I'm not a bitter man and yes you can add Morton to the list. The fact remains that one of our main problems of this club is it's inherant softness, both real and perceived. All the skill in the world won't win us a Premiership if we don't add some serious toughness. Thankfully I reckon Jim Stynes is aware of this.

It has been a weakness of ours for quite some time, but I do think that culture is changing. As I said in the Roos/Game Plan thread, we are starting to get a core of about half a dozen players that love the tough stuff - Moloney, Sylvia(?), Jones, Frawley, Trengove, Tapscott and McKenzie. It is up to these guys to stand up and lay hard, hurting tackles on a regular basis. Unfortunately, to expect the last 3 to do it in their first and second years, it's a big ask. Bartram is a guy that can tackle very, very hard - I probably rate him as our 2nd best tackler behind McKenzie.

As soon as these blokes get in the heads of the opposition, we will win many clearances, and a lot more games. It's a beautiful thing to watch another side intimidated by you, but as we have seen for the last half a dozen years, it's not a pretty thing to be the intimidated ones. It will also lift the intensity of a number of our teaammates too.

I could say Byron, but I think we all know which number 33.

Yep. Ivor Warne Smith.

Superstar > Champion > Elite > Star > A-Grade > most footballers > hack > spud > anyone who walked out on MFC (Bruce, McLean, etc)

How's that order? And what's missing?

Marquee & Rolls Royce?

Marquee & Rolls Royce?

Legend?

Legend?

thanks!

thanks!

hahaha........no not you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_McAdam

I love LJ to death, and think he has already reached great heights just by running out on the MCG with a Melbourne jumper on, especially from where he has come from.

However, I'm trying like mad to keep a lid on it, and wont let it go until I see him with 80 games and 200+ goals next to his name. And hope that we can sit back in 3 years time and comment about the smile on LJ's face when he accepts his premiership medal.

Don't underestimate the role that Austin plays onfield. I said it a couple of weeks ago, Aussie's presence seems to take LJ to a level where you just have to sit back in amazement. They have this amazing awareness of each other (note the chest mark on Sunday that Aussie took inside 50 when Jurrah flew in front of him).

The physical aspect that Fork mentioned is of some concern, but I think that'll be an area that the FD will work on. I loved watching him have many words to the Lions players, but he needs to realise that if he is going to add that component to his game, he'll need to expect some cheap physical shots in return.

I thoroughly agree with you comments about Wonna and LJ. They seem to be so much better in combination. Wonna does a lot of the inside work and so often very frequently feeds it out to LJ and his sublime finishing skills do the rest. Wonna's creative play is something I think we sometime under estimate ( particularly in and under) which complements LJ very effectively. It is also the reason I think why in our ultimate best side in two or three year's time why i think Wonna will be preferred over Maric, Jetta and even Bennel. The LJ/wonna alliance will be very important in our ultimate success.

Gysberts is another who is very creative in the same fashion as Aussie, and for someone who is so lightly framed it is quite surprising

Edited April 15, 201114 yr by DeesPower

Agree there's some minimum standards and team rules that he has to follow but to fully school him in defensive positioning etc may be counter-productive. I'm in no way suggesting he couldn't become a cog but I'm not sure that's what we want.

We may be saying "What the 4^&% is Jurrah doing?" but the fun really starts when the opposition is saying it.

Jurrah was obviously directed between the Hawthorn and Brisbane game to play in front and push up and dont try and take mark of the year at every opportunity. There was a marked difference in how he played between round 2 and 3. He has a longer leash than everyone else but the leash is still there.

Jurrah was obviously directed between the Hawthorn and Brisbane game to play in front and push up and dont try and take mark of the year at every opportunity. There was a marked difference in how he played between round 2 and 3. He has a longer leash than everyone else but the leash is still there.

Yep I think that was in the player review from R2 - Liam needs to get back to basics in his game - or similar.