Mad_Melbourne

Has a very good game, but had a patch of football for 5-10, minutes that was absolutely dreadful

Spargo is absolutely stinking it up JKH isn’t up to AFL our players look rattled but slowly weathered the storm.

It’s fair, he hasn’t had the same output he had last year, but I think a lot of his work goes unnoticed. His work in the contest at ground level running through the contest is what he brings. He can compete in the air and often is able to get out the back. I have him ahead of Bugg, Kent, JKH and AVB (only based on needing time.) it’s a different role and I don’t think that Baker (only player really warranting a game) plays this type of footy

Honestly, how do you suppose he defends the space in front, without zoning in front of Hawkins? But doing that the ball would have been kicked to Hawkins just as easily. The next defensive alternative is to play back shoulder, but with the way the ball was moved to him, it wouldn’t have made a difference. Surely you can see that whilst understandably Oscar didn’t have his best outing, if the ball is kicked on a platter like it was that there is not much a defender can do? That said, the fact in that last quarter we kept players running through from the back of the contest as opposed to taking the defensive position and dropping into the space is what hurt. We did not have the ascendency that one would have expected trough the middle, and Geelong took full advantage of it in the last. Also Keilty ain’t up to it, will be delisted at season end. Unpopular position to take, seems a lovely kid, doesn’t have any stand out attributes that translate to AFL IMO

In: Hannan out: JKH. With all things considered the performance wasn’t bad, losing sucks though. No one really doing consistently well enough in the VFL to force any changes, but I think Vandenberg will come in 2 more weeks. I think Baker is close to a game but I also don’t really see him slotting into our midfield at the moment. Also, want to say it calls for Keilty are rubbish, his season this year has been nothing compared to last year, but I also think they’ve seen enough to suggest he probably isn’t up to AFL level and will be gone come years end.

He ain’t setting the world on fire, but id suggest 7 tackles would indicate he had roughly 15 or so pressure acts, meaning he’d have played his role quite well.

Respect should be given to umpires, especially at the junior levels. They are necessary for games to occur and give up their time on weekends for this to happen. Regardless of where the umpire comes from, there will consistently be calls that people see differently and assume are wrong, and thus no respect. It’s a horrible trend to let players off even for just tapping on the chest or the arm of an umprie, because it sends the wrong message. At junior/senior non professional levels, an umpire can send a player off if feeling intimidated or contact is made, if the afl allow players to touch the umpire it creates a clear issue if an umprie decides to send a player off. Granted haven’t seen the issues but touch an umpire and one week seems to make the most sense.

Dom is almost our best link up player, he runs the corridor lines really well, and is often in the right spot for that hit up kick. We do not really have another midfielder that plays this role quite as well as he does. Granted, he can hold the footy too long, in attempt to draw in players and give the ball off as opposed to the get rid of the ball and make it someone else’s problem, his disposal by foot misses sometimes also and it’s his mistakes rather than his good bits of play that he is judged by. He is not a bank 22 anymore, but he is still in there while playing the way he is, in my opinion.

Everybody hates Tyson, it’s the coolest. If hating Tyson is cool, consider me Myles Davis. This is my opinion on the hate Tyson receives on here. Plays a really good game, last week against St Kilda, it was his one or two mistakes he made that count. He had 2-3 shaky moments on the weekend, but all players do. But clearly not as poor player as people depict him as

Out: Spargo In: Viney makes the most sense in my opinion, limited pre season, looked a little off the pace despite his two goals. Didn’t play poorly, but no one did Moves Fritsch into his forward role again and we I’ll have Spargo and Gartlett fighting for spots.

In my opinion spread is not going to be helped by one outside midfielder, sure someone like Gaff who can run those outside lines is handy, but spread happens from good skill execution in space, off a turnover/intercept possession or as seen on some of our kick outs. Gone are the days of needing a genuine outside mid and it is more necessary to have players execute with the footy well when we are on the break. When we are able to hit targets, we move the ball as quick as any other team and it’s not footspeed that this movement is dependent on. This is not to say that an outside mid is not a weapon, but players with good decision in congestion become outside players as they are able to judge when team mates will win the footy and then spread. Our biggest issue is the over commitment to the contest, which we are finally starting to correct and has lead to better ball movement over the last couple of weeks. By moving the ball better, it will highlight our lack of need for a genuine outside mid as our game style is more relient on using our half backs as deliverers of the footy, and then having overlap from the mids. But don’t get me wrong, Gaff would be a handy addition and an upgrade on someone like Harmes, but I also think his lack of versatility would not be in his favour in our team.

His best attribute by far is the pace that he hits the contest at, he is incredibly strong through the legs and hips and charges into opposition bodies to apply pressure. This allows for the ball to be won by team mates at ground level or even himself and I would suggest a major contributing factor to locking the ball in and creating multiple opportunities in our forward half

I dont really understand this, whilst he does have his limitations as all players do, his ability to find the footy but also find space is pretty vital to our side. Not only this, but we do not really have any player waiting in the wings that can play this midfield role as well as he does. Trengove, Maynard and Brayshaw are the three who are possibly waitining in the wings and an inform Brayshaw would definitely apply the most pressure, but alas he is not there yet and has not put up consistent VFL numbers yet.

Four or 5 changes this week, will be interesting to see if Petracca can get up from his knock. Ins: Lewis, OMAC, Weideman, Bugg Outs: Smith, Spencer, JKH, Melksham/ANB I am in two minds about how we go about it, do we let bring in Weideman and Oscar and run with a Watts/Frost duo, almost the bulldogs mould last year, because at the end of the day the other option Pederson is also just someone who will be in their to compete more so than win. The more I think about it, the more i prefer this model, let Frost play #1 ruck, let Watts play #2 and forward more, push OMAC into the backline and Weideman can play key forward. JKH should be dropped, i was not a fan of him playing in the first place but obviously they see him being able to bring something that Kent or Hannan dont. (personally, i think JKH is a very limited player, not overly quick, disposes of the footy well but does not get it enough and is a good shot at goal but rarely is front and centre of the packs and is not a marking option) These changes would result in Lewis spending more time at half back and Bugg playing more as a wing/hf and Harmes playing that higher hf role. I think Neal Bullen has perfromed pretty solidly and same with Melksham, but both have consistently been in the 13-17 player bracket, in my opinion.

This seemed like it would be the most logical mode to add a string to his bow, an intercepting defender could suit him, but i fear that he couldn't play on the real zippy small forwards. But his ability to mark overhead and his courage would suit this role. That said, it is probably our most stacked position on the list along with inside midfielder so he definitely has stiff competition.

I understand fully that he is a developing player, but he consistently at both levels makes clearly poor decisions. It is his biggest weakness, but his natural ability to find the footy is a strength not many players have. I don't know why, but from all the good things I've seen from him on the weekend the thing I remembered the most was the horrible decision to float the footy 15m backwards as opposed to handballing it to running players. But yes, it is quite obvious to say that a developing player needs to fix something and it's probably easiest to point at decision making which should develop with time. He had running option on both sides which he should have given too, but I agree that we have used this option often, but the choice to float a kick instead of use a handball to this person was silly. I don't think there was any way he could execute that kick well, it would have consistently placed his team mate under pressure. I understand why we use that option but at the time I think it was the wrong one regardless of execution.

His absolutely horrible decision in the last quarter was a major momentum changer and contributing factor to the loss. He he needs to remove such errors from his game and he will be a first team player for the next 5-6 years.

Jake Lever is one of the few key position defenders it would make sense to chase as he is a 10+ year player and he will slot in ahead of OMac, but IMO we are not desperate for another key position defender and giving up two first rounders and taking ourselves out of the draft for 2 years is probably not worth it. 1st and secound round pick, this and next year is where i think the deal will sit with us, but Carlton with Bryce Gibbs and a first rounder seems like a more logical option.

Did anyone else notice the last quarter centre bounce where he shoved Bryce Gibbs over. Whilst Gibbs is not known as the strongest mid, a 2nd year player shoving a seasoned veteran clean over was a testament to his strength. The second thing i noticed was at one stage Charlie Curnow was running with him, I knew straight away Clarry was going to find the football, but I think it's a high amount of praise from Bolton when it was clearly for him to learn and our midfield included Jones, Viney, Tyson and Lewis

McDonald x 2 and Jetta saved us the game, very rarely beaten all day and were able to put themselves consistently in the right spots to prevent the opposition from scoring on our turnover. Melksham looked poor when given the opportunity to run the football out of our back half, little to no ability to intercept the football today and whilst he clearly had a more outside role, his inability to pressure opponents made for a tough time for the rest of our backline. Vince was clearly missed and played this role significantly more effectively than Melksham. Will still be given a few chances obviously, but when Hibberd returns I personally dont see a spot in the side for him. Neal-Bullen returned to looking not up to AFL standard, whilst it is probably a little hasty dto drop him, Kent is clearly a best 22 player and has put 2 better than good VFL games together and must be brought into the side. Hannan offers more than Neal-Bullen, competed well in the air and in my opinion has more to work with. Tyson was great apart from his 2-3 stupidly poor kicks. He really helps move the ball out of congestion and whilst Olivers hands are some of the best in the competition, Tysons ability to draw players and move the ball on is second to none. We were far too slow to change the way our team was setting up, we consistently allowed the loose defender by playing with 5 forwards and the 6th coming from behind the contest, Carlton set their zone a little deeper than St Kilda and we were unable to get clean posession out of the middle meaning the rushed clearances often ended in an intercept. The last quarter we started with 6 forwards and played a majority of the centre bounces with 6 forwards and lo and behold our forward half was more competitive.

Il tell ya this for free, player are instructed to get side on to the ground ball and attempt to turn their body with hip/back towards opponents. Often at speed if they overstep the football or receive body contact they are forced to tap it in order to keep possession. Watch bulldogs players contest the ground ball and Geelong premiership players and you may get an understanding of who has influenced this contested ball technique. The bigger issue was the lack of cleaness from the whole team, Jordan Lewis being one of them. Jack Watts made some skill errors as did all, but without him we lose today.

Direct response to the question that only mentioned those 3

Direct response to the question that only mentioned those 3

It is not often that you will have to be missing 5 players from one are of the ground, especially taking that one position 3rd tall defender. Which is why we chose not too look for one. im bullish on the fact our backline almost has as much depth as our midfield, if we needed anything it's debatably a third tall forward. There aren't many 3rd/4th year kpp defenders that would slot instead of O McDonald, or that are any good that would be up for trade (think T Gillies). Marchbank and Plowman but we never had the currency for them anyway. A disposer out of our backline was always our most genuine target and Hibberd was this and fits into third tall also.

Like Hibberd? The problem with what you are are suggesting is a 3rd-4th year tall that is currently playing is definitely going to cost the bank. Otherwise you get a second/third string who probably wouldn't be getting a game ahead of McDonald x 2, Hibberd, Frost, Wagner and to a lesser extent Garland and Smith. Our backline depth is pretty solid, considering our horrible run with injuries, it could be a lot worse.