Young Blood

If we can keep the Perth trio signed on and happy in Melbourne we're pretty well set up for some consistent football for quite some time. The three of them have such high ceilings. We're clearly drafting very well the last few years but the player development within the club has been outstanding. So keen to see how Rosman, Laurie, Turner and Smith develop with a few preseasons under their belt. To me there's only a handful of players who have had a bit of time at the club with whom the jury is still out whether they can perform at AFL level and thats Baker, Bedford and Chandler. Its as much about our depth probably keeping them from opportunity then anything else as well. I've left out the two mid season recruits. As you can see from footywire's squad list they're still a bit too young to play AFL yet. 😆

It's his defensive stuff around the contest that I'm sure the coaching staff are liking. He and Viney are our defensive mids/forwards who are really physical and intimidating. I agree that he has been really untidy with the ball but hopefully that improves in the coming weeks.

He's by far out toughest player with AVB, Harmes and maybe May a bit further back. He's definitely out of form, body doesn't look right. Looks perhaps a bit top heavy and legs aren't conditioned perhaps. But he still gives so much aggression and hard work inside especially defensively. I feel like he and Harmes are asked to play on the edge through the middle of the ground. Be intimidating and hurt when you tackle. It doesn't surprise me that this happens when a player is playing on the edge like he is that you cross the line every now and then. Not a good look but slow mid week news will go nuts with it as per usual. All the best players have their ugly moments (e.g. Judd). I worry a bit about Jack though. At times doesn't look too happy. His body language isn't great. I hope its more frustration with his body as apposed to anything else within the team and role etc. He forced quite a bit on the weekend and looked agitated so again this doesn't surprise me.

I'm talking about in game fatigue. We're not coping at times with increased physicality. Big bodies of Port and Hawthorn were really hurting us around the contest. Needless to say we're on the same page. Be the aggressor, hunt from the start.

I think fatigue might play a factor as well here. The last two weeks have been really physical games. I think the boys have taken a fair beating and it shows when making decisions in game. Not making excuses but I think teams are making a consertive effort to really hunt us with tackling and physicality around the ball and its showing. Need to weather the storm and make sure we're the aggressor. I thought we set the tone early in that Port game.

I get what you're saying re Brown. Give him a few more weeks to find some continuity with the team. Hopefully some consistency can be found in how we deliver the ball to him. But not sure if I would go as far as to say he's more critical to our structure then ANB, Kossie and Fritta will ever be. Apart from kicking 72 goals between them they are crucial to our forward line structure especially defensively which is how we have generated most of our scoring this season. Definitely need to see more from Brown to warrant a spot come finals. Some signs starting to show the last few weeks that might come to fruition. Fingers crossed!

Not concerned if Bailey is doing some slightly cheap stuff off the ball. Most smaller sized forwards do this to gain an edge. Eddy and Toby do it brilliantly.

God I hope its Saturday not Friday. We need all the rest we can get after the physicality of the last two games. Hawthorn especially I thought were ferocious with their tackling and body work around the ball. Sore boys.

Unfortunately the game has changed too much for the deep stay home forward out of the goal square to come back any time soon. It's mostly due to defensive structures. Most teams play a zone defense these days meaning they defend space as well as their man. Having a forward stay deep is problematic as most of the time opposition either play an extra defender or have a defender zone off their man to fill the hole between the key forward and the play up field. You would see many more two on one's if the strategy was to play someone predominantly deep. It's too predictable. The only time you see genuine one on ones in the forward half is usually off a turnover causing a transition where the deepest forward (about 50m mark on average) pushes hard enough back before the opposition get back to set up the zone (or you catch defenders ball watching/napping) May and Lever are so successful because they play predominantly inside forward 50 and zone off their men so well. Hence why opposition are now trying to pull them out and make them more accountable away from their forward 50 where they eat up intercepts.

Yeah nope. Most of the time forward 50 was vacant when in oppositions forward half.

When you say hold position you mean a forward stay back deeper? These days that's probably the 50m mark. Very rare you ever get a deep position forward position on any team in 2021.

How has Melksham been going for Casey? Hows his pressure been? We rely so much on forwardline pressure to produce turnovers resulting in scoring opportunities. Kozzy gives you so much added pressure when he doesn't have the ball. Sure, he hasn't been good offensively the last few weeks but I was at the game on the weekend and his repeat defensive efforts to close in on the oppositions backs was still evident. I would worry about losing our fastest high energy small forward whom for the majority of the season has been a catalyst for our forward half success. Melksham has been slow underwhelming at best.

This has been my preference for a while now to leave out the other tall. Neither Brown or Weid are playing good enough footy right now to deserve a spot. Jackson has been building nicely this season. He's spent less time in the ruck of late and looks more and more imposing up forward. He's been taking strong contested grabs on the wings and I think the coaches believe this could translate to better marking contests deeper inside forward 50. Max/Jackson to spend more time on ground switching between forward/ruck. This is my favourite mix so far this season. We should see Bailey and Trac more involved as targets as well.

Tmac is expecting second kid mid next week. On standby to return if it comes early. Might miss Mondays game if thats the case. https://www.afl.com.au/news/628885/key-dee-could-miss-pies-clash-due-to-a-different-birthday

He will be in the extended 40 man squad you would think if he maintains this form. But not the best 22. Unfortunately the 'wing' role isn't of significance to the AA team as its just 'midfield' hence why no pure wingers ever really get in. Its all centre square midfielders.

IN: Lockhart, Langdon Out: Melksham, Hunt or Salem Easy

So Tmac is equal 17th with a few other players kicking 20 goals 10 behinds for the season so far. I think there's a strong argument for him being in the conversation for AA, at least the way he's tracking. If you look at it this way, out of the top 20 forwards (goal kicking wise) whom he would be best compared to this season, Tom ranks: Marks - 3rd Disposals - 1st Tackles - 4th Inside 50s - 2nd Contested Possession 3rd Uncontested - 1st Goal assists 3rd 1%'s - 2nd He's also had a decent amount of hitouts as a forward with two rucks in the team. The main things against him as an upper potential All Australian is his contested marks and marks inside 50 are on the lower end of that group. If we see more of that and obviously pushing the top 10 for goals who knows!

Yeah. Hunt's speed would suggest he'd be in the picture to play on him but I've watched Cameron a fair bit this season and he really dislikes contact and physicality. I think we'll see players rotated including Hibberd, Rivers, Hunt and maybe even Salem to make him accountable on a dangerous player.

Isn't it wonderful when you can be so wrong about something that actually ends up coming to fruition and you can sit back and just admire. All the work he put into this part of his conditioning and fitness has really been on show this season. I still think Tmac's agility/mobility is restricted, its just the way he is but he's worked mighty hard on it and its a big reason he's been able to get back into form.

Simply confidence and concentration. He does everything else right. His strength and positioning are great now. I'm expecting them to start sticking the next few games. Thought Friday was a step in the right direction. He's putting himself in a position to succeed with marking. He just has to grab the opportunity with both hands....

Loving the work Gus is doing on the opposite wing to Langdon. All the little things, positioning, winning/halving both ground and marking contests, he tackles with intent every time. On Friday it was the most obvious display but he's been consistently playing this role all year. As stated by Daisy he rarely loses a contest. The ball use at times has been the only knock but I think that comes out of being encouraged to be creative with ball in hand with his spatial awareness and vision. This is a player we thought might only succeed as an inside mid. Like Tmac, proving a lot of us wrong. Thought this might be a good place to discuss others favourite's for doing the little things/playing a less obvious but crucial role in this teams early success.

He certainly has the endurance Tom. But playing predominantly on a wing for a game? I don't think we will see it. While I appreciate the work he's put in to his body and improving his agility he's still not nimble enough IMO for that role for long periods. His speed off the mark is decent but repeat sprints after repeat sprints I'm not sure. He is relying an awful lot on the fend off at the moment in contests and as seen on Friday it has got him into trouble. Short stints of Tmac on a wing or further up the ground are great. As a whole game winger I don't think so.

While I think its a fun suggestion I really doubt they will consider Hibberd on a wing regardless of how small the ground is. The guy has been terrific down back as out solid best 6. But he doesn't have the tank/gut running. He's one I notice often with hands on knees after a few big contests really sucking it in. His role is too important down back with the way we structure to bring him further up the ground. I think Sparrow will definitely come back in. I doubt they bring in a fresh face like Bowey for such a big game and Baker hasn't showed much at Casey of late to really be an option on the wing. My guess is they will rotate players through that position. Guys like ANB, Sparrow and even some of the other mids.

On Weed. I understand there are areas of his game that need improvement like his pressure acts as @binmanhas pointed out. Not good enough at times in this area for sure. But overall I thought this was his best game by far. The two goals were nice but I thought he was creating terrific marking contests in the first half and imposing himself adequately. He only juuust dropped three or four where he really should have marked them. You could see his frustration (at one stage yelling loudly at himself as he hit the turf). The kid is really competitive and I think he now has the body and when playing with confidence to really impact the game. His decision making is improving as well. I'm actually in agreeance with a lot of MFC players and coaches who have stated that they believe Sam is building nicely. I think we discount the difficulty of playing alongside three other talls in the forward half a lot of the time competing in the air, knowing when to fly and where to lead/position yourself both offensively and defensively would be difficult. He's three games in and starting to be more involved in games. I think as the second tall option last nights game was great, he played his role and as Jonathan Brown stated post game a performance he won't be dropped for. It's great that Brown will keep pressure on his position but many on here are in the belief that he will magically become the dominant forward he was 2 years ago. I'm not so sure. Browns inability to separate off his man and his slowness when the ball hits the ground have been a real worry to me and quite possibly a liability in the senior side to be honest. I feel Weid is more agile and there's greater flexibility in his role. If BBB is the player we think he is he should really be kicking bags in the VFL and an imposing force. I hope this happens but until then... We shall see.

that sucks. Huge loss against Brisbane