Review Dees v the ScoMo-ites: the Good, Bad & Fugly - Rd 4, 2019

Apr 18, 2005
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Good - So many positives to come out of last night. The ball movement was just so much better. Felt we were identifying and hitting targets by just remaining composed and taking our time. Melksham to Harmes a perfect example.

We seemed to have space outside. Wow. Harmes stayed out of things and Hunt was always lurking to get into a dangerous place. Two goals from him is elite.

Frost owns buddy. He is the new Tom Lonergan. He also looked less flustered coming from defence which was great. I don’t know where half his kicks end up but he is quite exciting when he gets himself composed.

Fritsch & Salem represent reliability. Hibberd was better. Hore was brilliant and definitely AFL standard. Jones would back the clock. Viney lifted but it took him too long. Gawn owns life. Preuss needs to play every week to support Gawn. Plus two ruckman will help is significantly.

Bad - lazy starts. We need to be better. I think Sydney got out to an 18 point lead at some point. Not ideal. You don’t want that happening against Geelong, WC, GWS, Hawthorn. It was the same stuff to a degree, being flat footed and muddled down back. It took Viney until the second half to fire. Not acceptable. I think he had two touches to half time?

Ugly - Preuss injury? Seriously hoping it’s nothing.
 
Apr 18, 2005
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He might have been the difference in the first quarter if we're being generous, but the game... come on. We can't hit our more mobile forward targets so we're even less likely to put them lace out to advantage for Preuss. The guy was moving like he was on tranquilizers in the second half and was pretty much useless from quarter time onwards until he got a token go in the ruck once the game was in the bed in the fourth quarter. Don't see how we can play a hobbled TMac, Weideman and Preuss in the same forward line.
Well when TMac is fit we can do it. Remember WC played Lycett, Vardy, JK and Darling. They won the GF because Collingwood couldn’t get out of their backline due to the big timbers marking everything.
 

Cannon82

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Oct 26, 2012
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Well when TMac is fit we can do it. Remember WC played Lycett, Vardy, JK and Darling. They won the GF because Collingwood couldn’t get out of their backline due to the big timbers marking everything.

Seems a bit of a year to year fad to copy and paste whatever basic setup the reigning Premiers had. We're not West Coast, we don't play the same way they play, just because they have a few talls around doesn't mean it'll work for us. We can't hit a target to save ourselves other than Salem and Fritsch, so more big guys doesn't seem like the way forward for us, particularly when we're back at the MCG.
 
Favourite moment of the season so far was when Preuss kicked his 2nd and he was basically pushing teammates out of the way to get back and give it to Allir.
I liked the bit where he was chasing the ball and nearly murdered Wagner.

He’ll seriously hurt people this year - let’s just hope it’s not one of our own players lol.
 
Feb 15, 2015
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Good:
1. We won
2. Preuss was hilarious
3. Frosty was not terrible and occasionally hilarious
4. Melksham’s hair has improved
5. Viney’s hair is maintained
6. Trac’s buzzcut has grown a bit
7. I watched the game in a progressive drunk to very drunk status
8. I can rewatch the match because we won rather than deleting it from IQ and from my recollection

Analysis:
Not sure because I was really very drunk. With one eye squeezed shut for focus I thought Max was great, Fritsch was great and that Hore guy played well

Bad:
1. My hangover
2. I got too drunk to be bothered cooking my green curry
3. Even drunk we looked the usual messy Melbourne but four points messy is better than loser embarrassing messy
4. Commentary team. Die soon. If not then please call the match as opposed to whittering on about Buddy endlessly
5. The current status of my hangover since originally mentioning it.
 
Apr 18, 2005
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Seems a bit of a year to year fad to copy and paste whatever basic setup the reigning Premiers had. We're not West Coast, we don't play the same way they play, just because they have a few talls around doesn't mean it'll work for us. We can't hit a target to save ourselves other than Salem and Fritsch, so more big guys doesn't seem like the way forward for us, particularly when we're back at the MCG.
I just feel that Max is really going to need that support.
 
I just feel that Max is really going to need that support.

I agree, especially when teams attempt to bully him, he goes to water, havng Pruess there as a body guard/ mr.retribution will give Max confidence and probably deter a few players from trying it when they realise Pruess hits harder than they can.
 
Apr 18, 2005
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Good:
1. We won
2. Preuss was hilarious
3. Frosty was not terrible and occasionally hilarious
4. Melksham’s hair has improved
5. Viney’s hair is maintained
6. Trac’s buzzcut has grown a bit
7. I watched the game in a progressive drunk to very drunk status
8. I can rewatch the match because we won rather than deleting it from IQ and from my recollection

Analysis:
Not sure because I was really very drunk. With one eye squeezed shut for focus I thought Max was great, Fritsch was great and that Hore guy played well

Bad:
1. My hangover
2. I got too drunk to be bothered cooking my green curry
3. Even drunk we looked the usual messy Melbourne but four points messy is better than loser embarrassing messy
4. Commentary team. Die soon. If not then please call the match as opposed to whittering on about Buddy endlessly
5. The current status of my hangover since originally mentioning it.
I feel as though the most poignant point you raised was Melksham’s haurcut. I mean it takes us all a while to get through the phases of experimentation with hair, but Jake, to his credit, has ‘worked through a process’ and got his ‘DNA’ back.

Jake is now an adult and a responsible one, typified by his great field kick to Harmes.
 

Cannon82

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I just feel that Max is really going to need that support.

He didn't need it yesterday, Sinclair was useless. I'm sure Gawn like half the rest of the side is still finding his feet as well. If people are going to try to rough Gawn up, Preuss will do sweet * all about it because he'll be on the bench or parked at full forward.
 
He didn't need it yesterday, Sinclair was useless. I'm sure Gawn like half the rest of the side is still finding his feet as well. If people are going to try to rough Gawn up, Preuss will do sweet **** all about it because he'll be on the bench or parked at full forward.

Oh cannon, Pruess will ruck more than last night going forward.

He started too well forward then hurt his shoulder, was pointless putting him in at centre bounces last night withGawn dominating Sinclair.

Pruess will be very valuable vs the Lycetts of the league, just you wait and see.
 
He didn't need it yesterday, Sinclair was useless. I'm sure Gawn like half the rest of the side is still finding his feet as well. If people are going to try to rough Gawn up, Preuss will do sweet **** all about it because he'll be on the bench or parked at full forward.

Preuss' work rucking in the forwardline gave us a new weapon and Gawn was able to spend more time behind the footy taking defensive marks in the second half. Preuss has limitations but our structure/spine clearly improved from him being there.
 

stEdy

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Nov 2, 2007
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GOOD: WE GOT OUR PHYSICALITY BACK, started from the bounce with Viney getting into JPK/everyone, continued with a number of good hits coming from both sides actually, we need games to be played like that because we're not smart/skillfull enough to win consistently any other way
 
Apr 13, 2015
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Good:
Winning- let’s get a foothold in the season and worry about playing champagne football later.

Breaking the SCG/Swans hoodoo -probably the last ghost of the pre-Roos era

Salem - B&F smoky
Hore - much better, keep it up.
Wagners x 2 - doing a decent job, all you can ask for.
Jones - excellent finishing at key times.
Viney - still nowhere near his best but worked hard defensively and kicked a nice goal.
Preuss - gave us something up forward early.
Petracca - worked hard and was more consistent
T McDonald - like Viney, still well below his best but was far more involved this week
Melksham - see Salem
Gawn - was critical with marking behind the ball late to cap off dominance at stoppages. More please.

Bad
Frost’s u-turn where he almost let Blakey through in the last. Otherwise was serviceable on Franklin.

Skill level still has a way to go - we need to be better again to beat the Saints who could rip us apart through running the space at the G.

Still playing too quickly and in straight lines - we need more of the patience shown in the last quarter where we chip it to players working hard on the lead/in space. It drains the energy from the opposition and boosts our confidence.

Fugly
Oscar - I don’t I’ve ever seen a player so out of form and it’s not as though he’s got an elite baseline to work back to. Casey time.

Channel 7 Commentary - just stfu you flogs. Call the game - it’s not all about you. Stop barracking for the comeback. BT can especially * off with his “Melbourne have got carried away with themselves again” bullshit. Those are our words, he doesn’t get to use them.
 
Both the Wagner's are hard as * at it. Get smashed and they get straight back up. Love how they play the game from that perspective, like old school country footballers.

And just like old school country footballers their skills and decision making leave a lot to be disired... I can't help but feel we aren't playing well/have a long injury list if they are getting games.
 

Marc_Remillard

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Jan 4, 2015
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I've stayed away from posting about any games so far this year, it's been so incredibly frustrating and clearly (imo) fitness has been the biggest issue. I can't remember who said this but someone here pointed out all our injury issues and believed that we'd really struggle in the first month.

So, even though I was really negative about Goodwin when he first started I think he is still the man to get us to a GF, but we do need to improve our midfield. We have a great starting group but we need to improve our rotations.
 

Cannon82

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Oh cannon, Pruess will ruck more than last night going forward.

He started too well forward then hurt his shoulder, was pointless putting him in at centre bounces last night withGawn dominating Sinclair.

Pruess will be very valuable vs the Lycetts of the league, just you wait and see.

We don't need him to ruck more against potatoes, Gawn will do just fine on his own like he did last year. Preuss will be more use as a forward, providing he can prove his first quarter effort last night was more than a flash in the pan.
 
We don't need him to ruck more against potatoes, Gawn will do just fine on his own like he did last year. Preuss will be more use as a forward, providing he can prove his first quarter effort last night was more than a flash in the pan.

? Structually he made a huge difference and took a lot of the pressure off TMac and Weid. Good to have some pressence in the forward line, especially if we are determined to keep bombing it in.

Gawn has always struggled a bit vs physical ruckman throughout his career, skill set has nothing to do with it.
 

Dancing Potato

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Jul 7, 2015
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Whilst I acknowledge that Preuss has his limitations (he essentially can't move more than 10 metres in any direction) he fixed up our structure quite well.

He allowed Gawn to ruck the whole game (except our forward 50) and play a bigger role defensively (which we need because OMac and Frost are complete potatoes).

TMac and Weid are reasonably mobile too so it allowed them to push up the wing and give us more options. TMac was even floating around the back 50m arc a bit.

Remains to be seen if it will work at the MCG but structurally I really like it. We just need to get the right small forwards around him as well.
 
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