Toast Looking forward

[Yoda_]

G'day guys, caught a bit of the game yesterday and I was really impressed with your first half. Just thought I would come on here and just point out a few things for you guys to look forward to in the coming years.

Your list:
Looking at your list, you have one of the most inexperienced lists in the AFL (excluding the expansion teams). Looking at it in terms of pure statistics;
0 - 10 games: 16 (players)
11 - 50 games: 12
51 - 100 games: 9
101 + games: 9

that is a highly inexperienced list. Giving the list time to mature and getting games into the up and coming players should be a priority. It may not come together for four quarters (yet), but it will happen eventually, and it will be a scary thing for the competition when all the top end talent 'comes good'.

Looking to the future, the inexperience really shows with your 'experienced' players yesterday. Mitch Clark came across as a big bodied player but he to only has 90 AFL games to date, All Australian James Frawley ditto. Your starting on ball brigade is also a vastly inexperienced group. Only Brent Moloney (137 games) and Nathan Jones (123 games) as regulars can be considered veterans, the rest still have PLENTY of development left in them, Jack Trengove (46 games), Jordie McKenzie (46 games), James Magner (9 games) have all shown they can play at this level.

Defence:
Your defence just needs to settle and play games together. As mentioned before, you have got some very good top end talent. James Frawley was an All Australian at 21, Co - Captain Jack Grimes has shown he could be in the same company as the Heath Shaws and Courtenay Dempsey's of the AFL, just needs continuity in his game. In Tom McDonald you have got a gem. Nothing over awes him and seems to take every challenge in his stride (shown by his victory over Nick Riewoldt in a rain effected Friday night game), a tidy ball user, hopefully he can continue his development and turn into a Grant Birchal type rebounding defender.
I will say you do need to allow your back six to play games together and not continue to mix and match week in week out, that is a recipe for disaster, Essendon experienced this in the Matthew Knights era.

Midfield:
One area that I have been impressed with is the Melbourne midfield. As mentioned before, Brent Moloney (28 years old/137 games) and Nathan Jones (24/123) have been the lynchpins for the Melbourne this year, they have taken there games to a new level this year. Getting game time into the younger guys is the priority, not the top end talent like Jack Trengove, Jordie McKenzie, James Magner, but the next tier of midfielders should also be thrown in to see if they can play. Obviously injuries has effected the continuity of guys like Blease, Gysberts, Strauss, Bail, time to see if they can stand tall.

Forwards:
Obviously getting 'homesick' Mitch Clark was a recruiting coup for the club and one I am envious they managed to pull off. One thing I do not see is the second or third forwards that every team requires. Jack Watts perhaps? people placing so much pressure on the kid, god I would hate to be in his shoes. Time to get some games into the young talls, Lucas Cook, Leigh Williams, Jai Sheehan, and get them to make a contest, they may not be stars, or effect the games very much early, but it is time you should build your structures right. Another glaring weakness has been the ability to crumb a goal. Who has been your small forwards for the past two years? time to address this need perhaps?

Drawcards:
I think this has been the one area that has largely been missing this year. Liam Jurrah was one player who was able to draw people through the gates, but injury among other circumstances has seen him miss plenty of footy this year.
Jeremy Howe is one player who has probably taken his game to another level has taken that mantle as the drawcard for Melbourne. His big marking and ability to take the game on should be an inspiration for his younger Melbourne team mates.
Mitch Clark is the great white hope for the Demons who has done an amazing job for the Demons this year, has kicked 20 goals from only 8 games has been awesome, just need to find another avenue to goal, to help Clark out.


Any ways guys, I really think there is reason for optimism, obviously a young team still learning a new game plan will see a lot of inconsistencies. I would like to see some more outside players in the Melbourne line up, one area I have seen as a glaring weakness.

Hopefully Saturday night is going to be a cracker of a game and one who Melbourne should be up for the fight right from the start. Look up and look forward, you guys will be right.

 

[Biffinator]

Yoda - thanks for going to such lengths to provide us with such thoughts.

What about Watts, please?

 

[Slander]

Yoda - good analysis, far better than the fast food headline grabbing misery peddled in rags like the Hun. Agree on Jones but Moloney has been disgraceful this year & would be pretty close to getting dropped IMO.

 

[Animosity]

As much as the scoreboard reflects the big loss, my confidence in Neeld is building, was the most structured game I've seen Melbourne play all year.

 

[Yoda_]

Yoda - thanks for going to such lengths to provide us with such thoughts.

What about Watts, please?

Obviously a lot of discussion on here (Bigfooty) and many other forums has gone about him and his best position. He has suffered from being forced to play that no 1 forward role (pre 2012) and at his age, strength, experience, he has struggled to adapt against more seasoned experienced Key Defenders. He seems to have struggled without the likes of Brad Miller drawing the no 1 defender, Brad Green drawing the no 2 defender and even a guys like Ricky playing as that third tall forward with Jack potentially should be playing as that third or fourth tall forward on a flank. Since the delisting of Brad Miller, people have viewed him as a KPP, he doesnt seem to have the aggression to be a KPP, he needs to try and use his smarts to get into the right spots, instead people want to see him getting the hard balls in close.

I saw him in a couple of games in his under 18 year (one at Casey Fields and one at Etihad Stadium) and both times he was a smooth mover in traffic, using his wares to get through traffic.

I really hope the Dees look to get a big bustling mature aged forward who can come in and 'protect' a guy like Jack Watts, as he has really struggled against the top KPD.

 

[Yoda_]

Yoda - good analysis, far better than the fast food headline grabbing misery peddled in rags like the Hun. Agree on Jones but Moloney has been disgraceful this year & would be pretty close to getting dropped IMO.

It is not about how much of the footy you get, or how you use it but how he has gone about it, the couple of (half) games I have seen, he has merely been there to help 'protect' the younger Dees midfielders with his big body.

 

[The Dr]

Fantastic analysis, especially from a non-Demons supporter.

One thing I can't agree on though is your rating of our midfield. It's easily our biggest Achilles Heel. We get smashed at stoppages all day and don't run and spread as hard as other teams.

Once we fix the midfield, we're on our way to becoming a decent team.

 

[Yoda_]

Fantastic analysis, especially from a non-Demons supporter.

One thing I can't agree on though is your rating of our midfield. It's easily our biggest Achilles Heel. We get smashed at stoppages all day and don't run and spread as hard as other teams.

Once we fix the midfield, we're on our way to becoming a decent team.

The quality is there though.

Like I mentioned though, the talent is there, you just need to get games into the younger guys. I do agree, the spread is one of your biggest Achilles heels, once you get guys like Gysberts up and going, the spread will be a lot more noticable, and as I keep saying, pumping games into guys like Nicholoson, Blease, Tapscott will only aid there development

 

[LeverPuller]

Disagree on Moloney, doesn't offer the protection at all, if anyone does it's Jones.

Apart from that, good read.

 

[Slander]

It is not about how much of the footy you get, or how you use it but how he has gone about it, the couple of (half) games I have seen, he has merely been there to help 'protect' the younger Dees midfielders with his big body.

We'll agree to disagree then. I just don't think he's taken his game to a new level.

 

[Jordie_tackles]

Midfield:
One area that I have been impressed with is the Melbourne midfield. As mentioned before, Brent Moloney (28 years old/137 games) and Nathan Jones (24/123) have been the lynchpins for the Melbourne this year, they have taken there games to a new level this year. Getting game time into the younger guys is the priority, not the top end talent like Jack Trengove, Jordie McKenzie, James Magner, but the next tier of midfielders should also be thrown in to see if they can play. Obviously injuries has effected the continuity of guys like Blease, Gysberts, Strauss, Bail, time to see if they can stand tall.

He really hasnt

 

[Higgs Boson]

G'day guys, caught a bit of the game yesterday and I was really impressed with your first half. Just thought I would come on here and just point out a few things for you guys to look forward to in the coming years.

Your list:
Looking at your list, you have one of the most inexperienced lists in the AFL (excluding the expansion teams). Looking at it in terms of pure statistics;
0 - 10 games: 16 (players)
11 - 50 games: 12
51 - 100 games: 9
101 + games: 9

that is a highly inexperienced list. Giving the list time to mature and getting games into the up and coming players should be a priority. It may not come together for four quarters (yet), but it will happen eventually, and it will be a scary thing for the competition when all the top end talent 'comes good'.

Looking to the future, the inexperience really shows with your 'experienced' players yesterday. Mitch Clark came across as a big bodied player but he to only has 90 AFL games to date, All Australian James Frawley ditto. Your starting on ball brigade is also a vastly inexperienced group. Only Brent Moloney (137 games) and Nathan Jones (123 games) as regulars can be considered veterans, the rest still have PLENTY of development left in them, Jack Trengove (46 games), Jordie McKenzie (46 games), James Magner (9 games) have all shown they can play at this level.

Defence:
Your defence just needs to settle and play games together. As mentioned before, you have got some very good top end talent. James Frawley was an All Australian at 21, Co - Captain Jack Grimes has shown he could be in the same company as the Heath Shaws and Courtenay Dempsey's of the AFL, just needs continuity in his game. In Tom McDonald you have got a gem. Nothing over awes him and seems to take every challenge in his stride (shown by his victory over Nick Riewoldt in a rain effected Friday night game), a tidy ball user, hopefully he can continue his development and turn into a Grant Birchal type rebounding defender.
I will say you do need to allow your back six to play games together and not continue to mix and match week in week out, that is a recipe for disaster, Essendon experienced this in the Matthew Knights era.

Midfield:
One area that I have been impressed with is the Melbourne midfield. As mentioned before, Brent Moloney (28 years old/137 games) and Nathan Jones (24/123) have been the lynchpins for the Melbourne this year, they have taken there games to a new level this year. Getting game time into the younger guys is the priority, not the top end talent like Jack Trengove, Jordie McKenzie, James Magner, but the next tier of midfielders should also be thrown in to see if they can play. Obviously injuries has effected the continuity of guys like Blease, Gysberts, Strauss, Bail, time to see if they can stand tall.

Forwards:
Obviously getting 'homesick' Mitch Clark was a recruiting coup for the club and one I am envious they managed to pull off. One thing I do not see is the second or third forwards that every team requires. Jack Watts perhaps? people placing so much pressure on the kid, god I would hate to be in his shoes. Time to get some games into the young talls, Lucas Cook, Leigh Williams, Jai Sheehan, and get them to make a contest, they may not be stars, or effect the games very much early, but it is time you should build your structures right. Another glaring weakness has been the ability to crumb a goal. Who has been your small forwards for the past two years? time to address this need perhaps?

Drawcards:
I think this has been the one area that has largely been missing this year. Liam Jurrah was one player who was able to draw people through the gates, but injury among other circumstances has seen him miss plenty of footy this year.
Jeremy Howe is one player who has probably taken his game to another level has taken that mantle as the drawcard for Melbourne. His big marking and ability to take the game on should be an inspiration for his younger Melbourne team mates.
Mitch Clark is the great white hope for the Demons who has done an amazing job for the Demons this year, has kicked 20 goals from only 8 games has been awesome, just need to find another avenue to goal, to help Clark out.


Any ways guys, I really think there is reason for optimism, obviously a young team still learning a new game plan will see a lot of inconsistencies. I would like to see some more outside players in the Melbourne line up, one area I have seen as a glaring weakness.

Hopefully Saturday night is going to be a cracker of a game and one who Melbourne should be up for the fight right from the start. Look up and look forward, you guys will be right.

Very good post. Of course, I would say that, but nevertheless.

Just to add to it, I attended a Devil's Advocate dinner a week ago (a Melbourne Business Community group - legal fraternity), which was addressed by Neil Craig and Chris Connolly. From what I heard, the club recognised there would be pain, and the word was it will get worse before it gets better. But it will get better.

The club appear to be united behind Neeld and his philosophies. Craig commented how surprised he was when he came to the club with the players' lack of elite fitness - he was careful not to criticise, and recognised he may have been a bit too intense at Adelaide in terms of sports science, but said that his opinion was the players were just too under-prepared.

In terms of the game plan, the analogy used was learning to drive a car. At first, you're over-thinking every thing you do, but eventually it becomes second nature. The players are, apparently, still not instinctive enough with how to play.

Matthew Bate also spoke, and was asked about how the players are going with the results being as they have been. He replied that he felt a bit sorry for the supporters, because they see only one measure - the scoreboard. The players, on the other hand, have a whole range of indicators which they can review, and Matthew was pretty positive. He said that what they were measuring was tracking in the right direction, albeit that the results haven't been coming.

All in all, whilst I'm an optimist at heart typically, I do see a future. We cannot be as bad as we are presently going - there must be something that needs to click, such as sticking with the gameplan until it does become instinctive. We all need to gird our loins and stick with it. It'll turn.

 

[MarcMaverick]

Insightful and positive, Yoda you are.