Rd 3 vs Melbourne Demons @ MCG, Sunday April 2 3:20PM - Match Thread

[AB Swannie]

The ressies are in for a long year. Very few players with much senior experience due to injuries and clear choices by the list managers to clear experienced deadwood last year to open up more space for younger guys.

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Agreed. We really have a very young list all around. I agree with us delistings we made but it will hurt our VFL team severely. We lost Lewis Taylor, James Bell, Colin O'Riordan, Ben Ronke, and Callum Sinclair from our regular VFL team. That's a lot of experience, marks, and possessions gone to be replaced with Francis and young kids.

[Roadrunner]

Completely agree. He’s been a shadow of himself since he was cleaned up in the final against Melbourne last year.
We went into the game without much preparation for a hard, contested match, something which worried me through the week, and so it happened. We still created plenty of chances, but didn’t capitalise, and we were thoroughly flogged in the contested possessions subsequently.
Plenty to work on, and hopefully a wake up call after two relatively easy matches to open.


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Yes, our first 2 games didn’t put us under the pressure that we can expect from the top teams. So this was a steep learning curve for us- we really need all 22 players putting in for the whole game. There were some errors made by too many today and the Dees played more like a team compared to us.

Hard to know what to do with Buddy- our forward line may be more flexible without him, yet he’s still too good to leave out. Wasn’t impressed with our defending and even though I hear Gould isn’t knocking down the door, I would give Lloyd a rest and bring him in. Lloyd had a shocker imho.

Contested possessions are a worry and we need a big body in midfield- maybe this will improve when big Tom is back but our boys were not at their best today- big credit to the Dees as they were better on the day, though they admittedly got the rub of the green.

[Nico]

I hope Isaac Heeney has the good grace to donate this week's hefty remuneration to his charity of choice. Bog ordinary.
There was some very poor discipline out there today. Our resident Rocket Scientist, Hayward (is he really in the leadership group) refused to chase in the forward line. Melbourne's first goal came from his mindless kick straight to a Melbourne defender, quick rebound for a goal. Then he pile drives a player into the ground, mouths off to the ump and gets 50. Goal. He didn't even make his average stats of 10. His goal in junk time will probably keep him in the side.
Rowbottom rounds out our worst 3 players. His first 3 games have been ordinary at best.

Early in the week posters were saying how will some of our young blokes get a game. Well lets see if the coaches have the intestinal fortitude to shake up some of the senior players.

[Nico]

I was at the game and I too was puzzled by some decisions. 3 very clear throws. There was one late in the last quarter when the new Dees wonder boy tackled one of our players. The officiating umpire (3 metres away) was about to call a ball up when he hears a whistle from the centre of the ground. He looks across and sees the other umpire with his arms out: holding the ball. Why on earth do we need 4 umpires?

[longmile]

What’s happened to Heeney since half way through last year he’s been really poor

Is that when he signed a monster contract?

[stevoswan]

Oh yes we deserved that 50 point drubbing. Too slow, too hesitant, too buddy conscious, not accurate, not hungry enough. Perhaps they thought it would come easy? Lots of work to do.

I agree. We may have gotten ahead of ourselves with the ease of our two first victories.....we now know what is required. I expect to see improvement in all areas. We'll beat Port next week.....and probably Richmond....and maybe even Geelong if they keep up their current form.

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Since 2012 the MCG has been our graveyard. Amartey needs to get fit then he might be OK.

We have beaten Melbourne the last two times we have played them at the MCG. Your claim makes no sense.

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Would be nice if Isaac Heeney actually did something this year.

Seriously, he needs to be dropped to the VFL.....it's time he learnt that he needs to pull his finger out and that success doesn't come on platter, it comes from bloody hard work.

[Blood Fever]

I agree. We may have gotten ahead of ourselves with the ease of our two first victories.....we now know what is required. I expect to see improvement in all areas. We'll beat Port next week.....and probably Richmond....and maybe even Geelong if they keep up their current form.

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We have beaten Melbourne the last two times we have played them at the MCG. Your claim makes no sense.

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Seriously, he needs to be dropped to the VFL.....it's time he learnt that he needs to pull his finger out and that success doesn't come on platter, it comes from bloody hard work.

Farcical comment. Played first half up forward where the delivery was awful. Did some useful stuff on the wing......Played well in first two games - all australian last year. Get a grip.

[waswan]

Heeneys best is top shelf but he has been in the system long enough for us to expect his best of close to everyweek.

The pay packet and consistency dont line up.

Mills has 1 bad game every 10, Heeney is 60/40

Not good enough at his age and time in the system

[MattW]

Well, that was disappointing. Beaten all over the ground and also managed to kick poorly for goal, Papley aside (around the ground too, actually). Several skittish players. Mills and Florent stood up. Ladhams has limitations, but tried hard.

The Roberts sub thing is a bit odd. Surely this week he swaps with Sheldrick.

[MattW]

Agreed. We really have a very young list all around. I agree with us delistings we made but it will hurt our VFL team severely. We lost Lewis Taylor, James Bell, Colin O'Riordan, Ben Ronke, and Callum Sinclair from our regular VFL team. That's a lot of experience, marks, and possessions gone to be replaced with Francis and young kids.

Yes, good observation.

Ryan Clarke, Reid and Robbie Fox back will help.

I would expect Fox to come back into the 22, ultimately; i expect Cunningham has his spot. Campbell needs to stay in now.

[Blood Fever]

Heeneys best is top shelf but he has been in the system long enough for us to expect his best of close to everyweek.

The pay packet and consistency dont line up.

Mills has 1 bad game every 10, Heeney is 60/40

Not good enough at his age and time in the system

Plays big majority of time up forward and kicked 49 goals last year which earned him a spot in all australian team. Not overly big but eas still the twelfth leading goal kicker in the competition ahead of such players as Shai Bton and Harry McKay. Great tavkler and one on one player. Delivery to him today wss awful. If he played on ball he would star but forwatd line talents like him are rare. Gun player.

[mcs]

Plays big majority of time up forward and kicked 49 goals last year which earned him a spot in all australian team. Not overly big but eas still the twelfth leading goal kicker in the competition ahead of such players as Shai Bton and Harry McKay. Great tavkler and one on one player. Delivery to him today wss awful. If he played on ball he would star but forwatd line talents like him are rare. Gun player.

Absolutely agree with this.

However, he has had a very quiet start to the year. Has been far from his clean usual self with hard ball gets and the like too.

He will come good - but we need more from him too.

[waswan]

Agree he is a star and 50goals is hard to argue with

He is also our highest paid player, if the fwd line isnt working jump in the middle, wing or anywhere.

I expect the guys under 23/24 to have off days, we cant afford to be having them from Heeney.

[gloveski]

Disappointing today we worked hard to get back in the game and then missed some gettable goals that would have actually put us in front .
I think the game might have passed Cunningham by , his first instinct is to handball backwards even when he’s playing forward , surely Sheldrick or Hall Kahan would be a better option


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[Ludwig]

Although most of the negative points are quite valid, I thought we played well for large portions of the game. I didn't like the way we threw in the towel in the 4th quarter, but a lot of things just didn't go our way, which can be frustrating. We have to learn to keep trying, even when the end result is obvious.

We had a number of unexpected shocking games last year that were far worse than this one. There are plenty of things to fix, but the game plan is good; we just need to execute it on a more consistent basis. There's a lot to work on for the coaches.

Our VFL side won't do well this year. We have too many youngsters and there's a total lack of cohesiveness in the side, especially defence. I wouldn't judge Gould too harshly. He hasn't played a single AFL game and is now the leader of our defence, with a group of players around him that have no idea what to do.

We have a lot of players who are down this year, especially in our midfield group. I think we should bring Sheldrick in. He is an exceptionally hard worker and should bring energy to the midfield with his relentless attack on the ball.

Nothing against one of the greatest and most entertaining players of all time, but our team development will be stilted until Lance comes out of the side. He is not going to be the difference between winning and losing a premiership this year, so we might as well move on. I like the way Joel and Logan are playing. We should push that development further. I think Lance can be the sub. The team is more important than his ego. We did the same to Kennedy last year.

What I would really like to see is Lance take over the ruck duties until Hickey returns. Now that will make a big difference to the side. Ladhams has been okay, except his disposal has been dreadful. And his decision making has never been good. It will be interesting to see how Collingwood go without a ruckman for the next month or so.

We might try swapping Campbell and Cunningham. There's too much easy ball to the opposition's small players in our defence. Harry has been a good lock down defender and Campbell has played a lot of half forward. There will be more shifting of positions as we try to find game time for Fox, Sheldrick, Roberts and HHK. Corey Warner played quite well through the midfield in the VFL and might also be in line for a senior go.

I will be looking for how we progress this year, rather than worrying about individual games, so long as well learn from our losses and do better the week following a poor performance.