binman

One loss in a row it would seem. Maaaaaaaassiiiiiiiive.......

A reminder to all of the lucky ticket holders if you even the slightest sniffle or vague symptom on Saturday you need to stay home. And if you do feel a bit off, even a tiny bit, i can help you out and take your seats to make sure we have good representation at the game. The slightest symptom, do the right thing for Victoria and stay home. And i'll volunteer to take the you seat to do the right thing for the Dees.

Well, lets agree to disagree Nev

My god. My mate who is bombers fan who cant go isn't a bloody member! Fool. Means i cant use his barcode!

Look's like the NSW's government's luck ran out. I hope some of the angst about the decision in Victoria to go to lockdown is bit more measured moving forward.

I reckon this is where stats can be misleading. I suspect that the key reason only half of the hit outs he wins are going to advantage is a function of how we are set up at stoppages and our clearance systems. If they wanted to increase that ration they could choose to do so easily enough. In around the ground stoppages, most other teams bring an extra to the stoppages to try and negate our mid filed and ruck strengths (like the blues did) or becuase that is what they always do (eg the lions and dogs). So it makes sense that less taps would go to one of our players. And in the center square set up, we are looking to be more aggressive with our clearances, so any win we get gives us a clean inside 50 entry. So the objective is quality taps to a moving player rather than simply winning it, for winnings sake. And both in the center and around the ground, if Max can't get a clean tap to moving player, he usually avoids hitting it to space and instead drops it close to the ruck contest (if possible to the opposition's defensive side of the contest), where there is a greater chance of it going to the opposition, because often that is where their extra is. If he chose to hit the ball forward to space more often he might increase his hit outs to advantage, but hit outs that go to an opposition player out in space create a big rebounding risk. Its all about playing the percentages. The real stat to worry about is not hit outs to advantage, but what happens after we get a hit out to advantage. Nice clean inside 50's or exits from stoppages is the goal. Tap outs to advantage that result in a pressured hack kick that gets picked off up the ground is what they are tying to minimise. As noted in the thread about Petty, we are keeping opposition points from turnovers under control and are ranked No.2 in this stat, where we were 11th last year. I reckon a big factor why this is the case is that whilst hit outs to advantage are down, so are the number of times a mid has to jam it on the boot under pressure and in dong so turning the ball over. Conversely a big reason we are miles ahead at the op of the intercept table is when the opposition win a hit out or shark one of ours, more often than not it is in tight and under intense pressure. So a Max hit out that isn't initially to advantage, often ends up creating a post clearance win because we pressure the ball carrier, force a rubbish kick, intercept it and rebound brilliantly from our back 50 (we are 4th in the AFL in rebound 50s). Sure they are no doubt continually trying to perfect their set up etc but our intercepts, rebounding and much improved inside 50 to scoring ratio are all evidence the current model is working pretty effectively. And being 11-2 is pretty good evidence too i might add.

Sorry, Dazzler, objectively that is simply not true. Max has been incredible this season. Sure he seems to have flagged a bit in the las few games but even in them he has been extremely influential nd the amount of work he does is crazy. One indicator of his level this year is that he is number one in the AFL by a mile in contested marks, which is particularly impressive given how much [censored] illegal spoils and blocks he has to fight though. But better evidence of his level this year is that he is 7th in the coaches award, the best measure of performance in my opinion. Coaches don't give votes to players who have been poor. Here is the top 15 as it stands atm. Some bloody good players in this list, and all in top form: 68 Clayton Oliver MELB 66 Marcus Bontempelli WB 60 Ollie Wines PORT 55 Hugh McCluggage BL 55 Darcy Parish ESS 52 Touk Miller GCFC 49 Max Gawn MELB 48 Zach Merrett ESS 48 Samuel Walsh CARL 44 David Mundy FRE 43 Rory Laird ADEL 42 Dustin Martin RICH 42 Nic Naitanui WCE 42 Christian Petracca MELB 42 Jack Steele STK

Have you been vaccinated? I think they are only offering tickets to people who have had at least their first shot. At least i hope that's the case

Thanks dee - you need some stamina to get to the end of it but it is important to use the mid season bye to get some solid training loads in to prepare for the rest of the season. Go redlegs

As in, you are unsure how some rate daw? I reckon he is a good vfl player, who would likely be selected if jacko or gawn had to miss a game.

Fair 'nuff

What makes you say that? I couldn't get a tell at all. I just watched the presser that article was based on and goody gave no indication which way he'll go. Did say the training session tbey were about to have (today) would be decisive.

If i can't get a ticket i'd love it if the MCC sell 25k tickets, leaving none for EFC members and therefore no revenue!

Seeing we are all proud sponsors of rossie, paxxie and hunty, surely they can sort tickets for the demonland life members?

How many MCC tickets are they selling? Bloody toffs are going to leave nothing for us plebs!

Fair points. Agree a good block of time in the VFL is the go. But stripping away the emotive stuff and the supposition (mine for example re his head space), whilst, yes, he had a pretty serious injury to overcome, by all accounts he is as fit and strong as he has ever been at the moment. And he was in our best 22 in 2018 and 2020 and has played nearly 50 games, so it's not as if he is on an upward curve. Also, he is actually not that young given he is 24 in a few days and is in his 6th season History suggests that he he has his work cut out to make it. And there is no doubt people jumping on him and bagging him aint going to help in any way. So I for one will stop now commenting on him after this post. My last comment is I have faith he can make it and be an important part of our side and I would be happy for them to offer him a two year deal and back him in to do so.

Fair call. For the sake of argument, if we accept that he struggles psychologically - and there is enough evidence to suggest he does - then in a funny way that's a positive. Or perhaps not so much a positive but it creates an opportunity. By that I mean it is something he can work on, as opposed not being up to it talent wise (though of course players can improve in that regard too I guess). As Grapeviney notes earlier in this thread there are any number of elite athletes who struggle psychologically and have found a way to overcome it. I know it goes against current orthodoxy, and his lateral movement worries me as it is, but I reckon might be better bulking up through the legs and getting much stronger. And playing out of the square like Hawkins. I saw him in vfl match at the pies ground in I think his first season (i was standing next to his dad). He played out of the square as a true full forward. Looked a natural full forward, with good leading patterns and clean hands on the lead. His talent was evident. Up the ground he looks less natural and seems to struggle getting to the right spots. And struggles more one on one. Looks much more comfortable coming at the ball front on - both on the lead and in contested marking situations. I still have confidence he can make it. The best option might be to be told you are wanted at the club, you are part of the future. Build yourself up, play a good block of games at vfl , work on your psychological preparation (which if he gets it right will help with his intensity i reckon) and we'll go from there.

I didn't want to go anyway.

Thanks wwsw. Another topic we will be discussing - al thoughts welcome: Players Top 5 in the bluey (based on similar criteria as the bluey ie not just the best on 3,2,1 voting) Most improved - other than Tmac!

Snap. I was thinking something similar. Though I was more thinking that they were looking at something like 50% but want to wait a day to see what the numbers are tomorrow. If they announced 50% today and then tomorrow there was say 5 new unlinked cases they might have to walk it back. Which given how quick people are to jump on them, whatever decision they make, makes a lot sense. Another day of zero, or 1 or 2 linked cases, as they will announce 50% tomorrow hopefully. And I can go to the G!

AFL contested mark ladder 2021: Max Gawn (Melbourne) 38 Aaron Naughton (Western Bulldogs) 35 Harry McKay (Carlton) 35 Charlie Dixon (Port Adelaide) 34 Oscar Allen (West Coast) 28 Taylor Walker (Adelaide) 27 Aliir Aliir (Port Adelaide) 27 Harris Andrews (Brisbane Lions) 27 Jake Lever (Melbourne) 26 Jack Darling (West Coast) 26 https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/melbourne-man-mountain-gawn-rising-to-new-heights-in-demons-boom-season-20210621-p582z0.html

Yep, I'd love to see a wire to wire top shelf performance. One where we are on, bombers play well and stay in striking distance to say 3/4 time. And we keep going and win by 6 plus goals.

Will Captain Jack be replaced by Vice Captain Jack?

OD, depending on your spell check, being vaccinated might reduce your chances of not: losing weight changing the color of your hair making hippie inspired t shirts croaking