Lucifers Hero

Maybe. But that does not account for the gap in their performance and ours. My view of Richmond's success with injuries/young players tiring, is they have players with the accurate skills to play a fast flowing game which we don't. This is less physically demanding on their young players. Our game plan is based around crash and bash. They have also been smarter - we have lost almost as many games of our hardened players from suspension as we have to injury. Our suspensions are as much to blame for the pressure on the younger kids as the injuries. That was entirely in our control. Poor discipline and leadership. Tigers have both in spades. Rich have had injuries to their ruckman and #1 forward and managed to win (as we did). All in all I just can't agree that injuries and the resultant tiring of young players account for the significant difference in performance by the two teams.

I 'Like' * 1000!! All the stakeholders you mention only care about wins and number of members! That is the big problem if we don't make finals. They will say, yes Demons are improving but others are improving more or faster. All those people on here wanting to stop Home NT games, have fewer 6 day breaks, have no 'suburban' ovals etc just don't get it. If we don't win more games/make finals Jackson will have very little leverage on the fixture etc. A lot of our best players come out of contract next year. Other teams will be circling. They will wonder whether it is worth staying at the Dees... The chances of getting an elite player will be lowered. Peter Jackson set goals of finals in 2016 and winning one in 2017. We can still achieve the latter. Jackson will be tearing his hair out if we don't make finals. If we miss finals people can come with all sorts of feel good platitudes (injuries, youth, experience, 6 day breaks etc etc) but the truth is finals are critical to our future.

I think that is a #Richmondmyth which helps Melbourne supporters feel better. This table shows there is almost no similarity between our recent performance and Richmonds. They made finals for 3 years in a row. In 2016 they collapsed a bit to finish 13th a few spots below us. They are now sitting 3rd!! That is a consistent performance which I would dearly love for us. Not related to your post, some Melbourne supporters like to think we are about the youngest team and least experienced team and conclude our youngsters are getting tired. Richmond have 7 players with less than 50 games experience who have played nearly every game this year. They are not showing signs of tiring. Not sure whether we are ready but Richmond is not a good comparison with us. I'm sad to say they have been streets ahead of us for years and still are.

Perhaps the one that has claimed a some big scalps this year: Lewis, Hogan, Houli, Dangerfield, Merrett and I think one or two others. Consolation: that Karma comes their way before too long! A few years stuck in the middle of the ladder would do nicely

Garland, while on the LTI list, is now a coach of our AFLW team. I'm guessing that was to give him a meaningful role during his rehab and perhaps allow him to get a taste of coaching. Casey are doing quite well without his onfield experience and he is unlikely to make it back to the seniors with the number of defenders in our team. So, I wouldn't be surprised if at EOS his 2018 playing contract is converted to a longer coaching AFLW contract. I hope so - I've always been a Garland fan but he totally won me over when Frawley won a flag. Garland was asked about it and he said (paraphrasing) '...if the premiership isn't with Melbourne it wouldn't mean something...' That for me goes beyond loyalty and shows true passion for our jumper.

If I recall you ran a similar poll at the bye. I can't remember the title of the thread. Are those results available?

Danger was deemed careless and medium impact to the head. Grundy was deemed careless and high impact to the head.

Not according to Paul Roos: Roos said when he was coaching Melbourne, he “hated” when his played tackled their opponents to the ground as it “takes you out of contest...“I taught the players to keep their feet, drive through the tackle and don’t take them to ground,” Roos said. https://www.foxsports.com.au/afl/paul-roos-criticises-nathan-buckleys-suggestion-that-brodie-grundy-executed-a-perfect-tackle/news-story/82d67719165cc49997cf87999d9ce4ac Players know the rules. They were set when Trengove got 3 weeks for his tackle on Danger. Between then and now the MRP were selective about enforcing it. But the rule about pinning arms, head hitting the ground hasn't changed.

No nonsense at the MRP this week. Mumford gets 2 weeks down to 1 for hit on Max Hawkins gets 3 (extra week for bad record) down to 2 Duncan gets 2 down to 1 Grundy gets 3 down to 2 Merrett gets to 2 down to 1 Some leniency for Demons - Melksham got off. Will hurt both Geelong as they have Selwood out and hurt Ess as they have Fantasia out. Tip: Geelong to miss top 4 and Ess to miss finals. And if Coll appeals the Grundy decision and he gets 3 he will miss the game vs Demons!

rfpc, why do you think our coaching staff got it so wrong? It wouldn't be so bad if they had not failed in similar circumstances one week earlier. Do they not research conditions at different grounds, look at footage of games or send a scout to watch games at an oval we are scheduled to play on? Is it because, (except for Macca) most of our coaches are rookies. I'm struggling to find reasons why coaches aren't tweaking our game plan and structures for different conditions. Baffling.

Have we proven we have disposal skills in the midfield? I must be missing something because our midfielder's disposal looks average or below average. I agree we lack decision making but that is also a skill. And our midfielders don't have it - they take on the op or randomly try get the ball out. What's more none of them can find or create space like the better midfielders in the league. That is another skill which we lack. We have a hard at it midfield which is great but they are all of the same ilk. Individually and collectively they are lacking quite a few skills: disposal, decision making, finding space. We need some different types in there but I don't think we have that type on our list.

It seems Jack played a big part in her run, albeit in absentia: "This is my ninth marathon and I had a little thing about number nine, it is my brother's footy number, Adam [Didyk] my coach wrote me a little letter before the race saying 'I think there is something special about this number nine thing, run proud out there knowing its your brother's footy number' and then to finish ninth, it's a fairytale," she said. I found that quite moving. Well done for doing yourself, your family and our country proud.

All of whom have only average or below average disposal skills. With better skills from midfielders the receivers have a better chance of getting the ball. We simply do not have players with those skills.

My bad. I was thinking 2015. Time flies,

One of which was when they very convincingly beat us... Its worth noting he Saints thrashed WCE on every key criteria today. We will need to play out of skins to beat them. Our win vs them in round 1 is a distant memory and means nothing next week.

Petracca is quietly staying out of the firing line. His recent games: - GWS: 3 kicks, 13 handballs. DE% 43.8. 1 tackle. - NM: 2 kicks, 15 handballs. DE% 76.5. 1 tackle There was one passage of play yesterday, 2nd or 3rd quarter when the ball was going toward the boundary line. I think it was at least 2 GWS players vs our 1. Petracca was jogging toward them and then slowed up rather than go help his teammate. It wasn't a good look. I don't know why he has suddenly become handball happy. And 1 tackle per game is shocking for a forward. It is no wonder the ball ricochets straight out of our fwd 50. None of our fwds are effective right now. Petracca should also share the responsibility of the complete breakdown of our forward line in the last few weeks.

Can someone please tell me how to delete a post. The 'option' button no longer appears...

This is the lay of the land for spots 7 and 8: WBD - have the toughest run home and could drop all 3 and have the worst %. But they are in top form. Ess - should win at least 2. WCE - have 2 games vs top 2 teams MFC - theoretically, we are best placed to win all three games. StK - will fancy themselves to win at least 2. For our 3 games all 3 teams will fancy themselves. Even Lions are saying they are ready to take a 'big scalp'. Given they play GCS, Dees and NM, we are the 'big scalp' they are setting themselves for. I can't pick who will win what but: the only time in years we have won 3 in a row was after the 2017 bye - a 13 day break. In fact we haven't won 2 in a row since that bye. our team is as a flat as a tack and many players are out of form our game plan is not working and coaches also seem out of form we don't seem to have the hunger. While we should win all 3, sadly there is little to suggest we will.

WCE as it will make it harder for Ess to make the finals. As a Dees supporter the killer blow for this season will be if do not make finals but Ess do. So Go Eagles!

Since Roos we have recruited competitive players; exactly what we needed. But many/most have poor disposal by hand and especially by foot. That is easily exploited by a well drilled opposition. 10-12 years ago the Hawks actively recruited players who were very good or excellent kicks, even better if they were left footed. They took the view that they can teach aggression to players who have the right skills. Four flags were the result. Lots of people on here go gaga over high stats and toughness. They are really important but not much good if we don't get value or impact from the work as we don't retain possession or use enormous energy to get it back so it is very difficult to control the tempo of a game. Hence the bag of consecutive goals kicked against us on a regular basis. I know we are young and inexperienced but all (bar Oliver) are now into their 3rd season at least and if they don't inherently have the disposal skills I don't think they can be taught to the required standard. Right now I feel our team doesn't have the right balance of skill sets. Tough and aggressive, yes. Accurate disposal skills, no (with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions). Those players are like gold but I don't know where they will come from. We need to take a leaf out of Hawthorn's recruiting manual but unfortunately, re-balancing the skill set won't happen overnight. Edit: These comments aren't about the last few weeks - IMO it is a flaw in the make up of the team.

Lions leading the Dogs @ 3/4 time. If they win unfortunately Ess stay in the 8 (No offence @Ash35 I like your presence on our board, but can't warm to your team) It also means round 22 vs Lions will be a very tough game for us to win.

Just to clarify. Can't just count the 'Away' interstate games. Need to count the 2 'Home' games in NT. Total 6 interstate games. A gruelling mid year schedule with many 6 day breaks mostly back to back.

I know. But in the last they rested some good players and went into 'injury minimisation' mode.

What more can he do? Well get the ball forward for a start. 32 touches but only one i50. Poor return. Goodwin needs to find a way to convert his great stats to Oliver having a real impact on the game. Don't get me wrong, I love Oliver as much as you and others do. But we aren't getting the value from his efforts that we should.

A bit tough on Salem. Thought he was one of our better players up to injury. When he was helped off in the 3rd I thought he was gone for the season. Deserves credit for coming back. Looked really hampered.