Melbourne
Coach – Simon Goodwin
2020 –
Points For – 8th
Points Against – 10th
Top 5 Best and Fairest
- Christian Petracca
- Steven May
- Jack Viney
- Ed Langdon
- Clayton Oliver
2020 Rising Star Noms
Luke Jackson (Round 10)
Kysaiah Pickett (Round 11)
Ins – Ben Brown, Jack Bowey, Bailey Laurie, Fraser Rosman
Outs – Harley Bennell, Kyle Dunkley, Mitch Hannan, Kade Kolodjashnij, Oscar McDonald, Brayden Preuss, Corey Wagner, Josh Wagner
My Prediction
Melbourne flirted with making the finals last year but in the end weren’t quite good enough. They were lifted by the improvement in their existing list and some recruitment around the edges. They have settled the list with adding very few players this year although Ben Brown has the capacity to make a difference.
The backline settled in as the year went on and May finally remembered why the offered so much for him and turned up in good shape. Tomlinson and Rivers support well whilst Hibberd’s opponents all seem to have forgotten he only has one side since he left Essendon. Lever hasn’t quite reached the heights he did at Adelaide but has enough talent that he will.
The midfield is all grunt with Viney, Oliver and Brayshaw all better at the coalface than they are outside. They have struggled at times to balance this and Brayshaw often gets sent to the wing or up forward where he struggles to make an impact. Strangely he is the only one of those three with good footskills which is something that they struggle with out of the middle. Bringing in Langdon last year gave them a hard running wing and Petracca running through the middle was hard to stop.
The forward line will be interesting next year. Ben Brown is a good pick up but I am not convinced he fits their game plan and will be a curious one. Weideman still hasn’t hit the heights of the finals a couple of years ago and may benefit from having Brown draw some attention. Pickett has an exciting first year and gives them a good small presence.
The rucks looks as good as any team we have analysed thus far. Gawn is probably the best ruck in the competition and Luke Jackson looks like he is going to be an absolute gun. Love the way he moves. The coach will be feeling the pressure to make finals this year. He probably did as little as he could last year without attracting pressure but this is his team now and a pretty unsuccessful one.
I cant help but feel that they are a good team but maybe not quite good enough. Their top six players are very good but their bottom six on any given game day just aren’t good enough. They need more organic improvement from their current list and I am not sure there is enough for them to challenge. I think they could make the bottom of the eight but could just as easily finish a couple of spots lower than last year. I think they will finish between 8-10.
