Mad_Melbourne

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.

I think Tyson, which is pretty elementary, and Harmes will be the inclusions. Harmes spent the second half of last year in our backline and it makes sense to play someone fit and performing well in the VFL. Wagner is probably the most likely other inclusion to play 3rd tall and been training with the main group instead of rehab, but probably let him play VFL. In regards to the three talls, in a team defence we will often see match ups that include undersized defenders on bigger forwards and bigger defenders on smaller forwards. We will not worry about opposition selection to much but back our system to create enough outnumbers to at least break even in contests. I honestly don't think Weitering, Casboult, silvagni and McKay will instill fear into our coaching staff, but at least see for an opportunity to further test it. If they do choose that as a forwardline, I do think we will see multiple scoring chains from the back half through run and carry and plenty of time on the ball.

Jesus wept, flat out illogical. I can understand the logic of playing a backline that involves T McDonald, Frost and Hibberd, even to a lesser extend T McDonald, Hibberd, Wagner. But to say that a rookie pick, who has to be fair barely shown enough at VFL level to warrant selection over a promising and competitve undersized but quickly developing defender is laughable. It entertains me how once people have a perception on a player it does not change, of course Oscar has his limitations as he is a 20 year old key position player, but his positioning and ability to read the play for the most part is quite good. Sure he loses some one v one contests, but not half as many as people make out and most of the time it is not due to poor positioning but rather lack of body strength.

I think you misread, but the stat indicates that his percentage of one v one losses was 7th in the league for anyone who competed in over 30 contests. So it's a pretty good stat, but your keen eye for detail would definitely be highly sought after in a game review. It you actually did have a good look at the footage you could from the replay, I'd hazard a guess and say you would see 3-4 critical errors in the first quarter and significantly less for three quarters of football, possibly 1-2. All im stating is that his supposed weaknesses in the contest is a misconception and whilst I don't believe everything from the prospectus it does give a good analysis on the whole. Ive always wanted to watch football with you or a few others on here, to try and understand how you actually watch a game of football and what you actually look for. It probably would not be fun on the whole but I'm intrigued about how you process things

Oscar played the last 14 games of 2016 and impressed with his intercepting and work in the contest. McDonald was involved in 41 defensive one-on-one contests and lost just 17% (7) - ranked 2nd at the club behind his brother Tom and seventh in the league in players involved in 30 or more contests. Of his 14 games, he didnt concede a goal to his direct opponent in 6 games and cinceded more than two just once. He averaged 6.5 intercept possessions per game, rated above average for key defenders" AFL prospectus. All of those stats indicate he is clearly at the level, whilst he may have got caught out in the early stages of the game, his next three quarters apart from skill errors were pretty solid defensively. Often in the right spot and rarely beaten after that, of course he made some mistakes, so did alot of our players. But I cant see how anyone watches the 2nd-last quarter and says Oscar McDonald was a liability to the side. He was solid and showed great resilience to bounce back from a poorer start.

Dependent on scans early this week and whether he goes under the knife or not.

Dependent on scans early this week and whether he goes under the knife or not.

Oscar McDonald had a horrid first quarter of football, but from then he ended up playing pretty solidly, breaking even at worst in more often than not in marking contests. This is clearly due to the ability to limit quick inside 50s and our defenders being able to be in the right spots consistently. Salem had 10 minutes in the third quarter where he would have had 8-9 kicks at 100% and his kick to Neal-Bullen was ridiculous. Our ability to spread the footy and use different channels consistently was why we were so dangerous and the ability we had to hold the football while changing lanes. After watching the replay the other thing that I enjoyed so much was how well we bullied and banged in around the football consistently. Possessions were consistently earnt by our mids and they continually made the St kilda players earn the footy Any time a team can get 10+ goal scorers in a game they should win and I hope it's a sign of things to come.

The opinion I hold on Hannan is that he is a player that can adapt to the level of competition around him. His athleticism was always on show from his u/19s to seniors and never really played a bad game at those levels and same at VFL. Heres hoping he can adapt to AFL and contribute in a role in round 1

Personally, after watching the interview I am pretty confident whilst alot of it would be true, the media team would have encouraged him to be really open about it with a few key points to get across. Competitve, passionate but ultimately understanding about it all. I agree with Jones last minute or so of the interview, that this will allow him to be captain for a longer period of time and the co-captain set up with an older player and a younger player (that is deserving) makes sense in the modern AFL climate and especially with our list profile.

i will be away from early may with no return date in sight, december looking most likely. With this being the case, I think it would lead to me being consistently uncompetitive at some stage throughout the competition and therefore i will opt out for this year I think. It has been fun and il look to put my hand up next year if a spot pops up because its been a blast.

I cut a bit of your quote out, because it was irrelevant to my response. But this is exactly what I'm saying, if his performance was under by that much that in the past 3 weeks or so his levels have not caught up to playing in two practice matches, then they clearly should have jumped on this issue with him earlier. If as TMac stated the last couple weeks he's trained really strongly, why was it not mentioned to him before Christmas or even in bloody January in order to give him the chance to get his levels up by the relevant time. Regardless of this, I just think the player management could possibly have been a little better in my opinion

I was thinking about this a little bit and if the club is saying he didn't meet clear criteria during preseason, should they not have addressed the issue with Jack Watts early on and nipped it in the bud, allowing him to rectify and push for a spot. With players saying he has trained strongly for a couple weeks, it surely must have been an issue running for majority of pre season to only be mentioned a couple weeks ago, too late for him to actually make the required changes seems like poor player management in my opinion. That is suggesting that he made changes straight away, which should be assumed if he knew his "round 1 spot" was in jeopardy. Either way, Watts could have grown a bit complacent but why let it run til 3 weeks before practice games. If they continually look at data from training etc, they surely could have seen the trend earlier no?

Dependent on the player, depends on the validity of claims by the media for most posters on here. This preseason I have heard rumours or Angus Brayshaw being told to pull his head in for partying too hard, Michael hibberd coming back [censored] fit rather than fit fit now this Jack watts rumour. Would have loved Goodwin to have been asked about it, but he wasn't in the presser and to be fair it just seems like another Demonland rumour given air time

I think Smith would be competing with Melksham and Frost. Whilst they are two vastly different types Frost could play third tall and Smith at stages was playing that role and also could play small as Melksham could. Melksham is his most prominent competition as I think he would be first to make way ahead of Jetta and Hunt

Yeh, fair and he probably chucked the thumb brace on to draw attention away from this and create a plausible excuse as to avoid any unwanted attention from the media

Ya, sorry taking the pizz

Nah, a reliable source said that he missed out because he's been partying too hard and it's a punishment, also because Goody didn't mention him at the end of game presser it probably suggests he's no longer in our best 22 and definitely going to have a horrible year.

Garlett was well above serviceable. Clearly our premium small forward. Melksham had one perfect kick, other than that decision making was prettt poor and execution followed. But competed really well in 1on 1s. Hunt rarely loses a contest and wil 99% of the time halve them. Will find more opponents putting time into him, but wil alll. Spencer surprised, but future looks bleak, without injury. We played well for a side missing some serious talent, which indicates how deep we bat watts, hibberd, Jetta, Tyson, Kent and Pederson all are basially first team players

I would not be surprised, and this is not a knock on chunk, if they did a leading teams style of vote and Viney won. Whilst it is not to say he is our best leader, questions associated with leading teams would suit Viney to a tee and why he is in the leadership group for the last couple years. With a younger list of players and Viney epitomising the style of play/attitude we want, it would be no surprise to see the younger players looking up to him. This is all opinion, but if this was the case the co captain model would be implemented because Goodwin realises that whilst Viney has plenty of leadership traits, he will still have plenty to learn from Chunk and thus co captains

3 per game of pure one-on-one contests seems like a reasonable sample size. Especially if you consider 6-8 defenders, number of inside 50s and how often players are able to drop into the contest. His disposal can be shaky but his retention stats are not so bad. I think I'm willing to wear mistakes by foot if the ability to halve or win defensively is up. Main point I look to made was towards people often saying he was outbodied or poorly position led leading to him being beaten, evidence states this is not the case

"Oscar played the last 14 games of 2016 and impressed with his intercepting and work in the contest. McDonald was involved in 41 defensive one-on-one contests and lost just 17% (7) - ranked 2nd at the club behind his brother Tom and seventh in the league in players involved in 30 or more contests. Of his 14 games, he didnt concede a goal to his direct opponent in 6 games and cinceded more than two just once. He averaged 6.5 intercept possessions per game, rated above average for key defenders" AFL prospectus. Whilst I question alot of the prospectus rating systems, those stats are vital for those who question Oscar quite often. Clearly in the best 22 and this was in a season where he was often undersized.

I would love to, but I'm making a move to Europe from may-October. I think that will mean il struggle to keep afloat in the league. Will put a bit more thought into it, but probably makes sense to let someone, who can 100% commit