Jaded No More

Our best chance here is to appeal the medium impact, on the basis of the player on the receiving end playing out the game without issues. If that gets downgraded to low, he's off. Intentional/wreckless/accidental is going to be much harder to prove. Or we can just show Dusty and Danger doing the same thing 100 times and not getting suspended and go with the "We are on top of the ladder" defence.

I worry about this game. Apart from the Richmond game, there has not been a bigger challenge in 2021 for us. We were awful on Sunday, and I am putting it down to a big come down from a big win against Richmond. However, our forwardline is going to take a few more weeks to re-settle with BBB and if Fritsch is out, we are losing our most reliable and productive goal kicking avenue. No Viney leaves us vulnerable in the middle, because he brings a defensive role that is hard to replicate and would be absolutely vital against the Swans midfield. And while I think Petty is going to prove a good replacement for Tomlinson, these things take time to work themselves out. The defensive cohesion will be down this week, and with Buddy and Papley that could prove costly. We need everyone playing out of their skins. We need a big game from Gawn, who I believe will drop back to help the defence set up behind the play, and we need a big game from BB, especially if Fritta is out.

Glad we are appealing. A complete joke given the precedence set by the MRO this year.

They called Jayden Hunt Josh Hunt ? Main reason I go to games whenever I can... so I don’t have to listen to the [censored] commentary teams

We fine players for accidental tripping now? What sort of “only a Melbourne player” rule is this?

Yeah and Bailey was in play, with a player coming at him, and he has a broken hand. Hawkins was trying to lose May and swung an arm. He didn't need to swing his arm at all. Besides, my point still stands. Medium impact for no injury is ridiculous. The guy came off for 5 minutes. Hardly medium impact.

It's the double standards for me. I don't have a problem with the suspension, if it was consistent. Either we suspend on outcome or we don't. Hawkins didn't get suspended as it was 'accidental contact', but he broke May's eye socket. Fritsch was just as much in play, player had 0 injuries and played out the game, but Fritsch gets one. How the impact is medium is beyond me. Playing the game out is no impact!

No Fritsch, we lost Tomlinson, Viney injured. I really can't see us winning this if they get Buddy and Rampe back. Important against the Swans to bring in a defensive mid, so Sparrow is a must for me. Baker out. Petty for Tommo Weideman for Fritsch, as Fritsch plays as a tall anyway. Melksham gets a reprieve as we won't make 4 changes when 3 are forced. Jones or Melksham medical sub.

Would agree. We play Carlton the following week. Worth risking a 2 week penalty.

[censored] I hate the AFL double standard rubbish. If his name was Dusty, he would never get done for that.

Crap if Buddy and Rampe are back I fear this game may prove to be our first loss of the season. I suppose we are due.

Mate think about all us mid 30s supporters who have not seen us do anything but suck for basically our entire life. I am genuinely in foreign territory here.

These stats are a sad reminder of both how [censored] we have been and how old I am. So cheers.

Brayshaw played a different role today because we lost Viney and inexplicably they brought in a winger to replace him. Talk about not fixing what isn’t broken and we have 2 guys who could have replaced Viney one for one in Harmes and Sparrow. Unless we didn’t know Viney was a possible out, and hence couldn’t play those guys off a short break, I have no idea why you would bring Baker in to replace an inside mid. We gotta stop throwing Brayshaw around to fill holes and then wonder why he isn’t getting into the game. He has to settle somewhere.

You play one bad game and win by 5 goals to go top of the ladder and all the crazies are out of their boxes yelling at the sky.

Fair enough. I didn’t look at the stats. I looked at the game, and I may have missed those pressure acts. Maybe I see him not chase and miss lots of tackles because he goes in half arsed and that annoys me. And Jones is a non issue. He was dropped and only came in as the injury sub. We know he’s borderline best 22 now, but I thought he was quite good today and his cool head kept us afloat when everyone else was barely going. He also has about 200 more runs on the board than Melksham.

He would have had an assessment to determine if one was needed. Obviously it was not.

West Coast are doing well considering their enormous injury list and the fact they’re missing the tranquil sounds of their booooooing fans tonight

Interview on the MFC website with him post game. He said no concussion symptoms just stitches and a sore head.

He was shaken. Passed concussion test. Came back on. He was rattled for sure but high impact is if you cause injury.

I actually think losing Viney will hurt us more than Tommo. Our clearance work is super dependent on Viney playing as a defensive mid and today we took a long time to adjust without him. Jackson winning his own ball sure helped. He is a gun. Kosi is spectacular but Jacko is just insane to be doing what he’s doing at his age and his height.

It sure had an impact on me. Poor guy. He seemed so overcome by emotion. Like he just was in shock and the wave of disappointment kept coming back again and again.

Disagree. Tackling and pressure acts are a non negotiable for everyone in the team according to Goodwin. Being a high half forward who doesn’t kick many goals, means defensive pressure is even more important. I wouldn’t drop Melksham because he isn’t winning clearances, but putting pressure on and tackling is really just a stock standard request for someone in his role.

So long as we are on the “right side” of MCG finals it doesn’t matter. If finishing 4th means we end up playing Port in Adelaide, then I rather finish 1st.

Agreed that ANB was putrid today. Awful in the first half on Zeibel and couldn’t hit a target in the second half. What gets to me about Melksham is that he doesn’t do the team thing like everyone else. I understand he is a very very good user of the footy, but he’s also selfish and lazy. His half hearted tackles are a slap in the face to Spargo who is 4kg wet and yet throws himself at tackles with no care for his safety. There are a lot of players working hard in the VFL and big pressure for spots, and so I don’t understand why Melksham hangs onto his spot when he doesn’t do enough.