binman

I have a bit of a set against melk as a result of my frustration and disappointment with his attitude and lack of leadership last year. But you're right. He was pretty good. His kicking is elite. His kick to jones in the corridor (bad miss by Jones, but he looked a bit proppy), the one to max and the brilliant kick to tracc that set up the tmac goal in the square all showed that. And the goal he kicked at the punt road end on his left after the give from tracc was first cladd Kicking is our major weakness. He really needs to be in the side. I just hope he brings the forward pressure each week. He was just ok in that area against the hawks. As a seasoned veteran he needs to put his body on the line more.

They won't risk either may or fritter if they are not right to go. Why would they? We are 5 zip and as big as this game is we need them both fit and firing over the next half dozen games. And we can cover both players. Weed wont be sub. Too one dimensional.

To be honest, I don't think that is necessary.

That's god awful. My wife's family are in Berlin. And it's going bananas there again too. A good mate is in Spain and same story. We are so lucky here. How is the vaccine roll out going in France?

I hope the are not staying sat the mecure! On that, I can't believe that the federal government has not stepped in and set up out open air quarantine facilities in each state modelled on the one in the NT. Where thre has not been a single cross infection. Not one I mean how much more evidence do they need that hermetically sealed hotels with rubbish air cons and no air flow are simply not up for the job. No doubt they would say it is state responsibility but it is in the feds interest to sort it if they want to avoid border closures and get international travel back. And Scotty needs a win. Surely the Army engineers could be called on to build such facilities - hell Duntroon and Pucka must have facilities that could be adapted for the purpose. Duntroon is right next to Canberra airport and i'm pretty sure Puck has an air strip.

Ironic given McGow's painful hubris. We should lock our borders to WA out of nothing but spite (joking by the way - sort of)

And, assuming he isn't playing, quiet rightly saying something along the lines of: 'mate, we are not going to risk you coming back even a bit under done for one of the most intense home and away games all year. Not fair to you or the team. Focus on another solid VFL game and you will 100% be in the frame for a game against the roos the next week. Oh and work on your forward pressure. We want more tackles than goals....' Smart player management in my book.

I don't

I think he was referring to Tom Sparrow

Not necessarily. 22 players. One medical sub. And an emergency

Bloody oath we should. It is frustrating they don't at least release the squads. There is talk that this club driven thing but that doesn't ring true. All clubs would have a handle on who their opposition's likely squad of 25 players would be.

Makes sense. Particularly when the tall options - Weed and Brown, have shown an aversion to tackling and applying pressure. We simply have to apply maximum inside 50 pressure to beat Richmond. One to trap it inside our 50 when possible (and create scoring chances in doing so), but perhaps more importantly disrupt their exits from our 50. If they are allowed to waltz it our 50 it will become so much harder to set up ahead of the ball and slow down their transition. And we will get flogged. Which by the by, is why any talk of ANB or Spargo being dropped is pure poppycock.

That was Grapeviney Grr-owl. I reckon there are two questions: Do i think having TMac, Brown, Weid, Jackson, Gawn and Fritsch in the same team would work? Will the coaches select TMac, Brown, Weid, Jackson, Gawn and Fritsch in the same team The answer to the first question is, yes i think it can work with Tmac playing a wingmen or a hybrid high half forward/wingman. That is essentially the role he is playing now. And Jackson also plays as a high half forward/wingman The answer to the second question is, i'm not sure but i think they will trial that mix at some point - probably sooner rather than later. In term's of both questions it is worth noting that the eagles have three talls in their forward line in Kennedy, Allen and Darling. And Cripps is only 5 cm shorter than fritter but a couple of kilos heavier.

We have most positions well covered. And we have a sytem new players can slot into. I hope they now focus on drafting elite kicks. Take the best kick available at every pick we have.

I like wet coke.

Yep. In addition, going to the pocket creates more predictable outcomes, meaning - We mark it - As noted in the age article discussed on another thread it is less likely opposition mark it (its crowded because we are playing deeper and the boundary line creates a barrier) - It comes to ground - It goes over the boundary line. This makes planning a response easier, and more effective. If it goes over the boundary we can implement a set play, aided by having two excellent rucks and a grade inside mids. Hits the ground and with a congested area we are better able to trap it in, create a stoppage and/or scrap a goal. Sure it is harder to score from the pockets than the corridor, but we take more marks, and therefore get more shots on goals, because there are usually more open leading lanes in the pockets than the corridor, so more marks, as evidenced by how many more we are taking inside 50. And even when they kick a point from an angle after a mark, a mark means the players have time to all get set up and make it hard for the opposition to clear their defensive area from the kick out. Which is a big factor in our ability to make it hard for teams to transition end to end. Of course these options (with the possible exception of going over the boundary line) exist with more central kicks. But there are more variables in the corridor. Not least because there is more space. And marks are much harder to take, so its harder to set up the wall to stop defensive exits. And of course if the opposition win the ball, they do so in a dangerous position as they have three lanes to choose to exit from. This was killing us last year, and even in 2018. And like basketball, the boundary line is an extra player because it can trap players and reduce their options in terms of the direction they can move the ball. These reduced options make it easier to set up a structure that makes it easier to trap the ball inside 50 (eg from a hurried attempted clearing kick like the one melksham marked at the top of the goal square in the hawks game).

Spot on. We only had two inside 50 tackles at half time last week. If that is the half time stat against the tigers it is game well and truly over. Tmac's pressure has been first class this year. But he's pretty slow and besides operates mainly up field. Weed worries me. His pressure last year was rubbish. As was melkshams. Melksham's pressure was just ok against the hawks. But still not where it needs to be. Weed and Melksham in the same side is a concern in terms of forward half pressure.

Would be funny if wasn't 100% accurate. Speaking of both his idiocy and diagnostic skills, in the pies Eagles game, de goey copped a hip to the face. Immediately came of the ground clearly dazed with blood pouring from his broken nose. Brian says, no issue there with concussion. Just a broken nose. No dramas. They'll fix him up and he'll be right to go. WTF! To the surprise of none except Taylor, de goey out for the game, and the next one, with concussion. Sheesh.

It's great to see an article like that about the dees. And it's good that it includes some interesting stats. But for me it really it really highlights the two key frustrations I have with with how football is covered by the media. One, how little access fans get to decent stats and information about how the game is played. Champion data, which i think is part owned by the AFL, largely controls what is collected and disseminated. i think, but not sure the AFL generate their own data, which is what can be found on their website and that of all the clubs. But the stats and data are drip fed out to the public, in dibs and drabs across different media platforms and more often than not without any meaningful contextualization or explanation. A site like the excellent footywire has good data but again with little or no explanation of it meaning or the relative importance of particular stats, let alone accurate definitions of each data point/stat (most are self explanatory, but not all). Just raw data. Like the AFL site. And the clubs get their own set of data. Super important data becuase it informs the development of their KPIs and ability to measure how they are tracking against them. Voodoo stuff that drips even more slowly out to fans sites like Demonland. The second frustration is how little analysis there is of the data and stats that are drip fed out. The so called experts on shows like On The Couch and during calls of games are constantly giving little bites of data out. Sure the stats are interesting - but what do they mean? A classic and infuriating example is the pressure meter. In a call on the weekend Brian Taylor was talking about a team's (i forget which) pressure meter being 1.95 and joked about having no idea what that actually meant or how it was defined. His 'expert' co commentators couldn't help him out. Anything over 2 is good he reckons. How [censored] embarrassing. And useless. If paid professionals (he's probably on a million plus a year) and full time producers piping info direct into his ear have no clue about the data they are highlighting how are the fans supposed to understand it? How does it help fans understand the game? In the article, the stats are fascinating but what iI want to know is the why, not just the what. To be fair there is some explanation - structure, forwards playing deeper, forward pressure, mids playing more selflessly, better all team defence etc. So that's a step up from most similar articles. But still, it is a pretty shallow analysis and in reality just a list of possible explanations. And it misses perhaps the two key, related drivers: The change in how we set up our stoppages (which can be seen in our reduced clearance differential) that mean that when we do lose a clearance any disposal is often under pressure and from the wrong side (for them) of the contest. This change to our set up, which i guess is alluded to in the idea of inside and outside rings, are also big factors in our much improved inside 50 scoring ratio as we are getting cleaner and more damaging inside 50s The importance to our game plan of intercept marks in our back half and rebounding from the back half and instigating scoring chains. This isn't new. After all it is why we go may and in particular Lever (and Rivers too for that matter). But our structures, much better all team defence and pressure - and in particular our changed stoppage structure has meant more kicks are coming inside our defensive 50 under pressure and therefore are easier to pick off. We saw that on Sunday. Once Petty got up to speed and the back six sorted themselves (and the defensive pressure improved from our mids and flankers) we started picking off their inside 50 kicks. And they basically stopped scoring. The AFL love to copy elements of how sport in the US are promoted and covered (hello all year round media hogging announcements, g'day blaring quarter time music, kiss cams and fan activation). But seem to ignore many of the best elements - for example how much data and stats are made available across all four major national sporting leagues (NHL, MLB, NBL and NFL) and how much meaningful analysis there is of that data cross different media platforms. The result is fans have the opportunity to understand the sport they love on much deeper level and a more 'stat literate' and knowledgeable fan base

I'll think you'll find you ticked the wrong box. I had the same issue last week.- kept having to pay. Its confusing, but one of the options is free.

I'm pretty sure Neeldy was misquoted. What he actually said was that he wanted Melbourne to be the hardest team to watch play. He left when he achieved his goal.

I reckon j Smith will make it.

That's good to know. I'm sitting in Q29 sat night.

Some really good analysis in that lot. Interesting comment about their midfield.

Absolutely. I doubt nay player in the league surpasses Ed's work rate. You might have misread my comment though. I meant to say that no one currently NOT IN the seniors could match his work rate. So we lose something if he was dropped.