Maldonboy38

I really like what I have seen in Verrall. A lot of young ruckman look awkward and uncoordinated, he seems to run and move naturally. He also has a genuine hard go at it. It could take 2 years, but worth the wait I reckon.

6. Brayshaw

5. Sparrow

4. Petracca

3. Grundy

2. Salem

1. Bowey

... and I don't know if people can score negative votes but ANB, Spargo, Chandler, Lever and Rivers were putrid. 

Our backs and mids played mostly OK. Our intensity, run and attack on the ball or player looked mostly OK. 

But our in-close handballing, fumbling, and bog ordinary kicking to inside F50 makes us look like a team placed about 8th, which is where we are heading. I cannot believe how bad our kicking into F50 is, probably best summed up by Trac's out on the full in the 1st quarter. Even our great kicks like Salem, Bowey and Picket looked terrible today.

Make no mistake, Freo were not good enough to win that game, but we were error-riddled enough to lose it. 

2 half backlines dominating, both teams struggling to find much cohesion between wing and half forward. Not a pretty game to watch. 

I don't understand the modern interpretation of a push in the back. In 2/3 of contested marking, someone is shoving the person in front forward and it is not paid. Gawn does it a lot, and cops it a lot. 

Early today in this thread I mentioned handballing, tackling, and F50 efficiency. Tackling = tick. The other 2 are the mess they have been all year.

Love how we are playing, but oh so wasteful.

Our handballing, tackling and F50 crumbing has to be sharper today. These three things have hurt us for most of this season and it would be great to see some improvement for a Saturday arvo game.  Freo are very good at ground level so we can't let them mop up easily at our half forward, and surge forward.

Our mids have been kicking goals, but our forwards have been in a slump. I reckon Fritsch & Kozzie are due a big one.

Dees by 15

A lot of football for no effect. Half back lines are dominating the game. The stats show Carlton kicking at 75% efficiency. Absolute rubbish. Their field kicking is a mess, and the Swans not much better.

So many people question Voss's coaching, but the game plan looks quite good. It is the blues players! They are doing well in the air, at stoppages, around the ground etc... they just can't kick. Their kicking inside forward 50 is so bog ordinary, and the targets they miss when unpressured must totally burn the coaches. 

If Rowbottam, Warner and others would take first option instead of trying to break every tackle or run through 3 players, the Swans would have a lot more F50 entries. Must be annoying for their forwards.

And both Swans & Blues are not good tacklers. So many get broken. 

Could be a great game, and it is not too bad, but unpressured skill level  is ruining it.

This might be a big sweeping statement (considering the available comparisons) but this thread might be the craziest, loosest, wildest, most hyperbolic load of psycho babble I have witnessed on Demonland.

Is Clarry irreplaceable? Of course, he is an absolute gun.

But that doesn't mean we shoot the players, hang the coaches, burn our scarves and merch, and start watching the NRL instead!!

It means change. 

I would love to see Trac playing 80% forward time while his ankle heals. Run Rivers, Brayshaw, Sparrow and Kozzie through the middle at a higher rate.

For those begging for 42-possession Dunstan to get a run - no, no, no, no, no!! His handball turnovers, lack of pace and often average decision making make him a momentum killer at AFL level. If we need to bring in an extra midfielder, Harmes, Jordon, Laurie or Woewodin. 

There were some glaring issues from the Port game, but we lost by 4 points. No way will there be huge changes. 

Hunter suspended, Bowey & Oliver possibly injured, forward line still not fully functional, midfield lacking intensity & polish.

OUT: Hunter, Bowey,

IN: Sparrow, BBB

If Oliver can't play, Rivers into the midfield, Jordon to HB (or Woewodin from Casey game).

Turner is ripe, but not big enough for the role he will fill at AFL level. Imagine him being caught out with Fyfe next week, or Curnow or Mackay the following week. 

One of BBB or J Smith would be good to see. Not Schache - VFL standard is his standard. 

Luke Jackson is carving it up today. His last month has been really good, and his groundball work is so clean and sharp.

22 minutes ago, A F said:

For me it was more about our mids defensive running and lack of post clearance pressure, and the lack of work rate from our forwards to impact across half forward and the middle of the ground.

IMO, it wasn't a personnel problem, but a work rate problem.

 

Absolutely agree.

The Port player with the ball could spot up a player too easily because our mids were too focused on running ahead of the play. How many targets did Port easily hit tonight? Too many, too easily.

Also, the positional play and work rate of our small forwards needs urgent attention. On so many occasions, none of Spargo, Chandler, Kozzie or ANB were to be seen when the ball hit the ground. 

6. Rivers

5. May

4. Hunter

3. Fritsch

I don't think our midfield deserve any votes because when they were bad they were atrocious,. but no-one else stood up so ...

2. Oliver 

1. Petracca 

6 minutes ago, Gawndy the Great said:

Oh but the umpires were terrible. We didn’t deserve the win but the umpires made sure we didn’t.

There were about 3-4 goals in total from frees of which 1-2 were genuine.

How Lever didn’t get a double 50? There were about 3 front on contacts missed when Frotta gets pinged for contested a 50/50 ball. 

It is just amateur hour  with umpires and the game is largely becoming unwatchable. 

Yes, umpires made mistakes and we suffered because of a few of them.

TMac also got a goal when he clearly was holding the opposition jumper.

Lever should not have got the 50 metre penalty at all for the tiny indiscretion against him by the port player.

Viney did 2 high tackles not called by the umpires.

3 minutes ago, At the break of Gawn said:

What also [censored] me off was AnB’s last kick into the forward 50. Why would he do a flat kick looking for a mark in those conditions? Why not kick a high ball deep to put the pressure on Port’s defence and try and potentially get a stoppage. Was just dumb.

It was a strange choice, but we were thrashed at ground ball all night. So if he went long and the ball ended up on the ground, Port would have swept it away like they did all night. 

Please stop blaming the umpires - they didn't beat us we beat ourselves. We got as many dodgy frees as Port did.

I don't understand the 'Goodwin is a [censored] coach vibe' when it is the players' intensity and skills that let us down.

I don't understand why we don't play a tagger. 

JVR & Viney made some critical errors in the last quarter that were so costly.

 There is something off with our midfield.

Hated the 1st half.

Very proud of our 2nd half.

Our kicking inside F50 needs a shake up. Soooo many opportunities, and some howling shockers from seasoned players.

And although some of our forwards had poor nights, they all put in solid effort. But the delivery to them... sheesh!

I love this club but boy our Jekyll and Hyde, atrocious and brilliant, sloppy and excellent patches in games is killing me. We were brilliant that quarter. 

One heck of a last quarter coming up.

Trying to think what is actually wrong. Main three things - 

Clearances. 

Marks inside 50.

Ground ball.

But I reckon these are symptoms of a greater issue. Ball hunting intensity seems to be stone cold for most players.

Not sure what is going on for Trac, Kozzie, Max, Viney, (and others) but when the ball hits the ground it looks like they are waiting to grab a Port player rather than attacking the ball. I know we score well from turonvers but is this taking it a bit too far.

I actually think TMac is doing a power of work and not being rewarded, but Spargo, JVR and ANB are like headless chooks. Chandler and Fritsch are at least having a go.

And can Clarry and Hunter please stop taking the tackle and handballing to nothing. Port are feeding off this and running away with it.

"In this quarter, Melbourne have not had a clearance".

Damning stat.

If we hit our targets inside 50, different game. Their defence is looking good due to our lack of efficiency.

But we are still getting hammered at the contest and on the ground.

The chances we have had going inside F50, our delivery has been poor. Twice, Tom MacDonald on the perfect lead, each time kicked over his head. Fritsch's field kicking is a worry.

But it is Port's forward spread from a stoppage that is killing us. Our defensive mindset was missing. And our groundball play is ugly.

I like a tagger in the 22, and Harmes plays this role better than any on our list. I understand the battle for position between Harmes, Sparrow and Jordon, and would prefer not to lose any one of them, but Harmes' tagging ability is a discipline few players ever develop. He is also a better kick than Jordon. Unfortunately, he probably sits below both Sparrow and Jordon in the pecking order. 

I remain convinced that we are a better team with BBB in, even though he can go missing, or drop lots of marks he gets to. 

At this current time, I prefer Jordon over Sparrow.

OUT: Petty, Sparrow

IN: BBB, Jordon

Harmes to sub

I like the sound of J Smith as an option, but reckon he would lack genuine game fitness. If something required him to be subbed on in the 2nd quarter, he would be out of steam in the last quarter.