binman

Why? No forward has kicked a bag on him this year. Not even Jenkins, who if you believe dl destroyed him. Sure he had the better of him but only kicked 2 (and 4 the nex week on one of the best defenders in the AFL).

I can actually see Petty not coming up and Omac coming in and standing Shache (or perhaps Naughton deep). Lever to play the intercept role and May standing Naughton or Shache but licence to attack. Salem to play up the ground. Frost on Dickson. Not sure where that leaves Jones though. Even if Petty comes in not Omac, with Jones at HB we have 2 too many defenders so perhaps neither will play.

And it's not just to t ial numbers of injured players that is so remarkable. It is how many of our nominal best 22 we have out. For much of the season in any given game we have had close to half of our best 22 out. Even with jetts and lever back this week we still have a third out (melk, vdb, tmac, Joel Smith, kk, jeffy, hore are best 22 and stretch is on the bubble). I have said numerous times but it bears repeating. No club has had a run of best 22 players out with injury. Not even close. Nor did any club have anywhere near the number of post season surgeries. Not even close. These two issues are facts. Critics of our game plan and coaching might prove to be correct but it is simply not possible to make an accurate assessment of either with what has happened to us. Supposition yes. Definitive no. Look at how pies have gone when they lose their best forward. One player our and suddenly they can't convert inside 50.

Great minds ....

Agree. With all the carnage this year Hibbo has flown under the radar in terms of his performance not getting much critique. In addition to the issues you note he has lost yard of pace (probably a combination of his injury issues and age), which takes his main weapon away and he often sell teammates into trouble with quick release handballs.

I have been really impressed with his game in the last 4 or so weeks since he has gone to the half back position. His kicking and decision making has been excellent. He is quote attacking on often takes on the diagonal kick across the center lane that creates goal scoring options. He also is quite calm with the ball in hand and prepared to hold onto it rather than just dish off which often just creates problems (hibbo does it a bit). Neat side step too.

The big 'evidence' for them was Brayshaw saying it was a 'defining' win. And they didn't give all his comments, which provides important context in so far as he said the players were exhausted and he was as exhausted as he had ever been in a game of footy. They were desperate to win, remained composed and overcame their exhaustion. So what if he used the term defining win. What peanuts. And again I loved that Judd suggested to carp or Damo they didn't understand the impact of being down to one rotation on players. I just watched the second and third quarters again. Our field kicking and kicks inside 50 in those quarters were the best they had been all season. Most of our 7 goals in the 3rd (and tmacs poster from 30 out dead in front) were a direct result of excellent kicks to free or leading players or kicks to advantage. The 'connection' was first class. They stayed in touch not because of dosposal errors by us but they got a some goals we might have stopped (silvagni's two on petty come to mind)

I enjoyed Saturdays game and will enjoy the rest of the season. Lots to play for, not least of which is senior AFL experience for players like Lockhart, dunkley and petty. Easy to forget that the first two were not even in the AFL system in February. Dunkley was playing under 18s this year. No better marker of the issues we have experienced with injury. I actually think we are a very good chance of winning this week, which is exciting. As old see noted, without final in the picture each game can be enjoyed in isolation. And I plan to do do so.

Agree on all points. On short shots in addition to losing momentum on his rum in he leans back. Would love him to back himself in and go for goal more often. As I hav2 said before goody should encourage him to do so.

Either way he didn't kick over the man on the mark!

Hit the nail on the head rusty. Leaving aside the game style, in very simple terms we get the ball inside 50 enough times. 3rd i'n the league I think. That number is a touch inflated because it often goes in, straight out and back into a crowded 50. But still our forward line has struggled woefully - small, medium and bigs. Part of that is the much referenced connection issues, which is mainly about rubbish kicks but also issues such as spacing and leading patterns. The above partly shows how critical some players are to systems. I read here that remarkably melk is still right up there for goal assists, despite not playing for, what, 8 weeks? He is critical in terms of that last kick inside 50. Hannan was important in this regard last year and hasn't got back anywhere near his best this year, after coming back from injury On the fatigue issue I would contend our poor fitness is as a result of our crap preseason not our game style. Sure the chaos, crash and bash style is physically taxing (and might be a factor in that spate of preseason surgeries) but the chip and spread style requires players to run a lot of ks in a game to spread and provide multiple options and leads. I suspect that is why the pies have hit a bit of a slump ie players are tiring (I was wondering if they are doing a hard training block atm to get ready for finals).

Judd said we did well to win with 3 on the bench and asked Damo i t( i think, but maybe it was Caro) if he understood the impact of being down to one player on the bench (and on that Hore was out for 3 and bit quarters so we were down a rotation for a big chunk of the first half).

Salem has been our best, for sure. And by some margin. But has had a couple of games where he was off his game. Hore has played well every game I reckon.

I'd love to see frosty given a run on the wing where his pace and attacking bent could be real weapon and his horrible short kicks not so much a risk of an imneciate goal to the opposition.

Just hoping. Hore broken collar bone so 2-3 out and petty was concurred so will be test you'd assume. I agree petty played well. Reads the ball well and takes a nice mark. I really like the look of him

Jetts will come in. Lever in. So that probably covers hore and petty. Gawn obviously comes in. Maybe they will play him and preuss as alternating full forwards. But probably smith plays at full forward. Hore is a big loss. A real shame as he has been our most consistent defender.

That's funny Macca. I know you weren't talking about me specifically but I would say I'm a realist, not an optimist. Take my perspective on yesterday. Our skills were st times horrible. One again we failed to put a team away due to missing easy shots on goals and targets. As i have said many times It is a huge issue for our club and one that has no easy fix. But we were almost 100 points at 3/4 time. Yes against a lowly side but we are also lowly side as a result of injuries and a woeful preseason. They were missing their best player, but so were we. We had patches of terrific play and our best forward snagged a career equalling high of 6 goals. And we were down to 1 rotation for almost half the game, with our best forward and two defenders sitting on the pine. Brayshaw said he had never been more exhausted in a game of footy. Jones did not come off tbe ground at all in the second half.We got headed but found a way to win. With a set shot from near 50 no less. Which is character building. And we walk away with 4 points.

Of course it is. As i pointed out myself. And personally as i do all rbe time ie critique performance as per my many comments about our woeful kicking skills. To be honest I haven't read any posts on this thread tbat are only over the top positive. But as usual many posts where the opposite is true.

Just heard the last bit if tmac on Sen. Not sure what the scams revealed but from what I gather not an afl but surgery required and out for the rest of the season. Our luck this year has been unbelievable.

Agree. Really liking him at HB. His kicking has been excellent and goes some way to balancing the woeful kicking of Frost and Fritter.

Well JD I am definitely in the camp of 'positive posters' who are critical negative posters clogging up post game threads. And happily so. But by negative posters I mean those who simply criticize the team without any balance or taking into account mitigating factors, such as injury. Not posters who make critical comments. Critical comments and constructive criticisms often generate inetesting debate and discussion. This thread is for post match analysis. If you - or others - want to come on it and vent that is your prerogative And it is my perogative to call it out. How about starting a post match vent thread and those who want to vent their frustrations without the need for their opinions to be scrutinized can post to their heart's content.

Missed this post. Could have saved myself some time by quoting it!

He missed weed in exactly the same way after that. Cost us a certain goal (he hits the handpass and weed kicks an easy goal from the goal square). It went straight up the other end for a goal. Not long after he missed an easy target inside 50 by foot, which is par for the course for us, But the problem was that he turned it over in tbe corridor and it got swept down tbe other end. Fortunately not for a goal i don't think. So, yes as one of the commentators noted he was given a chance to redeem his errors. And all credit to him that he took that chance. There was another bad mistake that seemed to escape the commentators attention and demonland's as well. On that last kick by hannan he had hunt and brayshaw on over the top, with hunt being completely in the clear. Should have handball it to him and hunt would have run into an open goal.

That win is a metaphor for this year in some ways, particularly in terms of supporters not understanding the impact of injury. We were out on our feet with 2 players in Hore and Petty out for all of the second half and TMac out from halfway through the third. This interview with Hunt is interesting in terms of understanding the impact of not being able to rotate players, both physically but also in terms of having to move players around the ground to get a chop out (something Goody noted in his presser eg having to move Lewis off Murphy). He notes he had to play wing for that last quarter and Jones didn't come off for the second half, despite playing high half back which Hunty says is tough position. https://www.melbournefc.com.au/news/2019-07-07/hunt-enjoys-final-quarter-heroics But hey what would he know