Young Blood

Side note I was at the game and really felt like the saints made him earn it. He's often sat on/collapsed on after coming to ground post marking contest but I noticed it happening a little more often yesterday and a few of them you could see him looking slow and sore to get up. Would like to see a bit more protection for him in marking contests. A lot of the time because of his size he is often the only one to go up against two opponents with everyone else staying down. He will either mark or half the contest giving us a spare for crumbing, a strategy thats worked incredibly well and a credit to Max. However I would like to see more players attempting to bump his man or opposition off their line/run towards contested marking contests. I feel he could be supported better with that unnecessary extra physicality in the air at times, especially early on this season. At 30 yrs old now the way he plays, the physical toll will become more evident and recovery will be harder.

Played out the game, no strapping and carried Tmac off the ground on his shoulders after the game. All signs indicate this is hopefully just a precaution and its minor. He might have woken up sore this morning.

The idea in theory could work but these days the way teams set up defensively is important to create opportunities offensively. What I mean by that is manning up across the ground is a defensive strategy that involves your whole game being dictated by the opposition. When we turn the ball over where are players positioned on the opposition to make the offensive transition? The modern game requires knowing when you win the ball back in certain areas of the ground that there is an outlet available in parts A/B/C of the ground. Zoning defenses allows greater structure and system when winning the ball back (as evident in our game). Younger teams with less experience will suffer most in this area if this structure is broken. Apart from St.Kilda being incredibly slack defensively most of the game and being too safe for large parts of the game with ball in hand/playing too slow. They were actually alright when they changed the angles. They simply lacked polish to transition the ball with some of the higher risks they were taking. Team's like Freo and Brisbane will be much better transitioning the ball with speed to really challenge us. Looking forward to the challenge! Tagging Ed is quite a commitment with his ability to cover ground being the best in the comp. There's not quite enough evidence that it dramatically upsets our game plan (GF Ed was pretty ineffective as a big example). Traditionally wing's don't really get a hard tag. Having Ed loose as he was on the weekend certainly isn't ideal as it makes out game so much easier. So its a bigger conundrum for coaches than a simple tag.

Breakfast with Mum in the morning then off to the game with my Dad and brother like we do/have every dees MCG game for the past 18 years. I'm a good boy Come along folks if you can! Enjoy this ride in person, there's nothing like it.

Suggestions of swinging Melksham down back have me a bit puzzled. Has he been training with the backline pre season? I understand he has the size and footskills to fill somewhat of the Salem role but he is pretty slow. Don't mind him coming in as a HF/HB swingman role as depth for the Sparrow's.Harmes' but I would imagine a last resort at this stage as a true backman. I think best point of action is to play through Bowey more in terms of rebounding out of defence. I was surprised to see he had only the 9 possesions on Friday but he used the ball well with them as he usually does. For mine probably second best kick in the side within 40m. I think unless one of Rivers, Hibbo or Lever don't get up we'll see Tmac down there again. He's steady, reliable, gives you greater flexibility with how you use May and takes the pressure of a returning Tomlinson.

I'm a little suss on Dunstan. He was always a bit of a whipping boy down at the Saints mainly due to his average disposal and decision making. The guy can do all the right things then absolutely butcher the ball with lazy execution at times. He had an interesting year last year at the saints, being on the outer at the start of the season, lacking pre season fitness and form. He worked his way into the side with excellent performances in VFL and ended up playing some consistent AFL footy toward the back end. He even ended up second in St. Kilda's Brownlow votes. Funny he didn't crack the top 10 in St. Kilda's best and fairest. I imagine this is mainly because he only played the 12 senior games but still.... I don't think he was rated very highly internally at St.Kilda. That leaves me wondering a little bit about how much he will be able to impact our side. I think the conclusion is yes has been brought in for depth. But I think it will take injuries or some consistently poor form in terms of what the coaches want out of players over a number of weeks for Dunstan to get any sort of look in this side. Oh and of course losses as well. Hard to replace anyone in comprehensive winning sides on any team when we're playing like this.

Agree with all of the above. I was at the game on Friday and I love watching off ball what players do and how they position themselves around the ground especially around stoppages. Both Harmes and Sparrow were setting up more defensively regardless of where they were playing, this allows us the forward movement out of stoppages with some insurance behind the ball a lot of the time. The two of them run incredibly hard both ways and their bigger bodies really stand up in contests around the ground. So while they may not do as much around the ball they are great utility guys that also give our best mids a break.

Goody did mention he had not planned for Tmac to play down back this season having him train with the forwards all preseason. However with no Lever, Petty, Hibberd, Rivers and now Salem his hand was forced last night. Smith is obviously still getting used to AFL level and Tomlinson will take a while too after a year out. We need some stability down there with May so he can stay aggressive, also Tom was most effective further up the ground last night playing as a CHB creating great contests behind the ball. One of those 5 premiership defenders return you might see more Tmac down back with us having enough options up forward. Down forward the formula of Brown, Fritta, Gawn, Jackson, Trac as marking options with Kossy, Spargo and Nibbler supporting on the ground is a great balance to me. I do agree that towards the back half Tmac might get squeezed out at some point. Hope he uses that as fuel to keep up form.

urgh modern-day media strikes again. Obviously separate issues but some will muddy this up by bringing the two wrongs (incidents) into the equation. 1. Pretty simple to me. Bevo gets his big fine (SEN saying six figures... ooof) He'll come out at some point and give a round about sort of apology to media people who took offense indirectly towards Tom of some kind. 2. Tom Morris will or at least should lose his job after this leak. If it was about a member of the public he might have got away with suspension but in pretty much any professional workplace this is a straight up sacking now when reffering to a fellow employee this way. Fox will be silly to try and tuck this one away...... Then again its AFL football media we trying to forecast. The greater AFL community and media knowingly allow guys like Wayne Carey not only come back into the media but put him on a pedestal regularly after everyone is aware of the guys horrible reported history of behavior including glassing a woman in the face. Apologies the rant went a bit off track there.

I thought our two most important players last night were Jordan and Spargo. Their positioning and contested work in predominantly one and one situations were excellent. Their decision making under pressure is elite IMO. At 21 and 22 years old they both play like 200 gamers with their footy IQ and understanding of the game.

Mt Bulla or Hotham?

Does anyone know if theres a chance someone uploads a replay with different commentary? I really want to watch sans BT's over the top drama. Any angels out there willing to sink up a SEN or 774 call to the game? Apologies if this has already be queried

James Jordan will be the sub. Why change a winning formula now? Why bring in a guy who hasn't played an AFL football game for 6-7 weeks to a role as a sub which he hasn't played all season long? Most importantly our game (and especially this one) evolves around contested ball and pressure. Jordan provides both of these at a pretty high standard across the ground. He is smarter and more reliable with ball in hand. We can cover for a smaller back or forward going down most likely. But if one of the three starting mids/ engine room guys go down in the middle I'd much rather see JJ at centre bounces more often then Sparrow and Harmes. I totally get others wanting to bring in more spark off the bench with the run and carry of Hunt. But I just don't see Goodwin risking it. Hunt's ball use has been better this year sure but JJ is so much more reliable.

Interesting that Langdon isn't being thrown into the mix of our most important players heading into Saturdays game as much as others. He's crucial to us transitioning the ball out of defence and any time we switch of turn the ball over. I would have thought if the midfield battle is tight in terms of contested football that players like Langdon with his outside run might be the difference in the two sides. Not sure it means much but statistically his worst two games of the season were against the dogs. Hope that changes this weekend!

Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports

Rarely gets beaten in the contest. His ability to use his length to spoil an opposition mark attempt and bring it to ground in dangerous spots has been terrific.

Anyone else feel that Petracca is a good chance? Even thought about putting something down with his odds today. I know the two midfield studs are going to steal votes off each other (along with ol Rick and Gawn as well). But I just feel Trac sticks out more with is explosiveness. He accumulates a lot of ball and how he uses his body to break games open is just incredible. Anyway its unlikely but I just have a feeling he's closer then others think

Keep it coming I say. A lot of media is hyping up the dogs given they have the bye and belief. Thing is I think the bye suits us more as we've just been through it. We know exactly what to do to prepare and it worked incredibly well. Keep the same routine and structure. Dogs might be the ones to come out flat I reckon.

Can we just have a giant projector screen going outside somewhere where we can all walk in pairs socially distanced in a circle watching while sipping latte's?

Paul Roos would have been my pick. I can see them convincing Gaz. Yeah he did say that in those interviews but I also thought he looked to be embracing it. Knowing he's one of the few club greats available and how much he cares about the team I can see them convincing him. He's still got such a strong relationship with the club and a lot of the players. Would love to see him hand it over to Max.

Same here. Fox have been playing previous contests between Melbourne and Geelong starting from a while back until now. I've been sucked in to watching them all. My main take was a reminder just how much Selwood CAN step up in big games.

If adding Narkle in late to the emergencies is a tactic of Scott's its a strange one. If he was fit or even close to you would think he would already have been in there. Unless they have more late outs you would think this means Narkle will be the medi sub. Interesting...

The fact that he wasn't named as an emergency makes me think the same. He's not fully fit just yet. Interesting to see Chandler named as an emergency. Hoping that one of the small forwards isn't under injury concern. I'm sure I'm over reacting and he's just listed there as he's been a sub before and another decent option behind the other three.

Can't read the story because of pay wall but I'd imagine the timing of this would be deliberate from Gaz. Give the group more reason to dig really deep tonight. If we're down at any point think of guys like Jim and Neil who are two of the most resilient people on the planet. Think about how much this means to them and the supporters. Go the mighty demons.

Would love to see Clarry win it. Deserving IMO. But I think it will go to Wines. Apart from Boak he doesn't have the level of competition for votes that Clayton has with Gawn, Trac, Lever etc.