All of our defenders and our defensive structures stood up very well to intense pressure last week. Apart from Petracca, all of the Melbourne forwards were well beaten.
I would be inclined to go with the same seven this week unless there’s a compelling match up for Williams AND he’s completely fit.
That's the point isn't it. Same as it's always been.... It's never a case of one setup gives you a greater advantage every occasion. That comes down to individual circumstances, strengths and weaknesses and match-ups in individual games.
In these situations you will gain in one area but you will lose in another. That's the balance that the coaches have to determine.
It also depends on how the individuals themselves are playing and what the opposition does.
Pitto and De Koning weren't outstanding but they limited Gawn's influence and that gave us an edge around the ground. De Koning was also involved in the tactics to keep Lever out of the play. If either of them have a shocker, we're behind the 8 ball.
Another midfielder might have given us more run but at the cost of allowing both Gawn and Lever to run amok.
Ollie Hollands comprehensively outplayed Ed Langdon who, until recently, was the wingman every team wanted. Yes, Langdon got a few possessions in the second half but he did nothing with them.
Ollie is in his second season and he has a lot of development ahead of him. That doesn’t detract from the fact that his first quarter was outstanding, and was an important factor in our five goal lead, and his game was his best yet in navy blue.
Enjoy his success and look forward to continual improvement but don’t focus on the few errors he made, no more than Crippa, Walsh, Weiters and our other seasoned campaigners made.
I missed the game. I'd just like folks opinions.... Walsh racks up possessions and it's noticable. He's everywhere. He's influencing the game.
One of the things I've noticed watching VFL games when Binns is involved is... that I don't 'notice' him. It surprises me when I look up the stat sheet at the end of the game and see he's had it so many times.
I'm guessing part of that is the coverage of games with less camera angles and the commentators not always calling the player in possession on long shots.
Was Binns 'noticable' last night? Did he have a big influence on the game.
You couldn’t miss him Lods. Not only did he bring his own ball, he did some great things with it and at both ends of the ground.
Sometimes his work didn’t go to plan, like the run from halfback to half forward that ended with a shanked kick, but was eye catching just the same.
Not the result we wanted but it was good to see AFL listed players with senior experience showing they’re a step above the VFL boys. Take a bow Jaxon Binns, Orazio Fantasia and, to a slightly lesser extent, Lewis Young.
Not quite the same input from Marchbank and Cuningham but Marchy’s leadership was evident.
Monahan does some nice things. I think he’s going to be a player.
Watch the last 5 or 10 minutes again, Lever ended up with leather toxicity syndrome, closely related to COVID apparently, nobody wanted to go near him except our kickers!
Are you sure about that LP?
Lever marked McGovern's kick in from fullback, marked Hewett's kick at CHB, and spoiled Harry's kick into the forward pocket, all in the first 10 minutes of the last quarter. After that he and Durdin competed for a ground ball which Durdin knocked forward for a stoppage. Finally, Lever gathered a loose ball between wing and half forward and got a hand pass away. That was his only touch in the last ten minutes.
I thought May and McDonald were their most effective defenders in the last quarter but it was the tackle pressure when we were trying to work the ball up the ground that set up Melbourne's opportunities and denied ours, that and some strange free kicks.
Edit: Just listening to David King explain how we set up to drag Lever away from the contest and force May to do the bulk of the defensive work by himself. That certainly gels with what I saw.