The Lunchtime Catch Up
A series of unfortunate inside 50's
How influential was the third quarter umpire in your mind? Yeah. I know others will play it down and they'll try and say no, it didn't have a bearing because in the end the result was 45 points. But when these things happened, right, and momentum is the biggest thing in our game. The hardest thing to stop and the energy you get from that scoreboard nourishment is hard to put a number on or a figure on. There was three points of difference when the Draper decision wasn't called, which was clearly front on contact and has been a free kick for the forever and a day. It went to the other end and the cat scored a goal straight away. So in that same motion, it was a two goal swing. So now they're nine points down and it was still nine points when that deliberate was paid against Menzie. So now they're 15 points down and the game sliding. So then you have to make changes in the coach's box. You have to address this momentum, you have to challenge your own, you have to do different things. You have to pull different levers to try and pick up that three goal gap. It should have been a two goal gap the other way to the bombers and you're forcing your long to make change and play a different way because the scoreboard dictates everything. Nothing's more important than what you're looking at in terms of a lead or chasing the lead. So they can say, oh no, I didn't have a bearing on the game. It had a massive impact on the game and you can feel the team shot podcast. Now they're pulling well on the trophy, time for a fumble, back to Kewal on the Menzies. The bombers on fire. He's getting really well, he goes the barrel, Jackie Strick has put out the extra satellite barrel. And he's down from 60. Sam Durham hasn't seen a moment like this in his life. Picked up in the mid-season draft two years ago. Welcome back to the lunchtime catch-up podcast. The lunchtime catch-up podcast is two bikes that have done each other forever. They catch up most days in the Melbourne CBD for lunch that talk everything else and in footy club. My name is Grant and with me is Scott. Hello everyone. Good to be back. Lots to talk about tonight, you obviously heard our intro and we'll talk about that as well. I'm seeing it's a massive topic of conversation. Look, there's bombers obviously lost three last four now. So we're now sliding back a little bit to the pack and you can see how tight the competition is. Kaltumi posted today that it's the first time an AFL history team that is 13th has more wins and losses. So if you want to know which is the Hawks, who are 13th. So if you want to know how tight this competition is, it's... And the AFL will be loving that. They'll be loving the fact that so many teams are in a room with the chance. Yeah, there's one game. Four points between basically fifth to 13th. So, you know, we dropped one or two more. We're 13th. Which would just be like a real massive bummer. If that happened, that would be a huge bummer. So look, massive, we'll talk about also Friday night. It is a huge game against the pies and the pies, you know, from news today got some injury concerns. So funny jocks. But that'll be good for us. So yeah, we always like to think that, but it never seems to be the case. Hm. So, look, let's get the elephant in the room out of the way. So obviously the Geelong game, you know, we're up at half time. Geelong kick a goal. They look like they... In all fairness, they do look like they've come out pretty well in the third quarter. Then early, look early in the third, Draper's going for a mark and has obvious front-on contact. Also the arm is ripped off his shoulders. Yeah. And what we all would think is obviously a very obvious free kick wasn't paid, and Geelong go down and kick a goal. So it happens again. We have a tackle 35 yards out to a Geelong. I don't know if it's the Stuart one or the other one, I'm trying to work with which order is in. But clearly dropping the ball took the player on, took him on, went to fend. It was so obvious that in the old rule, five weeks ago, it was dropping the ball. Still would have been dropping the ball. Exactly right. So for the new rule, it was very obvious dropping the ball. Ball goes down the other end again. Menzi has the ball right on the goal line. There's a play about two metres away from him, Menzi decides to go through a behind, which my understanding is you can do that. Everybody's understanding is you can do that. And it's called whatever it's called. A deliberate. Yeah. So Geelong get a goal from five metres out. We get another Geelong guy coming out, 35 yards out, trying to bust through again. He drops the ball as well. And it goes, if we don't get it, goes down the other end, Ridley gets tackled, has no chance of getting it, it's immediate tackle, has no chance of getting the ball out because one of his arms are pinged and he can't get a leg to it. Now that's 50/50. More time than not, umpires are more conservative, Stingle gets the free, he kicks a goal. And then, so all of a sudden, within seven minutes, the whole game has changed dramatically. You've got one side, absolutely rejoicing. You're rejoicing, couldn't believe their luck, and you've got a side that's demoralised. And the body language is terrible, they've dropped their heads big time. And there's something to talk about that. I'm sure the club will talk about that during the week, but I'm off to believe too that you, at least for the rest of that quarter, you've got to remind them, everyone's going to remind themselves is, yes, they're pros. Yeah, in a perfect world, they don't drop their head. They put it behind themselves, yep, fine. But they're human beings and outside of Joe Colwell, the whole team does drop their head. And I would include, and I never thought I would say this, but even Zachi Merritt had, you know, from that point on was frustrated and we just couldn't get good performances from anyone outside of Joe Colwell. So I'm going to challenge a few people, because a few people won't like the start of this show, they'll go, hey, you're making excuses and that, I get, you know, I have no wish you would do long winning the game, because I think they're a team that has owned us for a long, long, long time. But I wanted to see it play out normally to see where everything would stack up, not have that diabolical seven minute situation, and then, and then the whole, you know, obviously they go up three or four goals, and the whole, everything just shifts dramatically. The psyche of both sides is completely different. And we never really knew where Essendon now would have ended up without that seven minutes happening. Yep. Were they playing perfect football, Essendon? Obviously not, because they were up at that stage at that point. They'll probably up like 15 inside fifties. So am I saying, we were playing perfect football? No. But we had territory, we just, we stuffed it up, and we couldn't get to screw on the board, and that's, that's something, you know, that second quarter, late in the first quarter, they'll talk that through the club about efficiency, why we're not screwing like the Carlton game, when we've got total territory. But on the other side of the, but we did have territory, like we were having some control of the game. And Draper's meant to kick for goal. Those two tackles are meant to kick for goal. It's meant to be three goals our way. Well, it shouldn't have been Menzies, Menzies shouldn't have equal to goal in the opposite way as well. Yeah. It was not meant to be ended up because of momentum that came to long scored six in a row. And that's it. They weren't dropping the balls halfway up a wing or something like that. The resulted in a chip passed a half forward, which resulted in a play kicking on and giving us plenty of time. It was, it was bloody howlers of decisions, not, not, he was unsighted, not maybe yes, not maybe no, they were just massive mistakes. And I look, we, I reckon you'd go back over our catalogue, you can count maybe once or twice where we've had a decent crack at the umpires because you can't have a decent crack at the umpires because they don't change their decision. It's futile and it's a complete waste of time. I'm sorry. In this particular one, they were, those decisions were so bad. So influential. So, but, and that's my point is that they were so bad because they were so influential. I'm sorry, but you can't afford to make those kind of really, really obviously bad decisions in front of goal like that because it just costs us so much. It costs draper a goal. It costs, I forget who did the tackle on Tom Stewart and that's the stuff, but those guys would have kicked those goals easy and David King's right when he says the momentum of Essendon kicking of, of drapes get doing what he needed to do to get behind the, behind the pack and take that mark the, the effort from the back line players to stop Tom Stewart breaking through a pack and get the tackle and make him drop the ball, get the reward for that would have put us a couple of goals up. And we've got the momentum and we could probably have finished off the game in one, but you can understand why those four major, major errors would have just got into the players' heads because the first one with draper, they would have just been going, what the hell was that? Then there's another one with Menzie and then another one on top of that and another one, it just, you can understand why they dropped their heads. Now, we, like you said, we should have won because we ended up with 20 more inside 50s or whatever it was in the end. But not the, at that point of the game, I mean, yeah, honestly, it's a long, we, because we dropped our heads so badly, it was one, yeah, yeah, right. But I understand where the players are coming from for that one. And it's just really disappointing because again, it just puts that cloud as, sure, with a good spectacle, but yeah, but it also puts that cloud over Essendon again of, can we beat these sides? Can we do this? The wet didn't help. The umpiring damn well didn't help. It's just now you put it up. If we had a beach along and we hadn't had those stupid decisions and beach along and the wet like that, it's worth its weight and gold for momentum into Collingwood. But now we've lost three out of four and we're going to go play Collingwood and everybody's not sure again and is Grant's bloody lead flying through the bolt. He is. That's just a really stupid idea. So I hate the fact that it really annoys me that there can be no recourse against absolutely incorrect decisions like that. There's decisions because if the ball hits the post or something, you don't want it to be a goal and it shouldn't be. But when you can make right wrong, they would just badly and obviously wrong, there has to be a moment, a way moving forward or a mechanism in which the third umpire can stop the play and say, I'm sorry, man, that's. And so you feel like, yeah, blatantly obvious. I'm an NBA fan. You want the coaches challenge, okay. Yeah. Well, hang on a sec, whoa, whoa, whoa, everybody stopped for two minutes because that's ridiculous. Um, like seriously, I want an independent person to have a look at that because if the umpires had a brain fart, he's lost his mind briefly. He missed it. He blinked. He did whatever. I understand. But that's it hurts too much and to do it two or three or four times in a row, that umpire had better be umpiring in the dimballer buddy fourths next next week, because if he didn't know that means he's rushed behind was okay, then he doesn't know the rules of football. And if he did know, then he made an incorrect decision and didn't correct himself. All right. So that's, that's just hate that's like Sam Newman said, the only two things that haven't improved to football over since he played is goal kicking in the umpiring. And I've got to agree, it's like, we will get off this subject very soon and that will be the end of it. But it, that really, really stung, especially where we are in the, in the season and what we're trying to do as a club, having such influence that wasn't our fault really hurts. Yeah, exactly. And, and look, like I said, I, I'm not, I know people were a little bit frustrated with Brad Scott's comments out the game. I have no issue with Brad Scott's comments and I'll tell you why, because he's coming from a different perspective, he has to get the guys up in six days. So we can linger on it, but he can't. Yeah. Of course. And he has to get the guys, because it's, this is a critical part of the year. And he's been since January, very much focus on the mental side of the club's approach. And it's, it's the R and E is of this game where John kicks six in a row. I was actually doing some homework, my friend Anthony Prok on Twitter, who's a really good stats. We'll just talk. We had this conversation. We're getting up some stats because I was talking about, look, what did we do last you about teams that scored five goals in a row or more? Like, how many times did it happen? Because I felt like we've really stopped that, like our mental resilience. Absolutely. So I was going to have this brilliant, like conversation and then, but so I'll say outside of the weekend, up to this point, which is round 15, we've only allowed two teams, Collinwood in the second quarter on Anzac Day and Port Adelaide would put, last year, it happened 12 times where, where, so this is where all the little things you go, there's, I was trying to, you know, I was going to come onto the show and go, it was so positive because Scott's mental toughness that he's tried to install and they've got Ben Robbins coming in. It actually has been working really well and the guys have been a lot more resilient, a lot more consistent and like they approached the Geelong game fine. The first half, they were all over them, they're all over them. And then that's why that incident will be, will be, will be something that Scott addresses during the week because he can't control, he can't, there's no recourse for him to go back. Doesn't matter what he says. It doesn't matter. He can't, like, I know people will disagree, but he can't for two days have a fight with AFL House because he needs, he's only got a six day break. He needs straight away to get the guys mentally switched on because they've got a massive game. They have to forget, they have to forget those, those, we can, we can be frustrated. A professional side, unfortunately, has to move on and get it right. So that's why I wasn't, I understood a little bit of Scott's, I mean, he obviously, reading between the lines, there was a series of unfortunate events that happened. That's his conversation. Somebody said. Yeah. It was a series. Too many crickets of slimming his lickets or whatever it is. So look, I can understand, and I hope people get to understand that, that he's been so much drilled on trying to get the guys mentally tougher because he felt he came into a club that was mentally weak, which was right, that he has to quickly get these guys up in six days time. I have no wish you were that, yeah, because it is really important. And for the most part of the year, the reason we are fourth, and you can talk about all the who we've lost to and wins, but the reason we are for this is we're at least had a consistent approach for most weeks, which is the vast majority of weeks, yeah, which we've been either very hard to beat or we've, you know, for the most part one, which is why we're nine, five and one, right? So I think I still want to capture some people to go, look, that was, you know, a 45-point loss is not fun to watch, and there's major areas that they go to address. And I remember asking Ben Jacobs about the Carlton game about, is there a concern when you have so much territory that the opposition flood your forward line? And I still think it's a big concern that they've got to work out what the right mixes forward and mid because I know people will go, oh, midfield, our midfield is kicking it and bombing it. But if there's 15 guys in the forward line, I don't know what the answer is because there's no spread, there's no, there's nowhere to lead because if you own half the ground and every player is in that half of the ground, which is 36 players, you've then got to work out how you combat that to actually get a scoreboard pressure because you're basically relying on, on one having really heavy emphasis on guys who, who could do contested marks and I, to be blunt, it's not out of strength, and if the ball hits the ground, you're looking at elite small forwards. And we kind of don't got that neither, yeah. So there's a few things to work out with, with how they do that. It looks great and we've got constant bombing into the, the forward line, but a lot, not just people will tell me, we never lower our eyes, you know, like if you watch some of the gaming, there's no room for Langford to move, like the string of this, there's just three, there's three guys in front of them. So I, and I don't know what the answer is to be blunt, but I think in short, look, we'll go to it, but in short, it's, it's the things that they have to talk about as a club about this game plan and how it can be effective in terms of scoreboard pressure and not just being close with the opposition because you got so much ball. Like how can you actually get a run of four or five goals with that pressure to get, you know, because if you talked about a domination of play, really at half time, we should have been four or five goals up. And we just didn't. And we give, we give the opposition some life. So that's my two cents worth. We'll go into some players. That's my two cents worth. The arms come with me. All right, cool. We're going to a quick break. We'll come back. We'll get on to some positives like Jay Caldwell. Yeah. Exactly. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to the lunchtime catch up podcast. Now then. - We've been. - This could be like, for me, honestly, we go through a lot of plays. This for me is like, there's two players in my mind. - The rest were average. - The rest were okay or average. - Yeah. - And it's really like. - Well, let's do at least. - One of the good ones got subbed off. - What was, who was your sub? - No, Jonesy Jones, yes. - Oh, look man, I'm not minding his current game. This movement up the ground, taken marks, his field goal. Sorry, his field kicking is quite good. I'm liking the fact that he gets to run around. I bet you he is as well. I don't know why we subbed him. And also to Nick Cox as a sub is not really doing it for me. - Well, it's funny, we are like, the Jones one, even though the club said tactical, I mean, you can everyone can see this, there's ice strapped to his calf. - Yeah, so is, I still waiting for that injury report to come out. Can I, I was, this is almost a little bit of first segment stuff, so excuse this. - Yeah. - 'Cause this is another one that I've just been thinking about and I will leave the topic over to everyone else and comment on that 'cause I actually don't know what I think of it like, but in some ways. So Jones the wing, Martin goes back from, so we're halfway through the year. This is normally the time where you've done all the good work, you settle as a club in your positions. - Yeah. - Do you think, I have a slight concern with Scott on this one, do you think we're over moving guys, Kelly to half forward, Martin, go now back to half forward from back line, Jones to wing, mensie to half back. Hindi's half forward. Do you think we're a little bit over moving guys to where the cohesion is suddenly a little bit out? Even though individually some of them may play okay, but you know, obviously you're not kicking to Jones anymore at half forward, you know, mensie is pretty loose defensively and then the back six aren't used to working with him because they want him to rebounding. - I'm just wondering, what's at the time of year for us to suddenly have a bit of a pre-season kind of field to us and we're experimenting with guys in different areas when things were going quite well? - Yes, I think what you'll find with Scott is that he is going to be continuously trying things. - Well does he have, this sounds really cold. Does he not care about this year and go, I'm still thinking of two, three years done. - I think because I think he's on that like three year plan. He's done well with the defence, he's fixed-ish, the defence that was which is hats last year. Now I think he's needing to, like he's playing around with the midfield, moving Martin Ford and mensie and trying to find stuff, but he has to concentrate now on doing the same thing with the forward line. I think you're right. If we're going to have a serious tilt at anything resembling a balance this year. - Yeah, this year I don't expect any team would do as far as moving guys around. - I agree, I agree, but I mean, I don't know maybe, but mensie for me is an interesting one. If you're not going to play him in the forward line. - Yeah. - Like we've got we've got Hind, Hepple, we've got Redmond, we've got Robert, Archie Roberts, coming through. - Clearly, clearly guys. - We've got all sorts of half-back line players. So I'm not sure why he's playing him up the ground, but to answer your question specifically, I think it's a Scott thing. I think it's a Scott thing. He wants players having the ability to play multiple positions. - Yeah, look, I agree that he really values and Ben Jacobs was talking about versatility. It was just dawning me like it's just an interesting stage of the year because you kind of, I forget what it was, but you kind of like eight, two and one or eight, three and one, you know, whatever. You're in a really good spot. You're second on the ladder and then, you know, suddenly you've just changed everything around. And look, I think what it's added on top of that is that you've had an influx of the injured players not being injured anymore. The draper's, the doersma's, the regressions come back from the bye. So you're making that three or four changes the last couple of weeks as well. So I don't know, I didn't say it after the Eagles game 'cause I tried not to think too much about it. But I must admit, in my heart of hearts, after that Eagles game, I went, I was worried 'cause it felt like a different resident. And I went, and I felt like the Eagles scoring 90 odd and seeing our defense just a little bit not as, not as stable, yeah, not as stable. I was actually my head going, are we a little bit uncohesive again, like just a little bit? And this game just felt like to me a little bit, like the same. It was like, have we been tinkering a little bit too much? Now that may be, like I said, a long-term view, but is that a byproduct of, you know, probably seven selection changes in the last couple of weeks. - And moving players around. - And moving the players around. - Martin Backford, and Mansey and all sorts of things. - Yeah, so it was just something to think about. I was just... - So to add to that question, would you like to potentially see less of that? Would you, is it the time of year now for you? - If I thought this year was in play, I would say yes. - Why, isn't it? - Well, that's it. I mean, your fourth on the ladder. So I can't help think like, why not have it in play? But yeah, it's... - It'll be interesting to see sort of bookmarked this podcast, to see if we come back into a three weeks when the season's really seriously getting to the pointy end and we need to really start maintaining our position or holding our position inside the eight as high as we can get it. Whether or not he goes back to... - Yeah, I mean... - What he knows. - In some ways, the first 10, 11 rounds, it was more like, well, very stubborn. People play where they play, but it actually kind of worked in a weird way. I mean, you were quite cohesive. - Oh, I mean, even if one or two didn't perform, as a group, you still were structurally sound. If that makes sense. - Look, if you asked me that question, I'd probably be laughed out of every AFL coaching box in the world, but I am of the opinion that when you know what you've got as a footballer, you play him there, right? Like, if you want to make Menzier half back, then try it in the twos. Don't try it in the ones, man. Play the guys in the positions they want to play in, like move Martin back, fine, if you have to do it, because he can play back there, fine. Is he as effective as moving forward, I don't think so, but sure, playing back. But my point is, let the guys play in the positions they become accustomed to, and that they're good at, Allah, Andy McGraw, and then let them all gel together, right? Let everybody see Heindi and Hepple and Redmond, and those guys running out of half back and not having to think, oh, where's Jaim Inzi? I think he's supposed to be down here somewhere. I would be of the opinion that you learn who your footballers are in the twos, or you learn who they are at practice. And I know people will probably laugh and say, yeah, but you can't match conditions and all that sort of stuff. I agree, but I would be, my coaching style would be to the players play in the positions that we know that they are good at, and that's where they stay. For extended periods of time, so they can gel as a team. Yeah, look, I tend to agree, and there's gonna be outliers because obviously, sometimes you can have eight really good mids in your group, and you go, I want to try and get at least one or two in the game. I get that, teams do that, they try and go, you know, Hobbs or whatever, a Shealy or whatever. Oh, look, I might put one at half forward, or because-- You're a pocket or something, yeah. They can rotate. I get that part of it, and while you might want to change things up, just to add a bit more natural footballers around all areas of the ground. But just structurally, just, I just thought we've probably overplayed it a bit, but he may, coaching group may go, what do you know? And it's a great question. And football the way. All right, so none of that means anything when you see Giant Caldwell's game. Yeah, like I said, he was the only one who didn't really get too flustered. What a bloody game from that kid, right? Yeah. He was best on ground by the length of the straight. He was in packs, he was outside packs. He never gave up for a split second. Wow, that kid, he's gonna do well on the Criton. And he's, if you ever wondered what Giant Caldwell was gonna be two years ago, now you know what it is. He is really nudging the top echelons of Essenin's best midfielders. And it's really great to see, because Zach's still got his, what, 23 touches and one goal, one entirely handy game of football. But him-- No, he was out of pair, out of four game. He had seven turnovers. (laughs) Okay, sure, okay, so seven, seven, seven, seven. I'm just being like, I'll call it, that's how I saw it, I thought, I know 23 is 23, but if you, 30 of your possessions are all-- Sure, I got you. Going to the opposition. Yeah, good point. He's just felled off to me, like, and it's, that's one off, it's like, it happens once in a blue moon. The point was, is that if it's, again, if he's having a bad game, the likes of a Caldwell are now there, in the pointy end of the echelon, to be able to, to step up when required. And he almost got us over the line. Yeah, what it showed me that game, and credit to Joe, obviously. But what it showed me in that game, I still think the balance is out by at least one, where I think we need an extra mid to support. I think we're probably over, overusing Durham, Caldwell, Merritt, and they're not getting support. And unfortunately, I'll talk about a guy who's not giving him support. He probably needs to be possible, VFL. Yeah. But they need, they need an experience for baller, whether it's set a field, whether it's shield. I feel like they need that fourth guy, who knows what he's doing, knows the caper, tough, experienced. I just feel like Durham and Cole will need help, and Merritt needs that help. I think when Parrish played Merritt flourishes, and I just think they just, I think we're just missing the trick a bit, and putting too much reliance on those three, to go through the whole game. Yeah, so that's just my personal belief, but that's how I feel is that we're one mid short at the moment. I think for mine, that's set a field. I think he's, he's the grunt, the extra amount of grunt. Like, I know shields got plenty of grunt, and plenty of clearances, and doing that sort of stuff. But I just think, I think set a field, if he can be loose actually genuinely in the midfield, and not off a wing or something like that, if you put him in the midfield, I think you're right. I mean, they, you take Parrish out of that side, and it's, it hurts, right? He's the, he's that fourth rotation midfield. But, like I thought, again, the dynamic, sort of Durham was there in spurts, and not there in others, so. But again, you look at it, we got plenty of the ball, we got the ball inside 50 a lot. So the midfield looks going, is going okay. I mean, Nick Martin got another, what do you get, 20 odd as well, or 28, nearly 30. But again, yeah, nine, two novers. It's, it was, I think, a nine, two, I say. And that's, that's the thing. Like, we don't don't, I mean, we tee off in the umpires at the beginning of this podcast. We make bad decisions too. Make no mistake, we lost that game, right? Like we, we lost that game. The umpires had a freaking big pattern towards the end. But we lost that game with the amount of inside 50s and turnovers and that sort of stuff. We just, we have to be more disciplined than that. - Yeah, exactly. So, and look, the funny enough, the stoppage clearance is which we've been weak on. We're all plus seven. So, I mean, I can understand Scott saying afterwards, like he wouldn't have changed Goldie and Draper. Like, Goldie had 13 headouts to advantage. Now, Draper only had, I think, seven. But he would have felt like, well, we've got the clearances. Like, we got the, and now I struggle with Draper a little bit. I'll completely honest, I wish, I don't know what he gets taught at the club, but it can't be just every second right to you. You try and nudge him out and grab at yourself and kick. Surely, there's at some point, you do the, the skill of ruck tapping. - Ruck trapped, yeah. - To our guys, because a lot of times he's not, he's not getting it and it's falling to the opposition just because it hits the floor. And then on the other occasions, he's tapping with both hands or fumping it forward. With no real, no real process. Like there's no, our guys aren't there. And it's, sure, it's sometimes 50/50, but Goldia was at least having a, you know, a not a craft about his taps. So they've got to work out that, 'cause I still think Draper's probably just nudging ahead. But I wish he was, even in this off-season, developed more as a tap rock, as a tap rock man, and just have a bit more craft about him, a bit more IQ. But yeah, clearance is a fine, but yeah. So look, I agree on Setters. I'm 50/50 myself, whether it's Setters or Shield. Because part of me goes, I feel like sometimes we've got a lack of run. So I finally have to go like, if Shield tacks the ball under the arm, it creates a point of difference. - It's the perfect point of difference. Setters in and under. - Yeah, I don't. - I mean, do you know what you think about that? Like Shield, if Shield wasn't a clearance player as well, then I'd go, I want Setters, 'cause I want those hands on the ball and I want the clearance, but Shield's perfectly capable of getting in between a pack and coming out the other side of it with the ball. So maybe it is Shield that we need. - Shield, in the last three weeks, the VFL has had 25 clearances. - Yeah, so maybe it is? - 10, 9, and 6. And so he can definitely get a clearance himself. - And what's it between? - And look, he played, where the people think his papers are stamped and there's probably a general feel about that. He clearly was the difference in the VFL. Like, he was back to his old self. Whether that is good enough. Again, if you're having an immediate view of the world and your fourth on the ladder, and can we do we attack this year? - Over the next section. - He's a player on your list. I would say yes. If your view is this year, if your view's not, and then I perfectly understand fans that don't, then yeah, maybe it's not. Maybe it's set of field. Maybe it's Hobbes. Maybe it's Sardis. You know, you've been in different kind of plays for future. So if your immediate thought was this week, I would say you would be crazy not to have Shiel in your side, but that's just having a lens of competing this year. - For now? Oh yes. - For now. So it's a different, who knows? The argument is, you know, whether whatever you think is, I'm not too fast. But look, yeah, like you said, Harrison Jones was fantastic. His first half was amazing. You know, really clean hands and a wet. I mean, it was a wet game. - Absolutely. - Did not suit us. When that's not a wet weather term. - No, we're just not. Besides that, I found it interesting. Matthew Lloyd said that he felt that Peter Wright probably needs a spell. How I actually went. - Now, do I think he played a bad game? He's been kicking his two goals. His view was that Eson and sometimes look better when we're a little bit unpredictable up forward. He feels like they're still relying, they still see Peter Wright up forward and they just kick it to him. - Yep. - And because he's not a contested mark, it's an issue. So his view was that they may want a more dynamic Langford Stringer-Caddy kind of view. - No, I don't know. I don't know. - I'm two ways. I've seen us go nine weeks for that Peter Wright and look and we've kicked 100 points every week almost. But if we're two Peter Wright centric, then kick it to someone else. We don't need him out of the side to fix that problem. If they're two Peter centric, we don't need him out of the side to do that. What he does do is he takes your best defender. He will take the best defender. If you bring in Caddy, he's not going to have the best defender on him. So that means Langford will probably have it or somebody will have it. So I think people need to remember that we're not putting that lace out to him very often because of the reasons you spoke about at the beginning of the game. It's chockers down there. We've got nowhere to run. We're not running the forward line as well as we should be running the forward line. We keep on in the ball in. If I see an immigrant cross it across his body one more time, I swear. But if we can fix that, if we can make the forward line function better, if there was better spread, I think Peter Wright's a much better option. But if we're two righty centric, which I can understand, then the players just need to be instructed or they need to learn or they need to change habits. - Yeah, I mean, I think they've been Jacob said the second half, we had 29 inside 50s and just took one mark in the inside 50. - That's not okay. - No, it's okay. - No, even against the Tom Stewart knows kind of guys. There has to be better return from that. 'Cause I mean, how many times do we go in there to say? - 29. - 29 times, man. If we take six marks of those in those 29, and if we take eight marks and kick four goals, then life looks a hell of a lot better. If we take 10 marks and kick six goals, then life looks incredibly better. So I think there is opportunity going in there. It's just how it's going in there, I reckon, is the issue. - Yeah, it's interesting why not... Yeah, I'm trying to work out sometimes if we're too tall. Look, I'm not one for the, at the current time for the two Rockman. I feel like they need an adjustment with the mid-fielder coming in. That's just personally me. I think we need a bit more grunt on ground level and around the ground. But yeah, it's... - It was the wet too. You got to remember it was the wet too. So, I mean, Sam's not exactly going to take Sam Drapes, they're going to take 10 marks a game. - I know, but it's probably why it's sometimes a little bit question why they went in with two Rockman. Because around the ground, they had no influence. Sure, at the center bounce, they can have some influence and we did get up on that. But around the ground, they became dead. And obviously, Gold is not a mobile kind of guy anymore. - So then happy birthday Goldie for today. - Yeah, yeah, birthday, Goldie. So, if that was the case, Sam Drapes ready to come back. He's breaking down doors to come back. He can't run out of full game or it doesn't appear that he can run out of full game. So for that game, would it have been... - Peter Wright. - Draper and Wright. Or just Draper and Wright. - Just Draper and Wright. And sometimes I don't mind that because I like the idea sometimes of Wright coming up the ground. And I feel like he's much better than Draper around the ground as a threat to Mark or the way he goes. - You're gonna get those taps. Are you gonna get those clearances with Draper? - I mean, without Goldie. I mean, Goldie's taps and Goldie's actual Rockwork, are you gonna get the clearances with Draper who's... - It's hard to say like Goldie's had a good game this time, but before that, you know, remember all those games we were talking about. - Yeah, he was getting beat. - He was getting beat every week. And the clearances were getting smashed. So, I'm not gonna take one game. I mean, he's obviously had two or three. He missed three games out of four. He's being managed basically. Or so, I think the rest helped him a lot to come back as a, you know, be able to jump at the ball and... - Yeah, true. But I mean, if we play Draper and Wright, which is perfectly understandable, with Draper's lack of sort of perceived lack of... - Rockcraft. - Rockcraft at the minute. And he's trying to nudge people under the ball every time. Do we lose the ability to get the taps and that sort of stuff? - Yeah, look, we probably do because that's where I think we really miss Darcy Parrish. 'Cause Darcy Parrish has the IQ to understand what's happening in the rock. And he has a great way of understanding where he thinks the ball will be. Even if we lose it or the opposition win it, he has a knack of just knowing where to be. And that's why he gets a lot of clearances. - Yeah. So, yeah, Parrish being a couple of weeks away is a tease. - Any changes for this week, do you reckon? Now, barring Harry Jones may be being an injury. Do we bring anybody in as a specialty for Collinwood? - Look, I definitely bring Kellyanne for Collinwood Smalls, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - So, I don't want to sound negative 'cause I didn't think he'd play well, but I don't think then that has a position in for Nancy if I'm being completely honest. - No, I understand, yeah. - I personally would go with one rock 'cause Collinwood don't have any rocks. And I know they go, well, maybe we'll get an advantage, but I think Draper can handle that himself or he should have an influence. - Well, one thing they do have is a lot of mids. - And I think right with their lack of rocks could actually get on top around his rock as well. So then I'm tempted to bring in Sheerly myself. That's just my personal view. But yeah, that's maybe more short-term thinking for me 'cause I want to beat Collinwood, which absolutely. And I want to kind of get our mojo back, you know? And it's a big game. So that's kind of my changes. The weather's meant to be pretty good on Friday night. - Currently, you know, Melbourne? - Yeah, yeah. - So if that is the case against Collinwood, I would bring in Sheerly too. - So? - For the run 'cause, yeah, I don't know. I mean, he's been doing really well in the twos and you don't expect him to be able to get his rock. - He was really, really good than for your fellow. - And if he's clicked back in the gear and it's taken him this amount of weeks to get back in the gear, then that's what it's taken him. Fine. But if he'll, him up and running, that's a, it would be a good way to arrest the losses. - And look, he has to play to some good form, but if he does, to at least, you know, higher standard of his normal form, it would help merit a lot. That's just, you know, it would actually think it would help Coldwell and Durham. It's just better to have more rotations. - And also, it's gonna help with arrest, this current decline that we've got. I mean, if we've been Collinwood on Friday night, then all bets are back on. Because if we lose against Collinwood, then things are really starting to look bad, right? Like you started little whiffs of last year happening to it, and no one wants to hear that crap, right? So if we beat Collinwood this year, this week, all systems back on, because look out, we did what we needed to do this week, you know, in whatever conditions it is, we beat Collinwood, so we're back into the winner's circle, and we can build momentum off there hopefully, but if we lose this week. So I reckon it's important, even if it is a short term-- - It's a short term. - To decide to win this week. - It's a short term benefit by getting shill in, or by getting set of field in. I would agree with that. - Yeah, that's how I feel. So yeah, I mean, Collinwood obviously, it was the AFL noted that McCreary and Noble will be out for Collinwood. Now why that's important. They're not, I know they're not massive names for Collinwood, but they're their speed in there and a lot of heart players. So they're probably their two most quickest players outside of Hill. So they add a lot of drive, a lot of pressure. So they're structurally for them two big outs. Now, Josh Daikos was limping all today, so we'll see what that means. 'Cause he got a knock, no doubt he got a knock to the leg, and it's been nice to, it felt maybe quarkish, but we'll see, it's only six day break for them as well. So, so if he's out there now. - We don't wish it on people, but if you wanna have a whisk on like, yeah, just have a nice little refresh, one weeker. - And so look, it's a big game. It is there to win if we turn up. - Yes. - It really is. - I, look, there's no doubt they go in favor. It's with our, with the way things happen. And I know they lost a Gold Coast, but they look still a little bit more head. And then we'll see, yeah, they got the Pendle-Barrack and to go easily, he's gone to guys. So they've got, they're still a pretty strong team with the two day glasses and that sort of thing. So, yeah, it's just a huge clash for both sides. So both sides. - Every week we keep saying it. And it's, it's, this is again, this is the most important game of the season for me. It's, it's, we have to do something about the losses. We've got to, and... - We've got to stand up, don't we? - We've got to stand up and we've got a couple of players out against from Collinwood, which makes them less strong and barring Harry. We don't look like we're going to have any outs and we get Kelly back and it's, it's time to put your hand up. Now, okay, if it rains again and that brings everybody back to the pack, but if it's a half-decent game against Collinwood at the MCG, I know they are annoying as a football club because they will find an extra gear in the last seven minutes of football and will probably kick five in a row in those seven minutes. Friday, according to Scotty on the, on the weather app, 13, with a bit of, with a bit of sun. - Yep. - So I'm looking forward to that, but it's just a, it's a ginormous game again. And I know, to sort of tie this back to very beginning of the podcast as well, one of the reasons why Brad Scott can't labor on the, on the, the umpiring decisions is, A, he enjoys having money in his pocket because they will find the man significantly. - I've got another, I've got another winch to come up. - Okay, just one sec. And then the other thing too, is that we've got Collinwood in six days. We've got to, you've got to switch that off. We can't have the, the players still thinking about umpiring decisions the day before they're about to play Collinwood. They've got to, they've got to play like that never happened and put it behind them because the AFL on the coaches and the umpiring association, they're going to say, Jack, they're going to say it was done perfectly well. So moving on to probably, I reckon, again, we said this half a dozen times a year, but this is the biggest game of the season for us. - Yeah, exactly. So now I'm going to show you a clip live on air, right? So sorry, who can't? - Have we, okay, cool. Have we vetted this? - So, so Zach Merritt got fined. - Yeah, because he whacked him in the gas assembly. - Have it, like, have a look at this. Like he's going to watch this live. Have a look, press play. All the hair, drop the phone. - Press play. Have a look at it, light. - Oh, I was an open hand pat on the, hang on. - Is that the suntest open hand. - Is that the suntest open hand. An open hand pat on the chest. And that's just, he got fined for that. - I know, like, I know it's a fine and not a suspension, but it's $1,800 if you challenge it. It can be going down to $1,200 if you. But it's like, I'm sorry. But he doesn't deserve $1,800 for that fine. - Just an open hand slap on the chest. - That is, like, I tweeted it out. And I said, I like, I head off. Merritt's got fined. And I was on, I'm on the train to work. I actually just burst out lobbying when looked at me. And I, 'cause I just thought, no, I'm looking, I've got to be looking at something else. Like I miss it. And then Channel 9 clipped this. He's for this incident. - I mean, I've seen goal celebrations by your teammates. - Exactly right. (laughing) - It is, it's like he was patting him on the rear end just saying, good job. It was like a little-- - Like, this guy is tagging him, right? I mean, it is like a-- - But it was a push, shut up, yeah. - We got one on you. - That's just, that is some Nancy stuff. Check that out if you can on YouTube. And then laugh yourself to death, really, so. - Yeah, so it's just a strange week. Anyway, 7.30, what time are we on Friday? - Yeah, well, it's obviously the main Friday night game, so whatever. - Yeah, Friday night, 7.30, I believe it will be at the MCG. Don's v. Collingwood. - I think it's sold out too, so. - Awesome, will it be our home game? - No, Collingwood. - Collingwood's home game, all right. So if you can get a ticket, get down there. We will be there unless it's absolutely persisting down right again. So massive game, straight after the game. If we can get back in time, if not the next day. For the post-game reaction show, patreon.com/thelunchtime, catch up. We do our eight extra shows a month for five dollars. Five dollars, get your eight extra shows above, check that out if you want. - Can I do something that we haven't done for ages? 'Cause I feel like we should. - Yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, just wanted to shout out a couple of our new patreon members. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Who started, just as a thank you. Martin Algae, not Algae. Number one, Essid and Nuffy. - I thought I wanted to hear. - Neil, Kenny. - I actually thought it was me, I thought I was a Nuffy. - Yes, yes. Anton Robbins, Sarah Marazita. - Arazita, I'm a great guy. - Yeah, hello. - Jamie, just Jamie. - Jamie. - Garret, Hocking. - Jamie, Jamie Chirkop. - Chirkop. - And Annelies Ball. - Annelies Ball Ball. - Say, look, thank you for our recent patreon members. Yeah, it's a massive community, I think the discord community is around 400 now, so. - Yeah, that's the other thing too. When you become a patreon member, you can message Scotty and as soon as you're on there, you can become, we'll give you the password and you can become part of the discord community. There is a huge sound, so yeah. - It's becoming a secondary bomber blitz. - Absolutely. - So yeah, lots of good debates, good comments and I interact a lot with them. So yeah, it's part of you. You just get that free as part of your $5 a month. - Absolutely. - Thank you everyone. Big game against the pies. Let's hope we get some nice luck from the umpires. Let's hope the boys can come out on fire. Let's hope we can be efficient and win this game. - Absolutely, first day night team selection show coming up for the patreon. It'd be very interesting to see whether or not, like we said, deal gets a run or we make any changes full stop, so that'll be interesting to see as well. - Yeah, I mean, the other guy I was going to mention who just needs a bit of a rocket. - Oh. - Oh, I was mentioning before about the three guys and was one guy not really supporting him. - Oh yeah. - 40 Angie Perkins. - Ah, yes. - I was going to say, just needs to lift. - Lift. - Yeah, he needs to lift. - The man's lift. - He needs to lift. - It was odd that he played less minutes than Harrison Jones, even though Harrison Jones missed a quarter. So, if you're only playing him 63% of the game, would you rather a shield for 80% of the game? - Yeah. - If you're having not much effect on that 63%. So, look, he has to just work out a few things and-- - Get more involved. - Yeah, or, you know, I don't think anyone should be immune to playing VFL if you just cannot, if you're having a month or so of just being able to get into the game, because there's, you know, Sarnas had 37 and 11 clearances, and Sederfield had 26 and Shield had 32. - They're most likely to be playing in the VFL next year. - And I think sometimes you've got to reward that. - Yeah. - And, you know, if, even if you're fairly high profiles as far as where you're drafted, you shouldn't be immune to being subject to finding some leather poisoning in the VFL. - All right, well, now, thanks to that very nice little strafing that we're giving their perks right at the end of the show. - Thank you. - Sorry for everybody. - Thank you. - Thank you. - You're welcome. - Thank you everybody for listening. We will talk to you guys very soon. 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