Pates

Will be interesting to see how that works, does Sparrow make way for Harmes? Does Harmes have to earn his way back in through Casey? Either way glad to here that Gus will remain in the midfield for a while yet.

Seeing him in the midfield vs Freo was a joy to behold, would love to see him stay but I suspect Harmes is a favourite of Goody's and Gus has had an outstanding year is defence. I'm not going to lie, part of me was worried he would leave, but he's invested in the club. Ultimate club man.

I'm over here working on the Commonwealth Games and had the privilege to be working on the Marathon today, I was absolutely stoked for her. Out and out champion, ran an incredible race. Bronze medals in her previous Commonwealth Games, today she struck gold!

I'm up for JvR making his debut, it's not the same situation as Watts. We threw him to the wolves with him covered in sauce to be eaten up by the Pies, they try the same **** with JvR they will have Gawn, Viney, Petracca, Brayshaw, May, Pickett, and more to deal with and you can guarantee whatever they dish up with be met tenfold at the next contest. I dare them to try it. But I also agree with an earlier poster that we don't make him the only key forward, at least one of Brown or Wied must play beside him so he is at least getting the second defender. If Jackson isn't 100% don't risk him, play Weid as a back up ruckman and make sure Jackson is cherry ripe for the finals. A lot of the changes I suspect will depend on how certain injuries are tracking.

BT is disgracefully bad, I can only imagine the reason he still calls is because he has a contract and probably has something on some high ups at Seven. Funny that Rex Hunt chose to direct his issues towards Daisy and not the fact that there is a commentator who is so far behind the game it makes me cringe any time he speaks. I finally managed to watch the replay, the way we played was the "Melbourne way" that Goody has instilled. We controlled every part of the contest, and save for a period in the 3rd quarter where Freo were pressing but not getting reward we never looked like being in any kind of distress. Does make you wonder if the Freo loss earlier in the year was over rated given we were missing May for most of the game and Petty for a large chunk including their burst. Fair play they took advantage but they had no chance of breaking our defence. These away wins can mean so much and can be the perfect springboard for the next few weeks, if we can bring that game plan and pressure against the Pies, we win. The Pies have been hanging on in ridiculous fashion since the bye, but I would not be wanting it to go down to the wire as we have recently panicked with close games. One thing I have to mention is Gus in the middle, Harmes has provided a great option for giving him jobs to do, but I have to say the fact of it is that Gus is a better player and if we can cover him in defence (which I thought Hunt was really good) then I would love to see him stay there for the rest of the year. He's had a stellar year as a defender and if we move him back there I won't be gutted but I just think this win proved that he is a natural midfielder. I also thought May was back to his best, but it does seem that he needs Lever to be around to be able to play his best. Those two with Petty when together seem like an unbreakable wall, lose one of them and it does seem like we're a bit shaky. Finally the only disappointment from the match was Weid, the only positive I can give him is that he made the most of his one moment in the light. The rest was just mostly him not giving enough of a competitive effort, it seems all or nothing with him. He stays only because structurally we need him there at least until Brown is fully fit, but jeez he is one of the most frustrating players we've had for a while. Great win, possibly season defining.

If ever there was a season defining game it would be this.

Agree with most of that, I would say Nibbler has been far below what he was last year. Last season he was good for a goal a game, and his tackling pressure was immense. It shows the closeness of the season that if things aren't clicking, even if it's only out by 5%, it came make a huge difference.

I've enjoyed the season, even when we've lost I've felt we've always been in the matches so the losses have been frustrating in that we haven't had the ability to go to the gear we had last year when challenge. The run home is tricky and if we manage to get top 4 then that should be recognised as a bloody incredible achievement. I also think that we could be that team that can win the premiership from 5th as everyone knows we have levels we can go to but for whatever reason it's just not clicking. The things I haven't enjoyed are Luke Jackson's contract issues, May being a complete F L 0 G, and seeing us give up winning positions late in games. But we are in this up to our eyeballs.

Alright yes I was OTT about saying almost half but it still stands to reason, it should not be called the VFL. 5 teams in a competition that's aren't in Victoria, it's simply false to called it VFL.

Stupid question but how can it possibly be called VFL. Half the teams are in NSW and QLD. Surely something like ECFL (East Coast Football League) would make sense. Anyway really tough solid win in difficult conditions today, Bowser stood out and Chandler with 4 goals I’m not sure what else he has to do to get a gig in the seniors. Has to play sub next week surely, tough to dislodge Spargoat or Nibbler but he’s doing his part.

Well done Chandler, sub next week or comes in surely.

Big goal there from JVR.

I could be wrong in my assessment but I’ve found that the “Melbourne way” is boundary line style but looking for that release kick through the corridor. Hasn’t been the way for much of the year but it’s what we seemed to do well last season. Knowing and and being able to pull the trigger is so important to generating positive forward entries.

It’s a worry but against Brisbane our forwards kicked 8 of our 16 goals, we are at our best when we have a spread of goal kickers.

Personally I’d go with Tommo, for tall coverage. I can see them going with Bedford though.

I think for us to win today Max needs to get back to his contested making best and our clearance numbers get back to at least par. We can get the goals from a spread of everyone, we just need to lock the ball in to get the likes of Petracca, Sparrow, and JJ getting looks at goal while our small forwards can provide 4-5 between them. I expect they’ll put a lot of work into Fritta today so if Weid can jag a couple that will go a long way to getting the win. Let’s see a performance like vs Brisbane!

There’s nothing I have to go on with this but I think Gus will stay, LJ feels gone to me which hurts but he helped us break the drought so it’ll be hard to stay too mad at him (as long as we get good compensation). Gus always seems to show a passion for Melbourne that’s only met by Viney and Petracca, whether that translates into him staying I don’t know but I reckon he and his manager are doing what Viney did last year. Play the field to make sure they maximise the contract.

Quarter went for 35min, did the time-keeper fall asleep of something?

Good goal from AMW.

Not pretty but it's a win. Kozzie 3 votes.

What a game from Kozzie.

This is some sort of game from Kozzie.

What a chase from Melksham, Goody would be stoked with that. And does Viney not have a neck or something. Fritta finally spotted a team thing and did it perfectly, that goal was reward for effort and teamwork.

Ahhh Sparrow!

Umpire sucked in there, Max doesn't get the ball back to him it's fine but Dixon basically drops the ball and gets a 50.