So. Again - Writing this without having watched the telecast.

The move into the ruck of Jackson around the 10-min mark of q3 really (REALLY) seemed to change the game. The ground level follow-up provided by Jackson seemed to be causing a real problem, we weren't holding the point on the defensive side and one of the Melbourne mids (notably Petracca) was disengaging from the contest and pushing forward...

From the telecast, did it look (as it did live) like our centre square group were really over-hunting/over-focussed on possession/winning the ball versus holding structure and keeping their opponents in front of them? We seemed to be trying to address the challenge by trying to 'WIN' it, rather than just taking the air out of the game and halving it for a while - forcing a secondary stoppage, bringing up a 5th (and a 6th, and a 7th) and just slowing it the hell down. I have this memory from early in the 4th - and let's be honest, the game was all but shot at 3/4 time - of Liber starting in the 'receive spot' and trying to win it...and Bont starting in a sweeper style position but leaving that spot and trying to win it...Oliver actually winning it and flipping it out to a streaking Petracca with no-one separating him from the forwards...

Was there any suggestion from the commentators that we should radically change our centre square group or modify our approach to that part of the game? Was anyone else thinking a group of Bailey Williams and Roarke Smith as 'twin sweepers' with one of the Bont/Liber/Macrae group acting as a ball winner and defensive wingers on both sides? Was there any real change in strategy (it didn't seem to change watching at the ground).

To me it seemed we were ready for Gawn but in no way prepared for Jackson and once he started acting as a 4th mid + ruck, the game was up. I guess I was disappointed as this is how Melbourne beat Geelong (albeit with Gawn in the ruck chair) scoring 102 points from Stoppage that night and I assumed we would be 'ready' if things started going awry.