poita

Is a supplement still a supplement if it makes you perform worse? Perhaps whatever we are taking should be called a decrement.

I can't believe we are paying the bloke $800K a year to not take one of the opposition's best two forwards. Oscar McDonald gets relentlessly criticised around here, but he isn't playing on players the calibre of Doulton Langlands as Lever is.

You know what they say about ifs and buts ...

If it is in a trade for Lever and his giant pay packet, then it sounds good to me.

https://www.afl.com.au/news/2019-07-31/who-has-the-best-crop-of-u23s-we-rank-them-from-worst-to-best This is what happens when you basically ignore the draft for three consecutive years. The Lever debacle in particular has set us back a long way. We have no option but to hit the draft hard this year and restock the list.

I can't comprehend why we keep allowing / instructing our key forwards to lead to the same spots. Yes, a clash of heads is a total accident and completely unavoidable in a contact sport, but that particular incident wouldn't have happened if they were leading in different directions. You never see Darling and Kennedy in the same areas.

Sure, much better to go ten straight years without playing finals.

Disposals 370 v 332 Inside 50s 60 v 39 Scoring Shots 29 v 20 Tackles 79 v 63 Against the 14th ranked side, who sacked their coach a fortnight ago. If St Kilda had kicked better for goal we would have lost that game by 8 - 10 goals. We were dreadful for most of the night and unfortunately half of our current side is not AFL standard, including some big names (starting with Lever).

My son's under 9s team plays a lot like Melbourne does. Numbers around the football, blind kicks forward, heaps of entries into the forward line. Only difference is those kids would rather lose a limb than give up a shot at goal, whereas Melbourne players prefer to pass off from anywhere outside the goal square. Probably why the kids have won 8 of 11 and Melbourne has won 5 of 18.

The biggest problem with Lever is that he thinks he is a much better player than he actually is. It would do his ego some good to spend some time in the VFL learning how to kick and defend his opponent.

Didn't Spargo just have a rest, shortly after the mid season break? Now he is AWOL again. Our management of Hannan this year has been absolutely putrid. Good to see Melksham and Stretch back .

Being sub-175 cm tall doesn't automatically preclude you from being an AFL player, but it does put you at a serious disadvantage. Recent history shows that if you are sub-175 cm, slow and don't kick goals, your chances of being a long term AFL player are very slim indeed. Those that make it are generally elite at something else (eg Caleb Daniel's disposal and decision making), which is why I don't think any of Spargo, Bedford or Chandler will make it and why Kennedy-Harris has possibly played his last game.

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/localfooty/vfl/vfl-2019-lyon-labs-casey-fields-vfl-ground-a-cow-paddock/news-story/b6203e35d4c80aed23b0244a0992fc54 Remind me again what we get from the Casey arrangement. A Z-grade facility many miles from our traditional supporter base and our home ground; a constant struggle to attract decent VFL listed players to ensure a competitive environment for our developing players; crowds that are a fraction of what D-grade VAFA teams attract; and a truckload of money wasted. I would love to know how many paid up members we have from the Casey area as a result of the 11 years we have spent down there, because I find it hard to believe that many young families from the area are travelling 90 minutes each way to see Melbourne play at the MCG. And they certainly aren't going to watch the VFL side play.

We had no choice but to play Preuss over the past two weeks because Weideman, Smith and McDonald were all unavailable - in an ideal world he wouldn't have played either of those games. He is either a number one ruckman, or a number two ruckman against sides with two strong rucks (eg Port). If he plays forward he will do best as a third tall, where he can hopefully get a mismatch against a smaller opponent. That said, I didn't notice him being run off too often in either game, and our forward structure was as good yesterday as it has been for a number of weeks. If he can ruck 30-40% of the game and play forward 30-40% to give us a different look, I think it is worth persevering with him in the side. If it gives Max a decent chop out and allows him to play forward at times, that is a massive bonus for us.

Bedford & Chandler 4 kicks between them - no way either is going to be an AFL player, so delist one this year and one next. Hannan continues his woeful season with the princely sum of 1 behind for the afternoon. He should be dominating at that level, regardless of conditions. He looks as though he is happy just to be in an AFL environment - doesn't want to overexert himself at any point. Maynard 12 touches in conditions that were made for him, very disappointing. I assume he knows he is done. I know some people rate Smith, but when does he ever dominate VFL games? He'd likely be a better AFL option than Preuss at the moment, but he is not the future of the club so I have no issue with them playing Preuss for the rest of the year. Kielty had a taste of AFL, and has given nothing since going back to the VFL. Surely he is gone with so much defensive depth at the club. Baker should play against St Kilda next week, but it is hard to make a case for any of the others.

Both Wagners in - the tank for pick 2 is on.

Extraordinarily poor bench. Only Baker and perhaps Lockhart deserve to be there. Corey Wagner has played 5 games and been dropped 3 times, Smith has played six games and been dropped / or injured 3 times. Josh Wagner at least has only been dropped twice in 10 games, but was lucky to get a few of those. I can't understand what we hope to achieve by playing any of these guys. As much as I want the team to play well and pick up some wins over the last six weeks, I fear that only a couple of massive losses on the way home will finally stir Goodwin from his slumber.

Even if they could come back this year, why would you bother? All are contracted for next year, so let them have an extra month to get themselves right for a big pre season. I would have put Jetta in that batch as well, although it seems like we are going to try and run him into the ground before the end of the year. The reaction if something serious happens to Jetta or Lever over the next six weeks will be fun to watch.

Viney's biggest problem this year has been his obsession with trying to break tackles or bust through packs of players. In these circumstances, if he doesn't get caught holding the ball, he is inevitably going to kick off balance and under pressure. That said, I thought Sunday's game was his best for the year and I'm not sure that he got caught holding the ball at all. Perhaps the penny has finally dropped.

On this point, I am convinced that certainly Oliver and probably Brayshaw are playing hurt. Last year they would draw an opponent, hand off the ball and take the hit themselves. This year they can't wait to hand off the ball, often to a player who is in a worse position. I suspect that Oliver is struggling with his shoulders. There is no doubt that our midfielders, with the exception of Harmes, don't work hard enough defensively. With Brayshaw and Oliver both having zero impact on Sunday, there was a clear opportunity to give one of those a defensive job on Dunkley to try and reduce his influence. Our midfield depth is non-existent, as it has been for several years. Offloading Tyson and his salary was one thing, but not replacing him was inexcusable.

I'm not convinced about Hore, and I think he and Lever will ultimately fight for one spot in the team. Neither is great one-v-one and you can't have two defenders running wildly into packs all the time. Baker has some good qualities. Hopefully he gets another extended run in the seniors before the end of the year. Lockhart will benefit from a full preseason, but there are already signs that we are coaching the innovation and dare out of him, as we have done with Petracca and others. I've always liked Petty and am sure he will be a good player with some more time in the gym. I'm happy for him to play forward for the rest of the year. I think it's pretty clear that 7-8 players simply aren't good enough and hopefully they will be moved on at year end. Our lack of depth was obvious to me last year, but it wasn't exposed to the level that it has been this year. Having an easier draw is a massive boost to our chances of rebounding, but it doesn't guarantee anything. We barely beat GC17 and Carlton, and were thrashed by St Kilda. The number 1 positive is the chance to add quality kids to the list. Hopefully we can find 2 or 3 who can step straight in and contribute on their way to being long term AFL players.

Forget the final margin, that was as bad as we have played since probably the GWS game. The Dogs gave us every chance to win that game and we still couldn't do it. Goodwin had another shocking day in the box. I get that he can't play for the players and he is limited somewhat by the players available to him (although our abysmal depth is certainly his responsibility after four years running the show (three as senior coach). However he just lets us down in the same ways each and every week: playing unfit players (definitely Jetta, and probably Lever as well (zero touches in second half) playing his favourites regardless of form (Hannan (3 touches), Hibberd being slow to make obvious changes (Fritsch forward, May forward) or missing changes completely (Harmes to Dunkley or Bontempelli, Gawn playing from goal square) terrible game plan and game style I thought Viney was good, Salem and May solid, Petty a clear positive and Petracca good for 3 quarters. Gawn was okay, but probably underachieved given the opposition. I didn't notice Oliver except for when he stuffed up a certain goal in the 2nd, Brayshaw was awful. Hannan was invisible (read: lazy) yet again; Dunkley not much better. Neal-Bullen has no skills and no goal sense. Preuss was poor forward and in the middle - he still should go to Alice Springs, but only because WC have two strong rucks. Jetta continued his miserable season and needed at least two more weeks in the VFL. Lever is hugely overrated (see first Dogs goal as example #1) and Hibberd is pretty much done. Jones was terrible. I rarely mention the umpires, and they certainly didn't affect the result, but they were truly awful both ways yesterday.

What's wrong with Weideman? This really highlights the stupidity of relying on Smith as a backup key forward - he is never available when you need him.

To be fair, Goddard wrote the first part of the article, down to the Ed Langdon photo. Everything else is from Jay Clark. I don't see anything wrong with Goddard's contribution, and most of Clark's contribution has been discussed previously.

Weideman's big problem is that he doesn't consistently do the basics well, which means that he feels the need to compensate by doing something spectacular. Most of us would be delighted if he could give us two lead-mark-goal plays a game, coupled with some decent defensive work. But when he is dropping relatively simple marks in front of his eyes, or spraying set shots, I wonder if he will ever consistently operate at the required level of intensity.