chookrat

The best response to Tom Morris is to not even acknowledge what he reports. As a supporter I love seeing Oliver celebrate with his teammates and get around each other for support or to celebrate the good times. It is clear that the club have prioritised his wellbeing while Oliver has prioritised being the best teammate. One thing I've noticed this year is how Oliver seems to be intercepting the ball a kick outside of the contest, and I suspect he has been adding a defensive structure element to his game (similar to what Brayshaw used to provide) allowing our younger players such as Rivers and Kozzie to hunt the ball. He is a superstar playing some really solid footy and isn't far from his best.

Winner = Melbourne Why = Not loading

Back in the Neeld era we could lose by 6 - 8 goals and gain percentage.

If the Bombers keep a Doggies or GCS out of the 8 then it softens the draw for whoever plays Bombers in an Elimination Final as their outside running and uncontested marking game won't hold up in finals.

The more chaos the better and we either play the sides above us or they play each other. All we need to do is take it one game at a time and if we play well and continue to build form then the ladder will sort itself out.

I din't give a [censored] how tall they are and realistically it doesn't make a difference re who will win.

I'd absolutely play Melksham in the starting 22. He is the most effective 'tall' forward we have with his leading and aerial contest work and his kicking in our forward half is sublime. He is also pretty hand at shutting down a rebound defender. I reckon we will bring in Fullarton to shoulder the majority of ruck work. We probably don't want Roo spending too much time in there considering how well he is playing forward. Gawn was pretty bullish about how hard he has worked since coming into the club with winning alot of internal awards but his hamstring injury had set him back a bit.

Well said Deestar. My take is that if we play how we did vs Brisbane, which I rate as our best game of the season against a very good side, then we give ourselves a good chance of beating any side.

I watched his post match press conference after our match and he showed alot of class. AFL coaches are pretty impressive individuals and I always find it interesting to listen to what they have to say and Adam Simpson is no exception.

I see what Max gives us in two parts: 1. His tap work allows our midfield to control where the ball goes. Whether our mids or the opposition win the clearance and whether we get a clear exit or turn the ball over is less certain. 2. His contested marking around the ground, in particular behind the ball makes it really difficult for the opposition to kick long and if our contest and pressure is at a high level they are forced into turning the ball over in the middle of the ground. The reason Grundy didn't work out was that if Grundy was in the ruck, Max would play forward and therefore wouldn't be able to setup behind the ball. Max fills the ruck position but his biggest asset to our team is his ability to prevent the opposition from kicking down the line.

Let the mind games begin.

Monbon, thanks for sharing. This approach might work as a penalty for players scrapping off the ball but not sure it would get past the AFLPA, not unless the AFL does something radical such as increasing the % of gambling revenue that goes into the next TPP agreement.

I liken the AFL trying to sanction a player for staging during an off the ball scrap to a parent punishing only one of their kids when they are both niggling each other.

Surely Long wasn't fined for that 😮

Redleg I reckon it's relevant that Maynard played for a free kick during off the ball push and shove while May was tackled fairly and played for a free kick. I've got no problem with the May staging fine, noting that the umpire should have called for a ball up as soon as it became clear May's arms were pinned, and reckon it would open up a can of worms if the AFL started to issue fines for staging during off the ball pushing and shoving.

I thought we matched Brisbane from a workrate perspective across all 4 quarters and fitness wasn't the difference. Both sides looked pretty gassed in what was a relentless 4th quarter and while the held momentum we had our chances and didn't convert. Similarly they missed in what was a brutal finals like game. Re impact during the loading phase it won't so much affect the ability to run out games as overall the players are stronger aerobically but players lose some explosiveness due to the cumulative muscle fatigue caused by the increased training load. At the end of the loading phase the players would have around a week of tapering, or reduced training load, which is short enough to keep the aerobic fitness gains they have made while freshening up and regaining their explosiveness. This is the same approach taken by endurance athletes where they load up 2 - 3 months before an event and finish with a 7 - 10 day taper for the event. Looking at how we played vs Brisbane our pressure was relentless and we would stick tackles which in previous weeks we would look slow or lack the explosiveness to bring the player to ground. My take is that we are absolutely in the hunt this year but don't have much wriggle room to lose games like we did vs Brisbane. While it's only 1 week I'm optimistic that the Melbourne contested pressure brand of footy is returning.

I'm quietly confident we will lift to the occasion and win a hard fought, gritty and at times spiteful clash against a key rival which we will build on through to September. Bring our contest and pressure and we are a very difficult team to play against.

Viney showing his age. The younger/cool kids would wear crocs covered in Jibbitz rather than Birkenstocks.

Good point re MCG and how our supporters respond during moments i the game. I think the club is well aware of this and Pert had said on many occasions how our supporters inspire our players on the field - I see this as a positive way of highlighting that the way the crowd responds has a positive or negative impact. Paul Roos often spoke of the veil of negativity from our supporters during games. Contrast this to Collingwood who have a ridiculously good record of winning close games at the MCG and coming back in the 4th quarter over the past few years. This cannot be purely down to luck and I think is in large part due to energy their supporters provide. Re our forward line I think too much is made of our lack of key forwards. Late last season our forward line was absolutely firing with Melksham straightening up our entire forward line before being injured in our round 24 win v Sydney. Petty looked like Tony Lockett kicking 6 v Richmond in round 20 before being injured in round 21 v North Melbourne. Fritch returned in round 24 after missing 6 games to kick 5 goals and Pickett, Trac and ANB were regular contributors. In finals we were without Melksham, Petty, JVR (in the semi final v Carlton) and were within a kick of the Collingwood in the QF and had the lead vs Carlton until very late in the 4th quarter.

I the 6 - 6 - 6 rule change has driven this change where after a goal is scored teams can get on a run because the opposition cannot setup behind the ball. To beat Brisbane we will need to control the game by roughly breaking even in the contest and bring lots of pressure so they cannot move the ball through the middle of the ground, and then for our forwards to play well and kick goals. I think we are a good enough side to beat Brisbane we just need to bring our contest and pressure game, which is more about system than personnel. Our coaches have shown the ability to find this each of the past few years and I'll back them to do it this week. I'm predicting a hard fought and at times spiteful clash.

Good to see Trac back on his regular gig on AFL 360 a couple of weeks after his injury. It is staggering the amount of over reaction in the media re duty of care and whether he will play footy again. He is probably lucky he didn't lose his spleen and will make a full recovery. It is a difficult injury to diagnose which is evidenced by it being picked up after 3 MRI scans and that would have been knowing what to look for based on his symptoms. It is also worth noting that Mason Cox lacerated his spleen and had internal bleeding that wasn't picked up until 4 days later by his GP and not until he had lost 3 litres of blood. While the trauma of emergency surgery and having to have a blood transfusion would still be pretty raw I think he will play finals if we make it but that there isn't much point thinking about it until he can return to training which isn't for another 5 weeks to start jogging laps and then building to full training in the 5 weeks that follow. If we play well over the next 5 weeks I reckon Trac's focus will quickly change from recovery to rehab and conditioning. While he won't be able to regain 7+ weeks of lost fitness over 5 weeks, he would still be effective in the forward line or as a super sub in the 4th quarter. This said if we don't look to make finals then Trac will be able to focus on his rehab and be fit for next year.

He looks a bit relaxed for someone who is supposedly in hiding from the media and supporters.

Just had a look at the Save Our Caulfield Racecourse Reserve facebook group and they have a total of 59 followers in an LGA of more than 150k residents. This is clearly a case of small number of people who are convinced they are fighting for what is right while they simply want revenge on society for whatever reason. Rather than use logic and reason we should find a way for them to redirect their anger at Bruz and let go of their ideology.

Absolutely spot on. During the Collingwood game my kids we're complaining that we were going to lose and worried about what their friends would same to them at school the next day. While I understand this from the kids I am amazed that adults on here link their personal wellbeing to the way Melbourne perform on a week to week basis. It is one thing to get frustrated during a game but to talk about it days later is a bit unhinged.

A not too subtle message to the AFL that the appointment of Gillon to head up Tabcorp has not gone unnoticed. Dees!