Ball seems to come out of our forward line very easily. Look much more dangerous when we go to Hampson.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

Dont think it was anywhere near as bad as that game against GWS.
Today we played with almost a Northern Blues type side...

Positives for me were:
- B Graders in the midfield in Ellard, Robbo and Brock actually stood up and showed something.
- Dont think Collins was as bad as people are making out...
- Great return game rom Warnock..
- Glad Eddie returned to his early season red hot form. He srue loves the 'G!
- Hampson took some strong marks in attack an around the ground. Didnt have his kicking boots on today though, which undid some of his good work.

Negatives:
- Bryce Gibbs. Still as soft as butter.. Had 20 something possessions to day, but one ONE was contested.
- Kreuz's form. Is he injured ?
- Garlett is a shaddow of the player he was last year.
- We missed too many easy shots at goal.

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James Hird and Essendon* FC - #FOREVERDRUGCHEATS

+28 in clearances would suggest it was completely different to the GWS game.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

GWS have some serious quality kids in the packs, Melbourne are a pack of Morton's.

Glad to get the 4 points. Can't say that I am filled with confidence again yet, but was better than last week. Glad we had Melb today.

Well done to Brock. I will be livid if he only gets his usual 2 games, but surely that won't be the case this time.. Provided some blocks, grunt and good stong inside mid work.
Robbo was great. Would have been in trouble if not for him.
Ellard really good in the middle again this week. If he can keep this up - it will be hard to force him from the line up. I think he will be good value rotating through the fwd line with Garlett or Betts to get them rotating through the midfield. (Not bad as a forward pocket).
Want to see Hampson stay there up fwd for the next month and work on being a fwd - and staying in the fwd 50 more often so there is a big fwd to go to. Atm, I think he is in better form (maybe less injured?) than Krueze.
Warnock in the ruck. If Kruezer is injured, then he should be given the time off he needs.

Unsure as to the Hendo/Waite senario as to who should go fwd. Not averse to seeing Waite at CHB again if Hendo-man can change himself back into a forward.

I know it is early for outs, but I would say the Curnow is hard to keep in the team now. Collins unlikely to stay in.
Garlett isn't doing much at the moment to show that he should stay on merit. And I must say that I wish Lucas had showed more after coming on as the sub.

Oh, and wasn't it just great fun watching Bootsma go at it!

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I would like to thank Collingwood for helping me keep faith in my old man. He always told me that 'People are thick'.

Nothing to get carried away with... a 7 goal last qtr masked what was an insipid effort to 3 qtr time... very much like the GWS game.

Brock needs to be played for the next month regardless of form... really need to see what he can offer for the rest of the season and that can only happen with a string of games. Robbo was very good and Bootsma will be a gem... has more poise and smarts than most of our best 22 imo. Jamo was good down back as Eddie was forward. Warnock is our best ruck and Kruezer seriously needs a rest next week. Time for Garlett to have a run with the Northern boys as well...

Sat in the Ponsford stand level 4 and had a great look at what we're trying to do... and imo, I think the players are genuinely confused on what their responsibilities are. Two players run to a point on the ground only to have one ushered away, having numbers to one side yet chose to go another route where we're undermanned. Our spread is almost extinct atm due to teams plugging gaps where we like to run. The 3 rucks experiment failed miserably... I mean with all that height we chose to play an open forward 50 and/or try to hit up a leading Betts... wtf? Our defensive zones were poor to the point of non existence at times. This is the difference between us and the more disciplined teams... their duds are made to look better than they are due to solid team structures.

I can't see us beating Port next week tbh

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“I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” ― Richard Feynman

Really concerned about Kruezer as well.
Don't people think the 3 ruckman would have worked if he had contributed?
Hampson could have kicked 4 or 5 and Warnock was fantastic for his 1st game back - easily our best ruckman with Hammer 2nd!
Back to Krooz - his got no idea about forward play and refuses to lead up to the ball. I am totally frustrated with him as he is not showing improvement either. For those that want him to play midfield.....please....
Needs a rest or if he's lucky and Waite is not ready, play him CHF for 100% of time and spend the next fortnight teaching him forward play. His going to lose his spot because the other 2 a miles infront right now!

As for the game - yep others have summed it up perfectly - a lot of work to do. Atleast we kept the ball in and around stoppages and did not let opposition run away to easily today. At worst we had another stoppage. Melbourne however was not a good guide.

Saw him throw himself in quite a bit and halve a few contests. Just didnt win a possession. Still out of touch though. It will come back.

Yes it did today and over the last 3 games but our forward line has had a weird balance. I still think reckon there could be more to forward entries to Eddie than meet the eye.

was kreuzer really that bad?

20 touches (8 contested), 11 hitouts, 1 goal, 2 clearances and 3 marks. disposal eff 90%
did i miss something?

3 rucks worked ok today although hammer really played as a permanent forward. he took 9 marks (6 contested -would of taken him 6 weeks to take 9 uncontested marks last year) and warnock dominated the hitouts and also had 6 clearances. not advocating having 3 in every week but it was ok today.

feel like ratten quoting all those stats.

anyway, shit game and all that

Fair summary doof. Hammer was extremely impressive.

I think the issue with Kreuzer is his inability (at the moment) to impose himself on marking contests. He had 9 1%ers (most on the ground).

The other issue I have is that he doesn't get free for some link work...look at the way Cox becomes another link player through running hard.

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

!! (vehemently perhaps?)

Anyway, IMO Bootsma's game >> Collins.

I think as long as we play teams who regularly kick the ball over the fence when they've got a man clear 10m in we'll be fine.

Hammer wasn't extremely impressive but he was good. I still think he gets pushed off a little too easily when body contact is instigated but he is certaintly on the way up and up. Kruezer on the other hand is not taking any marks in the F50 or even remotely attempting to lead up and take the ball out in front. I would like to know how many of his tap outs went to our advantage as well.....anyway I hate isolating individuals out like this so I will let it go now but boy or boy its getting frustrating wathcing him. The fact that he can win the ball on the ground tells me that the 3 ruckman can work and work well for us as well but all he has to do is the F50 work and we are away!

Don't fool yourself Surrey we were lucky again today.
If Melbourne were cleaner and kicked better at the start it could have been a different resault.
How can you have two KP's in Kreuzer and Hampson yet still kick long and high to Betts?
Why is he constantly allowed to lead and hamper your talls line and space?
How can you not have a focal point permanently when you play tall?
Melbourne played just as tall but always had someone to kick long too all the time.
Why do they constantly crowd the middle and force each other to lead to the boundary?
How can you possibly think your players are smart or have good disposal when they constantly kick to the favour of the opposition or put their team mates under pressure?
Is it the game plan?
Is it leadership or lack of, on and off the ground?
Is it the message or the way it's delivered?
How can we allow easy scoring shots against us all the time?

Melbourne are crap.
We need to fix alot of issues if we are going to be beat good sides.
Easy as that.
Port are not a given, sad to say that's how bad we are at the moment.

To sum it up in five words

worst ten goal win ever

Quite simply I think the big K just needs a rest, and that should be part of the plan. Today was a great time to trial 3 ruckmen with little risk. I'd like to think next week Kruze gets a rest.

Hammer did a great job, yeah he missed some bad ones but gee it far better than last year when I would cringe every time he went up for a mark! the eye surgery has done wonders!

Brock, thankyou! you showed everything that we have needed and wanted out of you, and you should have at least 3-4 weeks of top level games which has me excited!

Mitch you champ! was asked the question by the coach this week and really stood up, just an awesome game!

Boots is awesome, really well done buy the young fella and great ball use and is not worried by his size. still needs a year or so to fill out a bit but there is a lot of fletcher about him.

The only real stinker for mine was Garlett, he had a very poor game and hasn't been in form for a while and to be honest I think he needs to be dropped or has to really stand up next week. Maybe the little one is throwing him off.

The game itself like everyone has said, was not great but was what it needed to be as in a stepping stone to building some form going into another winnable (although harder) match next week against port.

I don't get all the knocks on Kruezers game today. Seemed to play that ruck rover style role and it suited him, 20 possies and a goal is not a bad return given the structure we went in with. No doubt he's not quite 100% but with Warnock up and running we can treat Kruezer as the ultimate "Leigh Brown" and have the best 2nd ruck in the league (apart from Dean Cox).

I agree with you redback. Our forward line is still not setup right. If it wasn't for Hampson we had no other KP forward to kick too.
I'm not sure if it's a plan to open up our forward line and leave it open with only Betts or Garlett but it doesn't work. Don't know how many times we have to say it either!!!!! Leave a KP forward deep in the F50 every time. Hell I want atleast 2 in there where we can kick it long too if needed ala other top teams!!!! Frustrating but I think its what our coaches are setting up with.

I don't think they can set up a snooker table.

Maybe use Kreuzer as a midfield role, running all over the ground, similar to Adam Goodes. Don't ruck him at all. His body could be very useful at stoppages and boy do we need that. Leave the ruck work to Warnock and Hampson. Just don't want ruckmen clogging up our KP forward positions. We'll get run off too easily.