I thought he did a decent job last night – yeah much more suited to the third tall role with O’Donnell providing the physicality. A couple of times Buku was exposed but due to teammates laziness in not running back in defence (e.g. Brambles) and uncertainly trying to cover two at once, so not his fault.

True but we have plenty in the backline who do that – Richards, Dale, JJ.

Both teams were woeful in the first half and bereft of confidence, until Essendon smelt blood. Dogs in all sorts of trouble with skill errors, poor decisions and lack of effort. Bont moved and played like he had a groin injury. English has only beaten Ned Moyle and Bailey williams (Eagles) this year, and deserves to be dropped after shamefully unphysical, uncompetitive performances against Rhys Stanley and Todd Goldstein / Sam Draper. Lachie Brambles laziness and lack of pride defensively caused Buku to try and cover two opponents, resulting in an easy goal. Gallagher and Sanders both quiet. Vandermere quiet … again. Naughton constantly ran under the ball and contributed little. Lots of gettable goals missed by various players, missing golden chances to apply scoreboard pressure. The heat will come for Bevo now. Pot Shot Cornes must be salivating.

Bont is like Pavlich, capable of being great anywhere. Macrae is good but he’s never going to be as good as Bont onball. James O’Donell will be fine as our CHB.

We’re in deep trouble IF we lose tonight. The blowtorch will be firmly turned on to whoever loses and whoever wins will get zero credit and ignored. I think you’re harsh on Macrae, but he didn’t cope well with being moved to Half Forward Flank last year. He needs to be part of our onball rotation off the bench. I think he still has the capacity to be a very good, consistent onballer and I’d prefer him to Treloar because Macrae runs both ways and tackles effectively. Daniel is an option up forward perhaps, because he is a good finisher and clever. But Daniel needs to quickly develop a hunger for tackling (he could take some inspiration from Libber). Buku is no Easton Wood. Wood was as tough as they come.

I think Ed Richards, Jones, Dale, O’Donnell and Duryea are all decent defensively and apply good pressure physically on their opponents. JJ and Daniel are both soft physically but offer good offensive pressure – I don’t think we can afford to have them both in the backline and I’d probably prefer JJ ahead of Daniel because of his explosive run (although JJ’s decision-making is ordinary). Not sure about Bramble yet, he might be ok. Buku worries me even though he takes some good intercept marks – no physicality. Premiership teams require physical, unrelenting players. Our 2016 flag included Dale Morris, Easton Wood, Matthew Boyd and Shane Biggs – all blokes that could be relied upon to halt a freight train. Thank goodness Darcy’s body is holding up and we no longer have to play Lobb up the other end. And thank goodness Bevo has finally recognised the value of Rhiley West’s role playing contribution on the forward flank. I still like Macrae, I think he runs hard both ways, tackles, uses the ball exceptionally well – we need to make room for him in our rotation of onballers. I’d prefer him ahead of Treloar.

Yeah he looked smooth against Geelong but has zero physicality. Doesn’t use his body to exert any pressure. He’ll need to change that if he wants to be part of a winning side in the future.

It says a lot of the media that Beveridge had to publicly identify and explain Naughton’s role change. It was obvious to the naked eye, yet media ‘experts’ who present themselves as ‘expert analysts’ such as Kane Cornes, weren’t astute enough to see what most people watching closely could see. Caleb Daniel is another strange case to me that the media seem to constantly overlook – yes he has been excellent offensively in the past with his elite decision-making and kicking, but even in his All Australian year he was a liability defensively. He can’t spoil a mark or stick a tackle. Smart opposition coaches have always looked to exploit this by going through his opponent. I don’t comprehend why footy analysts don’t criticise the shallow, thoughtless so-called experts in the media like Kane Cornes for daft analysis. To Cornes’ credit a couple of days ago, I heard him acknowledge maybe there was merit in Beveridge’s comments last year that our list wasn’t as good as some in the media were saying. And it’s the reason you’ve highlighted Dem. We don’t apply enough collective defensive pressure. Some blokes are too easy to walk around or step-through tackles. Some blokes counter-attack superbly but get exposed the other way when their opponents burst forward behind them into space. Fellas like Treloar, JJ, Kamis and Daniel tackle like they are carefully nurturing their grandmother to the ground. I love Bevo, but a lot of this is coaching and some of it is list-management. Lobb and Treloar’s acquisition has caused problems. Great to see O’Donnell back in the side this week. He’s exactly the sort of hard nut we need to help rectify team balance.

I think you’re over-reacting, but agree Finlayson seems to be being made a scapegoat and easy fall guy, whereas the AFL couldn’t afford to punish Clarko or North. I think the fairest thing to do would be to give Finlayson a fine and suspended sentence (like Clarko), but fire a warning across the AFL playing fraternity that next person to offend with homophobic slurs will be treated severely. They need to introduce a transparent penalty system for these sorts of offences so that the players know the consequences and so that the consequences are consistent.

I loved Sam Darcy’s targeted, pre-meditated attack on Pot-Shot-Kane, straight to his face. Comparing him to Piers Morgan was a low blow. 😂

Couple of thoughts on the article (good article Tim): [1] I think most midfields want 5-6 players rotating through those three onball positions and Macrae can easily be our 3rd or 4th best midfielder. (Treloar has been in great form offensively but continually fails to apply much pressure defensively with his running or tackling or aggression.) Caleb Daniel rarely sticks a tackle and is exposed defensively. Latham Vandermeer has had one good game in his last ten. Caleb Poulter is yet to convince. Oskar Baker has been solid since returning to the side a couple of weeks ago but is by no means an automatic selection. When/if Bailey Smith returns, then the question needs to be asked again. [2] I agree that Adelaide need to dispense with Crouch. Or alternatively keep him there and move Rory Laird back to the backline. At least one of Rankine or Rachele should be played onball permanently (swapping with each other) to give their onball brigade speed and star quality. Rachele has gone backwards this year and needs to be injected into the midfield more. So I’d leave Dawson in their permanently, supported by Crouch and Rankine / Rachele.

According to Melbourne FC’s club doctor (the only person who would actually know) 1/3rd of Melbourne’s playing group are frequent users of illicit drugs and another 1/3rd are infrequent users (see other article on Roar site). I had no idea drug use was so prevalent. Melbourne might be worse than other clubs but this indicates it’s widespread. If the AFL has admitted that 100 players have tested positive and Melbourne’s doctor is saying 2/3rds of their club have been users, then about 1/4 of the 100 across the AFL are at Melbourne FC. As BT would say … Wowee!! 😱

Last night was the first time I’ve ever seen Mason Cox grind-out a battling, gutsy, competitive, useful ruck contribution. It’s taken him a long time to learn. Well done. (But he’s still a dud and w*anker.) And well done Frampton too.

Yeah I know … I think its unlikely that 1st or 2nd year young players (in 2020) would arrive with existing drug dependencies.

Nah that’s just Very-Sore-Loser-Syndrome 😂 . (Every club has them. 😢)

Hehe … I’m just elaborating on what Wilkie said under parliamentary privilege; it’s the ex-Melbourne Doctor that effectively threw these players’ names under the bus. But while I’m at it, Tom Mitchell was mysteriously “managed” on the eve of Round 1 too. 😛

Hahaha … yeah. Great call Chanon! Pity for their supporters really to have had their premiership effort tainted and diminished. They were the best side in 2021 and their long suffering supporters deserved to smell the roses. So now we know the 1995 (Carlton brown paper bag salary cap cheats), 2005 (West Coast drug saga) and 2021 flags were all tainted, as well as Essendon’s 11th placed finish in 2012. 😊

Mr Wilkie said Dr Arain alleged it wasn’t a Melbourne problem but an “AFL problem” with a number of players arriving in the city from other states with pre-existing cocaine dependencies. So which players at Melbourne have arrived from other states in recent times (prior to 2021)? Let me think … May, Lever, Petty … 😱

Good article Cam. Time will tell. Trent Cotchin spent the first half of his career perceived by outsiders as a bit too friendly and a bruise-free, skillful player, but totally changed his image and approach in the second half of his career. He became a very successful, no frills, physical leader. Could Zach Merrett be doing the same? I rate Merrett as a skillful accumulator who avoids heavy contact and can’t be relied upon when the game gets physical. But I hear he is changing his approach this season.

Yep. And The MCG and Marvel and AAMI Stadium in Melbourne have lots of interstate visitors. The public in each state are proud to have such brilliant stadiums that attract great events.

No, but I’m saying MONA brings a lot of tourism to Tasmania, thereby stimulating enormous economic benefits to the state (visitors come for MONA but build a trip around it and spend the money on lots of things). A state-of-the-art stadium will do the same. Plus it will make Tasmanians feel prouder.

Excellent idea. Increase Tasmanians’ rates to fund the stadium. Can maybe even avoid the need for the AFL to chip-in so much. 😊

Yeah but Tassy is colder and wetter than the mainland 😊

It’s crazy how ignorant Tasmanian Stadium nay-sayers are of the collective benefits to the State of having a state-of-the-art, contemporary, multi purpose football-cricket-concert stadium. Consider how well the economy’s stadium would be travelling for Tasmania if MONA didn’t exist, or if MONA was built in a tin shed. The AFL are absolutely right to expect the State to contribute heavily. The AFL and Federal Government are both contributing generously and Tasmanians who vote against this future ‘jewell in the state’ are fools.

Studs-up mark from Toby Greene planting his karate foot into the chest of oncoming player on the weekend. There was a rule brought in by the AFL to outlaw this (known as “the Toby Greene rule”), but I guarantee the MRP won’t cite it. They have hitched their wings to Greene’s reformed good guy image and have long protected GWS at the tribunal. The general media are the same. Nothing to see here.