Young Blood

Regarding playing with more structure offensively. You could see last week that they wanted to get back to very basic football of moving the ball forward at any cost (compared to the lack thereof against the hawks). In some ways the frantic style of play seemed to startle Richmond at times. We kicked the ball long and relied on pressure to out work them around the ball to get scoring chances. It was good to see this as there will be more wet weather games ahead where that style of play will be important. But today I hope to see some switching of the ball and more daring movement through the corridor.

Some of the work he was doing on the wings last night was very impressive. His spacial awareness and decision making is pretty quick for someone his size.

There's no way they drop Garlett unless he's sore or injured this week. He is far too dangerous on a fast dry surface. I'm sure Spargo is tracking in the right direction and Garlett has had two very poor games by his standards but I just can't see it happening this week.

Maybe I was reading too much into this or they were just particularly average last night but I was watching both teams warm up before the game. There was such a big difference between confidence kicking for goal and general ball movement. Richmond looked really self assured when moving the ball and kicking for goal, every player had their head over the ball and trusted one another. A lot of Melbourne players were very casual often leaning back too much with kicks and a lot of miss kicks when passing to each other. I watched guys like Petracca miss about 5 drop punts from 30m in a row. I get that players try to stay loose and calm before the game but I couldn't help but notice it seemed to translate over into the game. Players were very fumbly and there were very few kicks over 20m to advantage for us. I wonder if there is genuinely too much focus on handballing because that was one facet of the game we did OK with last night in terms of ball movement.

Who are we resting?

Did Smith play? I think you can if you play limited game time but not sure if that was the case

I like the Stretch inclusion. I think he has the potential to be a ready steady consistent player. I want him to become part of the young core of mid/wings (Trac, Brayshaw, Oliver, Salem) that really lift eachother each week and perform to a high standard. Long way to go still obviously.

Shocking turnover. I wonder if its just that he's not used to playing that far up the ground? or?

Yeah he definitely would have played through some pain. I've played a game with a fractured hand. When its cold and wet your hands are generally a bit more numb so it might have felt more minor. Hopefully he didn't do a lot more damage playing out the game.

touche

oh of course he did my bad. he was ok then.

I too expect Bugg to play. Did he stuff up his opportunities? yes. But he is always heavily involved in our forward entries as a pest who draws free kicks, an opportunist crumber or makes a genuine contest in the air for his smaller size. I definitely can't say the same of Melksham. I hope he gets replaced with Hannan who can have a greater impact up forwards

This is a blow to me. Yep he had a shocker last week but he's been one our more consistent players at impacting the game early in the season. His ball use is still so much better then a lot of our young players. He more often then not at least makes the right decision by foot even if he misqueues occasionally. On the big stage in a heated game its always useful to have cool calm heads who use the ball effectively off half back. A steadier down back that will miss a chance next Wednesday to bounce back after a terrible game.

Yeah I agree with this. I don't think the demons are kicking long to contests more often then not for no reason. Most of the time teams now plug up the areas forwards lead into. Like binman mentioned you only really get that opportunity if there is a scramble at half foward and players become loose able to lead freely into holes OR of course if the defense slacks off. I think when the ball stops either with a free kick or mark on half forward, opposition teams get back and fill the backline leaving leads pretty difficult sometimes. If you miss kick to a lead the opposition can rebound so much quicker and effectively then if you send a high long ball in which gives us more time to set up across half forward to lock it in? maybe?

That'll work. You don't lose that much pace and gain some height and better impact in marking contests. I think Hunt has been getting lost in the first two games. Was better on the weekend but needs to really work on his new role further up the ground especially his positioning. North are a good marking side. Really hope we're not found out again this week with that being a major issue.

It's a tough one because Garlett plays a lot deeper where Hannan leads up to provide marking contests across half forward. For that reason they might give him another go. But he will have to work a lot harder pressure wise because I watched him trail off after missed marks/leads and fail to put pressure back on the opposition. Of course that goes for all our forwards especially if we're going to stay relatively small while T-Mac is out.

I agree with others that we had way to many small/medium forwards: Melksham, Fritsch, Garlett and Hannan. You could also count ANB and Harmes who run through the midfield but spend what looks like most of their time across half forward I thought Hannan was way down on the intensity he showed most of last season. He bobbed up in the second half with a few timely goals which is obviously his role as a small forward but I thought he was one of a few forwards that let Geeling rebound the ball far too easily with non pressured kicks to set up their corridor attack. It certainly didn't help when he was one of the only marking options in our forward fifty being surrounded by 2-3 Geelong players every time. For me its: In: Brayshaw, Tyson, Bugg, Frost Out: Wagner, Maynard, Hannan and one more. Would like it to be Melksham but Goody loves him and he did have a great preseason. Besides Melksham I thought the other major under performer was Salem. I think he only needs 15-20 touches to be effective with his kicking ability but his positioning on the weekend was terrible. Will get another chance this weekend but must lift.

Hopefully if all goes well I think with big preseasons from the likes of J. Smith, AVB and Maynard: B: Jetta Omac Frost HB: Lewis Lever Hibberd C: Gus Tyson Hunt HF: ANB Tmac Petracca F: Garlett Hogan Harmes Fol: Gawn Oliver Viney Int: Jones, Maynard, AVB, J. Smith - I really hope guys like Salem and J.Smith push to force older guys like Vince and Melksham to be depth players. - I think Harmes at this stage is better then Hannan around the contest. He just adds a little bit more then Hannan who is a better loose HF. Better tackling and pressure and doesn't get knocked off the ball as much. I hope these two really battle to try to better one another for this spot.

Rance is something like 7 years older. I think Lever has a natural build but will take more time to build the strength to be able to be a better one on one defender. His level of concentration and timing is pretty outstanding. If he can be as good as Josh Gibson or Rance he could anchor our backline for many years.

Yeah I agree with this. I definitely think another key back would boost the team but with the recruitment of Hibberd, the significant development of Frost and slower development of Oscar I think we're in pretty good shape. We still need another tall back to add to our depth beyond Frost/Oscar/TMac. But it doesn't have to be Steven May.

He even laid his first and only tackle as a dee today! What a guy.

He had a partial dislocation of his patella tendon pre Christmas. Could still be feeling that knee. He didn't play any JLT and missed round one so kinda rushed in a bit. I wouldn't be surprised

It's round 6. Keen to revisit this thread when we're past the halfway mark. I do think he's had an interrupted pre-season and looks a tad off. That alone is a good reason for him to either rest or get some form back at Casey. Thought he was pretty decent against Freo and one of few that played well against Carlton. But jeez we're talking about a guy who is 23! I personally think he's got some more time to develop and improve his fitness and decision making.

I agree Soidee but I think there are a few others like McDonald and Jetta who could show better maturity and leadership as well. I wouldn't heap all the blame on Jones. He just looked stuffed in that last qtr last night. I hope the club isn't in strife if we don't have Lewis playing. Also he's only played two games. He was great in one and ok in the other. Not sure if he alone is the answer to our leadership problems.

He is definitely playing better but I think Tyson, Lewis and Viney are OK too. In terms of clearances yes at the moment a class above but we have good contributors around him like ANB, Strech and Salem.