deejammin'

I’d have Hogan, Bedford and Jackson back. Hogan and JVR would be a formidable setup. Both great marks and mobile.

Couldn’t this be manipulated though? If the red card is reliant on the player being out for the game medical teams might keep a player off if they know it would take an opposition star out of the game? If Hewitt had been fine but the WC medical staff knew DeGoey comes out of the game if they err on the side of caution wouldn’t this be a worry? DeGoey shouldn’t have done it to begin with but the AFL is already so bad at the MRO with the benefit of time and multiple angles, I shudder to think what mistakes could be made in the moment, especially if results are reliant on team’s own parochial medical staff being impartial.

He was listed as two to three weeks last Monday, 29/5. That makes King’s birthday Monday 12/6 exactly two weeks. Now it’s a long shot, there’s no mention of him returning in Goody’s presser for example. But if 2-3 was indeed true then there’s a chance he’s available this week. Otherwise we’ll have him cherry ripe after the bye. It’s probably wishful thinking to have him back for KB but it’s not insane, it’s within the stated timeline.

In that case I think just the two changes but I’m holding out fools hope.

In: Oliver, Petty, Hibberd Out: Bowey (concussion), Harmes (Susp), Tomlinson Chandler to sub.

Pies have had five ugly games. Should’ve lost to Adelaide and Essendon, pulled it out of the fire with some skill, but also some luck. They weren’t good today, WC are as putrid as it gets and they were clearly the better team for the better part of half the game. Pies were also far from convincing against North, particularly in the last quarter. Brisbane also smashed them, the only thing keeping them in that game at all was BT’s bleating commentary. They’re the best team in the league, but they’re not perfect. Pies are 1-1 (one at home, one away) against fellow top four teams. We’re 0-2(both away). Beat them and our records are the same where it matters. Bring it on.

Wins a win. Realistically if we’d kicked straight against Freo or Fritta had kicked his usual around the corner goal against Port we’d be in a great position. As it stands we’re a game plus percentage inside the four with a real chance to test ourselves next week. We haven’t hit our best form at all this season yet, but we’ve also not had our best team on the park yet. Oliver, Hibberd are MASSIVE ins, if we get Petty back then that’s our best 22 (minus Bowey). I liked the look of the JVR, Smith, Fritsch, Resting Ruck forwardline. Especially as it lets Petty come into the backline for Tomlinson when he’s fit. Let’s give it a few weeks. Salem is getting back to his best, McVee is a gun, Lever was back to his best, Maysie looking better. Gus playing better. Hunter and Ed looked good. Gawny finally found form in the last and Trac and Viney are huge. I get the frustration, that should’ve been a ten goal win, Fritsch, Chandler, Gawn and Rivers missing multiple easy shots killed us. But we won and when we finally click it’s going to be scary. Bring on the pies.

The good news is if that’s a week DeGoey is a month!!! Bad luck for Harmesy but I think given Oliver’s impending return and JJ and Woey showing a bit in the VFL he was going to have this week off anyway.

Hey now, hey now, the dreeeam is over!

Jefferson regularly plays 2nd key forward, with BBB number one and Smith and Melksham working up the ground. He’s developing nicely but it lets us protect his body which is not JVR’s and needs to build to be capable of footy with men. Woewodin and Laurie play plenty of midfield time and Howes is being trained as a HBF, a role he shows a lot of promise in because of his marking. They’re all developing nicely, if anything we need Munro back in the middle to add another rotation, not less mids.

No

I like the sound of Woey debuting if true. He’s looked good at VFL level. I think he’ll rotate the mid/wing Hunter role with Jordon. Woey’s been very good at VFL level since his return, good in and under, makes good space on the outside, uses the ball pretty well and takes a nice overhead mark and plays a little taller than he looks which would be a different look for us on a wing.

Freo Look the better team atm

Powell, first contest on the wing hits Jermaine Jones in the head trying to spoil then hits him in the head with his knee. Both incidental, no injury. I assume he’ll offer to sit out two weeks, it’s what he deserves.

Tigers best is very good. They’ve just only brought it for a half against Carlton, against us and now for one quarter against Geelong so far this season. If they keep this going Geelong will be in for a big fight.

If they want to change the rules that’s fine. But ideally they shouldn’t do it in season, they should do it pre-season so every club can respond and train and figure out the new way. They have to do it BEFORE they charge someone with it though. As this was [censored] backwards, you can’t institute a new expectation on marking contests retrospectively as they tried to, the players need to know and understand what is expected. They’d have to word it very carefully though, to avoid defenders being complete bystanders and to preserve the pack mark and speccy. There is so much incidental contact in fair marking contests that any change to this rule is an absolute minefield for the game. I’m also genuinely shocked that this was the case they chose to try to push a rule change through on, if anything it was the Fogarty case the week before. JVR’s was pretty clearly a fair straight arm spoil and there was no injury. The Forgarty one had far more of the round arm strike action it seems they want to get rid of and it broke someone’s nose. Very proud of the club today. Glad we stuck it up them and that common sense prevailed. Also very happy to see Green, Goodwin and Trac show some mongrel about it. No more nice guys.

Max isn’t doing the goal kicking? 😳😳 How’s Salem going? In all the drills? Do you have any clues as to why Fritta has been doing his own program? Seems like it’s been going on for weeks now. Any standouts this week? Are Kye Turner and Verall there doing rehab? Thanks so much for your reports Kev! Love em!

Our argument was strong in its simplicity. There is no rule against what JVR did.

I’m worried about Roo getting suspended, I don’t think he should be, it’s a football action and he was centimetres from getting the ball, the part of his arm that brushes the head is incidental contact with his upper arm and I think it’s very mild contact. The problem is Ballard’s head moves at a strange angle and hurts his neck at the back, hence why he holds the back of his head when JVR contacted him in the front. The suns medical staff were cautious because of the potential for a neck injury and the early knock in the game where he probably could’ve stayed off. It’s not an impact injury. That said the MRO hates Melbourne and always suspends us, so probably two weeks. Apparently it’s going to the tribunal on Tuesday according to John Ralph. Get Cripp’s QC please Dees! If Roo’s out I think Smith comes in for him, he’s been super lively at VFL level and while he lacks a bit in composure and field kicking his athleticism, marking, speed, leap and set shot kicking look good up forward. I’d also love Petty back, I love Disco, but he’s not ready and we need to get the May, Lever, Petty band back together and settled, our impenetrable defense has started to look a little leaky lately and it would be great to get it back. I was for Ben Brown coming in last week as I thought he played his role well, this week I’m less convinced as while he kicked three goals he wasn’t getting to the contest as much or as well and wasn’t getting the outlet marks up the ground the way he was the week before. He’s probably the only option though as Schache was unsighted, Melksham well down after an incredible performance the week before. It’s a shame that none of our options are banging down the door up forward. Spargo and Laurie looked good but I’m not sure who they replace. If JVR available: In: Smith or Brown (Petty back) Out: Turner If JVR suspended: In: Brown, Smith (Petty Back) Out: JVR(Susp), Turner The only other one is Hibbo, if he’s fit he comes in but a lot of that will depend how we structure up with Petty and co. It’s likely Goodwin will keep Petty forward and bring Hibbo in for Turner but I’d really like Petty to go back. It’ll be interesting. Any sore players go out for Laurie, Spargo or Harmes.

He did, against the Saints. He then waited the better part of a year and a half for his next game though. I like Turner but if we’re playing him as a key he’s not ready yet and undersized, he plays better as a second or third KPD, even in the VFL Tomlinson takes the largest forward . Especially when we have a premiership KPD to play there in Petty., it’s not Turner’s time yet.

I think it would be great to move away from relying heavily on the contest and find other strings to our bow. I agree we’re moving the ball better this year, our turnover and transition game is vastly improved and we’re scoring more efficiently and heavily as a result. Yet, the three games we’ve lost both CP and clearance significantly are two losses and a five point win, the games where we win CP, clearance or both are all easy four goal + wins. The evidence so far this season shows we still rely on doing well in the contest, hopefully we either rectify this or find strategies to move away from it, but we haven’t yet. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say we’d be looking to do better than we did last night, especially against the Pies, Geelong, Brisbane and Saints otherwise it’s likely we lose. I also worry that we still set up too aggressively around centre clearance and that teams exit with too little pressure when they win them, but that’s a personal opinion.

My response was specifically about the importance of CP to our team and how we got beaten comprehensively in that area. If Fritta kicks those goals I’d imagine all our heart rates and general enjoyment of the last quarter would greatly increase. But also the ball would’ve gone back to the centre where we were getting beaten so who knows what would’ve happened. If we’re doing alternate universes I wonder what would’ve happened had Ballard not gone down, that break in play seemed to take our momentum when we were well on top and gave Rowell/Anderson time to catch their breath when, as Goody said in his presser, we were trying to grind them down. We also had chances to put a good break on them in the first quarter and missed it. My point was our losses and close games come when we get beaten in the midfield especially in CP and clearance. Statistically that’s pretty undeniable. I’m very happy to win and proud to have a team as good as ours but that will be an area we’re looking at this week, that’s all.

That stat and ladder doesn’t really show anything as it includes both wins and losses. Geelong for example, lost CP badly in their three losses and won it easily in their 5 wins. It means they’re 6th on the ladder of it but it’s a hugely important stat when they’re winning. Our CP differential when we win is +31 (+58 before tonight). When we lose it’s -20. In fact tonight was the only MFC game this season where we lost CP by over 15 and lost all clearances (total, centre and stoppage) and won, and without Macpherson’s shank we nearly didn’t. Contest is the heart of our game, we’ve improved to find ways to win if we’re losing just contested possession or one type of clearance and that’s a big part of our improvement these last few years but our losses all have one thing in common. Losing CP.

Suns were missing Touk Miller, Lachie Weller, Holman and some others. Miller is close to their best player, Weller is very underrated and Holman is a heart and soul goal kicker. I agree it wasn’t our best but it was remarkable to get the win considering we lost in so many areas usually our strengths. I really hope it’s a wake up call and we get things in order before Port and Carlton.

You feel that 46 and 80 games makes them experienced afl players? If that’s your problem with what I said then I apologise. How high they are drafted means anything? I look forward to our number two draft pick Schache dominating. I should have said they are LESS experienced than our premiership winning top 2 draft pick Norm Smith medalist Petracca who has played 158 games at 27, our two time AFL CA winning 4 time best and fairest winner draft pick number 5 Oliver who has played 154 games at 25 years old and our vice-captain Viney who has played 178 games at 29 years of age. They gave them an absolute bath. Im happy we still won, but in this game and our two losses this year our strength, contest, was soundly and completely beaten. We need to find a solution, fact. I note you ignore the stats I posted that completely proved my position and you immediately launched into draft picks and games played, hmmm. Anyway, I don’t come here to argue, but I think we’ll be working hard on stoppage and clearance this week and Trac, Clarry and Viney will be frustrated we were so well beaten in there.