Young Blood

Hoping he just got a minor knock and the club is being cautious. One of the toughest young players I've ever seen. Will be really missed by the club if he has to sit out long term. I think we should slow down a bit on the kid retiring if it is indeed another concussion. I too believe his health should come first before anything, but I am almost certain that Angus will try to do anything he can to keep his very young, promising career alive.

Really liked Weeds competitiveness around the ground. Thought he played a very important role especially leading up the ground where we were really lacking last week. I actually think they will look to keep Weed in even if Hogan comes back. North are a tall, great marking side. Can see us needing the extra tall options to free up Watts to move up the ground more.

Hannan was vital in keeping that forward pressure especially in the second half, I really like how well he competes in the air, launches are every marking contest with purpose. He created a lot of opportunities and explosive around stoppages at times. His team low 8 possessions were very important. I very much doubt he is dropped this week.

Nah watch it! It's a great test to see how we can compete with the best!

He will definitely have to play as a leading forward through parts of the game. Would prefer him getting more touches/involvement further up the ground. It's a catch 22. Without hogan does Adelaide forget about having the spare man to block Hogan's leads and float around for intercept marks? I can see them taking the risk early to test our forwardline with the lack of marking ability.

Jesse's father just died. Has been ill for most of the time he has been at Melbourne. I don't blame him for his heart not being entirely in it right now. I'm not going to bother explaining my disagreement with you opinions on the club's inability to fast track new players, the problem Melbourne has of not having a 'next big thing' or the picks that we deserve from the AFL. Do you even follow this team? Are you thinking of Carlton or something maybe? "Personally" i think you should just have another glass....

Its bizarre that we're only no.5 in the competition for handballs per game. We're no.3 for kicks. Shows that we're over possessing the ball just a tad.

Anyone watching the game right now? Both teams doing a terrific job of playing through the corridor. From the back pocket they're kicking in not too wide to about the 50m mark where the player marks and takes the riskier (but not rushed) kick into the square where another player marks and is met by runners coming through from Centre half back to group a string of handballs together, running it through the centre square. Depending on how well the opposition transitions back the ball is then kicked short to the players staying out at half forward or sent long over the top if its there. Most teams will aim to do this and teams like the Bulldogs and Westcoast are particularly good at doing it consistently. I think Melbourne has been playing too wide and against Adelaide they must take the risk getting the ball back inside. It is probably the most risky team to do it against as they're incredible at attacking once they force a turnover, especially through the middle. The only other time Melbourne were effective in a different game style was against St. Kilda where they possessed the ball more and widened the ground to create more space. I think in the hostile environment and with Adelaide's pressure we wont't be able to cope with that style of play. Need a lot more older heads with greater composure (ala Hawthorn types). Would just love to see us attack and really spread quickly from each contest to make a game of this!

You're right either will be better then the weed!

I don't know if Goodwins going to forget the tall element. I don't think its touches you really worry about with a marking option. Weed just needs to create a contest for our smalls in this game: Garlett, Hannan, Petracca etc. And he we need another tall besides Watts and occasionally Pederson to compete with Talia and Harigan. That being said I still think Goodwin might take this opportunty (Hogan out) to take some risks with experimenting with Tmac or Frost playing forward or at least loose across HF as Tmac did against St Kilda.

Ok then. But on the DL who does he think should be our backup tall forward/marking option? Keilty? who else is left????

Hope Hogan just slept in this morning to get the extra rest to help his 'sickness' and will catch a later flight today. If not is Weids an automatic in? Do we play Billy on a wing and get creative with the forward line? T-Mac at CHF? You would think with the ruck issues (especially against big Jacobs) we will have to go safer in Weids to allow more flexibility for Tmac/Watts/Pederson

I liked the swiss cheese analogy. The captain cooks one was a bit of a stretch.

I can only really remember Bugg doing a great job on Sidebottom one game against collingwood. Only hard tag that I can remember for Melbourne where he was quite successful in shutting his opponent down. Had quite a few tagging assignments with GWS (including shutting Garlett down a few times funnily enough) He did OK tagging Sloane last year but it wasn't a hard tag. i think it's definitely worth having him in for the option. He is a similar size to Sloane and has a good tank and could run with him through parts of the game.

Lets face it the majority of this site is for demons fans to complain about their club. I sometimes take on the challenge of finding some positive posts!

nawwwww *sad face*......

They have a more even spread of players. Their senior players are more settled in the side and overall they have put together more consistent performances.

Yes. Even though he probably needs to get his head right (literally) with a few cautious games at Casey. I definitely think once he's fit the club really invests some senior time for him and find him a role where he can play consistent footy. One of our most important players if we're to get to Saint Kilda's level.

The club said "No F....ing More" when they hired Paul Roos on big money and turned the whole club around in a few years to be at the stage we are at now. A young talented but inconsistent side that has a lot to improve on. I'd be saying those sorts of things if I was a Richmond supporter....

If Hawthorn played terribly and we lost this game then I could understand all the pissing and moaning from this guy who wrote the letter and other posters on here. But they shut our running game down for three quarters, they got numbers around the contest and forced us to handball into difficult positions and they put defenders in front of areas where the forwards could not lead forcing us to bomb it in. Offensively they changed their usual short kicking game to kick long down the line where they trusted their contested marking and it payed off. Yes Dees came out flat and should have played better in the first half. But Hawthorn were a superior side on the day.

What a d****. Doesn't deserve to go for this team. I'm really looking forward to this letter being brought up in the future when we hit some form.

When was the last time a player like this coming off a grand final and norm smith medalist left his team for $$$ And why the hell would bulldogs let him go or trade?

I think Hannan played a decent game. Was one of very few players in the forward half that put genuine pressure on a very experienced Hawthorn backline. He also created quite a few scoring opportunities. You would think JKH has to go back and get some work done down at Casey. Stretch is a definite in for me. We miss his spread and good decision making on the wings.

Agreed!! Compared to last year we weren't even close to how competitive we have been this year. Playing some daring football. There have been mistakes and the young side has lacked composure to finish games. Gotta be a little bit patient. Lets forget about finals now and see if we can put in four quarters of consistent football.

I saw T-Mac really fumble the ball in close to Hawthorns goal. Did he make many really bad kicking mistakes yesterday? Thought his decision making was better.