruckman. But I reckon this might be a way to stop the rot.....bring it to the feet, and have a Jordon (he’s staggeringly calm, nuggety and mature for his 8 games!) or Harmes (in Viney’s absence) effectively kill it (if they can’t get it off to Oliver/Petracca). Thus we force a ball-up in ‘stoppage mode’, which we are clearly much better at. I suspect also that’s why the damage seems less when Dogga is rucking. He offers a physical presence with elite second efforts, but without the tap expansiveness, maybe it’s better at killing the ‘space’ for oppo players to nab the breakaway.

That is definitely what’s happening. The problem for mine is that we should also have the defensive, or at least nullifying component at the centre clearance (Viney-esque). The Swan’s forward line isn’t great or particularly threatening at the moment, which other than our tight back six (I thought Petty did well under extreme Swans pressure) keeping them quiet, helped stop the clearance smashing we got from losing us the game.

The centre clearance issue has been evident all season thus far, but is noticeably worse without Jack Viney. As good as Trac and Oliver are otherwise as midfielders, I reckon they too often approach a centre clearance possession like it’s a chance to construct the next move ahead, after their own possession. Viney is more ‘see ball, get ball, and then I’ll decide’, or if the oppo player looks like he’ll get to it first, then get him. Against a team like the Swans, that approach can’t be overvalued. Tonight was staggering in revealing our almost total inability to stop them getting attacking thrust from the middle, and it has to be fixed.

My only problem with Caro is that she seems to have a bloodlust for clubs/players/stories that aren’t performing, on field and off, as if she’s seeking to accelerate or even revel in their demise. If fearlessness and accuracy are the pillars of journalism, then empathy should come next, if only to balance the bad news with some hope and relatability. As a person, she may have it in spades, as a journalist, I’m not sure we’ve ever seen it.

Reading the individual players report (Alan Richardson’s) from Casey, he says Sparrow was BOG by a big margin. Sparrow is a pure midfielder....size, grunt, good decisions, good disposal. What we obviously missed on Saturday, where Cunnington’s influence stood out like Kangaroos balls, was Jack Viney, the role player it seems just as obvious Sparrow is modelling himself on. Based on this, I’d be staggered if he doesn’t come in this week.

Plays div 4 EFL, so waaaay below AFL standard. The Coodabeens Champions interviewed his mum yesterday, real footy family.

Petty was emergency

Unfortunately, an MRI scan very very rarely comes back negative for an ACL rupture when the clinical tests show patent instability. They are almost flawlessly predictive when there’s a clear positive. Two tests - the “pivot shift” test, and the “Lachman’s” test. Look ‘em up on YouTube if you’re interested. S**t luck for the big boy, as it always is of course.

Depending on how many “get out of jail free” cards a team gets per season, we just burnt one. Shambolic first half, much better second half, except when they played the first half of the last quarter like they were protecting the lead - all of 12 points - which was always going to backfire. Thankfully Cunnington (he is and always has been a mighty footballer) kicked the goal to prove that was true, and we woke up ...... mostly. Just realised they couldn’t have played any of Harmes (the obvious one) Sparrow, Chandler etc as replacement for Viney, cos they played two days ago. Bad luck for Tommo, bittersweet to see such genuine emotions....there’s a lot of investment out there. BBB .....hmmmm.

One of the most frustrating things about being a Melbourne supporter is that we give the football watching world legitimate reasons to ridicule us. This is why. It’s not crazy to say we’re the only club who consistently offers up these opportunities. Unless we come out with something perhaps even more extraordinary, we ARE going to lose this game, and it COMPLETELY negates any argument that we are flag contenders. We simply can’t be.

If it is, it’ll be against a club with only 27 players available on their list, no wins, a percentage below 50%, and who are likely the worst team since Fitzroy before they were shifted. Make no mistake, it would be the most appalling loss we could possibly have.

This is why we can’t be trusted. Embarrassing lack of pretty much everything.

There was a point in 2019 when we held the AFL record for players (games experience) unavailable through injury. It was the main reason that year derailed, and why it’s taken til now, with players accumulating ‘games together’ to see our true potential.

It’s the least reported, or perhaps commented on fact in AFL footy. If we can keep banking wins whilst the list is so healthy, we’ll ideally cover the injuries that will inevitably (hopefully not) come. That, and for once we appear to have good depth on all lines. Having said all that, I seem to remember that for Richmond’s first flag of their run, they had only one player from their entire list unavailable.

If I went away in Oct ‘18, and came back to watch this season, then to be told that Kosi, LJ and Rivers had all played less than 20 games each, I’d be asking WTF?!!!

Loving all the love on here. Two things stood out for me last night beyond the 6-0 on-field goodness - the massive cheers for Chunk every time he touched it, or came on and off; and the sheer good-willed enthusiasm of the Dees supporters around me. No narkiness, no oppo-bashing, just delighted energy. More please!