Toast Round 13 = Melbourne 71-72 Collingwood

[Peters_Nuts]

Langdon had 4 touches, 4 frees against (should've been more). His opponent had 19 touches, 1.1. In the 3rd quarter Nick had 7 touches at 86%. In the 4th quarter he had 5 at 60% (and a chance to ice the game thanks to Langdon).

Why is he being praised? Langdon contributed absolutely nothing yesterday so the Dees were playing 1 midfielder down in essentially a make or break game for their season. In my views that's a fail.

Thank heck I don't have to hear about these campaigners being a finals chance anymore.

 

[sr36]

Agreed.

If we're not playing Melbourne on the Monday of the King's Birthday round then we risk being sent off to Cairns or Canberra or Bunbury or Alice or whatever other exotic location they feel like sending their prime media generating club to in order to prop some other club up with a bit of media exposure (and a bigger crowd).

Nah. Our venues are locked in with little to no wiggle room.

We're contracted to 14 at the G. We play 1 in Adelaide in Gather round. 5 interstate that the interstate club isn't going to move. 3 at Docklands who want a big payout to move any of them - as we saw with our attempt to sell a home game to the GC. That's our 23 games.

There's no capacity for us to play games at regional venues.

 

[Chrispiesssss]

 

[sr36]

Melbourne played well. Their players pushed back hard to take away any space in our F50 forcing us to bomb it long. It's also why they struggled to score on a rebound as they often had all 18 players in their bach half of the ground.

The ground was in horrible condition. Two days of rain in Melbourne - the first real rain we've had all year and the ground became muddy. Not good at all.

Their marking defence is awesome - May, Lever, Turner and Gawn is just a brick wall and numbers back forces us to kick it to contests with them. But numbers back and then add in Langdon taken out of transition due to the way he was tagging Nick, they just had to hold it up whenever they looked like they were out on a break.

It made losing stoppage really significant as it was an arm wrestle in terms of scores from transition. We did bloody well to eke out a win with the way that was played.

 

[Pendles!]

I thought Pez was pretty handy today.

He’s a good player. I thought he could have been a bit better by foot, turned a few over and took a few long options to contests when there were shorter more central options.

Seems like this was the plan though as we were doing it all day.

 

[Pendles!]

Langdon had 4 touches, 4 frees against (should've been more). His opponent had 19 touches, 1.1. In the 3rd quarter Nick had 7 touches at 86%. In the 4th quarter he had 5 at 60% (and a chance to ice the game thanks to Langdon).

Why is he being praised? Langdon contributed absolutely nothing yesterday so the Dees were playing 1 midfielder down in essentially a make or break game for their season. In my views that's a fail.

Thank heck I don't have to hear about these campaigners being a finals chance anymore.

The way he did the job was not a good look and I hated watching it, but if you were Melbourne you’d be rapt that he was able to effectively nullify our best player and even the playing field a bit. Langdon’s stats are irrelevant if he’s keeping the best player in the competition to little influence.

 

[JuniorB]

So Goodwin moaned about Langdon being free kicked after half time, when it should have been for the whole game.

AFL great says ‘umpires failed’ with ‘old school’ tag after Dees coach’s claims

AFL great says ‘umpires failed’ with ‘old school’ tag after Dees coach’s bold claims

www.foxsports.com.au

 

[JuniorB]

That shows what a smart player Pez is.

 

[domin8tors]

Love the One trick Pony Langdon game. can only hold Daicos but can't find the footy himself.

 

[Big Bryza]

That was a rather frustrating game to watch. We seemed content to keep kicking down the line, outside of a 15 min patch in the 3rd where we finally decided to go off the line and put some scoreboard pressure on. It was a strange tactic considering Melbourne's strength lies in the contest especially in the air with Gawn, Lever, May and Turner controlling things. The only way it seemed like we would lose was off the back of some Kozi magic. He turned it on but we were able to quell his influence just enough.

It seemed as if a few of our lads had one eye on the bye and it was definitely our poorest performance since the opening round debacle. In saying that, the quality and maturity of this side cannot be undersold. The work of Josh Daicos

7

Josh Daicos

Age

27

Ht

178cm

Wt

77kg

Pos.

D/M

Career

Season

Last 5

D

15.6

4star

K

8.3

3star

HB

7.3

5star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.6

5star

MG

230.5

4star

D

16.2

4star

K

9.2

4star

HB

7.0

4star

M

3.3

3star

T

3.5

4star

MG

230.5

4star

D

13.8

4star

K

7.6

3star

HB

6.2

4star

M

3.2

4star

T

4.2

5star

, Howie and IQ across half back was superb. These 3 simply must be in AA convos if the selectors have half an idea. They're playing top shelf footy in the number 1 defence in the comp. Perryman and Houston continue to play their role without fuss. I would love to see us get the ball in the hands of Houston more often. A number of times yesterday he was open but for whatever reason there was a reluctance to give it to him. He's on the verge of tearing games apart though and will be huge on a quest in the back half of the year for the ultimate prize.

The old timers Sidey and Pendles continue to amaze. Combined with Longy they continue to hold the fort through the middle of the ground. Crispy once again stood up in a big game with his time through the middle and out on the wing. Allan was a touch fumbly but experience in a game like that in tough conditions will hold him in good stead.

It was great to see Nick Daicos finally offered some protection from the umps. The treatment he cops week in, week out at stoppages and around the ground is nothing short of a disgrace. Langdon continually held and scragged him all day and the push in the back free was justice for all the crap he cops from opposition taggers. I still think we're missing a trick by not releasing him to half back at times. Although, it is hard to do so considering the form of our half backs atm. Playing inside the contest is really hurting his kicking so i think there is plenty of upside with him in the 2nd half of the season.

All in all, what a start to the season. To be sitting 6 points clear on top is a brilliant effort. It'll be fascinating to see how we manage the the remainder of the Home and Away season. Do we see Titch come in for a stint to take some pressure off the old fellas in the middle. A fit Bruzzy and Shoota will be welcome returns post bye. Plus the wildcard of De Goey. You'd think we'll train him up with a return in late July for a solid 4-6 week lead in to September.

We've played some outstanding footy and it's clear our best is the best. There might be the inevitable lull at some point but with so much upside in the group, it'll take a hell of a team to knock us over when it counts.

 

[Bianconeri]

The way he did the job was not a good look and I hated watching it, but if you were Melbourne you’d be rapt that he was able to effectively nullify our best player and even the playing field a bit. Langdon’s stats are irrelevant if he’s keeping the best player in the competition to little influence.

Langdon is still on the field though. I wouldn’t be rapt if we played 17 v 18 just to stop one player.

 

[foreigner]

How’s some media saying Nick Daicos’ behind from his free kick was the difference. Hoskin-Elliot was 40m out directly in front with 20 seconds to go. You don’t think he would have slotted it through rather than passing it to Bobby 60m out near the boundary?

Do these guys actually watch the footy?

Just before that Pendles had a open running option (Bobby?) if we had to score. Besides we would have played a different mode if we had to score.

Just ignore the stupid commentary. We have the 4 points

 

[TW Sherrin]

2 things stood out to me yesterday.

1. playing off the back foot because you're being comprehensively beaten in center clearances is a hard way to win. until Nick got a couple in the last it was 16 to 5.

2. the lack of run through center forward which meant kicking long to Gawn, May, Lever, Turner.

It wasn't a great performance but the 4 points are invaluable and there will be a bit to discuss in the game review which will help later in the year.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Bonus points for getting the anonymous tagger’s name wrong.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Our entries in our Fwd 50 were appalling all game.

Except when it was Darcy Cameron kicking.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

Their marking defence is awesome - May, Lever, Turner and Gawn is just a brick wall and numbers back forces us to kick it to contests with them. But numbers back and then add in Langdon taken out of transition due to the way he was tagging Nick, they just had to hold it up whenever they looked like they were out on a break.

It made losing stoppage really significant as it was an arm wrestle in terms of scores from transition. We did bloody well to eke out a win with the way that was played.

We would have been better off kicking mongrels to grass going inside 50m yesterday.

 

[sr36]

We would have been better off kicking mongrels to grass going inside 50m yesterday.

They had the grass clogged up with numbers back. I don't know why they don't switch to torps for long down the line when it's playing out like that.

 

[Big Bryza]

All week I was thinking we only really had that strange game against GWS, and the bad 15 mins when the whips were cracking against Geelong. We were due a flatty.

To get a 6/10 performance and win is a bonus. Dees brought their A game today defensively and tactically. We won from a slight lack of weapons from them and our usual experience in close games.

Hope the bye helps. Because we had a lot taken from our game today that other teams will now copy.

The Dees albeit a crap side to watch are very well structured on the defensive front. For 3.5 quarters we played into their hands by going long down the line. This played in to their intercepting strength. The conditions probably didn't allow us to showcase our elite ball movement but we really needed more aerial representation up forward yesterday.

Winter footy will allow more sides to clog up space on us, it's possibly a good thing that we have a couple of Marvel games post bye in dry conditions.

 

[Big Bryza]

Ed Langdon had 4 disposals, and 40 holds.

They utilised their best winger as a tagger. It's a complete change up to their structure and was a huge win to us.

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

Not sure about the whole 'worst we've played' angle. Some of our defensive efforts were absolutely brilliant.

Really the dumbest part was kicking long down the wings, when it was obvious Gawn was gobbling everything up. Clearly our ability to weave through the corridor was stymied with Naicos being so closely checked (hmmpphhh) but I also think tactically we don't want to show our hand. It's likely we took some risks to play wing football so we can work quietly away at our August/September footy without being picked apart in the media.

Also remember that Dees' backline is not that bad at all. May is a tool, but he's a bloody good intercept and so is Lever. So it wasn't easy to get those spot-up targets in F50.

Frustrating game to watch, but clearly not our worst. Dees won't make finals so this was their only big-ticket match for the year. They threw everything at it and still lost.

 

[nahnah]

We would have been better off kicking mongrels to grass going inside 50m yesterday.

If i was a coach this would be a legit tactic I'd go with

 

[Anzacday]

Lang

They utilised their best winger as a tagger. It's a complete change up to their structure and was a huge win to us.

Yep.
Him and Steelo play on each other.
Steelo did ok yesterday I think

 

[Cousin of Daicos]

Langdon is still on the field though. I wouldn’t be rapt if we played 17 v 18 just to stop one player.

You say that, but it almost worked

Having said that, I think it was umpired disgracefully

The umps had the opportunity to completely eradicate the tactics in the first quarter. Instead, Langdon kept getting away with it so kept doing it.

People complained about the umpiring. We had 9 more. 5 of those were Nick's. Nick should have received about 20 frees on his own such were Langdon's tactics applied. A tag like that hasn't been seen since the Cameron Ling days and it shouldn't have been seen in 2025. It should have been umpired out of the game.

 

[unplugged]

Went to the game yesterday, which was my fourth for the year and on world-record pace for me given I've got a 3 hour journey each way.

Went in expecting this cold, miserable wet day but to my surprise it cleared up and stayed clear! The ground however was clearly still very patchy and feeling the affect of 2-3 days of constant rainfall and a game the night before. You could see the ball skidding on in some spots and bouncing over players heads in other spots, so it's no surprise that we were really struggling to be clean when defending chaos (or par Melbourne FC) entries.

Few comedic errors across the afternoon like Frampton having a really good defensive moment and then completely gifting them a goal with the resulting possession. Just needs to keep it simple.

A quick note or two;

Once we regained the lead at the end and our Presti '35' sign went up, we had two separate occasions we had a fast-break and got it into a 'goal scoring' position before passing it off sideways. Some other Pies supporters around me were shouting for Pendles to kick it forward, kick it to Mihocek who was open, etc. - seriously, have these types of supporters been paying any attention for the last 4 seasons!? We didn't need to score! And the coaching staff were clearly communicating that.

I know it's probably just a little thing but I just thought I'd say I love how predictable and well-drilled that is. Even right down to WHE after marking Gawn's shank; WHE is probably on the edge of selection right now, and it would be easy for him to try and seal the game off his own boot, but that didn't matter. And the Pendles one where he went sideways to Sidebottom... what a stark contrast to Clarry who bit off too much and kicks it out on the full and gives us possession back.

I would be in the minority here but being at the ground made it obvious that Cox was needed for this one. Membrey could have been given the week off but that's easy to say in hindsight. If it did pour rain the selection wouldn't have bothered me, but Melbourne were the masters of flooding back and forcing us to kick it long yesterday. And the problem for us was that Gawn, Lever and May are as good at intercept marking as anyone in the comp. I think Cox would've given us lots more groundball opportunities, especially with the pace sapped from the contest. And don't come at me with this 'structure' bullshit.

On Ed Langdon

15

Ed Langdon

Age

29

Ht

182cm

Wt

78kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

21.0

5star

K

12.1

4star

HB

9.0

5star

M

5.0

5star

T

2.3

4star

CL

1.4

4star

D

20.3

5star

K

12.8

5star

HB

7.5

4star

M

4.5

4star

T

0.8

1star

CL

1.8

4star

D

13.0

4star

K

6.4

3star

HB

6.6

4star

M

3.0

3star

T

2.4

4star

CL

0.6

3star

... It was very intriguing to me that Melbourne would choose to sacrifice their best winger on a day where we've lost Lipinski due to concussion protocols. Melbourne could've either ran with Sidebottom or even exploited the likes of Ed Allan. I reckon Goodwin will be happy with Nick Daicos' limited impact, although I suspect we'll be asking questions to the AFL about scragging, because why wouldn't we?

Anyway, like others have said it was good to have a down day but still get the chocolates. Good to be a game and a half clear on top.

PS was sitting up on Level 4 of the Shane Warne Stand. Reckon I saw about 1,000 sea-gull shits float down from the top roof down to Level 1. Hope none of you copped a white shower yesterday.

 

[The Royal Sampler]

They utilised their best winger as a tagger. It's a complete change up to their structure and was a huge win to us.

Goodwin: “I know you got humiliated by Sidebottom in 2023, and you’ll be desperate to get some revenge, so I have the perfect role for you”.

Langdon: “Brilliant, what is it?”

Goodwin: “We’re going to have you scrag Nick Daicos off the ball, all day long.”

Langdon: “You want me to completely sacrifice my game to keep Nick Daicos to one Brownlow vote instead of three?”

Goodwin: “I’m sorry; your what now?”