deejammin'

I missed the first handball. The other possessions in the first were ordinary. The second point is me writing badly, he did some better things after quarter time it should say. I don’t think he’ll be in the team next week, I didn’t enjoy his performance. Thanks for the corrections.

Out: Laurie In: Fritsch It seems like a lot of the calls about VFL players are based on the stats not actually watching the game. TMac did better than he has most of this year, got a few balls at ground level, took a few good marks and kicked a few goals but still looks in need of at least one more good VFL game before AFL, possibly two, if we get them. It was hardly a dominant display and overall Casey’s loss was very disappointing, after a good start they faded badly with the main issue being turnovers trying to move the ball from half back. Part of this issue was that TMac and Grundy failed to present well up the wing so we were always trying an extra handball in traffic. Hibbo going off possibly concussed contributed to this, he was playing well. Won’t be back til first final, no way we’re risking him now after being conservative with him all year. I rarely pot MFC players but Laurie was ordinary yesterday, very ordinary, dropped numerous marks, had turnovers from his first four disposals and missed easy kicks which is supposed to be his game. He did some good pressure things in the last and finally hit some targets but he’s out of the team if we’re serious next week. We also need a look at how Fritsch and Melksham work together forward. I imagine it means tweaks to the Kozzie/Chandler/ANB setup and how much we play Trac forward. I’m also in the settle Smith forward Tomlinson back camp. The hyperbole on here around Tomlinson is extraordinary, Hawthorn kicked 9 goals yesterday, only 8 of which were with Tomlinson on the ground, his direct opponent Koschizke literally didn’t score! And most of those goals in the first quarter were when our defenders had no chance with the lack of pressure we had on Hawthorn’s transition. Interesting week as if Collingwood and any one of Port or Brisbane win a loss is much, much better for us.

Should the cats keep going and win this and Moore be out for 2 all we need to do is beat Carlton and we’re red hot to be minor premiers. Awesome!!

We’ve come a long way for Oliver and Grundy to be ins in a side that’s already top two! Scary! If we bring our best pressure and contested game we will win this game. Go Dees!

I’ve watched every VFL game this season and all our AFL games and I’m yet to be convinced Schache can take a contested mark. He’s a nice kick, a good mark on a lead but he is soft in marking contests and for that reason absolutely should not play.

In: Grundy, Oliver, Hibberd Out: Petty 😭, Harmes, Smith (to be sub) So much talk about Grundy not being great in the last VFL game. I watched that, terrible conditions for bigs, blowing an absolute gale. Grundy’s worst performances have coincided with terrible conditions, rain at Geelong, torrential rain in the NT, the time to play one ruck was in torrential rain, in good conditions two could be an advantage. Without Grundy we’ve won by 1 point, 4 points and two five goal wins over teams in the bottom six, with him we’re 10-6 including wins over Collingwood and this weeks opponent Carlton, it’s hardly panic stations to have him in. If the weather looks ok Saturday he comes in. His first VFL game as a forward he got involved in much better conditions. He’s no Petty, but Brown was ok against Brisbane for one quarter and terrible against Adelaide in a game we dominated, he’s not offering more than Grundy. Schache is soft as butter in marking contests, he’s not the answer, TMac can’t move sideways and while Smith is good, our forwardline looks too small with JVR, Smith and Melk as the talls, especially when Max is rucking 90% and unable to rest forward. Also if JVR is backup ruck there will be times where we have no true talls forward, if we do that this week Weitering will have a field day, especially if we kick how we did against North, Zeibel was intercepting at will! Grundy actually gives us an advantage in the ruck while Max rests and allows Max to rest forward with JVR rather than on the bench. At worst we freshen Max up for finals with Grundy in the next few games before bringing in a fit TMac or Fritsch, at best we get what we saw in the preseason and first few rounds and the two rucks dominate. It’s worth noting that Gawn looked down on form and confidence coming back from injury early in the season, his best form has coincided with playing as sole ruck but perhaps it’s a coincidence? If Max maintains his form from the last few weeks and Brodie regains his best form we could see something truly special, flag winning special, none of the other options have that upside.

SEN reporting mid foot sprain 5-6 weeks this morning.

Such incredibly bad luck for Harry just as he was hitting top form as a forward. I think it’s time for Grundy. Especially against Carlton with their two rucks (Pittonet, De König) Max needs a chop out and Brodie has done his four week forward craft/freshen up. Brodie won’t give us what Petty does but he will give a contest and hopefully a few marks, possibly one or two goals but importantly he’ll give a lot in the ruck and allow JVR to play forward the whole game. He also lets Max drop behind the ball more while Brodie takes more forward half throw ins also. Of all our options this one has the most possible upside in terms of a flag now that Petty looks to be done. We’re winning clearances now and getting plenty of supply, clean up our kicking and Grundy will contribute, it’s become overblown how big a ‘problem’ he was forward. There were games like our Collingwood win and other early season wins where he kicked multiple goals and looked good coming back from a full season off. Our last Carlton win relied on Grundy rucking so Max could hit the scoreboard as a forward, it can work! Brodie’s hungry, he’s learned some new skills, let’s go for it, while hoping Petty has a miracle sprain and is back for finals.

The only reason Kane is not doing his usual schtick of taking the most extreme position possible is because it’s Port Adelaide. He’s hopelessly compromised when it comes to them, any other club and he would be fire and brimstone. As for Healey this same attitude pervaded the whole Essendon saga, “it was a mistake”, “the weren’t really trying to get an advantage”, “they’re good blokes”. Blind Freddy could see what happened here, they tried to game the system to gain a competitive advantage and damn the potential health consequences for the player. As you say this needs to be taken out of the entire AFL’s hands, the boys club has shown itself to not be able to be impartial and adjudicate laws effectively in these scenarios. I’m sure any independent review panel would find this egregiously out of line. Medical negligence is a thing for doctors too, they’re not perfect and this situation appears to fit the bill!

Should the AFL try its usual Modus operandi of “nothing to see here” with a slap on the wrist on a busy media day it will guarantee this continues to happen. In this case Port didn’t go on to win and thankfully the player wasn’t hurt further but if a team is going to lose their best player to a mild concussion in a final we will see more migraines unless the AFL stamp this out now. It must be a HUGE fine or premiership points or preferably both. We’ve changed almost every element of our great game to protect players from concussion and its future effects, if clubs won’t follow the rules we have the book should be thrown at them. Failure to act on this undermines the entire AFL’s ‘commitment’ to protect players.

I was one who questioned whether Petty had earned his forward spot. Insane performance. Spectacular. If he can keep competing like that every week we’ve got one here, 6 goals a huge bonus. We still look a little undersized, I feel like there’s a spot if Grundy can get into dangerous form, but I’m not sure who for. Gawn is the greatest ruckman of all time, deserves a seventh jacket, English isn’t fit to hold his mouth guard. Won us the game again. Viney, unbelievable, Lever brilliant, JVR and Melksham outstanding. McVee excellence response in the second half, ANB’s best game for the year, when he plays well we look so much better. Salem and Riv so good. We had a few messy turnovers and silly decisions but ultimately are building nicely. Although it wasn’t a great game I think Tomlinson stays in, Smith is the ultimate sub and seems to always have impact without getting injured this way. Scary to think we still have Oliver in for JJ, Sparrow for Harmes, Fritsch for Woey and potentially Grundy somewhere. That’s an insane team!

I think if Petty comes in its forward, Tomlinson has been far better back recently. But it brings into question the whole winning spots by merit argument, we have an AA ruckman doing an apprenticeship in a position he is likely to spend less than 30% game time in and demonstrating ok form. When has Petty done his forward VFL apprenticeship? He has looked decent as a forward once this year, against a undermanned Hawthorn defence for a half before being injured. I’d have brought Harrison back via the VFL as a forward and had Grundy in. Gawn and Grundy can be a genuine strength, Grundy would offer us a lot more all over the ground than Brown last week and we’d be at an advantage against the second ruck rather than disadvantage with JVR and JVR could spend more time forward when Max rests and Grundy is in the ruck. I could go for the Grundy forward training when it was for the inclusion of a genuine forward, not a back man who’s had some ok forward cameos, let’s get a big advantage in the ruck and rely on Trac, Melksham, Chandler, JVR and a resting ruck to get the job done forward.

Hammy aside Clayton has been infamous for being beaten up in season. They regularly joked on Gus and Gawny about Clarry barely being able to get his hands above his head with sore shoulders. If he comes back in 3 weeks cherry ripe I think we could see something remarkable. A fresh superstar mid moving freely and chomping at the bit in a top four side, look out!

If the Hawks can jag one win before the last round and WC gets up in the game with Freo round 24 could see a good old fashioned tanking game between the Hawks and Freo! Maybe if we win our next four and lock away a double chance we could rest all our players to throw our round 23 game against the Hawks to improve our draft picks (joking!!! Joking!!! Don’t come at me!)

It’s actually even better than that: Port 2-1 Brisbane, Melbourne 2-2 Pies 1-2 (not sure where you have given them the extra win from but they’ve only played 3 games against top 4 so far with their only win over Port, they play again soon).

Hope so. If we’d beaten them it’d be safe. I also can’t let it go easily as we outplayed them but just didn’t put it away, they didn’t deserve to win. Anyway, how about these draft picks?!

Freo’s run home: Collingwood at the G Sydney in Perth Geelong in Geelong Lions in Perth Eagles in Perth Port in Perth Hawks at the G At worst we’re getting pick 7 at best, 4!

This is beautiful but it’s also so frustrating. That Freo loss is hurting us in so many ways, we’d be basically safe in the top four and Freo would be 15th giving us a number 4 pick!!! Argh!!

This Essendon Crows game looks like what Basketball would be if every score had a ball up. I wish we scored more but I’d hate to see us play like this, there’s no discipline or contest. There’s a middle ground that produces much better football.

Looked a hip flexor thing to me. Strange outwards twist of the whole leg.

Nice goal to AMW. Casey doing something our seniors need to learn to do, putting them away early. Howes looks a player, I’m interested in why he’s being played at HB, a crowded position on our list and not the wing. He has attributes we lack in our current two wingers he’s tall, a good mark, beautiful kick and tough. Is it a tank issue?

JVR takes a nice chest mark at 50. Misses an easy pass to Chandler who passes to Jefferson who gets punched in the head. No free, Schache gets a free in the ensuing throw in and goals. We’re on top atm.

Blake Howes classy. Beats two on the wing then a perfect kick. Jefferson taking two great marks and delivering a good ball to Schache who lost it in the sun. Laurie creates a good mark to AMW who misses. Getting back on top. Good experience for Verral in his third game playing on a genuine AFL ruck in Cambell.

According to Goody in the presser copped a knock to the ribs in the 1st that got worse as the game went on and as he wasn’t covering the ground well they subbed him. Says they’re very confident he’ll be right for next week, given Goody’s record with Clayton we’ll see him next year then 😈😈

We are now 3-2 against the fellow top 6 teams. Beat Brisbane next week and we will have beaten all except Port, who we lost to by 4 points, in Adelaide, in a storm. We’re not in great form, many of our best are well down and yet we’re a game plus percentage inside top 4. If we can get it to click against Brisbane next week we could lock away top 4. I’m backing in Gawn, Grundy, Pickett, Lever to bounce back after sub standard games for them. Hoping JVR kicks ten in the VFL tomorrow and replaces a small in the forward line. Hope Petty’s ok. The negativity around here is a bit over the top, yes, we’re not playing like a premiership team, but it’s July, just bank wins. Oliver, Fritsch back for finals, find some form who knows what happens. We used to lose our game after NT every year, we managed to win the last quarter by a goal coming back from a slog in the rain this year. I’m betting if Taj and Brown kick straight in that last quarter to kill the game and give us an easy 6 goal win there’d be a lot less anger in here. It’s understandable MFCSS after our last five weeks but we weren’t losing that game.