Their forwardline and Inside 50 entries are worse than ours.
They’ve got some terrific ball winners in that midfield, fed by probably the best Ruck in the game, but no speedsters or overly creative players on the wings or half back.
McDonald is a pretty average forward.
Weiderman can’t get a game.
Small forwards almost non existent.
Legit…their best 2 forwards are Jayden Hunt and Melk.
Going to be another miserable season for them !
We better flog these kents
This was a good time for Melbourne to leave the state. Even at a time when Victorians are as welcome in New South Wales as cane toads it would still be preferable to being Melbourne in Melbourne right now.
Melbourne fans have had enough of false dawns and the same maladies cruelling seasons, the same butchery of the ball killing any chance of winning games of football.
Losing to the reigning premier is no disgrace but the disgrace is Melbourne continue to make the same mistakes. The disgrace is they could have won the game but yet again their inability to use the ball meant they did not.
Ideas of game plan, structure, speed of ball movement and personnel in the forward line is all secondary if you turn the ball over as often as Pauline Hanson says something racist.
Here’s some fact to support the emotion: Melbourne is statistically, veritably, the worst kicking team in the AFL.
Champion Data’s best overall stat to measure kicking is the kicking efficiency differential in games. Without getting too pointy headed about it, Melbourne is ranked 18th and last year they were 15th so this is not a new problem.
Partly it is an issue of their own making for they recruited heavily for contested ball players and these types of inside players are typically always less efficient kicks because their best work is done under pressure and in a phone box.
Melbourne’s problem is they have not found players outside the phone box who can both run hard and kick well.
Last year they recognised they needed more outside run and they recruited Ed Langdon and Adam Tomlinson. Both are elite runners but their feet are good for running not kicking.
Or as Garry Lyon put it on his radio program on Monday, Langdon is a “horrible” kick, which is bad, but not as bad as Jayden Hunt. He is, according to Lyon, a “horrible, horrible kick”. A double horrible, that’s serious.
The second part of the problem is the speed that they want to move the ball is not matched by the speed they have the skill to move it. It is like their minds and bodies are working at different paces and on different ideas.
We defer to Lyon on this because he is not only a former captain and club great but he remains emotionally invested in the team and has an keen understanding of their game.
“They play at a tempo that is unsustainable for their skill level,” Lyon said.
The consequence of this is they cannot score. Melbourne has had more losses in games when they have won the inside 50s than any other team in the last three years - and by a big margin. Fifteen times since 2018 they have had more inside 50s than the opposition and lost the game. The next most is nine. Most teams are about six.
The Demons are consequently the most labour intensive scoring team in the AFL. They need 42 disposals for every goal, which is the worst in the AFL. Last year too they were bad, ranked 16th.
As Max Gawn and Simon Goodwin said after the game on Sunday, the endeavour and the effort is there it is just the execution that is letting them down. That is precisely the problem for you can improve effort and endeavour, but can you turn a lot of average kicks into good ones?
They lack skill to move the ball but then they lack recognised stars in the forward line to kick (badly) to. Bayley Fritsch and Jake Melksham are their most threatening looking forwards but they are medium sized and not true targets.
Tom McDonald is asked to hold down full forward when he and they know he is best at stopping goals, not kicking them. He is honest and aggressive and doing what he can with the sort of delivery he is given.
Behind the ball their recruit Steven May has been good after an injury-affected first year but Jake Lever has not found the level he had at Adelaide. Lever had a knee reconstruction of course but he has been back 12 months now and he is labouring. His great asset was his intercept marking and rebound play but currently he is at career low numbers on those measures.
Which brings us to the look-away-now moment for Melbourne fans: the Demons don’t have a first round draft pick this year. They traded it last year so now if they can’t turn their form around and they again finish down the ladder there is no consolation prize for them.
Oh, and Freo have their second round pick as well. At least they have got Hawthorn’s second round pick in this year’s draft from the Sam Frost trade. Presently that will be their first draft pick but that is subject to trade period, which if their form-line continues you might assume will be a pretty busy time for them.
As Lyon rightly said: “This is not a quick fix … they lack skill.”
Need to trade out an inside mid - probably one of Oliver and Viney - and draft hard for outside skill and pace.
They’re far too slow defensively around the middle as well.
This baffles me. Weiderman should be getting games pumped into him at the moment. He’s going to be a good player and needs to grow his confidence. When is he out of contract per chance?
Maybe im nuts, but to me Weideman is very overrated. i dont see the promise. maybe just being a top 10 draft pick comes with expectation. either way, Melbourne ditching Hogan and throwing the responsibility as key forward to him has been a nightmare
Weideman has potential, but he is still a colt.
He can kick accurate, but doesn’t get enough ball and lacks a bit of intensity.
With Gown Bryan and Jones, developing doubt we would go after him. Plus we have Stewart.
Weideman performed in the finals series. and Dees thinking getting May would offset Hogan. But Dees looked a lot more Dangerous with Hogan scoring goals and delivering inside 50.
And Macdonald had a good year as a forward, but couldnt handle being the number 1 forward.
Dees should have been after Bruce last year as well, would have straightened them up.
Dees need to look at enticing a clubs number 1/2 key forward to come to them. If they can’t even some of the washed up crows would have straightened them up - Jenkins/Tex.
He’s had a few good moments in games.
That’s probably about it.
He is a lost player without a defining strength.
Is he a contested beast? No.
Is he great on the lead? No.
Can he play CHF and roam across the wings? Unsure, but unlikely.
Is he a backup ruckman? No.
Can he play in the backline? Fark no.
The only strength I can think of, is if he gets the chance run and jump at a pack, he just might take the mark. But it’s only been seen in glimpses to this point.
He might turn into a Mitch Brown type that can help out every here and there as a forward. The Pavlich comparisons on draft day are so far away from him.
It would be killing Melbourne fans watching that highlight reel of Viney and Oliver wasting every second possession against the Tigers.
All these tough prolific ball winners playing ring a ring a rosie inviting pressure from the opposition.
An opposition like Richmond who needed a win badly and finally found their defensive intensity.
You could see the outcome of that game very early on.
If we were all Melb fans, this forum would be carnage…CARNAGE.
I thought losing Hogan and backing in Weideman was crazy but… they clearly had insight into Hogan’s mental state. Melbourne sold high, his stock is worthless now.
Yeah one call they did get right.
Melbourne’s problem has been the same for years. too many short, solid, built like brick shithouses who can’t kick in the middle.
Tomlinson and Langdon were brought in (don’t mind Langdon) but tomlinsons ball use is as diabolical as olivers
add to this a completely cooked forward line, it’s not gonna be great for goodwin going forward
The thing is, Langdon’s kicking is just as bad!
Ask any Freo supporter and they will tell you the same thing that his weakness was his disposal. He’s a great endurance athlete and knows how to get his hands on it but he’s an ordinary kick. Wingmen have less excuse than centre square on-ballers too because they get a bit more time and space to dispose of the footy.
Not saying Gary Lyon is some oracle but this was him yesterday: “Their midfield are bangers. Jack Viney, Clayton Oliver, Ed Langdon’s a horrible kick so you’ve got to question the recruitment there"
Sort of lost count the number of times Oliver sold his team mates into trouble with his handball. Put them under the pump more than he was, sold them straight into tackles.
To be fair to Garry, he’s on record saying Langdon and Tomlinson were the wrong way to go
@Henry_s_Angry_Pills nailed it. They are going to have to trade one of the inside midfielders in order to get an outside user with good skills
They have an abundance of mids who are good at getting the ball out of the pack. But they have nobody decent to get it out too
So Zaka for Brayshaw 
Needed had 5 wins in his 33 games, Goodwin has 6 wins in his last 29 games. Considering the list different and what Neeld had vs what Goodwin inherited, Melbourne fans can most definitely be pretty ■■■■■■ at the moment.
You raise good points here. But I think it’s better if they just keep going as they are
Goodstuff is not the goodstuff. Stubborn, one dimensional, old fashioned.
Actually their ball use going forward reminds me of ours at its worst under hird.