binman

I have always had a grudging respect for Scott, even more so tgis season as as you say he has retooled his whole approach to beat us. Deserves kudos for that as it is no small thing

Goody kept his tactical powder dry last year during the home and away season. I can't recall a single occasion where he experimented tactically against contenders, even when they did so against us - for example in the round 19 game against the dogs when he refused to respond to Bevos tactical tricks (two extras to the stoppages, trying to tag lever). We could have won that game if he he responded (eg match the extras), but i believe him when he says it is all about winning a premiership. And come the grand final he showed some of his tactical tricks (eg jacko's longer stint in the ruck, the center clearance set up), the difference being Bevo never had the benefit of seeing them. Which is not to say he didn't try and keep the other contenders guessing during the home and away. For most of the year he allowed the conversation to swirl about our 'best' forward line set up, when in reality he almost certainly had the three tall set up locked in as the optimal model from the get go. He is repeating this panto this year. And he is clearly experimenting with our use of long handballs into space he introduced in the lions game. That is a pretty significant tactical experiment to introduce mid season.

I was channeling my inner Kiwi

In all sincerity WW, i have no idea what you are trying to say here or what point you are trying to make I had assumed you were providing evidence of your assertion that McVee is developing quite nicely and Deakin Smith has done enough to stay on the list, and countering the critique of those players from other posters. But your post i've quoted above seems to suggest my assumption was wrong? And to be honest, the actual data does too - i mean they are ok numbers in isolation, but hardly earth shattering evidence these boys have earned another contract. What would you like us to glean from the the 'data' you posted? What would you like people to do with the 'data' you posted? Analyze it?

Jeez, it makes you wonder what Jason Taylor saw in him. We'll soon know if the club concurs with your assessment. Well, to be more accurate if they disagree with it. That's to say if they offer him a rookie spot or list spot, they clearly disagree with your assessment.

I have watched most of Casey's games. I think rosman had a really good first 6 or 7 games, particularly given he was playing in a new position. Has struggled a bit after his hammy injury. Like Sydee, I think his footy iq is fine. Reads the ball well coming inside 50 and gets to the right spots. He has some teal x factor, though tbat has been less evident down back. I wonder whether his slightly awkward kicking style impacts on people's view of how natural a footballer he is. Unlike Smith, he played a fair bit of junior footy. He is a bit tweener size wise, which makes it hard to know what his ideal position is. He was speculative pick, a project and I reckon they will renew his contract and keep developing him.

That's not analysis. That’s cut and paste. And to be honest don't really back up your assertion that McVee is developing quite nicely or Deakin Smith has done enough to stay on the list.

They should drop him. He burnt trac against the lions and then in thst same match did alnos5 ecxstly the same thing as he did tonight. Three strikes and you are out.

Not me. I was right behind him. Tbe fact he didn't look inboard makes it worse. I was, and remain ropeable with him. And bloody hell, why a dribble kick?

That was God awful. Paid $90 for a crap seat in a glorified shelter shed, and the dees serve that up. They smashed us.

It not binary. I'm not saying we can't improve up forward. Just that that its not really a big issue. It wouldn't even be discussed if players like trac and nibbler were not such poor shots at goal. My big worry about the forward line is not the method, it no Tmac.

One answer to that question, as it relates to the dees is, that our kpi is the number of entries, not goals per entry. We are all about getting it inside 50, if we don't score trap it inside 50 and if the opposition do get it out, setting up a wall so it bounces straight back in (often of course into a relatively small area that might have as many as 30-36 players crowded into it). Chaos ball. By definition, this method will result in a lower goal to inside 50 ratio, then say the lions who are less about territory, and more about maximising the goal to inside 50 ratio. And as we know it also means lots of points. On the goal to inside 50 ratio, the lions are number one in the AFL. Super efficient. It is a method that works really well against most teams. But not us, or freo for that matter, because against us they simply don't get enough inside 50s. The last three times they have played us they have been pretty efficient in terms of goals to inside 50 ratio. But they haven’t got within a bulls roar of us because they have not gone inside 50 enough, and the dees, whilst not as efficient, have smashed them in inside 50 differential. Without wanting to sound smart, the goal is to kick more goals than the opposition and our method has proven to be brutally effective, as demonstrated by our crazy good win loss ratio since round one 2021. I just think the whole debate around the forward line's effectiveness, a debate thst also raged most of last season, feels like a solution searching for a problem - as evidenced by or win loss ratio and percentage this year.

No, lets not.

Childish gotcha rubbish nev. But, if you are going to bother using quotes from two different posts of mine to make some sort of point, at least quote me correctly. I did not say he is not in form. In the very quote you picked, I said he was not in GREAT form. Please don't bother rebutting, but they are two different things. So, I could say something like Brown is in form, but not great form. The point I making is his form is at a level that his coach deems acceptable. You don't think he us performing at the required level, which is fine. No disrespect intended, but I'll go with the premiership coach on this one.

Spot on. He does that sort of work mutiple times a game. Goody doesn't mind which player scores, just that one does. They are a collective. In that example it is trac, but it doesn't happen without Brown's involvement. Didn't get a stat for it, but Brown played his role and because he did we scored. Role execution and selflessness (for instance no Hollywood attempt at a screamer). The key point is he continues to be selected. That is sufficient evidence for me that he is executing his role to goody's satisfaction. Tonight's game is a legitimate blockbuster. We are primed and will be desperate to make a statement. If his performance was as poor as some are suggestingd, does anyone seriously think goody would select him for this game? When he had two fit forwards in weed and m brown (who both played alright in tbe previous match) he could select instead? Surely goody has earned a bit more credit than that to suggest he is willing to play an under performing player in the hope he will suddenly perform well or he could play him back into form. If goody is ok with bb's performance, im ok with his performance.

My take on Ben Brown. Is he is great form? No. Will he be dropped if he has a poor game stats wise this week. No Is his form over the last 5-6 games related to being fatigued. Yes, the eyes suggest that is the case. He was more mobile and energised against the lions, but noticeablely sluggish in the other games, including last week. For example, he struggled to jump in those games. To be honest any assessment of his game based on stats is next to useless. Have people not been listening to goody over the last few years? Goody has made it crystal clear that in terms of the expectations on performance there are three fundamentals - selflessness, team first and role execution. Those are the club's KPIs. So, judging a player on numbers is all well and good but goody has said literally dozens of times that players are not judged on them. Sure you could dismiss that as spin, but then you have posters periodically calling for, say kozzie or spargo to be dropped because they have had mutuple weeks in a row with single figure disposals and/or no goals. Thankfully such calls are less frequent now, because people now better understand that spargs and kozzie's role is pressure - and that is visible. So, I try to assess performance on tbe metrics the club uses. Of course, we don't know exactly what Brown's role is. But we can have a pretty good guess (to be clear this a guess, so please don't come back with a how would you know spiel) First and foremost, his role is to be involved in aerial contests - up forward and up the ground. These contest invariably imvve big packs of talls, including our talls. The number one priority is bringing the ball to ground. A mark, either up forward or on tbe hbf is a total bonus. The next part of his role is the incredible up and down the ground running he dies. This is critical on a number of fronts. It means, foe example that May's standard 60 metre kick out goes to a pack that includes at least two of our talls. Again, the key here is that the opposition don't mark it. If we can't mark it, our mids and defenders know where it will likely hit the ground (watch how brown palms it forward if he can't mark it) and win the resuting ground ball. The running he does also means he can create one on ones on the wing for a bail out kick, or a long searching lead from the 50 yp to the wing, or turn us opponent around and runs back inside 50. But his running also messes with the opposition defensive system. On a basic level, if his direct opponent, always a big, has to go with him and if he is not as fit, may blow up. But Brown's run also stretches the defence and messes with their structure and zone. For example they need to decide whether his opponent goes with him up the ground, or as we usually do stay inside 50. If they go with him we have forced Brown's opponent to go one on one with him. And then they also have one less defender inside 50, which messes with their ability to set up an effective defensive zone If they dont go with him, his opponent has to make sure they hand off to a teamate when he goes up the ground, and there needs to be another handoff as he runs back towards our goal. All game. Up and down the ground. And all game the opposition have to sort out how to cover him. For context, brown is in the all tome top 10 of distance converd in a game (sculls heads the list). That was whilst he was at the roos. And no doubt is a key reason why we recruited him. Brown is regularly, with langdon and nibbler, in our top 3 distance covered in a game. And that's it. If he does all that to goody's satisfaction he has executed his role. And could do so without recording a single disposal. And playing rhat role is also completely team first and selfless. Which is Goody's non negotiable It's also a role that is super impacted by fatigue. So what about goals you might ask. Surely a kpi of a forward is to kick goals. For fans maybe, but not goody. Again, as Goody has pointed out he doesn't judge individual forwards on the goals they kick. They are part of a collective. Which was partly his point when he said the forward line had had 60 scoring shots in the last two games. Brown is part of that forward line. But if you do want to judge him on goals, well I'm not sure why tbe fact he kicked two last week seems not to register - or worse are perhaps discounted because one was a crumb and the other right at tbe end of the game. BB will get fresher and fresher and will remain a critical cog in tbe machine.

I don't believe my actions can have any bearing on how the dees perform. Which is why I'm not worried posting this picture will in anyway jinx our chances tonight. Not worried at all. Not even a bit. Seemed the appropriate day to post it. It takes pride of place in my tv room and is the first thing I see when I walk in (we converted the garage into a sound proof TV room with huge TV etc etc - perfect because I can watch footy and not annoy the family or neighbours!). Thanks @Webber for the brilliant, beautiful art work. It looks amazing And thanks @joeboy for the stunning framing. Love it

That's simply not true. As if goody would pick a player who is not contributing

Weed will come back into tge side soon enough.

Cameron and Curnow are top 2 in the Coleman NOW. They were both excellent junior players, as was JVR, but until they started playing senior footy all they had was potential to be stars in the AFL. JVR is in his first season of AFL football and hasn't yet done a full AFL preseason. All he has is potential too. But there's not much skill predicting a player will be star AFTER they have become one. Don't get me wrong, they are both stars, but McKay and Curnow would face exactly the same problems Brown face if they played for us: constantly having to fly for the ball in big packs that include both two key forwards and often the resting ruck too super crowded forward line and therefore no space and no clear leading lanes (they both, like Naughton, get a lot of their goals from leads) lots of kicks to the pockets, meaning even if they are able to clunk a mark in a big pack of players, the resulting shot is from the boundary And if McKay and Curnow played for us, both would have to get much, much, much fitter to match the distances Brown and Tmac have to run every game. They would also both have to be prepared to sacrifice their own game for the betterment of the team. Brown and Tmac spend a fair bit of time well up the ground and running between the 50 metre arcs. They are often gassed when they get back inside 50, which impacts their forward craft, but it also means they are not going to kick as many goals as key forwards, like McKay and Curnow, who spend more time inside their 50.

Both 1.90 at the moment, but you're right they could well start favourite. Which says something about the home game advantage they get playing at Kardinia park. We have beaten them the last four times we have played them, including a win down there. With Jackson and Gawn both confirmed ins, we are only missing TMac from our best 22. Whereas they are missing arguably their most important player in Stewart, an out that is compounded by Kolodjashnij also being a likely out. We would be something like 1.60 favorites for this game if it were at the MCG (for context we were 1.60 against the lions, despite coming off 3 losses and them being on top of the ladder).

Just watched Goody's presser. Was asked about our forward line. All but scoffed at the suggestion we were struggling up forward, noting we have had 60 shots at goal in the last two weeks, including 35 against one of the best teams in the AFL (was actually 36). 'Our forward half is operating at a very high level' From 5.31: https://www.melbournefc.com.au/video/1166179/rd-17-media-conference-simon-goodwin?videoId=1166179&modal=true&type=video&publishFrom=1657064517001

Exactly. They may decide not to go with Weed this week given it looks like it might be a bit wet and slippery and Kardinia park is a narrow ground with tight pockets. But I have zero doubt we will ultimately go with three talls (two key forwards and the resting ruck). And as you say if Tmac is not in the side, the second key forward really has to be Weed. JVR is too small for that role, not to mention probably not AFL ready - yet. And Mitch Brown is simply not strong or big enough for the role. But, whilst ive not listened to the presser, i suspect they will go with Weed tomorrow night as goody will want to trial the set up against a contender.