Pates

This year is a bit of a different feeling as well for me, more so because I really think where we are at we should be making finals fairly comfortably but we seem destined to have to keep fighting for relevance in the finals conversation. We haven't beaten anyone of note this year, the Saints (maybe GWS) will be our last chance to beat someone of finals quality opposition. While you could maybe argue the same in 2018, the difference was that we beat two top 8 teams right at the end and everyone knew that we botched the two losses against the cats. I can picture us making the 8 in the same way Essendon made it in 2019, just making up the numbers.

I'm pretty sure that was lumped in with the points based system which for me confused the whole thing, particularly when they then brought in the 10% downgrade for an early plea. They took out that system because people didn't like the carry over points. I would've thought the simple option is that if you have been given a low grade reprimand for a gut punch, low impact strike, or low sling tackle that puts you on an offender list that takes say 5 games to wipe off and if you do something low impact again you get a one match ban. Similar to the yellow card system in football. It stops players from doing the cheap little shots that isn't enough for a suspension straight off but then repeat offences gets a ban. EDIT: Just going with my 5 game offender list, I also think it should take 5 games PLAYED to clear your name. They can be VFL games but you shouldn't get a free pass from injury.

Bold choice going for a Preuss and Gawn combo, not against it either. The question comes do we play Weid further up the ground as the CHF and Preuss deep and give him a simple instruction of "if you can't mark it bring it to ground" then have Kozzie and Spargo darting around at his feet.

On the Melbourne website it says 4-6 weeks for his Hammy!!!!! ? If that's the case we might be putting him on ice until 2021! I didn't realise he'd done it that bad!

No one can compare to Adelaide this year, they are a category unto themselves. Here are some actual reasons that you can use on why we may lose to the Saints: - Similar to the dogs they seem to have good outside run, which we have been vulnerable to - when their pressure game is on they are always in it up to their eyeballs, when pressure comes on us we have wilted - King could have a day out against us if our midfield don't put enough pressure on up the ground - Ratten is a very good coach, and Goodwin was most definitely out-coached against Bevo this week - We always seem to lose to the Saints

Wow I forgot the Saints lost to North, if I needed a little helping of confidence that has given it to me! I'm not saying that we're a lock but certainly it points to being vulnerable to mental dips. I felt like our players went in with a bad attitude against Port and also came out with a bad attitude vs the Dogs in the second half. So much of winning games at the highest level come from what's between the ears, it's up to Goodwin and Co to get them working in the right way from the first bounce next week.

I'm not sure of the reasons people keep suggesting moving him back. He clearly doesn't fit there anymore, I'd easily have Oscar as a defender over Tom right now, not least because Oscar has been playing there for the last few years whereas Tom hasn't. I just don't know what is to be done with Tommy anymore, I think the injury from last year and maybe the form drop of the team has killed any confidence he had. He may well bob up for a random good game this year but it just doesn't seem to be happening. When Jacko is back to fitness and has had one run around in the scratch matches I'd be bringing him back in.

Fingers crossed we have our kicking boots from the Pies game and not the dogs game then. Moving on to different games, fingers crossed the Weagles get the job done against GWS today, and maybe pray from an upset from the Kangas. I could actually see that happening, Pies are so depleted and who knows maybe something random could happen for Shaw.

We lost to the Lions by 4 points, arguably matched them better across the game than the Saints did who should've been down by 30+ points at 3 quarter time.

Preuss Out Gawn In Sparrow Out Rivers In (give Harmes minutes in the middle and up forward) Other possible ins would be Oskar Baker for Sparrow and Hunt for Hannan perhaps? Melksham is a bit like Fritta they keep bobbing up for cheap goals here and there but both I feel aren't fulfilling their roles. Both should be aiming for 15+ possies and 1-2 goals a game.

Lions should've been up by 5 goals going into the last quarter but had to scrape it home. Felt not dissimilar to the game against us where they should feel lucky to have got away with it. The Lions are a good team but I could very easily see them going out in straight sets again.

I think the dogs game gave the players a harsh wake up call, I've got very little doubt we have players in the team that drink their own bathwater a little too quickly. By all means drink pints of it after you've won the premiership but until then we are still a side that has done nothing! At the start of the year I had us pegged at about 6th-10th, we've got games against 4 teams that we really should be beating + the saints game next week. I've done a little ladder predictor with us dropping two more games, Saints and GWS. It has us finishing 9th. I think it's actually really simple, we beat the Saints next week I can't see us missing finals. We lose and we have to win the rest of our games to make finals, 3 wins means we're in the lap of the gods.

Just watching a passage of play that concerned me for next match was how easy the Saints were able to get the ball out from a kick in to their half forward line. The dogs tore us to shreds off the back line and it looks like the Saints are more than capable of doing the same. Our pressure and desire to work hard is going to have to be on all match next week, and like what the Saints are doing right now, take our chances when they come (I'M LOOKING AT YOU FRITTA!!!!!!!).

Their set shots for goal are awful, keeping the Saints in the game.

Going into the match I felt like we were evenly matched and and placed in the same area on the ladder. I think they are good enough to be a top 6 team, we're a 7th-10th team. Outplayed and out coached.

Definitely don't think it should extend out to 34 games, that's too much. I feel like it could get out to 26-28 games with a "festival of footy" style in the middle but they need to manage it so there aren't 4 day breaks, that has clearly been an issue for teams. At the very least there shouldn't be a dependency of one team on a 4 day break and the other on 6+ day break. I also worry about the season becoming very tough to watch if the team is awful like what Adelaide are dishing up.

Watching the dogs walk the ball out of defence was maddening, our kick outs are an absolute disgrace. I have zero confidence in it turning into a goal on the rebound, when are they going to come up with something other than “long down the line”?

It’s becoming a worrying trend that every week we give up moronic 50m penalties/free kicks that are costly and totally down to undisciplined acts. Interestingly Melksham could’ve had a 50 himself in that last quarter as he took the mark just inside the 50m line and the dogs player went over by almost a metre. But yeah that 50 in the third quarter was a back breaker when we actually needed to hold strong.

I saw the second half (sadly), firstly I’m going to give credit to Beverage. Right now if there was a coach i would have at the Dees, Bevo would be at the top of the tree. Goodwin was 100% out coached by him today. We looked like plodders again, and while you can say the breeze was big and all that for the dogs in the 3rd quarter we had our chances to slow the momentum and kick goals, we even had repeat inside 50s but botched all our chances. 4th quarter we looked a bit like the old Melbourne, unsure of ourselves and no one was willing to take the ball and say “I’m going to make something happen”. Weid took big grabs but until he starts nailing big time goals he will not be anything more than a handy forward. Fritch has become one of my biggest frustrations at Melbourne, he’s got potential and shows lots of really good traits but like Weid until he starts nailing big goals his talent is going to be wasted. That miss from directly in front (yes the wind took it) was a prime example. When we needed everything to go right the old Melbourne shon through. Now we have a huge game to keep in touch with the 8 against St Kilda and we’re firmly entrenched in the group fighting for the 7th and 8th spot. Big loss.

The first couple of wins from our run were against quite clearly the two worst teams in the AFL right now, and we comfortably beat a depleted Pies outfit who were also off a shorter break. I’m not saying we dismiss those wins but this is the major test. The dogs are on the same points as us but we have the better percentage, a win here gets a little separation while gets us closer to the top 6. This is most definitely an 8 pointer.

I’m a Liverpool fan, he wasn’t Allison but he held up decently. As you said he had some of the best defenders in front of him, but he did alright (better than Mignolet and Karius) and better than I expected given his lack of time at the club. My point is more than you need players to step in to the team to fill a role.

Would’ve given the suns an extra days rest to make it fairer as well. EDIT I said the F word, the AFL doesn’t do “fair”!

I’m not sure if there are many Premier League fans on here but Liverpool lost the first choice keeper who had been one of their best pick ups in years early in the first game of the season just gone. Didn’t have him for about 6-7 matches I think, everyone thought the sky was falling and Liverpool were stuffed. Up stepped Adrian, who’d barely been at the club a week. He stepped in and did a bloody good job in Allison’s absence, Liverpool won the title. A lot of teams over the years win premierships off of incredible injury runs but most have to cover for their stars at some point. Preuss could be our Adrian!

That is actually a very good point, our forward line has functioned quite well at times with Weid and Jacko. With Tom back in its been equally decent and I think Tom could have a late season resurgence, he just needs to clunk some marks to get some confidence. So with that in mind where would Jesse sit? Would he be our second forward behind Weid and Jack moves into a midfield/back up ruck role? Team balance and whether we can utilising him to the best of his ability would definitely be a question mark.

There’s little doubt there’s the element of romanticism in Melbourne fans having him back. The bare bone stats, issues, and health question marks would leave most to say no. But in his first year with Freo he was injured the whole time, this year he started injured again and now I think he’s probably struggling with more mental demons. Talent is there, the question is whether it’ll ever emerge again.