Review 2022

[Deelighted]

I'm sure that next season, all players will start off as equals, after this finals campaign.
Pre-season Form, will I'm sure be the guide to the selectors at the start of 2023.

Hope so mate, I wouldn't even be too bothered if we start the season with a similar 22 to this year (with a few tweaks) but I'd like to see good form in the VFL rewarded. Laurie was in great form mid year and didn't get a look in. Bowey was outstanding after being dropped and only got 1 more chance before going straight out again. JVR should have been used at some point in the H&A season just to see if he could hang at the level, not like we were going to be losing much potency up forward by giving him a try, and his form was really good.

Sure there's other examples too.

 

[Tulip]

Hope so mate, I wouldn't even be too bothered if we start the season with a similar 22 to this year (with a few tweaks) but I'd like to see good form in the VFL rewarded. Laurie was in great form mid year and didn't get a look in. Bowey was outstanding after being dropped and only got 1 more chance before going straight out again. JVR should have been used at some point in the H&A season just to see if he could hang at the level, not like we were going to be losing much potency up forward by giving him a try, and his form was really good.

Sure there's other examples too.

FB: Lever - May - Bowey
HB: Brayshaw - Petty - Salem
CC: Langdon - Viney - Jordon
HF: Spargo - Gunston - ANB
FF: Fritsch - Van Rooyen - Pickett
RR: Gawn - Petracca - Oliver
IC: Harmes - Sparrow - Rivers - Hunt

I'd genuinely be fine running the team as above next year. Ideally two of Laurie, Howes or a draftee out the box compete for ANB, Sparrow and Rivers and Jordon's spots.

Desperate for us to be ambitious with Gunston as an FA. I'm even fine with bringing in Grundy provided he's not the answer up forward.

 

[SugarHealey]

I wouldn't even be too bothered if we start the season with a similar 22 to this year (with a few tweaks) but I'd like to see good form in the VFL rewarded. Laurie was in great form mid year and didn't get a look in. Bowey was outstanding after being dropped and only got 1 more chance before going straight out again.

I think Goody re-payed the faith in our regular senior players from the Grand Final, to allow them to find their form and connection with one another. which was a bit hit and miss.
We would always have found it harder this season to reproduce our result from last season. with the obviously banged up bodies from 2021.
I think Petracca hurt his knee in the finals series last year, possibly in the Granny.

TMc, Petracca, Salem, Lever, Viney, Gawn, Hibbo, bBrown, Tomlinson, Langdon, Petty, and lastly, Petty. That's a hell of a list injured, with missed games.

JVR should have been used at some point in the H&A season just to see if he could hang at the level, not like we were going to be losing much potency up forward by giving him a try,

I think JVR will be better served by making the transition into a senior game or 3... in 2023.
He will be bigger, more mature and hungrier next year. And better able to be ready to take on any questions from the opposition, about if he thinks he's ready for the big time.

I don't think he took the VFL competition to his Gallows this season, to warrant a go at it. I'm sure he'll be ready in March, to enter the AFL.
At some stages this year, I thought maybe, then I thought nah.

Lets face it. Most tall forwards in the AFL have struggled for multiple games on end, to perform strongly. And especially in our game structure with poor connection forward.
When bBrown came back in he seemed to be instructed to not try to mark, but to double flat-palm the ball direct to front and centre. Which he did for a couple of weeks, before he actually tried to take some grabs.

IMO they instructed him to do this to ease the pressure on him and his confidence, aiding him to focus on his run to the drop of the ball mainly, to get his way thru traffic to get to the drop... And only after getting better at this, did he start to try to take a grab.

Poor Weide is a lot smaller than bBrown... 2 inches and 6Kgs smaller. And Brown aint a monster.

Weide at 94 Kgs, imo needs to weigh in at least 100 Kgs even, IF he is to play as a follower next year.

 

[Tulip]

Weid is finished. No point even discussing him. He’s lucky we were dumb enough to give him two years

 

[SugarHealey]

Weid is finished. No point even discussing him. He’s lucky we were dumb enough to give him two years

I don't agree; with Jacko leaving, and TMc banged up, mBrown likely finished, I see the contracted Weide playing as a follower next year.

 

[KickLongTackleHard]

I did like the bit where he said "There's a lot of work to do. Not for me, it's mostly Goody".

Little bit of “this list is good enough, but need to set a winning game plan” barb from Gawny perhaps

 

[schmuttt]

FB: Lever - May - Bowey
HB: Brayshaw - Petty - Salem
CC: Langdon - Viney - Jordon
HF: Spargo - Gunston - ANB
FF: Fritsch - Van Rooyen - Pickett
RR: Gawn - Petracca - Oliver
IC: Harmes - Sparrow - Rivers - Hunt

I'd genuinely be fine running the team as above next year. Ideally two of Laurie, Howes or a draftee out the box compete for ANB, Sparrow and Rivers and Jordon's spots.

Desperate for us to be ambitious with Gunston as an FA. I'm even fine with bringing in Grundy provided he's not the answer up forward.

Agree with most of this but you have zero defensive smalls. Hunt or Salem need to go out for Hibbo

 

[Toump Ass]

Little bit of “this list is good enough, but need to set a winning game plan” barb from Gawny perhaps

That's how I took it, and fair enough too.

 

[Tulip]

Agree with most of this but you have zero defensive smalls. Hunt or Salem need to go out for Hibbo

Hibberd is old as *. Rivers or Bowey needs to do it. Hunt is reasonable at it too.

 

[schmuttt]

Hibberd is old as *. Rivers or Bowey needs to do it. Hunt is reasonable at it too.

Bowey is wasted as a defensive back pocket and Hunt is just s**t. Hibbo is still in the team for me.

 

[Topkent]

Hibberd is old as *. Rivers or Bowey needs to do it. Hunt is reasonable at it too.

An still out best small defender. Bowey isn't a defender. Hunt sucks mate if he's still in the team we aren't going anywhere

 

[Theseventhhamster]

Bowey needs to either have Jordon's wing or one of the half forward spots I reckon.

 

[Scythe94]

The best part about being eliminated from contention is that we could feasibly be treated to a drunk Clarry brownlow acceptance speech. What I would give

 

[Scythe94]

Unfortunately, it's an utterly flawed voting system, so Neale or Brayshaw will win it as there's no one stealing votes from them

 

[Topkent]

Unfortunately, it's an utterly flawed voting system, so Neale or Brayshaw will win it as there's no one stealing votes from them

Not really, if you're not the best player on the ground often why should you be the best player in the league

 

[Scythe94]

Not really, if you're not the best player on the ground often why should you be the best player in the league

I look at games like the Adelaide one, where Oliver had 36 touches and 13 tackles, which if you were Brayshaw/Neale, would lock you in for three votes just about every single time.

Instead, Petracca had 33 and kicked three goals.

 

[Topkent]

I look at games like the Adelaide one, where Oliver had 36 touches and 13 tackles, which if you were Brayshaw/Neale, would lock you in for three votes just about every single time.

Instead, Petracca had 33 and kicked three goals.

He'd still get 2. I think the vote stealing thing is a fallacy, Judd, Cousin, Swan, Voss, Aker, Black etc plenty of blokes won them with vote stealers around them

 

[Crimson Azure]

We couldn’t capitalise on our own momentum or find ways to arrest the opposition’s in 2022. In all of our losses bar Geelong we got out to decent leads only to be spanked for the rest of the game…


R11 v Freo
23 minute mark of the second we lead 6.7 to 1.7 and are then out scored 1.7.13 to 13.3.81

R12 v Sydney
1 minute into the second quarter Max Gawn puts us 26 points ahead. For the rest of the game the score reads 3.6.24 to 9.8.62

R13 v Collingwood
15 minutes into the second quarter we lead by 22 points. The score for the rest of the game is 3.5.23 to 11.5.71

R19 v Dogs
We lead 11.4.70 to 6.7.43 during time on in the second quarter. For the rest of the game we are outscored 10.7.67 to 4.6.30

R21 v Collingwood
10 minutes into the second quarter we lead 8.5.53 to 5.0.30 and look utterly dominant everywhere but the scoreboard. We are then outscored 5.6.36 to 10.6.66.

QF v Sydney
We lead by 16 points 4 minutes into the second quarter. The scoreboard reads 5.8.38 to 12.4.76 for the rest of the match.

SF v Brisbane
With 16 seconds until half time, we lead by 28 points. We are outscored 5.5.35 to 12.4.76 for the rest of the match.

In 21 we were able to find ways back into games when the opposition had momentum. The Grand Final, Round 23 at Kardinia Park, the Home and away matches against the Lions and St Kilda were testament to that. We were able to do it against mediocre opponents in 22, particularly in the first part of the season but couldn’t do it against solid opposition that would not yield. Our inefficiency going forward hurt and the defence wasn’t able to bail us out anymore.

Reading this made me almost go outside and kick my dog, but I love the little bloke too much so gave him a pat.

 

[Johnny Karate]

Lloyd was talking about our players who went backwards on afl.com and provided a list, seems about right.
View attachment 1506182

The big ones from that are Lever and Salem. Lever was AA in 21 and Salem was arguably elite by position. Lever was average this season and Salem was trash. Easy for the opposition to break down our intercept game when our half back line was malfunctioning in that way.

 

[Crimson Azure]

My review:
2021: Melbourne = Richmond
2022: Melbourne = Melbourne

I honestly don't know how the team (from the coach down) became so complacent and self satisfied after winning the flag in '21. I mean, I never played sport at the professional level, but I didn't care if it was a game of tiddlywinks or if I was playing or footy, I couldn't stand the thought of losing, so gave everything I could to try and win. And if I lost I was filthy!

 

[Johnny Karate]

My review:
2021: Melbourne = Richmond
2022: Melbourne = Melbourne

I honestly don't know how the team (from the coach down) became so complacent and self satisfied after winning the flag in '21. I mean, I never played sport at the professional level, but I didn't care if it was a game of tiddlywinks I was playing or footy, I couldn't stand the thought of losing, so gave everything I could to try and win. And if I lost I was filthy!

Yeah. I was hoping we could muddle through the season get into a good position and somehow it would click in finals. It seems the rest of the club felt that too.

 

[mrmonkey]

Yeah. I was hoping we could muddle through the season get into a good position and somehow it would click in finals. It seems the rest of the club felt that too.

Felt like that after the round 23 game against the lions, even though Brisbane had been 'our bunnies' it still looked impressive, they had a lot on the line as well. However we went back to crap footy in the finals, back to blowing decent leads.

 

[Major Colvin]

2022 was disappointing but not surprising for me. Our think our good start was a bit of a curse as it allowed us to believe the media's inevitable hype about how unbeatable we were. Low and behold, we were actually very beatable. Our first loss to Freo was alarm bells (even though it was just one game) - to completely capitulate like that in this era simply does not happen to prospective flag teams. We allowed ourselves to then get comprehensively beaten by the other flag contenders Geelong and Collingwood, then beaten at home by Sydney - twice and finally the ignominy of losing to Brisbane to the MCG in a final after they hadn't won there in nearly a decade.

Fair to say after watching what Geelong did to Brisbane (and sustained pressure Collingwood applied to Sydney on their home turf), we were a fair way off the pace this year. We needed to improve and instead went backwards. But thats why back to back is so hard.

 

[Tulip]

to completely capitulate like that in this era simply does not happen to prospective flag teams.

Richmond lost rds 2 and 3, 2019 by a combined total of 93 points. We just never recovered. You're allowed an off day

 

[Topkent]

Richmond lost rds 2 and 3, 2019 by a combined total of 93 points. We just never recovered. You're allowed an off day

That's a stretch and a half. They also finished the season on fire we were a 6-8 team.