Melbourne vs Richmond NAB Challenge Match - Saturday Afternoon, Optus Oval

[Bartram_Class]

how can you say they have been spectacular failures??

dunn was pick 15, which was a bonus for us, already taking bate before him, so we had the opportunity to pick up someone with "potential" (along with bate and newton, the 3 youngest players to be taken in the 2005 draft!!!) he has shown he has great footballing ability and nous, and given time to adapt his body to AFL level, he will be an importarnt part of our forward line

brad miller was pick 55, so anything we get out of him is a bonus as his pick was traded for brent grigic!!!! he had a unimpressive year last year, but he had NO preseason, got thrown back and forward without being able to settle!!

and newton hasnt set the world on fire, but again, was the youngest player in the 2004 draft, and hasnt got the opportunity at sandy, but with smith gone, dunn hopefully AFL, then newton will get game at sandy at ff/CHF

smith was destroyed by injurys, who else is there???

Luke Molan, destroyed by injuries also, but it is still a failure, considering he was a top 10 pick.

 

[Yeah161]

what is the score ???

 

[Bartram_Class]

54 to 42 at half time.

 

[off the cuff]

Final Score
Melbourne 15.12.102 def Richmond 10.15.75
Best: Davey,Dunn
crowd:12,000

 

[Bartram_Class]

Jeez 12,000 is a decent enough crowd, I didnt think they would get 5.

C Johnson and Jones were among the best also, no injuries to report for the Demons.

 

[off the cuff]

Jeez 12,000 is a decent enough crowd, I didnt think they would get 5.

C Johnson and Jones were among the best also, no injuries to report for the Demons.

nah,nah,nah......my mistake........1,200....whoops too many zero's....
sorry

 

[Bartram_Class]

Thought something was up.

 

[stickman11]

MELBOURNE 3.3 8.7 11.10 15.13 (103)

RICHMOND 0.3 6.7 7.12 10.15 (75)

Goals: Melbourne: D Neitz 3 J White 3 N Jones 2 A Davey 2 T Johnstone C Johnson B Green C Bruce M Whelan.
Richmond: G Polak 2 K Pettifer 2 D Meyer 2 J Schulz 2 S Tuck B Hartigan.

Best: Melbourne: C Bruce T Johnstone C Bizzell N Jones.
Richmond: S Tuck K Pettifer N Foley.

Umpires: C Donlon T Dey T Keating C Hendry.

 

[demonandy]

It was a very encouraging performance, particularly in the first half when we dominated the game (except time on in the 2nd Qtr where Richmond got a run on).

I was very impressed with C Johnson and N Jones. CJ seemed very composed and used the ball well and Jones landed sh1tloads of tackles and won some hard ball. Both I think will get more gametime this year.

Bizzell also stood out as worthy of a comeback season, showing glimpses of two years ago form.

Who else? Honorable mentions to Bell, Rivers, Bruce, Johnstone and Frawley did some nice things in the 2nd half.
Bit disappointed that Jamar didnt show more, and Buckley doesnt quite seem ready for senior footy IMO

Richmond were very disappointing - too many brief cameos with few solid performances. Raines, Newman, K Johnson were solid. Polak didnt do enough (but showed glimpses) and guys like Tivendale and Gaspar are hacks.

 

[demonfan9]

Jones was best on ground for me, a very good four quarter game in the midfield. He will be a key player for us this year, alongside McLean, McDonald and Moloney.

CJ impressed me too, particularly in the first half where he used his run very well. He seems confident at senior level now and I would expect him to be in the side for Round 1.

I was equally impressed with Bell down back. He backed up the Hawthorn game with another good display. He gives 110% every contest, has strengthened up and still has his pace. Looks like he is finally finding his place in the team. He made several good spoils and crunching tackles.

Good to see Bizzell playing some good football. Ward continues to use his dash across half back very well. Brown was on and off throughout the game but did mostly good things. I liked the look of young Frawley, he defended well and likes to rebound the footy. Carroll didn't have a proper match up so it was hard to judge his performance compared to what we saw in 2006, but he still continues to make some dumb and sloppy choices at times. Didn't see much of Whelan, but when I did he seemed to be further up the ground than usual and did the job.

In the middle, Bruce was good throughout and kicked a couple of goals. Johnstone really lifted in the second half and showed that he will never lose his magical talent. McDonald and Moloney were a bit quiet but they may have been rotated a bit.

Yze shat himself in the pocket taking an overhead mark with very little pressure, and the crowd jeered. Very disappointing from a senior player who has been under the pump lately. Had little impact on the game and must lift to warrant a place in the side.

 

[melbournemartin]

Johnstone was best on ground. He got lots of the ball and used it very well. Kicked a good goal too. Jones was best on ground until half time but didn't have quite the same impact in the 2nd half but was still one of our best. His skills below his knees are supurb and he also laid some great tackles. Kicked 2 solid goals and nearly landed a 3rd from about 50 out near the boundary (hard to tell as I was on the other side of the ground and low down) but it hit the post.

Davey kicked a supurb goal after some magic in the pocket. Jeff White popped up in the 3rd quarter to kick 2 very important goals to give us some breathing space going into the last.

Neitz looked very dangerous in the first. He was making the most of playing on Joel Bowden and the delivery was very good. Bowden wasn't able to run off him much either. Kicked 3 early but not one since then and didn't play at all in the last quarter. I think this was only to give Jamar, White, Miller and Dunn a go up forward. Bruce was also quite good and ran hard all day. Looked buggered at the end though.

Robbo and Yze were ineffective. Dunn and Miller did a few good things but at the moment I can't see a spot in the team for both of them. Buckley was rarely sighted. Frawley was better though and is a chance for round 1 but I'd say he'd still be unlikely. Bate played very well, especially in the last quarter. Bizzell did his round 1 chances no harm with a solid game.

I'm going to give votes for this game even though it doesn't count towards the B&F.

We give out 8 votes yeah or is it 10? I forgot.

Johnstone - 4
Jones - 2
Bruce - 1
White - 1
(If 10 votes are given in total)
Bizzell - 1
Bate - 1

 

[HBK619]

Yze shat himself in the pocket taking an overhead mark with very little pressure, and the crowd jeered. Very disappointing from a senior player who has been under the pump lately. Had little impact on the game and must lift to warrant a place in the side.

Noticed that Johnstone also did the same thing at one point during the last qtr I think, he had the ball saw someone coming and just dropped the ball not wanting to get hurt.

Poor effort for the two senior players, and not very good for two players who should be setting an example.

 

[Supermercado]

Richmond were alright but their delivery into the forward line was ****ing abysmal.

Jones was BOG for me - he killed it. We looked good but I'm not buying any more into this pre-season rubbish just because we won a game.

 

[Pipefitter]

Went to the game. Good fun. TJ picked up the game like he hadnt even left. Great from him. Loved Frawley and CJ. Rivers was well beaten today, robbo got smashed by gaspar. Yze - Needs to be dropped asap. How good were whites goals today? He looked in fine form.

 

[Bartram_Class]

Peter Curran said that Brock McLean wanted to play today but they werent going to risk him, he will play next week against the Cats though at Skilled Stadium.

 

[demon_chick27]

went to the game today...it was great to see the young boys getting a good run.
one supporter told me that they would rather have see godfrey out there instead of sylvia! does anybody actually agree with this? i was shocked to hear someone tell me that!

 

[Bartram_Class]

Some might say Sylvia doesnt give 100% all the time, something you never have to worry about with Godfrey.

Then again, Sylvia wouldn't be alone in that regard.

 

[demon_chick27]

understandable....dont get me wrong i love godders like i love all the team but i just think sylvia is a better player thats all

 

[banzai]

It was a very encouraging performance, particularly in the first half when we dominated the game (except time on in the 2nd Qtr where Richmond got a run on).

I was very impressed with C Johnson and N Jones. CJ seemed very composed and used the ball well and Jones landed sh1tloads of tackles and won some hard ball. Both I think will get more gametime this year.

Bizzell also stood out as worthy of a comeback season, showing glimpses of two years ago form.

Who else? Honorable mentions to Bell, Rivers, Bruce, Johnstone and Frawley did some nice things in the 2nd half.
Bit disappointed that Jamar didnt show more, and Buckley doesnt quite seem ready for senior footy IMO

Richmond were very disappointing - too many brief cameos with few solid performances. Raines, Newman, K Johnson were solid. Polak didnt do enough (but showed glimpses) and guys like Tivendale and Gaspar are hacks.

I agree on Tivendale and Gas (although he kept robbo goaless) and we certainly werent great, but not sure how you can say that Melbourne were VERY encouraging and we were VERY disappointing. We had atleast as many guys out (almost certainly more) and you only won by 5 goals. I would expect with both teams at full strength Melbourne to be atleast 5 goals better than us and we missed a lot of easy set shots today, what exactly were you expecting from Richmond?

 

[Slander]

I agree on Tivendale and Gas (although he kept robbo goaless) and we certainly werent great, but not sure how you can say that Melbourne were VERY encouraging and we were VERY disappointing. We had atleast as many guys out (almost certainly more) and you only won by 5 goals. I would expect with both teams at full strength Melbourne to be atleast 5 goals better than us and we missed a lot of easy set shots today, what exactly were you expecting from Richmond?

The way I saw it is that we were toying with you from the first bounce. No disrespect but to me the two sides out there were in different leagues we barely got out of 2nd gear while you guys controlled the game for 2.5 quarters and we still never looked like losing the lead.

 

[demonandy]

I agree on Tivendale and Gas (although he kept robbo goaless) and we certainly werent great, but not sure how you can say that Melbourne were VERY encouraging and we were VERY disappointing. We had atleast as many guys out (almost certainly more) and you only won by 5 goals. I would expect with both teams at full strength Melbourne to be atleast 5 goals better than us and we missed a lot of easy set shots today, what exactly were you expecting from Richmond?

Banzai, I think you're reading too much into my "very's" but on the whole you can't just look at the scoreboard and the number of missed shots.

I thought the most concerning thing was Richmond's lack of structure and poor accountability. Melbourne seemed to find plenty of space and stream through the center, whereas Richmond messed around with the ball a lot more and had difficulties when approaching attacking fifty. Like I said, too much was left to too few (without Raines and Newman the backline will struggle badly) and the team relied on bursts to stay in touch.

But agreed, you've had a shocking run with injuries and it was just a practice match, but I just thought the team appeared less accomplished than early last year. Just my opinion...

 

[nameless]

Banzai, I think you're reading too much into my "very's" but on the whole you can't just look at the scoreboard and the number of missed shots.

I thought the most concerning thing was Richmond's lack of structure and poor accountability. Melbourne seemed to find plenty of space and stream through the center, whereas Richmond messed around with the ball a lot more and had difficulties when approaching attacking fifty. Like I said, too much was left to too few (without Raines and Newman the backline will struggle badly) and the team relied on bursts to stay in touch.

But agreed, you've had a shocking run with injuries and it was just a practice match, but I just thought the team appeared less accomplished than early last year. Just my opinion...

Richmond has no structure because their spine was in the stands. Wallace has said he is concerned that it will take a while to find that structure because of injuries to such key players.

 

[CaptainDavey]

Happy with the win, just wanted to hear other peoples thoughts about our speed? I believe it's still a cause for concern...We can match it with any interstate side in terms of personnel but the whole speed/endurance factor is still a worry for mine. If we can address this problem, albeit a very hard one to do so, we can really push for dominance IMO

 

[davey_magik]

Happy with the win, just wanted to hear other peoples thoughts about our speed? I believe it's still a cause for concern...We can match it with any interstate side in terms of personnel but the whole speed/endurance factor is still a worry for mine. If we can address this problem, albeit a very hard one to do so, we can really push for dominance IMO

There would have been a big emphasis on the legspeed factor over the summer.
Guys like Flash and Choppy are our main guys who break the lines, Bate will definitely be one as well as he matures, even Bell can do it.
We're not that slow. However there is one key we have to making top 4 this year, and Wallace mentioned it last year, it's whether Sylvia steps up. He does have that burst speed and can break the lines (He can do anything in the midfield really, it's just a question of application and fitness).
The speed thing is a bit overrated in my opinion. All players can break the lines when given the ball in space, I've seen Junior do it plenty of times and he's average pace at best.

 

[CaptainDavey]

There would have been a big emphasis on the legspeed factor over the summer.
Guys like Flash and Choppy are our main guys who break the lines, Bate will definitely be one as well as he matures, even Bell can do it.
We're not that slow. However there is one key we have to making top 4 this year, and Wallace mentioned it last year, it's whether Sylvia steps up. He does have that burst speed and can break the lines (He can do anything in the midfield really, it's just a question of application and fitness).
The speed thing is a bit overrated in my opinion. All players can break the lines when given the ball in space, I've seen Junior do it plenty of times and he's average pace at best.

Point taken. It can also be argued that successfull teams like Brisbane and Sydney weren't unbelievably fast and it doesn't mean to say players such as Flash, Bate, Sylvia, CJ, Buckley and so on don't have pace on their side