deelusions from afar

You might be right. But I think TMac fell away towards the end of the season. Brown and Jacko will be better this year and Fritsch has now announced himself as one of the top forwards in the game. I think we're in a different place to the start of last year. We showed last night that if we move the ball quickly Brown / Jackson and Fritsch is enough. I'm certain the coaching staff will experiment with an extra small / pressure forward. Ultimately they might settle on what we have - but they can't stand still... they have to keep trying to gain an edge.

I feel like people are forgetting that it's not easy to come in and play as a small forward role player. Spargo, Kozzie and ANB took a while to get settled so Toby deserves a decent crack before people write him off. I know this is about Toby but I think a few will be eating their words when Chandler gets a proper go at it. For mine he doesn't quite have the pace that Toby has but has better skills, tricks and hardness (and he's not slow). Also yet to have a chance to settle at senior level. An injury to one of Kozzie, Spargo or ANB last year and we would probably be talking about Bedford or Chandler as premiership players.

Smith is the fastest player on the list over 20m. He can play tall and small. His main flaw / weakness is that he sometimes gets a bit lost / lacks awareness - which is how most of our defenders look initially when they come into the team. Just you watch if he can stay injury free and gets a good run at it. TMac will not be staying in defence. Held up well last night but that was out of necessity. To me it shows that with Brown, Fritsch and Gawn/Jackson we made not need Tmac forward this year. If you have another pressure forward eg Chandler / Bedford / Laurie / AMW this will do more to lock the ball in our forward line. Obviously things will change throughout the season but I can only see Weed come in now if Brown or Jacko get injured.

This is obviously related to the changes for next week thread but more about going forward for the rest of the year. We are obviously very unlucky to have all our injuries in one area of the ground. 5 of our 7 premiership defenders! Smith, Hunt, Tomlinson in, Brayshaw to come back from the wing (Jordon to take his wing) and when Salem went down TMac goes back and Smith goes from a tall to a small. While TMac did an incredible job, I think most supporters would remember why he has moved forward in the first place - which is the reason why he is not a permanent fix down there. So if not TMac, who goes back if we had the same number of injuries in defence? Who would be next cab off the rank? I'm thinking maybe Melksham? Or would Deakyn Smith be ready? Hopefully we won't have to worry about this with a bunch of them back next week.

That makes sense to me - Brayshaw has trained in defence for this very situation and Jordon showed last year he is able to do the job on the wing. Harmes got tried there a few seasons back - never again. Is a very handy second string midfielder!

I have a sneaking suspicion that the dogs will be hungrier than us for this one.

One that doesn't get enough credit here I think is Viney. Some would not be able to bounce back from being demoted from captain - and I feared that someone who bleeds for the club and is as proud as Viney, he might find it harder than most. Though we have no idea how it works internally, clearly he's found a way to make it work. While I always cringe when he is the spokesperson for the club, there's no doubt that Viney would be a critical driver of the high standards and the hardness required for success in the AFL.

I agree obviously that I (like pretty much every other supporter) would have loved to be there last year. However talking to Richmond / Hawks friends, they've all said it was the first one they were most passionate about and that means the most. Because we didn't get that opportunity, if we can win another this year or in coming years it may almost feel like our first. Not how we would script it but I reckon this would ultimately be better for the club's membership, supporter base growth and finances (though obviously impossible to say for sure). Hence the blessing in disguise.

I don't imagine the players are sitting down to watch this.

I think the GF being in Perth last year is a blessing in disguise - we get the bounce from winning a flag / success but at the same time as most fans haven't seen it live, they're just as hungry as if we hadn't won it. I live in the West and I'm not sure if I agree with what you say about the dogs. They are easily the most visible / dominant team out here. Maybe they haven't converted into members but over time I think they will. The dogs are very well placed strategically with the whole west to themselves!

Maybe missed your point... but isn't Succession available on Binge (which is owned by Fox)?

Good post. I mostly agree - so much needs to go right to do it again. However, I think its interesting that the teams that took us apart last year were mostly at the bottom (Pies, North, Adelaide) or teams that we had beaten earlier in the season (Dogs, GWS, Hawthorn). To me this suggests (especially when you look at our finals form) that it was more above the shoulders. I don't think it's possible for teams who play such a disciplined game plan to be up for every game - but we showed we could do it when it mattered - not just in finals but the big games through out the season when our reputation was on the line eg tigers, dogs, lions, port, geelong. I'm not saying I think we are invincible but I think the fact that the pies, crows and north troubled us the most is more about our effort on those days than a game style that is our Achilles heel.

Agree Smith is judged too harshly here. Yes Charlie cameron kicked a bag on him but I don't know any player that would have done better. As binman says he gives us great flexibility with playing on all sizes. Will be interesting because surely they can't go with May, Lever, Petty, Thomlinson - of them I'd only really back May on a smaller livewire forward but only if they are playing close to goal.

Thanks so much PF and SJ!! This definitely excites me PF. Makes me think of Farmer out at Waverly! Had seen the youtube highlights but given we'd missed out on Mac I thought AMW would be very much a project player and if we're lucky develop into a regular one day. Sounds like he's holding his own!

I found David King so annoying last year saying that a healthy list is an extra player when you get to finals... but as it turned out he was dead right. All the other "contenders" except maybe Port were missing key structural players and couldn't handle it. Fingers crossed for this year!

Look forward to Eddie saying that's it's Melbourne's grand final only for one of his panellists to correct him by saying "no they actually won THE grand final last year"

Ideal script for 22: The Tigers to start the year on fire and dominate the competition all season. We're a bit off the boil / deal with some injury issues but get it together for finals and ultimately face them in the grand final as underdogs... and go on to spank them. I know a bunch of Richmond supporters that think without injuries etc they would've beaten us last year in the finals.

Really interesting analysis. Most of it sounds spot on to me. You could see from the beginning of the game we were targeting Macrae - from memory there were 2 or 3 heavy hits in the first 5 minutes. Viney in the first 5 seconds I think! Will be interesting to see how the centre square setups work in 2022. The bombers exposed the dogs in this area in the lead up to finals and we exposed everyone in the finals. Will this mean that other teams will try to do the same or will it cause teams to go more defensive. I would expect the latter for most teams. Interesting also your comment on Daniel - I agree he didn't have a huge influence in the GF. But I have heard Goody say he was getting concerned about him. In the preseason game Daniel and Bont got on top and that's how they towelled us up (according to Goody) and that's what was happening in the 2nd / early 3rd Q of the GF. Obviously Goody might not tell the whole truth in interviews but it seemed genuine. Oliver took care of Bont in the second half and I'm sure someone had the job to shut down Daniel (not sure who it was). But to be fair to Daniel, once we got going, none of their defenders could get near it. We were playing flawless football and the dogs didn't have the fitness to go with us.

Not directly related but was in a store the other day with my melbourne premiers mask on. Some guy came up to me and started talking to me. Had my earphones in initially so couldn't hear him. When I took them out it felt like I still I wasn't hearing him correctly. "you should give someone else a go." "Huh?" "Yeah someone else... like the dogs or the tigers" "ummm...??" By this time I realised he was not 100% with it - he wasn't even having a laugh. It just hit me that for some people, our domination of the competition had already lasted a very long time! Hopefully that's what it feels like for all the youngsters (or anyone else) that are still deciding which team they will follow. All the same, I couldn't help but say "we have waited 57 years"

Is that Dunstan on him?

Goody deserves a pay rise - but given the soft cap how does this not affect the rest of the department? Or is it likely to come from the difference between Burgo and Selwyn (I assume they're part of the softcap)?

Hope everyone is ok. Just wondering if there are any reports on how many Melbourne players have got it so far. While you wouldn't want anyone to get it, it seems after a booster most young, healthy people have very minor symptoms - if they're going to get it some time, would be better to get it through the pre-season than have to use top up players in season.

I agree - although I think it was more the way it was handled. Broadcasting to everyone well ahead of the trade period that he wasn't a required player lowered his value because (I assume) everyone thought North knew more than everyone else about his knee and that he was shot. Managed differently they could have got a lot more from us (and maybe others). I think this is what LDVC is eluding to above - re that it started with Shaw and the damage was done by the time Noble took the reigns. But as you say, it's definitely a win for us and North seem to be developing nicely without him (which is often not the case when developing sides lose key experienced structural players). He won't be there when they contend next but maybe the player they got with his pick will be.

That might be right - for what it's worth, I thought Weid made some big strides in 2020 before getting injured / dropping form. He had a patch of 6 or so games in a row where he averaged a bit under 2 goals a game but it was more about his effort - he was using his body and playing aggressively and flying for marks etc. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic but it seemed like the sort of form that you see before a player goes to the next level. His next pre-season he was apparently flying (I know) and then got injured. When he eventually got into the team he had every chance and barely fired a shot - confidence? fitness? Hard to know. I think there's still a role for him if he can find fitness, form and confidence but it seems Brown has already mastered what we need from him - providing an aerial threat that the opposition has to worry about and capable of bringing the ball to ground if unable to mark / attract a free

They look sharp but I guess they take the best looking plays in a package like that! AMW seems to be getting a bit of it as well! It's good to see they've mixed up the first choice team a bit - it's a great motivator for players outside the best 22 to knock the door down. From memory pre-season last year many of the players said Jordon was a standout on the track and in match sim.