Straight Sets Simon

Who had our best forward entry of the night coming from a Jack Viney right-foot kick on the run under pressure?

Centre clearances are pretty important, hey?

Great decision to not stand in the mark there and allow that Carlton forward entry to be deeper than it was originally going to be.

They will run rings around us.

Great game of VFL this.

I’d be really happy with how Melbourne are playing if it was the year 2013.

A loss to Voss would be the worst part.

If Brown was in for JVR those ins would have been perfect. Hibberd out is huge.

How long does Goodwin last if he loses to Voss?

Forward line was good at the start of the year when Ben Brown was near the top of the Coleman before getting injured.

The Petty forward experiment ruined the backline, the forward line, kept Brown out of the team (he was playing really well before being injured). Joel Smith needs to come in as a forward, Tomlinson needs to play the Petty third tall role down back. We need to be rotating role players more to reward Casey form and not let them get stale, we are literally making the same mistakes as 2022.

Our top-end talent is so good, I doubt we ever see so much in the same team again, especially with more teams coming in.

Imagine having a list more talented than anything we are likely to see for another 20 years and not being frustrated when they underperform.

Maybe we should try using our best key forward for once? The team balance has been off since Petty was used as a forward which weakened the backline and prevented Ben Brown coming back in. Also, clearances are trash and we can’t win a scrap or the ball when it hits the ground. Voss and Goodwin in a Loser Leaves Town match. Carlton by 22.

Can we twist Hardwick’s arm to finish the season off for us?

Fremantle was the easiest tip of the round.

I miss Ben Brown and Joel Smith (as a forward).

Not sure about the flying the flag business but we do lack grit. Too often second to the ball, not sticking tackles and not putting head over the ground ball too often. It's why we need to win clearances, we need first use and to be running down hill. We are almost unstoppable when this happens otherwise we come right back to the pack.

On reflection, with Sparrow out Harmes should have come straight in to play the same role (or ideally tag Butters) but instead we had Brayshaw spend more time in the middle which he simply is no longer up for. This also meant that the backline structure changed out with Brayshaw out of there as well. Similar to playing Petty forward, we upset the backline structure to play him there while Ben Brown languishes at Casey and poor Disco got monstered by Casboult. I can't help but feel the coaches are getting too cute with team selections and it is throwing the balance off at times.

This sums up the state of poor umpiring (four umpires is a disaster) and a wildly inconsistent MRO perfectly.

Joel Smith the forward we have been looking for. Get him and Brown into the Melbourne team and lever let Petty into the forward 50 again (because he’s such a good defender).

He needs a spell anyways.

Butters was this week’s Noah Anderson. I still believe Harmes should be in to tag, it frees up the other midfielders and he’s very good at it.

Didn’t deserve it. Terrible at clearances, terrible at getting the ground ball, terrible tackling (in the last quarter ANB actually stood flat-footed while he watched a Port Player gathered the ball and had to time to dispose of it before going in for the tackle) went to water under pressure. I said last week that good teams willl destroy us, we have been beating up on mediocre teams and got found out tonight. We need more speed in the side, Hunter hasn’t done anything for weeks. That boundary throw in at the end was comically bad but didn’t cost us the game.

So dumb by Viney.