poita

There are too many players in this team who are too comfortable and too entitled, without performing to the required level. Clearly the likes of Viney, Oliver and Rivers have credits in the bank, but Goodwin has to take responsibility for the consistent mediocrity of Chandler, Salem, Sparrow, Bowey and Petty. We're looking a lot like Richmond grimly hanging on to the past, instead of trying to build for the future. McAdam, Billings, Hunter, Fullerton and Grundy are all wasted trades that could have been used on bringing in young talent.

It's absolutely laughable that some people think we have depth. We have maybe 18 decent players and the rest are very, very ordinary. The failure of Goodwin and Lamb to turn over our many C graders and try to find some diamonds in the rough over the past three years is a massive dereliction of duty.

This is what happens when you have no depth, a poxy VFL team and a coach that plays favourites with unfit and underdone players.

I watched the second half of the SBMT game against Old Camberwell. OC are a mid range Premier B side, and led 64-17 at one point before easing off in the last 1.5 quarters to win by 33 points. A couple of disclaimers - (1) SBMT have lost a lot of talent and experience and will likely be relegated at year end and (2) Kyah is the only player on the team with any height, so basically rucked the entire second half between the arcs against multiple opponents. He may have been one of the team's better players, but that is not really saying much. The SBMT players were very supportive of Kyah, encouraging him before every contest and urging him to keep working. He would benefit from some greater size and experience in the team to share the load and educate him, but he is certainly getting all the work and game time he needs. I was disappointed by Kyah's seeming lack of fitness. A player with multiple AFL pre seasons behind him should be able to run out a VAFA game comfortably against part timers. He doesn't provide second efforts after an initial contest and regularly was stationery after the ball moved on. He then had to sprint to get to the next ball up, and was probably lucky that the umpire waited for him on multiple occasions. Clearly he needs to spend more time watching Max's videos. When Kyah is given time and space to run and jump at the football, including in the ruck, you can see the raw talent. Unfortunately a decent ruck will take away that space and he doesn't have the strength or game understanding to adjust. One of the (very young) boundary umpires was really struggling with his throw ins and Kyah was repeatedly caught miles behind his opponent. He has just missed out on so much match day education over the past two years, and the move to give him regular game time should have happened at least 12 months ago. OC's main ruck (Milham) was taller and heavier, and did a great job of taking away Kyah's leap. Kyah looked quite likely when he could find some space, particularly when the game opened up in the last quarter. He is quite agile for his size and was able to get involved in a few attacking moves. He took one mark inside 50, and hit the behind post from about 35m on a reasonable angle. His kicking definitely needs work, as does his decision making with ball in hand. Again the lack of strength was hurting him in pack situations. All in all, this wasn't a great standard of football and, if I wasn't a Melbourne supporter, I wouldn't have given Kyah's game a second thought. He will improve by playing regularly, but I don't see anything resembling an AFL player at this time. Far better for us to focus on recruiting a seasoned backup to Max. As an aside, Jay Kennedy-Harris was playing for Old Camberwell. I only saw him get one touch in which he delivered a pin point kick across the half forward line while simultaneously seemingly pinging his hamstring.

I can't see the wisdom in playing McAdam underdone and off a long plane flight. Why not give him another week at Casey and an MFC debut at the MCG next week? At this point the smart money would have him getting injured some time in the third quarter. Surely Brown has to play, but our ruck stocks remain critically thin. Bad luck if Gawn falls apart under the strain of carrying this team every week. Salem should be sent to Casey for a couple of weeks before being considered at AFL level. The risk of playing both he and McAdam lacking in match fitness would be off the charts.

I was happy to have a reserved seat membership, then they doubled the price by forcing you to pay for the grand final guarantee as well. If this is the desired future, they need to let people build their own packages. Ultimately the club loses out, as evidenced by the sparsely populated reserved seat areas this season.

Chandler clearly needs a rest, and I'd be tempted to play Woewodin forward to get him in the team. Otherwise maybe McAdam if he makes it through at least 80% game time today. Billings had a very good second half and was important to our improved ball movement in that period. He stays. I'd like to have another look at Turner against lesser opposition, but he simply has to find a way to get involved in the play. At the very least he needs to be providing a contest and bringing the ball to ground. I think we need the three tall forwards, so he probably stays unless Brown kicks a bag in the VFL.

Certainly couldn't fault the effort after quarter time, but we lost for two reasons: 1. I'm okay with our forwards not taking marks, as long as they are making a contest and bringing the ball to ground. We were excellent in this respect against Geelong, but terrible last night. The ease with which Weitering and co took intercept marks in our forward 50 was astounding. 2. The inability of our onballers to nullify Walsh and Cripps in the first 3 quarters, and especially the first quarter. Viney and Oliver may well not have entered the centre square given how ineffective they were. Petracca was banished to the forward line at quarter time for this reason also. We looked much better when Sparrow and Neal-Bullen were heavily involved later. Ultimately those two reasons were why Carlton kicked the first six goals, and the game was effectively done at that point. Well done to our group for fighting on and preserving our percentage, but it was too little too late.

We crapped the bed in the first quarter and Carlton crapped the bed in the last. Otherwise nothing between the two sides. The misses by Fritsch, Chandler and Pickett were hugely costly. And especially Petty.

If Goodwin can't come up with a plan to negate the influence of Walsh and Cripps we have no chance.

That passage sums our night in 10 seconds of play. Poor hit out, weak tackle attempt, no pressure at ground level, defenders out of position.

Has Gawn touched the ball in the last half hour? He's not moving overly well.

Any chance we can actually pin the ball in a tackle? Or hit a target inside 50?

Carlton just moving the ball quickly into dangerous positions, whilst we stuff around before heading to the boundary or to 1 on 3 contests. Plus our tackling is abysmal.

Our midfield is completely invisible. Are Petracca and Viney playing?

Re Charlie Spargo, it seems to me that he was injured late in the pre season, and came to opening round with no match fitness. He was clearly underdone and probably carried an injury into OR. Did we make the situation worse by playing him? Certainly he contributed nothing to the team that evening. He was put on the injury list after that game, and was listed as 3 weeks in early April. A month later and he is still listed as 3 weeks. If all goes well from here maybe he gets one Casey game in before the bye, then it is probably July before he can push for senior selection. If I was a player in that situation, particularly given the depth in my position, I would be absolutely furious as to how the injury has been managed.

I'm a Billings fan, but he has been disappointing in the past couple of weeks. His spot is definitely in jeopardy, although I would still prefer him to Hunter. Don't get carried away with Laurie's junk time goals against Richmond. He was terrible against Geelong and was dragged for the last ten minutes, despite being only brought into the game in the last quarter. He offers nothing against quality sides. Chandler is definitely struggling with his knee and is the most likely to need a rest. If Bowey is ready to go, he moves back into defence and Woewodin can take Chandler's role forward. Hunter as sub and Laurie out of the 23. Otherwise Woewodin to sub if Chandler is okay.

This is a truly excellent decision, and one that is long overdue. SBMT is my local club where my son plays in the juniors, and I look forward to reporting on Kyah's progress this season.

Fills a very significant need for us with Rivers and potentially McVee playing more midfield time, and Salem constantly injured. We should absolutely be looking at him if his body is in good nick.

I couldn't see a thread on this topic, but by my calculations Steven May reaches 100 games for the MFC this weekend. He has truly been a colossus for the club over the past five years (let's not talk about 2019), and pretty clearly we don't win a premiership in 2021 without him. Add in a couple of All Australians, regular top 5 finishes in the B&F, and he is truly a great of the club. Congratulations Steve, and hopefully there are plenty more games and accolades still to come.

His woeful skills and decision making will fit right in with his teammates.

Have any of our players kicked a footy in the past 13 days? This is just embarrassing.

I watched back to back under 10 girls and under 11 boys games in the SMJFL on Sunday. There were two serious concussions requiring hospitalisation in these games resulting from tackles that were remarkably similar to the Cameron tackle on Lever. If this is what the AFL is prepared to accept in their game, they need to be prepared for numbers of junior players to decrease significantly in coming years.

Contrast the rationale for clearing Yeo to the justification for suspending Pickett. There is simply no consistency in the rules that are being applied.

https://vfl.aflmstats.com/player/Kyah_Farris-White The kid has had 3 kicks in 11 VFL games. Clearly he is not playing big minutes but, seriously, what are we trying to achieve here?